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Category: Sound Design

sound design

Contributions and participation during the project’s progress-xiaole liu

1. Early Recording and Sound Library Construction

After defining the sound style and expressive goals for the five emotional stages, I moved on to developing the preliminary recording plan and took charge of collecting and initially organizing the sound materials.

This phase was not just about gathering sounds — it was a process of conceptual sound creation and design, centered around the project’s emotional framework.
The goal of this task was to build a comprehensive sound library that would provide a rich and diverse selection of sounds for other teammates handling the final sound design, significantly boosting their efficiency and creative flexibility.

Categorization and Recording Planning

I first classified the five emotional stages and extracted their core sound characteristics. Combining my previous research and team discussions, I drafted dedicated recording lists and foley plans for each emotion. Here are a few examples:

  • Anger: Focused on high-frequency, sharp, and explosive sounds. I prepared metal rods, glassware, chains, and recorded creative foley through collisions, friction, and dragging to capture tension and confrontation.

  • Denial: Aimed to evoke blurriness, disorientation, and undefined spatiality. I recorded blurred voices, fabric friction, and reversed water sounds to express psychological avoidance and confusion.

  • Bargaining: Simulated psychological tug-of-war and indecision. I used paper tearing, cyclic breaking syllables, and unstable rhythmic vibrations to create the texture of psychological uncertainty.

  • Depression: Used low-frequency, slow, continuous sounds to convey oppression. Recordings included deep echoes from buckets, ambient noise, and breathing sounds to create a closed, silent space.

  • Acceptance: Represented gentleness, release, and continuity. I used soft metal friction, wind chimes, bells, and faint melodic fragments to simulate the smooth transition of emotions.

All recordings were independently completed by me.
Each week, I rented professional recording equipment and secured sampling locations, striving to ensure high-quality and diversified materials. I also experimented with various techniques (different gestures, force variations, and medium changes) to capture more expressive raw sounds.

Post-Processing and Sound Design

After recording, I imported the raw audio into ProTools for detailed post-production. To tailor the materials to each emotional stage, I applied various acoustic and stylistic transformations, including:

  • Reverb: Simulating spatial extension to evoke impressions of echo, loneliness, vastness, or relief.

  • Pitch Shifting: Lowering pitch for heavier emotions or raising it to induce unease and tension.

  • EQ (Equalization): Enhancing or attenuating specific frequency bands to sharpen, deepen, clarify, or blur the sound textures.

  • Delay and Time Stretching: Extending audio length, creating echoes, and simulating auditory time suspension.

  • Filtering: Applying high-pass or low-pass filters to make sounds feel distant, muffled, or veiled.

  • Reverse and Reconstruction: Reversing and rearranging audio clips to break naturalness and create surreal psychological effects.

  • Compression: Controlling dynamic range differences to enhance the emotional cohesion and impact.

Processing Examples

  • Denial (Denial):
    When editing fabric friction sounds, I applied a low-pass filter to reduce high frequencies, making the sound blurrier. Then, I added slight reverb and reversed segments to enhance the feeling of spatial confusion and psychological escape.

  • Anger (Anger):
    For metal collision sounds, I pitch-shifted the recordings up by half an octave to sharpen the harshness, applied saturation to introduce distortion, and added light delay to create chaotic spatial echoes, enhancing the tension.

Through these techniques, I not only boosted the expressive power of the recordings but also made them highly adaptable for real-time triggering and transformation within the interactive system.

The outcome of this phase was a well-organized Foundational Emotional Sound Library, allowing teammates to quickly and efficiently select materials based on the emotional scene they were designing.

2. Sound Design for Specific Emotional Stages

After completing the foundational sound library and preliminary editing, I took further responsibility for building the complete sound design for three emotional stages: Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

At this stage, the work was no longer simply about recording or editing sounds.
It became a systematic design practice — exploring how sound and emotion interact and express together.

I needed to not only imagine sound reactions that would match the visual animations but also design dynamic sound scenes triggered by various sensors, ensuring that all sound elements fit together harmoniously, immersing the audience in a powerful emotional atmosphere.
This was not just sound creation — it was a process of translating sound into emotional language.

My Workflow

  • Refining sound style definitions: For each emotional stage, I clarified the desired sound characteristics, rhythmic logic, and spatial expressions.

  • Targeted recording and secondary creation: Based on sensor trigger types, I re-recorded critical materials and selected the best-fitting fragments from the sound library for deep processing.

  • Sound construction in ProTools: I completed multitrack mixing, rhythm deconstruction, sound field design, and dynamic layering to ensure adjustability and stability within the system.

  • Organized sound assets by functionality: Grouped materials by “background ambiance,” “behavioral triggers,” and “emotional transition responses” for easy system integration.

  • Established structured interactive sound libraries: Created clearly named and uniformly organized folders for each emotion, with usage notes (scenario, trigger method, dynamic range) to allow seamless integration by teammates working on Wwise, Unity, and Max/MSP.

Through this phase, I pushed the project from “sound materials” toward “systematic emotional sound expression,” ensuring cohesion, functionality, and artistic integrity within the interactive framework.

🎧 Sound Design Examples

Bargaining (Bargaining)

To express the inner wavering and repetitive struggle, I designed multiple loopable sound units simulating hesitant and anxious emotional flows.

Example 1: The struggle between tearing and re-coiling

  • Foley materials: Paper tearing, fabric crumpling, wood scraping

  • Design techniques:
    Cut tearing sounds into rapid fragments, time-stretch selected parts, overlay slight reversed audio and high-frequency filtering to simulate psychological “fracture and repetition.”
    Layered with background friction sounds to create a tactile tension.

  • Emotional intent: Express the constant push-and-pull between hope and denial.

Depression (Depression)

For this stage, I aimed to convey deep emotional downpour, loss, immersion, and self-isolation, avoiding strong rhythms to create a “slow-time” and “emotional stagnation” atmosphere.

Example 1: Damp, Oppressive Interior Space

  • Foley materials: Water echoing inside metal buckets, slow palm movements across wood flooring, low-frequency ambient noise

  • Design techniques:
    Pitch-down metal water echoes by about 5 semitones; add long-tail reverb and room simulation; overlay low-frequency brown noise to create pressure.
    Palm sliding sound filtered to preserve only the low-mid range, maintaining subtle motion tension.

Emotional intent: Build a psychological space that’s damp, heavy, and hard to escape, reflecting the chaotic silence of depression.

Acceptance (Acceptance)

As the most peaceful and open stage, the sound design for Acceptance needed to create a gentle, transparent, spatially flowing atmosphere — while maintaining emotional richness and avoiding flatness.

Example 1: Clear Ambiance of Wind Chimes and Metal Friction

  • Foley materials: Light metal taps, wind chimes, copper wire friction, glass resonances

  • Design techniques:
    Overlay wind chime sounds with fine metallic friction; EQ to emphasize the high-frequency clarity; set glass resonance as the background layer with long reverb; add subtle modulation to copper friction for liveliness.
    Control overall volume dynamics to maintain a slow, flowing texture.

Emotional intent: Create a “clear, peaceful, continuous but not hollow” emotional atmosphere, expressing release and inner stability.

Example 2: Fragmented Melodies and Shifting Harmonies

  • Foley materials: Finger-plucked music box, toy piano, breath sounds, small chime bells

  • Design techniques:
    Cut piano notes into fragments and reassemble into irregular melodic lines; add unstable synthetic harmonies and low-frequency fluctuations; convert breath sounds into airy resonances for delicate spatial textures.

Emotional intent: Express the idea that even under a calm surface, traces of emotional echoes persist.

These sounds were set to trigger dynamically based on audience proximity and movement, enhancing the feeling of flowing emotions across space.

Conclusion

By the end of this phase, all sound assets were meticulously categorized by emotional type, functionality, and acoustic features, ensuring that teammates could directly integrate them into the interactive system without further editing.

This work greatly improved the team’s sound integration efficiency while preserving the emotional consistency, controllability, and artistic completeness of the final installation experience.

Research for project

Project Overview

Name: Liu Xiaole
Project Title: Five Stages of Grief – Immersive Interactive Audiovisual Installation

THE DAY LEFT FIELD is an immersive interactive audiovisual installation inspired by Kübler-Ross’s model of the five stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). Through the seamless integration of sound, visuals, and sensor systems, audiences interact with the installation in real-time within a 144-square-meter space, experiencing the flow and transformation of emotions across the environment.

The project team was divided into three main modules: Sound, Visual, and Engineering. My primary responsibilities were centered on the research and development of the sound system, building the sound library, and filming and editing the project documentary. My work spanned the entire process—from concept development to final presentation.

Initial Phase｜Establishing the Theoretical and Practical Foundation for the Sound System

At the start of the project, how the sound system would express abstract emotional stages remained an open question. I actively participated in the initial brainstorming for the sound system design and took the initiative to undertake theoretical research on the relationship between sound and emotional perception, aiming to build a solid perceptual foundation for later creative work.

During this phase, I consulted a large volume of psychoacoustic studies on how sound influences the experience of negative emotions, reaching key insights such as:

Low-frequency, continuous sound waves often evoke feelings of oppression and heaviness;

High-frequency, sharp sound effects easily trigger tension or anger;

Noise or irregular rhythms are commonly used to simulate internal conflict and chaos.

These theories provided critical direction for the later sound design of emotional stages such as “Denial,” “Anger,” and “Depression.” For example, the “Depression” stage was constructed as a space filled with low frequencies and blurred echoes, while the “Anger” stage heavily utilized fractured rhythms and sudden, sharp sound effects.

At the same time, I researched and analyzed multiple cases related to interactive emotional installations, including:

TeamLab’s interactive multi-channel art exhibitions

THE DAY LEFT FIELD’s immersive audiovisual projects

These cases not only inspired our technical strategies for linking sound and visuals but also pushed the team to reconsider how sound in a space could dynamically respond to audience behavior.

Building on this research, I worked with the team to establish an Emotion-to-Sound Mapping Chart that served as a consistent guide throughout the design process:

Emotional Stage Sound Characteristics
Denial Blurred, unstable, low-directionality ambient sounds
Anger Sudden, sharp, high-energy fractured rhythms
Bargaining Psychological tension created using nontraditional sound sources like paper, liquids, and water ripples
Depression Low-frequency, blurred, echo-rich spatial ambiance
Acceptance Gentle, progressive, spatially layered soundscapes

In addition, I continually proposed new ideas for sound expression, such as:

Using wind chimes or soft metallic sounds to convey the gentleness of “Acceptance”;

Introducing “silence” or extreme low-frequency elements at certain stages to create emotional contrast;

Exploring the idea of expressing presence through absence.

These discussions and reflections helped the team establish a clear and in-depth sound design methodology:

“Using psychological models as a framework, combined with the physical properties of sound and audience interaction mechanisms, to construct dynamic emotional soundscapes.”

Although this phase belonged to the early stage of the project, it was undoubtedly one of the periods where I had the deepest involvement and the strongest impact. It laid the theoretical foundation and directional alignment for all subsequent sound collection, editing, and system integration efforts.

 

 

 

Personal Blog-Sound Work-Week 10&11 And Project Critical Reflection

In the last two weeks, I finished all the sound work in the tenth week, so the main work in the last two weeks was to integrate all the work parts and test with other team members. We scheduled three tests, two in Atrium and one in Studio 4. We also found some problems in the Wwise project, for example, the sound playback distance was not set correctly, the attenuation distance was different, etc., but they were all solved smoothly in the end.

In the first test

We successfully connected four distance sensors. When participants put their palms close to the distance sensors, they can control the sound volume to attenuate as their palms move. However, when they are completely covered by their palms or other objects, the sound disappears completely. When all four distance sensors are covered for a few seconds, our emotions and vision will automatically jump to the next stage. In each stage, the four speakers will play the same ambience of that stage, and the four sensors also control different ambiences in four directions.

In the second test

Since my computer was not compatible with Red’s sound card, I spent a lot of time transferring the entire project to Lidia’s laptop. On the same day, I tested it on the speakers in the Atrium room, placed the ambiences in all four directions on the corresponding speakers, and connected the visual and sound parts.

Project Critical Reflection

I personally did half of the sound work in this project and encountered many difficult problems, such as how to record the original audio? How to make these original audios into suitable ambience? How to cooperate with other students in the project? But these questions were well answered on the day of the exhibition on April 2, 2025. As a sound design student, I gained very valuable experience in this project. I have mastered the two softwares Wwise and Unity proficiently and understood the working principles. I believe this will be of great help to my future work. If I have more time, I will improve the quality and relevance of all sounds, and add some transition sounds when the emotions are excessive, so that the audience’s auditory immersion and perception of emotions will be enhanced.

Personal Blog-Sound Work-Week 9

The five-stage sound work was basically completed in the ninth week. Lidia and I completed the integration of the two projects on Wwise, and with the help of Leo, I created a Unity project to test our sound part. This was a very important progress, which meant that our sound could work.

In Wwise, a blend container is set up to control the five stages of sound, and they are staged, with a value of 20 for each stage, and connected to the FIVE_STAGES RTPC.

On Wwise

At this week’s meeting, Leo suggested changing the design mode of one ambient sound and five sound effects on each speaker to setting a “Center sound” on four speakers at a certain stage, which is our Main ambience, and adding five Ambiences to the speakers in the four directions of FL, FR, BL, and BR to connect touch designer for interaction, and changing from triggering SFX with distance sensors to triggering Ambience. I think this is a very good suggestion, because for Ambience, it can better reflect the sense of distance and the weakening of sound, which makes our project more playable. In terms of the sound work, Lidia and I shared this work, and I was responsible for “Bargaining”, “Acceptance” and half of “Depression”.

This is one of the Bargaining Ambience

On Unity

We built a project file with four speakers to simulate the Atrium room in Alison house and used it to test our audio, which was successful. In the next two weeks, we will complete all the sound work and conduct live testing in the Atrium.

 

Personal Blog-Sound Work-Week 7&8

During these two weeks, with the guidance of Leo and the help of Lidia, I completed all the work on “Anger” and “Bargaining” and the ambient work of “False Acceptance” in Wwise, and created Blend container events to gradually control these ambient sounds. I also created triggers in Unity to test these sounds. After testing, these sounds can run correctly, which is a good preparation for the next stage of assembly work!

ZYX_ChangedFalseAcceptance_Ambient

Leo gave me a very useful suggestion on the Anger ambient. He asked me to create a blend container under the blend container to control my two anger ambients. This suggestion made my ambient effect even stronger.

This week I have created a test model in Unity and am preparing to assemble Lidia’s Wwise project files and test them. Next week we will conduct the first test of the entire project in Atrium.

 

 

Personal Blog-Sound Work-Week 5&6

In the fifth and sixth weeks, my main responsibility is to record the sound, create the sound for the second time, and create the Wwise project.

In the five stages of the wwise project, my work at this stage is to complete all the ambient and SFX work of “Anger” and “Bargaining”. It is expected to complete the ambient construction of “False Acceptance” in week 7-8. This part of the SFX is produced by Lidia.

1.Anger Stage

According to Chunyu’s video, I first use the original audio file I recorded on AU to produce ambient sound, and then make sound effects after making ambient sound, and add them to Wwise.

In the ambient construction of Anger, I added the warning sound and the metal tearing sound recorded with an electromagnetic microphone, and added pitch converter, low-pass filter, and smaller reverberation to create a feeling of unease and anger.

In the sound effect part, I chose some high-frequency sounds to enhance the feeling of anger.

2.Bargaining Stage

At this stage, I mixed the sound of rain recorded at submission1 and the sound of knocking on the piano lid to make environmental sounds, and made them standardised and added some effects.

In terms of sound design, I have combined most of the sound effects on Reaper to create a feeling of “bargaining”.

Meeting and Recording on 25 FEB

In terms of sound design, Lidia and I have confirmed the audio materials for our first sound design today. We borrowed several different microphones from the music store to record ambient sound and sound effects, and included them in the first stage of sound design. During the recording process, Kyra assisted me in recording a lot of sound materials at Alison House. And Leo gave a lot of useful and valuable advice before recording, which made our recording process very easy. Lyida also worked with Leo in the afternoon to study sensor and technology issues, and Lidia and I also took her advice on sound.

Sound Design

Sound design

My sound design is centered around the five emotional stages of the Kübler-Ross model, exploring the psychological changes that occur when people face a major loss. Each sound piece is designed to capture the core qualities of a specific emotional stage, bringing the listener into the emotional experience described by the model.

Figure 1: Kübler-Ross model (Source: Visual Paradigm, n.d.)
Figure 2: Psychological numbness (Source: Dame Magazine, 2021)
In the denial stage, individuals often show shock and psychological numbness, trying to protect themselves from emotional shock by avoiding reality. The core of this stage is “unreality”, as if they are in a dream that is detached from reality. The sound creates a vague auditory experience at this stage, making the listener feel as if they are in an isolated environment, symbolizing the individual’s resistance to reality and psychological stagnation. The vague background sound and short sense of blankness in the sound strengthen the stagnant state of emotion. This “unreal” auditory experience is closely linked to the emotions of the denial stage, as if the listener himself is also trying to withdraw from the reality of the outside world.
Figure 3: Anger (Source: Fezra Counseling, n.d.)

Anger is a strong outburst of emotion, with instability and confrontation. At this stage, individuals try to find external outlets to fight against the inner helplessness, and their emotions fluctuate violently. The sound shows a greater dynamic range contrast at this stage, and the sudden volume peak enhances the impact of anger. The inharmonious intervals increase the tense atmosphere, making the audience feel the aggressiveness and instability of anger in hearing.

 

Figure 4: Individuals are wavering between hope and despair (Source: Cardiff University, n.d.)

The bargaining stage is an attempt to regain lost control, with the individual wandering between hope and despair. This stage reflects an inner contradiction: the inability to accept reality, yet the inability to change it. The sound design of this section symbolizes the repeated attempts and failures in psychology through a looping rhythm and a faint modulated melody. The sound reinforces the slimness and impossibility of hope, immersing the audience in an emotional “self-dialogue”. In this way, the sound expresses the core contradiction of the bargaining stage: the desire for change, but the inability to do anything about it.

 

Figure 5: Deep sense of despair and helplessness (Source: Vanourek, n.d.)

The depression stage is the despair and helplessness deep in the heart after the individual begins to face reality. This is the lowest point of emotion, full of fear of the future and powerlessness of the current situation. The sound at this stage shows strong emotional oppression, as if an invisible weight is looming over the audience.

 

Figure 6: Trying to appear “normal,” but internally still
struggling to accept (Source: Psychology Today, 2017.)

The acceptance stage is not simply calm, but a compromise of inner emotions and surrender to reality. This is a complex emotional state, including superficial peace and deep worries. The sound of the work at this stage shows a subtle sense of calm, but this calmness always carries a hint of uneasiness. The subtle fluctuations and potential low frequencies symbolize the emotional residue that has not been completely eliminated in the heart. The audience experiences a complex state of balance in this emotion: no longer struggling, but not completely letting go. This sound experience highlights the emotional core of the acceptance stage – accepting reality, but not forgetting the pain.

Links to all sounds used here:www.youtube.com/@yuxinzhang-og1gg

Reference
  1. Visual Paradigm. n.d. “Kubler-Ross Change Curve.” Visual Paradigm Blog.Accessed February 12, 2025. https://blog.visual-paradigm.com/what-is-the-kubler-ross-change-curve/
  2. Dame Magazine. 2021. “There’s a Reason You Feel Numb Right Now.” Dame Magazine. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://www.damemagazine.com/2021/02/10/theres-a-reason-you-feel-numb-right-now/
  3. Ezra Counseling. n.d. “Anger Management: Understanding and Navigating the Stages of Anger.” Ezra Counseling. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://ezracounseling.com/anger-management-understanding-and-navigating-the-stages-of-anger/
  4. Cardiff University. n.d. “On Hope and Despair, Part I.” Open for Debate Blog. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/openfordebate/on-hope-and-despair-part-i/
  5. Vanourek, Gregg. n.d. “How to Overcome Helplessness.” Gregg Vanourek Blog. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://greggvanourek.com/how-to-overcome-helplessness/
  6. Psychology Today. 2017. “How and Why You Compromise Your Integrity.” Evolution of the Self Blog. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-of-the-self/201707/how-and-why-you-compromise-your-integrity
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