Memory Soundscape Documentation
A. Concept
Do you remember an annoying hot summer?
Do you remember the annoying noises of cicadas?
Have you ever tried diving in the incomparably hot summer? If not, give it a try!
See! This is an image of my special diving experience!
I still remember that it was an extremely hot and sunny day in summer, and I felt really uncomfortable and don’t know what to do to help myself escape from the negative emotion brought by the summer, so I just kept clicking the ball pen. Finally, I couldn’t bear this fidgety feeling and threw the pen on the table. Also that summer, my best friend encouraged me to try diving with her which I had never dared to do before. We came to the studio and began our experience. There is no denying that the taste of diving is a novelty. When I was not in the water I felt like I entered another world. All the complicated sounds left me instantly, the only thing I could hear was the sound of water waves and my heartbeat. I was gradually immersed in this place that seemed to be a parallel world, and I couldn’t help but want to sink, go down a little bit, go down a little bit more… The pain in my ears and the anticipation and fear of the unknown due to the unbalanced pressure made my heartbeat gradually faster. At that moment, every noise came back to me. But amazingly, they were not as annoying as they used to be. It seems that after the “meditation” in the water, my restless mind was calmed down.
B. Process
Recording
After I decided on my concept, I started the recording phase. I first listed the sounds that can represent the experience of diving on my computer, but I didn’t figure out the composition of sounds since I don’t know whether I can find the sound that I consider “perfect” to present my feeling. Since I was experiencing the lockdown and I can’t even get downstairs, I have to try to create the sounds with what I have right now — this is the most difficult part of my designing process. Luckily, I still have the original diving videos on my phone and the sound from the video is a perfect material to use. So I extract the audio clips from the videos. Also, I try to collect other audio clips that I saved on my phone, including the sound of cicada. For other sounds that exist in my soundscape, I record them when walking in my dorm room, in the corridor outside my room, and on the staircase. After I gather all the video clips, I find that the whole piece will be very boring if I only add the ambient sounds and will have no memory points. To solve this problem, and not give up the sound that I record, I decide to add the “ding” “dong” sounds that are created by both the wind chimes and the iron railing in the staircase.
Editing
I divide my piece into three phases based on the three emotions that I have in my memory: annoyed, immersed, and relaxed. And I focus on each of the three clips separately. For the first part, I combine the sound of cicadas, the sound of a car driving through, the sound of wind chimes, the sound of the construction site, and the pen clicking sound. I use the pan to show the different positions of the car. I put the wind chimes sound in the background and make it very gentle. Actually, this sound is originally a sound that I hit the glass, by adding effects and changing the pitch, I want to resemble the sound of wind chimes. For the next part, I focus on the sound that happens under the water. I put the sound that I took from the videos as the main sound and added the sound of water waves made by paddling the surface of the water. Since water waves sound needs to sound like underwater ones, I add the underwater-shallow effect of the FFT filter. At the same time, I record my heartbeat sound and put it in this part. Since I don’t want my audience to focus on the heartbeat sound, I make it very gentle. But I also make changes to the audio clip. I cut the heartbeat clip into 1-sec pieces so I can arrange them according to my needs. At first, the heartbeat is slow, but it becomes faster and faster due to my feeling of excitement. As I gradually float up the heartbeat becomes slow again. In this part, I also add the “ding” “dong” sound to echo with the wind chimes sound in the first part. Since it is in the underwater environment, I use the effect of echo to make it seems more distant. Also, I use FFT filters and other effects. For the last part, I use the sound of cicadas and the car driving again. I also added relaxing exhales and wonderful real wind chimes to fit my concept. Two connect the three parts I add the sound of entering the water and leaving the water. I also use the tool of the pan to resemble a change in space.
C. Conclusion
In general, I feel that my piece is successful because most of the feelings that I want to present in the soundscape are captured by my audience. My friend Mia, who took communication lab before, says that: “It’s a very complete and narrative voice. I like the infectiousness of this sound very much. From the summer irritability at the beginning to the quiet and ethereal depth of the water, I can feel it very well. And when I close my eyes, a picture after a sound can clearly come to my mind. At the same time, the audibility of this whole sound is also very strong, and it will not make people feel tired.”
I also collect feedback from my classmate Ziyi, she says that she really enjoyed this piece. It created an immersive experience, and she have the feeling of a summer night, diving in, and afterward reaching a flow of wonder (even though she haven’t dived before). But she also gives me great suggestions that I can do to improve my soundscape. One is that I need to make it clearer what the “ding” “dong” sound is in the first phase. Another one is that I can make the transition between underwater and on the water clearer by slowing down the fading speed of the cicada sound. Moreover, I remembered that during the critique session, professor Wuwei said that the feeling of annoyance wasn’t clear enough, and I need to make the contrast more recognizable. These are all aspects that I can do to improve my work and they are really very good feedback!
D. The Final Editing Image in Audition
Last of the Last I want to recommend a piece of music that I found really beautiful that I found on YouTube. (And this is kind of my inspiration for this project😊)