Proposal

With this sound track I plan on creating a fitting sound to my opening

animation for battle royal. I intend to make a soundtrack similar to the film
in theme and atmosphere. I intend to do this using a variety of different
Logics instruments and sound modifiers, this will include the use of a
pitch shifter as well as various different plug ins and experimentation of
BPM. I plan on incorporating audio samples from the film itself as well as a
small use of samples from another song or maybe other YouTube videos
that would help reinforce the themes I am striving to create. The sound I
intend to create would ideally be simple in layout with a lot of custom
features, this involves excluding the use of pre made loops from logic itself
as I am attempting to create an entirely original sound that may or may
not have minimal use of samples, although a sample is an ideal idea to
create a basic start to work from. This will serve as inspiration as well as a
good base layer to build upon. This is an idea that I plan on pushing
forward as I develop on my sound. I plan on making this sample as
minimalistic as possible only using a portion that uses one instrument or
sound to loop continuously no matter how short or long the sample may
be. I already have two ideas for this idea of utilising samples. . As my
target audience are the viewers of the my animation it is essential that the
soundtrack relates to the animation in some way, I have previously talked
about sampling audio rom the film but I will need to do more then this to
make a more immersive experience. If the basic theme doesnt relate to
the animation then I would have failed in creating an atmosphere with the
combination of the two so getting this right is essential. I intend on using
Logic instead of Garage band as I have previous experience in using it and
understand that it is more complex then Garage band with more features
for customisation when editing basic sounds and controlling various other
elements of the audio. I understand that using samples that are not mine
is not entirely ethical but on the short samples I do use I plan on editing
them to distinguish them from the original source and ad originality to
them, even simple voice samples will be edited to show some level of
independence. The style I am striving for along with the theme itself is
based on 90s Hip Hop production heavily based on samples and simple
chopping of audio files. This would normally be done with an MPC in the
period where it was first done but as I do not have access to this
technology I had attempted to replicate this style using Logic. The drums I
use will be from Hip Hop based drum machine in logic, this along with the
sampling and use of loops shall all relate to the 90s Hip Hop style as well
as the overall theme with some extensive editing and changing of pitch
and BPM.

The screenshots above show various developments on my audio project.

I originally intended on creating a song of a looped sample from a song that

would suit the theme of the animation itself. I originally thought of using

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdQSP7Dhck zealots of Stockholm

by childish gambino between 1:33-1:43 and making a continued sample
to build on as a base layer for 50 seconds. As this lacked variation and
was a more aggressive approach then I wanted I changed song to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH-2yjhC4vY Onoe Caponoe Disappearing Jakob I used the piano role from 0:40 0:46.
I made this into a loop and lowered the pitch using pitch shifter in logic.
After the editing this turned into an 8-bar loop. This was most likely due to
the change in BPM I made to slow the speed. After finishing of the base
layer I decided to add on some Kicks and snares to make a basic beat on
top of the altered piano role.
Using the dilla drum machine in logic a basic beat was made using a midi
keyboard. I made sure that this beat was the same length as the piano
role loop that had been made an then edited some of the recording using
the piano role where I could draw, edit and chop some o the single notes
that had been recorded.
After this a more advanced beat was made using a combination of the
same dilla machine and a fizze beats synth bass to make a pretty basic
bass line. The original sound of the bass produced by the fizze beats synth
was not to my liking so I edited it using a logic bass amp modifier. This is
where a deeper, flatter bass was made.
After making the intro and base of the song that lasted 24 seconds I
continued the loop to 50 seconds by dragging the top half of an audio
sequence after highlighting them all. This is then where I began
downloading some samples from YouTube as well as playing with the fader
tool as you can see in the screenshots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04bZIZDn0jo (battle royal audio) this
was the source of most of my samples. I taken random parts of the audio
and put it in a new layer right before the bass and hats kick in fading it in
time with the snares. I then waited a while before cutting two portions of
the song out to enter in two more samples both on a new layer that had
been modified with a pitch shifter and fader altering the speed like I had
done with the previous sample.
To add some changes to a tedious loop I also isolated some of the loops
during the loner portions of the song. I also used the fader again to alter
the speed. After this I decided to use the panning tool to create a
complete left to right pan on my third sample, merging it with the slowed

down effect of the fader to create an illusion of a three dimensional sound.

Note this works especially well with headphones.
I then edited the piano role and added a new sample that set a darker
atmosphere to the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=7QLSRMoKKS0 the sample itself is not to dark but I altered it on
multiple layers with a pitch shifter and pan tool.

Sample Audio Files (un edited) Assorted for use into files.
Target Audience/animation
I have carefully considered the target audience for this piece of audio and
aimed to make it very specific to its theme. As the animation is based on the
film Battle Royal I have included various battle royal samples into the song as
well as taking to a darker approach with a slow BPM and a lot of pitch shifting
to make it lower in tone. I have decided to exclude sound effects as it does not
go with the overall moody tone of the song. The focus on the piano role and
simple beat adds effect to a silent opening sequence animation playing on
effects like ambiguity where I ultimately strived to make it more mysterious. I
cannot tell if this worked as a whole when played alongside the animation itself
but I have achieved the sound that I was aiming for in doing so. The sound that
I thought would be more fitting for the audience watching the animation.
Legal/ethical disputes
As well as helping to create an atmosphere I also lowered the pitch to prevent
and copy right scenarios. Altering the original sampled sounds as well as
cutting them up will make them unique and therefore no the same as the
original taken. I also used as little music sampling as possible to maintain
originality using the one six second piano roles from another song and altering
the sound through various modifiers.

Evaluation

As a whole I have developed on my original ideas and concepts for my audio

project, the developments made seem to be fitting with the animation and the
target audience. Through the development on this song and experimentation
done in logic I have learnt various skills and methods to use whilst editing in
logic as well different audio effects. My understanding of Logic and song
structure has improved allowing me to make a more in-depth analysis of my
finished song and comparing it to other forms of audio structure. The use of
sampling came as inspiration from some 90s Hip-Hop I had been listening to in
the build up to this task. Here is an example of an album that acted as
inspiration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation:_Doomsday .
Aside from help in setting up some of the midi equipment this project was done
independently on a personal MacBook. The time management was simple as I
had the opportunity to work on the project a majority of the time. This allowed
me to finish on time and even make an extra 15 seconds. I think that leaving
out some of the sound effects that could have made a stronger link between
the animation and the song itself was a mistake as the two could have been
better connected through some simple sampling of gunshots and
environmental sounds. But over all I think the song has matched up to its
purpose pretty well on theme and atmosphere, I especially focused on the
theme to make it as dark as possible. This is what ultimately led me to
choosing the loud and effective piano role as a sample to loop. More layers and
samples from some other music may have improved the quality of the song
making a thicker and fuller sound, as the song itself is quite thin and simple
using a small amount of layers.
I think that I have stayed true to my proposal doing almost everything I have
said I was going to do and included all the samples I said that I would
incorporate. I have even exceeded the duration of my animation making the
song almost one and a half minutes long when my animation is only 45
seconds. This is unnecessary but gives me some choice in syncing the audio
with the animation as I can chose different starting points for the song and still
have it as long as I need it to be. I also managed to finish before the deadline
being given the opportunity to tweak and edit a variety of features on the song
to better the over all quality before I exported the logic project file into a basic
MP3 file format. I also turned up the overall levels before exporting making the