Traffic
a far hum that never quite stops, even at four
When a city goes quiet what can still be heard traffica far hum that never quite stops at three a.m. — and by whom — from the bridges, the river waterunder the third bridge, 02:41 and the wires, wiresthe tram line cooling, clicking and what is only silencethe one thing a recorder cannot hold
Water
against the stone steps under the third bridge
Wires
the tram line cooling after the last car, clicking every few seconds
Silence — nothing to record. The gap is left open on purpose.
One night on tape
The log of a fictional recorder, replayed line by line. Three sites between 02:00 and 05:00: the third bridge, the river steps and the tram depot.
One mark says silence: the level fell under the recorder's own noise, so there was
nothing left to keep.
$ rec start --site bridge-03 --gain 42 level -47 dB wind=2m/s temp=9C 02:04 heard tram, far side, heading to the depot 02:06 heard traffic hum, steady, no single car 02:09 level -49 dB 02:15 heard a door, three streets away 02:21 $ rec stop level saved bridge-03.wav 17m 02s # ... walked down to the river steps ... $ rec start --site river-steps --gain 48 heard water against stone, every 4 s 02:41 heard a bicycle chain, one pass 02:44 level -52 dB 02:46 heard gulls, two, arguing 02:58 level -55 dB 03:10 $ rec stop level saved river-steps.wav 31m 40s # ... to the tram depot, after the last car ... $ rec start --site tram-depot --gain 54 heard overhead wire ticking as it cools 03:52 heard ticking slows, every 9 s 04:05 level -58 dB 04:12 level -61 dB 04:20 $ rec mark silence silence -63 dB, under the recorder's own noise 04:26 heard first bus warming up 04:51 $ rec stop level saved tram-depot.wav 58m 12s $ rec summary level 3 sites 1h 47m 11 heard 1 silence
Sites
three: the third bridge, the river steps, the tram depot.
Hours
02:00 to 05:00, one night in October.
Heard
eleven marks, from a far tram to the first bus.
Silence
one mark, at 04:26. Left as a gap.
Not kept
voices and music: the recorder was told to skip them.