Concept:
The memory that I chose was a memory that I experienced two years ago in the summer. It was a hot summer’s day with a slight breeze. I was at my cousin’s house in the country. My family went out to visit him and his family. At one point everyone was outside and I and my brother watched him as he made lunch. He just started working at a fancy restaurant and decided to show us how he made one of the restaurant’s best dishes. He timed it, and it felt like we were in one of those intense kitchen moments at the restaurant. I and my brother watched him as he fried one thing, boiled another, and diced tomatoes. In my soundscape, I wanted to replicate the idea of the simultaneous sounds that surrounded me in my memory. I tried to create the feeling of really being thereby using the pan effects. For example the sound of the frying in the left ear, the boiling in the right ear and then slowly developing.
Process:
The process was quite simple. I tried to record the sounds with as much isolation as possible. I individually recorded the cooking sounds and then compiled them in their corresponding order on audition. The background sound of the birds was just taken from when was outside and just began recording for the track. Recording outdoors was quite problematic, I live on the 28th floor so it can get quite windy. I needed to take the parts of the recording that had the least amount of noise, and then replicate them to make the clearest sound. I then merged them together I make sure that the audio didn’t seem isolated and instead flowed together. For the rest of the sounds, I has a clear idea of how I wanted them to sound so it didn’t take long for me to make a draft of my work.
Editing:
Because I had quite a clear idea of what I wanted the audio to sound like, I didn’t need to experiment too much since I already did with the previous demo project. The main issue I faced was actually figuring out where to find the buttons and how to use the system itself. After figuring out where the buttons were, I went ahead and edited every track, whether its the volume, effects, or the pan. I tried to make changes to make sure that the piece could sound more refined. I made sure the frying sound was in the left ear and then that the boiling started in the right. This creates an ambiance and emphasizes the feeling of being surrounded/immersed by the kitchen sounds. The volume of all the cooking also increases throughout the piece to increase the feeling of tension.
To complement this the timer sound also increases in volume and speed. In the final moments of the timer sound, I made the pan switch from the left to right over and over to convey the feeling of intensity. I did this right before the timer goes off and resumes to the relief of the calm environment.
Conclusion:
If I had more time, I would incorporate more effects, perhaps add a little more layering to deepen the sounds of the audio track. Perhaps instead of focusing on the pan from left to right, I could use the volume of muffling effects to make an object feel closer or further from the listeners. My peers liked that I was layering a lot of my work, the piece sounded quite full and they could vividly picture themselves in my memory. A suggestion was to focus more on the emotion, while my piece did a good job of transporting the listeners to the place of my memory, I didn’t convey emotion very strongly. I would work on composing my piece in a way that would evoke a certain emotion in the listeners.
Image of Audition:
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