Designing Sound

Public Service Announcement Regarding iLok

In case you haven’t seen the information burning its way across social media yet, there have been some issues with the latest updates to the iLok system. While they’re adding some very useful features in a new downloadable “client” program, they’ve hit some unexpected stumbling blocks on the back-end. At some point over the weekend, they updated their databases to work with the new client software. The problem? Licenses from certain manufacturers were converted from “License” status to “Temporary” status. To find out if any of your licenses have been affected:

• Disconnect your iLok
• Log in to your account
• Click on “My Licenses” and look down the “Type” column

If any of your licenses have been converted to “Temporary”, then do not update your client software and sync your iLok. If you do, they may fail to authorize when you load them up. If you don’t sync your iLok, all of your authorizations should work normally. Best to wait for official word from Pace, Inc. that the issue has been resolved.

This bug was first brought to my attention by Gearslutz user Simon Morrison. [Forum thread here.] Be sure to thank him for making this public knowledge and, hopefully, preventing a lot of people from experiencing the issues he’s had to deal with.

Compressor Gain Control Principles

Herbert Goldberg has an interesting article up about compressors and the though process behind designing their inner workings. That fits nicely into this month’s theme, don’t you think?

Technically speaking the same principles are used in audio signal limiting and compression processors but just the transfer curves and envelope follower settings are different. Ultra fast attack rates and high ratio amounts are used for limiting purposes which causes just very few peaks to pass on a certain threshold.

 

In digital implementations limiting processors can be more strict due to look-ahead and clever gain prediction functions which guarantees that no peak information passes the threshold. That is called brickwall limiting then.

Continue Reading here.

Oh…he also has a number of freeware VST plug-ins you can check out too! Descriptions of each plug-in can be found here.

Dynamics…What’s Your Range?

This awesome photo, by Jeff Meyer, is used under a Creative Commons license. Find more of his photos on flickr…username: soundman1024

For June, we’ve chosen to focus on the theme of “Dynamics.” As the title of this post implies, we don’t think of this topic as narrow or specific. There are two obvious directions this theme can go.

We could start a discussion about the use of dynamics processing: compressors, limiters, expanders, or transient enhancers. How do we use these in the design phase to mold a sound? How can we use them in the mix to glue together disparate elements?

We can explore the idea of contrast. There is no light without dark. Similarly, there is no loud without soft. What are the implications of this concept in terms of narrative, manipulating the audience, or the simple difference between holding attention or becoming a distraction?

We have some fertile ground to till this month.

Time for our regular addendum. We are always open to guest contributions. If this topic sparks your scrivener impulses…or implores you to stand up on a soap box…you have a willing audience on this site. Contact shaun[at] designingsound [.] org if you’d like to share your thoughts/experience with the community. We’re also planning to cover acoustics next month; a topic for which we will definitely be seeking assistance.

The Sound of Looper – Interview with Jeremy Peirson

I contacted Jeremy Peirson, the sound designer for Looper (2012), to talk about his role in the best received time travel movie in a very long time. What follows is a transcription of our phone conversation. Enjoy!

DS: For our theme on the site this month we’re talking about “time,” and I though it would be interesting to talk about Looper (2012) as a time travel movie and your work on that.

JP: Yeah!

DS: When did you get involved in Looper? Were you asked early on, or was it just in post…?

JP: No. It was just in post, and it turns out that it was a lot later…I guess they had finished shooting about a year before I got started. Just because it was a low budget indie, and they were doing a lot of cutting. It turns out that it was a lot later than I expected. Read More