A few weeks back, in my Multimedia Authoring class at UMass- Boston, we participated in an activity aptly labelled a “Sound Walk”. We were tasked to walk around campus, paying special mind to the different things we hear (and likely just automatically tune out) every day; we were to record some of these sounds that we found interesting in preparation for our second project of the class, which focuses on audio.
I took a few recordings of different things: jingling keys, the wind blowing outside, my footsteps climbing the stairs, etc.; but the most interesting samples turned out to be the ambient sounds of crowds in the cafeteria and lobby. I decided to use these for my next task: altering the sounds through an audio editing software.
I added the two raw tracks to my software of choice (in this case, Audacity), and then performed the following edits:
– Compressed the two tracks to make them an even, easily controlled audio
– Removed instances of sounds that were too loud/unpleasant (i.e. chairs dragging)
– Applied a fade effect to the shorter audio to blend with the longer track
– Applied a fade effect to the overall audio so it’s compatible with my idea for Project 2
– Added distortion to the track, which ended up making the audio more ambient
I may continue to edit it further, at least by cropping it some more, but overall I like how it gives off the feeling of a social atmosphere. I think it would blend very nicely with any background instrumental music I decide to use in future projects, as the fade length I chose leaves room for a smooth transition form one audio track to the next. Overall, I’m excited to see what I end up creating!
Listen to my manipulated track below:
Sound editing software used: Audacity