This week, which marks five weeks since the creation of our project, we had our first studio session as an entire team. After one member had volunteered to make a two minute video of some of the most captivating scenes of the game in a trailer kind of style, we were able to sit down and watch a very early draft of our project, which also included minimal audio including footsteps and rain which were sampled from the game itself and Youtube, respectively.
We were very happy with how our project had tracked so far, our most notable parts of the project being the transitions between scenes which were short and snappy, with exciting bass synth notes to match. These moments highlighted the melodic part of our sequence, of which there was only a basic mandolin arrangement at that point in time.
This studio session was going to focus on was recording the acoustic elements of our project. To plan for this, we had created a gantt chart that maps what sonic characteristics we would want to be present and where in relation to our video.
Upon reviewing the chart the morning of our studio session, we made several slight changes to our choices, mainly adding a musical dialog between mandolin and guitar.
Once we got into the studio, we also wrote out a schedule outlining our goals for the day.
As you can see, the only audio that we had left to create was the electric guitar, which was to be recorded acoustically, and the foley for the breathing sound effects, also recorded acoustically. You can also see that during the session notes were taken, to keep track of our current thoughts and to keep a list of what still needed to be done and what changes had been made.
To record the guitar and the breath foley, a AKG C414 XL II was used.We had initially begun recording with a pop filter, but found that this made the signal of the breathing considerable low, and not as dramatic as we envisioned, and so made the decision to record without one.
One of the more noticeable changes that we made to the project was altering the key signature of the mandolin arrangement. Because the first draft of the arrangement was made by a team member that did not have experience in music theory, the first half of the piece was written in C major, while the second half was written in D minor. To untrained ears, it sounded strange but she did not know why. When the myself and another team mate, who had experience in music, discussed the chords and changed them so that they were in D minor, the arrangement sounded much more dark and mysterious.
For the foley breath, we had a team member breathe heavily into the microphone with a cardioid setting while watching the trailer so she could get a feel of when the character would be most exerted. It was at these moments that we also compressed the clip so that it would be louder and more dramatic in the moments we needed it to be.
One thing that we also added was the element of a heartbeat. This was done by one team member making guttural sounds, which created the illusion of a heart beating when the clip was equalised and given a low pass filter. Both the breathing and the heartbeat were given reverb to make them sound more natural and to also add to an atmosphere of darkness and fear.
Something that we took away from the project was to silence the moment where the character jumps off a cliff and into water. Leading up to this moment, the music and layers of instruments build to create anticipation. This building anticipation and fear of what could come next is constructed and then taken away when the character jumps into the unknown, and gently builds up again when it appears he has escaped from danger.
I really enjoyed creating music to a narrative, and being able to make analytical choices that would help to create a better story.
Two days later, we also conducted a session in a MIDI studio, where we focused on creating a rough mix and began editing a rough mix. Next week, we will present a second showing our project so far to peers for feedback and creating our final mix!
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