The Last Bastion - Multimedia

I will be using my sound for multimedia project, “Last bastion” as an artefact for my graded unit. This specific artefact is very close related to my preferred job role as a sound designer as it shows off my skills using editing, effects, MIDI, collecting sounds and my use of synthesizers to create authentic sounds. In this project I mainly used a large amount of Foley sound effects to create authentic sounds, these sounds are created by nit picking tiny details that aren’t often payed attention to but instead create make a realistic feel for the listener even with sounds that we wouldn’t specifically notice. During the creation of these Foley sounds we have to plan which days we were using the studios and what equipment we were needing to create these sounds, this shows strong time keeping skills and that shows skills of being able to plan ahead of time so that the studio time is not wasted planning what to use which are very important to this role.  The knowledge I’ve gained from my recording and mixing unit helps with my Microphone choice and techniques to record these played a massive role in the creation of Foley sounds in this artefact as the choice of microphone effected how clear the sound would be and also the item I was using to create Foley also helped make the realistic sounds. During the creation of this artefact I focussed on effects and synthesizers, to try and create authentic sounds. I used synthesizers that I had created from other units such as synthesis and sampling to create some of the sounds in this project, showing strong use of file management and effective use of previous work to benefit this project. In addition, I also used a large number of different reverbs on clips to create a naturistic feel for the listener as it is based in the middle of a forest. The ambience played a massive role and showed off my ability to layer sounds and create my own ambient feel. Furthermore, I created my own music track for this project by using my skills gained from the DAW synthesis and sampling unit, and used effective MIDI skills by writing in MIDI and also playing it in constructively using my MIDI keyboard.

To start off creating the project I thought I would do the Music first as this plays a big role in the emotional feeling watching the video. I wanted the music to feel happy, to have an upbeat feeling but also to keep you on edge a bit for what is about to happen next. I don’t have much experience in Music and I’m not great at playing any instruments but this didn’t stop me wanting to create my own music for the video. Me creating my own also gave me the freedom to go darker and bring it down an octave at parts where the video starts to become more intense at the beginning.

I chose to use strings and a deep bass in the background to create the naturistic happy feel. To create the bass I used Drift, an Ableton Analog synthesizer which is using a blended tone of 2 different waves, a square wave and a sine wave. To further this, I put a high pass filter on this to cut out the lows below 280hz to give a brighter sound as I didn’t want it to be too dark. I wanted a medium pace attack with a long release so I changed this In the Amp envelope to allow the sound too slowly ring out. Once I had created my sound I added the Scale plugin as I’m not a keyboard player this allowed me to create the synth along with the video without playing any notes off key as it automatically fits them into D Dorian scale.

To create the strings, I used a randomizer to randomize the chords I play whilst also putting them through as G Dorian Scale this time so they still sound great I then put on the Off-world strings found on Ableton’s stock sounds after searching through the library and changed a few settings to make it a bit less bright because it seemed to fit nicely along with the bass. Finally, to complete the strings I added the main part which was my hybrid reverb with a shimmer effect which made it perfect for the ambient cinematic video.

Once I had it all set up I recorded it directly into my project at the same time playing chords whilst watching the video, after review any parts that sounded off I went back and fixed afterwards and the music was completed. Later into my creation of the video I felt something was missing in the music, it needed another element to it so I went through a bunch of different sound libraries and couldn’t find what I needed, I went to YouTube and found a royalty free piano which fits perfectly into my video and gives it that extra feeling of happiness when the cinematic is upbeat.

The reason I chose a royalty free piano is because I’ve learned in skills for business about how copyright is a massive problem within the industry and can lead to legal troubles or losing out on money so I want to make sure all my work is authentic and non-copyright, I want to get into a habit of this before working within the industry.