Sep
02
2010
By Miguel Isaza
RODE University has been updated, now offering 10 free online classes on recording sound for film and TV, delivered by sound effects master Ric Viers. Now you don’t need to own a Rode mic to sign up to the classes. It’s free and open to everyone. These are the topics:
- Ep 01: Location Sound Recording (NTG-3) - This week Ric Viers, author of The Sound Effects Bible, demonstrates fundamental techniques for recording dialogue and environmental audio on location.
- Ep 02: Location Sound Recording (Indoor Dialogue) - In this episode Ric explores options for getting the best audio when recording dialogue indoors. Whether it’s in tight spaces or sporting venues, Ric has the tips and tricks to help you get the best…
- Ep 03: Camera Microphones - Getting good quality audio is often a struggle with consumer camcorders and even digital SLRs. In this episode Ric explains how to maximise your sound when using on-camera microphones.
- Ep 04: ENG Recording - ENG (Electronic News Gathering) is the staple work of many audio professionals, and possibly the most demanding. From ‘one man bands’ to full ENG teams, Ric gives you the advice you need to run…
- Ep 06: Voiceovers and ADR - In this episode Ric covers the best approach for recording high quality off screen dialogue for voiceovers (VOs), as well as his personal tips for getting best results from talent when using ADR (automated dialogue replacement).
- Ep 07: Foley Recording - Foley artists add depth and reality to a scene, creating sound effect overdubs that supplement the dialogue and score. In this episode Ric shows how to record and perform foley like a pro!
- Ep 08: Studio Sound Effects Recording - The creation of sound effects is Ric’s home turf. From headline effects like car crashes and bone breaks to subtle environmental sounds like door opens and falling debris, RØDE University lets you in on the industry secrets.
- Ep 09: Location Sound Effects Recording - In the second part of Sound Effects Recording, Professor Ric takes the gear out of the studio and gets his hands dirty recording a car-by on location.
- Ep 10: Semester Wrap-Up - School’s almost out, but before you leave be sure to check out the semester wrap-up, where Ric gives his all time top ten tips for broadcast recording. This is an episode not to miss.
RODE University
Via: @blastwave
Sep
02
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Photo by rogerdominh (CC)
Colin Hart has published a very interesting and detailed article about the principles and techniques of boom operation. It’s more focused on location sound, but it will be an amazing read for anyone who has to deal with booms, including sound designers and recordists.
The Boom Operator: one of the most crucial parts of a sound team, if not the most crucial. Also, one of the most misunderstood positions. He is a ninja. No, seriously, he is.
Let’s talk cinema style audio for a bit. On a film set, the boom operator is the “voice” of the sound team. He’s the one that communicates most set-related concerns to the proper crew. If he’s having trouble with placement, he’ll talk to the cam op or DP. If body pack or Comtek batteries are low, he’s the one that changes them. If talent is having trouble with their wire, the boom op is generally the one to fix it. The mixer usually stays off to the side. Because of this, the boom op needs to be a very personable character. He needs to know how to get what he needs without pissing people off. He needs to be able to get along with whomever is thrown his way.
Once we start talking ENG, the mixer not only mixes, but does everything the boom op does. He’s a one man band. He needs to be able to move very quickly, anticipating every need before it happens, staying one step ahead of the crew, lest he hear the dreaded phrase “Waiting on sound!”
Now, you could be the most personable person in the world, not stepping on anyone’s toes and getting all the work you need to get done finished without negatively altering anyone’s mood, and still be a terrible boom op. Let’s talk technical.
A boom op needs to realize how incredibly sensitive his gear is. It’s a game of inches. You need to be able to think one step ahead of the talent. You need to be quick, light on your toes, and stealthy. You need to be everywhere and nowhere, all at the same time. You need to be moving faster than the talent, staying dangerously close to the frame line, so much so that people are breaking into a nervous sweat. You need to perform near stunt moves, moving over and around obstacles on set during moving shots, being aware of your surroundings while sticking your mic on a spot the size of a quarter. You need to do all of this without making a single noise. This is why the boom op is a ninja.
As a boom operator, you have to be willing to do crazy things to get that perfect sound. You will, at times, find yourself in strange positions, in harms way, or in otherwise less-than-comfortable situations. You have to be on point at all times, knowing that if you mess up, you’ve compromised the entire shot.
Ok, if I haven’t scared you away yet, lets go over some basics of boom operation.
Read the full article
Sep
02
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Alexandre Rocca, Dorian Darcourt and Hugo Guiral have founded Surround Library, a new online sound effects library offering surround sounds for download, in different categories and formats. This is what they said about it:
After several months of hard work, we are pleased to announce the launch of our online surround sound effects library : Surround Library.
Our website offers a large range of ambiences and effects exclusively in surround, recorded by our enthusiastic and professional sound engineers’s community with specific surround microphones systems. Community that we hope will rapidly grow worldwide.
Our catalog is still under development and it keeps improving every month. All sounds include BWF (Broadcast Wave) and Soundminer v4 metadatas, and all audio related technical details are specified on the website for each sound, along with an excellent and uncrippled stereo sample to listen to. We also insist on the “paternity” of sounds, by always specifying the recording’s Author or Producer.
Our website privileges sobriety and ease of use, while still offering powerful features such as drawing up Wishlists or using custom Tags among others. We also seek for interaction with our users via a discussion Forum and a Blog.
We hope that you will enjoy the experience, so please feel free to give us your feedback by posting in the Forum or by sending an email. We hope to hear from you soon.
Surround Lib Catalog
Via: Soundminer
Sep
01
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Photo by "Jean H. de Buren"
New month means a new special on DS. I’m very glad to announce the visit of one of my favorite sound designers out there: David Farmer. He will be sharing a lot of interesting stuff, including articles, interviews, videos, and more! I hope you enjoy it.
Bio
David Farmer grew up in the little town of Gladys, Virginia. He was always interested in music growing up, and played drums, guitar, and bass in his youth. Drums actually come the most natural to him, but he wanted to write songs in their entirety, so picked up the guitar. He would record a drum part to a cassette, then play guitar along with that cassette while recording the composite mix to another cassette. Rinse & repeat with other instruments until the song is done. This is far from how songs are actually made (using multi-track recording), but was all he had access to. More than just music, he found he was actually interested in sound itself, which led him to my career in sound effects for feature films.
Condensing the next phase of his life, he wound up in Burbank CA working on films, such as Mortal Kombat, The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, etc…. After that, he started working on films out of Skywalker Ranch, including The Arrival, Armageddon, Con Air, Space Cowboys, and so on. He wound up as the Sound Designer for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Clearly this was a dream job for someone in this field.
read more
Sep
01
2010
By Miguel Isaza
The guys of Game Audio Podcast have published the fifth episode of their podcast series. This time it’s a mini episode, talking about different things:
Its a mini episode, no guests, just us catching up as we get ready for another season of game audio.
We talk about the rise of the indie sample libaries, the mini synth rage, projects we are working on.
You can download it now or listen online at gameaudiopodcast.com
Aug
31
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Wow, August just flew! Here is the final post of the Rob Nokes special, with the answers to the questions made by the readers during this month. Hope you enjoyed this month, and get ready for September! :D
Designing Sound Reader: How well do you take care of your microphones? Do you leave them out in the studio overnight or do you put them away the minute the recording session is over? And how often do you get them serviced?
Rob Nokes: I store my microphones in a temperature controlled room that also stores the SoundStorm library, 75F and 38% humidity. I don’t use the Neumanns in dangerous situations but I have placed an MKH-60 adjacent to a car’s muffler. Cheaper microphones are placed in harms way, such as the SANKEN CUB-01′s and AKH C4000B. I have lost some Sennheiser E835′s.
The studio sound proofing controls temperature and humidity so I don’t have a problem leaving the microphones out over night. Microphones get serviced when they have problems, it’s important to have backups available when a microphone starts to sound bad.
read more
Aug
30
2010
By Jake Riehle
Full disclosure, I haven’t seen Edgar Wright’s first film (A Fist Full of Fingers) but his two other theatrical releases(“Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz)” I enjoyed immensely and were both very sound friendly. “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” follows suit and interviews with Wright confirmed my suspicion of his love for sound. Below is an excerpt from a Cinematical.com interview with Edgar.
Cinematical: I had a conversation with a friend who mentioned that there is a sound effect that comes from Sonic the Hedgehog, which I actually didn’t know or recognize. How much are people supposed to be identifying the specific little sounds and details like that, and how much is meant to be just a part of the overall pastiche?
Wright: I think it’s not the central part of that joke, but the Sonic the Hedgehog noise is, and I feel like those things are kind of to create almost a pavlov’s dog response for people in the audience who have grown up with those sounds. I think it’s more that I wanted to create – those sounds and audio references and motifs are not supposed to stop the film dead. If people don’t recognize them, it’s not what the scene is about or even the joke is about. It’s more that what I kind of figured is that with some of that music, and even like Mac and PC and Blackberry noises, is that they’re the kinds of sounds of the last 15 years. So it’s sort of like a pavlovian response to like a Mac error sound is that you know you’ve done something wrong (laughs). Because I think if you actually put a microphone in somebody’s apartment that uses a lot of technology, there would just be a number of sounds that we take for granted that are just part of our lives – vibrating cell phones, Mac errors, the sound of trash.
Basically, Scott Pilgrim is like living his life through the pop culture he’s consumed over the last 30 years, so there’s like this endless jumble of resonant sounds. So to the character and to me, it’s like the Sonic the Hedgehog noise is basically just like 1993′s lightbulb sound, do you know what I mean? Ding! That’s it – there’s nothing and not extra jokes written in that, and it’s sounds that you recognize and have grown up with over the last 20 years. I love that it has that sort of pavlovian response; I mean, some of them are very kind of buried in the mix, but it makes me laugh because we went through all of the Windows and Mac sounds of the last 15 years, and just when somebody wakes up it has the sort of startup sound, so that it just happens to be in the background. But a lot of them are diegetic as well, and I’ve done that in Spaced as well; I always find that interesting, trying to soundtrack things rather than raid the Hanna-Barbera sound effects. You sound diegetic from the technology we use.
I’d love to share more examples of Edgar’s thoughts on sound (There’s plenty more) but I’d better get on with our interview with sound supervisor Julian Slater. Slater has been working with Edgar since 2004′s “Shaun of the Dead” and I actually interviewed him for 2008′s “In Bruges”. Anyway, Thanks to Julian for answering some questions about his work on “Scott Pilgrim v. The World” and you can see him in The Soundworks Collection’s interview for the film too.
DS: When did you start working on the film and what were the initial conversations about sound with director Edgar Wright like?
(Julian Slater) JS: Edgar first approached me around December 2008 to talk about the project and what he felt would be the overall ‘feel’ of the soundtrack. He actually showed me some test footage they already shot which turned out to be very accurate to the finished film. I started on some initial sound work around May of 2009 which included new video game and 8 bit sounds to send to the cutting rooms over in Toronto while they were shooting.
read more
Aug
27
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Tim Prebble has been interviewed by Ande Schurr at “The Big Idea”. The interview is really interesting and full inspiring, don’t miss it!
Sound Designer Tim Prebble is at catch for my freelance series. He has an office across the road from Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post, is a thrice finalist in this year’s Qantas Film and Television Awards for Best Sound Design and has a fan base that only a genre director could rival.
Tim epitomises many of the things that could be classed as best freelance practices. His developmental and DIY attitude with social media, websites and e-commerce; his emphasis on collegial rapport and being in good standing among colleagues; his efforts to map out the territory he wants to play in – exploring his passions – and turning them into viable sources of income.
A recent graduate of an Auckland audio school told me that that his home page is Tim’s blog. The Music of Sound covers it all – from comparing the major audio editing software packages to crowd sourcing sound fx to methods of creating great SFX (Sound Effects).
Packed full of ideas for people in all film and TV departments, Tim Prebble is a freelancer who has raised the bar for those of us wanting to make our passion our work.
Full interview here
Aug
27
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Here is an interview that Rob Nokes had some time ago, where he talks about the work on his sound effects company. Let’s read:
Question: What is the quality control for sounds available for the users and customers?
Answer: A Sounddogs.com librarian will review the recordings and master them before they are imported in the web site for users to purchase and download. The librarian ensures that only good quality sounds are making it onto the web site. There are a lot of substandard sound recordings out there and we take pride in providing a great library with a money back guarantee on all purchases.
read more
Aug
25
2010
By Miguel Isaza
Jayson Napolitano, from Original Sound Version has created a new section on the site called “Blast from the Past”, which will include interviews made previously in the Music4Games site (offline several months ago). He started with a great interview he had with composer Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios sound supervisor Scott Petersen talking about their work on “Metroid Prime 3″.
Petersen: Right from the start of pre-production design on Prime 3, we knew that this had to be the most impactful Prime yet. To help focus on this goal I spent a lot of time thinking about how the sound design and music could support this idea of the best Prime ever.
For the sound design, I identified that the core of our audio aesthetic is that everything Metroid should be highly stylized and/or synthetic. To push this further and to help carve out some new sonic territory, I wanted all of our stylized and synthetic sounds to have very little midrange content; I really wanted our world sounds to mainly be just highs and lows. This would ideally leave the middle range for creatures and weapons and music. While we didn’t slavishly follow this guideline for everything, it really helped all of our sound designers focus on a concrete aesthetic and sonic palette. It also came with a catchy description: “Sci-fu.”
A parallel consideration was that we knew from the outset that were going have Phazon everywhere and integrated into the entire game. This meant that we had to come up with a greater depth and variety of Phazon sounds (lovingly referred to as blue goo) than we had in the first two Primes. To do this, we sketched out a whole mess of loops based on what Phazon might sound like. We even had the opportunity to persuade our audio engineer Jim Gage to build a couple of Tesla coils, just so we could record the sounds in the hopes that it would be the secret element for our new Phazon. (It was pure bliss recording the sound of 30” arcs of high voltage electricity). We ended up taking the Tesla source and a variety of other sounds and digitally mangling them together to form the root of our new Phazon. This root sound was given to each sound designer who was to be creating anything remotely related to Phazon or Corruption for them to reference, use and abuse. The funny thing is that as a result of this you never really hear Phazon directly; it is much more about how Phazon corrupts and affects things than what it is in and of itself. This was not something I expected at the outset and was really part of the evolving concept of what it means to do sounds for video games.
Full interview
next
