Final Products - Conclusion

This concluding blog post will discuss my sound products from this module that are displayed below.

The first product is my interview and from the beginning of this module I knew that I wanted to create my interview around a topic that as affected me and that I am genuinely interested in. It took a bit of research to come up with my final idea as I spent a while looking through news articles to find something that I found interesting that is happening in Brighton. However, none of the news stories stood out to me so I started to look at ideas closer to home. I am very happy with how my interview turned out and the answers that I received. I tried to compose the questions in a way that would allow the interviewee to talk freely about the topic, however with given themes. 

I am also happy with the overall quality of the interview as the sound bed works well in the background in order to keep the clips sounding smooth and in sync with each other. I changed the volume of the background sound when there are gaps in the dialogue and I believe this works well in filling the needed silence. 

The second product of this module is my soundscape and is titled 'Brighton Seafront'. This needed to be 2-5 minutes, furthermore I decided to keep mine to the minimum time, at 2 minutes 11 seconds as it is quite a peaceful and quiet soundscape that would drag for the listeners if it was 5 minutes long. The idea for my soundscape came from being in Brighton on a busy Saturday and realising how bustling and loud it was compared to the beach and seafront. My idea developed from this, to looking at just the pier and the beach because they are connected and close, however have completely different vibes. 

My favourite bit of my soundscape is the transition from the pier sounds at the beginning to the beach sounds as the waves then last a long time, giving the listeners a chance to feel relaxed and listen to the waves up against the shingle. However, if I were to improve on my soundscape I would want to re-record some sounds to place at the start as it sounds a little jumpy, and I would like it to be smoother. The aim and intentions of my soundscape was to make the listener feel like they are on Brighton Seafront and make them feel two juxtaposing emotions whilst listening. I believe that I was successful in doing this as the sounds on the pier make me feel like I am surrounded by lots of people and lots of man made mechanics, however the sounds on the beach are very natural and are as if I am escaping from the busyness of Brighton. 

Soundscape - Final

Since my last editing blog post, I have further manipulated some of the sound files that I recorded and layered a lot more in order to create a more effective and smooth running soundscape. Here is my final product:

Editing Soundscape #2

Since looking at my rough cut, I have further edited my soundscape and have developed it through adding new clips and layering ones that were already edited. I didn't like the start of the soundscape and thought that it needed to sound smoother, so I overlapped a few different sound clips that I was using. I also made these clips louder in order to make it sound more busy to the listener.

I have also gone through all the clips on my1 timeline and softened the beginning and ends of them so that they blend into each other a lot more smoothly. This has improved the overall sound quality of the edit and I am a lot happier with it. 

Soundscape - Roughcut

Here is my rough cut of my soundscape. So far I am happy with how editing is going, however there are some things that I want to develop throughout the soundscape. I will need to make it slightly longer as it is just under two minutes, furthermore I already have planned to add more onto the end as I want it to fade back into relaxing beach sounds. I also want to change around the introduction as it is quite quiet and the sounds aren't layered enough. I am going to make the volume louder all the way through my soundscape as I planned it to be a bit louder and sounds busier. 

Editing Soundscape #1

Today was spent editing the rough cut of my soundscape on Adobe Audition. I started by sorting out my sound files after exporting them into a new project. I listened through the sound files and split them into sounds from the pier, and sounds from the beach. 

After I had done this on two different tracks I further manipulated different clips in order to cut them how I want them to be, as well as changing volumes and layering them. So far, my soundscape is 2 minutes long and it transfers from pier sounds, to beach sounds, back to pier sounds. As I further edit this I want it to go back to beach sounds so that it ends more peacefully for the viewer. 

I have purposely made the pier sections sound very busy and crowded in order to give the listener a feel of what it would be like on a busy day in Brighton. 

Recording Soundscape #2

Today I decided to record the more natural and peaceful sounds for my soundscape. For this, I went onto the beach with the Marantz audio recorder and a K6 microphone. I decided to use this larger microphone to record the peaceful sounds in order to pick up quieter ambient sounds from a distance. 

The sounds that I recorded include the seagulls around me, the sound of people walking along the pebbles, and the waves. The sounds of the waves were successful as your are able to hear these very clearly. When I come to editing, I want to keep these sounds quite quiet in order to contrast and compare them to the pier sounds. 

Recording Soundscape #1

Today I went into Brighton with a Marantz audio recorder and a Sannheiser dynamic handheld microphone to start recording my soundscape. I recorded sounds on the pier in order to achieve busy sounding recordings. I managed to gather some successful sound clips of the rides going, music playing and people screaming and talking. 

I also recorded a short sound walk whilst walking through the arcade to get the sounds of a variety of machines and will use these sounds in my final soundscape. 

After this recording day, my idea for my final soundscape has changed slightly and I am going to create it around comparing sounds between the pier and the beach. This is because these two places are so close to each other, however have a complete juxtaposition in the volume of sounds. Also, the sounds on the pier are mostly artificial, however the sounds on the beach are mostly natural. 

Interview - Final

Since completing my rough cut, I decided to re-record my own speech sections where I introduce, conclude and ask Ellen questions. I also edited the sound bed and changed the volume of the background ambient sound in order for it to fade in and out at different places. 

Editing this helped make the interview more clean and appear more natural and I am a lot happier with the final product. Here is it:

Interview - Rough Cut

Here is my rough cut of my interview; this is not finished, however the main concept of it is completed. Now I will need to finish it up and perfect it before submission. I want to balance the audio levels out to make it flow more and appear more natural. Another thing I want to do is make the introduction less sudden and more welcoming. 

Editing Interview #2

As I have now recorded my main interview, I started to add this in to my Audition file to create a rough cut of my interview. I edited each file separately in order to cut out the unnecessary bits of speech and this included 'erms' and likes', as well as pauses. 

So far, editing has been quite successful and I am happy with my recordings; the background ambient sound works will with my tracks as it makes it al blend into one so that the listener is unable to notice that they have been recorded on separate files. 

I have changed the level of sound in all my files to make them all the same and sound natural next to each other. I decided to re-record my conclusion to the interview as it did not fit and I wanted it to sound more friendly, just like the rest of the interview. 

Recording Interview #2

Today I recorded my main interview and this was of my friend Ellen who is a member of the LGBTQ community. The image bellow displays the questions that I asked her, as well as how I want to lay the interview out. I recorded  three main questions, however then decided it would be a good idea to get some more information so then added the question "What do you enjoy most about the LGBTQ scene in Brighton?".

Recording was very successful as Ellen gave some insightful answers that I wanted to hear and I believe that this is because I directed the questions the best way to achieve good answers. I also let ellen read over the questions before she answered them on recording so that she didn't feel under pressure to come up with an answer on the spot. Furthermore, today I recorded a four minute background sound outside my accommodation in order to create a sound bed for my interview. 

Editing Interview #1

After recording the questions mentioned on my previous blog post, I started to edit these together on Adobe Audition. I placed them in the order that they will be in the interview and cut them down to the correct lengths. I also edited two of the introducing sounds together so that they run smoothly as they will be played next to each other.   

I recorded a short ambient sound of the room that I will be interviewing Ellen in to use as a sound bed. However, when I next record I will record a much longer running sound in order to be placed in the background so that there is no silence. 

Recording Interview #1

Today I started to record my interview and started with recording myself introducing the topic, as well as the main questions. I started off the introduction by saying "Today I am joined by Ellen, an English student at the University of Sussex, who is here to talk about the LGBTQ+ community within Brighton". I then went onto record the first question: "First of all, before you lived in Brighton, you lived in a much more conservative area. Do you think theres a difference between the LGBTQ+ communities there and here?"

I also recorded the other questions that I Ellen, the interviewee will be answering. Next, I will be asking Ellen the questions in order to get her opinion and then I will edit these together. 

Interview Planning - Questions

I have booked out a microphone and audio recorder to record my interview later on in the week. I have started to plan the questions I am going to ask and these are displayed bellow. These questions are not 100% final yet, as I am figuring out how to word certain questions in order to get the best answer from my interviewee.

Samson Young + Susan Philipsz

The next two inspirational sound artists I am looking at are more contemporary; Samson Young + Susan Philipsz. 

Samson Young

Samson Young is a sound and installation artist, born in Hong Kong in 1979. His sounds have a very contemporary feel to them and he is mostly well known for his recreation of sounds in army and war videos. It became quiet controversial whether war sounds appear very fake, so he was proving how you can recreate them to be realistic. 

To recreate the sounds of a battlefield, he used a fan as a background sound. There was also a large base drum used for gunshot sounds, tin foil, and an electric razor. With the way he creates sounds, it is similar to how a foley studio would work. I find the way he is creating war sounds is very interesting, as they sound so realistic; it also helps the listener understand the sounds more deeply. This is as he taking things out of context and using them to sound like something else. 

Susan Philipsz

Susan Philipz is a Scottish sound artist who is known for created sound installations using recordings of her own voice. She currently lives and works in Berlin and was the first person to win a Turner Prize on a sound piece. This was for her piece 'LowLands', where she played speakers of her own voice singing under bridges. This must have created a very eerie effect for pedestrians walking by as echoes were created. When this piece was displayed in the Tate Gallery there was no visual art and this made the piece very controversial. 

Philipsz states that she is less interested in creating music, but more in what sounds in general are capable of and they affect they can crete for listeners. In terms of the impact she had on sound art, she deconstructs the sounds to create meaning and this is a new way to do it. I like the fact that she uses her own voice to create her pieces, even though she has said that she doesn't like singing, it is only for affect. 

Interview Planning

I am now starting to think about ideas for my 3 minute interview that I will be recording for this module. I started to look into local news stories in Brighton to find something to interview a friend about, however I was unable to find something that I find genuinely interesting. I kept coming back to the idea of looking into the LGBTQ+ community in Brighton as it is a big part of both my life, and others around me. Brighton is well-known to be very accepting of all members of this community and very openly gay. 

I want to be able to interview someone who is part of this community in order to get their own personal experience of the community in Brighton and how they feel living here. I also believe that someone who is both part of the LGBT+ community and Brighton's community will have a lot of interesting things to say about, as they would have previously thought about it. 

On the other hand, it may be interesting to also interview someone who lives in Brighton but who is not part of the LGBT community in order to get a different persons opinion. When I record my interview I will be using the Marantz audio recorder along with the Sennheiser dynamic handheld microphone. 

Soundscape Planning

Now I have looked at a range of sound artists and designers I am starting to plan my own soundscape in order to start recording it later on in the week. My main idea is to look at the diversities of places around the city of Brighton. I plan to record sounds in different areas and then create a contrast between the busy town and pier, with the peacefulness on the beach and seafront. 

I'm going to edit the busy city sounds together in a fast pace in order to emphasise the crowds and loud noises of the urban environment. This will be particularly effective on the pier, with the sounds of the rides and people on these. I will then contrast this with the sound of the waves and wind on the beach, away from the people in the town. 

If I go ahead with this idea I am going to record the sounds using a K6 microphone with a Marantz audio recorder. I may also book out a hydrophone in order to record sounds in the sea as these will sound slightly distorted and muffled, creating juxtaposition with the clear, loud sounds on the pier. 

Hugo Zuccarelli + Delia Derbyshire

Here is a presentation on Hugo Zuccarelli and Delia Derybshire; I focused on Derbyshire whilst creating and presenting this. 

Hugo zuccarelli + delia derbyshire from amygillespie12345

Janet Cardiff + Ben Burtt

The next two inspirational sound artists I am looking at are Janet Cardiff and Ben Burtt. 

Janet Cardiff

Janet Cardiff is a Canadian sound artist who recorded her first sound walk in 1991 and this was titled 'Forest Walk'. This was her just simply walking through a forest and directing the listener; it was mixed on a 4 track cassette desk. Cardiff started to introduce moving image to her sound pieces and this started with her piece 'The Whispering Room' which featured a 30 second long image of a girl tap dancing whilst the listeners walked around the room in a gallery from left to right. As they did this they heard different sounds and dialogue coming from different speakers. 

Another famous piece is titled 'Alter Bahnhof' and this was created in 2001 and used architectural and interactive techniques to tell the narrative. In the sound recording, the viewer is asked to stand in the train station and hold their phone out in front with the moving image on, and Cardiff directs you through. The used of ASMR i this makes it a personal experience as it is if she is speaking into your ear. 

Ben Burtt

Ben Burtt is a foley artist, voice actor and sound designer who is famous for many science-fiction films like ET, Star Wars, Wall-e, and Star Trek. He is known for combining natural sound effects in these futuristic films, instead of using plain electronic sounding effects that have been used in the past.  

Some famous sounds that he has created include the sounds of Chewbacca in Star Wars and he created this by going to a forest and recording sounds of bears, then slowing these down whilst editing. He also created the original lightsaber sound in Star Wars: A New Hope. The main buzzing tone was created by using an old film projector, along with a broken TV. Burtt found the sound of this TV set by accident as it picked up on the microphone.

Speech Packages

Speech packages are used to inform, entertain and/or educate an audience about a subject. They're used in news bulletins on radio stations that last up to 3 minutes, however they can also be used in longer news programs that can last up to an hour. A wrap is used in packages and this is when the reporter delivering introduced and concludes the clips with speech and sound relevant to the topic. Actuality is described as "recorded sounds that add greater variety and hence colour to what could other wise be a comparatively dry narrative delivered by a reporter". An example of this is voxpops as this includes a range of opinions from the audience. 

Speech packages must reach the target audience and the context must be appropriate to the subject. A good example of this is that BBCR1 is targeted for a younger audience that BBR4; the speech is faster and often has background music, where as BBCR4 only includes background music if it is relevant to the subject. The fast pace speech and music creates more of a lively atmosphere for younger listeners to keep them entertained. 

In order to make a package, the subject, context and target audience needs to be considered - the language used is also important as it needs to be relatable for the mass audience, unless there is a niche target audience. Ideas of subject for speech packages can come from looking at rival publications, and many are never completely original. The biggest audiences will be built on new ideas and approaches, which don't tell listeners stories they already know. 

The choice of angle taken will influence the type of interviews that are included and subtopics should be used to narrow down information. Each persons perspective could have an important tole to play, therefore it is important to use the right interviews with the right context. The questions that are being asked should be prepared before you approach the interviewees and they should depend on what information you want to include in the package. The questions that usually provide the best answers ask for impressions, feelings and sequences of events. 

Chris Watson + Hildegard Westerkamp

The next two inspirational sound artists I am looking at is Chris Watson and Hildegard Westerkamp. 

Chris Watson

Born in 1952, Chris Watson is a British sound recordist who specialises in wildlife recordings. He is known for his recordings in where he puts the microphones such as hydrophones and contact mics under the sand on beaches - he does this as sound travels more efficiently in sea water. His soundscape 'Shadows and Reflections' is recorded in Northumberland and during this he put a contact microphone against his 'favourite tree' and layered sounds of the wildlife from different days over a period of time. His soundscapes are well cultured and he states "From recording all around the world I have come to realise no two things sound the same". 

I find Watson inspirational due to the culture he adds to his soundscapes as well as the personal aspects, as this is what I am going to look into for my own soundscape. I want to use sounds that represent things that are personal me to create a moving piece. 

Hildegard Westerkamp

Westerkamp is a Canadian composer, educator, radio artist and sound ecologist. A lot of her sounds are available on CD's and not online and I believe that this makes it more personal to the listener as they spend money on her sounds, conveying that they are genuinely interested in what she is creating. It also suggests that she is more like an artist than a sound recorder. Her famous soundscape 'Into the Labyrinth' is a soundscape of India and is very interesting as it uses a variety of different sounds from the country and breaks them up, then layers them allowing the audience to think about what they are listening to. 

I find Westerkamp's work interesting and inspiring due to how personal it is to her, and how she produces it on CD's - this might be something I look into doing for my final soundscape. She quoted "I like to work that edge between the real and imaginary sounds". This suggests that she likes her soundscapes to abstract but still possible for people to think and feel about the place.  

'Trump' Interviews

Today I looked at recording interviews and my partner and I decided to ask "Do you think Trump will still be here next year?". We asked 5 people around the campus of university of sussex and then used a voice recording booth to create a 'wrap' (introduce and conclude) the interviews. We also recorded ambient sounds on the campus in order to use as a backing track. 

Our interviews were successful as we received a mixture of long and short answers that we were able to mix up and edit together to make each answer seem snappy and to the point. The background sound also works well with the interviews as it suggests the location of where we are interviewing to the audience and fades out the track successfully at the end. This was also our first time using the voice over booth to create a introduction and conclusion to our interviews - this gives the audience context and brings the whole thing together. 

Sound Scape Initial Ideas

Part 1 of my project brief is to produce a two-five minute soundscape or 'acoustic portrait' of a geographical place of my choice. This means that I will need to record sounds that represent and portray something about that place. As I live in Brighton, I want to make it about something that interests me in the area, or a place I enjoy going to. A soundscape is "the component of the acoustic environment that can be perceived by humans." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundscape). 

Another idea I have for my soundscape is base it on my home town, Reigate as this is where I group up and I could record sounds that remind me of my childhood. This would make the piece very nostalgic and personal to me, therefore making it more effective for the audience. I would record sounds, such children playing in my old school playground and park, as well as sounds like my dogs barking and playing in a pond. 

Starting a Sound Library

After looking at Jack Foley, I decided to experiment with some of my own sounds to start to build up a sound library. This will allow me to keep track of sounds I am recording and may use in my final soundscape. I recorded these sounds using a K6 microphone and an Irig Pre in order to record the sounds on my phone. After experimenting with different apps, I decided to use one called WavePad as this recorded the best quality sound as a wave file. 

I then uploaded these files to Adobe Audition in order to cut and change the volume of them. 

Here are my final sounds:

Jack Foley + Walter Murch

The first two inspirational sound effect artists I have looked are Jack Foley and Walter Murch. 

Jack Foley

Jack Foley pioneered the idea of recording sound separately from the visuals and then synchronising it. He was the developer of many sound effect techniques in the industry. Foley is the "reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality". Examples of foley sounds are clothing, breaking bottles and footsteps. Foley sounds are successful when they aren't noticed by the audience and creates a sense of reality. 

Walter Murch

Walter Murch is an American sound designer who is famous for his work on The Godfather 1, 11 and 111. He looked at the use of echo and reverb as this helps create a sense of space in the film. This uses 360 sound and makes the audience feel like they are in the film, creating a sense of realism.