Sonic Design Project III - Auditory Storytelling
MODULE VSA 60304: Sonic Design
Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120
Sonic Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Sonic Design - Project III: Audio Storytelling
MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:
“SEPT 2025: VSA 64304 / SONIC DESIGN MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”
Sonic Design: Project III (Weighted 20%)
Audio Storytelling: Students of the cohort are expected to pick a popular narrative (being either a fairy-tale or urban legend of their choice,) and create an audiobook version of said narrative. This task is an extension of the Auditory Imaging Project as students will need to design a suitable soundscape which is able to support the voice-acting - bringing all components together to enhance the storytelling experience. The final product should be no longer than three minutes in length and final results should be published to the students E-Portfolio and are to be submitted as outlined by the MyTimes.
PARTICIPATED LECTURES:
WEEK VIII & IX: Voice Recordings & Enhanced Audio Files
Voice Recording: For this third project, students are required to choose, summarise/shortened and edit their short-story narrative which then needs to be voice-acted by said students and any supporting members. Following the students' selection and writing of the script, students will need to voice act their project and edit the audio to sound more clear/ professional.
File Editing: With their original audio recorded, students can begin to edit and enhance the audio by opening the files in Track Editor and using features found within the ‘Effects tab’ as well as using additional ‘effect racks.’ The first recommended enhancement can be made by using the ‘Noise-Reduction’ effect which helps to eliminate background noise, even when someone is talking. First, students need to capture a ‘sound print’ which can be a stretch of dead-air which will shape the effectiveness of the noise reduction process. This may need to be altered as certain background elements may be louder than recommended so students are recommended to play with the tabs to get a more tuned sound.
The second recommended alteration is reducing audio spikes: when speaking, certain sounds will produce higher peaks which may pass the suggested audio balance. To counteract this, students are able to highlight the peak within the track and manually reduce it (in Decibels) to make it sound more in-line with the rest of the audio.
An extension of this alteration can be used when working with ‘popped letters’ or ‘plosives’ which can disrupt audio with an unpleasant sound. These effects can be reduced by zooming into the ‘popped-letter’ and finding the disruptive waveform. With the waveform selected, it can be either reduced in volume or silenced in order to prevent the ‘popping sound.’ It is important to note that this technique does not work in all cases as some letters require some ‘popping’ to identify the word - seen mostly with the letters ‘p’ and ‘f.’
Another recommendation for students to enhance their audio is to use additional effects such as the ‘De-Esser’ and the ‘Parametric EQ.’ The De-Esser tool is a situational effect which is used in recording which features a prominent ‘s’ pronunciation which can make the audio louder and washed out. In order to use it effectively, students need to find an instance of an over pronounced ‘s’ and reduce its volume using the effect. Finally the Parametric EQ can be used to reduce frequencies and make the audio sound more clean.
WEEK X: Creative Sounds + Audio file Manipulation
Making Creative Sound: For this week’s activity and preparation for the final project; the lecturer has provided students with demonstrations and exercises on how to effectively + fully edit audio files. In
PROJECT III - AUDIO STORYTELLING:
WEEK VIII: Script-writing & Audio Recording
Script-Writing: For this upcoming project, students are expected to adapt a short narrative into a script where they could then record themselves. When adapting the story, it was recommended to edit the original in the style of the previous Project - making sure to outline where certain audio tracks would need to be, how they would be edited etc. For this project, I wanted to experiment more with the audio and decided to choose an urban legend story originally from Appalachia. The story would feature a series of different soundscapes and themes which would allow for more creative editing.
“Written Script for assignment”
Starting this project, I would begin by developing a short summary to outline the sounds needed for the project. In addition, I would further adapt the summary into a script needed for the voice-acting side of the project. With the story summary, I listed the necessary audio I would need for the project as well as outlining how each sound should be edited or altered to design a full soundscape.
Recording Audio: Before beginning to read the script, I had tested to see the length of how long the dialogue would be - running the script through an online reading calculator. With a few edits, I was able to get the lines to be around 3:00 minutes in length and could then begin practising the lines to get the right timing. When recording the audio, it was recommended by the lecturer to find a location with minimal sound bouncing or an area with good insulation (this way, there would not be additional noises caused by the voices.) In addition, the other recommendation was to either limit background sounds or complete cut-off background sounds such as fans or AC to have a clean audio track.
For the recordings, I mainly recorded my voice-over while under the Duvet of my bed as both the mattress and blanket would insulate the sounds. The AC and other electronic devices were turned-off to reduce background sounds. With the makeshift recording booth created, I would be able to begin recording the voice over for the project.
WEEK IX: Sourcing Audio & Audio Editing
Audio Editing: Working with the completed audio tracks, the next stage in the project is to begin editing them for the final result - going through each file to edit their sound and remove unwanted artifacts. When editing the audio, the first difficulty presented was the pronunciation of a few letters within a word which would need to be corrected. In the recordings; my use of the letters ‘P, B, F’ would make them sound plosive and would need me to go back through and silence the disruptive parts of the waveforms. For future reference, this difficulty can be counteracted by recording further away from the microphone which understandably was an issue given the makeshift recording space. In these recordings, I also noted the stretching and peaking of the letter ‘S’ which could be altered by slightly reducing the length of the syllable as well as using the ‘De-Esser’ to reduce the sharpness of the sound.
When it came to the different actors, I would need to use additional effects to help differentiate them from one another. For the first actor - the hunter; I would alter the voices by slightly slowing it down as well as using pitch-shifter to make the voices sound more distinct. As for the creature, the idea came from a weekly task with the idea of using two sets of voices to make one. Recording each take both times, the voice-over would also be edited using creative effects such as phasers, pitch-shifters & chorus to make the voice more unique.
Sourcing Audio: With the audio mostly completed, the last bit of sound design needed for the project is sourced audio to make elements of the script feel more present to the listener. Like most of our previous projects, all of the sampled audio tracks are sourced from free-online websites and feature a variety of sounds. While most sounds can be obtained by describing them, it can sometimes be difficult to get the sounds that you need and may need to find work arounds for the audio. In one instance, the sound footsteps in the forest were hard to distinguish between the two characters so adding the sound of moving gravel was added to make the hunter’s footsteps sound closer. As for the sounds of the creature - as it was dealing with an unnatural sound; the best idea for this was to layer tracks of different animals together to make one new sound.
“Completed video - Auditory Storytelling”
Overall, with the completion of this project; I would say I feel less satisfied than when I did the previous one and had some difficulty in recording and editing my own voice. Combined with the less-than-recommended workload of the other subjects, I was unable to dedicate as much time as I would’ve wanted to this project and I fear this slightly shows in the project. With these set-backs in mind, this serves as a point to see how to improve my work when working on the final project.
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