Sound basics and musique concrète
Sound for graphic and motion designers — Gobelins, the school of the image.
A one-day introduction to sound for graphic design and motion design students: understanding what sound brings to the image, then learning to record a voice in the studio, in Ableton Live.
| Format | 1 day · lecture, studio workshop and a project in pairs |
| Audience | students of Lead Créa, the Gobelins start-of-year module: graphic and motion designers |
| Common thread | a motion piece with sound, based on a text from Francis Ponge’s Le Parti pris des choses |
| Tool | Ableton Live |
Context
The day is for students of Lead Créa, the Gobelins start-of-year module: graphic and motion designers, to whom every sound concept is explained step by step.
The common thread of the module: in pairs, create a motion piece with sound based on a text from Francis Ponge’s Le Parti pris des choses. The workshop is not graded; it is a space for experimentation.
Schedule
The day moves from theory to practice, in three parts.
| Part | Content |
|---|---|
| Introductory lecture | About 45 minutes of theory: sound basics, voice, sound design, ambience, mixing. To open, a teaser watched without sound, then with it. |
| Studio workshop | Recording the voice in small groups, in Ableton Live. |
| Ponge project | Listening to musique concrète and early sound animation (1928–1940), a sound inventory of a text, a hunt for sounds, making the sound for the motion piece. |
What students learn
- The role of sound: to inform, guide, move, set the scene, sign a brand’s identity.
- The basics: frequency, decibels, spectrum, dynamics, stereo space.
- The voice: choosing and placing the microphone, setting the input level, directing a take, processing the voice.
- Sound design and ambience: creating effects, layering, building a loop, balancing the mix, exporting.
- Listening differently: musique concrète, the sound object, and three relationships between sound and image — sound follows the image, comes before it, or contradicts it.
- Reusing safely: licences, free sound websites, a sources file.
Materials
Three presentations in French accompany the day: an introduction to sound, one on musique concrète and Ponge, from Schaeffer to early sound animation, and a guide to finding free sound — licences, sound, archive and free voice websites.