'Wake Me Up'- Animation Student Project.

I have just received an email very recently asking me about this project. The animation I am aware has taken a lot of time, and I have not done work on the film since February. The deadline for this film is the 17th May, so I will be handing in the work I have done for it.

From what I have been told, he really liked the previous sound design I did on his project, and it will merely be a case of tightening it up and mixing it to a good level. However I did want to re-record some work as some was done to a very tight deadline and is not at its best. I'm also hoping that the better animation quality will allow me some room to create new textures for the work, as it feels very hollow to me at the moment.

Anxiety Dance- Final Mix Concept

A couple weeks has passed and I have now finished my work on the anxiety dance piece, I got the animation at quite a late stage, and due to some oddities when editing the film I had to cut to one film for the dancer, but another for the branches. This was quite confusing at times and I can only hope it hasn't come out, out of sync like I thought it might.

However, enough of that. The final mix is something I am overall proud of because it took what I did last year and really improved upon that concept, and those skills without being repetitive and boring. Once I got the edit with the animation, it was so so much easier to edit the sound to, and I found the inspiration for the piece just flowing like it usually would!

The concept of the mix relates quite closely to the Utopia I was given earlier on in the year. However, in terms of being harmonic and also showing a calm progression into mental chaos, I look at the Limbo soundtrack, which is a creepy puzzle game:

I really like this piece because it's quite calm, yet there is something off about it, and that's what I wanted to create with this piece.

I would say though, I found this piece more challenging in terms of mixing than last year as well as expanding on my skills proactively. Because of the harmonic undertone, and the plugins I applied, I think I found it more difficult to mix when there's a bass in the background, which will peak quite low. However, I got there in the end and I ended up with a really nice sounding mix. I may start to explore making tracks like this in the future, as I do really enjoy it, and expanding my musical potential is never a bad thing.

Debbie Post-Production- Sound Design

Having finished the sound design for Debbie yesterday I have quite a lot I can say about it. Back in October, when we were in beyond the boundaries still, I expressed some ideas about the sound design and the sound track. I was trying to base it off of a kind of classical version of a pulp song for the reference to Jarvis Cocker, who was a main inspiration for the film. However, this was when the film was more inspired by film noir and the script was very different:



So my approach and sound design has also become very different.

When given the sound files for the film, the first thing I did was spend some time on noise reduction. Quite a lot of time in fact. One of the first things I realised was that everything take twice as long on a 10 minute film. Which sound silly, but when you've done a five minute film or are really passionate about sound design you'll think it's fine and underestimate how long it will take you to do something!

However, length aside I got the noise reduction done. Then came all the track laying and syncing sound, doing foley etc. Luckily for me, Josh and Marco (who were on sound for our shoot) did a really good job at picking up even the smallest of things like a pen clicking or a cup, which made my life so much easier. It meant I could spend more time on really crafting the sound and perfecting it than spending a lot of time correcting things that could have been picked up on the shoot.

I decided to work from the bottom up in terms of building the sound. Which meant I would start from the lowest sound (the ambient noise of the cafe) and work upwards from there. This was so I didn't start my levels off too low in an attempt to not make the ambiance too overpowering. Because this was my first time mixing a traditional film like this, I looked at a lot of reference material. Looking at various diner and cafe scenes and how loud or quietly they have their ambiance.

Looking at these examples really helped me when it came to mixing. Not only because they gave me a general level, but because they are all so different from eachother. Taking Daredevil and Thor for example, which are set in diners that are similarly quiet. The sound design for those is quite different, but it's nice seeing it like that as it reminds me of the creative choices I can make, and that there is no 'right or wrong' way to do it. However, it gave me a good indication anyway.

The next main thing I did was the drug tripping parts of the film. I had a lot of fun with this, and as the film progresses and it becomes more intense, I got to play around with it more. I already had a pretty good idea how I wanted to do it, but I did look at a few examples:

Again, these are all pretty different. However they were helpful and made me think about my decisions more. I decided to go for a kind of underwater muffled feel. With everything slowed down around Jarvis. Then, later on in the film I made it far more sudden. I combined this with juttery, kind of electronic sounds to go with Lauren's quick cuts. I really liked how it came out. 

The only thing I regret not being able to do was make a soundtrack for it. I wanted to, but because of delays in the edit for Debbie and Dance I didn't have time to. However, I put some just light synth ambient backgrounds in to give the film some feeling, with a view of returning to it later and making something for it.

Another thing I found particularly challenging about this process was the sheer amount of tracks there were. I knew this was going to be a big job, but I hadn't realised just how confusing it could get quite quickly. It really opened my eyes in terms of the amount of workload I could expect in the future with a career in sound. I feel like I need to start improving on my workflow more, to help me better handle those larger projects for next time.

The Exquisite Corpse 13- Shahid's Project Mixing

Shahid sent me the final versions of his animation to edit to, and it was fairly straight forward as he had only changed one thing on the foot, However, I think there was a framerate difference as the rest of the sound was out of sync, so I had to go back over and re-sync all of it. It didn't take too long, but it was fairly annoying.

Shahid seemed really happy with the project once I sent him his piece back. He said it was exactly how he imagined it and I'm really glad of that. I tried to create something a little bit uncomfortable, but not too much and I think I've taken all his feedback on board and done that.

The sound design is interesting to me as it's very minimalist, so it's a good way to show off my sound design skills, as there is nowhere for the audio to hide. I can't hide off mistakes behind some car noise or similar, and that's both great because you know people will hear your work, or worse because you will under scrutiny constantly.

Feeling for Sound- Getting There

In my last post I detailed how I was moving more towards a musical piece for my sound project, and I'm happy to say that is working out really well. I have been listening to alot of Matthew Herbert. Namely the tracks, 'Sugar' and 'August' for inspiration as their sounds have a similar rhythm to mine.

What I have done so far, is from the experimentation I linked last time, essentially started again with some of the bare elements of the original soundtrack, and use fl studio to create an artificial beat to base my piece from. I won't use it in the original sound design, but it gives me a framework to work in the mean time.

I've also let Rosie have a listen and she suggested getting it cut to vinyl for the show. Since I have now narrowed down the project to just my parents' divorce, I am beginning to see how that is appropriate. When my dad left home he left a rather large record collection with my mum which is still there today. It's something he always went on about and there are records in nearly every cupboard in the house. It would provide a sense of irony in way, me choosing to play out the feelings of divorce through a device that he loved? It's an interesting concept and a genuinely really good idea.

Here's a sample of what I've been working on:



I think it's come really far in a short space of time, and I'm genuinely really happy with it. I think it could with a few odd sounds on the end, but I am really pleased with this kind of outcome. I think there's not much more to do on it now for hand in. Just mixing and getting it polished I think. Fixing the voiceover etc.

Debbie Post-Production- The Edit

It's the last stretch of Uni now, and particularly with Debbie I think everyone is starting to feel the heat. Back after Easter and we are straight into it!

Over the last couple of weeks I have mostly been waiting around for the edit in terms of Debbie, and I became aware of some issues Lauren was having with the edit. I wish she had said earlier but I can understand why my not being there that much, as I was working on other projects, made her feel like maybe she couldn't contact me. It wasn't as easy as just turning to someone next to her. That being said, once I sat down with her and discussed the edit she was fine.

I think the problem was mainly that she wanted to stick to the script as much as possible, which I can understand because I hadn't expressly told her to just go crazy and I think it made her feel a bit uncomfortable doing so. This reflected in the edit, as every shot was in there even if scenes didn't work and it felt a little forced in at places. However when I spoke to her and actually told her that was fine, the edit became a hell of alot better because of it. I think now after a few tweaks it will be fine and I will be waiting a couple of days for the sound!

Anxiety Dance- Sound Editing and Developing Melody

Now that we are back after Easter, and the Debbie shoot is done I can now get under way with the sound design for Anxiety, as there is an edit for me to work with. The first thing I have done is matched up the foley for the film. So all the breathing noises, hand and foot noises are in place before I even begin with the melody. I have found that some of the recordings were too noisy for me to use really. On their own it would be fine if it was a narrative spoken piece, however as the dancer is wearing a kind of odd material, whenever she runs her hand over that area it just sounds like noise.

This really sucked from my point of view, as I really wanted to maintain authenticity. However. the recordings I did get were good and very usable.

Aside from this though, there's not much more I can do as I am waiting for the animation to be done before I can make the melody for the piece. I tried, but not having any timing to go if is very frustrating and doesn't get me anywhere. So, aswell as working on other things in the meantime, I have tried to explore what plugins and instruments I will use for the piece. I took a few samples and showed them to Lauren for her to listen and choose the best from:







Lauren said she preferred the first one as it had more of a melody about it. She wants to maintain a kind of harmony in the piece, whilst still having that creepiness. I think I know what she means, and I feel I will be able to work well on it when the animation is finished.

Feeling for Sound- Original Sound Idea Shortcomings

When I started this project, I had the idea that I could create a kind of soundscape of emotion overrunning this naturalistic narrative of what was actually happening in the scene. I tried this out in multiple ways, and each time I came up with the same conclusion that it was quite dull, and very disembodied in a way. As all you can hear is footsteps or someone eating, I found that the audience couldn't really relate to that very well, not in the way I wanted them to. So, when I started looking at Matthew Herbert and Cornelius Cardew, I found that a way more interesting way around my problem. Cardew was admittedly a way of using imagery in my piece to make it more interesting, or more grounded rather. Something tangible the audience could hold onto and use to understand the piece.

However, since I have started experimenting with musical elements of the piece I have been much happier with it. It was daunting at first to think I was starting this project again essentially, but I'm glad I realised this now rather than so late on in the process. To demonstrate what I mean, here as some samples:

This is the first version of my sound project, you can hear that something is happening but you aren't really clear what it is and I feel like emotional sounds or music alone would not ground the audience into what is happening. It feels very flat and not the quality of work I would have liked to present:




In this one however, you can already tell this is going to be a more interesting piece, it has something for the audience to pay attention to and hold onto while listening to. This is meant to grab their attention and hold it. However, what I will say is that this cut of the experimentation is too naturalistic, and I would like a more electronic feel to it. Though you can already see the improvements, and it can only get better from here with more and more experimentation.

'13' Shahid's Project- Creating a More Steampunk, Less Fleshy Sound

Shahid sent me some new animation the other day and I have been working on trying to get the robotic sounds right, as well the fleshy sounds. I showed Shahid this reference from a Doctor Who episode:

Shahid seemed to agree that he liked that type of clockwork sound, and so I started on making that. Once I was finished, he seemed to really appreciate the newer version.

However, he then asked me to turn the flesh sound down quite a lot, and eventually wanted rid of it. I still wanted to have that elements of organic material in there, so I tried it with using breathing that is ever so slightly robot-esque and and for the hand and the foot to have blood rushing sounds, Shahid really liked this, and aside from the bits of animation he had left to do, was really happy with the piece.

Feeling For Sound- Matthew Herbert

Moving on from graphical scores, I have come back round to an artist I already know and admire, Matthew Herbert. He's well known for his album 'One Pig' which explores the life of a pig from birth to plate, and much of his work focuses on attacks on the food industry, health and the problems we face in the UK with regards to that.

When looking at graphical scores I saw alot of potential there, but also see it as quite random. I also then looking at my project so far, saw it as too broad. I've decided that instead of trying to tackle multiple points in my life which changed me greatly, I'm going to focus on the one. The divorce of my parents, as it's the one that I feel changed me most in terms of my direction, my focus and my attitudes in life. It's also the one I remember most vividly. That period of my life spans a good year or so while I coped with that as well as doing my GCSE's and such.

Back to Matthew Herbert. I really admire how he incorporates foley into his music and tries to say something, or tell a story with that. I would prefer to do something like that, whilst still keeping with the binaural beats and other devices to make the audience feel emotion directly, more scientifically through sound as well as have emotion inferred through music.

Here is some of Matthew Herbert's work which gives an idea of the work I am trying to make:

I feel as if this approach will help my piece remain more focused in terms of message, and also help tell a story as it is much more easily structured, especially if I try to stick to the general rules of thumb when it comes to constructing music.

Shooting!

The shoot has come and gone! It's really weird to think that you spend all that time preparing for something, and it's gone in a flash! I think everyone is exhausted now though, and rightly so. It's been a really intense and rough few days.

I think the shooting in general went well, we got everything shot that we wanted and more. I loved working with the actors, they were very friendly and down to earth and seemed to understand what I was saying to them and wanted them to do. I still think reading those books on directing helped immensely and I really believe my confidence has grown because of doing this shoot too. The shots we got were fantastic, and I really appreciated having a good camera and lighting team with me, Tom and Shahid, who I worked with last year on Parallel. We understand each other quite well and share the passion for what we do that I really love.

There were some issues on set, mainly surrounding timing and communication. We were behind every day for one reason or another, but particularly Wednesday because we shot the masters on that day and it took alot longer than expected. However, we finished with time to get out and on the last day we finished early and had time for behind the scenes interviews and such. However, I think we could have expressed our frustrations on set a bit more. Not infront of the actors obviously, as we never would have anyway, but I think when tensions became a bit high I think we could have benefited for stepping to one side for a moment to voice concerns quietly. However, following the shoot we all sat down and spoke about any issues we had so that going into post-production we had clear air to work with.

I think this shoot and set build have taught me alot about the production process, how long things take, the needs of actors and crew and just the way things work. This is the first time I've been on the set of a 'traditional' narrative based film, and certainly the first time I've directed actors. I realise now that I really much prefer being in post-production. Some people thrive on film sets and love the stressful situations it brings whereas I don't. I wasn't by any means miserable but I think it would be incredibly difficult for me to do that for a long period of time.

That being said, however, I did have fun and there were alot of great moments on set, with some really nice shots we got to go with it. Now I just can't wait to come back after Easter and get going on the edit and sound design!

Set Build

Our set building is complete! It's really scary to think that it was just a couple of months ago that we were writing the script for this film and now we are shooting it.

Building the set was really interesting, and a massive learning experience as well as being exhausting and time consuming to say the very least. We had very little time to put the set up for starters, just three days to do it and we ran into a few complications along the way. 

On the first day we put up all the walls and put down the floor. The floor, which was one bought in the studio by another group, was slanted where it had been cut for a slanted set at one point, which made it very difficult to fit to the shape of the set, so we had to build the set slightly differently in order to fit them in properly. It did not affect the amount of materials we needed, but it took a bit of time that we did not have. Towards the end of the day, we were rushing and I was pushing to get the walls wallpapered so that they would have time to dry overnight and we could paint them when we came in that morning.

The next morning, on set build day number 2, we started painting. I had to go over some bits of wallpaper with some more wallpaper paste just to set it a little bit on the edges, but in general I think everyone did a pretty good job. The main thing today was the feature wall. Laura had the idea of creating stencil just to print on the wall, however because we put the wallpaper on before we stenciled it, there wasn't enough pressure behind it to stencil it properly and they came out blotchy or patchy. In the end, we had to have some people go round making the stencils and people following them filling it in with paint. As you can imagine this took a really long time, and we didn't finish this until day three. I think it's safe to assume that everyone was exhausted by the end of day two.

On the last day, we got the wall done by the afternoon, which was good and I'm glad we got a massive chunk of it done during day two. The last day was mostly finishing off painting the rest of the walls and then putting all the decoration and props in. I had my housemate Jess come along to draw on the blackboard we had, which looked really nice! And which we later made a frame for. I was really impressed by how the set looked at this point and everyone who came in said it was looking really good. It was not how I imagined it, but both Laura and Shahid were happy with it and so was I.

During this last day, myself and Laura also had to organise some last minute things for the actors. James Winter, who was playing Pete had just told us he couldn't get a suit for himself so we had to rush and buy one, on top of this not long before we had also had the surprising organisational task and monetary issue of finding him a hotel to stay in as we weren't aware of his location in Peterborough. So it was safe to say we were already feeling the heat of the shoot and it wasn't even there yet!

By the end of the day, Tom and Shahid had started setting up the glide cam and we had got our kit from the stores ready for shooting the next day.

Debbie- Fundraising

Whilst all the casting and rehearsals have been going on, we have still been trying to raise money for our film. Laura's workload was getting too much due to the commitments of the film and everything else, so I offered to organise the fundraising.

As well as the indiegogo campaign, and the money we were being generously given by our family and friends, I wanted to organise a bake sale and raffle, as well as organising a night at the SU. We had spoken about doing a Britpop night for a while because of our film's original connections to Jarvis Cocker and the band Pulp. So, I went to find out more about how this would work and what our limitations were.

The following is some conversation I had with Kelly Weston, the bar manager at UCA:

Kelly was incredibly helpful when it came to organising the SU night, but I had to deal with the head of catering when it came to the bake sale, and this included doing quite a few risk assessments and organising with caretakers for tables and such. However, we hosted the bake sale on the 22nd February, and the SU night was on the 29th February. 

We did some advertising for these events on the Farnham UCA Facebook page, as well as on our own Debbie Facebook page. I also made some posters for the events to advertise them more visually. Especially the SU night, with the posters being displayed around the SU:

Our fundraising efforts paid off quite nicely, our night was quite popular and was fun for us to be at as well as helping us raise money for the film. Laura supplied the music for the SU night and I supplied the cakes for the bake sale and the night, as well as organising the raffle. We managed to raise about £100 for the film, which really has helped us out alot.

Feeling For Sound- Graphic Musical Scores

In a tutorial with Kathleen, I expressed my interest in creating a visual element to go alongside my sound piece. She suggested looking at graphical scores and Cornelius Cardew in particular.

Cornelius Cardew is a compose who works with graphical scores such as his famous 'Treatise' which a massive 193 pages long of just graphical score. Graphical scores in general are a musical score which is shown in either just shapes or lines, in any form, or a combination of these things and musical notes. Graphical scores often come with instructions on how they should be played, but some pieces like Treatise is interpretive and the performer must make up their own rules on how to play the piece. I found a couple of interesting examples of this type of thing being played out:

John Teske- Six Graphic Scores

Artikulation- Gyorgy Ligeti

After looking at a few of these kinds of pieces, I have some notes on how I think I want to take this idea:

• Why do the shapes, dots, lines etc. have to represent individual notes? They could represent something like texture, which may allow far more creative freedom in the piece.
• I feel as if the pieces are often played far too literally. Following on from questioning how to interpret individual notes, it feels as if the composers sometimes drew these pieces and then thought, well what would this sound like? This is not the effect I want to create, and so I think the compositions should be far more focused.
• Is it possible to create something that sounds more traditional using this unconventional technique?

I think I should experiment with the sound at first, and then draw some things surrounding how it sounds after. I think it would be far more beneficial to do it that way and that way I can experiment with different ways of showing the sound I have created on paper.

Debbie Updates- Casting and Rehearsals

The last couple of months have been very hectic in terms of Debbie. Straight after Christmas we started casting for our film. We did Skype auditions over a couple of days and finally got our cast together:

I found it really easy to cast the guys as they were both fantastic and it was believable that they were brothers straight away. They really stood out to me and I could not have picked anyone else. I feel like we got very lucky in that regard. The girls I had particular trouble with. We had many fantastic candidates with very different styles, however Kesia stood out in particular to me because of her friendly attitude, and I loved her French accent aswell. That combined with her look really suited the kind of character I wanted her to play, whilst getting very good vibes from her that she would be reliable.

I am really happy with these guys, they are all equally reliable and friendly, as well as being fantastic actors. On Monday 15th February, we had a rehearsal with them to go through the script and play some different actions to see what kind of performances look best, try out different directing techniques, and to get to know my actors in general. 

In terms of directing technique, I have paid particular attention to 'Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television' By Judith Weston. 

I went into the rehearsal with an annotated copy of the script, which had lots of notes on how I could get the actors to play the roles and particular lines in different ways:

This book helped me see directing from an actor's perspective and I think has improved my direction on the whole. The book talks about using playable notes rather than result direction, which would be telling an actor you want them to be angry or be sad, rather than giving them something they can act on. I could see quite easily the differences in performance from one direction to another and to me that confirms that I'm succeeding at what I've set out to do. So now I feel prepared for our shoot in that regard!

Organisation wise, since Christmas it's been focused on shot lists and call sheets. Since the script is now finished, what I had to do was go through the script and write all the shots I wanted in there so I had a basic structure I wanted to work to. 

Then I had to write up all these shots into a spreadsheet with all details such as movement, props etc. So Laura could organise these into shooting schedules for each day of shooting:

In general now, I think we are prepared for the shoot. With just a few odd bits and bobs needed to do left. A couple of props here and there to get and we are set for the studio.

Other Sound Design Work- Tom & Shahid

Over the last couple of months I was approached to work on a couple of other sound projects alongside mine, Laura's and D-e3b1e.

Firstly, Shahid asked me to work on a three screen animation he is working on. It surrounds the idea of cyborgs, and focuses on particular body parts of a cyborg. My job is to create some sound design which has essentially three parts: An ambient sound running underneath the whole piece, organic sounds (or sounds of the body), and robotic sounds. What I have done so far is produce a test to get an idea of what Shahid wants it to sound like:

I did this by using raw chicken to create organic sounds, small servo motors to create robotic sounds, and a hugely manipulated sound of an underground train to create the ambient sound. Shahid liked the ambient sound, but said he wanted it louder. He wants the robotic sounds to be less harsh and more steampunk-like, and that the organic sounds should be more subtle. I have an idea of how to do this and spent some time recording things for it in the sound studio.

Secondly, Tom (an animation student) asked me to work on his animation which surrounds the idea of sleep paralysis. I have been working on this project for a while and have done a couple of different sound design tests for it. The first one was very creepy and conceptually was more about how sleep paralysis could make you feel (claustrophobic, trapped, uncertain etc.) and I think that worked quite well:

This was for his initial crit on the idea. Now he is working more towards a progression into that creepiness. So it starts out as pure foley and then works more towards that heavily manipulated and generated sound. For an edit of his animatic, he wanted me to do a bit of sound design for it. It's very rough, and has a long way to go but the pure foley I think is sounding fairly good, I just want to spend a lot longer on the 'inside the dream' side of the work:

Now I have to work towards finalizing what the sound design will be like and cracking on with the work.

Anxiety Dance- The Shoot And Recording Studio

It's been a while since I posted for Anxiety, but the shoot was the Tuesday just gone. It went well, and it was interesting to see a different dancer's response to similar kind of direction as we gave with Parallel last year. I was there for just sound recording though, so I spent most of my day doing other work. However, when it came round to the recording I found I got some really interesting sounds, although the heating was on in the studio at the time and alot of the recordings are noisy, so I do not know how usable the recordings are. I want to try and maintain as much authenticity with the piece as possible, so losing some of those recordings would really make me unhappy.

I've also been in the recording studio recently for other work, but I recorded some sounds for Anxiety too. Laura has told me they want it kind of creepy, slightly uncomfortable to watch. Uneasy, really. So I'm thinking I'll record some foley of branches snapping, moving around etc. and depending on what I do with it I could make the branches seem incredibly menacing.

The next post from me won't be for a while now, not until I am in the edit for anxiety at least.

'13'- Shahid's Project.

Shahid came to me the other day and asked me to work on his three screen installation. I am really looking to expand my skills in sound design for my career as much as I can, so I said yes. So, Shahid told me what his project was about, which is (in terms of sound design) a robotic arm and some organic sounds mixed in there. Shahid showed me some reference material, the opening scene from 'Blade Runner':

He said he wanted something that resembled the rumbling underneath this scene to run through the whole of his piece.

And the arm cutting scene from Terminator II which shows the organic noises he is after:

I mocked up something quite quickly for him, and he said he really like the rumble underneath, and that it was exactly what he was looking for.Which is a good start! He also said he really liked the mix of organic sounds, but that the the robotic noises were too modern and harsh (The video is in the next post) and that when he has more animation I should make it more steampunk like.

Feeling For Sound- Over Christmas Recording

Over Christmas I went and did some recording at my mum's house, and various other locations as part of my site specific sound recording. Also I did some recording in the recording studio at uni for this and various other projects while I was there.

I wanted to record some sort of voiceover to base my piece off, because right now it seems to lack a sense of direction, and I feel as if all I'm doing is researching without taking any action. The voiceover will help me link my memories to my sound design, and hopefully I can build some kind of narrative out of the looping pieces.

Anxiety Dance- Sound Design

Laura approached me over Christmas to ask if I could do the sound design for her and Lauren's dance piece. I said I would need to do a mock up of some sound design, to get an idea of the complexity and the length of time it would take me to complete the work as I'm working on other projects as well.

I asked Laura for her storyboards and some reference material and she linked me to a piece from the Utopia soundtrack that they liked the sound of for me to try and create something similar. As a starting point I tried to pretty much recreate it to an extent in order to get an idea of how it's done and then divert from it according to the rest of the film.



This is what I created quickly:


The whole process took me a couple of hours as I figured out what to start off with and overall I found the process fairly easy. I just took a few organ notes using a virtual instrument using Pro Tools and then played around with the distortion, reverb, and other sounds to end up with what I did. Although I feel like there is too much distortion on the piece, I've got the general jist of it now.