Sound Design
30-60 second sound piece relating from some form of writing, from a recipe book to a song or poem. Being able to identify the sound piece without the overlay of the spoken piece or writing you picked.
In our first lesson with James, he gave the class an induction on how to use the Marantz and Zoom sound recorders. I'd had a little experience in using these but I wasn't very confident with how to set the correct levels to industry standards. The presentation shown was very informative and gave me knowledge of the correct settings to use for my own sound recording. Next, we were shown some tutorials about using different types of sounds instead of just using one individual sample. For example; James told us about how the sound of rain can be created by cooking sizzling bacon and celery sticks work well for a hard crunching sound to mimmic other things. It really interested me how you can be creative using foley and I defiantly felt inspired to use these techniques in my future sound work.
Once the tutorial was over, we were let loose with the recorders to create our own sounds for our upcoming sound piece using Pro Tools. Feeling inspired I headed straight home with Jorn and Emily and made bacon sandwiches to re-create the rain sound effect we'd just learnt about.
Zoom H4 Marantz PMD660
Pro Tools
Learning ProTools was something I was looking forward to, being a musician myself I've played around with a few different sound editing programmes but nothing of this standard. It was a little daunting going straight into a new project with only minimal training using this programme but I guess you can always learn on the job, right?
I was able to prepare myself and experiment with the programme by using the sound recordings I collected from my first recording session. I used different plug-ins to change the dynamics of each of my sound clips and change their sound entirely by changing different frequencies in the equaliser menu.
The one thing I took away from last last sound project was to BE ORGANISED. I can't express how important it is to organise your files when editing large projects. It's made such a huge different to my work experience so far this year.
After playing around with the programme, I felt ready to take on our sound project.
Research
Every morning of our sound classes, we were shown different examples of sound clips from films without any visuals. Trying to work out what films they were was a challenge, but it made us listen more carefully to the production of the audio. Some of the films shown were Leon The Professional and Let Me In. As Leon is one of my favourite films of all time, I could really appreciate the craftsmanship behind the audio. It built up suspense even when there were no visuals to see which really showed how powerful the clips used were.
Next, we were shown some examples of last years sounds projects to get us motivated and thinking of an idea to work with. The piece that really stood out for me was the sound clip of someone making spaghetti bolognese. The sounds fit perfectly with the voice over and we're smooth and flowing. Other than that, I personally feel none of the others worked as well at that one. This got me thinking about trying to follow a recipe and create something of the same standard.
Film Research for Inspiration
After looking into some of the films above in class, I did a little more research into them. Jorn and I decided to watch Let Me In, but surprisingly the sound quality wasn't great. In the end we deiced to watch The Lovely Bones instead. This was surprising as we both really noticed how well the audio in this film was composed. The thing that stood out for me was how well each scene was made more intense and personal because of the audio, for example the clip below shows various different situations the protagonist is in and how the audio compliments each scene perfectly and helps it to flow.
Idea
I love baking. I make a mean chocolate cake, so this is what I wanted to do.
I happened to stumble upon one of my old home recipes (thanks mum) and straight away I knew this was it. The sounds I could create with all these ingredients would be wonderful to listen to. My previous recordings of making food sounded great and I loved working with the clips, so I wanted to develop that further by making my sound piece based around food.
Although I liked this idea, most of my baking equipment was back home in Kent. Then I remembered some examples of foley sound James showed us. Where there were entire studios decided to created foley sound for films and I wanted to incorporate this into my own work.
I had to plan this carefully and select the exact props I needed to create the sounds suitable for my work. I really enjoyed doing this though as it was almost too easy actually baking a cake.
Planning
To start my preparation, I assembled various props that could re-create the nosies of baking. I wrote down the recipe for my cake and labeled underneath each sound effect I wanted. This was an easier way for me to follow what needed doing without missing any gaps.
Equipment needed and props needed to create foley sound -
Recording
Day 1
On the day of our first official recording, Jorn, Emily and I decided to go to the sound studio to record our voiceovers. In the smaller studio there is only a soundproof booth and a condenser microphone so we had to plug in the zoom and record directly onto that. Once I was happy with the sound and got a few takes, I was ready to take on the challenge of foley. Dun dun dun!
Day 2
Jorn and I decided to record at his home in Wimbledon, as I don't have many kitchen supplies here in Farnham. (poor student alert) Following my recipe and sound effect guide, I was able to capture the sounds using various different house hold items which was actually really fun.
I didn't realise how versatile most objects are when you remove the visuals. Things can be adapted and changed to fit another purpose.
(Setting Up)
(Making an cracking egg noise using sun cream)
Editing
- 2 x stereo WAVs – one with voiceover, one with sound design only.
- 48KHz sample rate, 16-bit bit depth.
- –3dB maximum peak level.
James taught us how to correctly import our sounds to a clip list so our clips form neatly in the side bar and are visible. It really helped me to rename all my clips and keep them organised when editing. I need to make a habit of this!
I really enjoyed the flexibility of ProTools and how easy it was to grasp it. By the time I had arranged all my files according to my voiceover, I felt fairly confident to experiment with sound effects. I really played around with my clips by cutting, cropping and crossfading them to create totally different sounds, something I didn't think of doing at the start.
My next challenge was panning my audio. James mentioned to me how it would be a good idea to pan my clips which would add a wider range to my sound piece.
I wanted to give this a go as I really wanted to improve the sound of my work, but I didn't want to go too crazy with it and distort it. I was careful to make sure the panning was subtle and every transition to the next clip was smooth.
(Clips Organised)
(Checking levels below -3db using the Master Fader)
(Panning each audio clip)
Plugins
After James listened to my sound work, he pointed out that some of the clips I had recorded had background noise which I didn't notice. After listening more closely I realised when recording in the kitchen, the slight hum was coming from the fridge.
James showed me how to use the equaliser plugin to alter it and remove the hum as best as I could. I managed to do this by changing the lower frequencies using the low-pass settings in the menu.
I found this really interesting as I didn't realise how much you could manipulate sound and change different parts of an already recorded clip.
(Changing the bar to change the frequency)
(Using Peak)
(Panning the audio clips)
Final piece
To my surprise I really enjoyed this sound unit. I was so nervous about picking this because my last experience with sound production didn't go to well. I really feel like I've come a long way from being worried and stressed to actually trying something completely out of my comfort zone and experimenting with new tools and software to create a piece of work I never thought I could do well, or at least to a good standard.
James was really helpful as a tutor which gave me a lot of confidence, he was always around if anyone needed help or any feedback to improve their work which was really great. Jorn and I worked very closely on this project staying late for a few days as James managed to book the editing suits for us so this was a massive help.
Overall, I would really love to venture more into sound as I feel like I've just scratched the surface and there is so much more to explore. As a musician, using a software such a ProTools would be very handy for me to master and mix my own work instead of using a rudimentary programme such as Garageband.
