Thursday 13th November - Sound Design Tech Intro

After learning the importance of sound artistically and the basics of how to utilise it to create a successful piece, we began studying the technology behind recording sound properly. We discussed various microphone types, such as clip-on and boom mics, and the different polar patterns commonly used in mics. After that, we looked at common recording problems, such as clipping or muddy, overly bassy sound, and how to avoid the pitfalls that cause these issues. As someone with little experience in using microphones and other sound technology, this lesson was extremely helpful in assuaging some of my worries about this project and teaching me how to best go about recording sound clearly and effectively.

After this, we spoke about how sound can be manipulated to produce an artistic effect, such as layering sounds on top of each other to create new and different sounds. This was a subject I knew about previously, thanks to my interest in films like Star Wars and Jurassic Park; the dinosaur roars in the latter were created by mixing and overlaying several different animal roars, including lion and elephant sounds. Many lightsabers in Star Wars have unique activation and sustained noises, some of which were created by vibrating springs and vacuums. 

Darth Maul's lightsaber, from The Phantom Menace, makes a distinct hissing sound upon activation. 

The final portion of the lesson was devoted to using the recorders provided to try our hands at recording some sounds of a reasonable quality. I experimented with some impact sounds in various places, recording at various distances, and found that the elevator was the environment with the least background noise - unsurprising, seeing as it was an enclosed space isolated from other people. This exercise was useful in familiarising myself with the equipment we were using, and allowed me to start thinking about what would be feasible to record by hand for a sound journey.