UPDATE:
I find it highly disappointing that we are dropping the power-point assessment, because of how excited I was for it (along with the fact that I already started working on it. In think the blog was added this year and that's why that assessment dropped, honestly I don't know which I would prefer. The only sure thing is that the power-point would have been a lot less work, but then it goes hand-in-hand with a blog. I am conflicted and would probably have preferred to just do both of them.
This week we started our foray into Pro Tools. We learned the basics, the notes below cover that:
How to Open Pro Tools:
Open ProTools12.EXE and then activate with USB. Can't be used without - also no audio when watching YouTube.
How to Use Pro Tools:
New Project:
We want 48kHz, interleaved and saved to the correct drive.
Screen-cap of what me and Izaiah did in class (where we took random sound effects and combined them and it actually sounded pretty good)
We also learned which tools to use, how to move and scale tracks, how to import, how to fade in an effect, how to create a transition between two of them and how to adjust the volume with nodes. So far everything in Pro Tools is pretty straight forward, too bad about it's weird accessibility problems and need to for plug-ins for certain features (like slowing down or speeding up a clip).
We had to use some audio samples we were given to create a soundscape in Pro Tools. I've attached mine below - I have included copyrighted music to help create the scene I was after:
Song by Unkle Adams
I tried to create a scene with just the sound, my two main goals were:
1) Create a sense of atmosphere
I listened to what Kiarne did and my favourite part of his soundscape was the atmospheric effect he was able to create. I liked the rain and thunder, it put me in that environment and I found it calming.
For my soundscape I imagined a rainy road at night, the scene sees a car speeding and crashing. A horrible rap song by the almighty 'Unk' playing as the poor victims quietly pass on into the next life.
I think the first half of the video is successful, the crash itself is clunky. I wish I had more time to work on and refine the piece.
2) Illustrate a car going past with music playing
I had this idea when Matthew incorporated a song into his soundscape. I thought it would be cool to hear a car go by, maybe even in the distance, blaring music. This idea snowballed into the crash because of the type of song I ended up using.
Some things to NOTE:
I really enjoyed the process of creating the soundscape even if it was somewhat limiting. When you are working on it you notice and intend things that will go completely unnoticed by others - especially when played alongside a motion picture. I used the cricket sound to set the scene at the start and then had it disappear as the first car went by. It only comes back when the crash has already happened and the man is screaming. A cow also joins in, signifying how the world moves on.
I expected everyone's soundscapes to end up being the same, after all we were pulling from the same pool of effects. I was impressed with how different each persons I heard were. Kiarne's and Dillon's shared the same choice of effects and created a similar scene, but one presented a full on sci-fi crime city whereas the other was a more of a realistic ride-along.
Going in I wanted to limit my sound effects and avoid the ones I had heard used so often in other people's soundscapes. I decided to go with simplicity and work mainly with wind, thunder and car sounds. I didn't want the police or dogs, setting it on a rural road and not a city was the way to go.
It's clear that I really enjoyed the process of creating the soundscape, and I am extremely excited for the other class activities like ADR and scoring a scene, but I don't know how I feel about Pro Tools 12. At the moment it's very inaccessible and I can't use it in my free time. It seems more hassle than it's worth especially with the other audio editing programs we have (much easier) access to.
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