Ambient noise level

While some horror films have dramatic, bombastic soundtracks that appear out of science to shock the viewers, It Follows has a much more subtle way to evoke fear in its audience. The music in the movie almost never starts off loud. In fact, it usually begins at a level that is almost impossible to hear and. As the soundtrack slowly crescendos, the background noise becomes quieter, until the sounds of the score have completely drowned out the sounds from the scene. The score mainly consist of digitally-rendered ambient sounds along with synthesizers and percussion instruments. In scenes where the monster is pursuing one of the characters, it is not uncommon to hear a deep, steady beat pulsing in the background. This steady repetition and slow buildup are common motifs in the soundtrack that almost seem to mirror the monster’s own actions. Steady drum beats mimic the monster’s steady footsteps. The gradual increase of volume and complexity of the music often signifies the gradual approach of the creature. One particular scene makes me think of this connection. In the scene, Jay and her friends have left their town and gone to a beach…

The film score was developed by Joe Hisaishi and is s compelling contrast to the pure diegetic silence, ambient sound, and object sound effects. “Music acts roughly like a linguistic modifier, helping to clarify the particular mood, character, or emotive significance of a scene or visual action” (Fiscoff 2005, p24). This unification between the different sound elements can be heard during Daigo’s first encounter with a decomposing body. Noting that “the sound track can clarify image events,…

were even torn in half. There a moment in the documentary where Mohammed and his friend are sitting in an apartment, but the other half is missing. Seeing images like the one above was heartbreaking to see and this documentary takes you through these many different emotions as you watch the family on the screen. There’s a point in the beginning of the documentary where the film crew catches Abu Ali, the children’s father and a leader in the rebel group the Free Syrian army, and his soldiers…

pick up by the recording device. I think if we were able to listen to the recording with headphones, it would have been a more accurate depiction of the quality. There was some breathing and wind sound that could be heard in the background noise, especially in the rainbow passage reading. Higher Bit Rate (192kbps): 9/10 The sample recorded had no background noise which produced a clear and quality sound for the phonation recording. The acoustic clarity for the recording was very clear and…

Now my dad stopped chewing tobacco around a year ago. Great, I know! To fill the empty void of chewing tobacco he has taken up chewing gum, while I am happy that this change has been made, it can be known to drive me crazy. I’m not sure what’s worse the snapping of the gum after a bubble or the chewing noise in a small quiet room or car, either way it drives me up a wall. Now the noise of gum has bothered me since like middle school, and I know it bothers quite a few of people, but it’s just…

In 2012 a study out of Newcastle University revisited the land of gross noises and subjected 16 people to 74 different sounds from running water to the scrape of knives on glass, asking them to rank them on a scale from pleasant to excruciating. [pic: PD] Once again, the worst of the sounds fell in that bad-Hertz sweet spot, but more interesting than how the offensive sounds ranked was what they did to the peoples’ brains. With the help of an MRI machine, researchers kept tabs on which brain…

the familiar and the ordinary strange again--as the Russian formalists used to put it, by "alienating" the reader from the tyranny of the compellingly familiar. It offers alternative worlds that put the actual one in a new light.” (Bruner, pg. 12) Good sound design, through surprise, expectation, and silence serves well the purpose of vanquishing, with fiction, the compellingly familiar tyrant of quotidian reality. Everyone loves a good bang. Thus, with a good sound design, the unexpected…

was growing rapidly, second only to the fascination that fueled it, but still silence. “The IC went bad I can't fix it,” he pointed to the IC and said “I don’t know how,” surely he should know how he is the technician, but he didn’t. Dumbfounded,a little crushed, but more so confused, “don’t play your music on max all the time,” was his advice to me. Less than an inch in area this small black square caused the overwhelming silence, but what was in the square and why was it so important? I would…

I awoke quickly in the pitch black bedroom from a sound down the hall, my best friend laying beside me still in a deep sleep. As I lay still, (deathly still, deathly quiet, lifeless) I think to my self, “ am I hearing things, have I gone crazy?” (delirious, insane) I hear the noise coming from down the hall, I jump up and cautiously walk toward the bedroom door, the slightest light shining off from my alarm clock is glaring threw the dark (Lightless) bedroom. Grasping the bedroom door handle,…

Before embarking on my soundwalk, I had a few basic expectations of sounds I would encounter, mostly based on prior memories of wandering MIT’s campus. I knew what the soft, low murmurs should sound like when traversing the corridors. I knew to expect the clip-clop of hard stepping walkers in the silent tunnels, and the high pitched buzzing and whining of electrical components overhead. Outside, the wind would make soft, mid pitched whuuu and shhh noises, which would serve as background for…