This third semester course aims at the practical application of the skills acquired in the Audio Theory and DAW courses (i.e. the proper understanding of sonology, acoustics and basic skills concerning DAW operation).
This part of the curriculum is geared towards the practical application and down-mixing of various sonic layers onto continuous audiovisual content. The students are presented with several VFX-movie projects which they are asked to provide with multiple separate layers of ambient, voice, SFX, foley and music. The focus is both on the professional quality of the produced sounds, on the mixing and blending of group tracks, as well as on the correct synchronization and panning within the full audio field. Key concepts are processing, mix-down, mastering and spatialization.
The exam consists of intermediary submissions of projects during the semester, and a final “delivery-style” submission during the exam period.
At the end of this course, students should be capable of properly synchronizing audio with continuously streaming footage, whilst dealing with complex multi-track projects, marker tracks, group tracks and automation. They should be familiar with different classes of sonic events and should be proficient in assigning dominance to one source of audio over another (automated in their DAW). Their endeavors should result into a properly sync’ed, suitable and aesthetically pleasing soundscape to accompany a given VFX-movies or game cut scene.
Software: Cockos Reaper, Adobe Premiere