Sound Design & Film Scoring
After successfully completing my Ironhack Berlin UX Bootcamp I am taking some time to work on my second area of interest, which is in turn compatible with UX as well. Thinking of wholistic experiences in new apps, in a restaurant or even the cinema I always think of an atmosphere mostly triggered by sound.
Using sound to create meaning
Sound helps to alleviate and elevate the experience adding a third perceptual layer besides haptic and visual feedback. It carries subconscious meaning of the immediate action for example opening a link, sending a message or even an error message of a failed attempt. Every action can be underlined and even build a significant recognition with that particular feeling of accomplishment or relief.
Furthermore from its direct functional use, sound can be a unique human trigger in the form of telling a story rather than just showing it. Whether it’s to empathise a deep feeling of relaxation, a sudden impulse of excitement or a longing remembrance of nostalgia, sound and especially music can inform the user in a very personal and empathetical way. On the other hand, done wrong the experience can turn annoying and obtrusive and in the worst case scare new users away altogether.
Human Hearing
Our sonic human hearing spectrum of 20 to 20k Hz equals perceivable low to high oscillating sound waves forming tones and compositionally intertwined result in rhythms, melodies, harmonies and timbre.
While music serves many purposes it is also a representation of heritage, culture, emotion and even social change. — Think enharmonic 1800s classical music, early 1900s free jazz, 70/80s punk rock and even techno and electronic music today.
The timely representation of the current Zeitgeist is undeniably identifiable in current music releases and will be a future time capsule of our current experience, struggle and hope for the next steps of the 21st century.
Apart from our cultural and social meaning of music, sound in its rudimental form carries information about potential danger, helps us navigate the world and communicate with one another. Other species do so too such as whales, elephants, gorillas and insects sometimes reaching far lower frequencies than 20 Hz (ultrasound) or above 20k Hz (infrasound).
Fashion Film: Paola & Elmar
Before we get too technical I simply want to demonstrate a project that I have been working on with my brother recently. Combining both musical and sound effects we created meaning to an artistic trailer as well as a video interview series.
- The task was to write a film score and create sound effects that would suit the visual narrative and flashes that can be seen in the original video. It is to say the theme was aimed at a commercial yet creative audience.
Have a look at the original video without music or SFX only including the narrating voices below:
Initially our goal was to create a new score from scratch going towards an edgy sound representing the passion and mystery of the video. I started digging into whisper samples, noises and also recorded some e-guitar which we later used for effects and abstract musical progression.
We then calibrated the sound after receiving a second brief that was communicated by the Director Arthur Valverde doing a re-edit of the song Else - Paris. We only found the track shortly after the project but it was reassuring to have chosen the correct A♭minor key.
His idea was to reuse the melody of the original track as it has this very recognisable “commercial” melody and add our own sound effects, drums and rhythms in Ableton Live.
The melodies were played by using digital plug-ins emulating horns and brass instruments running through automated filters opening and closing according to the visuals as well as some multi-band compression and side-chain from the kick for a pulsating feel.
Tension is kept high with 3 string channels adding lows, highs and an eerie overtone that slowly expands and closes just before the final moment.
By using glitch effects, reversed samples of swooshes and orchestral sounds we achieved a great deal of SFX bundling them anywhere from single channels to up to 8 at the same time. We also sent them through various effect chains including erosion, corpus, flanger, delay, reverb to accomplish even more abstraction and unique tones.
Finally due to the many elements and more than 70 channels we EQed channels and ran the groups through a stereo bus to compress the mids and side-chain the voices in order to leave more space and duck the noises for a clearer narration.
You can listen to the end result below:
Key Learnings & Conclusion
This project included a huge learning curve coming from more dance orientated music production diving into cinematic music and sound design. Due to many needed effects and the specific timing of the music to the video, it taught us to be very specific and leave the right amount of space for unique elements along the frequency spectrum.
The project has also taught us to experiment but not loose track of the end result building useful tool, effect chains and recording SFX for later use again.
Finally I am still very convinced of our first draft of the soundtrack and we are looking to re-use the building elements and some parts of the composition in one of our future projects or own productions. This adds onto our toolbox of sounds and allows to increase the speed of our production.
If you want to stay in the loop of our music you can follow us on Soundcloud here and find our label Artefax Movement here
Thanks you for taking the time to read and listen to our progress. Now we want to hear your thoughts, do you think we should continue our first version?
