Sonic Design/ Project 2: Auditory Imaging

20/05/2025 - 03/06/2025 / Week 5 - Week 7

Lim En Yu / 0354452

Sonic Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor’s University 

Project 2: Auditory Imaging

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Instructions

2. Exercises

3. Project 1: Audio Fundamentals

4. Feedback

5. Reflection

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Instructions

Fig 1.1 Module Information

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Exercises

On this week, Mr Razif has demonstrated us on how to utilise the sound effects like stretch, pitch shifter, parametric equallizer, reverb and etc. We could derive a better audio from a plain sound clips. This week we have used explosion audio as an example.

As the explosion sound sounds not big enough because lack of the basee part, I have applied parametric equalizer that increases the base part and reduce the high frequency part.

Fig 2.1 Parametric equalizer

Also, the explosion time is too short, I have applied stretch and pitch to the sound track that make the explosion longer and lower in pitch. Other than that, I have also applied chorus effect that create multiple sound tracks for explosion.

Fig 2.2 Stretch and pitch

Fig 2.3 Chorus

These are the sound tracks that applied to create a more impactful explosion. It consists of a pre explosion sound, explosion effect and echoes of explosion.

Fig 2.4 Overview of layering

Fig 2.5 Explosion audio

Monster

We are instructed to alter the audio to monster and alien. For the monster one, I first stretch the audio to make it slower, and lower down the pitch. Also, I have added another effect of pitch shifter that lower down the pitch twice so the monster voice will be more obvious. 

Fig 2.6 Stretch and pitch

Fig 2.7 Pitch shifter

Fig 2.8 Parametric equalizer

However, after I have applied pitch shifter, parametric equalizer and denoise effect, the audio become a bit blurry, therefore I have duplicated another audio without any effect so that the audio sounds more natural.

Fig 2.9 Layering for monster

Fig 2.10 Monster audio

Alien

For alien, I just play with the chorus and flanger effect. I first apply the chorus effect until 9 voices, the followed by multiple flanger effects which are: teleport, too many pills and heavy flange.

Fig 2.11 Effects applied

Fig 2.12 Chorus

Fig 2.13 Flanger - Teleport

Fig 2.14 Flanger - Too many pills

Fig 2.15 Flanger - Heavy flange

Fig 2.16 Alien audio

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Project 2: Auditory Imaging

We are given the task of creating an audio image that captures a first-person point of view, allowing listeners to visualize what’s happening based solely on the sound. The audio should tell a story for my chosen scenario, bringing it to life through layers of sound without any dialogue or spoken words.

The choice scenario are:

1. Wildlife + Background

2. Everyday Home Life + Background

3. Cities + Transport + Exterior Atmosphere

4. Industry and Electronic sounds + Background

5. Weather + Background

6. Market + Rural atmosphere + Background

After I looked through the choices of chosen scenario, I decided to go with cities + transport + exterior atmosphere which I heard the most and I already has a rough idea of how it should sounds like. I have used public transport a lot, so I decided to start with lrt, and also include bus and multiple types of vehicles in the audio while the person is actually on the way to office.

Fig 3.1 Storyline of Project 2

List of the sound effects:

Scene 1: On the LRT

- LRT train ambience

- Announcement

- Doors opening

Scene 2: LRT station

- Station ambience

- Footsteps

- Beep sound

Scene 3: Walking on the street while vehicles passed by

- Street ambience

- Traffic ambience

- Multiple vehicles passed by

- People talking and walking

- Footstpes

- Bicycle sound

- Bicycle bell ring

Scene 4: Street performance and bus stop

- Street ambience

- Vehicles passed by

- Bulking music

- Coin sounds

- People talking

- Bus coming

- Bus paying beep sound

- People talking

- Bus leaving

- Footsteps

Scene 5: Entering the office

- Sliding door sound

- Whoosh sound of air conditioner

- Heels footsteps

- Air conditioner ambience

- Greeting of receptionist

Firstly, I have downloaded all the sound effects and ambience that     I need for diffferent scenes according to my storyline. This will ease my working progress and I won't need go back and forth and save a lot of time.

I started with my first scene, which is on the lrt train and getting off the train and go out from the lrt train. The lrt announcement source I found it on youtube which is official by rapid kl. The ambience in lrt lower down when I started to get off the train, followed by the ambience in the lrt station along with the people walking, talking and beep sounds in the station.

Fig 3.2 Starting in the lrt

Here is the parametric equalizer applied for footsteps, as the original one sounds a bit weird and off tone with the current audio. After adjusments, the footsteps sound aligned with the environment.

Fig 3.3 Parametric equalizer for footsteps

As I can't find any beep sound resource on the internet, I extracted it using an ambience in the lrt station. I have tried very hard to extract it out, and I finally find a way to extract out using parametric equalizer and also increase the volume.

Fig 3.4 Extracting beep sound

Next, I proceed to the traffic ambience. After coming out from train station, it will slowly fade in with the traffic ambience as well as the street ambience. I have found multiple vehicle tracks to match with it. Some of vehicle passed by audios are too fast, so I have find specifically for slow speed vehicle.

Fig 3.5 Traffic ambience sound tracks

While walking on the street, the music sound of busking is slowly heard by me while it get stronger when I come closer. Along with it is the people ambience and coins sounds. Mr Rafiq says originally when first time heard it he thought it was too long but after hearing it again it sounds okay with the speed of pace.

Fig 3.6 Street performance

Other than that, after the street performance, there is a bus station beside it. The bus has just arrived the station. I have combined two different sound tracks of bus audio as they have different sound that I want. One of it has the high pitch sound of bus stopping, and another one has a nice engine sound of bus resting.

Also, most of the bus now has paying system by tapping the card, so I have added some beep sounds of people paying in the middle. The resource of beep sound I found is not that clear, therefore I have applied parametric equalizer to extract that frequency of sound.

Fig 3.7 Bus arriving and leaving

Fig 3.8 Bus beep

Lastly, the story ends with entering the office. I have added the sliding door sound effect along with the air conditioner whoosh sound when you will heard when entering a place with air conditioner like office. Then, the ambience will be a quite ambience with air conditioner sounds, and the story ends with a greeting from the receptionist.

Fig 3.9 Entering office

Fig 3.10 Entering office aircon parametric equalizer

Fig 3.11 First trial outcome

Fig 3.12 Google drive submission

Final outcome for Project 2: Auditory Imaging

Fig 3.13 Final outcome for Project 2: Auditory Imaging

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Feedback

Mr Razif said that overall is okay, but if I want to get A, the footsteps should be changing according different locations as the background sound is changing but footsteps did not change according to the context. Also, the last part whne entering the office, the whoosh sound of air conditioner sounds weird, may be could try lower down the volume or change the pace of walking.

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Reflection

Working on this auditory imaging project was a new and exciting challenge for me. I decided to focus on the “Cities + Transport + Exterior Atmosphere” theme because it’s something I experience almost daily, and I already had a clear mental picture of how the journey to the office should sound. 

Gathering the right sound effects and organizing them by scene really helped streamline the process. I especially enjoyed blending layers like traffic, footsteps, and background chatter to create an immersive urban journey. One of the hardest parts was extracting and enhancing specific sounds like the beep from the LRT station, which took a lot of experimenting with the parametric equalizer. I also learned the importance of using sound texture to match different environments. 

Mr. Razif’s feedback made me realize I had overlooked how footsteps should change depending on location, and that small details like the air conditioner “whoosh” can affect the overall realism. I’ll definitely take this into account in future sound designs. Overall, I’m happy with how the project turned out and feel like I’ve grown in both technical skill and creative thinking! This is only a small challenge for the next few projects ^v^

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