Assignment 2, Part 2 - Be Able to Create Sound Assets for an Interactive Media Product Following Industry Practice

Plan

Asset management

I make sure that I structure my work in files to keep it organised and safe, if I do not do this I may lose track of a piece of work which may be lost and needing to be redone. I have made seven documents for my work, four made to keep different Leaning outcomes in, one for Pink Panther CuBase test file and another for CuBase Zoom testing. To keep these files safe I constantly back them up on an external hard drive after completion of work to make sure I have copy’s if my computer breaks or gets stolen.

Workflow

To make sure my work is in order and keeps on track is that every Monday and Tuesday I work on the sound unit in my spare time, I have done this due to amount of work needed to be completed and to finish the unit quickly. Additionally I have organised the completion of work by working down the Learning Outcomes of this unit to make sure I hit every requirement set to get a good grade in this unit. I have set out all the Learning Outcomes in a table, highlighting all the main items to complete such as finding out what the theory of sound is. This helps me organise the structure of work as I know what I have to complete next as when I have completed a task I tick it off the sheet.

Deadlines

We have not received any deadlines throughout this unit but I have taken it upon myself to set deadlines to make sure my work is up to date for a quick completion.

LO1 – Friday 25^th November 2011 (Completed on time)

LO2 – Friday 21^st October 2011 (Completed on time)

LO3 – Plan – Monday 23^rd January 2012 (Completed on time)

LO3 – Thursday 23^rd February 2012 (Completed 27/01/2012)

LO4 -  Friday 2^nd March 2012 (Completed 28/01/2012)

 

Recording sound

Proof of recording

Recording my two different sounds for Track two included recording car noises and tickling water. For my first sound I gathered this by taking my Flip Camera to the edge of the road and recording a minute and a half of work, making sure I capture the engine noise and the sound of the cars splashing the water on the road. This sound was used to be the main base to the track, in addition to this sound I created another sound I could change the pitch to make it sound techno to fit the feel of the TV advert. I recorded this track by taking my Flip Camera to the top of my fish tank to capture the tickling water of the filter; I recorded this sound for 2 minutes to make sure I captured the best sound without any unwanted noise.

The third track I recorded was the audio descriptive voice over; I recorded this voice over by using a Flip Camera. I made sure I was in a quiet room to record the track making sure there was no interference to the noise. I recorded the track in two parts making sure after every take I made sure I knew what to say next, and reading the script through a few times.

Audio sampling

Sampling is used to take a portion of one of the sound recordings and reuse it as an instrument or different recording of a song, the use of sampling is controversial legally and in the music businesses.

Sampling rates define the number of samples per unit of time, taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. Using sample rates in hertz sometime mentioned as samples per second is the inverse of the sampling frequency which is the time between samples

I used audio sampling in track one of my interactive media products, this track was in the Adobe Soundbooth file and was available to anybody who wanted to edit music. To make this track my own I change the pitch, volume and created loops at the appropriate time to make this track sound different and unique to my TV advert.

Audio levels and metering
 

Meters – There are many different audio metering systems available, and many results change between each system. All audio material has a specific dynamic range and the differentness between highest and lowest levels can change. If the signal roams beyond the boundaries then your ears will hurt, irrespective of whether you are using analogue or digital. Metering can help you make the process of setting optimum signal level much quicker.

Peak program meter – A peak program monitor is an audio metering device, its function id is similar to the VU meter but this one is much faster and makes transients peaks easier to read. This meter is very good at reading transient sound quickly and useful in situations where there are distortion problems.

Standard operating level – Every stage receives an electric signal at its input, it manipulates it and supply the result of the manipulation that has taken place at the output. The output signal that ensues from a stage will feed the next stage's input which itself shall apply a further transformation.

Sound manipulation

Final Product

To finish my interactive media product I uploaded the three recorded sounds and the TV advert onto a flash file. To make sure that the four files were supported I had to covert the three sounds to MP3 and the video format into MP4, I coped the files into the selected flash folder to fit the coding of the original files. The file includes five buttons and a video screen; the buttons included a sound on/off, button for sound one, two and three. This finish product can be uploaded onto websites which support flash files and DVDs which can be sent off to selective people.

 

Log, Screen Shots

Screen Shots	Description of Work
Track 1
	To start composing my first track in Adobe Soundbooth, I inserted a selected sample track from the Adobe collection by downloading the track and selecting file insert.
	I started changing the track by editing the intensity of the noise selecting the tabs to change the tune up and down.
	I continued editing the track by shortening it to fit the timing of the video which will accompany the track, I changed the length by pulling the end of the track in.
	To make the track my own I selected the beginning on the track and cut it to make it repeat again, creating a loop after the introduction to the track has finished. I did this to make the track more interesting and complicated making sure the track is individual.
Track 2
	The second track of the interactive media product includes the sound effects to the advert. I recorded and inserted two sound types into the Soundbooth file one was car sounds and the other was trickling water.
	I started editing the two tracks by fading in the sound by toggling the volume level up and down to make sure that the sound smoothly intergraded between the two sounds.
	I continue to edit the track by changing the effects of the sound, taking away the additional noise to concentrate of the city noise. These effects also made the sound at a higher pitch to suit the theme of the TV advert.
	To finish editing the track I changed the volume of the track to make the car noises louder and the water quieter. I did this by moving the bar up and down to end up with a suitable effect.
Track 3
	To edit the recorded Audio Description soundtrack to the Interactive Media Product I imported the file into Soundbooth and put the tracks together to make a long one.
	Continuing editing the audio track I edited the pitching, noise and rumbles to remove the background noise. I additional changed the tone of the voice to make the words clear and more engaging.
	To finishing editing the track I used the toggles in Soundbooth to fade the audio in slowly to make it softer for the audience to hear.

Industry practice

Reflection on finished product

This product was created using much different types of software, Adbobe Soundbooth to edit the sound, Premiere Pro to edit the video taking away the original sound and a converter to change the file types. I am very pleased with the end product I have completed, as I compare it to the brief I was set and modified I believe the Interactive Media Product I have created is a great example of a video which can be controlled at the hands of the user. This video meets the requirements of a multimedia product; this flash file includes a music track, a sound effect track and an audio descriptive track so the blind can understand the video which is playing.

Production skills

Creating ideas to complete this interactive media product was flowing after I finalized the video for this product, as the video included a very theme of being new and technological I wanted the three sounds to follow this. To make the sounds feel technologically advance I changed the pitching of the tree videos to mimic the sound of the laser beams reflecting of the car. The work flow of this project was very productive as I kept on track by keeping to the deadlines and the order of work sheet I created. I completed this work very quickly has I worked on this project on my own, this was not a problem as I am very knowledgeable with the Abobe Software including Soundbooth and Premiere Pro.