Soundscapes - Blog Submission

Complete Sounds with Image;

All sounds used, Unedited and Edited;

Sonic Concepts Wordclouds;

Sound Designer Profile;

Reflective Statement;

I've never really considered myself a sound person; whenever I've done personal projects in the past I've gotten comfortable finding stock sounds from websites and from Youtube, and rarely edited them in any depth. However, from the first time using one of the high quality microphones with headphones on, I was genuinely amazed at how deep and rich sound can be. Just walking around my room recording common sounds was fascinating; the high quality recorders act like a microscope for your ears, and you hear so much more in simple sounds than you might ever realise was there, like hearing in ultra HD.

I think I had gotten used to the world of sounds efficiently compressed for digital devices and the web, listened to through mediocre headphones. I think this project definitely opened me up to taking more care with sound, and I can definitely see the benefit in recording your own bespoke sounds for projects rather than looking online, even just in the quality of the audio. Having learned to use Audition, the Uni recording facility, and the high quality microphones, it should be easy to do my own sound experiments in the future.

In terms of the success of my project, I'm relativity happy. I could have probably been more adventurous with the sounds I recorded. I tried, and had genuine problems recording outside; the wind would peak the microphone constantly, and around Rochester you were more likely to record the sound of a passing car than the subtle brushing of hands on some grass. Recording inside was definitely the way to go, but I think going out to buy or collect interesting objects is a neat idea. I had a few around, but if I were doing this for a larger project, it would be worth bringing objects from home, and perhaps asking family members or friends if they had any to lend.

Even so, it's amazing what you can do with simple sounds given the power of Audition. I'd never seen sound edited in such a visual manner before, and I made a lot of use of isolating different frequencies of sounds, which can completely change them.

In all, I think my outcomes could have used a broader variety of sound which might have helped them sound more unique, but it was a really valuable exercise for teaching me about the importance and depth of sound design, and  has certainly expanded my technical toolset.