Posted on December 15, 2016
Our Sound Collection
Sounds which we didn’t use.
There is no denying we had recorded a lot of sounds throughout this project’s production. From slamming gates to refrigerators, we have heard it all. As a result, our soundscape has been turned into a perfectly crafted amalgamations of the creepiest sounds we could find. Albeit, behind every great sound used in our ‘Scarescape’, there are a number of sounds that just did not quite make the cut. During the editing phase, myself, Reece, and Callum quickly came to the realisation that two minutes is not a long time at all.
As a result, we had to filter out the very best and most appropriate recorded audio, taking into consideration its quality and how much manipulation would be required to fit it into the soundscape. As the editing process progressed, we had an increasingly clearer view of the final product, meaning it quickly became much easier to select the most appropriate audio. Obviously, we still had to listen very closely to the audio and decide unanimously as a group whether or not we wanted to include it in the short space of time we had.
There are various reasons for the choices we made, and a number of factors we took into consideration when listening. In this example, we thought about including the hum of a refrigerator. It was an unusual sound and would have made for a great consistent undertone in the soundscape. However, as it was a relatively quiet sound, the levels had to be boosted, resulting in a lot of background noise also being captured. Moreover, the microphone gets bumped into the fridge, causing the audio to spike, which, if removed, caused the sound to feel unnatural.
In this example, we hear the sounds of some reverberant footsteps. Although these footsteps sound great, they seemed a bit odd when placed in the context of the soundscape. Despite their ‘boomy’ qualities, the footsteps aren’t very similar to the others used earlier in the soundscape. We tried to keep sounds consistent so that it didn’t feel like the location changed more than once. These footsteps were recorded in an outdoor location on a wooden floor, where the rest are recorded indoors, on a creaky carpeted floor. As a result, we opted against using them as it was not consistent with the location we were trying to construct.
A further example would be the sound of a coat rustling, heard below. Although this sound was perfect for what we were trying to imitate (i.e. the sound of someone being grabbed and moved, possibly being tied to a chair), we struggled to find space for it in the soundscape. As we neared the end of our editing phase, we all agreed that the location change at the beginning should happen via a fall to silence (a trope often used in horror) rather than anything louder or more aggressive. Overall, it just didn’t match the transition or the flow of the ‘Scarescape’.
Posted on December 15, 2016
Robert Baugh- Reflection
A look back.
After we got ourselves into a group, myself, Reece and Callum quickly set about coming up with an idea for the soundscape. We wanted to do something that was not strictly ‘conventional’. After doing some quick research, it seemed as though a lot of soundscapes were based on a journey or the sound associated with a specific location. This gave us the basis for our soundscape as we knew to move away from these conventions. It did not take long for us to land on the theme of horror. We thought that it suited us best as we wanted to create a soundscape that isn’t necessarily easy to develop. Unlike other soundscapes, it takes sound from multiple locations and combines them to put the listener in one terrifying position.
When it came to the recording process of the ‘Scarescape’, we had to spend a lot of time as a group considering what and where we wanted to record. As the desired location in our soundscape didn’t exist on its own, we had to use an amalgamation of locations with the sonic properties being carefully considered. We wanted a broad spectrum of acoustics, so we recorded in very reverberant locations like the cathedral as well as comparatively quiet rooms. Not only did we consider what raw sounds are thought of as scary such as creaky doors and heavy breathing (tropes commonly seen in horror), but also relatively normal or everyday sounds which could be manipulated during the editing phase to create disturbing and unnatural sounds.
Next up in the process of creating our soundscape was the editing. Once we had gathered all of our audio, we needed to filter through what we had and construct a solid script. We knew we wanted to have the listener leaving one location and ending up locked in another. This led us to consider a kidnapping and torture situation. We wanted the viewer to be disturbed by knowing exactly what these strangers are doing and when listening back to the soundscape it is not very difficult to understand what is happening. This is made easier by the fact that these characters cannot actually be seen, making the listener rely solely on their auditory senses. As we used stereo, we found the best experience was achieved while wearing headphones as it is easier to distinguish location and direction of the sounds. One aspect we wanted to play with was the use of silence which is commonly used in horror as a way of building tension and this appeared regularly in our research and presentation, though we had to be careful not to make the soundscape seem empty. Moreover, most of the sounds were raw and untouched other than panning and volume automation. However, we did use some Varispeed track stretching to create some horrifying and unnatural sounds, the most obvious being the low rumble at the end. The sound was originally a phone vibrating on a wooden desk, though when stretched it became unrecognisable.
Overall I feel the soundscape was a success. We constructing this terrifying and dark environment, throwing the listener into the fray with these mysterious captors, preparing to torture you. Combining a range of editing techniques and horror tropes, the ‘Scarescape’ gave us and all who listened to it some genuine chills. The process of creating this has taught me about how to carefully consider location, recording and editing techniques dependent on the intended effect.
Updated on December 14, 2016
Reece Smith- Reflection
“Scarescape”
When we began thinking of ideas for the soundscape, as a group, we wanted to do something different, something which wouldn’t be the first thing people thought of. We played around with a lot of concepts but felt that the horror one would be a definite idea to explore. Personally, I am very interested in sound design for games and films. I find it amazing how someone can create a piece of music that provokes such an emotional reaction is the listener, such as to scare them. We quickly developed a story idea of how our soundscape would play out.
We quickly developed a story idea of how our soundscape would play out. A kidnapping of a man, taken into a room where men would walk around him preparing to torture him only then to be distracted and leave whilst the man is left alone. I feel as though the final product and the soundscape itself fit the intended criteria fairly well, we had to make a few adjustments along the way, particularly in terms of timings as our sounds could have easily filled 5 minutes, so shortening it down to the required 2 minutes was definitely a difficult task. This meant that we weren’t able to use a lot of the pieces of audio we had recorded, which was disappointing as it was a lot of time, and effort to collect them.
However, the recording stage still had it’s fair share of challenges. A lot of the sounds we intended to obtain were produced from rather quiet sources, for example, a tap dripping. This meant that when levelling them up with the other sounds we had recorded, the background noises were just too high. We tried experimenting with different techniques to get around this, using different microphones, we experimented with boundary microphones, contact microphones, different types of condenser microphones, particularly the Rode-USB as it was easy to transport however we settled that most recordings were done with the Zoom H4n Recorder, due to it’s obvious advantages of transportation and recording in stereo, which in itself wasn’t too bad for the perspective recordings.
When it came to editing the audio, we had a considerable amount of sounds which we couldn’t use. We only used 27 out of the 55 audio files we gained for the final piece. The editing stage was the most interesting and the stage in which most of the techniques were learnt. Organisation was an important factor here, having 27 different audio tracks to deal with was definitely not easy, and it significantly improved my efficiency working with ProTools. We made sure to add effects which were covered in the workshop sessions and then experiment with ones of our own. EQ was a predominantly used insert for a lot of the audio files to boost or cut out certain frequencies. Reverb was used a lot less than we thought would be necessary, we wanted the sounds to feel as though they were confined, close to the listener rather than out in a large open space.
Furthermore, we found that experimenting with elastic audio was a really helpful tool to edit the sounds in a way which caused them to feel ‘unnatural’ or ‘creepy’ and we also experimented with using sounds from other sources to fit the feel of a different sound, for example, the creaky door being used as a siren, adding to the unnatural feel of the overall piece.
To conclude, I feel as though the piece worked generally well. It fulfilled it’s intended purpose as creating a feel as though people are walking around you and so the listener can interpret the perspective of the sounds. I enjoyed the process, personally, and I feel as though it really developed my knowledge of recording and editing sounds.
Updated on December 14, 2016
Callum Spinks: Reflection
A brief look back on the production and outcome of our soundscape.
For our soundscape, we wanted to create something a bit different than, for example, a wild life or countryside soundtrack. As a group, we came to the decision that we wanted to make a horror themed soundscape, what we call the “Scarescape.” We conducted research on horror themed soundscapes and noticed there was actually quite a lot more than we initially thought. However, we decided not to abandon the horror idea but to expand on it. So we set out to create a soundscape that would give the listener the illusion that they were being kidnapped and held hostage in a dark room.
Production proved to be slightly difficult at times when we were trying to record sounds around Lincoln. This was mainly due to background noise caused by traffic, the public, and near enough everything about the sounds of nature and a city no one can prevent. To get around this, we opted to record any sounds we needed from outdoors during the evening/nighttime as there was far less people around and much less noise interference from nature itself. One of my personal favourite sounds we recorded in one of these evenings was the sound of footsteps in the archways of Lincoln Cathedral. The natural reverb that the archways created was excellent for use in our soundscape as we wanted to create the impression that someone was walking round the listener in a dark, empty room. In total, across all the times we went out recording, we had captured approximately 55 different sounds.
The editing process was where our soundscape really started to adopt the horror sound to it. We relied heavily on the use of panning on the majority of our clips. This was because of our initial plan, to make the listener feel as though they have been kidnapped and that someone is mysteriously walking around them. One of the sounds that worked well in my opinion was the sharpening of the knives. It slowly gets louder in the left channel and then pauses briefly, coming back in with a loud slice panning from the left to right channel. We had also recorded the vibrating of my mobile phone, which when the pitch was lowered created a really low, harrowing rumble which plays underneath our soundscape towards the end of our piece. The sound at the end of the piece was a heavily edited door slam. We added pitch shift to lower the sound, as well as a lot of reverb to the sound, and added another door slamming over the top of it to create a sudden, harsh ending, simulating the listeners death.
Overall, I’m pleased with the way our soundscape turned out. Although we had a few minor hiccups along the way, such as loss of files and background noise, the soundscape played out just how we expected it to. Listening back to it myself with my eyes closed, it really did give me the feeling that I was being held hostage with someone else in the room. I feel that’s important. If it can scare us as producers into this fake belief, we can only imagine what it would be like for everyone else.
Updated on December 14, 2016
The Soundscape Script.
The story of our sounds.
| Time | Description | Script | Recording |
| 0:00-0:03 | Audio was left untouched, provided easily recognised location sound. | The story begins with a man, who had been kidnapped, being walked towards a house. |
Footsteps in gravel, rattling of a fence. Sounds were recorded with Zoom mic.
|
| 0:03-0:05 |
Sounds from the previous section continue. Drill sound panned completely right. |
Background noise and ambience develops as they walk closer to the building. | Drilling sounds recorded with the zoom mic. |
| 0:05-0:07 | Background sounds continue. | They arrive at the front of the building, opening and slamming the gate behind them. |
Shutting an old creaky gate. Originally recorded with a shotgun mic and then re-recorded with a zoom due to background noise. |
| 0:07-0:14 | Background noises continue. | They walk from the gate to the door of the house. | No new sounds were recorded in this section. |
| 0:14-0:18 | A creaking door is introduced with a Dyn3 gate to reduce the background noise. | They open the door slowly | An old wooden creaky door was recorded with the zoom mic. |
| 0:18-0:20 | The slamming door drops all background sounds and It turns silent. | The man is placed in the room and the door is slammed shut. | The same wooden door was slammed to create this recording, again with the zoom mic. |
| 0:21-0:33 | A tap is dripping in the room. Pan L was used to create that. | The hostage is sat in the chair, the only sound in the room is that of a dripping tap in the far left back corner. | Initially, we tried this recording with a contact microphone but we felt the recording worked better with the zoom. |
| 0:33-0:36 | The knocks were too far apart on the recording so they were reduced to be quicker. | A man knocks on the door in front. | Recorded knocking the wooden door. |
| 0:36-0:40 | Tap sound continues. | The man opens the door slowly and the shuts it behind him. This triggers a rattling sound on the right side of the room. | The same door was used as for the previous scenes as we wanted to keep it as realistic as possible. We used the Zoom recorder here. Also recorded strings rattling together. |
| 0:40-0:50 |
Tap sounds continues. We used automated panning to cause the footsteps to seem as though they were travelling from the front of the room to the right. We also used automated volume respectively. The footsteps also had a noise gate on them to remove unwanted background noise. |
Man walks over to the tap to the right. | Recorded creaky footsteps on a wooden floor. |
| 0:50-1:00 |
The tap was panned to the far left. We used automated panning on the breathing to give the impression that you are the hostage and that you’re frantically looking left-right. |
He reaches the tap and turns it, at this point, the hostage realises what the man is doing and begins to breathe heavily, | Recorded the turning of a tap and water flowing. And heavy breathing. Both of these recordings were done with the Zoom recorder. |
| 1:00-1:12 | The breathing intensifies. We automated the knife sharpening (volume) to give the impression he was walking closer to the hostage. As the breathing stops, there is a seconds pause before the last knife sharpen which is very close. We used a small amount of EQ to boost the high-end frequencies to give the knife some ‘sparkle’. This final sound was paired with the hand recording to add extra intensity. | The hostage breaths heavier, the man turns off the tap and picks up a knife, which he begins to sharpen as he walks closer and closer to the hostage. |
We recorded the sharpening of a knife with a Rode NT-USB microphone. This was good for focusing in on the harsh sound. We also recorded smacking a hand against a pan, again with the Rode NT-USB. |
| 1:12- 1:18 | The sounds were panned to the right and no other background noises were occurring so the focus was solely on the creaking door. | A second of silence follows, then a second person enters through a door to the right of the room, this door is considerably creakier than the first. |
We recorded a door creaking at multiple times, with the zoom recorded and the Rode mic and combined these two sounds. This was also combined with an opening door sound. |
| 1:18-1:26 | The rattling strings introduced. The footsteps used automated panning to get from the right of the room to standing in front of the hostage. The volume was also panned to add to this effect. | The rattling strings introduced again and the man began walking towards the hostage. | We recorded the same footsteps as the first recording to ensure it sounded as though they were in the same room. |
| 1:26-1:31 | The scissors introduced whilst the man was walking over, they started with an automation in panning from the right to the front and then the panning went from left to right every 500 milliseconds. The scissors also had a small amount of EQ, similar to the knife to bring out the harshness of the high end frequencies. | The man was holding a pair of scissors and began to torment the hostage by snipping the scissors close to either ear. | The scissor recording was done with the Rode microphone. |
| 1:32-2:00 | This audio was then shifted in pitch by 6 semi-tones and elastic speed was used to give it the consistency of a low rumble. The final vibration was even lower and more time stretched than the rest, drawing an eerie expectation of the end. | A low rumbling sound which repeated every second began. | A Phone vibration was recorded with a contact microphone and with a zoom recorder. |
| 1:35-2:00 | I used pitch shift here in combination with elastic speed to create, almost what sounded like a bomb siren. I also used pan automation at 1 second intervals to go between left and right and I automated the volume to get increasingly louder over the tracks. | The creaking door produced a very odd sound which when looped sounded like a siren, I joined 8 of these clips together. |
The creaking door was used for this recording and was manipulated to sound like a siren.
|
| 1:45-2:00 | These footsteps were automated to get quieter as they ‘got further away’ and they panned to the right (where the exit was) | As the bomb siren is going off, both men walk away from the hostage towards the doors. | These footsteps were recorded with the same microphone and the same environment as the first ones for easy recognition. |
| 1:59-2:00 | The door was slammed in stereo through both ears and is the loudest part of the piece to signal a clear ending. | The low rumbling sound stops and the doors slam shut. | We recorded the slamming of the door with a Rode microphone and a zoom mic and double tracked this. |
Updated on December 14, 2016
An Evening Recording
Student flats are great for horror sounds.
The other night, Rob and I spent the evening recording various sounds around my flat. These sounds were recorded using a Rode NT-USB condenser microphone. This microphone was suited to the job of recording indoors as it recorded with little interference from the background. A small selection of some of the sounds we recorded include the scraping of two knives together, the low hum of a fridge, and the creaking of a door. I even went to the extent of smacking my hand as hard as possible with a sauce pan, resulting in myself having to get an ice pack but it was definitely worth it for the sound it produced.
We intend to add multiple effects to these sounds in the editing stage of our soundscape project. The effects include panning, pitch shifting, and other forms of automation and modulation. Doing so will add the harrowing ‘horror’ experience we are aiming to create with our finished soundscape.
Overall, we are pleased with sounds we recorded during the evening. We collected quite a large range and surprised ourselves with the amount of ‘horror’ sounds we could find and create in the space of a small student flat. The Rode NT-USB was a great choice of microphone to use as the clarity from each clip we recorded was superb. The large sensitivity range was beneficial for the sharp, loud ‘bangs’ we created as well as the more sustained, lower sounds.
Updated on December 14, 2016
The start of our editing work
We have finished the recording stage and are ready to move onto editing.
As we have placed a great deal of emphasis on editing techniques for our soundscape to get the dark and unnatural sounds which will provoke the desired reactions from the listeners, we felt that the editing and mixing stages should be given at least as much focus as the recording stage itself. We created a rough script based on our story and split the editing into 3 sections (one section per member) in order to get a rough template of the soundscape. We then put these 3 sections together, ensuring that they flowed together sensibly and maintained the ‘horror’ feel throughout.
Since we attempted to focus on binaural recordings, we settled for panning the recorded audio to get a similar effect, for example, we used pan to make the footsteps seem as though they went from the front of the room to the side where he then turned a tap off.
For sounds we had recorded such as the sharpening of a knife, we used a small amount of Equalization, we used a peak filter to boost the higher frequencies to cause a sort of, harsh tone as the blade got closer the source. We also used a noise gate for the footsteps as the background level of the footsteps was a lot higher than the quiet audio tracks before that and so the transition was almost impossible without the gate.
We wanted to leave most of the locational sounds as untouched as possible to cause the soundscape to feel as realistic as possible whilst also containing sounds which were unnatural to that environment to get the contrast to suggest the eerie atmosphere.
Furthermore, we overestimated the number of recordings we would need for our soundscape, the script of our soundscape focused on 5-second blocks however when we put all the building blocks together, it lasted a lot longer than that, ranging on 4 minutes. Therefore we had to rethink the story slightly to cope with only being able to use 2 minutes of it. We had obtained 55 different recordings to use and it is possible that we will only use 20 or so in the final product yet it was very worthwhile to work with so many different recordings.
Updated on December 14, 2016
First Recordings
This week we began the recording process of our soundscape.
We focussed mainly on footsteps for the first recordings as it is an important sound which we will use in our
soundscape to determine perspective. We went to the cathedral and recorded footsteps through the archway. This was done with a zoom h4n recorder and then with a shotgun microphone. The archway was great for recording footsteps as the reverb in there caused the footsteps to seem a lot darker which is what we were aiming for with our soundscape brief.
We also recorded a fence rattling. Our soundscape will tell the story of a man walking home late at night alone, being kidnapped and then taken to a basement and blindfolded in a chair. The first part of the soundscape needs to build an eerie expectation of what is about to unfold and so sounds such as the wind blowing in the trees and fences and gates rattling areprefect for creating that atmosphere.
We also wanted to include sounds which were unnatural in that situation, add effects to them and embed them into the situation. For example, we recorded a phone vibrating on a table and reduced the pitch so that it created a deep rumbling sound unrecognisable from the phone vibration.
Researching into Binaural recordings and how they can create a clear sense of perspective influenced us to experiment with that sort of audio. We attempted to create a binaural recording by placing 2 boundary microphones on a cardboard box roughly the same width as the ears are from one another. The results were highly unimpressive and created a highly unpleasant and excessive level of background noise which clouded any foreground sounds which we wanted to focus on. This may have been due to the use of two different boundary microphones which were of different sensitivities, capturing sounds very different from that in which the ears would pick up.
Below are two pieces of audio (the vibrating phone) The latter has a Pitch II pitch shifter alongside a small amount of EQ to highlight certain key frequencies and a Reverb.
Updated on December 14, 2016
The Sounds of Haunted Lincoln
Many of the sounds we experience in everyday life can be listened to in several different ways based on the context. For example in the test recordings which are linked below, we recorded (the same) footsteps in two different locations; one in a living room and one in a cathedral archway. The natural reverb created by the archway provided a much more sinister sound than the minuscule level of reverb created by the room. That’s why, as a group, we think it is important to develop a clear idea of location before any of the recordings are even taken into consideration.
Many buildings in and around Lincoln have been labelled “haunted”, mainly for their eerie and gothic architecture and dark pasts but there have also been many reports from workers and tourists at these locations of strange sounds and unexplained occurrences.
A particular example of this came from Nocton Hall, located a few miles south of Lincoln. It was burnt down in 1841 and since then has been completely rebuilt, it was also used throughout WW1 to treat wounded American Officers. It was later turned into an RAF hospital which soon became available to the public. This building has been abandoned since then and those who have been brave enough to stay there have reported hearing sounds of young children mumbling and crying, particularly in one of the upstairs bedrooms. This would be a great place to record a lot of our natural sounds, for example, creaking doors, floors, footsteps and it’s always possible to capture an unexpected sound or two which would be ideal to use in the creation of our soundscape.
We will also consider recording at the Castle. Lincoln Castle, like Nocton Hall, has had many reports of unexplained sounds, particularly coming from the Male Prison. Rattling keys, doors slamming, footsteps and screams are amongst just some of the stories and reports heard from the Castle.
Therefore I think in order to get the scariest and creepiest sounds possible, the location and background of those sounds is an extremely important factor to consider. Anyone can create a sinister artificial sound of, say a “ghost,” but it will be much more engaging for the audience to know just where that dark sound came from.
Updated on December 14, 2016
AP Soundscape Project- Welcome
A soundscape is a creative piece of audio used to “describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory or a feeling but always a sound that is pertinent to a place” (Wagstaff, G. 2000). Using this definition we felt it would be best to explore a very specific idea.
Imagine you’re blindfolded, sat in a chair in the middle of an old room. The floor is creaky. The door is rattling. There’s a strange sense that someone else is there, the feelings one would experience in such scenario, the uncertainty, and unease, the feeling of “the creeps” is what we aim to investigate and deliver during our 2-minute soundscape project.
Firstly, exploring the psychology behind the reasons certain sounds make us feel certain ways and incorporating those ideas into the recording and editing process of the soundscape will help us dramatically to capture this idea.
There has been a significant amount of research into the feelings of sound, and why certain sounds make us feel “creeped out” for example. Dr. Christopher Wiley a Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of Learning and Teaching in the University Of Surrey: School of Arts, wrote “total quiet can be very, very frightening in itself – it yields the expectation that something is about to happen but without any indications as to if or when.” this idea, yet difficult to build within such a short piece of audio, will provide the basis for the sounds we build upon. The suspense of the unexpected.