Fourth-year students at the Burgas branch of Sofia University "St Kliment Ohridski" are building a library of sounds from Burgas and the region. They have already made the first recordings.

The team built an app for the project. Users will be able to find and play every recording, and use it for sound design in films, TV and radio shows, ads, video games, podcasts, stage productions and other specialist work.

Assistant professor Rosen Stoev leads the project, which involves students from the music media technology and sound engineering programme. "I am glad the time has come to start this project, which we discussed with colleagues from the department," he said.

The students record sounds and sound atmospheres from the seashore, the port and city streets, as well as human voices. They also plan to cover nature, transport, industrial areas, people and crowds, daily life, and cultural and public life.

They use special spatial audio equipment that picks up sound from all directions. The sounds will come in stereo and in modern formats, including 360° video and virtual reality. Each recording is catalogued to the international industry standard.

This way, students learn every step of the process, from fieldwork and spatial sound to building a sound archive to industry rules.

In October, Burgas municipality published an online "Student Guide to Burgas" for students at the universities, academies, branches and colleges in the municipality. It gathers information on study, housing, work and life in the city.

Stoev says the project will be useful to all students in the programme. The library will grow over the coming years, and future year groups will add to it.