Week 3/4 - Pilot Project Two
- Julia Toczyska
- Oct 23, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Dec 12, 2025
Coming into the second pilot project, I knew I wanted to push myself even further out of my comfort zone. Looking back at all the work I have created over the past two years, I realised there was one thing I missed - audio.
It’s always been something I have avoided like the plague, but I decided this was the perfect time to finally face that challenge. After spending the summer working with Leap Lab and being exposed to projects that explored sound and immersive storytelling, I felt inspired to see how I could incorporate audio into my own creative process. Through this project, I aimed to experiment, learn, and grow more confident in a medium I have long overlooked. Hope you enjoy!
Project Proposal
For my second pilot project, I decided to create the first draft of a 20–30 minute immersive soundscape for Echo Worlds, an ecological audio project developed in collaboration with Leap Lab and my lecturer James Norton. The piece blends field recordings of nature, professional bat recordings, and a guided meditational narration by Dr. Lara Houston.
I chose this project as it allowed me to explore sound as a storytelling medium, something I have often avoided but have grown increasingly curious about. Echo Worlds aims to invite listeners to tune into the unseen and unheard dimensions of urban nature, fostering connection, reflection, and sensory awareness. By combining natural and synthetic sounds, I aim to create a layered experience that encourages listeners to slow down and reimagine their relationship with their environment.
Concept
20–30 minute immersive soundscape for Echo Worlds
Incorporates field recordings of nature and professional bat recordings
Guided meditational narration by Dr. Lara Houston
Designed to evoke a sense of stillness, curiosity, and ecological connection
Target Audience
The target audience for Echo Worlds primarily includes students, staff, and visitors at Anglia Ruskin University, where the piece is expected to be exhibited in April. As an immersive ecological sound experience, it aims to attract individuals interested in digital media, environmental awareness, and creative experimentation. Beyond the university community, the project also speaks to a broader audience who are curious about sound art and sensory storytelling.
In essence, the soundscape is designed for anyone open to experiencing the intersection between technology, nature, and imagination.
Research
Research played a crucial role during the early stages of this project. Going into an unfamiliar medium, it helped me shape my creative vision and inform many decisions later on in the development stage.
I began research by exploring the practise of Deep Listening, developed by Pauline Oliveros. In essence, Deep Listening highlights the difference between the act of involuntary hearing and an active choice of listening. Understanding this practise is key for guiding the user experience. It helped me shape the way in which audiences interact with my creative piece.
From this stage, I have moved onto existing examples of Deep Listening pieces. One video I have stumbled upon is the Music For Psychedelic Therapy by Job Hopkins. I was particularly captivated by the use of sound captured within Hopkins piece. The constant build up, power, and sheer beauty all tie together to create a truly remarkable experience. Hopkins is an artist who primarily uses electronic sounds within his work, and despite having a drastically different practise to mine, his work has majorly affected the creative direction for this project.
Planning
In order to plan my work efficiently, I have once again followed a SCRUM like system I have mentioned in my previous blog post.
Recording The Voice-Over
Going into week 1 of the development phase, I began by organising a recording session with Dr. Lara Houston at the ARU recording booth. Despite being at the university for some time, this was actually my first experience using the booth. The setup itself was quite simple, yet I ran into a few issues with the equipment available in the studio. Rather than wasting valuable time troubleshooting, we decided to use a portable Zoom sound recorder we had booked out, which worked out perfectly well!
While I was setting up the equipment, Lara rehearsed the script. For this project, she kindly adapted one of her existing meditation scripts to align with the themes. Once everything was ready, Lara stepped into the soundproof room and recorded two takes of the script, just to be safe.
Pipistrelle Body Scan Meditation Script
Recording in Coldham's Common
Moving onto the next stage, my lecturer James and I headed over to Coldham’s Common around 7pm to capture a variety of sounds for the soundscape. We once again used the same Zoom audio recorder for its lightweight design and reliable performance. While James gave a tour to some students from Cambridge University, I wandered off to record the sounds that caught my attention. The whole process took roughly three hours, and by the end of it, I was definitely feeling the cold. Note to self, remember to wear proper clothing next time!
Featured in the photographs below, you might notice that we mounted the audio recorder on a tripod. We did so for multiple reasons, but mainly to minimise any unwanted noises such as breathing, mic handling, or accidental bumps. Overall, it was a productive session and a good learning experience in terms of both sound collection and professional sound recording.
Adobe Audition
With all the audio recordings collected, it was time to move into the editing phase at the start of week 2. I began by importing the raw voice-over into Adobe Audition. For this project, I decided to learn Audition from scratch, mainly because of its familiar layout compared to other Adobe software I have used. Being the fish out of water that I am, I decided to look up some online tutorials after multiple failed attempts of my intuition.
In the end, I followed a video by tutvid. The tutorial walked through several key steps to achieve a clean, professional sound. It gave me a solid understanding of the tools available within Audition and how to use them properly.
Following on the tutorial, I learned was how to DeNoise audio manually. Previously, I had been relying on the automatic Light/Heavy Noise Reduction effect, but they didn’t quite produce the results I wanted.
Instead of taking shortcuts, I used the Noise Reduction (Process) effect and manually adjusted the reduction amount and settings. After experimenting with the graph and comparing the playback, I finally managed to find the balance I wanted. Although the effect didn’t remove every unwanted sound, it significantly improved the audio clarity.
To tackle the remaining mic bumps and small imperfections, I went through the track manually and adjusted individual levels where needed.
Once the voice-over was clean, I experimented with the Parametric Equalizer, shaping the tone to achieve a more polished sound. The end result is beyond amazing! I am glad I ended up looking for help online from professionals, it helped me achieve high quality results in arguably simple steps.
Voice-Over Comparison
Presets
Eventually, at some point into the production, I stumbled across something life changing - presets. With the discovery of presets came the discovery of human torture. I made the terrible mistake of checking EVERY preset I have stumbled upon.
My favourite go-to presets throughout this project were Light Noise Reduction, Studio Reverb (Room Ambience 1), Far Away Source, and Echo Centre Image. The most atrocious presets I had the misfortune of meeting included Maximum Pain, Ultimate Failure, Metal Screamer, Sonic Destructor, and Spasm. I am still recovering my hearing till this very day.
Scrapped Attempt
With the voice-over complete, I moved on to reviewing the three-hour recording from Coldham’s Common and selecting the parts I liked most. At this stage, I didn’t have a clear direction in mind, so I simply placed all my favourite sounds onto the timeline and arranged them in a way that felt just right.
Although I enjoyed how it turned out, something still felt off. I was struggling to integrate Lara’s voice-over in a way that sounded natural. After multiple failed attempts, experimenting with different presets and directional audio, I ultimately made the tough decision to scrap it entirely. It was definitely a frustrating point in the process, but I think it’s still worth mentioning, especially since this stage of production had me stuck for several days.
Music Creation
Looking back over my research, especially the works of Jon Hopkins, I decided to take a bit of a risk. One evening, while I was venting my frustrations to some friends, one of them suddenly pulled out a keyboard and suggested we try producing a track together. I was hesitant at first, but figured I had nothing to lose at that point. From the very beginning, I knew I didn’t want the track to sound like a typical instrument - after all, the focus of this project is nature, not music.
We started experimenting with different settings in Logic Pro, a digital audio workstation, and eventually stumbled upon a sound that just clicked. To produce the track, we have used the Elevation Wurlie. My favourite effects ended up being reverb and reverse, which gave the track this spacious quality that tied in nicely with the project’s theme. I’m genuinely grateful for my friend’s help, music production seems like black magic to me, and without his guidance, I probably would’ve spent hours struggling to figure it all out on my own.
Final Timeline
With the music track produced, I opened the project in Audition once again. This time, I spaced out the voice-over, duplicated the music track underneath, and layered in several of the recorded sound effects to tie everything together. I focused on syncing the atmosphere of each sound with Lara’s narration, aiming to make the transitions feel natural and immersive. It took a bit of trial and error, but once I have aligned everything, the piece finally started to feel complete.
In the end the piece turned out to be 20 minutes in lengh, which is a good foundation! I am aiming to remaster this project once I recieve feedback from Leap Lab and James.
Final Outcome
Pitch and Feedback
At the end of the project, we were asked to present our work during in front of everyone. This part always feels a little stressful, but it’s also one of the most valuable stages, as it gives everyone a chance to share and receive feedback.
During the presentations, our lecturer Tina set up a Miro board where everyone involved could post their thoughts, highlighting what they enjoyed about each project, as well as suggestions for improvement. It was great seeing everyone’s work come together and hearing different perspectives on how each piece could be developed further.
While I received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback, which honestly made me beyond happy (especially considering how chaotic the production stage was), I still can’t fully agree that there’s nothing left to improve.
Maybe I am being a bit too critical of my own work, but there are still parts of the soundscape that feel slightly lacking to me. That being said, I am genuinely proud of what I managed to achieve within such a short timeframe. Despite the challenges and the moments of frustration, seeing the project come together in the end felt incredibly rewarding.
Final Thoughts
Looking back on this project as a whole, I’m genuinely proud of how far I’ve come, especially considering how hesitant I was about working with audio in the first place. What started as an experiment quickly turned into a huge learning experience that pushed me to think differently about sound, storytelling, and the creative process itself within audio.
This project taught me the importance of patience and letting go of perfection when things don’t go to plan. There were definitely moments of frustration, but those moments often led to the biggest breakthroughs. Whether that was figuring out new tools in Audition, or learning to trust my instincts when something didn’t feel quite right.
Most importantly, it reminded me that creativity often thrives in unfamiliarity. Stepping into a completely new medium forced me to slow down, listen, and embrace the trial and error. I now feel far more confident exploring sound in my future projects and excited to see how it can continue shaping my practice moving forward.
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