NOTE: This essay is a work-in-progress and has yet to be edited and completed!

I consider my binaural soundscapes to be "works of art" with strong emotional effects and perhaps even spiritual resonations. Their value lies in these effects, as opposed to being valued as objective documentations of nature sound events. Yes, they are documentations, but that has not been the driving purpose behind my work.

While it is true that when I first began gathering binaural soundscapes back in 1992, I quite often strived to document specific sound events. For instance, I would close-in on a particular bird or frog for a loud and clear example of its singing behavior without much regard for other sounds in the background. But as time passed, my focus changed dramatically. I began embracing the entire soundscape and searching for spacious combinations of sound elements that were pleasing to my ear and which had body-mind-spirit effects that I found healing, captivating, mesmerizing, awe-inspiring, and the like. Thus my soundscape work became primarily a subjective pursuit, my recordings being an expression of my own sensibilities and reflecting my own felt experience of nature's orchestra.

Thus, my behavior in the field quickly became more like that of a landscape photographer, with a primary focus on beauty and a quest to find mixtures of sound elements that produce sensations that I find worthy of sharing. As such, I'm constantly filtering, even judging, what I hear, rejecting that which I consider uninteresting, and embracing that which somehow rises above the din ... expressions of nature that move me deeply in one way or the other.

My process is highly personal, subjective, and xxxx ... and oriented toward sharing with others, toward the listener, meaning not only myself but all whom I will share.

Liken to a painter who is creating a very personal vision and expression, yet always has a concern for how the painting will ultimately been seen, grasped, appreciated by viewers other than oneself.

Recordings are artifacts of sorts. They are not nature. and they should be "judged" through the lens of the "frame of listening" ... they way they will be experienced by others who are not present in the field, who are not in nature, but listening from the comfort of their home, office, or the like.

Does a particular recording truly and effortlessly "transport" the listening, take them into nature even though they are not actually in nature? Does the recording move listeners emotionally? Does it relax? Does it engage? Does it captivate? Or is it jarring and does it disturb? All good questions.

the truth is ... I come at it from all directions. Sometimes I focus on a specific sound object, be it a bird, frog, insect or mammal, and try to get a spacious rendition of that specie's particular sound, set against a pleasing, spacious backdrop. At other times, I strive for a balanced mix that spread wide across the sound-stage, with no particular sound element dominating.

At times, I approach recording as a landscape photographer might approach a scene. At other times, I at more like a macro-photographer, focusing on a very specific, individual element with background being reduced to an even blur ... I am not fully one or the other, even though I might prefer the former with a focus on the whole.

Do I define sound objects here? Point source sounds vs

The "Binaural Frame"

Given that virtually all of my field recordings have been made with a single mic setup of binaural design, it is

If nature recordings are to be appreciated as works-of-art, it is critically important to create the proper environment for listening. Given all the different recording techniques utilized these days (stereo, binaural, surround and etc.).

When photos and paintings are to be displayed as works-of-art, there are accepted conventions for proper viewing. While online viewing has had a disruptive influence, the gold standard is direct viewing of art pieces in museum settings. Generally, viewing spaces have neutral, off-white walls with special lighting to optimize one's visual experience. Works of art are also placed with a "frame" that is meant to complement the work of art, or at least have a neutral effect such that all works of art in a museum space have the same framing.

In this vein, if nature soundscapes are to appreciated as works of art, it is important that they be "framed" correctly in a controlled listening environment that optimizes their effects on listeners. However, when it comes to audio recordings, there are serious complications.

First off, there are many different recording techniques and each may be optimized for different listening setups. For example, "stereo" recordings are optimized for speaker playback, using a conventional stereo speaker arrangement (with two speakers set to each side and the listener positioned such that an equilateral triangle is formed. In the stereo world, this has long been the standard frame of listening, both in professional studios and home environments. Now, with the popularization of surround sound formats, multi-channel recordings require much more elaborate setups using multiple speakers placed all around the listener. These kinds of setups involve considerable investment to create well-designed dedicated spaces for listening.