We did a thorough amount of research regarding music and sound and established ways we could use music to manipulate the feelings of the listener. Our aims are to create an immersive experience that evokes calm and comfort, using sound as one of its main components.

Research to support these decisions will be linked at the bottom of this page.

The purpose of Sound in our project

Sound has a huge impact on player experience. We aim to create a uniquely composed soundtrack for our physical space to relax players and put their mind at ease. We will achieve this by using piano sound accompanied by ambient sound and atmosphreic audio to enhance player engagement and assist with stress-relief. We established the importance of different musical patterns and methods in achieving a particular emotion or feeling, which we plan to document in a Sound Bible neatly prepared for our Sound Designer next Semester. We also considered the use of sound effects in our reflective app to make interactions more playful and high-spirited.

Sound Designer

Emilia has some experience with Sound Design, having worked on the soundtrack for a previous project. However, we considered our workload for the year and concluded that it would be especially useful to get some extra support.

During our final project presentation on the 18th January, we were lucky enough to have Years One, Two and Three Music students watch us and take notes regarding which projects they’d like to work on. After being introduced to the students, they were able to come and speak with us about our projects and provide us with the help we needed!

We were lucky enough to be approached by a number of students but one stuck out to us the most. Harry! Harry is a Grade 8 Pianist with an interest in ambient sound and atmospheric audio. We established together that he would be perfect for the design and development of our Sound and instantly welcomed him onto our project. Harry shared some of his audio examples that he had sourced himself such as visiting an empty forest in the early morning to capture river and nature sounds. We admired his efforts and spoke further about what we expected from Sound Design, to which he agreed and couldn’t wait to get started.

REQUIREMENTS

Music

• A uniquely composed soundtrack for the duration of our ‘immersive physical space’ experience.
• Ideally soothing piano music in the key C, G or Bb Major - we have identified these keys to be the most relaxing.
• A slow tempo (around 45-60bpm) to reduce physical symptoms of anxiety and stress such as fast heart rate and heavy breathing.
• Atmospheric audio and ambient sound to accompany the soft piano song - this might include nature sounds such as birds chirping and a flowing river.