For my UOL assessment, I undertook the task of crafting an ident, a distinctive audio snippet aimed at identifying television channels like BBC, Discovery, and History. To achieve this, I delved into recording various sounds that piqued my interest, ranging from motorcycles and kettles to photocopiers and beyond. These diverse sounds were then meticulously merged, manipulated, processed, and arranged to synchronise seamlessly with moving images.
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A musical ident, also referred to as a sonic logo or audio logo, serves as a brief audio cue designed to instantly identify a television channel, radio station, brand, or production company. Much akin to a visual logo, a musical ident functions as a sonic signature, swiftly recognizable to the audience and closely associated with a specific entity or program. Its fundamental objective lies in fostering brand recognition and solidifying a sense of identity within the audience's consciousness.
This project was a university assignment whereby I had to record harmonic and non harmonic sounds and utilise them thematically by creating gestures. Therefore I endeavoured to develop a theme centered around outer space, titling the composition 'The Clash of the Cosmos'. This thematic framework served as a guiding principle throughout the creative process, drawing upon the structural concepts of approach, impact, and tails as elucidated by Lewis (1998), to craft gestures and atmospheres. To evoke a sense of atmospheric depth, I incorporated non-harmonic textures, notably transposing recordings of a flock of geese across four octaves—high, medium, low, and very low. Employing EQ adjustments and volume automation, I sculpted the tonal qualities of these sounds to transition smoothly, alternating from the background to the foreground, thereby enhancing the perception of dimension and motion. Building upon this foundation, I introduced harmonic structures and utilized plug-ins such as bit crusher, distortion, and delay designer to create diverse textures within each sequence, incorporating tails to overlap new phases and engender variation for a more immersive atmospheric experience.
The underlying concept behind the initial gesture was to depict the clash of planets within the cosmos. To achieve this, I manipulated sounds such as a hoover and a car horn, reversing and transposing them across multiple octaves to add depth and movement. Employing volume automation techniques, I modulated the perception of motion from quiet to loud, enhancing the immersive quality of the composition. A brief pause in sound heightened anticipation, followed by the transposition of a booming sound with delay to simulate rocks gradually receding in the distance, concluding with the addition of transposed ice hacking to evoke the breaking of rocks.
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For the second gesture, I aimed to convey an emergency scenario. This involved the transposition of a bell, with added chorus and volume automation to create a siren effect, complemented by manipulated recordings of a lion roar and a mangaby to intensify the sense of terror and urgency. The impact phase featured a collision effect achieved by juxtaposing different sound sources with delay, while the tail incorporated transposed gunfire sections panned and processed to create a fading laser beam effect.
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In the third gesture, I sought to convey a breakdown in communication. Using wind atmospheres and manipulated gong recordings, I simulated static noise and SOS signals, culminating in the addition of transposed recordings of horses galloping and birds chirping to evoke a sense of panic and distress.
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The fourth gesture aimed to evoke a sense of despair and hopelessness, achieved through the incorporation of metaphorical sound elements representing failed calls for help. Creaking sounds, water flow, and transposed recordings of an elephant were strategically placed to convey a prolonged sense of sadness and confusion, with minimal processing applied to preserve authenticity and relatability to human emotion.
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Throughout the composition process, meticulous attention was paid to processing and mixing techniques, including channel EQ adjustments, compression, and reverb, to enhance clarity and shape the overall sound. Volume automation was employed to prevent peaking and digital distortion, with a limiter applied to the master fader to ensure consistent levels and overall sound quality, in accordance with established principles.