A Concept
I chose my memory of my childhood in my primary school. In the soundscape, I chose the most special memory in my childhood. This is the first time I encountered a heavy snowfall in my elementary school life. Snow can even pile up on the ground. （It doesn’t snow much in Shanghai）
That’s why I am so impressed with this incident.
In the soundscape, I want to convey the excitement, happiness and the actual sounds to the audience in order to arouse their own memory of their students’ lives.
In order to achieve this goal, I try to add some sounds of class bells to it. Also, I recorded the sound of writing on a blackboard with chalk to simulate the feeling of class. Furthermore, I added the whispering voices of children during the class accompanies with the sound of snow to show the transition that the children’s attention were totally attracted by the snow. After that, I let the soundscape become silent for several seconds to hint that we desperately hoped that the get out of class bell could ring soon so that we could go out. And then, the laughter and the shout bursted out, and that showed we were so excited at that moment and engaged in enjoying the snow.
B Process
I selected the sound of shout and laughter of the students, writing on a blackboard, the sound of opening the door, walking on the snow and the sound of class bell, etc.
I recorded them by TASCAM, my mobile phone and I grabbed some of the sound from the Internet.I recorded a chalk-like sound in the MIC ST mode, the children’s laughter, because it has a three-dimensional effect. I recorded the sound of the door in the MIC MONO mode because I only need the sound of the door.
The most challenging point is to simulate the sound of snow, for it’s not snowy in Shanghai now. ( an interesting story: We first went to Starbuck to buy a fruit smoothie and poke the smoothie with a straw to simulate the texture of stepping on the snow. Unfortunately, the quality wasn’t very well, so I finally decide to grab it from the Internet).
explanation of my editing process: I used the reverb skills most to simulate the feeling of sitting in the classroom and the outside environment. Also,I altered the volume and pitch of every track to my expectation.
The most challenging part during the editing process is how to combine the sounds organically. For all the sounds are separated and I want to let them become a whole. Also, the sounds have to be continuous because I want to present a process of my memory. I spent time altering them and tried to arrange them to appear at where they should appear.
What I’ve learned?
I learned how to adjust multiple audio tracks, how to reverb, how to adjust the volume and pitch, add echo and remove some noise. I also try to use limited materials to inspire inspiration
C Conclusion
If I have more time, I will try to record more materials and use the bus track skills that I do not use in this version. At the same time, some of the transitions aren’t smooth enough, I need to improve them to let the whole soundscape become more fluid.
Reflection: In this soundscape production, my selection was not unique enough. Based on the feedback from teachers and classmates, I should look for some of my inner voice. At the same time my soundscape design is too linear, I should combine more audio to make it more non-linear.
D Image of Audition