Sonic Design Project 2: Tokyo Night Walk

 Project 2 -  Cities + Transport + Exterior Atmosphere

To create the immersive soundscape for Tokyo · The Nightwalker, I used Adobe Audition (AU) to arrange and balance all audio elements across six distinct tracks:

• Background – Captures the constant bed of city life: distant traffic, soft hums, and low ambient energy that glue everything together.

• Scene Sound – Location-specific sounds that give each scene its texture, like vending machines, station announcements, or bridge echoes.

• Walk – Footstep recordings that follow the character’s movement. These were only used in Scenes 1 and 2, where walking was essential to the atmosphere.

• Movements – Sounds tied to character action, like putting on AirPods, opening train doors, or shifting in a seat.

• Ambiance – Supplemental environmental sounds like wind, dripping water, and night insects, especially used in Scene 2 for underpass depth.

• Train / AirPods – These were scene-specific:

  • The Train layer appears in the final act as the subway arrives and departs.

  • The AirPods layer is unique to Scene 3, introducing Utada Hikaru’s First Love as a personal, internal shift in the narrative.

🎛️ Sound Design Effects in Tokyo · The Nightwalker

    In Adobe Audition (AU), I applied a range of audio effects across different sound layers to enhance realism and narrative clarity. Each track had a distinct role, and the effects were carefully selected to shape space, focus, and emotional tone.

🔊 Background Track

To shape the urban atmosphere and keep it from interfering with other layers, I used:

• FFT Filter – To cut unnecessary low-end and polish the noise floor

• Center Channel Extractor – To subtly isolate ambient stereo width

• Phase Parametric EQ x2 – For stereo field balancing and spatial depth

• Hard Limiter – To prevent volume spikes and keep background consistent

This created a clean, neutral ambient bed that supports but never competes with the main scene elements.

🎧 Scene Sound Track

These are location-specific sounds like vending machines, station announcements, etc.

• Channel Mixer – For stereo placement

• Amplify – For individual gain control per clip

This kept scene cues present but not overpowering.

🚶‍♂️ Walk Track

Used only in Scenes 1 & 2, where the sound of footsteps was essential to pacing and presence. (No special effects mentioned—dry mix or gentle EQ assumed.)

🚊 Train Track

To enhance the realism of the subway passing by, I used:

• Sound Effects Layering + Volume Envelope Automation –
  This gave the illusion of a train rushing past the listener’s ear, creating a strong sense of motion and spatial shift.

🎵 AirPods Track

Used only in Scene 3, where the character puts on AirPods and listens to First Love. To simulate the AirPods' Transparency Mode and internal playback, I applied:

• FFT Filter – For high-end clarity

• Guitar Suite – To color the midrange like a small speaker

• Channel Mixer – To center the sound in the headspace

• Surround Reverb – For immersive internal ambiance

• Tube-modeled Compressor – To simulate subtle AirPods-style dynamic smoothing

This produced an intimate, emotional contrast between external world and internal experience.

Summary:

    Tokyo · The Nightwalker explores the quiet, emotional space between a person and the city around them. Through layered sound design—background noise, ambient detail, movement, and music—I aimed to capture the feeling of drifting through Tokyo at night, both physically and emotionally. Each effect and track served a purpose: to blur the line between external chaos and internal calm. The moment the AirPods go in and First Love begins, the soundscape turns inward—quiet, personal, and deeply human.