Making the Soundscape #14

For the soundscape, i was conflicted whether to use Adobe Audition or Garageband. I weighed out the pros and cons of each. Both allow you to record your own audio, however, Audition allows you to manipulate sound more. It offers effects such as distortion, delay, echo etc that add depth to any sound you record. Garageband does this less well, however, it does offer you a wide range of presets and sound samples that you can apply to a midi keyboard. This allows you to be able to create an orchestral composition full of brass and strings without having to have an entire jazz band to hand. Audition is good for recording a random array of experimental noises and mixing them together. However, due to covid, i didn't have access to a microphone so the external recording quality wasn't great. I decided to try out both pieces of software anyway to see which fit best with what i planned to do. 

ADOBE AUDITION

I began with the mindset of just wanting to experiment with different sounds to find what the best outcome was. I thought about the experimental sound project we did last year and how that made you think about music in a different way. The ability to create more abstract, strange soundscapes broadens how we perceive music. Artists like The Beatles, Kaija Saariaho, John Cage etc, are all examples of musicians who took music to an entirely new level. John Cage has a composition "4'33", which is quite literally 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. 

"It was composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, and the score instructs performers not to play their instruments during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements. The piece consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, although it is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence."

Some of the effects The Beatles employed through their music was sampling, artificial double tracking and the elaborate use of multitrack recording machines. They also contrasted this with the use of classical instruments on their recordings. Paul McCartney summed up the group's process: "We would say 'Try it. Just try is for us. If it sounds crappy, OK, we'll lose it. But it might just sound good. We were always pushing ahead: Louder, further, longer, more, different."

I find it really interesting how you can manipulate a sound to sound completely different; to the point where the origin of the sound becomes completely lost. There is a sample in a Beatles song that sounds like mechanical bird sounds; like the squawk of a seagull. Instead, it's a digital manipulation of Paul McCartney's voice. 

To start gaining inspiration i decided to pick a few random objects from around the house that i thought would create some interesting effects after being recorded and manipulated. I filled three glasses with different amounts of water to create a range of pitches, I grabbed a pack of rice crispies for an invasive crunching noise, I found a cheese grater, an electric toothbrush and some chimes. I arranged these objects in my room and started to record different rhythms that i could create with each thing. I tried to come up with a little tune by using the three glasses that could maybe act as a motif to keep the composition somewhat grounded. 

I recorded samples of the glasses being tapped with a spoon and the whirring of the electric toothbrush and added effects like Echo and the FFT Filter. I found that these two made the sounds a lot more ambient and full which i liked. I played round with adding some more effects but they didn't alter the sound drastically. Also, i was having to record through my macbook's internal speakers which wasn't ideal as they picked up surrounding sound and the sound quality just wasn't particularly great. I also tried to record some melodies from the keyboard in my room but the laptop didn't pick them up very well. It was interesting to play around with sounds and changing their effects but i think, through doing this, i realised that i wanted to create a more melodic, atmospheric soundscape rather than just pure, experimental noise. It would be nice to have a mix, and as you can record and also use midi with ease on Garageband, i decided to turn my attention to that software for a bit and see what i could come out with. 

GARAGEBAND

It took a while for me to find the right kind of tone that would fit with my illustrations. I kept playing around with the piano as it's an instrument that can be both powerful and fragile at the same time. I feel like there's elements of power and fragility in my illustrations so i focused on that a lot. Whenever i'd get stuck, i'd just look at one of the drawing for inspiration for the soundscape and it actually really helped. After the first half an hour or so of experimenting with Garageband, i decided that this was the right software for this particular project. I felt like i was getting somewhere, slowly, but definitely somewhere. It was a lot more playful and had more things to offer me at this point in time. It also allowed me to create decent compositions with the limited resources i had. 

I started off by trying to create one big soundscape to cover the entirety of the comic as i thought it would be easier to portray some kind of journey/narrative this way. However, this actually proved more difficult. This is because, even though all my illustrations are a similar style and all link into the same narrative, they each hold a different part of the journey and so, by creating one soundscape, it's difficult to capture each section of the world i'm creating. I therefore decided to create separate soundscapes for different sections of the world. That way, i can keep better track of how the sound progresses depending on where we are in the journey. Are we at Watchers Way or are we venturing through 5G forest? I need different sounds to evoke this. This also really helped to compartmentalise and organise the sound in my mind, making the whole process quicker and more effective. 

I decided to create a soundscape for groupings of two illustrations at a time. For example, the first soundscape was for pictures 1 and 2, then the second soundscape was for pictures 3 and 4 and so on. For my foundation project, i created a simple soundscape for a dance video. I remember using multiple synthesisers and remembered how effective they were at creating an ambient, other-worldy atmosphere. I experimented with some i had never used before and found the Modwheel Sizzler. It's a very breathy effect and becomes white noise after a while; a very deep, ambient, sci-fi wind effect almost. I decided to use it as an underlying pedal that would link all the different soundscapes together. When you hear that effect it will bring you back to the home sound and remind you what world you're in. It also just added depth to each song. I kept the piano riff nice and simple as to not distract too much from the illustrations. I want the soundscape to compliment the images, not override them. I also added a bit of bass to give more depth and create a more immersive, deep sound. 

I decided to start and end the comic with this particular soundscape; come full circle and round it off nicely with the same theme. For the other soundscapes, i kept them all quite similar so it wasn't too much of a change between illustrations, as it is still meant to be a journey. However, you can pick up on the little differences in each one which i like. It makes the audience listen closer. For the Train melody for example, i created a soundscape for more than two image simply because they were all linked to the train journey. I added some rather delicate, rhythmic sounds to evoke the sounds of a distant train chugging along. I was very happy with the outcomes of each soundscape and listening back to them, i feel like they link really nicely.

 I kept in mind all the inspiration i had gained from artists i'd researched in my previous blog which was helpful to always fall back on. I tried to have a mix of melody and abstract experimentation within each scape. I feel like i achieved that. I would have liked to have spent a bit more time on them however, as i did leave the soundscapes rather last minute. This was simply because i couldn't decide how i wanted to create the scapes, and that took up a lot of space in my brain and made me avoid the situation rather than face it head on. It was good in a way, being in a bit of a rush as it made me whizz through different effects a lot quicker and didn't give me too much time to ponder on whether it sounded good or not. Instead, i simply created sounds from what i saw in my illustrations. I went more for instinct and didn't think about it too much which was interesting to do actually and taught me a lot. All in all i really enjoyed the whole process and feel satisfied with what i managed to achieve.

HOW I PRESENTED THE SOUNDSCAPE

I had a tutorial with Jeremiah i while back. I told him my idea and said i wasn't sure how i would be able to have the soundscape play as people read through the comic. He suggested that i create a Soundcloud and just include a link in the comic that takes people to it. That way, they can listen as they read. Before i even started creating the music, i created a Soundcloud account. That way, as soon as i finished one soundscape, i could post it up immediately and keep working through the others. It also helped to see them ordered. In total, i created 12 separate soundscapes and uploaded them all to Soundcloud. I then created a QR code on a QR code generator website, copied that, ready to display it on the website for people to scan. 

I also compiled all my illustrations into one video and had the opening track from the soundscape play over the top to just round the whole thing off and give a little teaser for the whole project in a way. Watch below: