Unit 70: Stage Sound Design

Justification of sound design

We were asked to create a 3 minute sound scape that communicated a bygone time, which could be displaced. Our theme was Liverpool. We researched Liverpool and at first, came up with the idea of communicating a different culture or foreign country. We also looked at war and slavery alone before coming up with the idea to create a sound scape with sounds that relate to immigration and slavery, and leave our sound scape open to interpretation. We eventually decided to go to Liverpool dock to capture sounds to do with immigration and slavery, which linked to our original idea of a different culture.

We chose to play African drums throughout our piece to directly relate to the theme of immigration and slavery. The drums are of a fast pace which suggests tension.

However, we decided to edit the rest of the drums after the original drums using sound forge using the distort effect, to show the transition from a familiar culture to a change in culture when the immigrants travelled to Liverpool. We also wanted to distort the drums to a point that they created more tension and fear and a significant change in the atmosphere of the piece. Distorting sounds helps to create this tension because it changes the sounds pitch and adds dissonance. The drums have a short attack, sustain and decay and a fast paced rhythm. The drums are a low pitch which makes each beat sound powerful. This edited drum piece plays throughout the rest of our soundscape which carries the feeling of tension.

We then layered the beginning of the drum rhythm with African birds. We chose to have the bird sounds fade out when the drums begin to distort. The bird soundings are of a high

frequency, which makes us feel like we are close to the source of the sound and immersed in the culture. This links to Bill Fontana’s Pigeon Soundings, where he used birds to communicate space and location.

We chose to play the sound of water we recorded, and decided to manipulate it so it was a lot louder than the other sounds at this point. This is show that the water is a significant part of our sound scape. This links to Bill Fontana’s River Soundings. He purposely recorded water, and displaced the sound at sites where there isn’t any running water. This links to his idea of “suspending visual belief”.

We also included the cry of a man, which we added reverb to so it sounds as though he is on a boat in a confined space. Reverb makes a sound echo, and can help to communicate location. The man’s voice has a short attack, a long sustain and moderate decay. The beginning of the sound is a high frequency, moving to a midrange frequency, then a low frequency just before the sound finishes. This makes the man’s cry seem powerful, and yet also like we’re close to the source of the sound, which suggests the lack of space on the boat, which is backed up by our use of reverb on this sound.

The boats horn is of a low frequency which makes it sound powerful. The horn has a short attack and a long sustain and decay. This makes the sound longer than most, which could be linked to the question of slavery – when will it end? This also links to Bill Fontana’s work, as this is an environmental sound that we recorded in Liverpool.

Our sound scape contains distinct sounds that can be linked directly to our theme, and the theme of bygone times. Our sound scape’s theme helps it to be displaced in the means of time, and culture. We have also been able to edit our sounds to create sounds that sound older, or for example, reverb has been added to make the sound echo like the sound is coming from an enclosed space on a boat. If I were to do my sound scape again, I would record more sounds, or distinct sounds that could be repeated throughout the sound scape.