Sonic Design/Project 2: Auditory Imaging

19/10/2024 - 02/11/2024 (Week 05 – Week 07)

Shao Han / 0369187

Sonic Design / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University

Project 2: Auditory Imaging

INTRODUCTION

PROJECT 2

FEEDBACKS

REFLECTIONS

INTRODUCTION

Project 2

For this task, we need to choose one of the 6 situations and create a story about it. The story needs to be detailed because it will help create the sounds for it. If we don’t like any of the 6 options provided, we can suggest our own option.

The 6 given scenarios are:

1. Wildlife + Background

2. Everyday Home Life + Background

3. Cities + Transport + Exterior Atmosphere

4. Industry and Electronic sounds + Background

5. Weather + Background

6. Market + Rural atmosphere + Background

Environmental atmosphere reference

Fig1.1 Picture reference,Week 6(31/10/2024)

Fig1.2 Picture reference,Week 6(31/10/2024)

Fig1.3 Picture reference,Week 6(31/10/2024)

Storyline

When writing the script, my idea is mainly through the background environment sound to set off the overall atmosphere, from the beginning of the easy and lively rhythm transition to the back of the gloomy horror, in the middle through the environment transition and then progressive. After writing the story, I marked the foreground sound in yellow and the background sound in blue.

The story of the protagonist from enjoying the beautiful scenery to running away in the strange forest.

Fig 1.4 Written storyline based on Wildlife + Background,Week 6(31/10/2024)

The general tone of my story is spooky and scary.

After determining the general plot, I began to look for audio that met my requirements on the website and downloaded it for editing.

Fig1.5 Audio search and download,Week 7(2/11/2024)

First of all, we created the basic specification document in accordance with Mr. Razif's request.

Fig1.6 Create a document,Week 7(2/11/2024)

I put the audio into different tracks, and according to the sequence and plot of the script, I arrange and adjust the length of the audio, and intercept multiple segments as needed.

After operating the simple placement of a few tracks, I made appropriate fade-in and fade-out settings, because the ambient atmosphere in the script is gradually set off.

Fig1.7 Track placement,Week 7(2/11/2024)

In order to improve the utilization rate of audio and the richness of ambient sound, I copied and cut several segments of audio on the same track to ensure that the sound conforms to the ambient atmosphere and can provide more diverse sound effects for audio.

Fade in and out is also very important in this step, it can provide stronger adaptability for audio.

Fig1.8 Enrich audio content,Week 7(2/11/2024)

I used some stereo audio and image adjustments to make the sound more spatial, more in line with the description of the mountains and forests in the script, and set off the gloomy atmosphere.

Some audio uses special effects, such as adjusting the parameter equalizer and reverberation echo values to improve the audio quality and make the overall sound richer and expressive.

Adjust the volume of some tracks to control the volume balance between the tracks, and when I need to highlight a sound, I turn it up.

Fig1.9 Detail adjustment,Week 7(2/11/2024)

Auditory Imaging audio（Before modification）

In the new week's class, Mr. Razif told me that the audio I produced could not contain special sound effects, but must be sounds that can be heard in reality, because we are not making a movie, but making a scene audio, which is very important, because they are two different types of audio.

Then I made some changes to my audio according to Razif sir's suggestions

First, I deleted the special effects sound, but after deleting it, the audio became a little monotonous, and the second half lacked the rendering of the atmosphere, so I searched for a piece of audio about wind sound on the website to help me enrich the atmosphere needed for the entire ambient sound.

After adding the wind sound, I made detailed adjustments as needed.

Fig1.10 Audio modification and adjustment,Week 7(7/11/2024)

FINAL Auditory Imaging audio

Google Link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1Ik86nyb700qsx9tv2SBUpPKgBrr38tdj

FEEDBACK

Week 6

Some of my audio is not real enough. I only need sounds that can be heard in real life. I don't need to add background music and transition special effects. I need to modify these sounds.

REFLECTION

Experiences

In this course, I am fortunate to try different ways of sound adjustment, using different sound effects to adapt to different scenes and providing a unique auditory level for visual materials. At the same time, I put the way of changing audio and video that I learned in class into practice in this assignment, and gradually became proficient in the process of completing the assignment.

Observations

In the course, I observed that audio is not only a tool for enriching content, but also sometimes helps the audience resonate with the picture and produce some interesting interactions. Many details in the sound effects are very important and can have a profound impact on the mood or perception of the audience.

Findings

I found that the hierarchical sense of sound design can guide the mood of the audience, it can not only reflect the content of the picture, but also reflect the inner activities of the character, and even predict the direction of the plot to some extent.Sound also has a sense of space, which can help the producer to build an auditory scene in the audience's mind, and can even supplement the details that the picture cannot show.These discoveries made me realize that sound is a key element that drives the plot and adds depth to the story. In the future, I will use these techniques more consciously to enhance the narrative effect and achieve the perfect integration of visual and auditory.