Sonic Design Project 1: Sound Design / Auditory Imaging

 

6/9/2022 - 11/10/2022  (Week 2 - 7)
Teng Kwok Sang / 0343089 / Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons)
Sonic Design
Project 1: Sound Design / Auditory Imaging

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Task assigned / Instruction

We were asked to create an audio image using any of the combinations below or other options which need to discuss and get permission from the lecturer. The audio should create an image for the first-person point of view to be able to visualize what is going on based on the audio tracks. Additionally, it must be able to tell a story for the chosen scenario. The only restriction is we are not allowed to use any voice or dialogues.

The choice scenario 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

Week 2 (6/9/2022) - Week 3 (13/9/2022)

IDEATION

I started to brainstorm what type of story i can make, i came out 2 stories for Mr Razif to look through.

DRAFT

Story 1

Background: A guy doing assignment, his family members is working in the background with phone calls with suppliers and customers, the keyboard sounds of mc typing, and mc’s humming some sort of song. 

In the beginning, he is doing assignment, then he stand up (chair sound), open door, then he walk past his family members who are working (talking and printer sound), then he go wash his face, then after drying his face, he walk back to his room and close the door and sit down to complete the assignment. traffic from window, u close window.

Story 2

the character is a bird, and it flies around the woods with wind sound and wing’s flapping sound. It passed by waterfalls, animals roar of asserting dominance, elephant’s trumpet, other huge bunch of birds flying with it. in the end it goes back to the nest and its kids are waiting it inside the nest.

FEEDBACK

After coming out with both of the stories, I consulted with Mr. Razif after the class. He approved my story 1 since he feels like story 1 is much better as story 2's bird wing flapping sound will cover most of other sounds. Additionally, story 1 is much more flexible. Hence, i decided to stick with Story 1.

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PROGRESS

Week 5 (27/9/2022)

Having the story in my mind and feedback given by Mr. Razif, I then worked on the project. I started off by consummating the story so i can better image the scene when i searching for suitable audio.

I then search for relevant audios from freesound.org and YouTube. Afterwards, I mixed the audio tracks in Adobe Audition.

Week 6 (3/10/2022)

Audio 1

This is the audio track that is temporary made without any editing and adjustment made:

Audio track before audition made 

Feedback 1

After listening to this audio track, Mr Razif recommend me to add more room noises, or else it will be completely silence in some part when Habibi not moving. Then, Mr Razif recommend me to add different type of footstep in different room so the listeners are able to differentiate the room. Other than that, Mr Razif recommend me to EQ or find new walking sound, because the listeners will feel that the footsteps are looping or repetitive time to time.

Week 7 (11/10/2022)

Audio 2

This is the audio track that is made after editing and adjustment done according to feedback 1. EQ and db are adjusted as well:

Audio track after audition v1.0

Feedback 2

After listening to this audio track, Mr Razif recommend me to change the chair pulling sound, because it sounds like drawer instead of chair pulling. Then, Mr Razif recommend me to make the sound in different room to come from left and right so it wouldn't sound like Habibi is the one who's doing the typing and clicking. Other than that, Mr Razif recommend me to EQ or find new walking sound for the first and last scene, which is inside the room, because the listeners will feel that the footsteps are coming from outdoor rather than indoor. Next, Mr Razif recommend me to delay the window closing sound in the end, else it will sounds like car crashing due to the timing problem. Finally, my classmate recommend me to try to make the sound to slowly fade out in the end so listeners can acknowledge that the audio is ending.

Week 7 (12/10/2022)

Audio 3

This is the audio track that is made after editing and adjustment done according to feedback 2. EQ and db are adjusted as well:

Audio track after audition v2.0

Feedback 3

After listening sending this audio track for Mr Razif to review, I thought to implement left and right audio to all of the parts. After reviewing my audio track, Mr Razif also mentioned that i need to implement left and right audio on certain part of the audio track. He also recommend me to increase and decrease the db according to the distance of Habibi and the object. Next, he also recommend me to reverb the toilet part so the listeners acknowledge that Habibi entered toilet. Afterwards, he noticed that im using the same chair pulling audio for the both part which i implemented it, hence i recorded another audio of chair pulling audio and de-noised the sound of fan as i couldn't find a suitable chair pulling sound online. Finally, Mr Razif recommends me to EQ the song so the song quality doesn't sound like TV or Movie Version.

Week 7 (16/10/2022)

Final Audio

After listening to the feedback YouTube Video by Mr Razif, I worked on to solve all the problem above, and this is my FINAL OUTPUT for Project 1: Sound Design / Auditory Imaging:

Audio track FINALE VERSION

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REFLECTION

During this project, I learned a lot about the practical way to apply sound processing techniques in order to achieve the certain effects that I want. Specifically, using time and stretch to modify the pace of certain audio, reverb to design the echo sound that shows the toilet and other effects, using panning and leveling techniques to demonstrate distance and hierarchy, using the equalizer to create a particular effect such as wiping face sound, editing separate track with sound for different track effects, implementing noise reduction and leveling technique to reduce and remove noise, and lastly using adaptive noise reduction to reduce the aggressiveness of certain background noise. Apart from that, I gained more in-depth insight into what makes a decent sound design through this project. In a nutshell, this project was fun and I enjoyed the process of modifying the sound so listeners can image the scenario based on the sound only, which makes them feels like they themselves are experiencing the scenario.