Sonic Design - Project 3: Audio Storytelling

We did our Voice Recording Processing Exercise in class in preparation for our Project 3. Mr. Razif gave tips on where to record our voices like in as quiet as you could find environment at home.

Week 9

Physical Class

Feedback Session for Project 3.

Feedback:

Try adding another dialogue to the script. Around 2-3 variation of dialogue from characters would suffice.

Week 10

Physical Class

Feedback Session for Project 3.

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3. EXERCISES

Week 8 - Voice Recording Processing

During class, Mr. Razif taught us how to process a voice recording in preparation for our Project. We used sample.mp3 as usual to demonstrate compressing noise.

Fig 3.1 Noise Reduction

We learnt to choose/clip parts of the audio that added unneeded noise such as the white noise and also breaths between lines.

Fig 3.2 DeEsser.

We also used DeEsser to tone down the "s" sounds that came from the audio so that it didn't jump out as much. There also other effects we used like adjusting the dynamics of the audio so there would be "gates" of when the audio should "open" for the voice to be clear.

Audio preview:

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4. AUDIO STORYTELLING

Task: Students are to pick one popular fairy-tale story of their choice and create and audiobook. The task is a step up from auditory imaging whereby now the students not only need to think about suitable soundscape, but they need to record the voice with the suitable voice acting and bring it all together with sound effects to highlight and enhance the storytelling experience. Imagine that this is a show for radio.

4.1 Storyline

Fig 4.1.1 Fairytale Choices.

I decided to pick between 3 different fairy tale stories:

Donkey Skin : The opening of the story where the king decides to marry his daughter but the daughter tries to avoid the marriage by requesting increasingly extravagant things.
The Little Mermaid : The scene where Ariel goes to Ursula and signs her contract to remove her voice in exchange for legs to walk on land.
The Princess and the Frog : The party scene where Tiana is distraught by the sudden news of her not getting her restaurant, leading her to meet the Frog Prince (Naveen) and transforming her into a frog herself.

In the end, I decided to choose The Princess and The Frog because it has enough characters' dialogues for me to work with and also the story was clearer for me to write a script for.

File 4.1.1 Final Storyline.

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4.1 Process

Voice Recording

Fig 4.2.1 Sad Voice Recording Setup :')

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to record my lines in my room because it was under some renovation/repairs. So, as a compromise, I had to record in my living room but I tried my best to make sure there wasn't any background noise so I recorded at night. It wasn't really the best space to work with but I had to make do. (╥﹏╥)

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Audio Editing

Onto the audition editing, I went to both BBC Sound Effects and Freesound to find and download the almost perfect sound effects/ambience that I'd use for the Project.

Fig 4.2.2 Sound Effects.

Additionally, I searched through YouTube to find music I could use for the BG.

Next, I placed all the Narration and Dialogue recordings first and made sure to cut out outtakes and keep in the proper takes in. I also made a bus track specifically for them.

Fig 4.2.3 Placing Narration and Dialogue

Then I started to process the the recordings by using DeEsser and also Auto Heal to remove pops from the recordings.

Fig 4.2.4 DeEsser and Auto Heal.

Moving to the actual sound effects, I adjusted the pitch for some tracks to emphasize what I wanted the sound effect to sound like in the final product. Like for example, Charlotte (Fig 4.2.5) and Fenner, I pitched them both higher and lower respectively to make it sound more girly/manly.

Fig 4.2.6 Pitch shifting tracks.

Next, some audio files were a bit too short for what I needed so I adjusting the Stretch and Pitch of them individually to make the sound slower but still have the same effect I wanted.

Fig 4.2.7 Stretching audio.

I also adjusted some audio's EQs to better match the environment I envisioned in the script (and also the movie). There were some peaks to the tracks too so I adjusted them using Hard Limiter to limit the decibels of when the audio peaks.

Fig 4.2.8 Parametric EQ and Hard Limiters.

At the end of audio editing, I had to adjust the placement of sound effects to ensure they weren't wrongly timed after all the editing I did.

Fig 4.2.9 Adjusting the placement of sound effects.

Finally, I edited screenshots of the movie in Premiere Pro to match as best as I could with the audio I created; adding small transitions to parts of it as well.

Fig 4.2.10 Editing the audio into a video in Premiere Pro.

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4.3 Final

Fig 4.3.1 Final Project 3.

View the full folder of files (audio and video) here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qby2sauXu_MtWLY3t82NgYi54PX2__BC?usp=drive_link

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5. REFLECTION

This project was an enjoyable one to experience and work with. There were frustrating moments here and there especially with voice recording as I didn't have a really ideal place to work with due to personal circumstances. Due to that, my final output is pretty subpar in my opinion but at least I managed to create something. But I did enjoy listening to my frustrated outtakes despite it all. As for the editing aspect, I liked slowly building up the audio tracks to become the full one because I could see the progress of when I was missing a certain thing or adding an additional audio could make the final sound nicer.

Overall, I learned a lot through this Project and hope that I will improve to become better in my audio editing skills in the final project (ಥ‿ಥ)

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🐚

Qistina Nuralya Maria Binti Azly (0354180)

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Sonic Design - Project 3: Audio Storytelling

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