Sonic Design / Task 3

30/5/2023 - 18/6/2023 / Week 9 - Week 11
Nurul Adlina Rizal / 0345429 / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Sonic Design
Task 3: Audio Storytelling

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JUMPLINKS

Lectures

Instructions

Feedbacks

Reflections

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LECTURES

Week 9:

Noise Reduction

effects > Noise reduction > Capture noise print

select all > Noise reduction > noise reduction process (can also manipulate the graph points)

Adaptive Noise Reduction

Noise Floor = what the noise is capped at in dB

last two are if the audio sounds weird

Compressor > Amplitude > Dynamics

• use Compressor
• threshold = what is the max audio we want to get
• Ratio: Every one decibel, how much you want to reduce ex: 2:9
• Attack: How fast do u want it to turn it down or up
• Makeup: to make it louder (increase the dB throughout from the compressed)

Reduce all the really high (spikey parts) then you can compress & automation

Autogate

lets in what u want and stops what you don’t want

for example increase the threshold to remove lip smacking or breathing

Hard Limiter

(to increase the dB but make sure it doesn’t reach to high)

don’t make it too boxy, we still want to see natural waves

-narration, dialogue and sound effects (where its necessary)

• dont have the same music throughout (happens where is necessary)

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INSTRUCTIONS

Task 3

For Task 3, we were tasked to choose one popular fairy-tale story of choice and create an audiobook. With that, I wanted to choose the fairy-tale story from Mulan.

To find storytelling narration for the story I looked it up on Youtube and found many different variations of Mulan's story read-along. 

The one I chose was this: 

Fig 1.0: Walt Disney Pictures Presents Mulan - Audio Read Aloud 

Bedtime Storybook for Kids (5/6/2023)

The story was from Disney Story Central so I did not have to be worried about how accurate the story is to the original. Other than that, I chose Mulan due to the references I can take from watching the movie. 

Chosen Scene

I chose the beginning up to when she leaves to take her place as her Father. 

Full Narration

Like a powerful dragon, the Great Wall of China winds its way across the land. It protects the country’s farmland and villages, its family temples, and the miles of bright-green rice paddies. All along the wall, soldiers stand guard. They don’t suspect that this great barrier is about to be crossed by an army of Huns led by the ferocious Shan-Yu.

One afternoon, a young woman named Mulan sadly returned from the village. Making a good marriage was the way a young Chinese woman brought honor to her family, but Mulan’s meeting with the Matchmaker that morning had ended in disaster.

Her father, Fa Zhou, sat with her. With kind, loving words he assured his daughter that she, like the late-blooming blossom that proves to be the most beautiful of all, would being honor to the family in her own time.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Suddenly, a loud drum summoned everyone out of their homes. “The Huns have invaded China!” a messenger announce. “One man from each family must serve in the Imperial Army.”

When the Fa family was called, Fa Zhou handed his cane to his wife and stepped forward.

“No, Father!” cried Mulan. She knew her father was as brave as he had been in his youth, but he was no longer strong. He would never survive a war.

It rained hard that night. Mulan went to the family temple, lit incense, and prayed to her Ancestors. She made her decision. “I will take Father’s place,” she said. Mulan took Fa Zhou’s sword and cut her hair short. Then she put on his armor. Disguised as a man, she rode her horse, Khan, into the storm.

Audio Recording

I used my dad's condenser microphone and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio for the audio recording. 

Fig 1.1: Microphone & Focusrite (5/6/2023)

I have used it before so it was not very hard to set up and use along with Adobe Audition. I was worried it would not be compatible with Adobe Audition but it went well. 

I used Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 Studio for not only high-quality audio but also as an audio interface that lets me connect to my XLR microphone. It lets me hear myself when I record and the surrounding sounds that could disrupt my recording process. I had to take a total of 7 takes due to my cats and my dad being noisy around me. Sadly, I do not have my own studio since my home is very small but I recorded at night to risk any other distracting noises. 

With that, there were only 3 audio recordings that I saved. Two of them were readings of the full scene and another was to rerecord one paragraph because I kept stuttering or struggling with a word. 

Fig 1.2: 3 Takes in Adobe Audition (5/6/2023)

Audio Editing

Voice over

I edited the voiceover first because I needed to do noise reduction and remove any lip-smacking or mouth sounds. Basically, make the audio very clear. For noise reduction, I captured a noise print for all voice recordings and reduced the noise. I also used Autogate to cut off any noise under the chosen decibels. I also used Compressor and Hard Limiter.

For the male voice, I had a difficult time making it sound right. I believed it was due to my poor voice acting and attempt at a male voice so I watched the original Mulan movie to understand the announcer's character better. I practiced copying his voice and only managed to record it with my voice. Therefore, there is a slight audio quality drop during the male voice lines. 

Fig 1.3: Voiceover (18/6/2023)

Then, it came to adding music and sound effects to make a more immersive storytelling experience. I separated the sounds into four scenes so it was easier for me to find sounds as well as organize them better in my multitrack. 

Sound Sources 

Fig 1.4: Task 3 Sound Sources (18/6/2023)

As you can see, the music used is from the movie itself which was composed by Jerry Goldsmith. For the sound effects, I listed down the sounds I wanted to have from each scene and searched for each of them on freesound.org

I started with adding the music first, I wanted them to be heard in the background but not too overpowering. I also didn't want it to overpower the sound effects too so I created a bus track where I can better control the volume of them all.

Fig 1.5: Music on Multitrack (18/6/2023)

Then, I moved on to the sound effects. Most of the sound effects require minimal audio shaping. In Scene 1 and Scene 2, I only had to adjust the volume so that it was loud enough to be heard over the music but not too loud that it is louder than the narration. As seen in most of my audio editing, I made sure all the sounds other than the narration are much softer. I also did some panning on the walking at the start to make it feel like the guard is walking across the screen. I wanted to add flag sounds but I could not find the perfect sound so I left it out of the final. 

Fig 1.6: Scene 1 and Scene 2 in Multitrack (18/6/2023)

For Scene 3, I layered three horse running/galloping noises to show that many horses run into the village to make a big announcement just like in the movie. I created a bus track for the horses galloping to make it easier to control the volume. Then added walking noises to show her father accepting his responsibility. 

Fig 1.7: Scene 3 in Multitrack (18/6/2023)

For Scene 4, I layered thunderstorms and rain sounds to create a chaotic night where Mulan makes her big decision. I referenced the movie in terms of where to time the thunderstorms. From the movie, they placed it in the most impactful moments, the moment she decides and the moment she leaves. I followed that formula and added some lighter thunderstorms to create a better atmosphere. Other than that, I layered horse galloping and water splashing sounds since the horse will be running through muddy puddles. 

Fig 1.8: Scene 4 in Multitrack (18/6/2023)

Fig 1.9: Scene 4 in Mulitrack (18/6/2023)

Final

Google Drive: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1t1uG7GuGfMGzLOykyBJa4eMKQSoQ0DaQ

Audio

Fig 2.0: Task 3 Final Audio (18/6/2023)

Video

Fig 2.1: Task 3 Final Video (18/6/2023)

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FEEDBACKS

Week 9

General Feedback: Make sure to have images. You can use a story from a book just make sure it's a fairytale or folklore. 

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REFLECTIONS

My experience creating this project was very pleasant. I get to reconnect with my childhood by looking at old fairytales and stories. I get to share them with my younger sister too so I felt even more connected to the younger generation. Other than that, it was pleasant because I get to use the skills I acquired and sharpened from Task 2 and use for a storytelling form. Not only do I get to work with sound effects again I also get to edit my own voice. It was not too weird for me because I am used to listening to my own voice but learning about noise reduction and compressors to reduce any background noise or unwanted sounds really opened my eyes to what sound design can do to increase the quality of your content. Knowing how to edit my voice made me be more confident that I can create quality content with quality audio in the future. My strength in this project lies on organizing my work process and doing things step by step. I did not rush myself to do everything at once especially when I cut my audio into four different scenes. I started with the audio recording process and moved on to the next. It helped me better structure my audio. My weakness lies in voice acting and voice shaping. It was really hard for me to get the male voice lines correct using my own voice. I did not know how deep my voice should go despite having a pretty deep voice for a woman. Nonetheless, I conquered this by practicing. I also conquered my problem of reaching the max dB all the time. I got used to limiting it to -3dB throughout my work process. In conclusion, this was a fun project to do and I learned a lot about editing voices and pairing them up with music and sound effects to create a more immersive story.