Before I did an exercise I decided to actually see how I could make a sound map.
I thought first I would identify what I want.
I would like a Google maps style sound map, where you click a pin and audio plays. Something similar to Locus Sonus.
It would be nice if I could include a name, photo and embedded audio?
Also free, easy to access and not required to set up a whole website. Or maybe a website might be good? Could the sound map be a part of my work as well? As well as the small booklet, the Photos, the field notes, and the sound map can offer a sense of place that perhaps is missing?
I found this website here that went through two different ways of making sound maps.
https://www.spencerbruce.com/blog1/2021/8/2/building-a-sound-map
Firstly it was using google my maps, you can insert pins and attach a title and description, the only issue is that the audio has to be on another platform such as SoundCloud which means that once you click out of the map you may have to close down another webpage to get back to the map which is not ideal, as well as this the map still has lots of things to click on and can look cluttered? The advantage is that it is simple, and does not require any website or anything else, just a Google account. Looks good. I tried it out quickly with some recordings I took from Brighton and it was working pretty good! Looks interesting.
The photo and audio are not correct but it was more of a test.
The next website advertised was a $40 plugin for WordPress, where the actual audio link was embedded within the map such as this.
I did feel this looks a bit ugly, hmmm. Need to research more perhaps, or fill out the original google maps webpage that was simple.