Research/Investigation into fields of sound design

Question

Hey guys,

I have the opportunity to do a project in my final year of my Music Technology course focusing on whatever I like. Given that I'm pursuing a career in sound design (never have guessed huh), I proposed the idea of redoing the audio for a selection of movie or games trailers (as a great way to gain experience in sound design and prepare a showreel for life after Uni).

My supervisor agreed this was a good idea, but pointed out that since there's a 5000 word report included, that a basic "I recorded this sound with this mic" report would get pretty dull and result in a bad mark. Instead he suggested adding a more investigative element to the audio reskins, e.g. testing methods of synthesis or programs like Max/MSP vs location recording for some elements of the project.

I have been searching my brain for a good topic on which to focus my project including this investigative aspect, but nothing with a solid structured approach is coming to mind.

So I ask this of the sound design community here, are there any burning issues or techniques in sound design which remain relatively unexplored? Short of doing the same trailers once with recordings and once with synthesis (which I'm not sure would even work that well), I'm coming up short for ideas here.

Cheers guys!

Answer 1

Sound design is different from the other creative crafts in that the technology we use doesn't impact the audience as directly as, say, visual effects does. We're more akin to the picture side of things, where what we may labor on for weeks or months can pass the viewer by without notice - because it was meant to be that way. So any burning issues would be more for our own benefit, for example, less delay when using real-time plug-ins, more available voices and tracks from our workstations, better pitch shifting algorithms, etc. Of course there other more marketable technological advances that have been tossed about from time to time, like focused sound (one such idea is being used by the military but has commercial applications as well) and binaural sound that could be used in a large venue without the need for headphones.

Those thoughts aside, here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head:

• Design sound for an older movie scene/trailer using new sounds recorded at the highest bitrate and sample rate available (most likely 24bit/192kHz), then using some creative pitch shifting and/or other processing, discuss why this newer technology allows you more creativity and makes the end result "better".
• Using a wide selection of microphones and recorders, design sound for a scene/trailer forgoing any processing and discuss how the nature of each piece of gear lent itself to a specific application. For example, an SM57 feeding into an analog Nagra may be better suited to a gunshot sound effect than, say, a Sennheiser 416 feeding into a Zoom H4n.

Of course there are an infinite number of scenes you could dissect and discuss from a story point-of-view, analyzing how the sound design relates to the mood of the characters, the tension of the scene, etc. But I don't believe this would be appropriate for your Music Technology field of study.

I'll keep thinking and try to contribute more later. Best of luck --

Answer 2

Perhaps you could take the synthetic vs natural theme to the extreme and fully design two versions of the same trailer, one per method. I'm far from these veterans (in fact I'm in the same boat as you as I'm completing my thesis this year) so I don't know what topic's really simmering. However, this relationship between digital/synthetic and analog/natural fascinates me, so I'd definitely recommend exploring that.

Out of curiosity, where are you studying Music Technology?

~Cheers Miles Baird

Answer 3

How about writing on the psychological aspect of sound? Talking about the way the sonic characteristics can affect a listeners mood, state of mind, or can rekindle memories and feelings.

To me, it's fascinating how blend of picture and sound can affect moods and feelings in an audience. On top of that, how it's done with out the audience even knowing it.

So as an example: Whether you used a recorded sound or a synthisized sound, elaborate on why you chose one over the other to affect an emotion out of your audience. Then discuss on how you where able to apply it to the picture and not have it stand out, but feel natural to what the audience is seeing.

It may be a bit vague, and hard to pinpoint, since everyone reacts a little differently to what they see and hear. Sounds serve the picture, the picture serves the audience.

Best of luck on your final project!

Answer 4

Expanding slightyl on Audity's suggestion, you could design two pieces using the same visual: one that evokes a specific emotion or feeling within the audience and another that evokes completely different emotions or feelings. Tragic vs joyeous, triumphant vs defeated etc. For your report this could bring in the posibility to address the effects different types of sounds have on the emotional impact.

Answer 5

this has helped me SO much guys, thanks! I'm doing the same for my final project at uni right now and site is well useful!

Answer 6

Use max or other do research wave field synthesis on your computadora.