Soundscape Inspiration

Above is a supermarket soundscape that I listened to and got inspiration from. I really liked how the sounds built up slowly and then became more obvious. I also liked the fact that the person who recorded it kept some of the original sounds of the supermarket, but also manipulated some of the sounds so that they sounded unusual and not what you would typically hear in a supermarket. I think this soundscape sounded really spooky and eery because of the loud sounds and manipulation. I quite liked this because it's the opposite of what a supermarket actually is and I'm hoping I can achieve the same feel with my soundscape. 
This was the only supermarket soundscape I could find online but it really inspired me and gave me idea's for edits that I could possibly do for my soundscape.

Equipment Used

I used two pieces of equipment when conducting my interview.
The first piece was a Marantz PMD 661. This is is a sound recording device. I felt this was the best device to use as I'd used it before so I knew how to use it and it's quite easy to use anyway and I didn't need anything too complex. 

The second piece of equipment I used was the Sennheiser K6. This is a big fluffy mic that I thought would be perfect for my interview and soundscape as it's really clear and picks up sounds really well. 

Complete Interview & Personal Opinion

Final Interview

The link above is my complete interview. 

Personal Opinion
I think the content of my overall interview is good. It's very well presented and has a lot of detail within in. The interviewee speaks clearly, slowly and informatively. The effects are relevant for the type of sound that I have created.

What could be improved?
The editing is relevant but isn't as professional as it could be. I don't know a lot about editing vocals so it was hard to determine which amount was the right amount to add. However, I researched and estimated thoroughly and I think it sounds fine.

Complete Soundscape & Personal Opinion

Final Soundscape

The link above is my final soundscape. 

Person Opinion
I like the sounds in my soundscape. I think it sounds really interesting and unique for the listener. I find the contrast between the happy, Christmas music and the spooky sounds that are around the supermarket engaging and it just makes me want to listen more.

What could be improved?
I could've had a wider range of edits within my soundscape. It was difficult to edit because of the music playing in the background when I cut bits out the music skipped so it was obvious. However, I still managed to cut pieces out and manipulate them to create a broader range of sounds.

Interview Editing

The screen shot above shows my interview before I started editing it. I started off with 10 tracks. I recorded the interview twice so I would have enough to work with, and incase the first recording was of poor quality. I listened to all the clips that I had and established the best responses from my interviewee and the ones that had the best quality of sound.

The screen shot above is an example of a clip that I had to edit. This was a response from my interviewee about the best night life in Brighton. I decided to use this print screen as an example in my blog because she said "um" and "er" and stuttered a bit so I felt that this was the most challenging to edit. However, I managed to edit it so that it didn't have these faults in it and it still sounded natural.



The screen shot above shows my interview after I had edited out all the unwanted parts. I was left with the remaining. The remaining parts are Olivia's answers to the questions I was asking her. I chose what I thought were the best and most thorough responses.

I added full reverb to my vocals. I used the preset 'Vocal Reverb (small)' because I wanted an option that was specifically for vocals as that's the main sound in my interview.

After this, I added noise reduction to my interview. There were a few unwanted background noises, and the occasional over-pronounced 'p' sound, so I used Heavy Noise Reduction to make this quieter and more natural sounding. 

I then added Delay to my interview. I wanted to add a bit of life to my interview so it didn't sound so dull and flat. I added the preset 'Room Ambience' to it to give it more of a lift and make it sound more like a radio show.

Soundscape Editing

The screenshot above is my soundscape before I began editing. It was just over 6 minutes long so I cut it down to 3 minutes.

The screenshot above is an example of adding delay to a sound. I chose to add the preset "Bounce" to this short sound clip as I liked the way it manipulated the sound and balanced it with all the other sounds.

The screenshot above is showing again, the addition of delay to my piece. I chose to repeat the sound of the till beep. I chose the preset slap back to apply. I did this because I wanted to achieve a longer delay time on this sound.

I then added reverb to a short clip on my soundscape. I wanted to make it appear echoey and also for it to be more obvious for the listener to hear. 

The screenshot above is how my soundscape looked once I had finished editing it. I cut some pieces out and put them on different tracks. I did this because I wanted to pan some sounds to the left or the right to make it sound more engaging for the listener. I also had to make some volume adjustments.

Interview Final Idea

The idea that I decided to go with for my interview was interviewing my friend about why she chose to come to Brighton and what's appealing there for students. I really liked this idea as I thought it would be an interesting topic for roughly 18-25 year old's who are possibly looking into going to Brighton for uni or just want to know about the nightlife! 

Olivia Watson is a first year Business Management with Marketing student at the University of Brighton. She's very smart and knows a lot about Brighton as before she was a student she used to come here a lot on day trips etc. I thought she'd be perfect to interview to talk about Brighton as she knows it really well and what's good/not so good. Also, now she's a student she's able to talk about the university and what the city of Brighton has to offer for students in the daytime and nightime.