Creating The Sound Effects

The first thing I set work on for this transition project was creating the sound effects that I wish to use during the final edit.

These sound effects would include:
-Switches and buttons being pressed.
-Steam pipes from hissing (from inside a spaceship)
-Various electronic devices buzzing and beeping.
-Low hums of machinery.
-Sounds of knocking

To start with, I decided that I would use the program called GarageBand in oder to see if I could emulate these types of sound through various instruments available. Luckily there were a wide collection of synthetic noises that could be used both on their own as well as put in to sequence for the desired effect. Other instances meant that I needed to create a melody out of certain instruments to obtain the sound that I needed. This was most notable where I used an electric keyboard to emulate the sound of an electronic device counting down.

There was one instance where I needed to carefully watch the sequence of events where a character is flicking and pressing various switches and buttons. This meant that I needed to sequence various sounds so that they matched the timing of the button presses. These were created, again, through an electric piano and through an electric drum kit.

Some sound required a little more tweaking, however. GarageBand very helpfully also contains a mode in which I was allowed to play and experiment with various different types of amplifiers for different effects. Some made the sounds feel as if they were playing through an old machine while others gave more experimental results such as a rolling echo filter that gave great ambience for diegetic use. The most use I got out of these was when creating the sound of steam and various other electronic noises, adding an echo filter which drifted from both sound channels which allowed to create diegetic atmosphere and sound scape, particularly in the setting of a space station.

I used my own synthesizer to do some voice-over work. These mainly consisted of voices coming from a machine like from an intercom system. I decided that these should be somewhat robotic as if they were automated which also helps to create a futuristic feel in keeping with the show's themes. This was also done to disguise my own voice which I am not particularly fond of. I first tried using a Vocoder which is often used for music acts, most notably from Daft Punk and Electric Light Orchestra. This would have me speaking into a microphone while pressing on piano keys where my voice would be heard in the tone of the note I was playing in a robot voice. However, the end result sounded too 'sing-song' and lacked the realistic feel that I was trying to create. I then resorted to speaking plainly into the microphone and thus changing the settings through the synthesizer to distort my voice. This work a lot better and I was happy with the end result.

With these sound effects ready to edit, I should hopefully be able to create a good sound-scape for each location.