Sound Module: A Day in the Life

I commented on Trapped, Morewood Intersection, Sound recording Journal EDITED

It is a really interesting cut! The transition between cuts are very nice! It really tells the story of the chilli sale as what you described. I can even visualize it when I listen to it. The foreground voice tells us whether you guys are still passionate about the sale or not. And the background sounds like people walking away explains why you became indifferent about the sale at last.

It sounds really cute, I really like how you put the dog's sound as the end. It sounds like the dog finally respond you of your question "Is this food?". The repetition of your questions and the walking sound make this piece very rhythmic!

Both of you are right! My limits with mixing are pretty plain to see here, and I'll definitely be spending more time on that in the future. That said, the stated goal for this was just as a condensed version of the tabling - an advertisement for the event. Volume levels were inexpertly adjusted using the levels tool, but I also need some work there too.

I definitely see your intent, and the piece was certainly funny. However, I agree with Jeremy in that not too much mixing seemed to be happening, though I could tell that there were subtle changes in volume. I'm not entirely sure whether the differences in volume were because of you manually changing it or because of the KGB members naturally speaking at different volumes in real time while tabling.

I like that you used the effects available in audacity to remove any unnecessary background noise. I expected you to ensure that the voices were the only sounds in the foreground, but around the middle of the piece, nobody was speaking so the sound of clacking high heels, coughs, and shuffling became the foreground noise rather than just the ambient chatter in the back. I really liked your story-- it was interesting, though expected, that you went from being sales people to discussing something entirely different amongst yourselves. It makes me wonder how long you were selling food before you reached the point of ambivalence towards the end in real time.

The foreground/background technique is very apparent, especially in the beginning when the man's voice is the first thing to draw the listener's attention. When the man and woman are speaking throughout the piece the brain still gravitates to the speaking voices but the background noise is slightly more apparent. At the end, you make the contrast even more noticeable as the background seems to drop to a much lower volume.

Thanks for the reminder! I was probably working with flow/continuity and articulation the most. I wanted there to be some sort of pattern in the piece before challenging any preconceived notions of what the rest of the piece would be like by pausing then changing the beat, or pausing then returning to natural sounds.

Compared to the original audio, this one does make the student's voice less overpowering, and the listener can clearly tell that the professor's voice is the foreground and the most important sound. I feel that you amplify the sound of the professor, and did you eliminate the voice in the background? Because it is pretty amazing that there is not much noise in your piece. Also, I agree with Amal that maybe you should talk a bit more about point of view and creation.

You had the sounds build off of each other really well, starting with the more quiet sound in the beginning, then with the louder "beep boops" and the car driving. I also liked how you brought back the "beep boop" sounds in the end, which made if flow well. I agree with Amanda, though, that I think if you were trying to replicate a car running a red like you might want to make the sounds build even faster in order to make it more dramatic.

I liked the softness of this sound a lot. It is interesting the little things that pop out at you and you hear better when the rest of the sound is so low and soft. I especially liked the quiet rustling of leaves that seemed to be there throughout. It's really cool that you can take such a loud, busy, wind-filled sound and filter it out into something like this.

Your piece is really rhythmic, and you worked together each beat from your recorded sounds very well. I also really liked how your alternated the pitch of the car horn in the end, and brought back a sound that you had used earlier in the piece. One thing that might be interested to hear would be how the sounds all work when layered on top of each other, especially if the sound built up at the end. It might make it sound even more "trapping."

The loops throughout the piece adds a very interesting touch to the piece. The conversations and laughter make the foreground and background distinctions clear. This was very cool to listen to

The beginning with the laughter was an interesting touch! You captured the emotions of the people around you perfectly with the loops and repetition. That one prominent laughter in the middle of the composition was very abrupt, but interesting in its own way. It was fun listening to this!

This was very interesting to listen to. The sounds were very rhythmic and the squeaking of the toy adds a very playful element to the composition.

The wind is nice, its what you hear if you just walked through a park or another quiet place on a windy day, but I think it got a little stale. There probably wasn't much you could do about that though if your recording was mostly wind in the first place, so I don't think that's really your fault.

This definitely sounds like what I would hear if I sat outside Doherty where people were tabling for a few minutes, so you're definitely capturing that but I don't really hear a lot of mixing or interaction going on, it literally sounds like I sat outside Doherty for a minute while KGB was tabling.

Yeah this is a pretty good beat, I heard first hand how nothing happens in the library and ran into a problem where I didn't have much to work with, but you definitely took a different approach to it than I did.

Thanks all, though regarding the "wind" noise, I think its actually the frying pan sizzling as this was recorded completely indoors and around the food court. But I do agree it might be a little overpowering.

This is an incredible example of minimalism at its finest. The original recording was probably a bit tricky to make a "story" from, so I like the way you use the loops and repeats to accentuate certain sounds. The one critique I would suggest is to concern yourself with the background wind noise - it seems to overpower some of your other desired sounds on the mic. I'm not really sure what post-processing options you have available to you though, so that might just be an unfixable issue at the moment. Still, this is a really nice piece!

This is a nice edit that provides a nice summary of your class! The sort of thing you might see in a video recap of whatever you are watching. I would like to see a bit more detail in your creation and point of view, but I think the creation itself is a strong start.

I listened to the opening and I knew this was a winner. Amazing job using the sounds! This reminds me of a lot of the remixes of other sounds, like the Windows error messages. I also like how you describe the creation. I think you could be a little more explicit about your point of view, but I think it's pretty clear what you're going for when you hear the piece.

The banging was someone's door closing in the hallway. I dropped the pitch, slowed the tempo, and added some reverb to it. The noise that sounds like its getting louder then softer is the Doppler effect from a bus driving down the street.

I didn't really realize that you were trying to represent a car running a red light until I read your description; the tones you put together were very regular and kind of soft, which is not what I think of when I think of running a red light. I think of a car moving very fast and the horn being constant and loud. I also think that maybe a problem was not being able to replicate the Doppler effect of cars moving past you very quickly. You did a really good job of normalizing all of the tones to be similar and fit together, though!

I agree with Ivan, the tone in the background was very ominous. What did you use to get that sound? You said your original goal was to have people pay attention to the specific sounds, but it seems like you isolated the context of these sounds so much that you can't tell what they are easily and blend into the overall theme. Overall the theme is very sinister and its done very well, I'm just not sure it hits what your original goal was.

Your edit is very spooky! I think you really nailed what your original goal was, speeding up the sounds and adding a beat. What did you do to create the banging sound, was it something from your original recording, did you record it separately or was it from the computer? Nice job using the filter to get rid of the wind!

I've gotta say you capture the mood you're going for really well. That feeling of being trapped? It really shines through. I liked how suddenly you transitioned from one sound to another at several points. To be honest, what drew me to yours was how jagged your waveform looked to begin with. You manage to make it a frustrating piece to listen to; so much so that by the end I genuinely felt like tearing something.

This was really well done. You took a limited palate of sounds and fit them together perfectly. I was intrigued by the fact that you chose to use such small clips as to be impossible to place in a real life setting. I also liked how you ended it with that like second long voice clip. That completely shocks the listener since it is so different from the rest.

I really liked this! I think you can really capture what it must be like to be in a dog's shoes. And I agree with Ivan that I can completely visualise what the scene is. I think you put your piece together well. The sound of the dog walking successfully comes into the foreground when necessary and fades into the background when necessary to be replaced by whatever is more interesting at that point.

I feel like with the wind removal the piece as a whole is drained of a lot of substance. Perhaps amplify the crowd noises and use it as the background in its place? It certainly is peaceful though.

I like how even though a lot of the sounds were the same, there is a variation in pitch that created a build up and nice composition as a whole. I can feel the logic of the progression and I'm impressed by the way you incorporated all the layers together so cleanly.

Wow this is very nicely done. I like how you let it build up with more and more laying of different loops and created a good progression. Overall a nice beat utilizing the limited sound effects.

so meta

You did a great job of creating suspense through your continuous beating sound effects as well as the low rumble in the background.

I think this piece definitely uses the foreground/background technique very well. Even though the studio noise is just as loud as the foreground voices, because the studio noise is consistent and almost droning, the change of pace between the repeating/reversing voices that you used draws my attention because of their dynamic nature.

I liked the continuous tapping you incorporated to give the composition a sense of direction. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but I believe I heard some wind noise periodically throughout your composition which broke the continuity a little bit.

I definitely agree that this composition is quite peaceful. However I actually think that the wind is the loudest part of this piece. It is very bassy and has a lot of power to it, much more than the murmurs of the people. Because the wind is quite loud, it almost sounds like this recording was taken at a beach. This is what makes it feel peaceful to me.

I really enjoyed the way you set the beat with all of your sound effects. While you didn't have a huge variety of sounds to work with from your original journal, you did a great job of composing the sounds you did have into an nice composition.The way you created a melody out of these sounds is impressive.

I liked the transition from beginning to end. I'm not sure if it was your intentions for there to be a very loud and prominent laugh at the beginning, but I really love how it transitions into this mix of sound that almost seems muffled/drowned out. Toward the end, even though the sound is muffled it begins to seem a little chaotic because of the repeating laughs. Very cool.

This cheered me up. The sounds were playful and inviting. It also had a really nice rhythm to it.

This one was so interesting. I didn't really realize you had used a sneezing sound until I read the description, it sounded like the sounds the velociraptors made in the jurassic park movies. That coupled with the sinister track worked to make a scary atmosphere!

I agree with Tonya. It sounds like a zombie walking around with shackles. I like the rhythm, it gives it an ominous feel.

I thought it was really interesting how you captured all the different laughter. I wasn't sure what the background and foreground were, however. The last 20 or so seconds were my favorite because of the way the sounds looped and created this bouquet of different laughs.

This is really creepy sounding. I think that the noise in the foreground that sounds like someone yelling working in concert with the rhythmic chatter sound that comes and goes in a wave-like sequence make it creepy. I like it.

I like the way you looped some of the sounds. It helped to create a feeling of continuity that made it feel like you were walking through a busy area.

I enjoyed the ambience of this piece, and could easily imagine a leaf-blower and a backing up truck. The beeping of the truck was very musical and stood out over the background noise from the leaf-blower and tabling chatter. Perhaps varying the pitch of the beeping (for example, transposing it one note higher) could make the recording more exciting?

I really liked the tone of the background: it felt quite ominous and foreboding, just like the atmosphere of Hunt Library. That, combined with the repetitive key noise, created an ambience almost reminiscent of a horror movie or game. I'm not sure if this is what you were going for, but if so, perhaps starting with the theme would create even more momentum. The other sound effects (sneezing, table) could then be added in incrementally.

This was fun to listen to-- I enjoyed many of the different sounds and could visualize the dog as he walked around or chewed on the squeaky toy. The repetitive sounds and patterns were nice to keep things familiar and rhythmic. However, I feel that some of the transitions are a bit abrupt. Perhaps a longer fade-out would make the switch more musical.