I've listened to over 2,500 sound samples in the last three days, most of them under a minute long. Everything from noises and street scenes to whispers and the flutter of butterfly wings. I'm looking for ground cover for the sound gardens, i.e., those short, elusive, sounds--natural and electronic, isolated words and phrases, snippets of song, etc.--that run in the background, creating the sonic ambience from which the gardens grow. So far, 67 have found their way to the playlist.
Before I finish sometime next week I'll listen to thousands more. I'm looking for 264. Ordinarily, it would take forever to collect or create this many samples. I'm working in freesound, however, a collaborative database licensed under Creative Commons. The quality varies from enthusiast to professional, but if you're looking for sounds, or have some to share, this is a good place to begin. For me, it's an archive, a repository, containing just the right mix of sounds a garden needs to grow.