So, I got a reply from Kenneth yesterday with a very detailed feedback to the Proposal Draft that I sent in. I present his comments, below with a few lines of commentary from me. Overall, he didn't liked my idea that much. Read on to find more.
Your initial aim (...) looks okay, although I would still like to understand more about the context and the research problem that you’re trying to address (why investigate sound design principles like this?). You go on to give an expanded version: Create a VST like software (or plug-in) to generate customised ‘bigger-than-life’ Hollywood style punches and hits out of a library of pre-recorded and synthesised sounds and based on a set of user defined parameters, to demonstrate sound design techniques and principles in the title. This isn’t really a project aim, this is really a task, I think - it’s about creating a VST plug-in. One question, though - what sort of experience do you have in software development? Could you realistically expect to create a functional VST plug-in by yourself? If the answer to that is no, then why give yourself the added complication?
Take a step back and think about what your project, as expressed above, is actually about - it’s about the principles of good (sound) design. By specifying that you’re aiming to create ‘larger-than-life’ film sounds, what you’re really doing is giving yourself specific design goal and a framework for assessing your work. What you’re also doing is specifying the context in which those sounds are going to apply - in film. With that in mind, I think you have to take on board the idea that you’ll need to demonstrate/evaluate those sounds in a filmic context.
So am I right in thinking that what you’re planning on investigating is the process of how you design and create sound effects? If so, think about how you evaluate and compare processes. Part of that will be the end result. What else is important? How long the process takes? How much effort is involved? Whether there’s a pattern to the work, or if it’s different every time? It would be an idea to try and find some supporting literature on design in general and see if you can apply some of the thinking to your own project.
Or, are you planning on looking at how you automate adaptive sound effects (which seems to be what you’re suggesting in your rationale)? If that’s the case, it’s not so much about the process of sound design at all, it’s about using/developing sound tools that will take a raw sound as input and manipulate it according to a set of parameters. This is really a project about interactive and adaptive sound, and it would be worth, then, having a look at some of the existing tools that are out there (Wise, FMOD, UDK etc), and then development environments like Pure Data or Max to see if you could develop the sort of thing that you’re after. If this is the path you’re keen to go down, I think you’ll need to adapt your aim to reflect this. Something like:
Many forms of new and interactive media use sound effects as an important method of feedback. Because of the demands of interactivity it is common to use procedural and other automated methods to adapt a small library of sounds in real time for different situations. This project aims to explore the use of real-time adaptive sound as a mechanism for feedback by (for example) creating a series of real-time adaptive patches in Pure Data (or working with UDK, FMOD to create and implement a real-time adaptive sound engine). This will be evaluated by…
That aim has a sentence or two of context, which provides the rationale, a statement of the project aim (to investigate how sound can be adapted in real-time to provide feedback), and states how you’re going to do it (create your own software patch or use an existing engine).
In your expected outcome section, you raise exactly the query that I would have - if, in something like film, you have a need to design specific sounds for specific situations, why would you choose to use a tool like the one you’re describing, which takes the professional control from the sound designer and gives it to a piece of software instead? On the other hand, if you’re planning to use it, as detailed above, in something like a game, why would you redesign a system when there are already tools out there that you can use?
Also in your contingency section, you say exactly what my advice would be: either make this a project about the design principles that underpin good sound design (which would be a perfectly fine project) or make it a project that explores how you can apply adaptive methods to manipulate sounds in real time for interactive feedback. Don’t try and do both.
Kenny has raised some few interesting issues. He asked can I realistically code a plugin? Well, at the moment I can't, but I was going to use visual plug-in creator tools like MaxMSP anyway. Kenny then went on to suggest that I possibly use FMOD for this task. I'm confused now, when I had a meeting with James he said I shouldn't do a FMOD project... I like the idea that Kenny came up with and the project aim he proposed by my main worry is that all of the research that I done on film sound design will go to waste now. I have sent him an email expressing my worries and I am waiting for a reply.
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