Experimental Sound: Final Comments

After the screening today of my sound piece, I am doing the same here as I am for Time Art, and just giving a few points of reviewing the project.

The main thing about this project that was significant for me was the creative aspect of using solely sound to create an environment. I have never really underestimated the importance of sound, and I've always understood its necessity, however I never saw it as much more than a necessity. There is a bigger creative and more complicated aspect to what you can do with sound than I had ever really thought about, and this project has really opened my eyes to that, and I really enjoyed that process! I am proud of my project, when I got the piece Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, and being able to, for the first time, put all of these odd sounds I had recorded into Audition and come out with something that sounds half decent is a big achievement for me.

Using the recorders also was something I had never done before, and for this project I mostly used a Roland recorder which took a small amount of figuring out, but I definitely got there in the end. At one point I recorded a couple of sounds and listened back to them only to find there was some unwanted gain on there, so playing with settings and modes helped me get the result I wanted, even if it took a bit of time.

If I had to do this project again, I know there are some sounds I would re-record, or spend more time on getting right. For example, the footsteps of the person weren't right for the character I was portraying, the sound of the door as the character entered the diner, and the conversation in the piece stand out to me as things I would definitely do again. My main issue with those sounds was being on limited time to record them, or deciding very late on to record those sounds either again, or for the first time in the case of the conversation. Now that I have a bit more experience in sound design I think my organisation of it would be better in future projects.

The final thing I would like to mention is the use of separately sourced sounds in my sound piece. A few of the sounds I sourced from either YouTube or FreeSound.org and I think it is right to link where I got those sounds from:

Newsreel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj_btks99p4
Car noise: http://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/77096/
Music: Stardust- Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey
Background conversation in diner: http://freesound.org/people/Corsica_S/sounds/165238/
Fabric Movement: http://freesound.org/people/Yuval/sounds/188222/

Audition Skills

Now having completed my experimental sound piece, I just wanted to give a review on the thing I found most difficult and the skills I think I gained the most out of this project.

Being quite familiar with the Adobe package I found it quite easy to pick up the layout and tools in Audition as Adobe layouts regardless of program tend to be very similar. However there were a plethora of effects and tools I could explore and use in my sound. Having learned the majority of the basics in our class tutorials, I tried to stick to those as much as possible so that I had a solid leg to stand on when building my sound. One effect I really had a good time exploring and playing around with was the 'Convolution Reverb' effect:

Using this effect to put my sounds into a space really made a huge difference to my piece, and I spent a lot of time trying different settings and different sliders to see what effects they could give. Mostly I found that changing the room size and the mix sliders were the ones that had the biggest impact on my sounds. Especially when it came to editing my diner sounds together. Changing the room size a lot of the time could help me create a sense of different distances from the point of audition. Although I found I was battling a lot with the reverb already on some of my audio purely because of the place they were recorded in. For example, some of my sounds were recorded in a room which ever so slightly echoed, and it really affected what I could push my sounds to do in the film.

Another thing I found really quite difficult was volume levels of individual sounds:

Since I was trying to create a sense of space, but still wanted the audience to be aware of certain vital sounds, I found myself changing volume levels, then changing them again just to try and get the balance right between the sounds, and make it sound as natural as possible yet highlighting the sounds I felt needed doing so.

Project Development

After my experimental sound review, I did a hell of a lot more work on my sound project with trying to get my story straight as I was going for a narrative based piece. Simon and Joe's comments really helped and I found the elements I included as a result have made the sound overall a better piece.

For starters, Simon commented that I should try and place the piece in a particular time more to allow the audience to put themselves in a time as well as a space. As I know the piece was released just after the attack on Pearl Harbour I tried to place my setting around that time. To do this I put a radio news report playing the reel reporting the attack on Pearl Harbour at the beginning, as well as recording some voices crying and talking about the subject, as if it had just happened.

Also, Joe told me to have a look at films by Woody Allen as he set a lot of films around the American lifestyle, like the one pictured in the painting. After listening to the sounds in that and listening to the sounds of diners and restaurants on YouTube, I recorded some tracks of plates and glasses clattering, and sourced some sounds of people talking to try and create more of an atmosphere in the diner itself. I found this quite difficult as the diner is supposedly set really late in the evening, when not many people would be around. However I still wanted to make it obvious that it was a diner and so I had to play around a lot with the volume of certain sounds within the diner, as well as the amount of sound in the piece at any one time, also varying the distance of the sounds from the point of audition. All of which I think contributed to a better effect.

The final comment I found most helpful was Simon's comment of extending the story. In my original plan, the character I was using to guide the audience through the space arrived at the diner and then the piece ended there. Though, the diner is my primary location and I think Simon was right in saying that the audience needed more time there, almost just to revel in the atmosphere of the place and imagine themselves there. I wanted to keep it simple as well, so I simply created a short conversation between a man and a woman discussing the Pearl Harbour attack reel heard at the beginning of the piece. That way you get a chance to stay with the characters and the place for longer, and it also reinforces what the audience heard earlier regarding the time and place of the sound piece.

Experimental Sound Review

Last Friday I had a progress review of my experimental sound project before Simon and Joe to get some feedback and for them to see where I'm at with the project. After explaining my idea and showing them what I had created so far, it was obvious to me that some of the levels in my project needed changing. The music in my piece is much louder through the speakers in the room we were in than my own at home and so drowned out a lot of the other sounds that I wanted them to hear, which was quite frustrating but at least I know now.

Aside from that the feedback I got was constructive. Simon felt that I needed to place my piece in the time it is set much more, to let the audience know that is where we are. Joe seemed to like the piece and suggested that I look at more sounds that are created in the space of a city at night and a diner like the one in Nighthawks. He told me to dive into the culture of that time and really ram it home to the audience. Both Simon and Joe also agreed that there should be more of the piece set in the diner, and that there could perhaps be some sort of interaction between characters in the space.

Overall I thought it went well, I was aware that I still had a lot of work to do and that there was a lot more to bring to the piece.

Mixing

In yesterday's workshop we learnt about mixing, and compression. A compressor controls the level of our sound to ensure it is under the -10db legal limit. However, this can be problematic as you may be able to hear this being done, which is obviously quite unwanted. For example, the sound in Breaking Bad does this and it can be quite noticeable if you know it's there.

Because of this, we have to be careful with how much we use it and try and get the values right on the individual sounds rather than relying on the master.

Sibilance and EQ

Today's workshop dealt with qualities of sound. I already knew about bass, mid, and treble and this workshop addressed how you can manipulate sound through EQ's to enhance certain areas on that range. For example, mids are vocal tones, so you can enhance voice over or dialogue by using that part more than say, bass (depending on the voice).

Then we looked at reverb, and how reverb helps create space by changing how a sound may reflect off of the environment it's in. Audition has a hell of a lot of options when it comes to creating different reverb, but it also has a lot of presets to start you off with.

Lastly, we looked at how we can get rid of certain noises in Audition. Using waveform mode, we can activate the spectral frequency display, which allows us to 'see' what our sounds look like. From here we can visually get an idea of any bad qualities in our sound, or harsh notes on dialogue such a sibilance created in the treble range.

Track Laying

Our first workshop into Adobe Audition was all about track laying, putting audio into different channels to build up an atmosphere. It was an interesting exercise as you really saw how you go about building up sounds to create an environment when editing audio to video.

In the exercise we were given sounds to work with, and the first 16 seconds of Toy Story 3 to put the sound to, creating that world, that environment. We went through the basics of layouts of audition and editing tools such as the razor tool, and how to produce fade ins and fade outs. I worked on this mostly in class, and then finished it off at home:

This exercise was really useful, and opened my mind up much more into how you can create an environment purely using sound. Even if the sounds individually may not sound quite right, when they are with other sounds or are integrated with images it is clear to me that they can actually sound pretty good. This should help me when it comes to my project to not dismiss recordings too early if I think they aren't great, as I could get something out of them somehow.

Development on Experimental Sound Writing

Following my experimental sound free-writing, I decided to try and develop this scenario and re-write it, but focusing more on what the sounds of the world are like around him.

To do this, I looked up some photos of 40's New York as a kind of reference point:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056415/Stunning-images-1940s-cast-spotlight-New-York-Citys-Radical-Camera.html

Here is my piece:

A light footed man is walking at a leisurely pace, his shoes clacking on the floor from the hard material on the sole. The light squeak suggests new leather, he must be fairly well dressed. The muffled long inhale and relieving exhale as he draws on a cigarette doesn't hide the distant sounds of cars. He passes a building with many people gathered outside, laughing and joking with a dull hum of bright lights from a sign as he passes underneath it. A small sigh as the joy is taken by his greatening distance, and the sudden wind with its high pitched chill.  There is a fumbling of fabric as he attempts to wrap up warm, and his steps quicken. He slows, and an old door squeals as it is opened, with a light ring of a bell to follow. The door thuds closed and he saunters across an even louder surface. A chair scrapes as it is pulled and he slumps onto it, his elbows thud as they hit the wooden edge of a bar. A glass is almost immediately placed before him, followed by the sound of liquid being generously poured in. A long silence followed by a quenched sigh. Relief.

I quite liked this version better, and I can see how I could build up the layers of sound to create my scenario and my surrounding. Now I think I need to build a list of sounds I need and get out there and record some.

Experimental Sound Free Writing

As I have decided to make my experimental sound piece about a lonely place and trying to put the audience in that place. To do this I thought it would be handy to imagine that place and write about it to gain an idea of the sounds associated with that place. I did a little free writing exercise on that just to get the ball rolling which I will then refine and use as a basis for my idea.

Below is a basic list of ideas I thought I gathered from my little free writing piece, and it's something I can build and reflect on as I decide what sounds I'm going to need to make this piece a reality. I might also go out early morning over the weekend and record some sounds of the quiet just to get an idea of the sounds that a quiet, lonely place might entail in a physical reality as well as in my head.

Loneliness in Sound

As a result of knowing the back story behind the painting and having looked at what life was like at the time the painting was created, I decided to focus more on silence in sound and loneliness.

Edward Hopper said himself that the painting was subconsciously representing the loneliness of the city, and I think that is especially the case at that time in America's history. So, I took a listen to John Cage's 4'33" as I knew that it was an orchestrated piece consisting only of silence. I understand that he was attempting to get the audience to listen to their surroundings, and make them aware of the sounds around them. Silence in this way shows to be very effective.

In film also, silence is very effective. Most recently 'Gravity' uses the art of silence to replicate the lack of sound heard in space, only using sounds for dialogue, and when a character comes into contact with an object. Here is an article talking more about it:

https://suite101.com/a/john-cage-433-theories-of-sound-and-silence-a69123

For my piece I want to try and replicate the feeling that Edward Hopper was trying to create when he painted 'Nighthawks' and that is a lonely place. To do this, I want to try and think of a character to carry the piece and write out a descriptive piece of what they see, and what's around them to try and make out what kind of sounds are around them. My aim is to try and create an image of a place in the mind of the audience, but also to try and create a feeling around that place of loneliness, but not complete silence.

Field Recording

Our first recording lesson in experimental sound was very interesting. We learnt a lot about amplitudes, and the different types of microphones and their outputs. The main points I learnt from that part of the lesson were:

• The difference between cardioid, hyper cardioid, omni-directional, and bi-directional.
• That halfing the distance means doubling the gain when recording sound (Similar to the inverse square law)
• The different types of microphones that I will be using for my project, and what they are best suited for.

 In the second part of the lesson we went out in pairs to do some location recording of sounds that we found interesting. I found the exercise really interesting as it made you more aware of how the world around you sounds. Myself and Thomas went to a record shop and Waitrose to records some sounds:




This first one was the recording of the record shop. Tom flicked through some records and CD's, while I recorded him and a music video was playing in the background. I liked this, although I learnt that air was being pushed out to the mic and made a harsh sound as it did so, so I should have placed the mic further away.




This second one was in Waitrose, and I much preferred this one to the last as it gave a real sense of place because the sounds were exactly what you expected them to be. It was obvious the shop was busy, but the recording wasn't taken so loudly that it was over bearing.

Overall I really enjoyed the exercise, it showed me how technical taking a specific sound recording was and so it will help me make decisions based on what I learnt, when I come to do my own experimental sound piece.

Life in 1942.

In my previous post I highlighted that I wanted to find out more about America in 1942 to gain context on the Edward Hopper painting. 

1942 was a dramatic year for America, with lots of things changing due to entering the war in Europe after Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Rations of gas and food were introduced, as well as war bonds, which encouraged American citizens to buy bonds of money to raise more for the war effort.

Hopper already said (as I have mentioned in a previous post) that he felt he was trying to paint the loneliness of a big city, and this may be heavily influenced by the changes at the time. I also feel that looking at the painting shows the emptiness of the city, which may represent the many people that suddenly disappeared from the homeland to join the war effort abroad. Of course, the life at home changed as people were expected to help the war effort on the home front, with an emphasis put on farming and manufacturing weapons and vehicles. 

It seems to me that 1942 was a troubling, and exciting year for Americans at home, and this may have had an effect on the production of this painting. The idea of loneliness in a big place is interesting to me, and I could start exploring that core theme further in sound.

Research Noir

From what I can sense of Nighthawks, it has a very film noir feel to it with what the people are wearing, the setting and the way the light falls. I wanted to see whether that had already been some noir pieces inspired by this painting, but all I could find was a very surreal adaptation of one of his other paintings:

Although it wasn't directly related to my topic, I thought it was useful to post anyway.

Upon researching more about Edward Hopper inspired pieces I remembered the cover from 'in the wee small hours' by Frank Sinatra. This shared a similar style to the Hopper painting, despite being released some time after the creation of Nighthawks.

There is also some speculation that Nighthawks may have gained some inspiration from 'The Night Cafe' by Vincent Van Gogh, based on the exhibition of this painting in conjunction with some of Hopper's own work and its exhibition in a gallery in New York, January 1942. However there is little evidence as of yet that I can find to support that.

Next I think I'd like to look at the time the painting was painted at, to see what life was like in America at that point and gain a bit more understanding of the context of the painting itself.

The Premise Behind the Picture

After doing a little more reading on Nighthawks, I was pleased to find that Hopper had actually provided something of a background on the painting, which makes it easier to analyse. I read in a book I took out of the library called 'Portraits of America' which explores Hopper's work. In it, he said this about Nighthawks:

It was suggested by a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet. I simplified the scene a great deal and made the restaurant bigger. Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.' 

I appreciated this comment he made about his own work, and thought it was very honest. I have noticed after a brief look at what is said about his other works as well, that there seems to be a common bleak theme underneath the picture. People seem to get a sense of sickness, loneliness and death although it is not directly present.

Another thing I read in the book was that Ernest Hemingway was an influence on his piece, due to Hopper's admiration for his work, and in this case especially the short story 'The Killers' which you can find here:

http://www.unz.org/Pub/Scribners-1927mar-00227

This short story is similarly set in a diner, and you can really imagine that short story having taken place in the diner shown in Nighthawks.

Experimental Sound Brief

For this brief we were all given a painting as a starting point to go away and research and use as a base for my project. My first thought was to research the painting, the man behind the painting, and the time that he lived in to gain a full understanding of the painting.

My painting was Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper:

I had a look on a website that presented facts about the painting and the method Hopper takes to this work:

http://totallyhistory.com/nighthawks/

The writer of the article named Hopper as a historian, and that he used painting and drawing as his method for recording history, due to his many works on the state in which he lived in America. I took a look at some of his other paintings as well and I think I agree with that statement:

Gas (1940)

New York Movie (1939)

A few quick notes I made about Nighthawks as my pre-analysis:

• Hopper has a very great consideration of light, and edges in his painting.
• He depicts a night scene at a time when wearing suits and smoking was very fashionable.
• The area surrounding the diner is quite scarce and empty, which I consider odd since nightlife in his home town was surely more populated than that.

Those are my preliminary thoughts for now, though I think I'll do a much more broad search over the next few days.