Astronomy and Quantum Mechanics

Sound Design  

Finding a suitable two minuets clip for sound design

In the first week of sound design a short scene was supposed to be found by students to work on in the coming weeks. The clip could be a part of a film or anything else preferably without dialogue.

Students also had the option to film a short clip on their own and make the sounds for that.

Hannibal cooking could be a suitable clip for sound design as it has no dialogues but parts which could be recorded and put on separately.

So, i chose Hannibal cooking scene from "Hannibal" TV series :

The reasons are obvious because it has no dialogue while having elements and visuals which the sounds could be maiden.

 So in summery these are the reasons why i chose this : 

1. No dialogue 
2. Good visuals 
3. Suitable duration of 2 minuets 
4. Having the opportunity to go creative with sounds 
5. Having acts, objects and the process of making something

I was trying to make things sounds real but also i thought it will be a good idea to somehow exaggerate the sounds sometimes and go beyond what we hear in a normal cooking process. 

bringing some more creativity to the work i also tried to go inside Hannibal's head or even the food which was getting soaked in the water, i can describe it as going back and forth from subjective to objective sounds.

Now you might ask what is an objective or subjective sound?
As we all know sounds are one of the ways we get to experience, feel and more importantly it gives us data and also are able to convey emotions based on the experience we built around them.

So this sense of hearing can be divided in two when it comes to sound design. Why? because we can make and edit the sounds in the way things sound normally or on the other hand we can give the sounds a different dimension as we can make it sound from someone's point of hearing, in other words we can go inside their heads and make the sound so the audience know they are positioned in the character's mind.

If it's confusing we can put it this way;

 Objective sounds can be basically the way we give information and data to audience. For example the everyday sounds are going to sound completely normal like "This is the way a car should sound like or a bird etc".

Subjective sound on the other hand is different as we add someone's or something's p.o.v to it.
we simply add an experience to it. For example the sound of a normal car passing fades away to a humming sound after few seconds to a terrifying sound representing certain emotions of the one who's hearing it.

In addition to all of these i use both my own sounds and archived sounds from BBC collection.

The Process of making my own sounds 

It was a fun process which could also be tricky! Many sounds doesn't actually sound the way we expect so sometimes cutting the banana didn't sound like cutting a banana.

Step 1. Watch it carefully 

Watching the video carefully helps a lot and prevents later confession as it also makes you think about different ways of using sounds.

Step 2. Make a list 

Making a list of sounds you need contributes to time saving avoids waisting energy and also makes you think about props you need; therefore while watching the clip i made a list of sounds i had to make.

Step 3. Recording tips

During covid-19 we couldn't use any equipments so we had to use our own equipments which might be tricky for some people.

I used my iPhone for recording and i searched on google for suitable recording apps so i could record wav. 

• You should record in wav so you can edit it later 

I used AVR app and i recorded the sounds really easily.

• Be careful not to put the recorder too close to your source as it will be really loud and annoying 

• Name your files right after recording them, avoiding any confusion 

Step 4. Get ready to foley 

During the covid-19 there were no access to equipment or studio so i had to make my own studio at home and use whatever i could use.

So i put the video in front of me like i was in the foley studio and i also had my list with me and some props which i intended to use.
I started the play and pausing process and i tried to pay attention to details as much as i could. For example the rhythm, speed and pauses.

You should really pay close attention how things are moving and changing then you should imagine how it supposed to sound; cutting an apple, for example, can be fast with no pauses or it can be slower with different pauses and it also sounds different when using the hand or on the cutting board.

Step 5. Try new sounds

Sometimes the sound you are looking for might not come from the same thing you want the sound for, so try other things and see if you can use them as your source of sound.

For instance, i used other fruits for other parts of the clip and i changed them a bit using effects.

Step 6. Importing files and file management 

File management is one of the most important things which needs special attention as it shows how professional you are.

• In order to avoid a messy project and also errors you should have a clean and tidy folder with the main files and their titles or names on them.

Doing this will make things easier and faster also helps you through the editing process.

• Do not move the sources around! keep everything in a place otherwise you will face errors in the app

Failing to make the sound i need ; Downloading instead 

It happens, specially with the limits that we had because of coronavirus and the restrictions of leaving the house and having suitable and required props. But we could use archived sounds, fortunately.

So i downloaded a lot of sounds which i couldn't make although my priority was to make them myself as i thought sound designing is also about the creation of sound not only in the editing app but also in the recording process.

I used different websites which would allow me to download sounds for free; the one i used was Freesound.org ;It's a great place to find sounds you need as you can search and find everything you want and it's free!

It also gives you download history so you can always know what sounds you downloaded which is great. 

Apparently i downloaded 22 sounds but i didn't use all of them, sometimes just a little small part of them was the only useful part.

Adobe Audition ; the easiest part

Generally, the easiest part of the whole project for me was the editing part; i had all i needed and i just had to put them in the right place and sometimes lower or higher the pitch, amplify some of them or use effects on them which is like gaming to me.

I mainly knew how to work with Adobe Audition from the media foundation course 2019 but i also got help from youtube or i just wondered around and did experiment.

I mostly used parametric equaliser but they sounds were fine so basically the fades were the peak of the editing maybe.

After editing and putting sounds on the right places i had to export the multitrack so i could merge it with the video on Adobe Premier.

I had the main clip and the sound i made so all i needed to do was to put them both on the timeline and then export it as Mp4.

I faced no challenge during this process and fortunately it all went the way it should have.

Here is the final project and the outcome of the whole process: 

Final outcome :

You may higher the volume to hear things better

            

The use of Diegetic/ Non-diegetic and Subjective and Objective sounds 

So as it is obvious i tried both subjective and objective sounds here which also can be non diegetic and diegetic.
By the time we hear the sound of clapping the sound fades to a humming sound which rises tension. The first sound which was clapping is diegetic as it happens in the world of the film whereas the second one is non-diegetic because the audience hear it but no one from the film's world is able to do it. 

The subjective sound can be heard when the meat goes into the bowl, we hear the event from the meat's point of hearing, actually. Otherwise it would be a sound more like splashing rather than being surrounded by water.

These are really delicate details which people might not pay attention to but it does really effect the meaning of the film and the visuals. therefore, it is always necessary to think what message you want to convey and in what way so you can think how to use these.

What happened before all of these?

Before starting to think about the clip or making our own sounds we had to do some exercise related to recording. I guess it was somehow challenging ourselves to see how is like to record and have some experience around it. So we went to brighton to record sounds. 

Brighton can be windy and it can be quite a challenge to record clear sound; the solution was the wind muff or the dead cat which helps as it gives you a clearer sound by blocking the wind and noises. 

Outside Practice with closed eyes 

The other practice was going outside with someone in your team and try to record the sound. One person had to guide the other one who had her/his eyes closed to record sounds.

   


It was fun yet it helped us to listen better to different sounds. It was again challenging, i personally stepped on so many things that i shouldn't have stepped on.

But it was all easy and fun and anyone can try it if they want to have a bit of experience around sound recording you don't even need that much of an equipment.

Recording studio 

We had a short session in the recording and foley studio (My favourite place) but unfortunately that was it because we couldn't use it as the covid-19 got it's way open to the UK.

BUT we had fun and at least i saw how it looks like.

The studio is divided into two sections which one of them is for foley and making sounds and the other one is for recording those sounds and adjusting different things while recording.

The foley artist does the job while looking at the footage to see how things should sound like.
a person is in the middle telling the foley artist things from the recording studio.

In the foley studio the artist uses different objects on different surfaces and its my favourite thing to do because its a process of creation which makes the footage alive, real and glamorous.

Meanwhile in the other part other things are happening.
The choices related to the channels, mono and stereo but also mainly mixing.
EQ are also used alongside other effects.

As i spent more time on my favourite foley part  i know more about that part but in general it was a good one time experience and i hope i get the chance to go and use it so i can learn more if i get the chance after the pandemic situation.

Research and Presentation 

We had a team presentation which i loved because i didn't expect to learn so many stuff while doing it.

We had to make a presentation about a specific genre sound designer and i did fantasy and my teammate did sci-fi which was also really fun.

Things i learnt was around how they worked and how they recorded sounds by sometimes combining different sounds together in order to make new ones!

I chose sound of magic, basically how magic sounds like

It was a great opportunity for me to learn how the sounds of fantasy should sound like specially something like magic which we don't hear in our everyday life; so it makes you wonder how does it really sounds like??

Well,  after doing a research we realised that again by combining and experimenting on different sounds they developed the final magic sounds like in Harry Potter.

During each version of Harry potter the sounds also developed and changed. They got more characteristic as well, meaning that the sounds from the wands were depended on the wand owner or the type of spell. For example the evil sounds were more sharp while the other good spells had a holy vibe to them and they were soft and smooth.

In summary all of these little things make you learn many things you never though of and sometimes it happens in ways we never expect.

Thank you for reading my sound design journey 

Afarin Rahnama 

April 2020