Unusual sound in CMC (mainly included the sound of electrical machine/equipment)
Relevant module: Ambisonic
Place: Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre Recording day:
11/12 – 14/12 Spending few hours each day 19/12 Extract recording
Idea
I would like to capture the sound of electrical machine in CMC, and also some special sounding items. CMC is the place where people create art pieces. There are different equipment in CMC, and various sounds can be recorded with the contact mic to capture unusual sounds. The special thing about my project is the sound cannot be heard in a common routine, I recorded the sound with the micro views, and the ambisonic is more like the electrical music but also a kind of sound-field recording built with noise, circuit sound, and the operation sound. This project sounds strange and mysterious, it is meaningful to me to explore sound in CMC. The noise inside the project can also be admired from an aesthetic perspective. For the last part, I recorded the sound from sythesizer to enrich the project.
I didn’t take the 360 videos for my project since the sound recording works with a tiny perspective.
Recording process
It takes a few days to record different sounds, I stick the contact mic at different places to record the appropriate sound.
Audio format
Since my final project theme is mainly recording the sound of electrical machines, I almost used the contact mic to get the footage for the project. It is the mic that senses audio vibrations through contact with solid objects. However, I also used Zoom H4n with Soundman OKM II and H3 VR to record the sound of the machines’ movements when the contact mic could not record it.
The lesson teaches using different types of mics to complete sound recordings and transfer them to another format. However, I consider that the contact mic can record better quality sound with less noise, which I don’t like, so I mainly use the granular encoder to encode the mono sound to ambisonic.
Flow
Track 1 Receiving the tracks of an ambisonic bus, granular encoder bus,
stereo-encoder bus, and “other effect bus” (Track 2, 4, 9, 11). Gather all the tracks to apply the binaural decoder FX. (dear VR)
Track 2 The ambisonic bus received all format B soundtrack (Track 3) Gather all format B soundtracks as a group
Track 4 Received the mono sound that was applied with granular encoder individually (Track 5-8) Gathering as a group
Track 9 Received the binaural sound that is applied with stereo-encoder (Track 10) Gathering as a group
Track 11 We received all the short mono sounds applied with Fnd reverb or dual delay (Track 12-15)
Also, fx was applied to transfer the sound to ambisonic on the bus. Gathering as a group
Plugins
Track 1 Binaural decoder
AmbiX Multi encoder
Mono Granular encoder, Stereo encoder
I designed the sound arrangements for the project to make the entire project sound balanced and incremental. After that, the selected and arranged tracks will be applied with different plugins to do the automation. Before the rendering, I check the volume bill of the master track to see if any sounds may cause the distortion.
Final output format Binaural
Ambisonic (4 channel)