AA week 4 - Scene Sound

My first commercial is rather funny, I'm just going to say that. Oh, and very sexist on males' account, but i still thought it was funny.It uses a very simple, but effective way of advertising milk.
Its a pretty simple commercial, with only a few different sounds in it. These are:

> 00:00 - 00:30 = Background music (pretty funky) playing throughout the whole commercial.
> 00:17 - 00:22 = man's deep voice talking
> 00:27 - 00:28 = mans calling out to wife
> 00:29 - 00:30 = "got milk?"

I like how it is very simple, but very effective. No fancy graphics or sound effects are used. They also seem to use one fact as their basis, using humour to work on it.

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnVJ-cOrZsI





This next add is from a company called 'Antena',which is advertising an antiboredom campaign.
Also a very funny commercial, although a bit more witty.
Here are the main components:
> 00:00 - 00:05 = birds singing in the countryside
> 00:05 - 00:06 = car drving close past camera
> 00:06 - 00:40 = background noise of car motor
> 00:08 - 00:40 = music playing
> 00:31 - 00:35 = car screeching off road
> 00:32 - 00:40 = Woman laughing

Visually this add was better quality than the first one, although it gave a much more 'old school' feel, especialy with what the oldies were wearing!

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dye_ibjPY0g

References:

> Haines, Christian, Audio Arts Week 4 Tutorial, "Sound Scene", University of Adelaide,16th August, 2007.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dye_ibjPY0g, YouTube.com, "Funny Commercial 4", Viewed August, 2007.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnVJ-cOrZsI, YouTube.com, "Best Milk Commercial Yet", viewed August, 2007.

AA Wk 1 - What is sound design?

The digital camera. Beeps and whirrs when you turn it on, beeps when you take a picture, makes a different beep when you delete a picture, makes a different beep again when you turn it off.
These beeps are designed to inform you when you have activated a part of this hardware. None of them are natural, nor do they mimik what would be natural for a camera. They are simply there for informing.This is a form of sound design.
Another example is the microwave. Although it does include natural sounds, such as the noise the door makes when you open it, or the slam it makes when you close it, there are also the beeps it delivers when the time is up. Although it can get quite annoying at times, this sound design has been very important in the development of hardware. How else would people know when the microwave has finished cooking? a flashing light? Not very convenient.

References:

Haines, Christian. Audio Arts Week 1 tutorial. "What is Sound Design", Univeristy of Adelaide, 24th July, 2007.

AA - Week 3 - Sound Design

Dirty Dancing Minutes 02:40 - 05:21

Sound scene:
Set in 1963. Mostly natural sounds, not much foley or sound effects. "Big Girls Don't Cry" playing in background.

Diegetic sounds:
> Sister complaining to father, and father telling her off, mother calming her down. Conversation about what defines a tragedy.
> Focuses on gamesman talking through a held microphones (03:26)
> Owner walking up and talking to guests (03:40)
> Luggage man taking luggage out of car (03:59)
> Focuses on dancing feet in dance class after guests have arrived
> Women instructing dance class calling out rules to dancers

Non- Diegetic sounds:
> Car pulling up in background which camera focuses on hotel
> Doors closing offscreen
> Music playing from loudspeakers throughout the hotel grounds
> Gamesman and commentator on loudspeaker in background
> Birds singing
> Guests walking around and talking (also movement noises)
> Sound of luggage being removed from cars around them.
> Hotel onwers' body noises
> Merangae music starts in background just before moving to dance class scenes.
> Women directing dance class in offscreen as focuses on dancers trying to dance
> Body movement noises during dance class (shuffling feet etc.)
> Women laughing at instructer's jokes.

Foley:
> Accentuated car doors opening and closing
> louder luggage noises
> Feet louder in dance class
> Body movement whilst getting out of car.

Dialogue:
Family travelling in a car to a hotel for a holiday. Starts with main character (yougest daughter) explaining what was happening, the era, etc. Oldest daughter start complaining that she hasn't brought enough pairs of shoes with her. Mother tries to calm her down. Father and youngest daughter explain that it wasn't a tragedy. Owner walks up to welcome them and tell them to go to a wonderful dance class.

Effects:
Not many effects due to the era that the movie was made. Mostly just accentuated noises for things such as the car pulling up off screen, car doors opening and closing, background talking, and the luggage being taken out of the car (also offscreen).

Overall a pretty simple couple of scenes, but helped me learn what to look for.

CC 1 - Week 4 - Cubase

This week we had to use cubase and, creating 4 different instruments, write a song. In the beginning i had a little bit of trouble getting the sound to work, but, after that, the instructions i wrote down from class seemed to make it pretty simple. I used cheeze machine, harmonizer, and the drum kit to create a failry simple tune on the keyboard. I started with a simple melody, then adding some funky basslines, harmonic backing, and a simple drum beat. Overall, apart from the annoying crashing of the comptuer about 5 times, i found the exercise fairly simple, as setting up and exporting was similar to that of Pro Tools etc.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/CUBASEDONE.mp3

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/cubase1wk4.cpr

CC2 - week 2 - Modular programming

This week i had quite a bit of difficulty with the tuorial, seeing as the computer i was using shutdown TWICE! Grr! I have definately learnt my lesson about not saving! Anyway, i managed to finish it, and the first picture shows the result of what i did. I couldn't complete one of the parts of the tute as i did not have a MIDI keyboard thing. But i still read it and reckon i have a pretty good idea of what to do. For my piece i used the base from the tute and played around with almost every modification, causing the computer to actually freeze a couple of times, but i guess that was the only way i was going to learn. I decided to use the 16 step sequencer 2, and p[layed around with the notes until i found a melody that i liked, as opposed to just moving them on the first 16 step seq. I also added two different effects, the 'Freeverb' and the 'TwoBandDistortion - 0', i changed the levels until it suited me and then recorded. I was pleased with what i came up with. Overall i found it difficult but whorthwhile.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/firstblog.bidule

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/secondblog.bidule

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/audioplogue.wav

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/ccweek2.wav

AA2 - Sound Design

This week we had an environmental focus on what sound is. i decided to do my assignment at my boyfriends house seeing as its in the country and he has quite a few animals, so i knew there would be a lot of 'environmental' sounds, as opposed to more 'suburben' noises. Rohan decided to join me, and, whilst doing my sound study, very thoughtfully decided to sit next to me making stupid noises. As you can tell in the picture the only way i could make him stop was by kicking him, which, unfortunately, only made him sing louder. I also had other noises to incorporate, including the kitens running around and play fighting, birds in the trees, cars going past, and background noises, which included a chainsaw and cooking noises coming from inside the house. Unfortunately i had nothing to record it with, so i just tried to make my pictures and graph as detailed as possible. Overall i found it pretty simple and (almost!) relaxing.

AA 1 Final Assessment

For my recording i did 'If You Dont Know Me By Now' By Simply Red. My performers were Nathan on bass guitar, Doug on piano, Amy on Vocals and Sanad on drums. The aim was to try and make a similar sound to that of the original, recorded in the 80's, but also try and use as little effects as possible.
The recording sessions went quite well, although the piano was played slightly too slow and the voice was recorded along to the piano, so that when the drums were recorded they ended up being slightly too fast throughout the song. My other little problem was that Amy was drowning in the flu when i recorded her, and i couldn't wait any longer or i would have run out of time, so i had to use quite a lot of reverb on the main melody plus the fills to try and covr this (even though you all already know because i just told you!)
When it came to mixing i used compression on the drums and the voice,to try and stop any clicking. I also used reverb on both of these, to cover the cold in Amy's voice, and also the give the 80's effect on the snare that was present in the original recording.
I know this recording was quite rough, as i don't know enough about recording and the programmes yet to use them to my full advantage, but i believe that this is only the beginning and that it can only (hopefully!) get beter from here :D.
( I am unable to post the music up right now because my USB died, so i have to fish them off of Christian, but i will get everything up her ASAP )