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. 

Acoustic Territories - Brandon Labelle

In the reading by Brandon Labelle 'acoustic territories', the introduction discusses how sound is used to tell stories through sound. It is a significant model for thinking and experiencing the contemporary condition, creating possibilities of representation.

 

"Sounds are associated with their original source, while also becoming their own thing, separate and constantly blending with other sounds, thereby continually moving in and out of focus and clarity" This means that sounds that are used need create continuity and you should not be able to notice the transitions. 

Clip Contact Mics - Todays lesson

Today we started to look at more portable ways of recording, and used a clip on microphone to achieve different sounds from electronics. The most successful sound I recorded was clipping the microphone onto a fire control unit:

Link: https://soundcloud.com/user-710242214/fire-control-unit 

In this recording you are able to hear background noise created by placing the microphone on this item. This shows how the microphone can pick up sounds that the human ear doesn't listen out for. 

Soundscape Practice

Today we had our first go at creating soundscapes from our own sounds that we recorded. We used the K6 sennheiser microphone to record these sounds and this was able to pick up very quiet sounds as it is so sensitive. We recorded sounds around the university campus, such as conversations in the background, and the cars around us. We also recorded me ordering, paying for and buying a cheese toastie in order to experiment with different themes in editing. 

We also recorded sounds that we created ourselves, such as bins opening and closing, doors, and throwing stones in a pond. This meant that we had a mixture of natural sounds, such as trees, and manmade sounds to use in our scape. 

We then imported these sound clips to Adobe Audition in order to edit them. This task gave me an idea of using our own sounds in an edit, and will lead me onto creating a new sound walk next week and being able to play around with the audio on the software. 

BBC Sound Effects Task

To start getting to grips with using Adobe Audition, today I created 10 tracks using different sound effects to create a sound piece. In order to create this, I used different atmosphere sounds, which included a supermarket, a public foyer and a bank. I also added some sound effects such as an electric drill and a phone ringing. This had a really interesting affect on the piece as it was a mixture of different environments/ settings all in one. 

I then decided to change the volume of some sounds, for example I made the telephone ring different volumes in different places. Here is my finished product:

Link: https://soundcloud.com/user-710242214/bbc-task-mixdown