Spatial Audio Design / Task 1 / Exercises

26.9.2024 - 15.10.2024 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Spatial Audio Design
Task 1 / Exercises

LECTURES

Week 2 / Sound Fundamentals and EQ

Nature of Sound 
Sound is the vibration of air molecules that stimulates the eardrums. The vibrations form sound waves through propagation (movement). 

Production: The air molecules starting to vibrate. The source. Like vocal chords or speakers. 

Propagation: The medium in which the sound travels. Like the air. 

Perception: The eardrums vibrating, the brain translating the signals.

The Human Ear

The outer ear is the visible portion of the ear. 
The middle ear is the thin eardrum and a small cavity filled with air and three small bones (malleus, incus and stapes).
The inner ear is the cochlea (hearing canal), the endolymphatic sac and the semicircular canals.

In the cochlea, different pitches affect different parts of the cochlea. Multiple notes at once affect multiple areas at once.

Sound travels fastest in a solid, slower in a liquid, and slowest in a gas. 

Psychoacoustics is the study of how humans subjectively perceive sound, including the psychological responses of a person, and the psychological impact of sound and music on the nervous system. The perception of pitch, loudness, volume and timbre are considered in this study.

Wavelength is the distance between any point in the wave and the equivalent point in the next wave, 

Amplitude represents the loudness of the sound. It is seen through the height of the soundwave. 

Frequency represents pitch. It is seen through the number of waves occurring in a second, measured in hertz or kilohertz (Hz, kHz). Basically, the higher the frequency, the more frequent the vibrations of the source.

Properties of Sound

1. Pitch
• Frequency = vibrations per second
• Less vibrations = low frequency = low pitch
• More vibrations = high frequency = high pitch
• One cycle is one 'up' and 'down' 
• 1 Hz = 1 cycle per second
• The average human can hear the frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz 
2. Loudness
3. Timbre (quality of a sound)
4. Perceived duration (how you perceive the pace of a sound) 
5. Envelope (the structure of a sound) 
6. Spatialization (where a sound is in a space)

Week 2 Tutorial 

Sample rate is similar to DPI = how clear the sound is 

• 48000 is the default for video format
• 96000 is for HD audio
• 44100 is for mp3

Bit depth = range of sound

Mono is for voice
Stereo is for instruments, radio etc.

Save a file as waveform if you want to edit it.

It's called 'destructive editing' if you are editing or changing the waveform directly, similar to editing a single-layered picture in Photoshop. Make sure to make a backup copy before starting.

Knowing how audio sounds in certain situations (the properties) helps make audio editing easier. For example, on a phone call, there's not much bass. There's also not much 'ss' sounds (right side of the EQ). Phone calls can also sound quite harsh (4th stage). 

Week 3 / Sound Design Tools

• These tools should be present in any sound editing software or Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
• They are common and useful for sound design
• May seem simple but are essential

1) Layering
- To layer and blend the sound to make it richer, more interesting and sound higher quality
- Can create a new unique sound
- Most professionally designed sounds are layered

2) Time stretching 
- To take a sound of a certain length and stretch it (sound slower) or compress it (sound faster) without changing the pitch
- To fit the required length or change the pacing
- But can't be altered too much or it'll sound weird (unless intentional) 

3) Pitch shifting
- To change the pitch of a sound without changing the length 
- Shifting the pitch higher will make the sound thinner or smaller (for smaller subjects)
- Shifting the pitch lower will sound bigger and with more bass (for bigger subjects)
- Remember that the appearance of the subject and the pitch are correlated

4) Reversing
- Reversing an audio can make it sound weird and unnatural
- Layering it can be useful

5) Mouth it 
- When there's no source to find the desired sound effect, then 'mouth it'
- As in use your voice to create the sound
- After recording, use the previous tools mentioned to mess around with it

Sound design is about exploring and experimenting. Sometimes the best sound comes from that.

• Sound effects can be the most powerful asset in telling a story
• Adding sound effects can increase immersion and a feel of drama
• If the video with sound effects is better than it is without, that's a sign that there are enough effects. Sometimes, less is more

Tips to improve or simplify sound design:

• Save and organise your sound effect library
• Use 'constant power' to smoothly fade in/out
• Be creative with sound effects (doesn't have to be the exact object) 
• Don't reuse the same sound effects all the time, use variations
• While editing, set your volume to 60-70% and make sure you can hear all the sounds clearly

Week 3 Tutorial

• 'Blending' is choosing which layer to make louder or softer
• Additional sounds not in the original file caused by stretching are called 'artifacts'
• 'Flanger' is the term for the nasally sort of sound caused by stretching
• Chorus effect duplicates the sound twice or more and plays them very close to each other 
• Can adjust delay time and modulation to make the duplicates more obvious 
• Mostly adds volume and/or depth

Week 4 / Diegetic vs Non-diegetic Sound 

Diegisis = the world of the film and everything in it. The act of telling a story and how the narrator presents it. In film, that's everything the director includes to build the world around the characters. 

What the characters in the world can experience is diegetic. Everything only the audience perceives is non-diegetic.

Examples of non-diegetic visual elements include title cards, time and location texts, non-diegetic inserts (shots taken from a source that is outside of the main diegesis).

Sound split into categories: 

Acousmatic zones = diegetic, like unseen birds chirping in a forest
                              = non-diegetic, like a musical score
Visualised zone = source of the sound is visible onscreen 

Diegetic sound:
- If the characters can hear it, it's diegetic
- E.g. atmospheric sounds (like the weather), vehicles, weapons, music in the film, dialogue, some voiceovers (like a character's thoughts, labelled 'internal diegetic sound') 
- To help establish the world around the characters
- Can be a tool in telling the story
- For example, offscreen sounds can inform the setting and expand the world beyond what is seen. Can also create suspense 
- Breaking the expectations the audience has of what sound should be there can be impactful
- Like a POV shot shows what a character sees, diegetic sound can be used to tell us what the character hears
- Sound can also help communicate the state of a character, mental or physical (e.g. muffled sound or ears ringing)

Non-diegetic sound:
- Everything the characters cannot hear
- E.g. SFX, musical scores, narration (if the narrator plays no role in the film, like verbal storytelling) 
- Can enhance motion and movement (like the swooshes of punches)
- Can be used for comedy to create a punchline
- And of course, the musical score
- Without the music, some feelings cannot be conveyed or portrayed to that greater extent

Trans-diegetic sound:
- When expectations are subverted
- When something originally thought to be non-diegetic ends up being diegetic (like music coming from a musician offscreen)
- Can add a meta quality for a joke
- Diegetic music can also become non-diegetic (like for montages e.g. road trips)
- Sound effects can also go from diegetic to non-diegetic
- Narration too 
- Can blur the lines between fantasy and reality 
- Can illustrate storytelling, like to showcase a character's mental state

Creative exceptions: 
- Certain types of narration
- Like from a disembodied spirit
- Part of a unique form of storytelling
- Like a character suddenly singing along to music thought to be non-diegetic
- Like the diegetic music in a scene turning into music in a character's head

Week 4 Tutorial

• If sound is soft, higher chance that it's further away 
• Distance can affect/represent volume
• Surround setup is 2 front speakers, 2 rear speakers and 1 centre speaker
• All speakers are placed at the same level 
• Can differentiate direction but not height
• Stereo balance = pan = to adjust the direction of where the audio sounds like it's coming from
• Sustain = how long does the sound last for
• Decay = how long does it take for the sound to die off
• There can be multiple ways to achieve the sound you want, as long as the sound is correct any way works

Recording studio trip

• When putting speakers by the wall, bass may be louder and vice versa 
• Wall padding absorbs different frequencies or sound
• Soundproof studio is like a room within a room, walls of the studio are actually separate from the original walls. A little bit of distance apart 
• Slanted wooden plates reflect the unabsorbed sound (that's unwanted) to bounce around until it's barely there when it reaches the ears of the engineer 
• Studio speakers/ studio monitors/ reference speaker/ reference monitors are good for mixing (when the room is treated for sound)
• When mixing, use headphones and speakers 
• The sound interface is there to convert analogue sound to digital 
• The size determines how many microphones you can plug in to it
• Time code clock is there to easier sync the audio and visual 
• Amplifier controls the sensitivity  of the microphone (and therefore the volume)
• Make sure you're recording from the right side of the mic (one side is clearer) 

Using Pro Tools (application):

1) Create a session 

2) Create the track manually (choose between mono and stereo)

3) Can use a physical digital mixer to affect the interface of the app, can adjust settings during recording, more organic 

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 2. Module Infomation Booklet

Exercise 1 (Week 1)

For this exercise, we were given multiple tracks of the same song, all edited in some way to be different from the original. Our task was to edit these tracks with the Parametric Equalizer effect to make them match the original. Of course, we were given the original audio to compare them with. 

FINAL Exercise 1 Submissions

Fig. 3.1. Track 'eq-1' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.2. Track 'eq-2' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.3. Track 'eq-3' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.4. Track 'eq-4' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.5. Track 'eq-5' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.6. Track 'eq-6' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.7. Track 'filter-1' (26/9/2024)

Fig. 3.8. Track 'filter-2' (26/9/2024)

Exercise 2 (Week 2) 

For this exercise, we were taught to use the Parametric Equalizer to make the voice sound like it's in different settings. These settings are through a phone call, inside a closet, through a walkie-talkie, in a toilet and in a stadium.

FINAL Exercise 2 Submissions

Fig. 4.1. Phone Call (3/10/2024)

Fig. 4.2. Inside Closet (3/10/2024)

Fig. 4.3. Walkie-talkie (3/10/2024)

Fig. 4.4. Inside Toilet (3/10/2024)

Fig. 4.5. Inside Stadium (3/10/2024)

Exercise 3 (Week 3) 

This week, we were given some basic explosion and punch sound effects and we had to edit them to make them into an SFX for a bigger explosion, a firecracker and a combo attack. After making the sound effects for the explosion and firecracker, I used those as the sound effects for the combo attack.

FINAL Exercise 3 Submissions

Fig. 5.1. Explosion SFX (10/10/2024)

Fig. 5.2. Firecracker SFX (10/10/2024)

Fig. 5.3. Combo Attack SFX (10/10/2024)

Exercise 4.1 (Week 4) 

For the final exercise, we were given a sound effect for a jetplane flying. We had to edit it to make it sound like it was flying past overhead, and the sound fading away. For this, we altered the pan of it to go from left to right, and also editing the 5th band of the equalizer. I also shortened the end of the effect and added some fade-in and fade-out.

FINAL Exercise 4.1 Submissions

Fig. 6.1. Jetplane SFX edit (17/10/2024)

Fig. 6.2. Jetplane SFX (17/10/2024)

Exercise 4.2 (Week 4) 

For this last exercise, we were given 2 different images. We had to use sound effects found online, and compile and edit them to create a suitable sound effect that fit the image. 

Fig. 7.1. Image 1 (29/10/2024)

Fig. 7.1. Image 2 (29/10/2024)

FINAL Exercise 4.2 Submissions

Fig. 8.1. Image 1 SFX (29/10/2024)

Fig. 8.2. Image 2 SFX (29/10/2024)

Credits:

Image 1

machines.wav by smidoid -- https://freesound.org/s/147676/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Old Lever Pull by DrMinky -- https://freesound.org/s/167048/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Walk Footstep with Clothing Foley 4 (Hard Floor/Wooden) by EvanBoyerman -- https://freesound.org/s/754785/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Image 2

Laser01rev.wav by chipfork71 -- https://freesound.org/s/72639/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
BEEP.wav by anthonychartier2020 -- https://freesound.org/s/341278/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
BEEP 2.wav by anthonychartier2020 -- https://freesound.org/s/560189/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
BEEP 3.wav by anthonychartier2020 -- https://freesound.org/s/560188/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

REFLECTIONS

Experience
I'm quite passionate about sound design, so getting the chance to take this module was quite exciting to me. These first few exercises were a good reminder of some of the techniques I learned during a previous module, while also teaching me new techniques and things to remember for the rest of the module going forward. The final exercise also gave me a chance to practise some smaller scale audio work before moving onto the bigger projects. 

Observations
Some simple tricks can actually transform an audio clip quite a bit. Whether it be using the Equaliser effect or changing the pitch of the clip, easy things like this can affect the audio and give it a different feel. This can be seen in Exercise 2, where messing with the EQ can affect how the audio sounds and what/ where the source is.

Findings
The final exercise was my chance to experience adjusting the pan of an audio track. I had to learn how to essentially keyframe these values manually in order to create a spatial audio effect. This experience would be useful for my future projects, as I move on from simply adjusting the pan to creating 5.1 mixdown sessions, which is more complicated.