Video and Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 1: Audio Editing Exercises
LECTURES:
Week 2: Sound Elements
The mixing of sound elements below creates an audio setting that
supports the action and engages the spectators.
1) Speech (Dialogue & Voice over)
- One of the most important tools for understanding the story of the film
- Dialogue: Conversation between characters in movie.
- Voice over: The voice of an unseen narrator speaking.
2) Sound Effects (Ambience & Hard / "cut" effects)
- Ambience: Audio refers to the background noise present at a given scene or a location.
- Hard / "cut" effects: Almost every sound we hear that isn't the dialogue or music (e.g. train sliding door open, foot steps, train moving on tracks)
3) Music
- To enhance the dramatic narrative and the emotional impact.
- Dubbing: Dialog Replacement (ADR), is the process of re-recording dialogue after the filming process to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes
- Foley: Sound effect technique for synchronous effects or live effects (named after Jack Foley)
INSTRUCTIONS:
TASKS
Project 1: Audio Dubbing
Our task is to dub our own voice into the muted version of a clip
from the movie "Soul". Not only that, we are to add in sound effects
such as leaves rustling, street ambience and also people
laughing.
In the short clip provided, there are two main characters, Joe and
the cat. To sound more like the two characters, we had to change the
pitch of our voices by going into Audio Effects, Pitch Shifter and
changing the semitones.
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| Fig. 1.1 Changing to a lower pitch for Joe's character |
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Fig. 1.2 Changing to a higher pitch for the cat
character |
After I was done with the dialogues of the characters, I went
onto YouTube to look for the necessary sound effects like the
leaves rustling and street ambience that suits the current scene.
Since the original sound effects were quite loud, I had to lower
the volume so that the dialogues can still be heard.
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Fig. 1.3 Adding sound effects
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After adding and matching all the necessary audios and sound
effects, I replayed it a few more times to check the volume of each
audio. Once I was satisfied, I then exported it as media.
Fig. 1.4 First Draft Audio Dubbing Soul Video
In Week 4, we had a review of our audio dub work and some of our
classmates showed theirs in class. Our lecturer gave us some advice
and tips on how to make our dubbing better, such as the ambience
tracks we have to include, the hard sound effects and how to adjust
the volume of our dialogues and sound effects.
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Fig. 1.5 Readjusting volume and pitch
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With that, I went back and readjusted the volume of my dialogue so
that they stay between 0 to -6 and I also tweaked the semitones of
the pitch so that the man's voice sounds deeper. I also added a
"stepping on concrete" hard sound effect for the little girl jumping
in the video and also an additional street talking ambience as
well.
Fig. 1.6 Final Audio Dubbing Soul Video
Exercise 1: Sound Shaping
In Week 9, we were required to watch a recording and use Adobe
Audition to edit the audio clip given. We were required to use
the parametric equalizer and also reverb to make the audio sound
different such as on a phone call, in a closet, in a big
stadium, in an underground cave and also in the bathroom
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1. On a Phone Call
For this first one, I referred to the demo video and used the
audio provided in the Google Drive. It was quite
straightforward and the effect is easy to achieve just by
adjusting the parametric equalizer.
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| Fig. 2.1 Adjusting parametric equalizer |
2. In a Big Stadium
I used a full reverb and played with the parametric equalizer to give an empty arena kind of feel. There is a very slight echo and it overall feels like someone speaking in a large empty space.
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3. In a closet
I also followed the demo for the one and it was quite straightforward as well. It sounds muffled as though someone is covering their mouth while speaking.
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| Fig. 2.3 Adjusting parametric equalizer |
4. In an underground cave
This one was a bit of a challenge because at one point it sounded quite similar to the big stadium. I tried to muffle the voice a little bit as well and also increased the density of the sound so that the slight echo sounds more obvious.
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| Fig. 2.4 Adjusting parametric equalizer and reverb |
5. In the bathroom
Lastly, for the bathroom, I used the room ambience preset because it already sounds quite similar to the voice you will hear in a bathroom. I then adjusted it a little more until I was satisfied with it.
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| Fig. 2.5 Adjusting room ambience reverb |
Exercise 2: Sound Design
For this week, we were required to watch the
recording of the exercise and try it out ourselves
on Adobe Audition. It was my first time using
Adobe Audition, so I was afraid that it would be
really complicated and new to me and it would take
me a lot of time to learn. But thanks to the
recording, it was quite easy to follow
step-by-step.
1. Explosion Magnification
For this one, I followed the demo and also played
around with the reverb and stretch until I was
satisfied.
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| Fig. 3.1 Explosion Magnification- parametric equaliser |
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| Fig. 3.2 Explosion Magnification- Layering |
Explosion Audio File:
2. Triple Punches
I was imagining a fight scene from video games
for this one and tried to add an echo effect in
the last punch to make it seem more dramatic with
those isolated backgrounds to highlight the
character.
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| Fig. 3.3 Triple punches- pitch shifter and stretching |
Triple Punches Audio File:
3. Alien Voice
For the third one, I played around with the
phaser and flanger as suggested in the demo video.
I was not really familiar with the terms and
controls at first, so I had to really try out
every control until I find that it is sounding
more like an alien.
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| Fig. 3.4 Alien voice- parametric equaliser |
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| Fig. 3.5 Alien voice- pitch, phaser and flanger |
FEEDBACKS
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REFLECTION
I have always wanted to try audio dubbing once in my lifetime, but
I never expected it would be for an assignment. I have often seen
behind the scenes of voice actors and I always find them very
impressive because they have so much character in their voices. For
this assignment, I was really excited to audio dub, especially also
because I am a big fan of animations and Soul was one of the
animations I had watched before. It was also really fascinating to
be able to tweak the pitch of our voices to suit the characters that
are speaking. We also had to find some street sound effects and
ambience so that the audio matches what the video is showing.
Overall, it was a really fun project and I enjoyed immersing myself
into the characters to bring out their dialogues with
enthusiasm.
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