11.4.2022 - 16.5.2022 (Week 5 - Week 7)
Chung Yi Ki / 0345014 / BDCM
Sonic
Design
Task 2: Auditory Imaging
Lecture
Week 6 / Multitrack editing
To make it easier to work and organise the sounds in the multitrack session,
make sure to name each track accordingly.
Track layering and effects
When you want to join duplicate sounds, try to overlap them to make the
transition a lot more smoother. To group multiple tracks together in order
to apply effects on those specific tracks, go to multitrack > add audio
bus track stereo. After that, parent the bus track to the other tracks in
the sidebar panel. Bus track in general is called as "sub-mixers".
The effects rack work in reverse of how layers work in Photoshop. The
effect at the bottom takes effect last. One effect that people use to
create some final touches is the mastering tool. Exciter setting in the
mastering tool makes the sound crispier, but don't use too much. The
effect parameters in the final mixer shouldn't be adjusted too much, if
you find yourself increasing or decreasing the parameters a lot, then the
effects should've been done individually in the multitrack.
Volume level
For TV productions, the master volume level should be at -12 to -8. Input
boost is only used when needed. Make sure that the volume level in the
master mix and in each of the individual tracks do not have clipping..
Tasks
Task 2: Auditory Imaging
For this task, we are required to pick one from the 6 given scenarios and come
up with a storyline based on the scenario. The storyline has to be descriptive
as it will be used as the base to create the soundscape for it. If none of the
6 given scenarios are to our liking, we can propose our own scenario.
The 6 given scenarios are:
1. Wildlife + Background
2. Everyday Home Life + Background
3. Cities + Transport + Exterior Atmosphere
4. Industry and Electronic sounds + Background
5. Weather + Background
6. Market + Rural atmosphere + Background
Storyline
Fig 1.1 Written storyline based on weather scenario
After thinking about the possibilities of the given scenarios, I chose the
weather scenario as I had a story idea in mind when we were briefed about the
project. I wrote the storyline with the idea of a person late for work and
when she's rushing to her office, she encounters a rapidly changing weather. I
wanted the weather to start of with a heavy rain, then changed to a sunny
atmosphere, and finally a strong, very windy situation. After I'm done writing
the story, I highlighted the foreground sounds in yellow while the background
sounds in cyan so that it's easier for me to imagine the soundscape and search
for suitable sound effects.
Audio layering and editing sound effects
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| Fig 2.1 Audio layers in Adobe Audition multitrack |
I first started with layering all the audio tracks and editing them as I go. I
started with background tracks at the top and layer the remaining audio
according to time of appearance, length of audio track and track effects. For
audio tracks that adds to the ambience, most of them are layered in Track 3 or
Track 4, while audio tracks that needs specific track equalizer effects, I put
them together in the same track and adjust the other tracks accordingly.
Footsteps audios mostly are arranged in Track 6 and below. I mainly used track
automation to control the volume, panning and equalizer effects, and used clip
automations on clips that I plan to possibly move later on. Though, no
keyframes were used in clip automation, only the whole audio track volume and
panning were changed.
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| Fig 2.2 Equalizer settings to create muffled effect for rain dripping on umbrella sound |
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| Fig 2.3 Equalizer settings for muffled effect for telephone ringing sound |
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| Fig 2.4 Pitch shift on footsteps sound |
Equalizer and pitch shifter are the most used effects to alter specific audio
tracks. Some audio tracks I used them on are to muffle sound of rain dripping
on umbrella and a telephone ringing sound to make them sound further away. As
for pitch shifter, one of the tracks I used it on is to pitch down and pitch
up a footsteps sound effect to create more variety when they're layered on one
another.
Fig 2.5 First draft in audio mix
Further development of audio editing mix
Fig 3.1 Multitrack and mixer window in Adobe Audition
After receiving feedbacks from Mr. Razif, I went to alter the pitch of some
sound effects and further work on the volume automation. I also changed some
sound effects from the first draft as I found that altering some of the
previous sound effects would make the sound have a lot more artifacts. Some of
the audio clips are cut at different portion and rearranged again to make the
sound effect better, such as the paper rustling sound when the person is heard
grabbing papers. I also adjusted the crossfading in the overlayed audio clips
more to get a smoother transition. Other than that, the tracks are also
rearranged and named for better organization. Since I didn't want my
multitrack to have too many tracks which would make it hard to see where it's
layered, I didn't separate the audio tracks by scene.
|
| Fig 3.2 Master mix reverb settings |
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| Fig 3.3 Bus C mix reverb settings |
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| Fig 3.4 Bus B mix reverb settings |
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| Fig 3.5 Bus A mix reverb settings |
I also created multiple bus tracks so that I can apply different reverb effects on different sets of tracks. Bus A has a more echoey reverb, which is used for background sounds and some environment sound like thunder and rain. Bus B and the Master mix has lesser reverb, much like in a furnished living room, with the Master mix having slightly less reverb than Bus B. Both of them are used for objects and actions that is happening close to the person or is done by the person. Bus C has less reverb than Bus A but a lot more than Bus B, it is made for simulating the reverb in a toilet, but it is also used for when objects and actions are sounding further away from the person. In each of these bus tracks and Master track, I used automation to control the amount of the reverb at certain point of time using the rack mix automation, as shown in Fig 3.1. I also used the rack power automation to turn the effect on or off where suitable.
Fig 3.6 Second draft of audio mix
Further development of audio mix and reorganising of multitrack
Fig 4.1 Reogranised multitrack window
After receiving feedbacks from Mr. Razif, I reorganised my tracks by
separating each audio in its own track. Though, audio that are similar to each
other, such as different footsteps sounds and different door opening sounds, I
put them in the same track so that there isn't too much tracks in the
multitrack which will make it messy to see, and the audios use the same reverb
settings too. I arranged the background ambience audios at the top rows, which
are colour coded in dark green and purple, and the rest are arranged according
to scene appearance. Audios that are colour coded in the same colours means
they belong to the same scene, or type of audio.
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| Fig 4.2 Removing fade outs in heavy rain sounds |
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| Fig 4.3 Creating the bus sound in another multitrack |
I removed the fade outs for the heavy rain sounds so that it would end more
abruptly and wouldn't sound like a running faucet. Though, I moved the main
heavy rain sound (the one highlighted in Fig 4.2) to end a bit earlier than
the heavy rain under roof sound, so that it won't end too abruptly. For the
bus sound, to make the main project multitrack more organised, I edited and
layered the bus audio in another multitrack session. I added a bus door
opening and closing sound, and an engine idling sound over the original bus
audio to make the action of its door opening and closing more prominent.
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| Fig 4.4 Reworked track automation of rain on umbrella sound |
I also removed the track automation for EQ band 3 gain because there was a
problem with exporting that Adobe Audition can't export the EQ track
automation for it correctly, so I had to remove it. Other than these edits, I
also tweaked the volume and panning for some sounds to make them more clearer,
and added fade in and fade out where necessary to make the transition
smoother. I then exported the audio track in WAV file format at 48000Hz, 16
bit.
Final Auditory Imaging
Fig 5.1 Final auditory imaging
Feedbacks
Week 6
Sounds happening in the bathroom would need some reverb. The ambient sound
when the person left the room and is going down to the living room, it
should be different to differentiate from the aircon room sound. Maybe pitch
it down or high up. The sound of the bus coming and stopping would need to
be louder, and the bird would need to be softer than the bus. Maybe slowly
fade down the volume of the bird sound as the bus comes in. Increase the
volume of the bus door opening and closing. For the wind sound, maybe try to
find sound of wind blowing at a mic to simulate the sound you hear in your
ears when the wind is blowing directly at you. The sound of the person
sitting down in the office chair would need to be louder. Overall the
composition is not bad, there are a lot of things happening, just continue
refining it with effects and watch out for the volume.
Week 7
Don't put fade out for the rain since it makes it sound like running water
from a faucet, just cut directly. When the bus comes in and stops, add a
slight fade in of engine idling sound. The sound of the bus door needs to
be exaggerated more, you can try to make it louder, but it's probably best
to find a different sound for the door. The current audio has the sound of
the bus door swinging and hydraulics, but the sound of the door opening
and closing needs to be more aggressive. Fix the huge reverb when he's
picking up the paper in the wind. Overall is quite ok, nothing major to
adjust, just that certain sounds needs to make it more established
Reflection
This project was enjoyable for me to do as I got to learn and be more familiar
with the functions and settings in Adobe Audition and how to work more
efficiently in it. Though it took some time to get used to in organising the
multitrack by different audio clips each since I got used to putting different
audios together in the same track and only separate them for layering
purposes, and using automation to adjust the effects at each section.
Organising the tracks following individual audio does make it hard to see the
whole layering process for me, but it makes applying effects in bus tracks
easier as I won't need that much automation in the bus track to adjust the
strength of the effect. Other than that, I also ran into some problems where I
can't get the exported audio to sound like what was heard in Audition, and it
was challenging to get the sound of people passing by in the rain to sound
right. But I'm relieved that I managed to fix them with some work-arounds,
though not the ideal ones.
All in all, it was interesting and fun to try and make a sound scape without
the visual of a video or a picture like in Exercise 4. Although there are
parts that can be improved more in this project, Exercise 4 definitely helped
in preparing me for this project and I'll continue to get more familiar with
Adobe Audition in the next projects.
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