by melina.trummer -

Ear candy & storytelling with Sound Design

I want to explore Sound Design as a storytelling tool within a musical composition. The focus of this project is on musical details that are added to a song to make it more interesting. “Ear candy“ is a vague term used to describe sound effects, extra layers, rhythmic variations and other techniques which are supposed to make a song more interesting for the listeners. They can help to shape the soundscape and character of a song.

This project is not only about adding details to a song, but also about building a vocabulary for describing sound characteristics. The practical part of this project aims to combine songwriting and sound editing. The goal is the concept of a song that is enhanced with sound design elements.

Examples of ear candy

  1. The vocals in the song “Who let the dogs out” by Baha Men imitate the sound of a dog barking.
  2. Billie Eilish and her music producer Finneas O’Connell include sounds they recorded in real life as samples in their songs. One song by them features the drill of a dentist’s equipment, another one includes the sound of an Accessible Pedestrian Signal (APS). (APS are devices which are designed to help pedestrians who are blind or have low vision by providing non-visual cues like sounds and vibrations to indicate when it is safe to cross the road.)

Purpose of the project

The core purpose of my project is to analyze sounds, develop a vocabulary for my future sound design work and explore different ways to use sound design elements in musical compositions. Instead of treating sound design as a decorative or purely technical layer, I intend to explore it as a meaning-bearing, dramaturgical element.

Ultimately, the goal is not simply to produce a song but to research and articulate a method for using sound design as narrative strategy in music.

I want to
… compose a musical piece in which sound design shapes the narrative structure.
… create ear candy elements that contribute not only sonically but symbolically.
… develop a vocabulary to describe sound qualities and emotional functions in production.
… connect theory and practice when it comes to musical storytelling, sound design and sound editing.

Although the outcome is a standalone piece, the underlying methodology has broader applications:
·  Artistic practice: designing sonic narratives, creating atmosphere and emotional depth in music.
·  Music production: helping artists articulate a “sound world”.
·  Education & analysis: building tools for describing sound qualities and production strategies.

Possible techniques & methods

To narrow down the project, I might draw from several categories of methods. I hereby note that these categories were suggested to me by the LLM ChatGPT after several prompts telling the model which areas of Sound Design I would like to explore more.

A. Analytical Techniques
·  Harmonic analysis of emotion-driven chord progressions
·  Textural and spectral analysis of reference tracks
·  Identification of “Ear Candy” categories (e.g. foley events, sound effects etc.)
·  Development of descriptive vocabulary for sound qualities

B. Sound Design Techniques
·  Foley-based sampling (recording small sound events)
·  Textural layering
·  Creative vocal processing (pitch, formant, spatial modulation)
·  Unusual chord voicings or progression loops
·  Spatial mixing techniques for headphones (binaural cues, intimate panning)

C. Production & Composition Methods
·  Writing a narrative arc for the song
·  Mapping sound events to emotional or symbolic moments
·  Iterative prototyping: composing → sound-designing → analyzing → refining
·  Mixing for headphone emphasis
·  Evaluating how well each sound supports the story

Questions that will most likely occur during this project

·  How much Foley work is necessary to support the story of a song?
·  Which sound design elements risk becoming too literal or distracting?
·  How can I balance songwriting and sound design so that neither overwhelms the other?

by melina.trummer -

A self-introducing monologue

Hi, my name is Melina and I grew up in a village, which is a little fun fact about me that will become important later.

Let’s get through the rather boring stuff first, so we have that out of the way.

I did my A-Levels at HLW Mureck, back when the school focused on gastronomy and economics. After working as a waitress, I switched industries and worked at an IT company in customer support for four and a half years. I wanted to achieve bigger things, so I applied for a study program at university. Thanks to the Austrian self-supporter scholarship I was able to study my dream at FH Joanneum. When I started to study Information Design, my dream was to be an UX/UI designer (that is somebody that thinks about how interface elements of websites and apps are positioned and styled in a way that people can use the website/app/service and have a good time doing so). However, my goal changed over time.

Long before I even applied at FH Joanneum, I discovered my love for Sound Design without knowing it was Sound Design. Growing up, I was always interested in (listening to) music. In 2009, Adam Young caught my attention with his electronic/alternative music project Owl City. Apart from his most famous song Fireflies, the song Vanilla Twilight had a lasting impact on me. I loved the way his vocals were tuned, the ear candy melodies, how the lyrics fit into the rhythm of the song and so forth. Unfortunately, when you are a teenager in a village, your everyday, real-life music opportunities are limited to a brass band or a church choir. But participating in those wasn’t my thing; I was into video games and singing along to the pop songs on the radio.

This attitude made me miss the train to music education town, figuratively speaking. To this day I can’t sight read and my theoretical music knowledge is limited.

In my early teenage years, I was faced with a huge emotional challenge. I was not able to talk about my struggles with anyone and couldn’t quite find a song that described how I was feeling. Out of the need for comfort I picked up a guitar and just started playing some random notes. Exploring what sounds good distracted me from the pain I was going through while it simultaneously offered me a way to express myself without talking. I was used to writing poems or diary entries, but songs? Unimaginable at first, but it soon happened naturally. Exploring and documenting my life by improvising melodies and lyrics over chord progressions has become my favorite thing in the world. In the past 12 years of my life, I’ve written over 300 songs (some better than others, none of them released yet).

When I moved to Graz in 2018 I bought my first own keyboard, which happened to be a MIDI-keyboard. Since a MIDI-keyboard is just a controller and not a standalone instrument, I had to install a DAW to play on it. That’s when everything changed. I was stunned by the fact there is an application that can help me make music on my computer, just like my idol Adam Young!! 😀

Moving to Graz also brought other possibilities into my life. I found some music-loving individuals and we formed an a cappella group. Unfortunately, Covid-19 made it impossible to practice, so the group split up again.

In 2021 a friend sent me a link to an open mic event. Since I mostly write sad, calm Indie-Folk songs, I took the opportunity and started to perform my songs live at that monthly event. I still perform there whenever I get the chance to, usually accompanying myself on the guitar, piano or playing together with an instrumentalist.

During my Information Design studies, I felt the most joy when experimenting with sounds. One of my favorite projects was for the Klanglicht-Festival in 2023: I had the honor to compose a jingle for their audio guide.

I believe that the skills I learn through Sound Design can help me be a better, more expressive artist. The Sound Design master’s program is my chance to take my time to deep dive into some aspects of shaping sounds.

In an ideal world I am not only shaping sounds, but also shaping experiences that let people interact or enjoy sound in an immersive way. I want to create something that lets them shut down the world around them. I would love to participate in a sound installation in a museum, or at the Klanglicht-Festival. Since I want to improve my music production skills, producing an EP would also be a project I would love to do. From an information/graphic designer perspective, enhancing (or manipulating) visuals with sounds would be interesting as well. So far my work has only contained short and simple projects, like jingles, ringtones and sound experiments. My portfolio page covers most of the projects I have done so far: https://www.melinatrummer.com/

I must consider that I have neither a usual music background, nor a technical one. So, I might not be able to do a crazy coding project or compose a 12-track album just yet. Sound Design is quite a challenge for me, but I am looking forward to learning a lot about this discipline in the next two years and onward.

All I know now is that I would love to make a project that provides people with the same level of comfort that music has brought to me all my life.