Sound Design Portfolios

In my last post I tried to clearly define what a portfolio is and its purpose.  Having done this it is now time to start considering what this means for a sound design context. A sound design portfolio is not that different really to any other portfolio, except that many, although not all, of the artefacts will have a high media content.  This is likely to be different to other more academic disciplines, where the content range maybe less diverse.  For example, a sound design portfolio might contain elements of the following different types of media: audio recordings and tracks, samples, MIDI files, FX libraries, DAW projects, synthesizer patches, FX chains, videos, photos, FX and track list, scores, scripts, showreels, animations, sound installations etc.  As can be seen this is an extremely diverse range and some of these may not naturally lend themselves to digital delivery.

As well as considering the different artefact types that are likely to be required in a sound design portfolio, it is also worth considering what is required from both the student and the tutor perspectives.  In doing this I am very much thinking about my students and me as their tutor, but if you think I've missed anything then please let me know.

Sound Design Students

My undergraduate Music & Audio Technology students start developing a Sound Design Portfolio in their first year and continue through their studies.  However, in the first year this is what it is required:

• Planning what sounds need to be created to meet the brief and consideration of how the individual sounds will work together in the final content 
• Log individual sound elements, complete with providing an inspiration for the sound created and details of how it was made and produced
• Audio tracks, MIDI, patches, samples
• Final content showing how the individual sound elements have been integrated together to create a final piece
• DAW Projects, track lists and/or FX lists, final mixdown  
• Formal report giving precise details of how one of the individual sounds was created and exactly how it was integrated into the final content
• Provide a mechanism for students to reflect on what has been achieved
• Allow additional media content to be retained
• Images, videos, scores, scripts    

The portfolio should provide space for all of these individual elements to be formulated and developed over a period of time - like a true "workspace".

Tutor Requirements

As a tutor of sound design these are the elements that would be expected of a sound design portfolio:

• Able to upload or embed different documents or media
• Provide storage for work in progress
• Allow formative feedback, ideally at corresponding points in the audio content
• Support for networking and conversation between both students and tutors
• Ability to keep some parts private and make others public
• Provide wider networking between to students and the "outside" world
• Give confidential summative feedback and final grade
• Allow the work to be showcased to the wider world when completed

Having given this a bit of thought, for me the key to effectively using a portfolio as a "workspace" is providing the students a space to "develop".  This takes time so an important part of a portfolio assessment process is engaging students so they use the portfolio over an extended period of time.  As well as giving them time, they need stimulus to develop.  It seems that this will come from three areas:

1. Student based reflection
2. Formative feedback from the tutor
3. Collaboration between students and the wider world

Any portfolio system must provide a mechanism to foster all three of these area.

What is a Portfolio?

I am currently about to start work on a "virtual portfolio" system that will be used for students to develop a sound design portfolio.  Before beginning work on the detail of this project I think it is worth clearly defining "What is a Portfolio?"  The normal academic reply to this question is something along the lines of...

"A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts,progress, and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection." (Paulson 1991) 

Although this gives a very vigorous interpretation of the academic requirements, it does not consider the wider ramifications from creating a portfolio.  Therefore, it is worth asking the question "What is the purpose of a Portfolio?"  There are two main academic goals for a portfolio: one is as a "workspace" where students can develop their content and the other is a "showcase" where the students can present their work (Barrett 2011).  When considered from the students perspective the workspace is very much about the process, whereas the showcase is the presentation of the product.  However, from an academic point of view the portfolio offers a mechanism for assessment of the student's efforts.  When considering the process this will be about formative assessment, while the product can be used for summative assessment.  This means that the audience for the portfolio as a workspace is largely internal and the audience for the showcase will mainly be external.  It is this external view that carries wider ramifications for the portfolio, beyond just being an academic exercise and it is hoped that the portfolio will become a life-long exercise.

So what are the key elements of a portfolio?  First, it is a repository for holding work. This is a given, based on where the very word comes from (french for page carrier).  Next, it should contain elements of the following to meet the definition above and the academic requirements (Becta 2007, JISC 2008).

• Planning and setting goals
• Capturing and storing evidence
• Collaboration
• Giving and receiving feedback (formative)
• Reflections
• Presenting to an audience
• Networking and building a reputation

It is also important when planning portfolio work to have a clear target output for the portfolio.  This means identify a specific target audience for the portfolio and tailor the presentation specifically for them.

Next I shall consider exactly what is required for a portfolio in Sound Design.

Paulson, F.L. Paulson, P.R. and Meyer, CA. (1991, February). What Makes a Portfolio a Portfolio? Educational Leadership, pp. 60-63.

Barrett, H. (2010). Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios. Educação, Formação & Tecnologias, 3(1), 6-14.

Becta (2007), Impact study of e-portfolios on learning,  http://www.becta.org.uk

JISC (2008), Effective Practice with e-Portfolios: Supporting 21st century learning, http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/effectivepracticeeportfolios.pdf

I Feel Love

I learned today that Donna Summer had lost her fight against cancer and sadly passed away.  As I have mentioned previously, her song I Feel Love was hugely influential in getting me into electronic music.  As much as I loved these wonderful synthesizer sounds  and the funky rhythm, it was the vocals the brought the other parts to life.  Right from the first spellbinding "Ooh. It's So Good", to the last captivating "I Feel Love", she gave a truly alouring performance that just sat so well with the track.  Amazing really as there is no real lyrical content, but just a fantastic delivery.  It was this magic that she brought to many of her classic tracks.  I felt her love.  She will be sadly missed.

Practising Sound Design for Visual Content

In my last post I spoke about practising your sound design and suggested practicing sound design for visual content by finding some suitable footage, removing the soundtrack and then creating your own accompanying sound.  The specific content of the visuals is entirely up to you, but trailers or adverts work quit well due to them being short in length.  Failing that you can edit your own video, although remember if this is not done well it will not matter how good your sound design is, the perception of the content will be poor.

When learning sound design one of the mistakes that most newbies make is to go about it in a very literal manner.  Along the lines of....there is a sound source in a scene so I need a corresponding sound.  That is, one action = one sound.  This is not really the best way to go about it as you will end-up with a very literal sountrack.  Often resulting in a soundtrack that is either too cluttered, sparse or just lacking a clear message.  A better way to go about the sound design is to look at every scene and think about the what you are trying to convey to the viewer with the sound.  Consider theme, concept, narrative, aesthetics, emotion, atmosphere, abstractions, expression, feel, characterization, reality, separation, metaphors, environment, authenticity, intelligibility, etc.  When you have considered these you can go about creating a soundtrack to match the message you want to put across to the viewer.  In doing this you will find that you end-up with much more focus to the sound and should find that you naturally create the required selectivity, based on what you are trying to achieve.

Another really good idea for practising this form of sound design is to take some fairly generic visual content and then create different soundtracks for the same content that allows you to explore different styles, emotions, atmospheres, etc.  You will have to make sure the visuals posses the scope for what you are trying to achieve, but it is a really great way to explore what is possible with the sound.

As I have said before, all of this content can then be used to build your showreel and hopefully you will learn a lot and have some fun with sound.

Sound Design Themes and Goals

I've written several posts now about learning and practising sound design.  When it comes to practicing, you could just sit down and experiment until you come-up with something that you think is good.  Although this is likely to be a very creative process, unfortunately it is not the way that most sound designers really work.  Sound Designers will generally work from a script or brief, and will only experiment with specific goals to achieve.  This being the case, a good way to practice your craft is to set yourself specific goals for your practice projects.  These should include aesthetic goals as well as technical requirements.  This will allow you to be much more focused in your practising and is more like how you will have to work in the real world.

First decide what kind of project you are going to do: music, soundscape or soundtrack.  (As mentioned previously, if you want to get into sound design for moving image, take a video clip (film, TV or game) and remove the original soundtrack).  Then set yourself a "theme" for your sound.  For visual based content this will be partially defined by the images, but still think about what you want to achieve with the sound and formally define your "theme".  (Remember you can give the visuals a completely different feel with different sound.)  For music or soundscape projects the definition of a theme is even more important and it will give you a clear remit within which to work.  Just to give you a few examples: Summer Rain, City Streets, Jupiter's Moons, Apathy, Sea Breeze, etc.  You get the idea.

Having defined the theme for the project, next you should think about the main, over arching aesthetic/style/genre goals that you want to achieve.  These will inform how you go about all stages of the sound design process and what you are trying to accomplish.  Try and keep this short and succinct, using only three or four descriptive words.  So for something like the Transformers movies it may be something like: powerful, bold, dynamic and clean.  Although movies will have other sound styles in them at different points, these are the overall goals that set the mood of the final piece.   These would be completely different for other projects, but should always define the sound design direction.  Added or combined with this should be the aesthetic goals.  You will have much more influence over the aesthetics if you have full control over the project.  Having said that, at least think about whether you want the impact of your sound to be overt, subtle or subconscious.  This will at least give you a level to aim your sound at.

Once you have defined the main goals for the project it is then time to dig down into the piece and define what you are trying to achieve with each scene, act, movement, section, etc., of the project.  Again this will depend on the type of sound design project you are working on, but think about things like the message you are trying to convey, emotion and listening modes.  It is at this point that you can start thinking about particular sound design techniques that you want to use.  For example, Sound Narrative, Stylistic, Realistic, Hyper-Realism, Empathetic, Synchresis, Anthropomorphism, Leitmotif, Vectorisation, Temporal Linearisation, Counterpoint, Musique Concrète, Contrapuntal Music, etc.  Think of these definitions as a skeleton or framework on which you will hang your sound design.

Finally, you need to define some technical specifications for the project.  If you want to work as a professional you will always have to make sure your work meets the technical requirements defined by the initiator of the project.  Again, some of these will be define for you if you are working with image, but think about things like levels, format, spatialisation, duration, etc.

When you have defined all of these, it is then time to start practising your sound design.  Remember at all stages of the project to reference the definitions and ensure they are being met.  Be critical of yourself as in the real world this will be done by someone else and just because you created something, it does not by default mean it is great!

Doing all of this will give you a more realistic way to practice, you will create content for your showreel and you should be able to clearly explain what you were tying to achieve in the sound design.

Train Your Ears

Following on from my previous post on practicing sound design (http://sound-sculpting.blogspot.com/2011/07/practice-makes-prefect.html), another aspect that should be taken into account is developing "critical listening" skills.  Again these will take time and practice to develop and will not just happen over night.  For a newbie I would recommend taking a reference track, which could be music, soundscape or soundtrack and first listen to it as a "whole".  Then listen back to it and in your "minds ear" try to isolate one particular sound element.  The human auditory system as actually very good at this and with a bit of practice it is actual fairly easy to do.  When you have an element isolated see if you can work out its attributes: pitch, duration, timber, loudness harmonics, rhythm, envelop, textures, speed, frequency, length, panorama, intensity, dimension, interest, balance, etc.  Write down your findings so you can refer to them later.  When you have fully characterised the sound, move on to the next one, until you have decomposed the whole track.  Writing down the characteristics will help you when moving on to other sound elements as you can refer to what you have written and sometimes you may find that you will want to modify what you have previously written in-light of the sound element you have just listened to.  When completed it is really important that you listen back to track and listen to it again as a "whole" so you can hear all the elements together.  This is a vital process as it is so easy to design a number of great sound elements, but when they are put together they do not "gel".  This is often best done with fresh ears, after a period of rest so that you are not suffering from listening fatigue.  The more you go through this process the better you will get and the more your ears will be able to identify subtle sound elements that may have been hidden before.  It is my suggestion that over a few weeks you do this for 20-30 reference tracks.  Then when you reach a point that it starts to become easy, go back to your first reference track and listen back to it and evaluate the notes you wrote.  How did you do?  Can you pick-out things now that you missed before?  If you can, your ears are getting better so work back through all your previous reference tracks and see if your evaluations have changed.  It should also be noted that this practice should be kept up.  Even when you get really good at it, still analyse audio content that you listen to, especially your own sound design! 

As well as training your ears on reference tracks you will also need to train your ears on the kind of audio processing you are likely to want to use.  This could be done by simply using a DAW with some audio content and just listening to the effect of changes you make, say to EQ settings or any other form of processing.  However, in my opinion some form of "testing" will yield better results.  There are web-sites and apps available that have been specifically designed for the testing of critical listening skills.  I have not reviewed all of these and I'm sure there are some other good critical listening testing solutions.  However, I would recommend the book, Audio Production and Critical Listening: Technical Ear Training by Jason Corey (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Audio-Production-Critical-Listening-Technical/dp/0240812956).  This is a great text and comes with an app that compliments the contents of the book and allows you to test your audio production skills.

A final area of useful training is the identification of audio "problems".  For this I recommend you take an audio track and apply processing to it to generate as many audio problems as you can think of.  Here are a few to get you started: over-compression, poor EQ, clipping, quantisation noise, reduced bandwidth, stereo width too wide or narrow, poor spatial impression, etc.  Bounce out several examples of each with different settings and name each file to correspond with the particular issue and the settings used.  Listen to the original audio and then playback the bounced files in a random order and see if you can identify the issue and settings used in each.  This will work even better if you have a friend that can generate the files for you so that you are listening to them fresh.  You could then return the favour.

Suffice to say, the more you practice listening, the better you will get at it.  This time and effort will then pay you back in your sound design and the more you design sounds the better your ears will get.

David Sonnenschein Blog Posts

Apologies for not writing very much lately.  I currently have so many on-going projects, I'm struggling to find the time to write-up the many ideas I have in my head.  I promise to write up some of my post ideas as soon as I have a bit of free time.  In the mean time I have just discovered a blog series by David Sonnenschein that considers using sound effects in sound design.  Worth a read if you are new to the field:

http://www.prosoundeffects.com/blog/category/david-sonnenschein/

I'd also strongly recommend checking out David's book - Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema.