experimental sound devolpment - editing

now i had all the recordings it was time to open up audition and start post production. first thing i needed was to download audition onto my computer. but when i started importing sounds i realised there were no bins in audition. this was a big problem as i had 80 or so sounds so needed them organized. after checking the internet to make sure i there wasnt a way of organising the sounds i started labeling and organising the sounds in the folder itself.



i separated the sounds into fire wind earth water guitar flute piano drums folders and named each file.
i then started taking out sounds which were practices or had problems with them. this left only the good sounds to import into audition.

i had used audition in the past but was in no way a expert. but i was a fast learner and new i had given myself a big task but still i was confident.


i first started with the drum track. i had several different beats one with tom one with snare. i choose the snare as i think it gave the most dramatic sound for the sharp sounds of rocks (just to clarify im not a drummer i just had a go). i realise quickly that i needed to edit the sound as the pitch changes were very dramatic. first thing i did was use an stereo expander to seperate the left and right to bring up the certain drums i wanted.

this is the tutorial i used for the expander




i then realised the snare was very high above the over drums i therefore used a compresser to control that.


i decided to take down the output gain and change the ratio

now was time to add the natural elements
i wanted a slow build up so took some of the more subtle stone sounds and added them towards the start of the drums in sudden places. each one being loauder and longer than the last




i now wanted to create the tone morphing together.

this is the video i watched for the effect. it was diffrent to cross fading as it morphed the tones of each sound so the blended together. i looked for a program to do this but found that the wouldnt work with audition. i believe it would be possible but i would need alot more time on this indivdual thing and to learn a bit of coding to create this effect. (I am still looking into it) I might have to buy a program.

i decided from then that i would like to use a cross fade to create a replicatant effect. but i wanted to capture an combination of the two sounds moving into each other. this required a specific method.

first putting the two sounds next to each other and cross fading them (through the key frames to create the perfect tone for my piece
then copying the combined clips
then pasting and merging the clips
then i could razor the clip to pick the bit i wanted

i could then use this clip in the piece.


this is creating the clip


this is using the clip. i had to use suitable cross fades when putting the clips together to not leave any gaps in drums or lose the rhythm (even though i added so extra beats to create an awkard feeling)

then i moved onto the guitar

i first made sure it went over the drum/rock tone and faded into it. then made sure it was the right level. I had to make sure i put the bits of guitar together well so the tempo stayed the same.



i wanted the fire to come in faster in this part as fire is known for starting an spreading fast.

i split the long wood burner sound into seperate parts so i could layer them together at diffrent levels and built the up to match the guitar.



i again used a compresser on the crackling fire as some of the pops when up very high.

i then did the same thing as with the drum/earth and created a cross fade tone

with the piano id had to keep the level of the first chords of each phrase alot lower than i had played it they were jarring.

with the water i had to choose very specific pieces to create the build up in sound which i decided. i moved lots of clips around an create lots of fades so it matched. i tried to keep the beats of water going with the piano, this created a nice flowing motion.


with the flute i had recorded lots of individual notes (not learnt circle breathing 100% yet)
this meant i got the creative choice of where to put notes. thats what i did first, experimenting with diffrent levels and positioning of notes



the next thing was i noticed there was a buzzing on the tracks. it had come from me charging the merance as i recorded. (battereys are terrible)
i looked at a tutorial and learnt how to remove static and used that


first select the place with only static


then caputure noise print


(noise reduction)
this is were you can use the level of the line to decide what is romoved. i wanted it all gone so selected it all (flute is a very high pitched instrument)

this made the flute sound alot better. but it was still missing something to fit with the wind. i dicided it needed a more reflective sound so i used studio reverb and gave it great hall setting. i changed some of the size of the room for diffrent clips to create a build for parts.




i then focused on the wind. i really wanted to get rid of the metal sound of the wind. i decided the best bet was to use EQ. i opened up and took out alot of tones near the mid and upper parts. after a fair bit of trial and error i found the range which contained the metallic sound i hated and removed it, it created a deeper more windy sound


as each wind tone was diffrent i had to do a diffrent EQ for each.

now i could put the flute/wind bit together and create the build of flute and wind using diffrent clips.


now for the hardest part the shepards tone

i first looked at many tutorials. i first learnt the basic theory on how they work. then looked at one on how to create one. sadly i couldnt find one for audition



 the tutorials taught me i needed to use a pitch shift.
the main issue was they were mostly done on contant tone sounds
but i knew i could give it a shot.
(i now wish there was a keyframe for pitch shift)

firstly i put the drums in order. i had to firslty listen through and cut with the razor at start of 4 part beat.
i then started adding pitch shifts
i had to make sure i kept each in c major

i then moved each section up by one semi tone. and the repeated the process as i got to the 12 part.



i then did the same process for the guitar and put it under. i placed it a little but futher down the timeline so when the drum beat dropped the guitar would still be rising.
i then repeated the process with the piano and flute.
the main problem arrose that often the pitch shifter wouldnt work as it would repeate pitches and not raise them or randomly change values. i had more luck changing it but 2 semi tones for the piano but it didnt work perfecly

(i would like to know why this happened)  id like to go through it with James at some point because i would of liked it to have worked better.

i managed to make it work but distracting the listener to the drops and repeations by unspspectly raising the volumes of some parts whilst other bits lowering.


the final bit was the muffled final sound. for this i EQ each clip exactly the same so their tone was very simliar and they fitted well together and let them fade out individually.


after looking at the export requirments i went through lowering certain loud clips and fininal the whole of certain tracks. i listened through a few more times to make sure the tracks still worked together.



i then exported






then i was done :)

experimental sound devolpment - recording

my plan was to record the natural sounds first and then record the music.

first thing was though i needed to fix the sound on my computer




though lots of tampering i realized that the audio wasnt pluged into the cpu
i opened it up and fixed it.


now it was to go out and record.

the first thing i started recording was water.
i used several diffrent levels of water and flow. all recorder in my house. it was very usefull having the stand for this as it meant i could ajust things whilst the mic could be in any possition. the hardest thing was drips as they were very quiet and very diffiuclt to create. i improvised though and created them using a shampoo bottle.
the only other water thing i needed was rain. i dicided as this was the only day in english history it didnt rain that i was going to recreate it. i used a set up hose and bucket. i tried all the diffent hose heads and ajusted levels for each one. i realised placing the mic near the bucket gave a really nice deep tone i could use later.




the last thing i need was fire. i firstly went out and used the insinerator in the garden it was go but the fire didnt give a colourful (sound wise) flame. it had nice crackles but not that classic wood sound. i decided to use my families wood burning stove. i made the fire set up the mic just outside the crack of the door. and lit it. thoughout the burning the fire made diffrent sounds and changed volume and intensity. i therfore worked between ajusting gain, possition of mic and the openess of the door. this gave me a range of diffrent tones of the fire.


i then took the recording equipment into farnham park to get some more sounds. I started by recording my footsteps through various things like grass and mud. i kinda liked the sounds but they felt to humanly constructed. the other earth thing i did was trying to get the sound of stones. i got some from the river, set the mic up and dropped them on each other, they were good stones by the river as their was lots of diffrent sizes but the issue was there was too much background noise of the river. i needed the sounds to be seperate. the other earth thing i did was fall dirt of a upturned tree. this gave a nice sound of light dirt falling down a surface.
for water i recorded the river in diffrent locations




i kept the tripod on the stones and stood far away so not to give any false vibrations
i difered the distrance from the water to change the sound.


there was alot of birds out becuase it was spring so i decided to incoparate that more into the theme, however i didnt want them overpowering the water so i put the mic as close as i could and lowered the gain


my sound assistant



after trying and failing to get the sound of wind; there was no wind and the birds were to loud i decided i had to improvise and create my own. i first went on the internet to see what they said was the best idea for creating wind.
http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/

this site told me to use a bike but after trying it, it didnt sound right. i improvise and created a set up using a fan. the main issue was the constant metallic sound of the fan. but when i put the mic very close that sound was lost.
i also used a piece of paper and a brance to replicate the wind passing through things.
i also created myself a wind tunnel. set the gain to the perfect level and stood at the other end with a towel to make the sound less constant by flapping it in front.



the fan was very powerful which was both good and bad. it did mean that i had to do alot in post to make the wind sound right but using EQ to remove tones i didnt want.


close to the fan



my makeshift wind tunnel


then after reviewing the sounds i realised i wanted the earth bits to feel a bit more powerfull and constant. i decided i would have to use bought dirt and stones. i went to homebase and bought to big bags.



firstly i set up the mic so it was in a big barrel and poored the soil into it. i had to review and change the levels as i couldnt do pouring dirt and that at the same time. i reliased quickly it was way to noisiy outside (this is where i wished i had a sound room) but i managed to find the quietest place in the house and record the pooring into a barrel. i had to take it out of the bag first as it created a plastic ruffle.


i had to keep the mic far away as the rocks knocking it caused the sound to clip.



I then moved on to recording music the next day

when writing the music i decided to do something carm and tranquil to fit with the natural sounds i had recorded.

I decieded to record in my garage as it was very quiet in there. i also used the sm58 mic as it picked up the music the nicest and didnt take lots of directional background noise.

i started with the guitar. i placed the mic near the sound hole and played i ajusted the levels in relation to reviewing the recording and changed the mic to not get to much straching sound from my hand.



it sounded really clean and nice. i did have to mute the other instruments like the drum in the room as it was causing slight resonance on certain notes.

i did a similar thing for the flute being aware to keep the mic away from my mouth to get the smoothest sound. i decided that i would do lots of indivudaul sounds and put them together in post so it sounded more fluid.

finally i recorded the drums. as i said in my intial idea i wanted to record this a certain way but i was nervous in doing so as i had recorded everything in mono so far and the introducion of using two mics was worrying. the drums ended up sounding good in post any using some post production skills but i would of liked to have had two stands and maybe a diffrent recorder to do the drums as films students told me that they aways recorded in mono on the merance.


the final thing i recorded was the piano in my family house. i had to make sure everything was sillent. tv on mute ect. the i position the mic facing the piano. i first faced it at the knee panal and then the top pannal but i found the best sound came from point it at the keys. i then recorded lots of diffrent piano tunes so i could decided which one to use in post.

experimental sound development- initial idea

most of my work with sound so far had been from music. I've written a few songs for films and most of them stay fairly down to earth. i wanted to try something more experimental and use sound as a counterpoint for music. I first looked at the pictures and one really caught my eye.
 
the angle of the north captured the feeling i wanted to explore. this idea of capturing and control sound as music and the natural sound around it. this was methaphorically shown in the angle. it is a human construct in nature made out of wood and trying to control it. i also loved the spirtial element of the picture.

whilst looking at this piece i started thinking about nature and the elements and thought back to another artist Bill Viola


this came to mind. the use of the 4 elements and their relation to use. the angle symbolised very strongly the people in his work. I wanted to capture this feeling of struggling and then accepting nature via sound. this came to me in the idea of using music. music is created via people (and birds...which i reference in the piece)

i wanted a instrument to correspond to a element. this came in part to what i could play but luckly they fitted well. drums with earth as they are the most basic elements and beat baised instrument. flute with wind as it is through wind sound is created. guitar with fire as it shouts passion at people around the world. and piano with water as the pressing of the keys has this feeling of pressing against water. also the feeling of playing is flow like.
i had the idea of the instrument playing then the elements slowly building ontop. then there being elements of struggle and the instrument fighting back then acceptance.

then i wanted the tones to morph together and once all of them had morphed into 4 seperate tones to build them up using a shepards tone to illustrate them rising and growing in harmony with each other.
then finially the relaxation with the muffled sound to end. giving it a almost transendial feeling. the shepard tone the diccussing and the muffled sound the revelation.





this was the notes i took to show my idea.

after developing the idea to it's conclusion i then downloaded so free sounds off freesounds.org

i practiced putting them together and trying a very simplified verson of my idea. it worked okay but found a few problems which i used to stop me making them for my piece.

• recording music needs to use a special mic 
• i would have to replicate the sound of wind as it didnt sound how we imagine wind. 
• drums needed to be recorded well sound there is definition between the drums. 
• need to be careful of crackle and use quiet places. 

i then had my tutorial with James and we talked through the idea. he liked the sound of it and gave me a few ideas on what to try 

• look into Kyma demo for the morph in tone (instead of cross fade) 
• trying out the instruments with the different elements 
• to get a external mic either the sm57 or sm58 

this was how i was going to record the drums to create the differentiation between the sounds 

one thing i forgot was to get a sound room.....was annoying as i could of used it. it tried to book one later but i couldn't find anyone each time i went and i was short of time. luckly i had a quiet garage to use but i would of liked to use the sound booth for the earth bits. 

i then wrote a list of all the sounds i wanted 

ie 

water: tap, hose, river, sink , drip, pond, rain 

wind: trees, chimes,  wind tunnel 

earth: walking on surface, gravel, dirt, stones 

fire: gas stove, wood burner, incinerator

i recorded most of these but some did change on the go. like wind. i didnt  have any wind on any of my recording days so i improvised. nore did i have any rain. 

 

I then went to the stores to get out my recorder.
my order of recorders i wanted was

1. zoom
2. roland 
3. merance 

i went and first thing was there was no zooms

i then asked for a roland. but i was told that you couldnt attach and extrenal mic. i thought that was weird (still wanna find out if that is true) 

so i went for my final option, ive used a merance before and it isnt my fav thing but it is fairly good. 

annoyly there was only one left. it was an old one but i thought it would be fine. 

i booked out a sm58 and a mic stand and was on my way. 

it was recording that day so i decided to test the recorder in my student house. 

it was rubbish 

it had a weird buzz all the time. the gain didnt work proparly. it didnt connect with my sm58 and the display was imposible to see. i then tried with my friends new merance and it worked well. i had to go back to the stores to replace the merance. but this meant i lost amost a whole day of sound recording.

i should of given myself more time obvs but i thought id atleast get a working roland so didnt think i need it, i also had a day but day plan because of the essay. 

but now it was time to go out and record.