Concept:
In this “Memory Soundscape” project, I tried to illustrate the memory of my trip to Thailand. The memory consists mainly of 2 parts. The first part includes the noisy sounds such as cars and battery carts on the busy streets, people peddling in the messy food markets loudly, camera shutters, and elephant sounds. These sounds in the first part create a kind of bustling effect. The second part is then the calm and peaceful sound that I experienced when diving. By dividing the two parts with a distinctive water sound of someone jumping into the water, I want to enhance the contrast between the noisy sounds in the first part and the noisy sound in the second part.
I aimed to convey the memory from the aspect of both actual sounds and feelings. I recorded environmental sounds of cars and carts on the street, cooking sounds which are actual sounds, sounds of something entering the water, etc. I also used effects to manipulate the sound of zippers into elephant sounds, which I think is important for indicating Thailand. The feelings are also conveyed by creating the contrast between the two parts, especially in volume. To be more specific, the clear, sharp, and loud sounds in the first part are uncomfortable to listen to, while the muzzled, soothing sounds in the second part are more pleasant.
My concept was developed after talking to professor Inmi. She suggested I illustrate the muzzled effect when underwater, as compared to the sound above water. I later developed upon that. Because my irritating feeling towards the first part of the journey was gradually developed, I thought it would be a good idea to start with a pleasant sound and layer multiple sounds gradually until it reaches a relatively loud and annoying status. And then, just when the first part reaches its peak, a sudden water sound came in, leading are the sounds to quiet down and be muzzled. In this way, it might emphasize the contrast more.
Process:
- I mainly recorded two types of sounds, environment sounds and specific sounds of an object. For the environment sounds, I recorded sounds of birds singing, sounds of cars running on the road, sounds of the supermarket, sounds of people cooking, and sounds of the construction site. For the specific sounds, I recorded sounds of chopping the chopping board, sounds of me scratching the table, sounds of me scratching the sheet, sounds of the shutter, sounds of objects felling into the water, sounds of the metal cup, and sounds of the zipper. I chose most of the sounds because they are the actual sounds that I want to include in the project. However, for the sounds like the elephant, I chose an alternative to mimic it, because there’s no way to record the actual sound of elephants. I chose the sounds of the zipper because I thought it sustain like the elephant sound and has a change in pitch as it develops. I encountered some issues when recording the environment sounds. Since I want the sound of the environment but I cannot fully control the environment, I often time have to wait and record multiple times until the environment is at a satisfactory level and there aren’t many unwanted sounds.
- The hardest part of the editing process is to mimic the sound of the elephant and make the soundscape sounds rhythmic and more musical. For the elephant sound, I encountered problems such as the grain texture of the zipper sound being too strong compared to the elephant sound and that the pitch being too high. I thus asked professor Inmi for help and watched some related videos to find a way to manipulate its pitch and reduce the grain texture by decreasing the stretching of the sound. Thus I realized that there are multiple aspects when considering whether a sound could be manipulated into another, I have to be more comprehensive when considering this problem. For the rhythm of the soundscape, I had trouble making the sounds sound not so messy. When I make two of the soundtrack sounds in the same rhythm, they then don’t agree with the others. I could only try more to make it more possible. Thus, experimenting is very important in this part of the editing.
Conclusion:
If I had more time I would first make the underwater and muzzled sound effect more obvious. Because in the current stage, it just sounds like that the volume is lower but nothing else. Maybe I should reduce the high pitch sounds using the FFT Filter and add some echo to it. Also, the sound of someone jumping into the water is not good enough. I should change another recording to make them sound more realistic.
After the presentation and getting feedback from professor Inmi, I realized my biggest problem is that the soundscape doesn’t represent the narrative that I intended well enough. Classmates think that this illustrates the sounds of a train rather than diving. Thus, I should work on creating the sound of water more. Besides, according to professor Inmi’s feedback, the build-up of the sounds in the first part is too short for the build-up of the emotion. Simultaneously, I should also remove the shutter sound in the end and add it to the first part of the soundscape to enhance the noisiness of the first part. And I also think the shutter sound in the end is too abrupt and doesn’t seem to make any sense.
Image of Audition:
