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Communication Lab

Memory Soundscape

Sound Track:

Concept: 

I typically remember I was afraid of darkness during the period of adapting to sleep alone in my childhood. At that time I was sensitive and highly alert to the sounds around me, as if there were danger hidden in the darkness.

So I want to create the warm, comforting atmosphere in contrast with the anxiety, tension and horror.

  • Scene depicted

Mom finished telling the bedtime story. She coaxed me to sleep with soft patting, kissed me goodnight, turned off the light and then left the room. 

(Actually fell asleep…) I dreamed about hearing some strange sounds as if there were a monster wandering around. I got really scared. Suddenly the monster attacked me. I woke up in a sharp gasp and found out it was a dream. Finally I turned on the switch.

Sound Elements:

filping pages/ closing a book/ mashing bed sheet/ patting / kiss/ footsteps/ switch/ turning door knob/ wind/ waving curtains/ trembling breath/ spinning coin/ monster( metal scratching wooden closet) / gasp

Editing:

The sound track can be divided into two parts. The first part ends with the door knob sound (0:42).

I put the orginal sounds into multiple sound channels. And the sounds with similar properties or linear connection are put into the same channel. 

Basically the techniques I utilized are noise reduction, panning, volume adjusting and diagnostics. I put for example the footstep panning 100L to 100R to create the motion, and the others followed 100R to indicate space and position (coin spinning as well).

There were some air explosion sounds generated by curtains and winds, which couldn’t be removed through noise reduction, so I kept it for its nature. I tried some echo and delay effect for the coin sound and curtains, but that turned out to be confusing and disrupting.

Challenges:

Overall the most challenging part is collecting satisfying sounds elements. Due to limitations of physical surroundings, I spent a lot of time experimenting with the stuff and figuring out the way to collect the sounds.

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