The Concept: During my Critical Listening course, I designed an immersive, narrative driven soundscape based on a specific visual prompt: an astronaut floating through space debris. Told entirely from a first person perspective, the scene follows the astronaut barely escaping an exploding space station. As alarms blare and metal screeches in the distance, they float into the void to deploy a distress and locator beacon.
The Process: Operating in Logic Pro, I built a highly spatial environment utilizing Dolby Atmos. To ground the perspective, I placed heavy breathing dead center, while a steady alarm was panned left with strict EQ cuts to the highs and lows to sit perfectly in the mix. I automated electrical hums and distant explosions to move dynamically across the front sound field. Other elements required complex 3D panning, such as an air leak hissing in the right rear, and a distress beacon moving from the back left, through the center, to the front right with automated height, delay, and reverb.
The Challenge: The core hurdle of this project was developing my ear training. I had to learn how to listen for intent rather than just passively hearing the audio. Managing the overlapping frequencies of radio static, blowing air, and screeching metal required deep frequency management, ensuring every layer occupied its own intentional pocket in the stereo field without muddying the overall soundscape.