and uniquely local; lo-fi soundscapes are uniform and about the same everywhere. From an ecological standpoint, the hi-fi soundscape is populated by many individual ‘species’ which are the result of local conditions. They are information rich, and most importantly, are most richly interpreted by locals who understand their contextual meanings. The lo-fi soundscape is created by the hegemony of only the most powerful sounds which eradicate, or at least mask, all local varieties. Even more seriously, the lo-fi soundscape seems to create a common habit of non-listening, one which soundscape theory argues is detrimental both to the individual and to the soundscape as a whole since it can deteriorate unchecked (Truax, 1984).

3.  Soundscape Composition and the Electroacoustic Community

Today, the electroacoustic community is becoming increasingly global. Here I refer both to the group of student and professional practitioners, and to the common experience of people in industrialized countries to hear more sound via electroacoustic reproduction (Truax, 1992). Schafer (1969) originally described the electroacoustic listening experience as ‘schizophonic’, suggesting it as an aberration. Today, such ‘aberration’ is increasingly the norm. I have described one aspect of this trend as the creation of ‘surrogate’ environments through the use of background music, radio, television and recordings. Foreground information comes as often as not from national and international media sources, rather than from one’s neighbourhood, perhaps even more readily in most cases. So-called ‘virtual reality’ is increasingly becoming an aspect of ‘normal reality’ and one wonders whether the younger generation is capable of distinguishing the difference, or even if they care to.

At the professional level, the electroacoustic community, like many other sectors of society, is becoming increasingly global in its communication practices, mainly through the internet. What started out as a ‘national’ communication medium for electroacoustic composers in Canada sponsored by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), called ‘cecdiscuss’, has quickly become an international discussion forum. Although ‘local’ announcements are often made (where sometimes it’s not always clear what city they refer to or the location of the person making the announcement), every topic is assumed to be of international interest. It is not coincidental that this group is increasingly using the same tools, and any topic related to a new technical development is guaranteed to provoke dozens of responses and a pooling of opinions and experience on cecdiscuss. Whereas the local studio used to be the centre of electroacoustic music, private studios and workstations using some variant of standard commercial hardware and software is now the norm. It is as yet unclear as to what the personal and artistic ramifications will be of this global network of individuals working separately with similar tools. Will it inspire uniformity or diversity?

A subset of the professional electroacoustic community overlaps with its ‘sister’ organization, namely the ‘acoustic ecology’ discussion group. That is, artists coming from the electroacoustic music community join with those coming from other