Today we had our first lesson in the Music Studio. We learned about using microphones to record voices and sounds, then learnt how to take those recordings and edit them using a program called Audacity.
First we got given a microphone each and a cord to go with it and got shown which end attached where. After being given the cord we were told how not to wind it up, because the way shown could tear the wires inside the cord. We then got shown how to plug the microphone into and operate a soundboard. We then opened a program called Audacity, that we could use to record sounds and edit them by cutting them up and applying effects.
Using the microphone, my voice and the things around me, I created a sequence of sound effects to tell a small story.
The story is from the perspective of a person walking into a building where, unbeknownst to him, lurks a deadly beast. It starts off with a door creaking open, then shut and slamming as it did. To create the creaking sound I used the chair I was sat on, by leaning back and making it creak. To create the sound of the door slamming I first tried thumping the table, however it didn't sound very good as it sounded a little more like a slap. To correct this instead of hitting the table directly, I covered my hand with my sleeve, removing the "slapping" sound that occurred the first time. The second part of the sequence was footsteps along a wooden floor. To do this I tried using my fingers, tapping against the table. The first time I tried, it sounded a little too sharp, so the second time I didn't use the tips of my fingers, instead I used the softer parts of my fingers. To create a better atmosphere I applied a "delay" effect to the sounds to make it echo. The next part of the story is a growling beast in the distance. To create this growl, I just growled myself. As the growl starts the footsteps of the intruder stop, and then once the growl is over they start again, but much more rapid and louder. For these footsteps I used the heel of my palm rather than my fingers, to make it sound more like running than walking. The door then creaks open again and slams even louder. For these sounds I just reused the first ones, except the creaking was sped up using the "Change Speed" effect and the slam was made louder using the "Amplify" effect. After the door slams, the intruder is left outside panting for breath with his heart pounding loudly. To create the breathing sounds I just imitated the sound of panting myself. It took a few tries to get this right, as breathing on the microphone directly sounds terrible, almost like a gust of wind. The sound of the heart beat was done the same way I created the sound of the running footsteps, except I covered up my palm with my sleeve and made the thumps in groups of two, like a heartbeat does.
I have found the use of the things around me to imitate sounds very interesting and the use of the effects in Audacity makes it easier to get the sounds you want without going out of your way to record them. Overall I have good hopes for using this hardware and software to create sound effects and music for our 3D animations. Another piece of hardware we got told about was a portable recorder. This should aid us in being able to record sounds away from the studio. For example we could go down to the weir on the river to record the sound of rushing water or we could record footsteps on different surfaces, such as gravel and concrete.
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