Sonic Design/ Project 3: Audio Storytelling

10/06/2025 - 29/06/2025 / Week 8 - Week 10

Lim En Yu / 0354452

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

Project 3: Audio Storytelling




TABLE OF CONTENTS







Instructions
Fig 1.1 Module Information



Project 3: Audio Storytelling


I’ll be recording the storytelling myself. To enhance the immersion and make the experience more engaging, I’ve selected sound effects for each scene. Since some sound effects may be quite brief, I’ll prioritize the key sounds and support them with background music that complements each moment, helping to set the mood and evoke the right emotions throughout the story. 


The Frog Prince

Once upon a time, in a faraway castle, lived a very spoilt Princess. She got whatever she wanted — ponies, bicycles, even a diamond dress.

One morning, she said,
“I want a golden ball, Daddy.”

“Of course, sugarlump,” said the King.

He called his goldsman.
“Make a golden ball at once!”

Soon, the goldsman brought a shiny golden ball. The Princess grabbed it and rushed outside. But she tripped — and the ball flew into the pond.

“Oh, fiddlesticks,” muttered the Princess.

A voice called, “Needeep, I can help.”

She looked down to see a green frog smiling.

“You can talk?” said the Princess.

“Yep! Want your ball back?” asked the frog.

“Yes!” said the Princess.

“Okay, but you must give me a kiss,” said the frog.

“Ewww! Never!” replied the Princess.

“Suit yourself,” said the frog.

She splashed around but couldn’t find it.

“Need my help now?” asked the frog.

“Fine,” grunted the Princess. “Ball for a kiss.”

“Needeep!” said the frog. He quickly fetched the ball.

“Now for my kiss,” said the frog.

The Princess grabbed the ball and ran.

“Hey!” called the frog.

The King had seen it all.

“Where are you going, young lady?” asked the King.

“Daddy?” said the Princess.

“You made a promise. A promise is a promise,” said the King.

“But Daddy, he’s slimy and yucky,” protested the Princess.

“Doesn’t matter,” said the King.

So the Princess huffed, puffed, and gave the frog a quick, wet kiss.

Suddenly — BANG!

When the smoke cleared, a dazzling Prince stood before her.

“Golly gumdrops!” said the Princess. “I wasn’t expecting that!”

“A wicked witch turned me into a frog,” explained the Prince. “Only a kiss from a true Princess could break the spell.”

“I’m sorry for being horrible,” said the Princess.

“My darling,” said the King, “it doesn’t matter if he’s a Prince, a frog, or a spider — we should treat everyone kindly.”

From that day, the Princess was kind to everyone. She and the Prince became best friends, often walking by the pond.

“Needeep, needeep!” laughed the Prince.

The End.



Sound Effects
Opening Scene
  • ponies
  • bicycle
  • diamond dress (magical shining sound)

Scene 1: Asking for golden ball
  • light bell chime
  • golden ball shining sound
  • Rushing sound
  • Tripped sound
  • Ball flew into the pond

Scene 2: Meeting the frog
  • frog croak
  • splashed around
  • frog jumping
  • running away

Scene 3: Fullfilling frog's wish
  • reluctant sigh sound
  • kissing sound
  • magical sound
  • witch sound

Ending scene
  • laughing sound

I have done all the recordings of dialogue using my phone in a silent room which I have turned off everything and close the door to ensure I have a quite surrounding to achieve best environment for audio recording.
Fig 2.1 Recordings using iphone


After I have done all the recordings, I ahve imported them all into Adobe Audition and applied noise reduction by capture the noise print first, Every sound track after reducing the noise has a very good quality already as I recorded in a silent room.

Other than that, after the noise reduction, I have also removed away the subtle noise in the sound track where there are extra small waves in the audio. This help to clean up my sound track.
Fig 2.2 Noise reduction progress #1

Fig 2.3 Noise reduction progress #2

On the other hand, I have arranged them accordingly and cut them into the right length. Here is the overview of  multitrack sessions with the storytelling audio only.
Fig 2.4 Multitrack overview of soundtrack

After finishing with the qudio recording, I then proceeded to search for sound effects that are suitable to be inserted into the storytelling which can help the qudience to visualize the story more. Here are the lists of sound effects that I have downloaded online.
Fig 2.5 Sound effects dowloaded

Then I have started with the editing of the sound effects as not all the sound effects acquire the effect that I wanted. For example, the ponies sound is too long, therefore I have stretched it to shorter time and lower the tone back.
Fig 2.6 Editing on sound effects #1

Furthermore, sound effects like footsteps also require some light editing, such as applying a pitch shifter and a parametric equalizer. This helps adjust the tone and texture, making the sounds better match the environment and feel more natural within the scene.
Fig 2.7 Editing on sound effects #2

Fig 2.8 Editing on sound effects #3

Besides that, for the princess, frog and narration I actually didn't apply any editing like pitch shifter as I already tone the voice by myself. However for the male character part like king and prince I have applied different level of pitch shifter. For instance, the king has a lower voice which is lower semi-tones in pitch shifter and for prince the tone is slightly higher which representing younger male voice.
Fig 2.9 Pitch shifter for King

Fig 2.10 Pitch shifter for Prince


After receiving first feedback from Mr Razif, he mentioned that the overall dialogues after denoise is a bit too thin, so I can adjust the parametric equalizer at the end to bring the frequency and quality back. Also, I can take note on the "S" sound of the audio, which I will make amend later since this is only the first verision.
Fig 2.11 Increase the thickness of the audio

To reduce the harsh "S" sounds in the dialogue, I used a combination of a parametric equalizer and a de-esser. First, I identified the specific frequency range where the "S" sounds were most prominent using the parametric equalizer. By slightly reducing the gain in that frequency band, I was able to soften the sharpness without affecting the overall clarity of the voice. I then applied a de-esser to further tame any remaining sibilance. Together, these adjustments helped smooth out the audio and make the dialogue sound more natural and pleasant to listen to.
Fig 2.12 Eliminate away the "S" using Parametric equalizer

Fig 2.13 Eliminate away the "S" using De esser

Also, Mr Razif also adviced me to add direction for different character. For example, the princess voice is always on the left, while other characters like the king, prince and frog is always on the right side, and the narrator is always center.
Fig 2.14 Add direction to different audio

After I have done all the audio editing, I start on the story pages, I have downloaded the story pictures online and add some element like the texts and the border and the exported them out by images.
Fig 2.15 Creating story pages

Lastly, I made the compilation of the images and audio tracks in Premiere Pro and add the transition effect which is page flipping.
Fig 2.16 Compilation in Adobe Premiere Pro


Project 3: Audio Storytelling
Fig 2.17 Final Outcome for Project 3: Audio Storytelling




Feedback

Week 9: After I have done the first draft, I have shown Mr Razif in the class. The first problem that he pointed out is the background musics are too loud, and it is not necessary to have a music at all time. It can be soften and empty, but if I feel like too empty I can add some ambience.

Another thing is the overall audio after denoise is a bit too thin, so I can adjust the parametric equalizer at the end to bring the frequency and quality back. Also, I can take note on the "S" sound of the audio but since this is only my first version that inputing all the sound tracks, I will change it later.

Besides that, Mr Razif said that I can play around with the direction of the sound, like Princess and frog and be and left and right different direction. Other than that, this is almost done! YAYY


Week 10: After I have done my amendments for last week I shown it to Mr Razif again. This time is with the video of storybook pages flipping. For this time, Mr Razif commented on the loudness of the characters' dialogue. He said the mixing is not there yet, although the audio level of different characters might looked the same, but since female voice has higher frequency, it will sounds louder, I have to lower downthe princess's dialogue.




Reflection

I personally think that Project 3 is actually more relax? like more chill compare to the last project. I chose to narrate "The Frog Prince" myself because I wanted to practice voice acting and bring the characters to life in my own way. To enhance immersion, I carefully selected sound effects and background music that matched each scene. 

One of the biggest technical challenges was cleaning the recordings. I recorded in a quiet room, but after applying noise reduction, some dialogue sounded too thin. I learned how to fix this using parametric equalizers and de-essers, which also helped me reduce harsh "S" sounds. Another important lesson was sound direction. Thanks to Mr. Razif’s feedback, I panned character voices left or right depending on who was speaking, which really improved the spatial feel of the story. 

I also learned that more sound is not always better. Balancing background music and knowing when to leave silence or just ambience made a big difference. Mixing the audio so all characters felt balanced, especially adjusting the princess’s higher-pitched voice, taught me more about sound perception. Overall, this project helped me appreciate the detailed process behind audio storytelling, from voice control to technical editing and emotional pacing. I also feel proud for myself as I think my voice suits the princess and frog very well, especially the frog hehe.



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