The memory I have chosen for the project was about hanging out randomly with my Grandma when I was in a young age. We visited the market, play swings and caught fishes together. The sound of water, steps and wind are the actual sounds in the memory. I wanted to not only share these actual sounds, but also share a feeling of joy and relax. Therefore, I intended to record some bright and crisp sounds to composite my soundscape.
The sounds I have used for my projects are sounds of water, piano, wind chimes, steps, door, switch, pen, wind and so on. I used the echo techniques on the piano sounds and wind chimes sounds, and the delay and reverb techniques for the water sound. By using these techniques, I wanted to create a dreamy and distant feeling.
Initially, I edited the soundscape in chronological order as the walking took place. But I found that the connection between different parts was not very coherent when I edited this way. The whole soundscape was like a journal. Then I discovered that I needed to simulate the feeling of this memory, rather than editing the exact sound effect of this memory. Therefore, in order to make the soundscape more integrated, I took the sound of water as a main element and made the sound of water appear throughout the sound. Also, I added more layers to my audio to make the sound more complicated. For example, I also added short duration sounds into long duration sounds to make a contrast. Moreover, I tried to adjust the balance and the volume of each sound to make a sense of space. From editing, I learned that although the project came from inspirations in real life, it should be the refinement and beautification of life.
If I had more time, I would pay more attention to the balance between left and right ears, because I think changes in the direction of sound was not as clear as I expected at the presentation day. Also, some classmates thought that my soundscape mainly focused on water, so I think I can add more various water sounds to improve richness.
