Sound Design Workshop part 1
DESIGNING
The starting point of every project is ”what direction do we want them to take?” It’s important to take into consideration the different factors that can give shape to our project.
The most important thing here is the listener. We should focus on WHAT the audience will hear, and HOW it will be heard.
WHAT THE AUDIENCE SHOULD HEAR
Concept
What do we want to express?
What feelings do we want to evoke?
Where do we want to bring the listener?
What is our audience? Do they have a common background?
Why am I designing this design and why do I want to bring them there and how can I bring the there?
Content
What kind of sound material can be used to better express our concept? Which sound's indicators are we looking for?
Sound indicator; either a sound from the real world (eg. sound of the rain to indicate calm) or sounds that we can imagine (usually because of our cultural background) that we can connect to a specific image (eg. sounds of lazer swords in Star Wars). Specific music styles can be considered as sound indicators too.
If we want to express anger we will probably not chose a calm sound indicator, but instead having something really loud that brings us in that direction.
ELECTROAUCOUSTIC CHAIN
Source -> transductor(mic) -> electric signal -> loudspeaker
If we find a way to store the electric signal transduced by a micophone on a support, and we will be able to read that signal again in order to convert it to air's vibrations we are RECORDING.
SAMPLING
The word sampling can be referred both to a digital translation of an analog signal, or to a synthesis technique.
From analog to digital
When an analog signal is transformed into digital, two main parameters should be considered: sample rate and bit rate.
The sample rate defines how many times the analg signal is sampled. that means that higher sample rate correspond to higher quality, but also to more data that we need to store (bigger filesize). Because of the Nyquist rate (check link below for more info) a sample rate of 44100 allows us to represent audio frequencies from 0 to 22050, that is more then the human audible range. 44100 is the CD standard sample rate. A higher sample rate could be needed if we want to apply digital processing on the recorded signal, such as time stretching
The bit rate defines the number of steps used to represent the dynamic of the waveform. A low bit rarte will limit the possibility to digitally represent sounds with a high dynamic range. 16 is the CD standard bit rate.
USING A RECORDER
When using a recorder we should keep attention to:
What kind of file format we are recording
What kind of setting are we using for sample rate & bit rate
What microphones we have, and where it is located
Levels of the preamp
Smartphone
WAV (PCM) has better quality but a bigger file
Sample rate: 44.100
Bit Depth: 16 bits
Stereo you will have 2 files within the same file
DAW
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. Some basic functionalities can be found in every DAW, while some other functionalities are peculiar per each software. Once we get to know the structure of one DAW we will be able to find out how to use other ones too, at least for what concern multi-track recording, editing on a timeline (cutting, reversing, modifying volumes, add fades), basic mixing operations like eq-ing and applying compressors, exporting files.
Abelton 10 Live
Logic Pro X - Apple
Ableton Live
On Ableton's website you can find a lot of tips and tricks created by the community of users, along with lectures and talks. Who wants to get deeper into music production can learn how synths work, through this interactive webpage, and learn more about music theory as well. Into the packs section a lot of instruments and FXs can be found: an easy way to expand the software capabilities. Some sample packs are also in there, offering quality sounds both from "regular" instruments and experimentals.
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