Week 8 – Week 10 | 10/06/25 – 29/07/25
Emily Soh Ching-Ling | 0359478
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Sonic Design | Section 01 | VSA60304
Project 3 — Audio Storytelling
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 LECTURES
*Sidenote: All lectures have been completed in Project 1 — Audio Fundamentals.
2.0 INSTRUCTIONS
3.0 PROJECT 3 — AUDIO STORYTELLING
Instructions:
- Choose a fairy tale of your liking or write your own.
- Record an audiobook of the fairy tale, complete with dialogue, narration, and suitable SFX.
- The final audiobook should be paired with illustrations/screenshots of the storybook/movie.
- Requirements:
- Duration: 2–3 minutes.
- ☑ Voice acting can be done by other people.
3.1 PRE-PRODUCTION
Story Selection
My cousin and sister have agreed to lend me their voices for the characters. As thanks, they got to choose the fairy tale. I gave them a list to choose from (Thumbelina, Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and the Pea), and the jury has agreed on The Princess and the Pea.
There appear to be two versions of the story, the key difference being the princess's personality. In some versions, she's an arrogant brat who is as rude as the prince. In others, she is a polite, mild-mannered girl who surprises the royal family. I chose the latter version.
Figure 3.1-1: Storyline — The Princess and the Pea, Week 9 (17/06/25)
I adapted the storyline slightly to fit the time limit. The original has mentions of a king, but since he does not have any voice lines, I cut his role from the story. The script is roughly 2 minutes and 40 seconds long.
3.2 PRODUCTION
Voice Acting
Figure 3.2-1: Voice Acting, Week 10 (24/06/25)
Cousin (servant & prince) | Sister (narrator & queen) | Me (princess)
My cousin recorded his lines in X-Space while my sister and I recorded ours at home. All were recorded on my phone's default recording app. We did 5–6 takes for each line to explore the pacing and word emphasis.
After listening to the first few takes, I asked my cousin to lower his voice for the servant and to keep his regular voice for the prince, since the two characters sounded similar. I had him re-record some of his lines due to background noise and warbling (from being too close to the mic).
SFX & BGM
Figure 3.2-2: SFX & BGM, Week 10 (24/06/25)
Source: Pixabay and Freesound
3.3 POST-PRODUCTION
Audio Editing
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| Figure 3.3-1: Noise Reduction, Week 10 (25/06/25) |
I started off by reducing the background noise in the voice lines. I created a noise print of a section of the audio with just the background noise, then applied Noise Reduction to the whole audio. The noise reduction percentage was set to 20–40%, depending on the noise level of the recording. I applied an additional DeNoise for stubborn noises.
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| Figure 3.3-2: DeReverb & Hiss Reduction, Week 10 (25/06/25) |
The next step was to neutralise the audio so that I had a blank slate to work on. I applied DeReverb at around 20–30% to remove the echo, and Hiss Reduction to certain parts of the narration to reduce the prominent "sss" sound.
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| Figure 3.3-3: Dynamics & Hard Limiter, Week 10 (25/06/25) |
After noise reduction, I manually adjusted the audio spikes that were still too loud to match the level of the other spikes. Dynamics and Hard Limiter were then applied to keep the volume of each word consistent and to limit the volume of the audio.
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| Figure 3.3-4: Stretch & Pitch, Week 10 (25/06/25) |
Since the characters were voiced by different people, only the princess's and servant's voice lines were pitch-shifted to further match their personalities. The princess's voice lines were also compressed by 5% to match the pacing of the other characters.
During the scene where the servant and the queen open the front door, I added Full Reverb to make them sound like they were in an empty foyer.
Figure 3.3-5: Detailed Process — SFX, Week 10 (28/06/25)
The SFX and BGM went through a similar editing process to the voice lines, so I won't repeat it.
After re-listening to the completed audio, I made some final changes:
- Some of the interjections (e.g. "hmm") were said too quickly, so I stretched those parts slightly to make the pause more realistic.
- I lowered the volume of the SFXs (particularly the door opening and storm SFX) so that they don't distract from the voice lines. There used to be a chime SFX at the "....she placed a single, tiny pea". I removed it, as it felt irrelevant the more I listened to it.
- I shortened the Decay Time of the foyer scene voice lines so that they don't sound as jarring compared to the other voice lines.
Video Editing
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| Figure 3.3-6: Screenshots, Title Card & Ending Card, Week 10 (27/06/25) Source: GivingTales |
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| Figure 3.3-7: Page Turn Transition, Week 10 (28/06/25) |
Once I was satisfied with the audio, I exported it to Premiere Pro to be paired with the storybook screenshots, title card, and ending card. Since the original images are a bit blurry, I increased the sharpness and vibrance to make them clearer. I used Fade In/Out for the title card and ending card transitions, and Page Turn for the rest of the pages.
3.4 FINAL SUBMISSION
Figure 3.4-1: Project 3 (Final Submission), Week 10 (28/05/25)
4.0 REFLECTION
Recording for this project has made me hyperaware of speech patterns. It has been interesting figuring out the differences in speech between me, my sister, and cousin; which words were emphasised, which words were slurred, etc., and what needed to be corrected. It's been a fun project, 8/10 would recommend.
Sidenote: My laptop developed issues midway through, which caused all software to run at a snail's pace and lag like crazy. This, unfortunately, doubled my work time. :')
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