Sonic design / Exercises

The outer ear: The external, visible portion of the ear and the ear canal.
The middle ear: The paper-thin eardrum and a small air-filled cavity containing 3 tiny bones (malleus, incus, and stapes)
The inner ear: the cochlea (hearing canal), endolymphatic sac, and semicircular canals.

Psychoacoustics

The study of How sound effects our hearing and perception.

Amplitude: the power of a wave signal

Frequency: the number of times the wavelength occurs in one second. The faster the sound source vibrates, the higher the frequency.

6 properties of sound

Pitch

vibration per second = frequency
less vibration, low pitch, low frequency
The range of human hearing is between 20Hz to 20kHz

Loudness (amplitude)
Timbre (quality of sound)
Perceived duration (how long)
Envelope (the shape of the amplitude of the sound over time)
Spatialization (location of the sound source)

Reflection

This introduction to the nature of sound reminded me of the time I learnt about human biology and added a slight touch of physics, such as amplitude, frequency, and the ear canal. I learnt about the word psychoacoustics, which sounded like a really complicated word but actually isn't at all, it turns out to just be about how sound affects our hearing and perception. It is also fascinating how there are specific names that we don't hear very often in the properties like Timbre, which is the quality of sound, and envelope, which is the shape of the amplitude.

Overall, I think this is a great starting lesson for my sonic design class and made me slightly more prepared for the upcoming classes.

Week 02 (29/04/25):

Layering

'Layering is taking 2 or more sounds and placing them on top of each other. Most of the professionally designed sounds are layered.

Time Stretching

The ability to take a sound that plays at a certain length and sonically stretch the audio within set parameters without changing the pitch. It can change the pacing but not the pitch.

Pitch Shifting

Pitch shifting is the ability to change the pitch of the sound without changing its actual length.
Shifting the pitch higher will make the sound thinner, smaller, and higher-pitched (e.g, Chipmunk sound)

Reversing

Reversing an audio can give a weird and unnatural sound.

Mouth it

Vocalization is an important tool of sound design. Our voice is very flexible, and you'll be surprised by the kind of sound you can create with it.
Sound design is about exploring and experimenting, and sometimes the best sound happened accidentally.

Reflection:

For this weeks lesson, I learnt the specific words and their meanings, some of the words are self explainatory like reversing and layering but words like mouth it and time stretching is a bit more specific and unheard of for me personally.

Week 03 (05/05/25):

Diegesis: The world of the film and everything in it.

'These are either off-screen sounds that belong to the diegesis, like unseen birds chirping in a forest scene' or 'non-diegetic sounds that the characters can't hear because they appear outside the world of the film like background music'

Where the source of the sound is visible on screen.

Diegetic Sounds

Is what the characters can hear.
If there is a narration of the character's thought,s it is considered internal dietetic sounds
There can be suspense if the audience can hear a sound but can't see it.

Non-Diegetic Sounds

Everything a character cannot hear.
The narrator does not play a role in the film.

Trans-diegetic

When something we assume is non-diegetic suddenly appears to be diegetic.
when something we assume is dietetic suddenly becomes non-diegetic.

Creative axceptions

Moments that do not fit in any category.

Reflection:

This week, I learned about diegetic, non-diegetic, and trans-diegetic sounds, as well as creative exceptions in film sound design. This topic is quite simple in my opinion, where diegetic is just what the characters can hear, and non-diegetic is what the characters cannot hear. I do appreciate the wide variety of examples shown in the video; it helps me understand the different variations of diegetic and non-diegetic. However, the interesting part of the lecture was how there are more than just the 2, there is also trans and creative acceptance. It's so interesting how diegetic can turn into non-diegetic, and I have seen many movies with this, but I never actually paid attention till today. I feel like I could perceive movies slightly differently now. I did get confused on creative exception because I didn't understand how any could not fit into any category.

INTRODUCTION

Figure 1.3

MIB (21/04/25)

Exercise 1: Equalizer

Figure 1.4

Parametric Equalizer (22/04/25)

Figure 1.5

exclusive function (22/04/25)

Equalizer 1

Figure 1.6

Equalizer 1 (22/04/25)

Equalizer 2

Figure 1.7

Equalizer 2 (22/04/25)

Equalizer 3

Figure 1.8

Equalizer 3 (22/04/25)

Equalizer 4

Figure 1.9

Equalizer 4 (22/04/25)

Exercise 2: Sound Shaping

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fWASGXPC3a-I7pIimibqu1-GnRoF2A_d?usp=sharing

Telephone

Figure 2.1

Telephone (30/04/25)

Figure 2.2

Telephone Audio Export (30/04/25)

In the closet

Figure 2.3

Talking in the Closet (30/04/25)

Figure 2.4

Talking in the Closet audio export (30/04/25)

Walkie talkie

Figure 2.5

walkie talkie (30/04/25)

Figure 2.6

Walkie Talkie audio export (30/04/25)

Notes:

decay time - How long till a sound fades out / sound travels further in a bigger space.

perception - example: announcement at an airport

Dry and wet - how much effect do you want to apply (wet sounds more like in a bathroom)

Bathroom

Figure 2.7

Equalizer (02/05/25)

Figure 2.8

Reverb (02/05/25)

Figure 2.9

Bathroom Audio Export (02/05/25)

Airport announcement

Figure 3.1

Equalizer (02/05/25)

Figure 3.2

Reverb (02/05/25)

Figure 3.3

Airport Audio Export (02/05/25)

Stadium Announcement

Figure 3.4

Equalizer (02/05/25)

Figure 3.5

Reverb (02/05/25)

Figure 3.6

Stadium Audio Export (02/05/25)

Exercise 3: Sound In Space

The sound is walking away from you but as it gets further, they walk into a cave

Figure 3.7

Equalizer (08/05/25)

Figure 3.7

Adjustments (08/05/25)

Figure 3.8

Audio Export(08/05/25)

Figure 3.9

first image(08/05/25)

Figure 3.9

first image sound effects(10/05/25)

Figure 4.1

Layering(17/05/25)

Figure 4.2

Paramatic equalizer and reverb(17/05/25)

Figure 4.3

Adding volume points(17/05/25)

Figure 4.4

audio export(image 1)(17/05/25)

Figure 4.5

Second image(08/05/25)

Figure 4.6

Second image sound effects(10/05/25)

Figure 4.7

Layering (17/05/25)

Figure 4.8

Reverb and Parametic Equalizer(17/05/25)

Figure 4.9

Volume(17/05/25)

Figure 5.1

Audio export (Image 2)(17/05/25)

Exercise 4

Sample voice - 1. monster 2. alien

Select a sample from the waveform where there is no speaking and click the noise reduction process. After you can select the whole waveform (Ctrl+A) and click noise reduction again to adjust the reduction.

For any clipping or any voice that isn't supposed to be there, you can just reduce the dB.

Dynamic

Threshold - at 0 means the loudest, nothing is passing through the gate. You lower and lower until you hear the breathing, then after you hear the breathing, you slowly bring it back up
Release - how fast you want to close the gate.
hold - when it starts to open, how long you want it to stay open. (If you put it too slow, sometimes the noise will spill over)
After everything, you can switch on the compressor, which makes the audio sound more balanced.
Ratio: Determines how much compression is applied. A 4:1 ratio means that for every 4 dB over the threshold, the output increases by only 1 dB.
Attack: How quickly the compressor responds once the audio exceeds the threshold. Short attacks catch fast peaks; longer ones let transients through.
Release: How quickly the compressor stops affecting the audio once it falls below the threshold.
Output Gain (Make-up Gain): Boosts the final output to compensate for volume lost during compression.

In noodles (S) is too much, to fix this.

rack effect - DeEsser

REFLECTION

These exercises were very helpful in helping me build my foundation of using Adobe Audition. I had a class in the previous semester, where I used this software and was still very confused after completing the module; however, this module is helping me understand the software a lot better than before. It is very interesting learning about the ways you can shape sound yourself and make it sound like it's coming from inside a closet or from very far away. It's also cool to learn about functions like decay and dry/wet in sonic design. Sir also helped by giving us feedback in every class and giving us suggestions for our designs to improve, or having multiple options and opinions. Overall, I believe that these exercises will help me tremendously in my upcoming projects and assignments.

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Isabel Tan Xen Wern (0355602)