Spatial Audio Design / Task 2 / Auditory Imaging

1.10.2024 - 10.11.2024 (Week 2 - Week 8)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Spatial Audio Design
Task 2 / Auditory Imaging

LECTURES 

Week 5 Tutorial

• None of the sounds should clip (go into the red) or else they will sound altered
• Not on their own tracks 
• When all sounds are added together into their own, it might go into red on the master level meter 
• Professional settings might not accept work where the sound clips
• Add a limiter effect so the audio will not go over a certain limit (volume) 
• Can put the limiter effect on the master mix track to limit all the sound effects at once
• When you record the sounds with a mic, make sure they don't clip during recording or playback
• Can reduce the volume, but that might alter the sound 
• When that happens, use the limiter 
• Don't use the limiter effect unless it's clipping, because each processor takes up more hardware usage 
• Too much hardware usage will make the exported audio distorted as well
• Leave the hard limiter as the last effect in the effect list 
• For example, EQ should be above it in the effect list/ chain 
• Use the limiter effect to adjust the volume of the mix, not the mix volume itself
• Major editing (changing the sound of the audio) should be done in the individual track 

Bus tracks

• Create a STEREO bus track
• Before adding to the bus track, make sure the mix is okay
• Can reroute tracks to go to the bus track instead of the mix track 
• Basically like 'grouping' them 
• Can then edit the bus track mixing to affect all those rerouted/ 'grouped' there instead of altering them all individually 
• Basically making them easier to manage
• But that's why mix has to be good before grouping, because if not it will still sound bad
• Can edit the automation in a bus track 

When saving

1. Go to File > Save As > create a new folder (with your name) > click Save > create extra copy of files into new folder (select Yes when prompted) 
2. Export the mixdown 
1. Change sample rate to 48000 
2. Bit rate change to 16 
3. Export as .wav not .mp3 (.wav is uncompressed and will sound like it did in Audition) 
3. Submit the mixdown and the project file

For Spatial Audio Design, change stereo to 5.1 (surround sound).

• LFE is mostly used to add bass, so for sounds like explosions

Week 7 Tutorial

If you want to reduce a specific kind of noise from an audio:

- Select the part of the audio
- Effects --> Noise Reduction --> Capture Noise Print to sample the type of noise
- Then Effects --> Noise Reduction --> Noise Reduction (process) to remove all types of that sampled noise

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 1. Module Information Booklet

Task 2: Auditory Imaging

For this project, we had to use audio to tell a story. All (or at least most) audio clips had to be found online, and I also had to make it spatial audio (surround sound). 

We started off by writing our own stories. I was inspired by a video game character, Kaveh from Genshin Impact, and decided to make my story more of a sad one. It is simply about an architect coming home after a long, tiring, maybe even bad day at work. Ironically, this story seemed to let silence speak for itself as well, so I knew going into this would be a challenge. 

Fig. 2.1. Written Story for Project 2 (7/11/2024)

I highlighted the sounds that would need to be added and also highlighted the further details of the sounds for ease of reference. Furthermore, I added text in brackets to describe some background/ ambient sounds. 

Since most of the sound effects present in the story result from actions, I had to rely mostly on the ambience sounds to create the surround sound effect. Examples of these would be the humming of the lights and fan, and the static of the TV. 

Below the story, I wrote a long list of sound effects I'd need to look for online. In the beginning, I tried to find all the SFX I'd need before starting editing, but I then decided to just start editing and find more SFX as I went along. 

Fig. 2.2. Adding effects to certain audio (7-11/11/2024)

Some audio clips needed to have effects added to them in order to make them sound better. An example of this is using the Equaliser on the fabric shuffling noises. However, I also used the pitch shifter on some of the footstep sounds so they wouldn't sound so consistent and unnatural.

Fig. 2.3. Adding spatial effect to the door sounds (10/11/2024)

After adding effects, I could then adjust the values of the track to add that spatial effect. I applied such techniques on pretty much all the audio clips, to give the image that my character is actively moving around, or moving objects around in a 3 dimensional space.

Fig. 2.4. Adjusting volume of the liquid sounds (10/11/2024)

Fig. 2.5. Adding spatial effect to the ambient sounds (10/11/2024)

Fig. 2.6. The adjusted values of some of the tracks (10/11/2024)

Fig. 2.7. All the tracks in total (11/11/2024)

FINAL Auditory Imaging Submission

Fig. 3.1. Final Auditory Imaging Submission (11/11/2024)

SFX Credits:

Fig. 3.2. Credits for all SFX used (11/11/2024)

FEEDBACK

Week 8
Specific Feedback:
- Use the ambient sounds to be the spatial aspect, if the other SFX can't really be affected by it

REFLECTIONS

Experience
This assignment was a good experience. Without having any visuals, I had to rely on my own imagination to create the audio track, unlike some previous assignments. However, this also meant I had a lot more creative freedom. The image in my head is, after all, one that I created, so the setting that I create in the audio technically cannot be wrong unless it's physically impossible. Other than that though, this was also my first experience creating a 5.1 track and adjusting track values to create a 3D spatial effect. As tricky as it was at some points, I also found it fun as I do enjoy sound design. 

Observations
Adjusting the track values can actually be quite time consuming. What's trickier is when I want to move an audio clip along the track after adjusting the panning, and then I have to select all the keyframes to manually fix their timing too. So next time I should keep in mind to try and finalise the timing of all the audio clips first before adjusting the panning. Though this cannot always be avoided, as there may be some last minute changes in what audio clip I'm using, but it can still save me work and time if I'm careful.

Findings
Only after I finished the project that I learnt that it is good to have an ambient sound that doesn't pan around. This can serve as an anchor for the listener, so they can always have their bearings and don't end up confused. In my submission, I adjusted the panning of my ambient sounds quite a bit. Luckily though, I mostly messed with them to establish the character moving from location to location (like from the bedroom to the kitchen) and not really as the character moved around in one location, so it still manages to act somewhat as an anchor. But this can be something to keep in mind for future projects.