What is Sound Design?
And how do you go about achieving its perfection. Annapurna
College Sound faculty Sayandeb Mukherjee takes us on an auditory journey.
Annapurna College Sound faculty
Sayandeb Mukherjee with Bachelor’s student Ashwin Bharde in the school’s brand
new sound recording studio.
A film is about so much
more than the moving images that fill a screen, it’s also about the sounds that
precede an anxious moment, the crescendo that heralds a nail-biting climax, or
the lilting melody that hints at a love so pure. Sound and its design plays a
crucial role in the aesthetic architecture of a film, and it was then natural
that the Annapurna College would invest time, effort, money and considerable
expertise into building its very own Sound Recording Studio on campus. And the
benefit of housing your own studio are palpable: “We don’t have to rent spaces
off campus anymore,” says Sound department faculty Sayandeb Mukherjee. But
that’s not all, students can now be given hands-on training in the intricate
art of sound design and dubbing using state-of-the-art equipment. “When you use
an outside studio, the student is allowed very little practical training;
there’s more observation and less action,” says Sayandeb, “But now that we have
our own studio the student can really experiment with mic placements, various
setting and a number of auditory permutations and combinations.”
Sound faculty members Sanjeev Kumar
(centre) and Soumen Sarkar (right) get their groove on in Annapurna College’s new sound studio.
But building a Sound
Recording Studio is no simple task, and one that takes careful preparation to
get it just right.
Here are Sayandeb’s top things to keep
in mind while building a sound studio
1.
Avoid cuboid shapes because they create standing waves which
really hamper sound clarity. Opt for trapezoids to minimise or negate this
disruption.
2.
Make sure your studio is isolated from outside sounds, and has
great insulation. The last thing you need is a car horn creeping through the
walls and destroying your immaculate sound design.
3.
Make sure your acoustics are spot on. Pick the right materials and
placements for your absorbers, diffusers and bass traps.
4.
You don’t need to have every microphone available but make sure
you have one for Vocals, String instruments, Foley, Rhythmic instruments. You
can build your inventory later on.
5.
Buy a digital mixer that can handle a higher sample rate, have a
minimum Bit depth of 16 bits, and have excellent Analog to Digital capability
and vice versa.
6.
Your mixer should also possess advanced automation features that
will make your job a lot simpler in the long run.
7.
The number of In-Out ports should suit your needs. For instance
having a 4-port mixer for a symphonic orchestra just won’t work. Opt for a
16-port mixer.
