Location.  Walkway spanning the distance from Frary Dining Hall to College Way, midway between Walker and Clark V student dormitories. Pomona College, Claremont, CA.

Description of the space.  The walkway is wide, with a few trees, picnic tables, and small lawn spaces flanking both sides (in front of the dormitories). Small, unpaved pathways branch off the main walkway and lead to the entrances of each dormitory. The area is usually occupied by any number of students; however, because the recording was taken at a later time of night, the area and its soundscape have a fairly subdued quality. Beyond the stretch between the two dormitories, the area surrounding the walkway is generally open.

Recording setup.  The microphone and balloon, approximately 3 feet apart, were held at 4-5 feet from the ground. The microphone (a TASCAM DR-40 recorder) was supported by a tripod, and the balloon was held manually.

Reverberation time.

30 dB decay: 0.4s

60 dB decay: Not measured

decay to background level: approximately 0.8 sec, although hard to tell with the background noise. 

minimum: 0.8 sec

Acoustic description.  The resonance in this space is barely perceptible, due to the relatively open area in which it was recorded. However, likely a result of the buildings that hem the walkway on both sides, a faint echo is audible at approximately 0.8,1.4, and 1.6 seconds. These reverberances are visualized as (faint) vertical bands on the spectrograph.

Posted by Yannai Kashtan and Jeanne Rasmussen