Tom Chambers Written Reflection
From producing this soundscape, I have learned many different techniques that I can use in further projects through both using audio equipment and the recording software ProTools. I also learned how to use several different mics to record our sounds for the soundscape and how positioning of these mics changes the quality of the overall sound. These mic recording techniques would also be useful when it comes to recording clients in the future. The module also taught me to be able to work in a group better.
To record the sounds for our soundscape, we used a Zoom h4n handheld recorder. This meant that I had to familiarise myself with this piece of equipment to use it effectively. To do this, I recorded many different sounds, experimenting with the gain of the mics and distances from the things I was recording to get different levels. this type of exercise led me to realise that I would indeed have to check the levels of each recording I did before I record them so that they were ensured not to peak and create an unusable recording. We recorded a lot of these sounds outside. Because of this, the weather was often unpredictable, and we had to deal with windy conditions a lot of the time. To get around this, we experimented using different micing techniques. We used a wind shielded shotgun mic attached to an input on the Zoom so that it would cut out the wind in our recordings so that they were cleaner.
Because I produced the soundscape using ProTools, this meant I had to learn how to navigate around the software to be able to use it effectively. I used many editing techniques through ProTools such as panning. Because my piece was Musique Concrete, I felt that panning was a useful technique to use because it meant I could not only control the mixing of the sound, but I could also use panning to my advantage to create atmospheric effects panning left and right at different points. I also learned how to use techniques such as “elastic audio”. This technique allows me to change the speed of a piece of audio without effecting its pitch. This was a useful technique because I could ensure all the audio I used in the soundscape was at the same tempo so that it sounded clear.
I also utilised a technique called Clipping in ProTools editing. This technique was essential to my ProTools editing because it meant I could create accurate and shorter pieces of audio and, so I can use them at different points on the ProTools session. I also learned how to use “Slip” and “Grid” mode. These techniques allowed me to move audio tracks either very precisely or very deliberately. I also used the fading technique when I clipped a track to fade the track in and out only by a millisecond so that it made sure there were no frequencies that were half complete and thus would make a feedback sound.