Samuel Pullen Portfolio

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Evaluation Document

https://connectglosac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/s4002426_glos_ac_uk/EQimfMYnoAlGnuUhLHxy7t4B5EiEZuGUi93ONc4YuX4qHQ?e=PvgR38

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Main Project

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Checkpoint 2 Presentation

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Checkpoint one presentation

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Market and audience research

A face Value Look:

This is essentially just what I can find from a quick search looking for binaural libraries.

They tend to be relatively expensive.

The selections aren’t very expansive.

It’s hard to find exactly what you want quickly.

The sound packs tend to be very large.

Examples:

Original Binaural Sound Effects Library

Free to Use Sounds

A Sound Effect

A Deeper Look:

A look farther into more specific forest and woodland based binaural sound effects libraries.

Once you start getting more specific prices quickly go up

Although the packs for this price are hugely expansive with hundreds of sound effects

Examples:

Acoustic Nature

Boom Library

       My Look at Free Effects

This was my delve into free sound effects downloaded off YouTube and different sites. Although not binaural it gave me a good idea of the sort of choice creators had working with free effects. It was also a test to see what sounds were easily accessible to make a scene and what wasn’t.

Online Test Recording

Blogs:

I’ve had a look through a few blogs to get an idea of what others are doing in field and binaural recording. Although not hugely useful it has been interesting to see the equipment people use and some people are even recording similar subject matter to myself.

Examples:

Binaural Diaries

Acoustic Nature

Creative Field Recording

Platforms:

I had a brief look at platforms that seemed good for hosting sound libraries. There weren’t many and I quickly concluded that the Unreal Marketplace seemed best.

Examples:

Soundcloud

People couldn’t easily download.

Limited by a free account

YouTube

Unlimited amount

Not easy to access.

Not an ideal platform for audio

Unreal Marketplace

Easy to use.

Specifically, made for my purposes.

Even the cheapest options are still paid.

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A chart showing the general plan for recording and production

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A test to see what I could make using only free sound effects sourced online to find gaps in the market.

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Binaural Test Recordings - Woodland

Listen to Binaural Test Recordings - Woodland by Sam #np on #SoundCloud

Binaural Test Recordings using Sennheiser Ambeo Headset in a Woodland

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Module Task 3: Performance Evaluation

For my piece I aimed to create an ambient textural performance. I wanted my backing drone to be thick and constant with no wavering that a looper tends to have when repeating even on sustained notes so to avoid this I used the freeze feature on Ableton’s reverb. This immediately gave me the texture I wanted from my drone and gave me a constant backing to be working over the top of. I then used a looped slightly later in the performance to play eighth notes to give the performance a sense of rhythm. Although I perhaps should have worked to a metronome to achieve this as I quickly realised that in a live situation it’s difficult to stay in time with just the eight notes on bass.

I mapped all my controls such as record arming, effects and looping onto the Behringer MIDI foot controller. I did consider using the soft step but realised that the light touch it requires doesn’t particularly fit my playing style. On the effects side of the performance, I had different pedals controlling distortion on the two of the tracks and a chorus on the drone that I could bring in and out to change around the texture and keep it interesting for the audience. Ableton’s reverb was crucial to the piece as it hinged so much on it’s ambient nature.

The fact I was only using a bass for my performance did prove a challenge. It meant I had access to a lot less higher notes that work for improvising/soloing over the drones I’d created. If I could I’d definitely like to try the performance with a bass and a guitar and practice quickly switching between the two of them to give the performance more diversity instrumentally.

In future I’d definitely be interested in developing more sections into the performance and trying to make any changed seamless so that the atmosphere of the show isn’t broken. I feel like this could be achieved using a MIDI Mixer and to reverbs with the freeze feature and then fading between the two. Although it then may require two people to successfully perform the pieces well.

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Final Track Evaluation

For my track I wanted to give off the feeling of vintage tech. I did this by creating a lo-fi feel throughout my piece. With my main synths I aimed to replicate the sound of a tape machine starting up. Having quite a slow attack on one of my layers in the instrument rack helped achieve this effect.  I then used an extremely short sample of violin that I pitched up and applied countless effects to, such as an arpeggiator, as a main melody that has retro tech feel to it. I used slight amounts of sidechain compression to help fit this main melody into the track as when adding it the song was already fairly dense with synths.

The bulk of the track is intentionally quite repetitive as I wanted it to have a monotonous feel, but I also didn’t want it to become boring when listening, so I brought in each instrument slowly and dropped them out in sections of the song so that other elements became more prominent.

I also wanted the final section to differ slightly from the rest of the track and show some progression in the song, so I used a saturator to completely distort the violin sample and lowered it in the mix. I then added white noise that became increasingly louder as the section went on. I added flanger to this white noise to give it some interest and automated the rate so that there was a sudden increase at the end before most of the instruments drop out to create a satisfying climax to the section.

I feel as though on the most-part I created a track that stylistically fits the retro aim that I intended. I think that there were definitely some layers that could have used more refining and perhaps the main melody would have benefited from being slightly less repetitive to aid interest throughout the track.

I also had to finish my track in Ableton Intro as my trial ran out of trial on Ableton Suite. This just meant I had to freeze and flatten my synth tracks so that I could export it. I have another document in the folder with screenshots of all my settings for these synths.

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