Week 4: Lab (audio wave processing)

As I found the lab a bit too loud (with earplugs) and couldn't download the audio files we were supposed to be working on (due to Google's download limit) I decided to do the lab activity at home. The only difference being that I would use Adobe Soundbooth CS5 instead of CS4.

The first task after downloading the two music files - 'sopranoascenddescend.wav' and 'english words2.wav' was to play the soprano file in Windows Media Player and look at how long it was. Of course when using Windows 7 you could just click on the file in Explorer and get the length from there, but I played it anyway. It was 7 seconds long.

I have never used Adobe Soundbooth before so that was a new experience. I have however used Adobe Audition - which has more features but a very similar workspace. Therefore I already knew how to use all the basic tools.

I applied a Reverb effect to the file to see what it would sound like. It added an echo to the words in the file which gave the impression that it had been recorded in a very large echoey room.

I then undid that effect and added a Special: Sci-Fi Sounds effect instead. This resulted in the file sounding like the words had been spoken underwater.

Lastly I tried using a Voice: Telephone effect. This made the voice on the file sound much quieter and slightly electronic and distorted, giving the impression that the voice had been recorded from a telephone conversation.