Web Highlights: Sound City Project

10.29.2014 | in Web Highlights | by Benjamin Sullivan

Web Highlights is an ongoing series showcasing some of the brightest and most useful destinations online, celebrating the imaginative minds that come together in web development to make the internet a more interesting place.

There’s a lot of good in highlighting sites that offer the general user utility. In the past, we’ve looked at sites that draw attention to fascinating locales, act as portfolios for individual artists or companies doing great work, cover topic-specific news, or sell incredible items like custom-made 3D printed objects, or even tickets to Cirque du Soleil. All of these websites serve a purpose: making life easier and the goings-on of the world more accessible.

Sometimes the web can stray from that functionality. Sometimes a website is just outright cool in what it’s doing. In the case of Sound City Project, the team behind this aural wonder may be showcasing their recording prototype, but how they do it will blow your mind while it stimulates your ears. It's no wonder they were awarded site of the day on awwwards.com.

Enter the ‘soundhead’, a recording device prototype with four 3D printed ears positioned at 90 degree angles, capturing audio with a set of Countryman B3 omnidirectional microphones, connected to a Zoom H6 recorder. That’s a lot of hardware jargon for the everyman, but think of this thing as a sound-consuming masterwork. Sceptics need only visit the site.

We’re not here for the hardware, though. We’re here for the website. What David Vale has done (in collaboration with Rick van Mook and Caco Teixeira) is dispatched his device to monitor the sounds of major cities in America and Europe, cataloguing the unique sounds of city streets and people going about their every day lives. The result is a highly stimulating audio experience that puts the street view galleries on the shelf. It’s the kind of destination you simply won’t find in the average browsing session.

To say that Sound City Project’s design is sharp would be an understatement. The gold on black is classy, and the black and white photography comes together to illustrate that design was not ignored in the spirit of putting the sound files first. Page navigation is simple, and interactive maps add that extra touch of the urban vibe. It may not be the largest site we’ve covered, but the creators went to great lengths to nail the details, and it shows. Even the paper airplane share button is executed well.

In the end, Sound City Project is engaging, and houses just enough written content to get the point across that this is an experimental project, without interrupting the more significant ingredient to be enjoyed there. Kudos to those involved.

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• Web Design