Favorite Chicago Sounds

Help reveal the Chicago of the ear. Share your favorite sounds!

Field Recording for Five-Year-Olds
The Chicago Children's Museum commissioned FCS founder Jesse Seay to create a permanent sound sculpture for its lobby. Designed specifically for the Museum's youngest visitors, the piece features 20 flexible sound tubes, each housing a tiny speaker playing a field recording. Visitors press their ear to the pink end of a tube, and are treated to one of a dozen different field recordings.

Project coordinator Sarah Lu surveyed students at the Museum's partner organizations, and made recordings of their favorites. These recordings, along with a selection from the FCS website, are featured in the piece.

Photos coming soon!

Sound mapping

Check out our newest feature -
a google map that visually tracks the sounds of the city!

Jukebox

Listen to a mix of Chicago sounds.

MP3s
Explore our MP3 catalog!

What is FCS?
It works like this: we ask local residents to name their favorite sounds of the city. We then seek out those sounds and make field recordings, which are available to the public as MP3s on our web site.

Please join us in developing this acoustic archive of the city. Fill out our survey or visit our catalog to contribute your own sounds. If we record your sound, we'll let you know, and you'll be able to listen to it or any of a growing number of Chicago's Favorite Sounds anytime you like.

Feel free to download, listen, and produce new work from our collection of recordings. The files are free to use. We only ask that you acknowledge us in your work. Please send us a copy of what you create–we'd love to post it on the site (with your permission) and show off your creativity!

FCS is a program of Experimental Sound Studio, a nonprofit sonic arts organization in Chicago. It is part of an international project started by sound artist Peter Cusack in 1998.