The Feasibility of Counting Songbirds Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Obtaining unbiased survey data for vocal bird species is inherently challenging due to observer biases, habitat coverage biases, and logistical constraints. We propose that combining bioacoustic monitoring with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology could reduce some of these biases and allow bird surveys to be conducted in less accessible areas. We tested the feasibility of the UAV approach to songbird surveys using a low-cost quadcopter with a simple, lightweight recorder suspended 8 m below the vehicle. In a field experiment using playback of bird recordings, we found that small variations in UAV altitude (it hovered at 28, 48, and 68 m) didn\u27t have a significant effect on detections by the recorder attached to the UAV, and we found that the detection radius of our equipment was comparable with detection radii of standard point counts. We then field tested our equipment, comparing songbird detections from our UAV-mounted recorder with standard point-count data from 51 count stations. We found that the number of birds per point on UAV counts was comparable with standard counts for most species, but there were significant underestimates for some—specifically, issues of song masking for a species with a low-frequency song, the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura); and underestimation of the abundance of a species that was found in very high densities, the Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). Species richness was lower on UAV counts (mean = 5.6 species point−1) than on standard counts (8.3 species point−1), but only slightly lower than on standard counts if nonaudible detections are omitted (6.5 species point−1). Excessive UAV noise is a major hurdle to using UAVs for bioacoustic monitoring, but we are optimistic that technological innovations to reduce motor and rotor noise will significantly reduce this issue. We conclude that UAV-based bioacoustic monitoring holds great promise, and we urge other researchers to consider further experimentation to refine techniques

Audio Mastering as a Musical Competency

In this dissertation, I demonstrate that audio mastering is a musical competency by elucidating the most significant, and clearly audible, facets of this competence. In fact, the mastering process impacts traditionally valued musical aspects of records, such as timbre and dynamics. By applying the emerging creative scholarship method used within the field of music production studies, this dissertation will aid scholars seeking to hear and understand audio mastering by elucidating its core practices as musical endeavours. And, in so doing, I hope to enable increased clarity and accuracy in future scholarly discussions on the topic of audio mastering, as well as the end product of the mastering process: records. Audio mastering produces a so-called master of a record, that is, a finished version of a record optimized for duplication and distribution via available formats (i.e, vinyl LP, audio cassette, compact disc, mp3, wav, and so on). This musical process plays a crucial role in determining how records finally sound, and it is not, as is so often inferred in research, the sole concern of a few technicians working in isolated rooms at a record label\u27s corporate headquarters. In fact, as Mark Cousins and Russ Hepworth-Sawyer (2013: 2) explain, nowadays “all musicians and engineers, to a lesser or greater extent, have to actively engage in the mastering process.” Thus, this dissertation clarifies the creative nature of audio mastering through an investigation of how mastering engineers hear records, and how they use technology to achieve the sonic goals they conceptualize

Use of baited remote underwater video (BRUV) and motion analysis for studying the impacts of underwater noise upon free ranging fish and implications for marine energy management

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Free-ranging individual fish were observed using a baited remote underwater video (BRUV) system during sound playback experiments. This paper reports on test trials exploring BRUV design parameters, image analysis and practical experimental designs. Three marine species were exposed to playback noise, provided as examples of behavioural responses to impulsive sound at 163–171 dB re 1 μPa (peak-to-peak SPL) and continuous sound of 142.7 dB re 1 μPa (RMS, SPL), exhibiting directional changes and accelerations. The methods described here indicate the efficacy of BRUV to examine behaviour of free-ranging species to noise playback, rather than using confinement. Given the increasing concern about the effects of water-borne noise, for example its inclusion within the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and the lack of empirical evidence in setting thresholds, this paper discusses the use of BRUV, and short term behavioural changes, in supporting population level marine noise management

The Struggle To Be Heard: Toronto\u27s Postproduction Sound Industry, 1968 to 2005

This dissertation examines how economic and technological changes shaped the sounds of Canadian cinema, from the modern industry’s founding in the late 1960s to the widespread adoption of digital editing software in the early 2000s. By focusing on the labour and craft practices that coalesced in Toronto’s postproduction companies, I argue that such practices engendered a critical shift in the sonic style of Canadian film sound. Whereas fiction films initially featured a sonic style developed by the National Film Board of Canada for documentary production, filmmakers eventually adopted a style strongly identified with Hollywood cinema. Although it is tempting to explain this shift by appealing to generalized statements about the globalization of Hollywood cinema, I reveal a more complex picture in which a host of historical forces, including government policies, industrial competition, and discursive practices among craftspeople, are seen to shape how new sound technologies were used and how the adoption of these technologies did, or did not, affect the aesthetic of Canadian film sound. In order to narrow the focus of this dissertation, my case studies draw on films from the genres of horror and science fiction. Chapter One posits my methodology, which combines theories of film history with formal soundtrack analyses. I explain that unlike many histories of sound that trace how directors use sound as a storytelling tool, my dissertation traces the history of craft techniques among below-the-line labour and in a non-Hollywood industry centered in a single urban locale (Toronto). The remaining chapters are divided into three chronological periods. Chapter Two (1968 to 1986) outlines the founding of the narrative film industry and how sound workers in Toronto appropriated NFB documentary practices. In Chapter Three (1981 to 1989) I argue that the introduction of Dolby Stereo had minimal impact on Toronto soundtracks. Finally, in Chapter Four (1988 to 2003), I contend that the increase of digital audio workstations (DAWs) altered the value of sound labour within the industry. In order to protect their jobs, Toronto sound professionals changed their craft techniques to mirror those used in Hollywood. In these ways, each chapter reveals the various mechanisms (e.g., socioeconomic, political, industrial) that shaped the dominant sound style of each era. Thus, although the dissertation’s chapter breakdown is determined by major technological changes, it ultimately demonstrates that it is not technology alone that leads to style change; rather, such changes can be accounted for by a complex intersection of historical forces at any given period of Canadian film history. Put conversely, the history of Canadian cinema can be detected in its soundtracks

Composing with Sound-Objects: A Methodology

Technology presents us with the ability to record and manipulate the entire universe of sound in a musical composition. As a result, composers are faced with an overwhelming—often paralyzing—amount of available musical options. My methodology focuses on how a sound-object informs the organization, collection, manipulation, and culmination of a work of electronic music. I believe that breaking down the number of choices to manageable bite-sized portions helps minimize ambiguity, and imposing limits on musical parameters helps the composer focus on productive musical options. This is a methodology where the sound-object holds primacy over the work and serves as the motivic touchstone from which to make all compositional decisions.Part one of the dissertation provides a definition of a sound-object and an historical overview. Part two is my methodology, which is divided into three working stages: onset, continuant, and termination. The onset stage discusses a compositional approach to organizing a piece of music based on the sound-object as motivic touchstone; it introduces the organizational process according to functional considerations as well as conceptual approaches. The continuant stage is the composer’s playground where sound is transformed. It includes the technical and practical approaches used to assess the many parameters of a sound-object, as well as how the object itself informs the transformations. Additionally, the continuant stage represents an approach to composition and improvisation—informed by the sound-object—that uses acoustic instruments. Finally, the termination stage brings all these elements together in order to finish the piece. This stage explores how the sound-object can inform the structure of the piece at the subsequent levels of event, phrase, section, and overall form. I will demonstrate this methodology by explaining how I composed five original pieces with sound-objects—Acoustic Memories (2019), Modular Voices (2019), Interconnected (2019), Synthetic Objects (2019), and Gucci Concrète (2019). Through the framework presented in this methodology, composers of electronic music will better understand this flexible medium of composition, by moving beyond the traditional grid of discrete pitches and rhythms, in order to control the entire universe of sound for their palette of inspiration