Today I exported all my sound on to Cd’s ready to hand in and also as a back just in-case something was to happen before the degree show. Burning the sound onto Cd’s my main aim as I really needed to focus on my photography. There was a problem that occurred and didn’t realise until I tried to access my sound on my laptop through the Cd’s the sound was copied on to. The mixdowns worked well but the same effect was not applied as we I did not know what system the assessor would be listening my sound through, from this I decided to copy two versions of my sound to hand in, one which is 2.1 stereo output and the other will be 5.1 surround sound output, this gives the assessor the opportunity to listen to the sound either way and notice the different effect the sound gives off.

Paul Adkins has been experimenting on different ways we could play 0ut my sound on the day of the degree show, he told me that there were several different ways this could be done. He tried one of them but when I heard it we both noticed that the sound was playing out as stereo on the 5.1 sound system. Paul has been trying to find other ways to play the sound out of the same room of the installation as the radio studio may be asked for on the day, this has really got to me as I had notified several people that if there was a problem with me booking out the studio for the day then let me know so then I can work around it, I am now afraid that nearer the time some one will ask to use the studio I am in instead as there have been problems with the other radio studio. I am going to continue as if we are going to use the studio as no one has informed me just yet but will still work around finding other ways of playing the sound in another system in the room of the installation room, if worse comes to worse I will just have to go out and buy a DVD Player surround sound output.

Today I have the radio studio booked out all day so I am able to finish off my sound as I gave myself a deadline for today so I had the rest of the week to be able to make any adjustments to the final piece. Fortunately for me those who had heard the sound so far really liked the whole piece as one and told me not to make any changes, so taking their advice I left the piece on how they heard it. I finished off my sound earlier then I thought I would as I knew what it was that I was going to do and how I was going to do it.
I have organised to meet with Paul Adkins to burn my sound on CD, I will have two copies to hand in, one to play on stereo and the other to play on a surround sound system if the examiners have that at hand.

Today I helped Sabina do her recording for her voice over’s and as soon as we were done I got into doing my sound editing and finally felt it was going somewhere, the fire alarm for the building had gone off and as this took a while there was no way I would have been able to go back and edit so I called it a day and prepared myself to go home and do some more workbook. Tuesday I have the radio studio booked for the whole day, I booked the morning and Sabina in the afternoon, Sabina might want to do some more voice over’s and has told me that I can use the rest of her session to edit my sound as soon as she’s done.
I did get a few things done but was expecting to finish the whole sound so then next week I could look over it and edit it if there were things that I didn’t like, my aim now is to get the whole piece done by Tuesday the lastest.

This morning I went to Ellen Terry to upload my sounds on wordpress, I did encounter a few problems but once I began to explore Dream weaver it began to become more clearer of what it was that I had to do. After this I decided to edit my sound but my concentration for it seems to be going as I’m scared it won’t go the way I want it to, I seem to be getting positive feedback from everyone that hears it but I feel the only reason it no longer is affective for me is because I continuously hear it on a daily basis in every detail.
The more people that hear my piece the more positive feedback I receive, I think I need to do this more often as it helps me recognise on what needs to be improved and if there are any changes needed to be made. The feedback I receive from Paul Adkins is great as he recognises the most smallest things about the sound that I wouldn’t have recognised, with his help every now and then I see this piece improving more and more.
Even though I was in the studio today I spent more time trying to figure out how my installation will be built and not the editing of my sound, my access to the studio is lessening as there are more people booking it before me. I feel I am going to struggle a lot when it comes to my image but at any time of the day I tend to think back at my sound thinking about what I could change, add and improve. I feel that the more I think about my work and discuss it with others the more it will improve and change for the better.

There was quite a misunderstanding with the booking of the radio studio this morning as it had been double booked through two different people, in a way it did not affect me as much as I had arranged to meet with Mez at 10am to again try and put my sound on wordpress as my attempt yesterday was not successful. As the radio studio was being used from 9am this gave me a chance to measure the size of my folder so then I know what size the print I will hand in will be.
This can not happen again as it will jeopardise the development of my editing on the sound, as people are now booking the studio with Paul and others are booking it with Keith it creates a big confusion as they don’t inform each other of the bookings and is then realised on the day when two people turn up. I feel I have been too nice to the journalism students as I allow them to use the studio for a while whilst I am doing something else but this then turns into a habit for them which affects my work. I allowed one student to use the studio for the first half hour of my booked in session as I had my photography to worry about too but it ended up taking around an hour of my booked time as what he had planned to do in the studio became delayed. I need to start saying no to other students as it will be me sufferring the consequences and not them.

Today I spent the afternoon in the radio studio combining my sounds together in the surround system. Sabina joined me in the studio so I could get her opinion on the sounds I have already put together so then I can find out what is that I need to work on and change.
The reason why I turn to Sabina a lot is because she has seen me go through the production process of my work and knows what it is that I want out of this piece as many of my discussions about the work has been with her. She has had more input with my sound production and editing then my photography, I had her look at my script to see what could be done about it before and she told me that the dialogue was too much and needed to consider cutting it down, after speaking to Jonathan about the sound too I can see what it is that a lot of people expect from my piece which is what I then develop and work towards. From this I can see a big cut from the sound script I had produced to the sound I am now aiming towards, I get people to take a look at my image and then tell me what it is that they hear when I mention that the location of the image is where a car crash had happened.

After this I went to the radio studio to begin editing the ambient sound I had recorded this morning which came out better then the one’s I had previously recorded. Unfortunately the day in the studio was completely wasted as adobe audition decided to crash on me in a click of a button, this did annoy me a bit but gave me extra time for my workbook and concentrate on my photography, I did really want to edit the sound as I haven’t had a chance to edit properly yet but luckily ETB06 has adobe audition so when it comes to editing single tracks I am able to edit them in there in the morning or evening and then work on the surround sound in the studio during the afternoon. I feel that many of the students should be given an extension as the avid crashed on us, the photography students do not really need an extension but it may be a valuable amount of time put to use. The one problem that could occur is it puts more pressure on is when it comes to the degrees show as it only gives us a week to prepare and organise but as a group we could pull through this together.

Today I went out and recorded more sounds for my ambient as it seems that it is one of the most important sounds in my piece as it creates the calmness and helps me lead my sound into the crash. This time I went out to record my sounds with Crystal and Sabina, some of them I recorded outside on one of Hillfield’s silent roads and some of them were recorded outside my window and in my back garden.

 MZ000021 – Ambient (Good)
 MZ000022 – Ambient (Not good)
 MZ000023 – Ambient (Good, interference in the beginning and some wind sounds but useable)
 MZ000024 – Ambient (Not good)
 MZ000025 – Ambient (Good, some interference but useable)
 MZ000026 – Ambient (Good)
 MZ000027 – Ambient and birds chirping (Good)
 MZ000028 – Birds chirping (Good)
 MZ000029 – Wind blowing (Good)
 MZ000030 – Wind blowing (Good, bit too loud)
 MZ000031 – Wind blowing (Good, bit too loud)
 MZ000032 – Wind blowing (Good, too loud but good effect if amplified)
 MZ000033 – Wind blowing (Good, has some base)
 MZ000034 – Wind blowing (Not good)
 MZ000035 – Wind blowing (Good)

These sounds can be found on the page sound recorded list 29th April.

I went to the radio studio to begin editing my piece and combining them together for my final project. Before I began to edit them together I checked my ambient sound which will play along in the background throughout, I asked Paul for his advice but he mentioned that there was too much hissing in the sound even though I did use the hiss reduction on adobe audition. Paul showed me the reasons for using the boom microphone when it came to recording my ambient sound, we compared the microphone’s on how they record in the same room and found that the most affective microphone to record with was the C1000, we found that there was less hissing in the sound and it picked up our voices more then it did the background noise which is what I needed when it came to recording the birds with ambient background sound. Before I knew it time was done in the studio and it was time for me to go but I did plan to record my ambient sound during that evening so then I could start editing properly without any hold backs.
I then began to record sounds with Crystal this evening finding what was best, but I had to wait later on for the next morning as we picked up a lot of traffic noise in the background which is what I wanted to avoid. I then began recording voice over’s for Crystal’s documentary comparing my voice to hers we found that her voice seemed to fit for the documentary.
I text one of the theatre students to confirm the recording for tomorrow and as her work was not going to plan she couldn’t make it which then set me back on my piece but as I had recordings with Jenneh and Ade I feel that I could work with them and if I needed them to return to record again then their availability is easier to work around. This then gave me time in the morning to work on my photography and combining the images together to create a panorama, hopefully it all goes according to how Paul had showed me in last weeks meeting but if not then I still have the rest of the week to work around it and develop the image until it is exactly how I need it.

I began to prepare the script for the recording I had with the theatre students on Wednesday in the radio studio, I did contact one of the students to confirm that we are still meeting on the Wednesday morning which she did reply to confirming that her and the other theatre students will be coming.

As I had signed up to one.com to upload my sounds on wordpress I received an e-mail back from them giving my password and server name which means that I can continue my wordpress and begin to upload my files, first I will need to edit some of my sounds as they have irrelevant gaps and dialogue in them that do not need to be featured in the piece

These sounds I recorded were in my back garden, this was quite convenient for me there is a tree there and also I have low roofs around my house where the birds sing.

 MZ000001 (4).MP3 – Ambient and birds chirping (Not good)
 MZ000002 (4).MP3 – Ambient and birds chirping (Not good)
 MZ000003 (4).MP3 – Ambient and birds chirping (Not good)
 MZ000004 (4).MP3 – Ambient and birds chirping (Useable, only some parts)
 MZ000005 (4).MP3 – Ambient and birds chirping (Useable, best)

These sounds can be found on the page sound recorded list 25th April 2009