Reviewing Concepts of the Overall Class: Sound

As discussed in a previous post, sound can add to or take away from a piece. Much in the way print design needs to have a hierarchy within it--head, subhead, body, caption, etc.--a piece with sound needs a hierarchy and a balance between what is seen and what is heard (between sound elements and non-sound elements). A strong motion or complicated visual would compete with a strong sound making it difficult for the the viewer to take in both, resulting in a loss of the meaning and detail in the visual, sound, or both. The sound needs to enhance and work with the visual. For emphasis the absence of sound (silence) is effective allowing the viewer to focus on the visual. Likewise, a simple visual makes it easier to digest complicated sound sequences.

The exercise of "swapping sounds" in class during an assignment one critique was informative, emphasizing the idea that stepping back and creating a sound piece totally unrelated to the visual can result in "happy accidents" such as synching.  The swap could also highlight areas in t he piece where the original sound worked really well or really poorly, allowing the designer to be able to make better educated adjustments to the piece.

As a designer that always has several layers of conceptual ideas in each piece, sound allowed me to convey more. The visual could convey idea A, the sound idea B, and the contradiction or concordance  of the two could convey yet another idea (idea C). The multifaceted nature of sound with motion, while posing a bigger challenge, allows for more creativity and deeper explorations of the concept at hand.