sonic DESIGN:

Project 2 - Auditory Imaging

24.05.2024 - 07.06.2024 (WEEK 5-7)

Koh Xin Yee / 0363349 / Bachelor of Interactive Spatial Design (Hons)

Sonic Design

Project 2

Project 2: Auditory Imaging

To do:

create an audio image using any of the combination below:
- 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
The audio should create an image for the firstperson point of view to be able to visualize on what is going on based on just the audio tracks, should be able to tell a story for the chosen scenario
not allowed to use any voice or dialogs

WEEK 6 progress

I decided to do Scenario 2, which is everyday home life + background, so I started off with writing my plot and descriptive story to better visualise how my audio image will turn out to be like, and in order to know better what are the sound effects I have to collect.

Storyline

Scenario 2: Everyday Home Life + Background

Process:

After writing the script/storyline of my audio image I wanted to produce, I started finding and downloading sound effects needed. The main two websites I search for my sound effects are Freesound and Pixabay. I'm more used to start editing the audio tracks while looking for the sound effects online. It may eat up more time compared to doing one at a time, but I feel easier to have everything in control and keep track on where I am at the moment. I name the tracks accordingly so that I can find them easily.

During the whole process I looked for many versions of the sound effects, imported them into Adobe Audition to try out, only until I find the desired ones I'll keep them. I also control the volume and panning, as well as the filters, EQs and reverbs at the same time, to better visualise the audio image in my mind.

For some sounds that I couldn't really find the desired effect or result online, I used my own device to record them (only a few tracks). Of course the quality wouldn't be as good as those online with professional equipments, and the recordings will have a lot of unwanted background noise. So I had to remove them carefully and add in particular effects so I can get the desired results.

I used a lot of panning effects and controlled the volume to make the sound effect sweep from the left speaker over to the right. Mostly used when the character moved from one spot to another, the sound source would slowly change in terms of direction and distance.

We have also learned about bus tracks, but I rarely use them in my project, firstly because I'm still not used to it, secondly because I prefer controlling the tracks individually so I wouldn't be perplexed.

I also used the EQ rack effects to adjust the frequency. In this case, I was trying to create a sound effect in which the music is played from the laptop. So I pull up the center frequency and pull all the others down.