This is the final multitrack view of my audio piece. I recorded the clips I needed on my phone and put them together in Audition, loosely according to my narrative plan. Overall, I'm not particularly happy with how it turned out - listening back, there are many things I'd change.
After arranging the clips in a rough order, I pitched down one half of the sloshing water audio and stacked it onto the other to give a disorienting swirling effect, metaphorically representing the blue I first noticed in the Kandinsky painting symbolising the tranquil state of existence before you are born into your consciousness. In retrospect, I would have keyframed panning to "swirl" from left to right and heighten this sensation through the sound. Underneath this, I included some generated pink noise which I pitched down a little (through Stretch in Properties) and added a Flanger rack effect with the "Too Many Pills" preset. Then I increased the volume and added a ramped fade-in, so that the tension would build before all sound ended abruptly. I also did this to the wood breaking clip, adding a Convolution Reverb effect with the "Singularity" preset to it for a further distorted quality. Next time, I would have added distortion to these tracks, done a fade-in with the sloshing water audio as well and made the dynamic contrast stronger more a more noticable drop before the door closing clip. I did insert part of some audio I recorded of my wooden frog toy/instrument and duplicated it, as I felt it tied in nicely with the water theme and added some nice timbral interest.
The door opening & shutting, representing the circles as "openings" within the painting, was pitched down for a starker effect against the first section. I made sure the following clip of dragging Costa cups across my desk had a lower volume, so it acted as more of a backdrop to the next section and sounded somewhat like the gentle waves of a tide. To achieve this better next time, I'd maybe add some delay/echo and EQ to more accurately sculpt the timbre of a real tide coming in, as well as keyframing panning similarly to how I mentioned before. I would also EQ & echo the sharpening knives audio I'd laid on the top, because it sounds too dry and uninteresting on its own, and every track should add something to the meaning of the piece. I also isolated each tongue click I'd recorded, cut them together sequentially with increasing speed and added heavy echo & reverb to them to achieve a disconcerting chittering effect to emulate the wavy line in the painting - this is too quiet for my liking in the final piece, now revisiting it, and should stand out more.
I love the sound of the kalimba, so I did some loose improvisation on mine and recorded it - first with single notes, followed by diadic harmonies. I feel that this element of not planning the melody or treating it as something musical helped elevate the recording, and it adds the mellow atmosphere I was looking to create in this section of the piece, when subject to some eerie reverb. I also chose sections from the clips of me breathing/faint whistle attempts and stacked them (with reverb) for a windy effect to represent the lantern/flag-like forms and figures I interpreted in the painting. This section could be mixed more cautiously to raise and lower the volumes of certain tracks, but I think it does well at evoking the fragile qualities I sensed from the pastel shapes in Yellow, Red, Blue.
I used the "Endless Tunnel" Reverb preset on chopped up clips of me kicking an old washing machine drum, pitching them down on the Varispeed option in Properties as the soundscape ends to tie together the metallic overtone from the knives. I like how they sounded violent, like the end to the life portrayed in the piece, but this idea could be more thoughtfully interpreted. I used a generated Major Chord tone, pitch shifted up and EQ'd to dip around 3kHz to fade in & out gradually, symbolising the cyclical nature of how I interpreted the painting and its vibrant colours through how the peaceful yellow is one of the first and last things I notice.
Finally, as instructed, I added a Hard Limiter at -3db on Track Effects. All in all, whilst I set out with what I thought was a clear direction, there could be more intention behind my sound design choices. Throughout this project, I learned lots in terms of technical skill with Adobe Audition, as well as the many avenues it facilitates for sound design that I've yet to fully explore. Though my piece does conform to the natural approach I wanted to take for the painting, next time I would be more adventurous with manipulating sound to bend tracks more harshly. This project has also made me appreciate the details and nuances of sound design, where it takes a highly developed ear to know exactly how something should sound to best achieve the intended effect - for example, things like EQ and the delicate balance of frequencies within a sound one would normally brush off as insignificant.
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