Thomas Doukinitsas
Showing posts with label Experimental Sound. Show all posts
EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Final Adjustments

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Final Adjustments

After getting some useful tips on what to do and how to improve my sound design piece, I decided I wanted to add two more main sounds to my piece:
  • Factory machinery
  • More crowd sounds
I also wanted both of these new elements to sound like they were part of the time period of the piece, which was the 50s.

Lastly i wanted to add a slight touch to enhance the melodic-ness that lies underneath the mix.

First of all i did a bit of research to try and figure out what noises machinery would make in that time period, and after that see if i could find decent samples/recordings of that on different sound libraries.

I personally think that machinery of that time era would sound quite heavy and clunky. After searching on freesound.org i found this http://freesound.org/people/J%20-%20Luc/sounds/68075/, which seemed perfect for what i was going for.

I also downloaded a few more samples from freesound.org, such as:
http://freesound.org/people/wellalbee1/sounds/182784/
http://freesound.org/people/wellalbee1/sounds/182785/
http://freesound.org/people/JimiMod/sounds/202831/
http://freesound.org/people/J%20-%20Luc/sounds/68075/

The reason i am using vintage cars in my mix is to try and place the crowd itself in the 50s environment, since i cant really do that with just the crowd.

Also i purposefully focused more on the industrial side rather than the environment, to bring out the industrial nature of the piece, being set in the industrial revolution.

After arranging the new sounds and adjusting the mix and balancing of the new sounds, i ended up with this:


Also the thing i like about this is the fact that i managed to achieve the gradual build-up that i wanted from the start, without sacrificing the dynamics of the mix.

However i believe that my sound may not fully illustrate my main intentions: To place the audience in the environment and to easily portray the time period and it's industrial importance. I'll wait until assessment to get further feedback and to take notes for any new sound projects i might do.
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EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Beginnings of the Project

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Beginnings of the Project

After going over Joe's eq, reverb, mixing and compression lessons (skills i already had an acceptable understanding of, but learned a few more tips and tricks), i started assembling my sound project.

Whilst looking at the painting the first major thing i noticed was crowds of people, so i set of to location recording in farnham high street on a Saturday, when there will be allot of people around making noises like footsteps, talking with each other, etc. I also recorded ambient noise in a forest, to contrast the crowd sound and to gradually build up my soundscape, like the painter gradually built up his composition whilst painting it.

After a bit of experimenting, i also wanted to add a low end rumble to represent the large factories in the background, and give my soundscape some scale. I found an atmosphere drone from a collection by videocopilot.net, called "Pro Scores". I eq'd it so that i removed all of the mid and high range frequencies, therefore there would only be a Bassy rumble. I also send all of my environment sounds i had recorded to a seperate bus, and then removed most of the low end frequencies so that they wouldn't clash with the rumble i had added.

Lastly i added a few hits from a stock collection to represent industrial sounds of machines at work, and i also synthesised a sound in logic pro to add some repetitiveness to the track, due to the fact that most industrial activities are repetitive.

During our mixing and compression lesson i balanced out my sounds and made sure that everything was clearly audible but within legal standards.

The multi-track session so far...

The last step now is recording some sounds on Wednesday in the studio to add maybe some hits, using items like pipes and metal.

Here is what i have so far:
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EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Track Laying Session

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Track Laying Session

During our track laying session we were asked to create the soundscape for a clip from toy story 3. Here is the final result:


And here is the Adobe Audition project of the above exercise.

Now i have to say that this is not the first time i've gone in to sound editing. During the past few years whilst making short films i've had to deal with sound editing, sound effects and re-looping (mainly because i've managed to screw up the sound recording on the shoot day), although most of my sound editing was done in my Non-Linear editor at the time (Sony Vegas), since it had originally started as a DAW before becoming an NLE.

Here is a sample of some of the sound design / fixing work i've done before:

How i used to do sound mixing

The first time i decided to go in to Adobe Audition was to complete the sound mix on our project for "Image, Language and Technology", and you can read more of that on page 10 of my production workbook http://tdoukinitsas.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/image-language-and-technology-witness.html

It will be extremely useful however to learn how to properly produce a good sounding mix, because i have only learned by teaching myself, and although i seem to learn quicker that way, i still don't think i'm doing things completely as they should be done...
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EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Studio Induction

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Studio Induction

During today's lesson we were inducted in to the sound recording studio. Although it was all good fun, some interesting notes from the projects:

  • Foley is not only to create realistic sounds that fit on to the picture, but to also maybe design the sound in a way that could convey an emotion
  • Try and bring some character in to your recordings
  • Studio work should be done as a team effort
  • You are welcome to bring your own stuff in to the studio, but ask Joe first
  • If you are going to be loud, make sure that the nearby lecture room is clear
Also, if you can't hear anything from the sound booth... you've probably hit the mute button -_-
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EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Portable Recorders and Gathering Sounds

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Portable Recorders and Gathering Sounds

During our second lesson we managed to get our hands on portable recorders. Since i have already used some recorders in the past, and currently an owner of the Zoom H1, i already have some knowlege about these, but during the lesson i was very glad to be able to use the Zoom H4N, a very capable and feature packed recorder. I was extremely impressed with the stereo recording of these recorders, and the fact that the H4N can record from two XLR inputs and it's on board microphones at the same time! Overall i am really looking forward to gathering more sounds for my project using these recorders.

During lunchtime we were asked to also go off campus and record interesting sounds. Here is a compilation of the sounds we got:
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EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Brief and Research

EXPERIMENTAL SOUND: Brief and Research

During our first lesson with Joe, we were given our project brief for the experimental sound design unit. Based on the artworks given to us, we have to design a 1-2 minute experimental soundscape.

I was given "The Pond" by LS Lowry:

At a first glance, i feel like my soundscape should have allot of industrial sounds in it (metal pipes, chimneys, etc).

After a bit of research i found this:
'The Pond' is an impressive industrial landscape containing many features typical of Lowry's work; smoking chimneys, terraced houses and on the right, in the middle distance, the Stockport Viaduct. The scene is brought to life by his so called 'matchstick' people who swarm like ants through the city's streets and open spaces. 'This is a composite picture built up from a blank canvas. I hadn't the slightest idea of what I was going to put in the canvas when I started the picture but it eventually came out as you see it. This is the way I like working best'. Lowry considered this to be his finest industrial landscape.
after reading this sounds of busy people, and everyday life in a city come to mind.

Since this image was slowly created out of nothing, i feel like my soundscape should slowly build up from silence... but of course i still need to do more research.
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