Month: October 2021

Today we repeated last weeks session of improvisation. The class was a lot smaller this week and I think this enabled us to be a bit more experimental. I believe everyone was more careful about their sounds as everyone’s noise came through more than last week.

We had a similar idea of 5minute intervals for just the groups and then overall composition together. Tim brought a feedback mixer this week as well as Cai. Instead of doing foley, I decided to set up Ableton and create a Vector FM synthesiser. I also mapped the knobs on the midi controller to control a high pass filter and delay feedback and time.

I felt when performing I concentrated more on listening this week than last. The fact that my synthesiser was loud and prominent it made me think about where I was in the performance. I kept altering my octave to compliment others and make sure the frequency bands were filled up. I also at one point stopped performing and allowed Tim to solo his feedback mixer. Then when I had an idea I began to come back in and create a buildup with tension.

During the break, I also spoke to Dean to see what he was doing and the plugins he was controlling. Spaces ina-grm a program plugin that lets you automate multi-channel speaker control. There were different patterns like a star and spiral shapes. I’ve booked the performance lab for next week Wednesday 5-8pm to mess around with the speaker multi-channel operations and to record it via the zoom h3 and experiment with that as well.

We also discussed at the end our thoughts. I felt like this week was a bit more cohesive due to the fact it had fewer instruments. Mainly synths and no-input mixing. I also enjoyed more using the synthesiser on Ableton and performing with the two effect parameters I had assigned to the knobs. Milo also wrote some notes and spoke about them too. He spoke about algorithms, expansion and retraction. Thinking about what you’re inputting not just noodling. But decisively intuitively through listening thinking about when to come in. The expansion as well. Not just repeating the same thing again and again but shifting through the process and adding to it on the fly. Then gracefully leaving to allow another sound to come in. After today’s lecture, it made me want to use the performance lab, so I’ll be going next Wednesday.

After last weeks improvisational exercise we decided to think about as groups to plan or come up with a score or a way to direct the group’s performances. We created a group chat and sent some ideas in the mix. Tim thought of getting the group to play in a certain style of an artist/group/genre. For example, perform what a seaside would sound like in the style of Massive Attack. Hywel had ideas of trying to make an all-vocal performance happen. We all agreed that might be really interesting but were unsure if everyone would cooperate.

I suggested the Oblique Cards idea, for each person in our group to come up with one or two strategies for the groups to do then we can shuffle them and hand them out to see how they are interpreted. Hywel liked it and suggested we have a few for the groups to shuffle every 45 seconds. I thought perhaps that was too quick and if we each made 5 or so we can make sure none are repeated. We agreed on bringing at least 1 or two card ideas for the next lecture to see what happens.

My first card idea was.

“Perform as if you are in an alternate universe where you are the complete opposite of yourself, in terms of your personality.”

After last weeks lecture, I found the unconscious dynamics of the group really interesting to observe and also the power dynamic the instrument section held when performing. I chose this card in particular because I wanted to see what direction the performance would go if directed by people that usually don’t lead.

The second card idea was.

“Fight the urge to create patterns, meaning and structure. Remove yourself from your usual routine with your instrument/object”

I choose this as the second idea based on my reflection from last weeks lecture. I found that we all approached our instruments based on how we usually use them at home. I wanted to see people that usually have intuitive structured ways of using their instruments/objects, use them in a completely different way.

After the sound for screen lecture today, I had already booked out the foley room and composition studio for the evening and invited Raul and Harry to practice foley with me before working on our own videos. I feel it’s important to practice as when doing my video for the assignment submission I want it to be streamlined which allows me more time to concentrate more on the artistic decisions than figuring out how to work pro tools and the studio.

I had the We Need To Talk About Kevin film clip from last weeks foley session and I wanted to reflect and learn of the mistakes from last week.

We started by tidying up the project as last week I didn’t organise it too well. I deleted some of the markers and streamlined them into numbers as it was easy to know what number was what rather than long text. We created some more tracks for the feet as we wanted to repeat the exercise again and just get more comfortable with the gains structure and mic positions. I got rid of most of the sounds recorded last week and deactivated the track and hide them to keep the clips but so they are not on the screen.

We started by doing the movement sounds of the clothing. With the first shot being of the mother on the sofa. I and Raul were in the control room with Harry in the foley room.

We were speaking through the talkback function which worked really well. We accidentally got the inputs mixed around and had a little issue with trying to get the gain structure perfect. Note for next time is to when there is an issue. start the signal flow from the source and make sure everything is correct before asking the technicians! Raul taught me some other pro tools shortcuts that helped with time and efficiency. I also studied the keyboard as it has all the pro tools shortcuts on it. We got Harry doing the foley and we communicated to him about what it sounded like and perhaps too aggressive at first. So we got him to do minimalistic movements with Raul’s jacket for the clothing sounds. We quickly realised that less is more. We also used the Neumann TLM 103 to experiment with the different mics. We placed the mic about 10cm from the audio source and felt it sounded well as before that it was too close and the performer was hitting the mic when trying to do foley.

We then swapped to Raul doing the footsteps for the wood flooring. We made him take his socks off as in the movie she is barefoot and we wanted that skin connection subtle noises that create when walking on wood barefoot. We decided to use the shotgun Sennheiser 416. I felt the Sennheiser 416 is more directed and had a lot less room tone in the recordings due to its super-cardioid polar pattern. Which personally I felt it was much better for those close small intimate sounds like walking on wood. We also discussed walking and how Raul was doing it. The noise of his jeans was also an issue which we got around by him rolling them up.

It then came to my turn being the foley artist and I had the job of clothing and footsteps. I did the same procedure and had Harry play the clip a few times for me to practice it before we get going. I actually ended up turning the lights off in the room as it allowed me to get more immersed in the video that was playing. I sat down and moved the tv closer to me which I felt gave me a more relaxed approach and allowed me to do the sounds based on intuition more than thinking too much bout it. We also used the 416 microphone and it worked perfectly. I found that once I thought less about what was needed and acted it actually worked better. I also felt like at times we were worrying too much about getting the perfect sound instead of being more vigilant with the time and getting more ideas across. Overall I felt I improved my knowledge of mic positions, gain structure and a huge level up on my Pro Tools abilities.

Here is a short video outcome filmed on my phone of our exercise. I’m really happy with the learning I did and feel I’m ready to tackle the proper video now. I’m going to finalise my video clip which at the moment is the quiet place and do some background research and then create the Pro Tools template with blank regions and foley marker cues. I’m happy we focused more on the things we needed to learn rather than trying to get everything with foley sounds as it was a perfect excercise.

Ben Burt also known as the grandfather of sound design worked as the lead sound designer on Wall-e. He speaks about his process of creating sound for this movie and his process. He starts by speaking with his interests in the roots of sound design and his early recordings. I found his explanation of starting with mechanical devices intriguing. You’d had to go out with a portable table recorder and locate effects to use instead of digitally manipulating them.

He also spoke about animation in general vs feature films and the differences between the sound design between them. He spoke that in animation there is no recordings filmed on set. There’s no base to add and amplify of its all creation. Because of this, all the sounds have to convey emotion. From how the wheels of a car sound when it’s driving to the sounds of a door creaking. This he says, is where the emotion comes from. Even more specifically in a film like Wall-e where the robots have little communication. It’s important to make sure that every sound has meaning and emotion as if it doesn’t then the viewers will create their own meanings and perceptions. someone will take a meaning you don’t intend.

He also spoke about his fascination for sound objects. The early days of Disney cartoons had makeshift machines created to add sound effects to the screens. Recording studios back then were heavy bulky and impossible to have portable. because of this instead of being out in the field capturing the sounds to manipulate everything was done in-house. I never entirely realised the extent of making sound objects they went to as some of the examples shown are incredibly creative. He states that he created a few objects to use in Wall-e as he wanted control in the sounds. Such as the wind in one of the scenes. He dragged a microphone along the floor while recording its movement.

He finishes by speaking about the possibilities of sound design in animation. The idea that it’s set in fictionality. When the environment isn’t real you have the ability to create items that can exist where they usually wouldn’t fit.

I found this video really revealing. The process of foley and its processes even more information than I know already. I think the way Peter and his team described the way that foley is used is captivating. The process of choosing the correct sounds and their placement in the word. Foley is a performance art that makes you need to think about the characters on screen. What their personality is, how do they want to walk?

I also found the different traps interesting. At LCC we only have 2 or 3 different traps. The mud trap and water trap was something new to me I didn’t know existsed.

Overall I would of liked to perhaps known a little more on the control room side and how they get the pro tools files ready and the gain structure. Types of microphones and mic techniques. Perhaps this is something I can go into.

Now everyone has submitted their work it has been put into a VR space that you can walk around and click everyone’s work and listen. I’m really happy with the result. This has also been my first time showcasing any sound piece to the public or even in a gallery (even if it’s virtual).

Here is the link to the gallery.

https://soundlab.scm.cityu.edu.hk/soundenvelope/

I’ve never done any foley before and felt I should try to work on the We Need To Talk About Kevin clip before I start working on my own clip as a way of finding out problems and techniques before the real thing.

I brought Dan with me as we needed one person in the control room and one in the foley room. Since I knew Pro Tools more I ended up being in the control room. Although next time we will swap as I want to try doing foley art.

We started by watching the clip with the atmospheres I’ve added and just started writing down things we could do in synch. The main part that stood out was when she was lying down on the sofa and then gets up. The pills fall of the table puts her slippers on and then she breaks the doorknob opening the door.

I labelled up and marked the areas on the Pro Tools project that we wanted to record and then got dan in the foley room.

We used a Sennheiser MKH 416-P48U3 shotgun mic for the close-up footsteps sounds we wanted to record. I chose this mic as the last time I used the 418, which is stereo. But in this instance, we didn’t need that. The polar pattern on the 416 microphones is perfect for the subtle effects we wanted to record. The polar pattern is hyper-cardioid which means it will only really record what’s in front of it which makes it perfect for what we were doing that day.

We also set up an XY recording stereo setup in the room for a test but I found it wasn’t that useful. The shotgun held up better for the subtle movements. Maybe I should try to use the condensers for a more close up recording than to record the room and compare it with the 416.

We set up the 416 on a short mic stand pointed towards the wooden floor for the recording. About 10-20cm away from the source. I synched up the tv’s in the foley and room and set up the talkback so I and Dan could communicate.

I then got him to do some random effects to get a signal so I could create the gain structure in the interface and make sure everything was going into pro tools correctly. I then put the video on a loop and let him practice the foley of the steps and let him attempt it a few times. Then counted him in and recorded.

We did a few more foley recordings such as the pills dropping from the table and the door being pulled which I think ended up really good and almost perfectly in synch.

We did try to do more but ran out of time as we spent an initial hour and a bit setting up. There were two main things I learnt during this session. Number one was the gain structure was hard to balance and keep where I wanted it to be. When you crank the gain as high as you do when recording foley as you need every subtle detail if the foley artist speaks or does something louder there is less ceiling as we are in the extreme gain territory. So it clips very easily. I need to practice more foley to get this gain structure how I want it to be. The second thing was the sounds. We tried to make the tomato being thrown sound with dan filling up a bowl with water and moving his hands in it but it didn’t really work so we left it. Even though we used a lot of the props in the room we should have perhaps watched the video before we went in and thought of some props to bring. Properly plan more than planning when we arrived as the time is limited.

I started by watching the video and deciding on the cue points. I used pro tools editing to create markers to situate the important areas that needed recordings. I started by layering the ideas of atmospheres and where to cut them / fade in and out. Then fx and lastly sync points.

I rented out the microphone to record atmosphere. Sennheiser MKH 418-S Stereo Shotgun Microphone. I used the 418 instead of 416 as this one is stereo and I really wanted to capture immersive atmospheres for the clip. I started by watching the clip and writing down in time code where the atmospheres should be placed and which ones should occur.

I thought that within my vicinity I could perhaps use the white noise effects of a busy road to use for the intro with the curtain fluttering in the wind. In the movie its plays an actual sprinkler sound to foreshadow the ending. I felt like because I was limited to the 3-4 minutes of the clip I had to use my sounds to not foreshadow anything that isn’t in the 3-4 minutes.

I set up the mic and then took it apart from the housing to learn its functions properly and did a test recording at home. I then left to a busy main road very close to my house and did a few recordings.

I Found the mics polar pattern was not the best to record a decent ambience of the road. I couldn’t quite work out why the mid side recording was much lower in the gain than channel one. I felt the polar pattern was too direct to capture the ambience and felt like I should have got an Omni or a figure or eight. I need to ask Rory or Micheal if there was something I was doing wrong as I didn’t find the mics stereo capabilities that good.

The second and third recordings just for atmosphere was internal and was in my house. I recorded the boiler working as it made a nice low hum drone sound. I ran the bathroom tap on hot upstairs and set up the mic to record.

The recording was great and I felt it will suit the clip very well. Especially if I time stretch it. I also recorded the steam leaving the pipes outside as it was a similar noise but less intense machine noise.

The last atmosphere recording that I needed was the part of the clip when she walks out of the house and is in her neighbourhood. My area is filled with noise pollution so I wasn’t to optimistic about the outcome. I set up the mic on the stand in the garden and left it to record for a few minutes at a time. It was a windy day and even the huge dead cat on the mic couldn’t keep the wind noises from happening which was frustrating. I’ve learnt that these wind protectors aren’t that powerful.