Tag Archives: Audio Branding

Thursday 6th December 2012 – Sleepy Dreams – Instrumental Bedtime Nursery Rhymes

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London Composer of bedtime nursery rhymes, Jay HarrisLondon Composer of bedtime nursery rhymes, Jay Harris

Some of you may remember an album of childrens music I released a couple of years back called Bedtime Nursery Rhymes. I sold the album as download on various sites via Tunecore and physical CDs through Kunaki. Wonderful reviews and some steady sales followed and overall, I was very pleased with the project. Press play above to listen to two tracks.

This year, I have been updating the album.  A few of the reviews mentioned that Bedtime Nursery Rhymes could have been a bit longer, so I extended it by another 5 tracks. I included Little Bo Peep, Hey Diddle Diddle, There Was a Crooked Man, Hickory Dickory Dock and Wee Willie Winkie to the existing tracks: Curly Locks, It’s Raining It’s Pouring, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Rock-a-bye-baby, Kum Ba Yah, Brahms’ Lullaby. The artwork has also been updated by the talented Marie-Pier Tremblay and the album has received a new title: Sleepy Dreams – Instrumental Nursery Rhymes. The title was changed due to the possible misconception of the album containing lyrics.

Bedtime Nursery Rhymes was the first project that I created where I wanted to give a practical use to sound. Music and sound have always been very powerful forces for me but the fact that most of it is aesthetic or perceived as aesthetic bothered me. Therefore, I came up with the idea of using music and sound to lull young children to sleep by using bedtime nursery rhymes. To achieve this, the music had to be relaxing and relevant to children so it could have a use of parents playing it as they put their children to bed. The music also had to be magical for children so that bedtime would be an enjoyable experience. Overall, the creative focus was on the sounds rather than the tunes, and using established nursery rhymes helped this. On a technical note, the nursery rhymes used also had to be free of copyright.

Bedtime Nursery Rhymes was also my first look into sonic branding and the techniques that could be employed in this. I looked at each element of my chosen nursery rhymes and created a sound or series of sounds to convey these elements. The idea was therefore to create pieces of music that were focused on their subject matter as well as the use I had in mind for them. This would make sure that the messages I wanted to convey would be focussed. Creating sounds using some of the more abstract concepts as starting points made sure that there would be a level of intrigue to the music as well originality. These two factors were very important if I were to create something magical.

To create the sounds, I had a look at each nursery rhyme. I then came up with various related adjectives from which I could create some sounds. For example, Little Bo Peep is all about Bo losing her sheep so I created a ‘fluffy’ sound. I also pictured her with some sprightly lambs so I made sure to put in some delicate sprightly noises that feel like little lambs frolicking!

Sleepy Dreams will be available in Just Williams Toys very soon. The shops are located in south London at Herne Hill, East Dulwich and Clapham and will retail at £9.99.

CDs are also available via the internet from Kunaki. Kunaki are based in New York so please leave 2-3 weeks for delivery. The total price has been adjusted to take the cost of basic airmail into account.

Thursday 8th November 2012 – My Sonic Brand

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If you have been reading my recent posts, you will know that using sound in branding and identity is one of my interests.  This weeks post is therefore about the creation of my very own sonic brand designed to help immerse my website visitors in what I’m all about. Consistent sensory branding is a widely untapped reservoir of customer communication, it uses all of the senses to help people remember your brand; audio being one very important part of this. Press play to hear a basis for my own sonic brand.

Audio 

There are various elements to the sonic brand now playing (which I display on my homepage) and each part is designed to offer a particular element towards the total image that I want to convey.

Firstly, I created a list of words and ideas that embody my desired image.  Once these had been finalised, I paired them up with musical or auditory concepts.  These were generally based on the physical properties and/or psychology of the sounds.  Once these links were created, all that was left to do was create the sounds to go into the sonic brand.  Some kind of structure is always needed (well, unless having no structure is part of your structure…!?).  When the main concept I am dealing with is sound rather than what is making the sound, I find creating a graphical score the best way to create structure.  Using this method you can create relationships, show contrast and layer as well as show any other musical concept.  Having a visual link to the sounds can also help you refine a piece as you notice things that weren’t previously apparent.  (Read my previous blog post on graphical scores).

So, what did I decide for own sonic brand…?

You will notice the absence of a strong melody, which in terms of branding, you may find strange.  This was a deliberate move and I decided this for a number of reasons.

Firstly, my work deals in atmosphere and auditory immersion; providing too strong a melodic focus point will distract from the overall sound as the listener narrows their focus on the melody.  The idea is to produce a way of feeling that can be associated with my brand rather than a melody that will keep you whistling.  I also wanted to add a sense of enigma and depth by burying various focal points within the sonic brand, and a strong melody would have detracted from this.  There are a lot of sounds occurring and some you may only hear after a bit of close scrutiny, even though they are all contributing to the overall impression.

Also, in terms of catchy tunes, distancing myself away from the shallow sheen of catchy TV ad melody was also important; we have all been annoyed with the ‘Go Compare’ adverts (although their new twist is a clever take on that).  I’m promoting a future, not a quick fix with a limited shelf-life.

There still needed to be some sort of focus point in my sonic brand though, otherwise it would have been just a mishmash of sounds.  To create a calm atmosphere of positive contemplation, I decided that a string ensemble should be used.  This was processed to give a less realistic sound, again, to enhance enigma.  I gave them something repetitive but not catchy to play so I could free up the listener’s attention allowing them to soak up the other sounds within the sonic brand.  All of the sounds correspond to a certain aspect of the image I want to convey, therefore all had to be given room.

So, what I came to was the main soundscape that functions as a sonic brand and provides audio building blocks for other applications.  Working this way gives lots of opportunity to dissect the overall sound and use the individual parts for other applications, giving variety yet having a consistent branding.  For example, if orange is part of your branding colour set you will tend to use it in various places to make sure your visual image is consistent.   Any one of the sounds could be used alone or the mix of the main soundscape could be altered and used to sound button presses, create a second-long sound paired with a logo ident, create  employee ringtones, computer start sounds, used in company events or could even be used to influence the physical sounds your product packaging makes when handled.  Any sound associated with a business can be looked at and refined for use in a sonic brand.

Have a listen to my sonic brand.  What image does it convey to you?   Get in touch if you are curious about having a sonic brand and want to know how your own image could be communicated this way.

Thursday 25th October 2012 – The Sound Portal (part four) – Sound in Design and Audio Branding.

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Here is the last post in my four part series on the Sound Portal, displayed in Trafalgar Square as part of the London Design Festival last month. The Sound Portal displayed five soundscapes created by five sound artists.  This post talks about sound in design and audio branding.

In the previous posts I talked a little about my thoughts on the soundscapes and how these soundscapes relate to the human experience and how this might relate to design as well as audio branding. This week I’ll go into more depth on my thoughts about what these soundscapes can teach us regarding the use of sound in design and how sound can make any design brief stronger through audio branding (aka sonic branding).

The first piece contained a chanting, processed voice. Language was central here and it’s use had a calming effect that induced security; but what is interesting here is the language used wasn’t decipherable and the fact that the voice was so heavily processed further removed it from humanity. Even so, the brain could still make out that some form of talking was going on. The fact that meaning had been removed from the voice seemed to allow the listener to experience the calm, meditative effect of the chanting while still appreciating that the voice had something to say. This shows that sound only needs to seem like a voice for us to register it emotionally. This could be important in the same way that some TV and radio adverts use audio branding.  Popular text message bleeps to activate our attention and awareness to make us more susceptible to receiving information. We are social animals and we like human contact, so the voice is emotionally stimulating to us; it just appears that content isn’t necessarily important to gain an emotional reaction. If we pick out the qualities of the voice that provide emotional reaction, maybe we can use them to add emotion to a work of sound. Of course, film sound designers have been doing this for years by creating evil voices that speak invented languages etc, but there could also be less obvious, more subtle applications that contribute to audio branding…

A couple of ideas stood out with the second soundscape. Firstly, the use of birdcall seemed to have a pleasant effect, even though the birds were caged. For some reason, the human brain responds well birdsong. You could say that this is due to melody but birdsong is still very pretty, or maybe even more so when there are so many birds that you cannot pick out individual songs. Again, what are the qualities of the sounds that evoke this emotional response? It could be said to be a product of evolution. Birds aren’t dangerous to us so we recognize their calls as comforting. If this is the case, then using ‘friendly’ animal noises in soundscape will produce favourable emotional responses. In terms of branding and audio branding, connecting positive emotion to a product helps people relate to that product, makes them more open to accepting it, and therefore increases the sale volume of that product.

The second idea that stood out here was the use of space and how this could be use din audio branding. During this piece, the soundscape moves through various spaces. On one level, as this happens, the listener gains a sense of journey as the scene changes, giving a sense of wonder and intrigue. On another level, the listener is moved through various sensations and emotions related to the spaces. Both ideas could contribute to audio branding. Think about how it feels to be in a large cathedral, a walk-in cupboard or on an open field; a sense of freedom and large space could be beneficial for somebody living in a small flat/apartment or a sense of coziness could be set up for those who want to get away from a sterile atmosphere. This could all be done purely in the audio realm, but space could also be manipulated by use of audio delivery – positioning of speakers, headphones, subwoofers could all be used to different affect.  All could enrich audio branding.

Tom Jenkinson’s piece, talked about last week, used hardware as well as sound. A quirky, interesting use of speakers could add so much to audio branding; imagine hidden speakers giving out sounds every now and then, or even speakers that are activated when somebody sits in a chair, etc.

The soundscapes exhibited at the Sound Portal also used music to varying affect. As described in an earlier post, using musical instruments to make sounds that don’t follow the rules of music invites the listener to think about the piece as music; this could allow the listener to create their own meaning. Of course, this relinquishes some control of the experience to the listener and their memories, which isn’t right for every design situation, but when you know the tastes and experiences of your target market, this could actually work for the designer; music genre in adverts is always tailored to the target market. Of course, the rules will change if the sounds used only suggest music but a stimulus that provokes meaning will offer intrigue and deeper cognitive processing that will cement an atmosphere and it’s associations in the listener’s mind.

The use of actual music can have more subtle effects away from audio branding too; did you know that faster music is used to encourage people to act more quickly in a store with the goal of increasing sales? Obviously, this is to do with tempo and rhythm not the likeability factor of the popstar, therefore designers do not have to pay huge copyright charges to gain this particular effect. On the flipside of music, in other situations where less is known about an audience, simplifying delivery and removing idiosyncratic meaning from audio will make it more relevant to more people. Some sounds are pretty much universally recognised as they reference the world in general and not a particular lifestyle; birdsong, gentle waves on beach, wind, rain, heartbeat, breathing, a calming melodic hum made by a person, etc.

Although sound has been designed to meet a brief (arguably) since Walter Murch worked on Apocalypse Now the late ‘70s, there are various applications that you may not even know about: the spaces inside cars are designed with their effect on acoustics in mind, as well as the audio for indicator tick-tocks, the engine sound and even what noise the door makes when it is closed. Audio branding is a growing application: companies think about what sounds they want associated with their business to allow them to project the correct image. This includes the music used in adverts and call-waiting as well as the noises their websites and software applications make. Music can easily be used to target a particular audience – taste and consumer habits are related – but the use of sound outside the realm of music really taps into the psyche; the space the sounds are recorded and played back in, the physical qualities of the sound, associations between sounds and emotion, evoking memory with sound, etc, etc.

Sound has uses from being specifically tied to a product, such as the noise of car indicators, to subconsciously imprinting atmospheres and emotions on a group of people. Powerful stuff.  Recognising that sound is as important as sight and touch opens up many exciting possibilities for design and also gives the opportunity for forward thinkers to get ahead of their peers and offer something unique to the world. Audio Branding in design could be applied to any type of event, a company’s reception office, a business website, retail environments, public spaces, promotional material; in fact I’m pretty sure sound can be used to bolster any brand or atmosphere in any traditional design situation.

If you would like to know about how sound and audio branding relate to your own work, please feel free to get in touch.

Thursday 24th November 2011 – Sound, Architecture and Environment

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The odd thing about recording is that your end product, the music, isn’t exactly real… it is a process that allows replication of something that has gone on before:  The music etc is played live and a snapshot is taken.  Also, you may know that the recording process cannot capture every single aspect of what the sound was like when you took that ‘snapshot’.  Current technology is very good at trying to emulate the original sound and you could argue that it does it so well that the imperfections are not even noticed, especially to the non-musician.

However, there are aspects of live music that the face-value capture of sound encapsulates with great difficulty.  Think about listening to a great busking band on the street.  You have the excitement of stumbling upon the performance; the personalities of the performers as they interact with the crowd, verbally and with their instruments; the collective experience of being part of a crowd; your own state of mind, if you are on holiday for example; and all of the sounds and feelings associated with these aspects.  Then there are the more physical aspects:  the way the sound of the different instruments reverberate around the buildings (even depending on where each musician is sitting), the qualities of that reverberation (imagine the difference in sound of a cathedral to your living room); other sounds working with/against the music intentionally or otherwise; even the state of the air could influence the total experience.  You then buy a copy of the band’s CD as the experience was so wonderful but, although the CD may sound good, it just isn’t the same.

The total experience (the actual music added to these aspects missing from the CD) is atmosphere (which I go on about all of the time!) and modern recording technologies can even go a long way to accounting for this; think about those realistic reverbs for example.  To my mind, maybe a change in focus is what’s needed to get closer to this elusive ‘atmosphere’.  When recording, maybe don’t think of it as recording music; or even as recording a performance.  Maybe think about the process as recording an experience.  This combined with keeping an open mind about what you can use to achieve this may produce even stronger results.  Music in particular tries to reproduce the thoughts and feelings of the song-writer using abstract methods (communicating with a guitar is very different from talking!), so why not extrapolate this to the whole process rather than just the sound-making?  You could even take this to the extreme by reproducing the atmosphere of a performance without actually including the instrument being used, although this would be a little silly if you are recording a virtuoso violinist because they are technically brilliant, for example!  Obviously, the balance of sound reproduction and atmosphere would have more real-life applications…

So, that finally brings me to the more overt topic of this post.  Architecture could be said to be one of the unsung heroes of the life experience.  We take it for granted that buildings, trees, and the rest of our surroundings are ‘just there’ but as any architect will tell you, these surroundings mold our lives and our life experience/atmosphere.  Therefore if we are thinking about the recording of music as above, it follows that we should take time to notice how sound interacts with the spaces it is immersed in.  This could go further than just putting the sounds in a reverb that emulates the space, and many musicians work with furthering this idea (for example Gustav Holst tried to describe the planets of our solar system in his music ‘The Planets’ using an orchestra; The band The Gathering used samples of crowd noises and street noises in their album ‘If Then Else’ to manipulate the atmosphere).

Thinking about how sounds interacts with architecture or the environment may not lead to placing sounds in a space as such, but it may also deepen an understanding of sound by looking into it’s real-life behaviour, which could loosen-up a musician’s perspective and therefore increase creativity.  For example, watch this you-tube video of a fantastic sound-art installation and see what you learn…

http://youtu.be/Ve6PTrlLGOU

Also, think about the application of sound within the architectural field.  Have a read here for some actual buildings/projects that have been designed to work within an environment that takes sound into account.  A couple use fountains to put up a mask of ‘white noise’ (which contains sound from all frequencies- i.e. the ‘snow’ on blank analogue TV channels) to cover traffic noise; a classroom was also designed to reduce spill of outside noise whilst emphasising the frequencies that the human voice occupies; raised portions and physical barriers evade noise and different materials sound differently when walked on.  Related to this, there are companies out there that design sound for business, taking every sound made within the company’s remit a part of their brand i.e. you wouldn’t use a noisy, clangy metallic floor in a shop that specialises in massage or meditation.

Of course, this is a two-way street as well.  Musicians and sound recorders can learn from sound in the real world and architects can learn from musical idealism i.e. calming soundscapes may be used in a massage parlour so maybe the building can be constructed in a way to emphasises these sounds.

So, if you are a music fan see if these ideas change the way you listen to music; musicians out there, maybe try thinking about sound differently and see if it enhances your output; and if you are involved in any aspect of creation think about how sound is as much a part of experience as your chosen field is and how careful thought around it can enhance the end product.

Thursday 3rd March 2011 – Audio Branding and it’s Use in Film

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Audio (or sonic) branding  is a very interesting idea that is actually quite established even though you may not have heard of it…  we are exposed to it every day but you may not even realise this.  Audio branding is the use of sound or music in creating a brand image for a company,  the most obvious examples being the Windows start-up sound, the Intel Inside noises on the TV adverts and that annoying  WeBuyAnyCar.com tune (for those who have had it inflicted upon them in the UK).  The idea is that you drum a tune into the public’s collective head and combine it with a product to make that product more memorable.  Think Pavlov’s dogs…yes, humans are easy to manipulate too.  On a more sophisticated level, the sounds can actually convey an emotion which you then associate with the company in question.  I’m sure, being a music fan, you are fully aware of how powerful the possibility of creating emotion through music is… People like to be happy; if a brand makes the public feel happy then that brand is in a very good position.  You could say the Windows start-up tune is having a stab at this last point. In the unlikely scenario of you not having heard this before (considering you are using a computer to read this!), the start-up of their software is heralded in by a brief but jubilant fanfare…

 

For me, this is all very interesting; I have an interest in Psychology (I took a degree in it), I am interested in creating atmosphere with my music that immerses the listener in a world of my creation (in a fantastical way, of course, rather than sinister…) and I am also looking into how different sounds make you feel and think.  Also, in a career-oriented way I have always been interested in creating a stamp for myself in all the music I make.

 

Is it possible for me to directly make money as a musician through audio branding?  Well I don’t know really, but I suspect that this sphere is way beyond the independent types.  As far as I know, only big companies really use audio branding so it is therefore probably taken care of by their advertising agencies.  However, saying that, it would be instructive and fun to work on small scale ideas for anyone out there wanting an audio-stamp…  Such an opportunity would obviously be great for me but I also intend to use these ideas whilst exploring the more art-oriented music/sounds I make; carrying these ideas in my head whilst I make music and also exploring them will help me to grow as musician. The net result may even help any career that I can make for myself…

 

So, how else is audio branding being used?  Well, Wikipedia says Bentley Motors recently looked to create a brand experience by replacing all interior mechanical sounds with sound that had been created for their Continental GT car.  A very cool idea.  You can imagine how a submersive atmosphere could be created by assigning a sound to everything in an environment.    The sounds could all be part of the same story as the environment or be completely at odds with it; depending on your aim this could all get very interesting indeed….

 

On a more mundane level, people actually use these ideas every day without thinking about it:  People like personalised ringtones as they feel it shows off their personality to the annoyance of the middle-aged (and me). And are music fans therefore using audio branding as a form of self-expression?  It could easily be said that is exactly what many teenagers do when they associate themselves with a kind of musical movement.  The music can even be secondary to the image for such teenagers although you cant deny that certain sounds effect certain people in different ways; it would be foolish to say that the music doesn’t matter at all…

 

The article here lends a somewhat sinister slant to these ideas; there will always be some one that will play with ethical boundaries to make some money.  The author of the aforementioned article talks about how it is believed that audio branding is now being used subliminally in songs.  This may be to communicate brand values or even to re-iterate a company’s slogan… An example cited is Pharrell Williams’ 2005 song ‘Can I Have It Like That’ (featuring Gwen Stefani), with the chorus which apparently echoed the Burger King advertising slogan ‘Have It Your Way’… sinister eh.

 

All that aside though, recently the use of audio branding in a film really got me thinking.  All films use music or sound in some way and it is common knowledge that this use of music is there to heighten the experience and story-telling.  Music is also used stylistically in film through life-style music too; hip, cool teen films correspondingly use hip, cool teen music to appeal to their audience.  I talked a bit about the use of film sound in a more experimental sense during an earlier post about (An)Other Irish Cinema;  sound can be used to enhance the feeling that picture is creating or it could be used to disorientate the mind and the senses.  Anyway, back to the film I saw (not for the first time though!):  I don’t know to what extent Sergio Leone meant to strategically use audio branding  in ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ but if you have seen it you will know exactly what I mean.  The wailing melody used throughout the film has even become somewhat of a western genre cliché as every time some one wants to reference a western stylistically, this music can be used.  Every time this happens it actually strengthens the film’s brand or even acts as an advert.  But the use of sound here even goes beyond this.  The music in this film is a work of art in it’s own right; it uses conventional instrumentation as well as some ideas that aren’t so conventional.  Like many films, the music really sets the atmosphere wonderfully but the sound-direction really does play a part in this too.  For example, the use of silence to create tension ready for it to break into action and louder sounds really draws you into the film’s stylistic ‘brand’.  These ideas may not be direct advertisements for the film but they all work as brand-strengtheners over time.  I therefore put it to the reader that this kind of sound design in film has yet to be fully exploited. As I always say, I’m no film buff but I can’t think of many examples where this has been done so elegantly (please feel free to correct me in the comments section below).  As a musician it is possible to create mood for a film whilst giving it a unique stamp that strengthens the film’s identity amongst it’s rival products and peers, becoming an altogether more complete and confident beast in the process.   However, there is so much more to explore beyond style, genre, orchestral swells and aggressive rock music… and film-makers that realise this seem to make their films stand out as unique, interesting and all-immersive as well as finalising their work as a piece of art.