Sonic Design - Exercises
Chan Wan Qing / 0350928 / BA of Design (HONS) in Creative Media
Sonic Design
Exercises
INDEX:
1.
Lectures
2.
Exercises
Exercise 1: Equaliser
Exercise 2: Sound Shaping
Exercise 3: SFX
Exercise 4: Stereo Sound
3.
Feedbacks
4.
Reflection
LECTURES
Week 1 / 24.9.2024
For the first week of self-directed learning, we are required to download Adobe Audition as it will be the main software we will use in this module. We are also required to create a blog for this module.
In first week's tutorial and practical class, Mr Razif briefs us about the module and briefly explain the exercises and projects we will be doing in this module. He also showed us some past students' works so we have a concept on what we have to do in each project.
After the briefing session, we proceed to testing our headphones. Mr Razif posted a file for us to download and place them in Adobe Audition. First, we learned to place the track into editor and apply parametric equaliser to the track and adjust the frequencies. After that, sir showed us how to put all the tracks into multitrack panel and we should adjust the frequencies of each track so that each of them match with the original music which is named "flat" in the folder provided. This is our first exercise, to let us learn to differentiate bass and treble and edit them using parametric equaliser. It also helps us assess whether our headphones can differentiate various frequencies.
Parametric Equaliser: Left - Base; Right - Treble
Equaliser Parametric
Week 2 / 1.10.2024
Lecture: Sound Fundamentals and Equaliser
1. Nature of Sound : a vibration of air molecules that stimulates our eardrums
Nature of Sound
- Production: Source of the sound
- Propagation: The medium where the sound travels
- Perception: Sound captured and translated by our brain
- Outer Ear: Sound waves enter the outer ear (pinna) and travel through the ear canal, hitting the eardrum.
- Middle Ear: The eardrum vibrates, causing the three tiny bones (malleus, incus, and stapes) in the middle ear to amplify the sound vibrations and pass them to the inner ear.
- Inner Ear: The vibrations reach the cochlea, a fluid-filled structure in the inner ear. Hair cells in the cochlea convert the vibrations into electrical signals, which are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve, allowing us to perceive sound.
*Sound is produced by vibration
Transverse Wave: Particles vibrate at a right angle to the direction of the
wave
Longitudinal Wave: Vibration of particles is parallel to the
wave [*Sound waves]
*The closer the particles, the quicker the particles travel.
Wavelength and Frequency
- Wavelength: The distance between any point on a wave and the equivalent point on the next phase.
- Amplitude: The "height" of a wave.
- Frequency (Hz): The number of times the wavelength occurs in one second.
2. Properties of Sound
-
Pitch
- Frequency: Vibration per second
- Less vibration > Low pitch > Low frequency; More vibration > High pitch > High frequency
- Hertz: Cycle per second
Hertz
- Loudness
- The perceived volume or intensity of a sound -
Timbre
- The quality of a sound that distinguishes it from others -
Perceived Duration
- How long a sound seems to last, quick or slow - Envelope
- How a sound evolves from start to finish. -
Spatialization
- Location (direction or distance) of the sound
3. Equaliser
Ear Training:
- 250Hz - "oo" sound
- 500Hz - "o" sound
- 1kHz - "ah" sound
- 2kHz - "a" sound
- 4kHz - "ee" sound
Week 3 / 8.10.2024
Lecture: Basic Sound Designing Tools
*DAW: Digital Audio Workstation - Software used to record and edit sound
1. Layering
- Taking 2 or more sound and placed on top of each other
- Allows you to blend and mix various sounds into a new unique sound
2. Time Stretching / Time Compression
- Ability to take a sound that plays a certain length and sonically stretch it within set parameters without changing the pitch
- Change the pacing/tempo/speed the audio but not the pitch
3. Pitch Shifting
- Ability to change the pitch of a sound without changing its actual length
- Higher: Sound becomes thinner, smaller (Small objects/cute/toddler: eg. Chipmunks)
- Lower: Sound becomes bigger with more bases (Big objects: eg. zombies, monsters, giant, dinosaurs)
4. Reversing
- Give a weird and unnatural sound
- The key is to layer it!
5. Mouth It
- If you can't find the sound, mouth it!
- Our voice is very flexible - be surprise with the kind of sound we can create with it
*Visuals + Music + Sound Effects - more dramatic & immersive
*Not
use more than 3 sounds in one scene
Tips:
- Save and organise the sound effects library
- Add "constant power" to smoothly fade in or out the audio
- Be creative with sound effects
- Don't use the same sound effects all the time
- Set your volume to 60% to 70% while editing (*make sure you can hear it clearly)
Week 4 / 15.10.2024
Lecture: Sound in Space (Environment)
Introduction to Diegetic Sound
-
Diegetic
- Derived from the word 'Diegesis', meaning the world of the film, and everything in it.
- Everything the character can experience within their world
-
Non-diegetic
- Everything the audience perceived
- Non-diegetic elements: Visuals (Title Cuts, Non-diegetic inserts, etc.)
Types of Sound
Types of Sound in Film
-
Acousmatic Zones
- cover sounds we hear, but can't see the source
- offscreen sounds that belongs to the diegesis / non-diegetic sound that exists outside the world of the film (musical score)
- Visualised Zone
- source of sound is visible onscreen
-
Sounds the characters can hear
Eg: Atmospheric sound (weather, vehicles, weapons), music inside the film, dialogues, some forms of voiceover - Internal Diegetic Sound: Sound coming from the mind of a character we can hear but the other characters cannot.
- To help establish and create the world around the characters
- Inform settings - expand the world beyond what we see in frame
- Build suspense
-
Sounds the character cannot hear
Eg: Sound effects, musical score, forms of narration (if the narrator plays no role in a film) - Risk of non-diegetic narrations: Breaking the illusion
- Non-diegetic sound effects: Enhance motion and movement
- Used in comedy for punchline and jokes
- Non-diegetic music: Enhance the emotions of the film
-
When sound switches between 2 modes (acousmatic zone and visualised zone)
- mostly used for music, also works for sound effects and narrations
Eg: Non-diegetic score becomes diegetic playing on a character's radio, diegetic music becomes non-diegetic while playing over a montage - To help smooth over the time jumps
- Reinforce the scene
- Can be a nuance way to blur the line between fantasy and reality
Creative Exceptions
- Sounds that don't fit neatly into any of the categories
Tutorial
In week 4, we learned about stereo sound. We practised to adjust the sound from left to right in Adobe Audition.
Jet Plane
Track EQ
*Gradually increasing – sustain – Decay (Time for the sound to die off)
Jet Plane
Jet Plane - Stereo
Jet Plane - Stereo (mp3)
Sample Voice
Sample Voice - Stereo
Sample Voice - Stereo (mp3)
INSTRUCTIONS
Exercise 1: Equaliser
In the first exercise (week 1), we are required to adjust the frequencies of the 8 tracks provided by Mr Rafiz to match with the original track. We need to identify the tracks whether they are bass or treble and adjust them to match with the original track by parametric equaliser. In this exercise, we have to use headphones, if not we can't tell what are the differences between each track.
I am able to identify the differences between each track with the original track. For some of it, I used some time to adjust the parametric equaliser since I couldn't find the correct frequency when comparing to the original one. When doing the exercise, I first listened to the solo track of the original music, then switched to the equalized track to compare the differences in sound.
Final Exercise 1 (Screenshots of parametric equaliser for each track)
Equaliser 1
Equaliser 1
Equaliser 2
Equaliser 2
Equaliser 3
Equaliser 3
Equaliser 4
Equaliser 4
Equaliser 5
Equaliser 5
Equaliser 6
Equaliser 6
Equaliser 7
Equaliser 7
Equaliser 8
Equaliser 8
Exercise 2: Sound Shaping
In the second exercise, we tried to apply equalisers on the audio file sir provided and change it to telephone and muffled sound through adjusting the frequencies. Before we apply equalisers, we have to make a copy of the audio file and save it. Then only we apply parametric equaliser. After we successfully apply the equaliser, we have to save it as mp3 file. It's important to know the frequencies so that we can get the correct result.
*Sample Rate: Resolution (Visual)
- 44100: CD
- 48000: Video
*Bit Depth: Colours (Visual)
*Channel:
Number of Voice
Sample Type
*Big room: Decay time longer
*Small room: Decay time shorter
Telephone
EQ Exercise - Telephone
EQ Exercise - Telephone (mp3)
For muffled voice, I made the base part higher and lower the treble part.
EQ Exercise - Muffled Voice
EQ Exercise - Muffled Voice (mp3)
Walkie Talkie
For walkie talkie, it is similar to the telephone one but lower quality. So, I decreased the base part and treble part and increase the centre part so that it has the "unclear" sound.
EQ Exercise - Walkie Talkie (mp3)
Bathroom
For bathroom and stadium, we applied reverb. In reverb, we are able to adjust the reflection of the sound. We can also adjust the decay sound. For bathroom, I made the decay time shorter since the space is smaller.
EQ Exercise - Bathroom
EQ Exercise - Bathroom (mp3)
Stadium
For stadium, I tried for a few times. Stadium is an open space, but it also has the echo sound. So I was quite confused on how it sounds. At first, I realised that the echo sound is too low, so I increased the decay time and reflective effect.
EQ Exercise - Stadium (mp3)
Exercise 3: SFX
- Chorus - Duplicate the sound (Slightly louder)
- Hard Limiter - Pitch
- Phaser
- Stretch and Pitch
- Reverse
Explosion SFX
In exercise 3, we were required to create an explosion sound effect and firecracker sound effect. We used the effects listed above to edit and modify the provided audio track. For the explosion sound, we applied the parametric equaliser first. Then, we apply hard limiter to adjust its pitch, followed by stretch and pitch, to make the sound longer. Next, we applied chorus to make it louder and phaser to edit the sound. Lastly, we apply reverse to the sound and put it at the beginning of the sound. We put the edited sound into multitrack to come out with the final version.
Parametric Equaliser (Explosion)
Hard Limiter (Explosion)
Multitrack (Explosion)
SFX - Explosion
Firecrackers SFX
For firecrackers, I used the provided explosion sound and applied the effects. First, I applied parametric equaliser then followed by hard limiter. After that I switch to multitrack to listen how it sounds like. After that, I added chorus and phaser. I also apply reverse to put it in the beginning of the sound effects. I duplicate those sound to make it sounds like firecrackers.
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Parametric Equaliser (Firecrackers)
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Chorus (Firecrackers)
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Hard Limiter (Firecrackers)
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Phaser (Firecrackers)
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Multitrack (Firecrackers)
For the 1st attempt it does not really sounds like firecrackers because the sound is thicker. So, I applied parametric equaliser and increased the treble part.
Final Firecrackers SFX
SFX - Firecrackers
Punch and Explosion SFX
The third sound effects we need to make is to combine punch and explosion. At first I didn't have idea on how to combine the sounds. I listened the sound for a few times so that I can have ideas on how to combine them together. So, my idea is the punch sound hit for a few times, then it triggers the explosion. Initially, I wanted to make the punch sound to be thicker and used stretch and pitch on the it to make the triggering sound effects. I cut the front and back part to create the triggering sound. I used the explosion sound effects from the 1st part and used parametric equaliser to edit it to make it match with the punch sound.
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Parametric Equaliser (Punch and Explosion)
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Stretch and Pitch (Punch and Explosion)
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Hard Limiter (Punch and Explosion)
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Chorus (Punch and Explosion)
However, I felt like the punch sound is a bit off with the explosion sound. So, I tried to apply phaser to make it like futuristic sound effects.
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Phaser (Punch and Explosion)
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Multitrack (Punch and Explosion)
Final Punch and Explosion SFX
SFX - Punch and Explosion
Exercise 4: Stereo Sound
In exercise 4, we are given 2 images of different environments. In this exercise, we have to bring the visual to life with sound. The key is to dissect and analyse the image and create a sound scape narrative according to our interpretation. The sound should be less than 1 minute.
Environment 1
Environment 1
From my observation, the image is about a futuristic and sci-fi environment. It is like a high-tech, laboratory-like atmosphere mixed with nature. After analysing the image, I listed down the sound effects I need and find them in freesound.
Potential Sounds:
- Machine Ambient Sound
- Machine Hum
- Bubbling Liquid
- Jostling
- Equipment
- Footsteps (Metal)
- Metal Door
- Electronic Beep
- Ventilation
- Signal
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EQ - Hard Limiter - Reverb
After that, I added the bubbling liquid sound, followed by signal and metal door sound and footsteps to make it like another person walking in. Then, I added jostling and equipment sound ending with a beep to end the sound.
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Volume - Pan
Environment 1 - Multitrack
Final Environment 1 Sound
Final Environment 1 Sound
Environment 2
Environment 2
In the second image, I assumed that it's likely a research facility or futuristic lab. Similarly, I listed down the potential sound elements in this environment.
Potential Sounds:- Lab Ambience Sound
- Electronic Beeps
- High Heels Footsteps
- Keyboard Typing
- Laser Beam
- Machinery Drone
- Piston
- Gears
- Ventilation
- Shuffling Paper
Reverb
Environment 2 - Multitrack
Final Environment 2 Sound
Final Environment 2 Sound
FEEDBACKS
Week 2 / Exercise 2
Walkie Talkie: Sounds ok, maybe 2 can move up more.REFLECTION
In the first exercise, we applied parametric equaliser on the audio track where we learned to adjust the frequency to match with the original track. This exercise has allowed me to explore how specific frequency adjustments can drastically alter the tonal quality of audio. Through this exercise, I am able to understand sound editing and manipulation using equaliser. At first, I was quite confused, but as I tried to compare the altered track and the original track, I am able to differentiate them through adjusting the frequencies. I learned that the parametric equalizer can be used to alter the base and treble of the music.
In the second exercise, we learned about sound shaping. I found that this exercise is quite fun since we can add effect on the sound. In this exercise, we need to observe and analyse how the sound will be like if it's on telephone, muffled and walkie talkie, or different locations such as bathroom and stadium. For some of the sound such as stadium, I was not sure how it will sound, so I kept changing the frequency and adjust the reverb effect. At first, I thought it sounds like in stadium, but after listening for a few times, it sounds like in hall. Nevertheless, I think this is an exercise that allows me to explore different type of sounds in different medias or places through equaliser and reverb.
For the third exercise, I was a bit confused on how to use different effects such as hard limiter, chorus and phaser. I was also unclear on how combining different effects will produce what kind of audio track. While I was doing this exercise, I think that to produce a sound effect, we need to do a lot of experiments We have to try to apply different effects on the audio track so that we can come out with the ideal sound effects. For SFX like firecrackers, I should duplicate the required part sound and aligned them at the ideal moment. For punch and explosion, when we have to combine different sounds, we have to align and connect the sound with different effects so that both sounds blend well.
For exercise 4, we need to imagine about the sound that will appear in the particular environment. I found that it will be easier to list down the sound we need for the scene and find the sound one by one. Finding the sounds is quite challenging and need more time as sometimes, the sound is not how I imagine it will be. I also found that the stereo part, the pan section is fun because we are able to adjust the sound from left to right. But to make it more realistic, we have to match the volume with it and that part is quite challenging.
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