Soundscape justification.Introduction.I was asked to make a 3 minute soundscape based around the theme of Sound Around Liverpool. My initial ideas were: The Beatles because they are the most successful and famous band to come from Liverpool, slavery because the ships that brought the slaves over came into the albert docks and the titanic because the head offices and staff of the titanic were from Liverpool. I decided that the titanic would have been interesting because there is also a titanic museum in Liverpool. The sounds I would use would include some sounds of waves and seagulls to give the impression of being on the sea. It would also include sounds like a boat horn and a boat bell to make the audience feel like they were on a boat. But I soon realised that my soundscape would have been more like a narrative and that it didn’t fully fit the brief and contradicted the basis of Bill Fontana’s ideas and what he tried to create with his work. I then decided to develop this into a sound scape based on the Albert Docks because the sounds would be more authentic and we would need to find less pre-recorded sounds and also because they are a main part of Liverpool and I tried to capture what it would have been like for people in the Victorian days when it first opened.

Key Points.

At the beginning I added a fade in so the sound got gradually louder. To do this I highlighted the first 5 seconds and clicked the effects button, then

the fade in button to make the first bit fade in. I then did the same for the last five seconds but used the fade out rather than fade out to make the sound get gradually quieter.

I used a ‘Wah-Wah’ effect on a sound to make the piece more abstract. It made it seem less realistic and although you could

still tell the theme of the piece it allowed the audience to use their imagination when they heard the sound because they wouldn’t be entirely sure what it is.

I also changed the pitch of the voices that I used. This made the voices sound quite distorted and added another depth to

the piece and made it less naturalistic. You could still identify that there were people talking but they sounded squeaky and distorted to make it more abstract.

The different layers I used added depth to the piece and made it more interesting. When some of the sounds were played on top of each other it made it seem like a busier atmosphere to give the

audience the feeling that they were in a crowded place. The talking layered on top of the waves and the seagulls was to give the impression that they were in a busy place near the water.

We repeated some of the sounds throughout the piece to symbolise to the audience that there was more than one boat in the dock.

Conclusion.I believe my piece does meet the initial theme and concept of the brief. This is because I believe that my soundscape gives the impression to the audience that they are in fact in the Albert Docks because of the sounds of people talking making them believe they are in a busy crowded place, but also because of the sounds sourced from the boats at the Albert Docks. This creates a sense of realism because the sounds were mostly authentic. I also believe that changing the pitch of some sounds and adding effects to them allows the audience to use their imagination and try and figure out what they are hearing. It leaves the piece up for interpretation because everyone will interpret it in their own way. Also, my story doesn’t have a narrative because it doesn’t tell a story, it allows the audience to use their interpretation like all of Bill Fontanas pieces do, like in his piece, River Soundings, the sounds you hear don’t necessarily correspond to the surroundings they are in which allows the audience to use their imagination and uses displacement of sound. So while it uses sounds mainly sourced from the albert docks, it also challenges the audience to imagine and believe where they feel they are when they close their eyes and listen to the music, like Bill Fontana wanted.