Transcripts
1. Intro: A great way to elevate your
social content is with sound design. What do you do? It helps to emphasize emotions
and immerse your audience. Hi, I'm Fatah Mystery, a videographer and content
creator based in London. I've been in the industry
for about five years working on content
from illustration, food content and
even storytelling. And for me, sound
design has played an important part across all these different
types of content. In this short class,
I'll be giving you an introduction
and my framework that I like to use to help elevate my content
using sound design. I'll be running you
through my three part process that I like to use. The video editing software that I like to use is Premiere Pro, and I'll be getting all my
sound from epidemic sounds. Feel free to use any other
video editing software that you have and wherever you like to source
your sounds from? Okay, so before we get started, I'd recommend you get a
few clips loaded into your timeline before you join
me in the next lesson. See.
2. Ambient sound: The project in this class,
I'll be using clips that I shot while it's on holiday
of me eating a pastry, just a short story of sitting down and then
eating the pastry. But feel free to use any
videos that you would like as you'll still able
to partake in this class. Okay, so here's my timeline. I've got around eight different
clips in my timeline, so let me just play it so you can see what
we're working with. Okay, so that's what
I'm working with. It's a few different
clips of me outside. As you can see,
there's some sound already in from the
video that I took, which I will be using,
but that's just the base. Okay, so before we get started, let me run you through the three part process
that I like to use. The first step is
music or dialogue. This way, you can
put your track, any music that you've sourced, or if you have a voiceover,
this is good for this. The second step that I like
to use is ambient sounds. This is the sounds
of your environment, whether you're inside
or you're outside. In this project, I'll
be using a lot of outside clips because
we're in nature. And thirdly, we've
got sound effects. This is where I
like to emphasize emotions or movements or any other sound effects
that would help elevate the story of what
we're trying to tell. Okay, so let's just
get back into it. So first thing I like to do
is to add a few extra tracks. This just makes it
easier when adding more and more sound effects as you go on through the video. So to do this, I'm just
going to right click on the side, add tracks. And then under the audio tracks, I'm just going to add ten. May not be using all these,
but it's just good to have. The second thing
that I'm going to do is just mute the first track. This is just the audio
that's come out of camera. Okay, so step one is our music. I've already saw some music
that I'd like to use. So first, just going
to drag that in. Let's have a listen
to what this sounds like now with the visuals. Okay, so with the music over
the visuals, it looks great. I like the mutes
that I've chosen, and it works well with the
story that I'm trying to tell. But we can take this further. So, secondly, ambient sounds. Let me talk you through
how I like to do it. Okay, so what I want to do here with the ambient sounds is immerse the audience further into the story that
I'm trying to tell. So the way that I
like to go about this is depending on
the scene that I'm in, if I'm changing scenes
from indoor or outdoor, in this case, we'll be
outdoor for all of it. But I like to go through and
just imagine what sounds I could hear from the
environment. So let's go through. So, whilst watching
this through, because we're outside, I can
imagine there'd be wind. There'd be the sound
of trees rustling. There could be the
sound of birds chirping. This is just things. I'm just trying to think of any other possibilities
that we could have. Okay, so what I'm gonna
do now is to go on epidemic sounds and
search for these sounds. Firstly, we've got wind. So let's just go under
the sound effects and the search wind. And it's just going to
be a matter of going through the list and seeing which one you think fits best. So what we can do is we
can fit the tail of this. So let's type in gentle gentle
wind, see what comes up. Skip through. Oh, here, we've got some leaves rustling. So I personally like
the sound of this one, so I'm just gonna download this and then drag it
into the timeline. I'm just going to
leave a gap here so we know we've got our music, we'll have our ambient sounds, and then we'll create our
sound effects down here. One thing I like to do is to trim to the
middle of the clip. Let's have a look what
this sounds like. Another trick I like to do is turn off the music whilst adding in the ambient and
the sound effects just so you can hear
them a bit clearer. Sam's gonna mute
the music track, and let's go and listen to it. I'm happy with that.
I'm just gonna go in and reduce the levels. So with ambience, I
like to generally keep this at around
minus ten or so. I don't want to
be too prominent, but I want it to be
there so you can hear it with the music. So it's very subtle, but
that's what we want from this. So with this ambience section, we want to layer the sounds. So we added in some
wind. Let's go and find some bird
chirps now, too. So I'm just gonna go in,
search birds chirping. Perfect. Let's download
this like before, and let's drag it
into the timeline. So let's just play
it and see how it sounds. Okay, I'm
happy with this. Perfect. So I'm just
gonna cut that. And again, like before, let's reduce the
levels to about ten. See what this sounds like now. You can hear the wind, you
can hear the birds chirping, it's already feels like
you're in the environment. Okay, so now we've added the music and the ambient sounds. Let's go in and add
the sound effects.
3. Sound design: With this step, the
way that I like to do it is to go in and watch each clip individually and try to think what
sounds I could hear, whether it's the
rustling of the bag, the biting of the pastry, and even little things like when I'm placing my hand
down on the bench. So going through each clip
and really think about what things would make sound in that clip so
let's get into it. So I'm going to watch it through and just narrate
what I'm thinking. So let's mute the
ambient sounds that we added, start from the beginning. So we've got the
rustling of the bag. As I move it up, I can
imagine like a woh, it's like a to help emphasize the raising
the pastry in the air. So we've got a hush there and even a hush on the way back. This section, I can have the noise of the
pastry being bit into. Maybe some chewing sounds here, maybe like the sound of
licking your fingers. And then finally, we can
add a few sounds here. We can layer them. So what
I'm thinking is we can have a woh sound of the paper
being thrown into the bin. But then also, like, a
slight crackle of the paper. And then I'm thinking we can end it with the paper
hitting the bin. So that could be like
the sound of a bag, the sound of metal because
we can see the bins metal. So now that I've gone through and just narrated
what I'm thinking, let's go in and start
adding in sounds. So firstly, I'll
start with the sounds that I can see and then we'll go in and add in all
the extra sounds which help elevate the story, like the Wushes and
stuff like that. So what I'm going to do
with this first clip? I'm going to sound design fully. I'm going to have the
rustling of the paper. Maybe if I can find some sounds
of pastry being squished, and then finally a woh as
I'm pulling out the bag, and then we can hear
what they all look like. So let's go on to and let's
see what we can find. Okay. So I think this is good. Let's download this. Let's
drag it into the timeline. So I want this section here in the middle where there's
constant rustling. So let's just cut that
and let's drag it in. Okay, so 'cause it's
just that first section, we only need the
sound until there. So let's cut that. So let's
drag that a bit further, and then let's fade
out the end of the sound. See what
that sounds like. Okay, that's perfect.
I'm happy with that. Maybe we'll cut it a little
bit earlier. Perfect. And now let's go
and add a washing. So Ooh, quite like these. So let's download. And
again, let's drag them in. So I think I'll go for
the slightly longer Wush. Let's add this onto a new track. And let's just watch where the movement
would be in the center, so around there, and then drag the peak
of the Wush to there. Oh, perfect. So like we did
with the ambient sounds, let's reduce some of the levels. So go to drop this
to minus five. And then 'cause
the rustles quite a high pitch I'm going
to leave that as it is. So let's turn off the mute of the music and the
ambient sounds, and let's see what
we're working with. Gonna drop the level
of the music by five, as well. Perfect. So as you can see, even
just in that one clip, we've taken it from the music, the ambient sounds,
and the sound effect, and it really immerses you
whilst you're watching it. Now for the second clip, 'cause we've already got
the ambient sound. The only sound effect
that I can imagine in this scene will be the worship of the pastry
being raised into the air. Here's a flak far and then I'm just gonna hold alt
and drag that over. Let's just find where the
middle of the movement is. So we've got the end,
we've got the start. So let's find the
middle, and that will help line up the audio. So I'd say there's the start. There's the end so middle's just as the pastry
comes into frame. Let's see what that sounds like. Perfect. And then
we'll do the same on the way down there. What I like to do when
using the same audio, if there's an in and out motion or if there's a forward
and back motion, I like to use the same woh,
but then just reverse it. So right, click, speed and duration and
then just reverse speed. Okay, so using the analysis that we just discussed
about going through each clip and seeing what you can hear and imagining
what you can hear, I'm going to go in
and do this rest for the video and then we'll come back at the end, and I'll
show you what I've got. Okay, so I've gone
through and I've added in all the sound effects. Let
me show you what I've done. Let me mute the
ambient and the music, and let's see what we've got. At the beginning,
we have the rustle. I've got a few
washes here just to emphasize the movement
of the pastry. And then what we've got here. So I've got the
bite, the sound of the pastry we've been bit into. Got some chewing. This
is the same clip, duplicated, then I've faded
in the beginning part. So it overlaps a bit better. Here, as you can see, I'm
pushing off the bench. So if you just listen
to it, soloed. I've added it in a slight creak. Un solo that. And then this end section, I've got a few sounds. So let me just show you how
I've laid these sounds. So the first sound is the wush of the paper
falling into the bin. The second sound is
the rustling of paper, and then the final sound and the final sound
is the rustling of a bag as the paper hits
as it goes in the bin. So let's listen to
everything together. Perfect. So let's unmute the
ambient and the music, and let's see what that
all sound like together. Okay, so I'm happy with the
way that it all sounds. The only thing I like
to do at this stage is to go in and tweak the levels just a little bit so I can hear everything
that I want to hear. So in this case, I'm going to reduce the level of the music. Let's drop this
down to minus ten. And with the birds chirping, let's increase this
to minus five. This music's a bit quieter, and the emphasis is on
the ambient sound and the sound effects that I'm
making. Okay, perfect. Top tip that I like to use
when adding sound effects into my videos is
to consider reverb, because most of the sounds
that you source online would have been recorded
in a controlled studio. They wouldn't sound
exactly how you'd imagine them if you were
in that environment. Some rooms may be bigger, some rooms may be smaller. And in this case, we're outside. So there'd be a
small bit of reverb. So let's go add this into a
few of our sound effects. So one in particular
I want to add it to is the chewing sound. So I've just searched
reverb and my effects. I'm just going to drag
on the studio reverb. Thing I like to do is
to increase the decay, increase the room size, and the output of the wet and dry. And let's just have a listen,
see what this sounds like. So I'm just going
to solo that clip. And then we just go in and
tweak the settings a bit. Okay, so I'm happy with that. Let's unsollo that and let's see what it
sounds like together. So I'm happy with that,
so I'm just gonna copy that onto the other
chewing clip. Okay, so let's watch it through one final time to see if
we've missed anything. Okay, perfect. So I'm happy
with the way that sounds. Okay, so that's
it. We've elevated our content with sound design. We went through the
three step process of added in music or dialogue, ambient sounds, and
then sound effects. I'd love to see how you
found this class helpful and how you use sound design
to elevate your content. So please upload your projects
to the project at panel Below where I can give feedback
or any input if needed. I hope you found this
class helpful and do leave a review if you did
until next time. Bye.
Smitesh Mistry, Illustrator & Designer
