I interpreted this project as tasking us with putting all of our previous skills in Reaper together, so I decided to start this project off with a soundscape.  I went image shopping to help me decide which scene to use on my soundscape, and I decided on a stormy beach.  When designing my timeline, I wanted to use my synth tracks to build up suspense as the piece went on and the storm sounds grew more intense.  My final storyboard ended up introducing the different elements of the soundscape gradually, before pivoting to the suspense buildup with a thunderclap at the end.
Around the 10 second mark is when I start to slowly bring mysteriousness into the piece, starting with the synth playing the MIDI and a delay effect on the seagulls (in addition to the rain fading in).  I used automation on the synth to later introduce an extra sine mix one octave lower, a slight sawtooth mix, as well as a reverb effect on the synth.
Transitioning to the end of the piece, I introduced a sample of a ship’s bell shaking in the wind with some reverb on it, as well as fading in a new synth/MIDI track as the old one stops.  The climax is at the thunderclap, after which everything fades out except the final synth/MIDI track (which has an automated square mix to give it an edgier feel).
This was my first project using MIDI and the synth, but I am pretty satisfied with the MIDI loops that I was able to produce.  I am looking forward to learning how to create more complex-sounding pieces with the synth using more complicated samples and MIDI, as well as by introducing more automation.  I originally wanted the synth to have much more dramatic changes as the mysteriousness and suspense increased, as I was trying to imitate a horror film score.  I listened to a few horror soundtracks in order to get in the right mindset for creating this piece.  Ultimately, I was not able to match some of the crazy electronic music that is found in these mainstream movies I was referencing, but I do think that I was able to successfully build up the tension as I recreated this scene from my storyboard.

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Some samples from this track were sourced from freesound.org:
Waves of Hawaii by florianreichelt | License: Creative Commons 0
Waves and seagulls on the beach close to Lisbon by felix.blume | License: Creative Commons 0
Flock of seagulls.wav by juskiddink | License: Attribution
Ships bell.wav by CGEffex | License: Attribution
Rain, Moderate, A.wav by InspectorJ | License: Attribution

Heavy Rain Sound - Inu Etc.mp3 by inuetc | License: Creative Commons 0
Thunder, Very Close, Rain, A.wav by InspectorJ | License: Attribution

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This piece is a project for my MUSC 0200 course.

Thunderclap - An Aural Imagination Project

Nicholas Bottone