The Sound City project is an ongoing project created by David Vale that explores different cities around the world using a new 3D webaudio technology.

Immerse Yourself in the Sounds & Sights of Cities Around the World

The Sound City Project was created in an effort to enhance the way we experience unfamiliar places, locations and cultures online. The site recognizes the importance of mapping technologies like Google Street View, which has drastically transformed the closeness we can feel to a physical location from the comfort of our computer screens. But it encourages us to go deeper in that pursuit, to access the true feeling of being in a particular location. David Vale, the creator of the project, believes that sound is the most important aspect at recreating the feeling of being in a place. The site uses new audio technology to recreate the sounds of cities and locations around the world, making you feel that much closer to the actual experience.

A More Realistic (and artistic) Experience than Google Street View

Vale used a 3d-printed “soundhead,” which captures audio from several directions, for the audio uploaded to Sound City. When navigating The Sound City Project — which takes aesthetic liberties such as black-and-white visuals not found on something like Google Maps — you can feel better immersed in the sounds that took place at a certain time in that location. Vale has captured audio in multiple locations in several cities — from New York and San Francisco to Oslo and Stockholm. It’s a fascinating project, and the fact that it is ongoing means that it will only continue to be updated until more of the world is mapped with this new technology.