MAKING A SOUNDSCAPE WITH AUDITION

Parameters

o Make a 30-60 second sound piece

o The sound piece may be a soundscape that is either presented alone or with
video footage
o The sound piece may be site-specific
(consider the work of Susan Philipsz, Bill Fontana, Jenn Karson)
o The sound piece may be an audio tour
(consider the work of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller)

o You may include sounds collected online, but you must include at least one sound you
recorded. It is not required, but you may include your own voice or the voice(s) of
others.

Method

o Ask yourself if you are interested in working with a particular space and if so, consider
the questions asked in our site-specific proposals. Ask yourself if you are interested in
making an interactive piece and if so, what do you want to show your audience. Ask
yourself if you want to make a soundscape for a still or moving image and how the
soundscape compliments or contradicts the image(s) and how it effects the overall
mood.
o Collect Sounds using your phone as a recording device
o Collect additional sounds on free websites such as www.freesound.org or
www.archive.org
Filter for creative commons 0, which means that it is public domain
Choose wav files when possible, they are uncompressed
If not available, MP3 files work
Stereo is preferred but not necessary
o Organize your files into two folders on your desktop and back them up on google drive
or a thumb drive. Label one folder original_audio and the other edited_audio.
o Launch Adobe’s sound editing program Audition
o Edit and export your sound piece in Audition

Audition

o Import your files from your edited folder through the media browser (where you can
also preview your audio) or by dragging and dropping into the file window in Audition
 You can also record directly to audition using the page icon in the Files tab and choosing
new audio file, then hit the red record button at the bottom of preview window
o Choose the Waveform workspace (shows the amplitude or volume) if you are working
with a single file and Multitrack if you are working with more than 1 file. Select the
spectral Frequency Display to see a frequency visual of your audio.

o Audio Volume Levels

Dialogue Peak @-12db
Music Peak @-20 to -30db

To quickly adjust volume, use your floating HUD tool

o Noise Reduction Technique

Select a portion of clip that has only the noise you want to get rid of
(To select, place your cursor in the waveform window and drag from start to end
of desired selection)
Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration> Capture Noise Print
Deselect (Command D)
Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration> Noise Reduction (process)

o Optimize Vocals
Go to effect rack (tab next to media browser)
Click on the small arrow and choose Filter & EQ>graphic equalizer (10 bands)
Each slider represents sets of frequency from low base to high treble
Play your clip while adjusting sliders
This can help brighten up your vocals and make them sound cleaner

To help tame high pitches, click on the small arrow of the next effect line and
choose Amplitude and Compression> Single band compressor, then select the
voice over preset

o Effects
Under your effect rack, you have the option to choose from a preset
(Try options in dropdown menu as well as arrows on each rack)

o Working with Multiple Files

Click on the Multitrack icon and create a new document
*any changes made on this file will not change your original files
Name and save to your edited audio folder, hit ok
Drag the files you would like to work with onto one of the available tracks
Use the backslash (\) on your keyboard to fit the tracks into your window
Your move tool allows you to drag and drop and crop your files
The razor tool will make a cut in your file
 The slip tool allows you keep the length of your clip but use a different selection
The time selection tool allows you to make selections within your clip
Each track has volume controls on left
Each track has Mute and Solo options on left
Each clip comes with a grey box that allows you to easily add transitions
You can click on center line to add key points to make targeted volume edits

o Add Video
Import a video file (it is best if already edited)
Rt. Click on video and select new multitrack session or to add to an existing
session
Edit audio to video workspace option will give you a preview window so that you
can see the video as you are editing sound

o Work between Audition and Premier Pro

If you want to work with a video file from premier pro, you can send your
sequence to audition to continue working on your audio file
Edit> Edit in Adobe Audition
(select single clips or sequence, send through dynamic link for video)

When you are done editing in Audition, you can send the file back to Premier Pro
Multitrack>Export to Premier Pro
(mixed down session to stereo file to make one master track)

Export final project from Premier Pro

H.264 is a great codec for web
preset: match source
check: export video check: export audio
output name and choose location of where to save sequence to
below the thumbnail, choose source range: entire sequence

o Export Audio only

File> Export> Multitrack Mixdown> Entire Session
Name, Location, Format (mp3)