Soundscape: Swan Song

While making this sound scape along with my group, I’ve learned quite a bit really, we got our ideas together quite quickly and agreed on them with each other without any real disputes. But we were constantly changing exactly what would be in the sound scape, content wise. We knew it would be about meditation and relaxation very early on, but we changed around sound ideas, we were originally going to have it like a swan’s song which they say is the last and beautiful song that a swan sings. It later turned more towards meditation related sounds, rather than the swan song but we kept swans in it, as that was the original theme put forward. I learned that you can take some sounds and completely change the whole feel that they give off, just with a few EQ tweaks or a little Reverb.

 

Another thing that I have learned is that, a sound scape is similar to a poem, in that it is just one thing often used to portray one feeling, one medium that strives to tell a story. A brief glimpse into a powerful emotion through the artistry, and soul of it’s creator. It’s really interesting working on something like this, because it generally only uses audio like a song, but unlike a song it’s not all driven by the singer, it’s like an instrumental. Something to listen to while you think to make you really think deeper.

 

The group was good, I’m not really a fan of group work so whenever it comes up it worries me, but the group knew what they were doing and wanted to get the sound scape done. Obviously they have more experience in the field of study we’ve all chosen, and so they put in more towards it while I was a bit more hesitant, not really knowing entirely what I’m doing as I’m still learning a lot of things that they’ll have done before. My ideas don’t tend to be amazing and although I wish I could’ve added more don’t really feel that, at this point I can really add anything.

 

I hadn’t made a sound scape before I started the course, so it seemed quite strange at first, and I still wouldn’t say I’ve fully gotten to grips with making them. I find it hard to actually get the feelings across through this kind of piece, although I suppose that’s part of the artistry in it. Now I would say that I have a much broader and informed view about them though, and would like to try making at least one more, but I would try it on my own so that I could control every aspect and really try out what they can be.

 

To make a sound scape is one thing, but we were also not supposed to be using any conventional instruments, which made things a bit harder although Max was determined to put bass in the piece. It did help to make the bells sound more whole though, so it wasn’t too bad. It’s fun to think about the sounds that the sound scape was made out of, it turned out really well in the end and does sound like a piece make for meditation.

One of the most important aspects of being an artist, be it in whichever format, is the ability to convey an image successfully. Do do this is to achieve an aim and, during the course of this project, I feel that we have achieved this aim.

When we initially met to discuss ideas, I was highly interested in what the rest of the group had to offer. When Timmie suggested “Swan Song” as a title and an idea to base our soundscape on, I was so happy that my following suggestion of a meditative composition was taken on board. To work in a group who will so happily listen to and embrace your ideas is rewarding.

Straight away I began research into both the phrase Swan Song and meditation music and compositions, as well as other relevant ideas that I felt would aid us in our progress. I presented ideas from my research to the group, such as possible sounds. We realised that we could include the sound of a swan in our soundscape, but also realised that the actual “song” of a swan would be hard to come by and the sound that swans made usually wasn’t all that relaxing. Max, however, played around with the EQ of a swan sound and essentially changed the feeling that it conveyed and, in our final piece, I feel that we managed to make the “voice” of the swan fit in with our relaxing composition.

Being the “hippy” that I am, I was able to bring to the table a selection of unconventional “instruments”, all of which were used in the final piece. A Tibetan Singing Bowl rings out through the entirety of our soundscape. Chinese Exercise Balls frequent the piece, adding a recognisable pulse. The inclusion of a Karimba (thumb piano) adds an extra layer to the piece and helps to break up other sounds. Timmie recorded some bird song, which we used as the base to add other sounds upon for our soundscape. He also recorded wind and footsteps through grass, which help add to the depth of the piece. Max’s swan recordings helped to really bring the piece out and he recorded a note on a bass guitar which added depth to the jingling of the Chinese Exercise Balls. Furthermore, his excellence in EQ really brought out the piece, as he was able to listen to how we expected something to sound and bring it out clearly in the piece.

I was extremely satisfied with our end product, we somehow managed to create an effective piece that truly conveyed our ideas. I feel that out of the group, we almost had assigned roles; I was more of a researcher, Timmie a recorder and Max a producer. Although Josh participated in some aspects, such as the blog, I felt that he was less interested and that this project was not one of his priorities and he didn’t contribute much.

I have enjoyed recording sounds and feel that my input was more than adequate. I conducted thorough research into all aspects of our product. In the future however, I would like to contribute more, physically, to the production of a piece, rather than just saying how I think that something should sound. This is so that I can experience this role and experiment with it. I enjoyed being a part of this group and feel that I contributed well to the final product.

Throughout this creating process I have learned so much. Before I arrived at Uni I was only slightly a-where of the term ‘Soundscape’, but now I have a great understanding of what one is. This process has shown me how easy it is to work in a group and how easy it is to pull all of our ideas together, in our group we were mostly fortunate with who we had, if you work with someone who doesn’t pull their weight, it can potentially really affect the final outcome.

It is important to meet up regularly, as this kept a good rhythm to our thought process and the work produced. We chose to meet up weekly, as with this we could spin our ideas/new ideas to each other, and talk about what we achieved for the Soundscape in the previous week gone by.

Actually recording the sounds we needed were so much fun, like the natural wind noise and bird songs that I managed to get hold of, almost right place right time, the birds just sound beautiful. The other sounds that we used, we didn’t want them to be too prominent, any spikes of loudness would distract the listener, while if we keep everything at a low pace, the transition from sounds would be so much easier on the ear.

It was a great choice of ours to keep everything as natural as possible; because this is a meditative piece adding effects such as flanger and phaser would of ruined it, it would make the listener ‘think’ to much about what they are hearing, instead of immersing themselves in the world they are now in.

I have learned that you do not have to be worried about pitching an idea in, no matter how rubbish it sounds in your head. I suggested the initial idea, just because I had walked past the Brayford Swans earlier that day, and from that we have created a great meditative piece of music. This is a creative course, which means that we do not have to stick to the rules when we are making something, are there even any rules when it comes to creating? I don’t think so, but there is a definite skill to making something that someone is going to want to listen to.

Also Max was dead set on putting in a bass guitar note onto the Soundscape, and I was dubious of this because I felt that putting in a regular musical instrument would detract from the meditation aspect of our project. But Max pushed through with his idea and i’m glad he did because I now do believe that it was right to include it, and it enhances our Soundscape well.

If it ever arrises in the future to do another Soundscape, I do not believe that I would change much, if anything in the way we created ours. From the initial idea, where most of us pitched in and helped out, we were on the same level when we got our initial presentation ready, we all had equal opportunity to have input on it, and getting a first for that, shows we were doing a lot right. I believe that our Soundscape lives up to what we said we would do in our presentation, everything we said we would do, we delivered on, and created a great end product to be proud of.

Critical

 

When I was first told about making a soundscape I was a little dubious. Mostly I was unsure of where to start and if it would actually be good but 11 weeks of hard work, learning new techniques and delvolping new ideas I feel that I have been a part of a group that has created a high quality piece of audio.

 

When as a group we developed the idea for our piece that of being a meditative of tone relaxing soundscape focusing around the concept of a swan song, I personally got excited for I started to realize the potential. This is when I first experimented with different sound sources (mostly swans) and seeing what could be done to enhance them to make them fit our brief. It was during this stage that I really started to grasp how to use different techniques like E.Q and time stretching effectively. Also it was during this stage that I became enamored with the idea of changing the nature of a sound to alter its meaning. I believe this is something that I portrayed in our finished soundscape in where our swan noises are made to sound relaxing and I think that this contrast adds to the dynamic of our soundscape in how it blends the two notions of meditation and nature/swan seamlessly. Another feature in our soundscape which I was extremely proud of was the presence of the Bass Guitar notes. I feel that the use of the instrument here is vital for firstly I think that the way in which it accents the bells is extremely important in creating an environment of mediation and I also find that the low frequency of the bass helped add a certain amount of depth. Another reason I am personally proud of the Bass here is that I created the custom E.Q which took a lot of patience and learning but ultimately I feel I created a warm sounding bass tone to fit within the structure of our piece.

 

Another factor I felt helped the making  of our soundscape was due to our production group who I felt for the most part acted professional throughout whilst also maintaining an environment for creativity. In my group I feel that Timmie throughout was constantly working towards goals while at the same time coming up with new ideas for the teams to work,Vashti helped in my understanding of the concepts of meditation and swan song through her extensive research and she also was extremely good in a group setting in debating about ideas. What can be said about both Timmie and Vashti is that I felt they were passionate about what we were doing and learnt from the process. However I feel that Josh may have taken a back seat and was a little unprofessional, therefore I would probably not consider working with him again. I would like to think that I contributed good value ideas and also that I was able to provide technical support i.e microphone and techniques to the group. If I were to do this again I would defiantly invest more time in researching and also I feel I would try to be more experimental so I could further improve my knowledge in the subject.

 

 

Over the course of making this soundscape I have garnered a new appreciation for the art of soundscaping whilst also gaining a new understanding in many different recording and editing processes.

 

 

 

With the deadline approaching it was nice to know that as a group we would be able have our soundscape done and handed in, saying that we still had to do a last little bit of touching up and recording.

Firstly we started off with our usual Shed meeting,then afterwards me,Timmie and Vashti all came to mine where we worked out the structure for our soundscape. Also Vashti brought  some things that we all thought we be good to record and all stuff we believed would add to our soundscape and they were, Chinese exercise balls, A Tibetan singing bowl and a hand piano, for all of these had a natural vibe and would really help in creating a meditative tone. So in my room we set up a mini recording studio and got the sounds which ended sounding really good. After that it was simply a matter editing all of our sounds adding any required effects and creating our finished soundscape.

Now that it is done our must say that I’m proud of what we have produced for I think it sounds fantastic.