Gomes, M. (2021). Unboxing Audacity: Mixing rhetorically with digital audio workstations. In K. D. Stedman, C. S. Danforth, & M. J. Faris (Eds.), Tuning in to soundwriting. enculturation/Intermezzo.
Gomes, Mathew. (2021). Unboxing Audacity: Mixing rhetorically with digital audio workstations. In Kyle D. Stedman, Courtney S. Danforth, & Michael J. Faris (Eds.), Tuning in to soundwriting. enculturation/Intermezzo.
Gomes, Mathew. 2021. "Unboxing Audacity: Mixing Rhetorically with Digital Audio Workstations." In Tuning in to Soundwriting, edited by Kyle D. Stedman, Courtney S. Danforth, and Michael J. Faris. enculturation/Intermezzo. .
Gomes, Mathew. "Unboxing Audacity: Mixing Rhetorically with Digital Audio Workstations." Tuning in to Soundwriting, edited by Kyle D. Stedman, Courtney S. Danforth, and Michael J. Faris, enculturation/Intermezzo, 2021, .
For this chapter, I have composed a small soundscape called "The Sneeze Problem." This example was composed from Creative Commons-licensed sounds available on freesound.org and attempts to evoke the sound of a man answering a phone call in a noisy environment full of clanging clock towers, beeping/booping video games, and the titular sneezes. The male figure successfully navigates this noisy environment, moving indoors to a quiet room, only to learn he is unfortunately late for his soundwriting class. An extended description/transcript of the track follows.
The Sneeze Problem (Version 1): Description
The Sneeze Problem begins with sounds of video games. Shortly after, a campus clock tower begins ringing. Somebody nearby begins sneezing and cannot stop. A man picks up a phone and answers, "Hello? Hold on. I can't hear you—hold on a second." A door opens and shuts, and the sound of video games persists loudly in the mix. The sounds of the clock tower and sneezes continue, as do the sounds of the video game. A door opens and shuts, and the male speaker continues speaking: "Ugh. Okay, alright. Uhhh . . . what was that? Oh, we have class today? Soundwriting . . . class?? OMG, I'm coming." The sneezes stop. A door opens and shuts and the sounds of video games and footsteps continue.
Without any mixing, "The Sneeze Problem" poses listeners several rhetorical challenges. Most notably, the track is overwhelmed by the number of sounds and includes sounds with sudden increases in amplitude. This causes the composition to "clip" and distorts the audio and creates an audio experience which is (for me) uncomfortably loud. Additionally, one major discursive challenge of this track is that the audio of the phone call is nearly inaudible because everything else is so loud. Moreover, there are nondiscursive challenges: The sounds exhibit few characteristics that suggest different spaces, different rooms, or a movement between inside and outside.
Alternatively, with mixing, I was able to create a track which I believe is more rhetorically successful. I monitored and modified relations among the amplitudes, frequency, and placement of individual sounds in stereophonic channel space with the goal of composing a narrative that includes more vividly detailed sonic space. I find the track much more comfortable in terms of loudness. I reduced the amplitudes of nearly every track with the exception of the phone call. The discursive, narrative dimensions of the track should be more audible. I can now hear the male figure saying "Hello? Hold on. I can't hear you—hold on a second. Ugh. Okay, alright. Uhhh . . . what was that? Oh, we have class today? Soundwriting . . . class?? OMG, I'm coming." Moreover, I think the revised version of this track contains a heightened ekphrastic dimension, which more clearly evokes the sense of somebody moving through different rooms in which the audible frequencies and amplitudes of those sounds vary.
The Sneeze Problem (Version 2): Description
The Sneeze Problem begins with muffled sounds of video games. Shortly after, a campus clock tower begins ringing. Somebody nearby begins sneezing, and she can't stop. A man picks up a phone and answers, "Hello? Hold on. I can't hear you—hold on a second." A door opens and shuts, and the listener hears footsteps and video games, as though the listener is walking through a room with the male speaker. This is a different room: now the sounds of the clock tower and sneezes are muffled, but the sounds of the video game are much clearer and louder. A door opens and shuts, and the listener hears the male speaker continue speaking as he enters a different room: "Ugh. Okay, alright. Uhhh . . . what was that? Oh, we have class today? Soundwriting . . . class?? OMG, I'm coming." A door opens and shuts, and the listener travels with the male character as he walks through the video game room once more. The male character's footsteps and the clock tower both fade out.
These two versions of "The Sneeze Problem" highlight the significant differences that can emerge from applying several common mixing strategies that rearrange where sound is located in sonic space. Differences in the mixing of "The Sneeze Problem" demonstrate the discursive and ekphrastic affordances of purposeful, rhetorical modification of amplitudes, channel space, and frequencies. While the lack of mixing in Version 1 of "The Sneeze Problem" results in a difficult-to-parse and uncomfortable slab of soundwriting, applying common mixing techniques results in something relatively more intelligible. Additional examples might yield different rhetorical effects; these techniques might also be used to produce alternative rhetorical effects with increased loudness or more distortion. Given the clear rhetorical affordances of these techniques, I use the remainder of this chapter to discuss how I mixed spaces of amplitude, channel position, and frequency in "The Sneeze Problem" by observing headroom, adjusting gains, panning sounds, analyzing frequency plots, and applying equalization curves.
