Interactive Sound Environments
Uploaded June 29th, 2024 by Yashique Chalil
Burning Hept I
Built an interactive audio-visual environment with Unity and Wwise where musical stems float as objects in space, and sound perception changes based on the listener’s position. The concept was inspired by Ron Barlette’s sound design for Dune (2021), where layers of music and effects are spatially positioned to create a disorienting experience.
The game begins in a forest with natural sounds like rustling leaves and small creatures. As the player moves, they encounter static sounds from scattered speakers, emphasizing distance from reality. A large vessel emits a loud rumble, produced by multiple smaller sound emitters placed across the vessel.
The game features glowing orbs that emit musical stems composed by the user. Green orbs follow a fixed path, while others multiply upon collision with the player, allowing for unique stem mixing. The player can jump to a final platform that triggers a mastered track without spatialization, accompanied by a visual light show synced to the music. Jumping on the platform toggles the track and adjusts stem levels.
Burning Hept II
The Second interactive sound environment was expanded with new mechanics and narrative. The project was inspired by creating immersive experiences where musicians can use sounds and samples from their work to engage listeners more deeply, allowing them to explore the emotions behind the music. The project addresses the decline of meaningful music consumption in the digital age without physical packaging, artworks and posters and aims to bring back a similar experience of engaging with music more memorably.
The player is an alien life form on a mission to collect music/sounds on another planet. The player interacts with colored orbs, each containing a specific frequency range of a 15-minute guitar sample processed with a granular delay plugin. Collecting all six orbs leads the player to a tower, where the orbs revolve around, allowing them to experience the complete sample while dynamically panning the sound across different ranges.
Improvements include a dynamic footstep script that changes based on terrain, a SoundSeed Air plugin for dynamic wind effects, and a FutzBox effect for bit-crushing when colliding with a spaceship. Most sounds were recorded around the University of Edinburgh’s Kings Campus, with inspiration drawn from local soundscapes, such as the complex drone of a generator near the Erskine Williamson Building.