Category: Ideas

Aidan Finden, second year Sound Design student, recently shared this podcast about the now ubiquitous “Braaam™”. This iconic is found in action films and trailers everywhere, but where did it come from? Why is it so effective?

“An episode about the type of sound The Inception Sound is, the controversy surrounding that sounds authorship, and how it’s effectiveness is deeply rooted in a millennia plus of human culture”

This podcast unpacks some good examples of compositional techniques, showing how layering and timbal fusion work to create this iconic effect, combining inharmonic and harmonic materials.

The “Braaam™” is a very good example of how a single sound can be so complex and contain may different references and associations.

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We discuss this and many more ideas on the Sound Design undergraduate programme.

An interesting article was recently shared around social media highlighting the trend of people deliberately filtering pop songs in order to create dramatic affect.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/neeqwx/songs-edited-to-sound-like-theyre-playing-in-another-room-are-inexplicably-emotional

“If you’ve ever snuck upstairs during a house party to sit in your friend’s room to pet her dog, just for a minute, just for a quick break from all the people—these songs edited to sound like they’re coming from another room will bring that anxious feeling all the way back.

The effect makes me feel like I’m missing out on something fun, just on the other side of a wall. Songs that are otherwise emotion-neutral suddenly feel loaded and complicated, like someone’s about to knock on the bathroom door and ask if you’re okay. Yes, it can get that emo.”

This very simple but powerful process demonstrates the growing social significance that people attribute to their experience with sound. It also presents some interesting ideas for discussion.

How does this work? Why does this process of filtering affect people? How can this technique be adopted for use in your own work?

We’ll discuss this and many more ideas in Organising Sounds and Sound and Image class.