Final Products

Below are links to my finalised products, the first one is my radio broadcast and the second is my soundscape. The last link is for my Soundcloud which shows my development through the course in sound design.

https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/radio-broadcast-final-edit
https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/soundscape-final-edit
https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438

Editing the Soundscape

Editing the soundscape was the most difficult piece of editing for me so far due to how many recordings I was putting together. However, after watching tutorial videos and practicing on Adobe Audition over the course I felt ready to edit it together. First of all I put all of the recording into groups depending on which of the 13 sounds I was trying to capture it was portraying. After doing this I edited each recording that was possibly going to be used; taking out unwanted background noise etc. After this I started to put the clips in order. Starting with the team talk and ending on the winning talk, I edited in between using various noises heard at a rugby game such as studs leaving the changing room, the referee's voice, a tackle, a try being scored, people cheering from the sideline etc. I reused many recordings such as footsteps and the kick of the ball. I also overlapped sounds such as the studs walking out of the changing to imply a team walking out or the sound of cheering and clapping to make it seem like there were a lot of people supporting from the sideline. I also had the recordings that were simply one after another fade into each other to make it sound more natural and leave minimal pauses.

Editing the radio broadcast

Even though the recording of the interview went well and only a few things had to be swapped in and out, post production for the whole radio broadcast consisted of a lot of editing. First of all I had to make the changes to the interview such as editing a question to where the same question had been asked poorly before hand. After this I edited some introduction music which faded into the presenter introducing the interview. Then with the presenter recording I edited out a few 'umm's' and 'ahh's'. I then added Declan's mix which faded in at the end. After all this was done I went back to the edited interview recording and listened for the comparison in mine and Declan's voice which was quite significantly different. Also, I had realised that when listening through headphones, it was only heard through one ear. I found out that this was because whilst I was recording, I had Audition set to Stereo and so it was recorded as so. After googling the problem I managed to adjust the recording to the Mono setting, meaning it was heard clearly through both ears. The final bit of editing for this piece was to adjust mine and Declan's voices so that the interview would run clearly throughout the interview. To do this I grouped the recording to all the points where I was talking and all the parts where Declan was talking. After this I individually adjusted each recording using the single band compressor tool, making our voices the same volume and as similar to each other as possible.

https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/radio-interview-first-edit
https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/radio-interview-second-edit
(The final edit is on a later post)

Recording the Soundscape

For the soundscape I produced a variety of recordings using either a shotgun condenser or dynamic microphone depending on whether it was being recorded inside or outside. On the day I had recorded over 50 recordings trying to get 13 different sounds for the final piece. Some sounds were easy to capture such as the kick of a rugby ball, tackle or the team talk. However, other shots proved more difficult such as recreating the sound of wind and the passing and catching of the ball. To overcome these problems though I made sure that all other sounds were recorded to perfection and I would work with what I had for the more difficult sounds when it came to editing.


Below are some grouped recordings:
https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/running-recording-for-soundscape
https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/tackling-recordings-for-soundscape
(The final edited soundscape is on a later post)

Recording the interview

When recording the interview with Declan, I used a sound booth that consisted of a condenser microphone connected to an apple mac where it would be saved onto. I started by having a normal chat with Declan asking how his day was going etc. before I started to ask the questions. The questions and answers flowed very well and there was no hesitation in the answers. However, this made the interview shorter than expected. In order to add more to it I asked Declan if he had a mix that I would be able to use as part of the broadcast which he replied to with a yes. Therefore, at the end of the interview I added 'You've brought a mix with you today for us to listen to?' which I will then edit the mix into afterwards. Other than this there were no problems with Declan as an interviewee, however, I stuttered on one or two of the questions and so at the end just repeated the questions which once again will be edited together afterwards on Adobe Audition. Overall it was a successful recording and I believe a captivating interview just left to be edited.

Reading notes: From sensation to Perception

Below are notes from a reading called 'From sensation to Perception', over the course I will make notes from various readings. These notes will help me expand my knowledge of sound, enhancing my skills and therefore developing my final products.

-Once sound has entered through our ears, we begin to perceive through various listening modes.
-Hearing is passive and listening is active.
-While hearing involves receiving auditory information through ears, listening relies on the capacity to filter, selectively focus, remember and respond to sound.
-REDUCED listening refers to the real-time awareness of all the sound quality parameters (wavelength, amplitude, frequency etc.)
-CAUSAL listening consists of listening to a sound to be able to gather information about its cause.
-SEMANTIC listening pertains to the spoken language and other code systems that symbolise ideas, actions and things. The study of linguistics delves deeply into this area and points out that the variation can be great in actual sound and still have the same meaning
-REFERENTIAL listening consists of being aware of or affected by the context of the sound, linking not only to the source by principally to the emotional and dramatic meaning.
-Less is more: Sometimes you can get the most impact with the least number of elements in a sound piece, allowing the audience to be more participatory by letting them fill in the gaps with their minds, as opposed to handing them a full plate.
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Adobe audition practice 3

I thought that whilst practicing using Adobe Audition that I should try and edit a piece that included dialogue so that I could further my skills in work consisting of voices. I decided to use the conversation from Pulp Fiction about marijuana being legal in Amsterdam and cheeseburgers being called Royale with Cheese in France. I edited the conversation swapping all mention of weed with the words "cheeseburger" or "quarter pounder with cheese" to make it seem like cheeseburgers were legal in Amsterdam but not in the majority of countries. I then swapped the mention of the quarter pounder with cheese with the word "hash" to make it seem like marijuana was sold in McDonald's in France and was normal. Editing this piece has helped me with picking out short bits of dialogue both deleting and replacing these bits. However, this piece sounded very unnatural and so I need to work on making the conversations seem like they flow properly.

https://soundcloud.com/jsheehan-405881438/royale-with-cheese