The Aspects of Design - Part 8: Sound Design
by January 9th, 2008 Patrick GreerYes, their is a design aspect to sound. Sound design is a primary consideration when setting up speakers in a public venue like churches, conference centers, concert halls and stadiums. Sound design is also a major aspect of the T.V. and motion picture industry. While we are awed by the visual special effects of such films as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and the Matrix to name a few none of those productions would connect and come to life if it wasn’t for the sound.
Try this for an experiment. If you have a DVD or video tape or even a downloaded file for a popular movie with a lot of special effects try turning down the sound. I’ve tried it with Star Wars and it’s a totally different movie. I’ve even heard some people say that Star Wars depends so much on the musical score that it is like an old silent movie. Even during the time of silent movies that did not contain an audio track they often included a musical score that was played by a live orchestra or at least a piano in the theater.
In the days of radio drama, which I really wish would make some kind of comeback, the art of audio special effects was born. The artists who create these sound effects are called foley artists and are very skilled at fooling us into thinking we are hearing one thing but in reality they are using everyday objects to give the same impression. One of the oldest examples is using coconuts to simulate a running horse.
I’m sure a lot of readers here may not be producing movies, concerts or radio dramas. You may be exploring the possibility of producing or having someone help you produce a podcast for your business as a way to educate and engage a potential customer base.
More and more people are considering podcasting as a viable way to market a niche product to a world wide audience. The merging of the MP3 audio file format and the web syndication technology known as RSS combined into a new thing called, Podcasting. Podcasting has really started to hit the mainstream after Apple made it an official part of iTunes. If fact in 2008 SpinningSilk Multimedia will be making a concerted effort to offer podcasting as a major service offering of our business. Why? While web sites and blogging are great for when you are sitting at a computer the avenue of podcasting opens up a whole new world and venues where content can be enjoyed. I know from personal experience and from the experience of others that podcasts (especially audio podcasts) can be enjoyed from away from traditional computers. You can listen to podcasts while walking around the neighborhood, working out at the gym, waiting on a seat at a restaurant, riding a train, bus or plane and even when driving provided your mp3 player has an audio connection to your car’s sound system.
All that being said, people will not tolerate poor sound quality and delivery when they can find better. You know the importance of good web design and having a professional looking web site, business card or brochure. The quality and professionalism of your message in audio is equally important. Our eyes may over look or scan past a misspelled word but it will be harder to over look, over hear poor audio delivery.
I’d like to point you to a respected source in the world of podcasting a good friend I have made via the Internet. Cliff Ravenscraft. I haven’t meet Cliff in person yet but we corresponded via e-mail, telephone as well as chat and I greatly enjoy his family of podcasts. One podcast in particular that you should listen to is the Podcast Answer Man. Cliff can goes a lot deeper than I can in this blog post and he also can offer you some great deals on sound equipment. If you are the slightest bit interested in podcasting I encourage you to subscribe to that podcast and yes I would love to talk with you one on one if you are interested in setting up a podcast for your business or organization, especially if you are in Greenville or the Upstate of South Carolina.
