WEEK 3
Over the course of week three I decided to practise how I would be creating sound for “Echoes”, specifically in regards to software.
My preferred software for sound design work is Reaper, an application which I have readily available to me on my laptop, however in a discussion in a sound design workshop for one of my other modules, my lecturer Ali Murray had mentioned that a more widely used software in the industry is Avid’s Pro Tools. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to teach myself how to use Pro Tools as I still had over a month until shooting for Echoes began, and Avid offered a month long free trial of the application.
In order to learn the basics of the software I used the guidebook provided by Avid (https://resources.avid.com/SupportFiles/PT/Pro_Tools_Reference_Guide_2021.3.pdf). I found that the software was fairly similar to Reaper’s interface, and the guide provided image references for different commands and sound editing techniques so I could visually reference what I was doing when using it. The most challenging part of the new software proved to be adjusting to the different shortcuts as I was instinctively using Reaper’s.
To practise, I downloaded an MP4 cartoon clip from youtube and imported it into Pro Tools. I then removed the sound and began working to create a bed of sound to replace it on my own. This exercise meant that I became familiar with the basic tools and effects, as well as giving me a chance to experiment with anything which I was less familiar with and up to a good pace when I was editing. It also gave me an opportunity to edit sound alongside visuals on Avid, something which will be useful to have experience of when I am working as a sound designer for Echoes.
This Monday’s masterclass lecture was given by Editor Lindsay Watson and was particularly useful for me as it focused on post production work. Lindsay covered who is involved in post production aside from editors and sound designers (directors, producers and commissioners), how editing changes when working on documentary and fiction, and also guided us towards the BBC archive sound design library. This is an exceptionally valuable resource which I have since explored in my own time and will be using during this project to create soundscapes and possibly fill in any gaps left by location recording as the archive contains over 30,000 sounds.
