Albatros by the sea: Audacity experiment

 

For this assignment, we had to familiarise ourselves with Audacity by recording a 30 seconds audio track mixing music, voice and ambience noises. I immediately wanted to create a narrative centred around the ocean like watching the birds fly near the beach, transmitting emotions of tranquility, quietude and calm.

Overall, except for slight anxiousness in the beginning I felt contempt and satisfied throughout the assignment. Sound design is captivating to me and I loved working with Audacity.

The process of recording and mixing sounds went well and was very pleasing, I felt satisfied putting this audio together.

Firstly, I recorded myself reading "The Albatros" by Charles Baudelaire (translated in English). (Aggeler, W. , The Flowers of Evil (1954) "The Albatros"). However, the poem was too long so I had to shorten this reading to an extract.

For the ambiance sound, I was able to record seagulls (to replace the Albatros) and water near the Thames, to create the illusion that this was recorded near the sea. 

Finally, for the music, I chose a track from the soundtrack of the video game Genshin Impact (Mihoyo. 2020) : "Vast and blue" (Chen, Y-P & HOYO-MiX. 2021). This game has a very atmospheric sound and this track is part of a section dedicated to the seaside which fitted my vision perfectly.

In the end. I finished in about 2 hours and a half, and I would say this was my favourite assignment as I love the end result.

In the future, I'm hoping I can buy an actual microphone to produce a better sound quality.

References:

Aggeler, W. (1954).  "The Albatros" in Baudelaire, C. (ed.) Les Fleurs du Mal.  Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild Available from: https://fleursdumal.org/poem/200  (Accessed 18th February 2022)

Chen, Y-P & HOYO-MiX. (2021). Vast and Blue. HOYO-MiX. Genshin Impact - The Shimmering Voyage (Original Game Soundtrack). [CD]. Shangai: HOYO-MiX.

Mihoyo. (2020). Genshin Impact (version 2.5). PlayStation [Game]. PlayStation Store.