Sonic Design - Exercise

14/4/2020 - 28/4/2020 (Week 1 - Week 3)
Lee Yu Hui | 0335787
Sonic Design
Exercises

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Lecture

Week 1 
We started our first class by meeting each other on Discord and Zoom due to the current incident. Mr. Razif, our module lecturer for the semester briefed us about the exercises and projects that we'll be carrying out throughout this semester as well as what to be expected for the upcoming weeks. 

After the briefing, Mr. Razif gave us a quick exercise to identify if our own earphones quality would be sufficient for the upcoming projects. 

We are required to match the sound to the original soundtrack provided using equalizer. Below is screenshots of my adjustments:

Fig 1.0

Fig 1.1

Fig 1.2

Week 2
For this weeks class, we were given a lecture about layering and pitch shifting audio in audition. The theory behind it is not hard to understand, and from there I also learned that pitch shifting and layering audio will make the overall audio quality more dynamic. 

As for the exercise, we were tasked to create an ambiance sound based on the picture that Mr. Razif gave us. In short, this exercise requires us to imagine the audios that would be produced from the image. Therefore, layering and pitch shifting audios would come in handy for this exercise. 

Image reference for exercise

For the first image, I added sounds like water boiling and subtle sounds of trees rustling with birds chirping to build the overall ambiance for the environment. I've also added hammering sound to give the environment more action. Overall, I'm quite happy with the first outcome, and I was actually excited to do this exercise as I felt like I'm a storyteller when I was looking for sounds to be layered in the composition. 

Outcome of the first environment

For the second image, since the focus is the laser beam, I decided to look for sounds that is similar to UV rays as I think it'll sound more realistic. I've also added elevator working sounds as it surprisingly matches well with the environment and gives it a more techy feel to the image. I've also added subtle sounds like steam to indicate working machines in the lab. In short, I had fun while looking for elements to be put in the composition. This exercise have also made me realize how different sounds can be manipulated to match a certain scene. 

Final outcome of the second environment

Week 3

This week we learned more about sound design in Audition. Mr. Razif went us through about different microphones and their differences. This is important for sound designer when recording audio as different mic produces different sounds. We were given a list of different scripts to choose from to record our voice. 

I choose a script from a travelling advertisement and used my earbuds to record the voice since that's the best I've got. 

Original audio recorded

After recording the audio, Mr. Razif taught us how to do the post production in Audition. We mainly used tools like noise reduction and eq to lower the environment  noise and to make the audio sound more like a broadcasting sound. The only problem that I face is that my since I did my recording in my room, my audio has echo due to the high ceiling in my room. I also have to lower down some part of the audio that was too "explosive". However, despite being able to make changes in post production, I still felt like it is much more easier and better if we could get the original recording right in the first place. 

Final outcome of the audio