Tony - Automation - 15/01/2019

Automation Workshop

In today’s lesson we looked at audio automation. This involves taking a piece of sound and transforming it to give it more depth. Doing this can help make an audio clips sound more 3D and life like compared to an unedited clip. Today we covered 4 different tools in audition that allow us to edit sound and change the way it’s perceived to the human ear. In my audition multi-track today I used a sound clip from my year 1 final major project. The clip is just 1 person talking in to a mic in the recording studio located in the college. I used this clip because it is of good quality and is easy to use with the transformation I will be doing today. These 4 transformations are:

1. Volume
2. Pan
3. Reverb - Dry and Wet
4. EQ

I started the transformation by adjusting the volume. The raw clip was quiet and nearly unnoticeable. I used the volume line to appropriately adjust the volume to give the impression on a sound being close and getting further away. See “Image 1” for example. After the volume had been adjusted appropriately, I fixed the pan, this can be seen in “Image 2”, this is where audio starts to feel more realistic and not like just a sound out of headphones. The pan gives the impression of sound moving from 1 ear to the other. As if something is going past you from 1 side to the other. “Image 3” displays the use of reverb in audio. For this piece I used studio reverb out of all the subcategories this time I felt the need to only use 2 as I was just experimenting with audio for practice sake. The 2 channels of reverb I used were “Decay” and “Dry Output Level”. These changed my audio and gave it more depth. This type of automation is designed to make a sound feel like it is moving closer and further away, making audio feel 3D and more realistic. I agree with what I experimented with, I was successful in achieving this sound, however, I do feel as though I need to practice more with this as I did not quite achieve the sound I would have liked to. Finally in this editing workshop I added EQ. this adjusted the bass and treble of the clip making it sound clearer and more appropriate for the environment I was trying to edit it for. With EQ "Image 4" I also experimented with 2 versions so I could have a try and play with the different sound adjustments. The 2 I chose to experiment with on this occasion were “Master Gain” and “EQ Band 5 Band Width”. These gave some interesting sounds that much like reverb I feel as though I would have to experiment more with and learn about more to use with confidence in further projects. Overall, today’s workshop in audition was very useful as I learnt how I can make my sound in projects go further, bringing it to life with a more realistic 3D effect. Although I will have to practice more with the techniques I was taught about today, I will be trying to apply them more into future projects to show my skills in audio and audio editing.

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Tony - Graphic Equalization Workshop - 08/01/2019

Graphic Equalization Workshop

Today in lesson we have been looking at a workshop for Audition and its options for improving audio quality. We did this by looking at 5 different effects in waveform that can transform a clip and give the impression of better produced audio to the viewer. To show examples of these effects in use I will be taking the audio from my video “Gag the Dog” and reviewing the audio quality applying these effects to show what a difference they can make to the audio. The effects included in this workshop:

1. Waveform adjustment (db)
2. Graphic Equalizer
3. Parametric Equalizer
4. Fast Fourier Transformer Filter
5. Notch Filter 

I started by looking at editing the audio levels and balancing out where the mic had been hit harder. This is shown in “Image 1” and “Image 2” where you can see the highlighted clip and been turned down to make it less hard on the ears hearing it and means it sound clearer to the listener. This effect is useful in examples such as this and is one that I should have used when editing this clip originally. The following effects can be used in an attempt to make audio clearer and easier to understand. I did this by trying to affect the audio to make it sound more compressed and closed in. This would make it sound cleaner to the ear and help improve the overall audio quality. We see the effects of the Graphic Equalizer (which can be used as 10 bands, 20 bands, and 30 bands) depending on how much editing you want to apply to the clip will affect how many bands you will want to use audition. See the effects of the Graphic Equalizer being applied in “Image 3”. “Image 4” shows how I used the Parametric Equalizer to fit the audio quality. “Image 5” with FFT Filter and “Image 6” with Notch Filter. Using these effects I feel confident that I know how to editing audio quality to improve the sound before moving into the mix down to continue the more intense Audition editing. Out of all of these effects I found that the Graphic Equalizer is what worked best for me and was the form of equalizing I found easiest to use. I will be using this effect to fix future sound clips for projects. The other forms of editing were useful to me however, I found the Graphic Equalizer to be the easiest to use and found it provided the best results for my clip.

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