The location for this recording was in the dark room of the art building at Pomona. This building is typically used to process photographic films, and the room is pitch black because of the light-sensitive materials. In fact, to get into the room, there is a rotating cylindrical wall that opens up to prevent any seeps of light coming through. This was an indoor setting, so there were no winds or background noises, and the room was the size that one could say is visibly smaller than a classroom.
The background intensity level hovered between 35 – 43 decibels, and the maximum intensity after the pop was 92.75 dB. In this location, the decay was extremely slow, with the 30 dB decrease happening at around 0.5 seconds after the pop. The 50 dB decay happened at around 0.9 seconds. It seems around 1.08 seconds after the balloon popping is when the decay returns to the pre-pop background levels, but unfortunately, I think there was a shuffling of feet that created a sudden rise in intensity.
Looking at the sound graph, it’s interesting that the decay is very symmetrical and linear. Sonically, the pop itself sounds longer than some other recordings, and you can almost hear the echo for a few moments as well.
We used a Fifine microphone provided by the music library of Pomona College in Thatcher Hall. This was set up connected to a laptop with QuickTime Player.
