The influence of sound characteristics on emotions has recently become the focus of various studies. Often the term timbre is used to characterize the sound of something as warm, clean, dark or bright as a way to express how we perceive such a sound.. Scientifically the term has no definite meaning but is still used describe all the properties of a sound, that can't be defined by pitch, amplitude and duration even though in detail there are many different aspects, which make up the so called timbre: spectral centroid, spectral flux, formants etc.
But before I digress into technical jargons: important to know is how timbre can affect the emotional perception. All the typical tools of a sound designer and audio engineer: mic perspectives, EQ's, compressor and whatnot are ways to influence the emotional perception of a certain sound. And when you have in mind what characteristics you want to assign to an object and what emotional reaction you want to elicit it is much easier to either combine and shape a few single sounds into something completely new or just slightly alter the color.
ADAM - Sound As An Art Form
Sound design is an integral part of a movie, which can shape the story and its emotional depth as much as the filmscore or image.
Let's take the magical world of the film series fantastic beasts as an example.
The infatuated and clumsy erumpent, the cute and cunning niffler or the proud hippogrif.
The sound composition of each magical animal helps shape its character: the movement of different body parts, the voice and all the different dimensions are each designed to create one character and can help decide whether it is perceived as bulky and powerful, fast and agile, or even elegant, funny or threatening.
The same holds true for the characters in ADAM. The footsteps of the protagonist are insecure and feeble, where as the mysterious magician has controlled, heavy and confident steps. All aspects of each character and object where designed with these considerations in mind.
