PRO TOOLS PROJECT - Yr 2

The image above is the passage that I had chosen for my Pro Tools audio project. It's the first few verses from the song 'Cut' by Plumb. The song was released in 2008 and featured in the CW TV show 'The Vampire Diaries'. 

The songs meaning is all about self harm (cutting). In an interview, Plumb said that the song was "inspired by a girl involved in self-injury. It encompasses truth and beauty within such a painful subject, which metaphorically suggests the ability for goodness to come out of anguish".

The moment I first heard the song many years ago, I felt strongly connected to it. It is a very emotional song, hence why I added the piano - as they are a key instrument when creating a sad/emotional song/audio. The piano is also the key instrument used in the actual recording of the song.

I began by selecting the most interesting verses that I knew would be very experimental. "Crippled anger", "tears that still drip", "fragile flame", "breathe in" and "I am cut" are the key words that I had highlighted as being the most interesting in making sound for them. The next thing to do was to find a voice.

I had asked my friend Cristina to record the voice for me, as she has a very clear voice and when asking her to read the passage, she sounded genuine and her voice just fitted well with the song. We had recorded around 7 takes from start to finish, and another 7 takes off a few lines/verses that I thought needed improving. It was difficult at times as Cristina had mispronounced a few words or didn't sound emotional enough. But we got there in the end and I'm glad that we took as many recordings of just her voice as we did because during the edit, I had to use different verses/lines and even words from one of the other takes that we had done rather than the original it was from.

The image below shows the top half of my tracks. The tracks in the red circle are ones of Cristina's voice. As you can see, there are 4 separate tracks which I combined to form 1 overall recording of the song - as non of the original full recordings were perfect. It was tricky to make the voice over sound smooth and clear, as the volume and tone of her voice were different. But after adjusting the pitch and volume I was able to make it clear and sound like it was recorded in one take.

The next thing I did after putting together the voice over, was making the sound effects from the words that I had highlighted at the start. I had recorded a few sounds, (once I had recorded Cristina's voice) in the sound recording room. The room was very useful and easy to use as it recorded clear, crisp sounds with no background noise. I had also used a few recordings that I had taken for my sound project last year using the zoom. I found the majority of creating sounds, i.e. a flame, quite easy. Others on the other hand, not so much. It took me a fair amount of time and multiple versions to get the exact sound that I had wanted.

My biggest obstacle was creating a "bass drop" sound effect. To create this I: selected an area around 4 seconds long, selected AudioSuite, selected Other, selected Signal Generator. I then set the frequency to 60Hz and the level to 0, and the signal to Sine. Then Render. I then went into 'Vari-Fi', which is found in AudioSuite, which I "slowed-down" the track. This was pretty simple to do, but getting the correct volume to go well with the rest of my tracks was difficult. The track was also peaking quite a bit which I adjusted - as shown in the image below, highlighted in the red circle.

The main plugin that I had used on my tracks was EQ, found in AudioSuite - EQ - EQ3 7-Band. I found this most useful as it created the exact sounds that I wanted. I also adjusted the pitch on many and played around with the Studio Space effect which gave me some good echo effects. The images below shows the EQ plugin being used on the selected track and the Studio Reverb plugin.

The piano I added in mid-way of creating sound effects for the highlighted words. I began by recording a few keys I pressed throughout whilst playing the voice over. Non of this worked with the audio overall so I began playing the chords for the actual song - as I knew how the play the song 'Cut' by Plumb on piano. However, rather than playing the song at the pace its supposed to be at, I played it much slower and softer than it's meant to be. I had also cut out a few sections in the piano piece as I did not want this to dominate all other sounds, hence why the volume is so low. I increased the volume of the piano after Cristina says, "I" at the start of the second half as I felt that it needed to be more uplifting and empowering at this point. This is also why I added in the breathing and more sounds. 

Speaking of breathing, I "Reversed" the recording of Cristina's breathing as I wanted some parts to sound somewhat distorted. The original recording, Cristina was breathing out. In the song however, Plumb says "Breathe in". When I had reversed the track of Cristina breathing out, it sounded like she was breathing in. I made this quite sharp as I wanted it to cut off and sound as though she was struggling for air.

I adjusted to volume creating an alternating pattern on certain tracks, (as shown in the image below). I had done this on a particular track to create a subtle heartbeat which increases rapidly - this effect also shown in one of the images below. The "Slow Down" and "Speed Up" effects, found in "Vari-Fi" were used a fair amount as I loved how they would cut off so suddenly and sharp on the higher pitch sounds - This being the second 'Bell' sound which I reversed, increased the pitch and sped up. I wanted this sound in particular to be quite sharp and piercing, 1. the song is call "cut" and after reading stories of young girls who do this dealing with depression, it's a sharp, cold feeling. And 2. it cleverly divided the first half with the last half where things pick up. In addition, the last sound had a lot of positive feedback from my peers; saying that it sounded like a cold blade and make them think of that word "cut". This was the reaction I was hoping to get and I wanted it to cut off so suddenly after the finally words were spoken. I added an echo effect so that the sound of the "blade" carried on ringing in your ears.

My first export was too quiet. I wasn't sure at first what I had done or how I could fix it. I went back to the sound room the next day and figured out that by selecting "All", in the groups section on the right hand side, you could adjust the volume on all the tracks. I wasn't able to make it any louder than it already is as by doing so, I would have to adjust the volume separately for the rest (as I had reached the max) and it wouldn't have the same effect. I increased the volume when Cristina says "I" as this is the half way point from beginning to end and the exact point where no other sound is being played for that second. I wanted to create a small suspense, as though she is too hurt to speak.

Overall, I felt that I quickly adjusted to using Pro Tools and enjoyed it a lot. My work took an emotional turn, which is interesting as I find horror/suspense much more exciting - however, very easy to create. Therefore, I'm extremely happy with how my work turned out and pleased with the reaction I received from my peers. I struggled with deciding whether or not I should keep the piano in. Eventually, I felt that it worked better with as it makes it more sad than depressing - as this is what it felt like without. If I had more time, I would like to have played around with more sound and plugins to create some interesting effects on those sounds. I would also like to attempt to create a better heartbeat than I did and re-recorded the voice over on a few words/verses, where Cristina could pause a little longer and sound more upset as though she was in pain and or crying or choking on her own words, holding back the tears.