Elements like melody, tempo, harmony and dissonance can all play a part in producing a response from someone whether it is via music or pure sound design and there is a lot more to explore in using the language of music to apply to pure sound design. The elements that make these pieces so powerful even so long after their release is in their use of musical structures, often in unique and novel ways. Famous examples in history include the riots after the debut of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring or the myriad interpretations of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy since it’s release over 230 years ago. There have been many studies demonstrating how music does this via brain function, as well as how individuals may perceive music differently or how entire cultures respond similarly. When we speak about music and the affect it has on us as humans, it nearly always involves some reference to the way music evokes emotion. Sometimes (and much more so with lyrical music) there is a narrative within music, but a narrative is not required to evoke emotion. All perception by the listener is based solely on the audio. The easiest, most prevalent analog which pure sound design can follow to trigger an emotional response is music because, like pure music, pure sound design, has no accompaniment. We don’t need an empathic response in a pure sound design piece even if our goal is to evoke emotion, but it is possible using vocal samples or recordings, or other sounds representative of a character’s emotional state. It’s also easier to create an emotional response when there is a narrative involved, but pure sound design doesn’t need a narrative to be successful and it doesn’t need a narrative to evoke emotion either. Since empathy is generally only triggered in response to other living creatures, it’s something that is only effective when dealing with creatures/beings/objects which are alive, at least within the scope of the project. Perhaps it relates to a similar trauma we’ve experienced in our life, such as the death of a loved one, but it can also be a purely empathic response that we feel for this imaginary character due to their journey and our reaction to them as a character, or even a person. When we cry in a movie, it’s often an empathic response to what the characters are going through. Like reading a book or watching a movie, evoking emotion within pure sound design may involve empathy. Does their body language change? Do they ask you to turn it off? Or even run over to the stove to silence the scream? Singular sounds evoking certain emotions (if I just say “fingernails scraping on a chalkboard” do you hear the sound and shudder?) is well known, well documented, and well studied, but what about pure sound design? To incorporate emotions triggered by individual signature sounds we must weave a tapestry through our sound design, just like a successful mix in a movie, game or show allowing design to rise and fall and evolve just as emotions do in real life. As a (potentially fun, potentially unnerving) experiment, set a tea kettle to boil with other people around and once it starts screaming, watch how people react. Other people may have a more anxious response because they can’t swim, got stung by a jellyfish once, or saw too many Sharknado movies.Įven individual sounds can evoke an emotional response within different cultures which has been studied in sounds like birdsong and laughter/crying.
For example, if you create a beach scene complete with waves rolling up the sand, gulls crying, children laughing, etc., Some people may begin to relax because it reminds them of summer vacations or surfing every morning. Setting and ambience can go a long way in creating emotion, but it may not always have the intended effect due to the listener’s emotional conditioning. While we can consider emotion a sense of feeling, it is a fairly abstract concept to describe objectively, due to cultural and personal differences of perception. So how do we bridge that gap and create effective pure sound design that can still evoke emotion? The answer may lie in the concepts behind the very elements we have removed. When sound design exists on its own, with visuals and voiceover removed or non-existent, we lose some of these key elements (or should we call them crutches?) we can rely on to help express these concepts, especially emotion, since we process so much emotion via spoken word, visual imagery and music. effective, it usually boils down to one of four aspects, and often all four: the detail in the design, the emotion conveyed, the way the sound meshes with the visuals, and the mix of the sonic elements. When we discuss what makes the sound in any medium: film, music, video game, theater, etc.
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