Chuck Russom has announced the release of “Handgun Foley“, a new sound effects library full of gun mechanism sounds.

Handgun Foley is a collection of gun mechanism sounds.  Included are the sounds of magazine inserts/ejects, slide racking, safety switches, dry firing, and more.

All sounds were recorded and mastered at 24bit 96K.  Handgun Foley is a downloadable collection of wav files embedded with metadata readable by all of the popular sound library apps.

The library is available now on the official website at $25.

Chuck Russom FX

Fireworks is a special “Limited Edition” sound library. A few years back, I record some small fireworks to have for my personal library. These sounds have proved useful over the years when designing sounds like magical effects, energy weapons, explosions, and others in that vein. Though I have just a handful of these sounds to offer, I thought it would be fun to put them out as a low-cost, limited edition “mini library”. Fireworks will only be available until July 31, 2010, and then it will be gone….

Fireworks is available now from Chuck Russom FX and costs $5 (Includes 40 sounds at 96kHz/24-Bit).

The other library is the third official release of Chuck Russom FX, called “Skateboard”:

There really are not a lot of skateboard sounds available in existing libraries. I found this out the hard way last year when I needed some sounds for a skateboard project. Though my needs were simple, I couldn’t find the sounds I needed in the usual libraries. So, I grabbed a mic, recorder, skateboard, and someone to ride, and spent a day recording skateboard sounds. Seeing these sounds in my library, I thought that other people might find them useful, so I decided to offer them up as a new collection.

Skateboard is available now from Chuck Russom FX and costs $20 (Includes 94 sounds at 96kHz/25-Bit).

If you want to know a little more about the making of those two libraries, here is a little Q&A I had with Chuck:

DS: Could you tell us how was the process of recording of each of the libraries?

CR: These were recorded so long ago, I forget! Thinking back, and trying to remember; I did the firework recordings in 2005. I’d purchased a bunch of fireworks the year before, and for some reason it took me a whole year to finally record it. I think I was searching for a good place to do it, which I never found. I finally just decided to light them off in my mom’s backyard, because I got tired of them sitting in my closet. It was a pretty simple 2 mic setup. At some point during the recording, it seemed like lighting the ground bloom flowers and throwing them into my mom’s swimming pool would be a good idea. And it was! The sounds of the fireworks spinning in the water is some of the coolest stuff. I still don’t think my mom knows about it…

The skateboard recordings were more recent, I did those in early 2009. I needed some sounds, my brother had a skateboard, so I called him up and we drove around on a Sunday and found the quietest parking lot we could find. He rode the skateboard and I chased him around holding a boom pole, trying to keep the mic as close to the skateboard as I could. It was pretty simple actually and the sounds worked out well for the project.

DS: What equipment and specific recording techniques did you use on each?

CR: When I did the firework recording, my recorder at the time was a Fostex FR2, for mics I used a Sennheiser 416 and an MKH40. I recorded in dual mono, and kept the mic that sounded the best. I’m not sure anymore which mic was the keeper.

The Fostex was still my main recorder when I did the skateboard stuff (I’m not sure why though, as I had a Sound Devices 744 for a couple years). These were probably some of the last recordings that I used the Fostex as my main machine, shortly after this, I finally moved to using my Sound Devices most of the time. The microphone was a Neumann RSM191, which has pretty much been my main mic for the last few years.

DS: How dangerous was the fireworks recording?

CR: Not dangerous enough! Seriously, it was pretty mild, these were all “safe and sane” fireworks. I was more careful/timid in my recording adventures back in those days. I wished I tried placing the mics closer. If I was I recording fireworks today, I most likely would leave with something damaged :)

DS: When will be the next library available? Any hints?

CR: I have a couple libraries that I’ve been working on. In May, the day after my Rocks library was released, I started recording a bunch of metal impacts. I was planning metal impacts to be library #3. The thing about banging pieces of metal together is you tire out real quick. And editing those sounds is probably the worst thing ever, the ringing in your ears never stops! So I had to slow down on that library. It will get released, but it’s still a while off.

In June I had the chance to go out and work with a dog trainer and record over a dozen dogs. Dogs will be my next library. I hoped that it would have been ready in June, then it slipped to July, now I’m trying to get it done for August. All the recording is done and the editing is probably 60% done. The summer can get really busy when you are working in game audio, so I’ve found myself with less time for my side projects lately.

Chuck Russom has released a new SFX library called Rocks, recorded in the California desert and featuring 388 sounds of cement, bricks, cinderblocks, marble, and rocks of various sizes and performances such as impacts, smashes, drops, and debris.

All sounds were recorded and mastered at 24bit 192K. Also included are 24bit 96K versions. Rocks is a downloadable collection of wav files embedded with metadata readable by all of the popular sound library apps.

You can download a free version of the library, featuring some of the samples with a quality of 16-Bit and 44.1kHz.

Also, this time Chuck has published on his blog a “Making Of” with all the details of the recording sessions, including pics and videos.

Link: Making Of “Rocks”

“Lose the ego. Do great work and take pride in it, but don’t be arrogant about how great you think you are.”

- Chuck Russom

So, Chuck Russom Special has come to the end. Many thanks to Chuck for sharing his fantastic stuff with the community and thanks to the readers who participated in the month. Here’re the answers to his questions:

Wow, the month of April just flew by!  I want to thank Designing Sound for hosting me this month.  I also want to thank the readers for putting up with my ramblings!  I have really enjoyed putting together all of these features and reading all the comments.  If you enjoyed my recording posts and want to hear more, follow my blog. If you want to keep up with my ramblings, you can find me on Twitter.

Designing Sound Reader: With regards to designing weapons for shooter games, do you consider the ethical aspects of your work? Where do you stand on such issues?

Chuck Russom: The games that I work on are usually created for adults.  The games are often violent, but I have no problem with adults playing whatever type of game that they choose.  I don’t feel most of the games are for kids.  It is up to parents to keep an eye on what their kids are playing and decide what entertainment is not appropriate for them.  As for the debate about if the game industry markets mature games to kids, or if it should be illegal for retailers to sell to kids, I don’t really care to be involved in the debate as I don’t know the answers.

When I work on games based on actual events (Call of Duty, etc) I do think about how we are representing the sacrifices of the the soldiers who fought in those conflicts.  And yeah, maybe the games areexploitive to a point.  Personally, from being involved in those projects, I’ve learned a lot of history that I might not have learned otherwise.  Its always my hope that at least someone playing one of these games is interested enough to go out and learn the true history behind these events.

DSR: Hi Chuck. I can see you record a lot of different sounds everyday, and also you’re releasing your won sfx company… Storage has to be very important to you. I just want to know what kind of hard drives do you use? Do you have a backup system? or a RAID, a Drobo, or something like that?

CR: I don’t use anything special for hard drives.  I just make sure to have an onsite and offsite backup of everything.  For work-in-progress stuff, I have it all sync’d to my Dropbox account.

DSR: Hey Chuck. Terrific Special!! I love all your posts and also you have a new daily reader of your blog. I was wondering about your techniques on sound editing and restoring and I have a couple questions: 1) When you transfer your recordings to your computer… How is your workflow? Any special techniques or tips on that? And 2) What tools do you use for editing and restoring? Do you like tools like RX, Waves Restoring, Sonnox, DNS/WNS, etc…?

CR: After I record, I copy everything to a folder on my computer.  The folder is sync’d to my dropbox account until I have a chance to get it backed up to an offsite drive.  I always want a copy of my stuff offsite, just in case something happens.  I have a folder that contains all the files in my editing queue.  Once edited, the files are copied to a mastering queue folder.  After mastering, they are copied to a metadata tagging queue folder.  Then finally they are copied into my library.

I use Nuendo for mixing/editing, Sound Forge for editing/mastering, and mostly Waves plugins (including WNS, and Znoise.).  I prefer using editing and EQ to fix problems instead of noise reduction, but will use it if I have to.

DSR: What is your main equalizer to deal with sound effects? Do you use the default EQ of Nuendo or do you have any preferences? And what about your favorite compressor/limiter?

CR: I use Waves Ren EQ a lot.  Note because it is the best, but because I’ve been using it for years.  Lately, I’ve also been using the Waves API EQ’s a lot.  I also use the EQ of Nuendo from time to time.  It’s quick and easy and does the job.  Waves L2 is my favorite dynamics processor.

DSR: Chuck, I’ve been recording and mixing music some years ago. I already know some techniques on EQ and Compression for post, but I’m still don’t understand well when and how to apply compression to a single sound effect… I use tools for change the transients, and also limiters and compressors to enhance or “compress” the sounds, but I want to know if there’s an specific rule or some technique used on dynamics processors…

CR: Really the only rule is to not use processing unless you need it to achieve the sound you are after.  I use a lot of EQ and dynamics processing.  I mostly use EQ to cut and correct issues.  I’ll use dynamics to get more punch and fullness out of a sound.  But if the sound doesn’t need processing, don’t mess with it.

DSR: Hello Chuck, you mentioned that you love using Sound Forge. I would love to know some of your favorite sound editing tips with this software.

CR: I mostly use Sound Forge for mastering sounds, making loops, and quick edit jobs.  Every sound that I design for a game or library passes through Sound Forge before it is done.  I like to use Sound Forge for cleaning up and fading the head and tail of a sound.  I will also use it to fix any problems I see in the waveform and do final processing (EQ, dynamics, etc).  When I’m editing recordings, if it is a mono or stereo recording, I’ll usually edit it in Sound Forge instead of Nuendo.  I just find it faster.  If I recorded multiple tracks, then I always edit/mix in Nuendo, then master in Sound Forge.

DSR: Mr. Russom, you sir, you do a lot of field recording. I think the list of things you haven’t recorded is shorter than the list of things you have recored. So I ask you this which I have a problem with; Mic gain when recording. Judging gain is something I need to work on. I went out to record a train, waited in the frakking freezing cold for it to pass, which it eventually did. Whereupon, I get my recording, bolt inside, shed my parka and zero down all my gear at what was surely a record speed, put my SD card into my computer, ready for AWESOME train sounds, expecting an intense ‘BWOOM TICKA-TICKA-TICKA-TICKA’ as it booms past me. However, all my mic picked up was ‘Fwuh-ta-ta-tuh’. I thought I had adjusted my gain well, I clapped my hands, and adjusted the gain until until I wasn’t peaking. CLEARLY, this is no the way to go. So, to summarize my VERY LENGTHY question: Do you have tips for selecting the right gain levels for what you’re recording?

CR: I’m not sure that I fully get what you are asking, but here are some thoughts on gain staging.  It’s obvious if you record with levels too high that your sound will clip.  But you also need to be careful about recording too low (I talked about this in my gun recording article).  It is also common that recording issues have nothing to do with your level settings.  If your mic can’t handle the SPL level you are trying to record, it could crap out on you.  You fix this by using a different mic, or moving the mic further from the source, or even poiting your mic in a different direction.  You may have too hot of a signal coming into your recorder/mic pre.  You fix this by using in-line mic pads to lower the signal coming in.

There are a couple other issues that you could have when recording something like a train.  First, trains push a lot of air as they move by.  If your mic does not have sufficent wind protection, the air will blow into the diaphragm of the mic and cause it to distort.  Second, there could be a lot of low end coming from the train.  To us, low end doesn’t seem to be as loud as high end.  Your mics do not react the same way as your ears.

Finally, the only way to know where you should be setting your levels is to really learn your gear and experiment recording as much as you can.  Then, you will have a good baseline to start from every time.

DSR: God of War II is a very loud game, in terms of music, and sound. Was there ever a conflict between the sound design team, and the music team over whose noise takes precedence, or gets cranked up more? Or in videogames, is the attitude toward balancing the mix between music and sound more laid back since the player can adjust those levels on their own?

CR: When we mixed GOW1, the game’s Director, Dave Jaffe, was adamant that the music had to be really loud.  We, as sound designers, hated it at the time, but you have to give the director what he wants.  On GOW2, I felt it was important to be consistent and keep the music loud.

DSR: Can you tell us if you managed to bypass this MTX box, cause we’re a couple of guys who think that it’s still possible to do it (making a 7pin to 5pin to 2x 3pin XLR connectors)… Also, can you give us some of the most crazy “natural / unreal” sounds you ever recorded?

CR: I’ve never tried to bypass the MTX (decoder box for Neumann RSM191).  Even if you built the cable, I’m not sure how the signal would be without the decoder.  I don’t know enough about the tech behind that mic, I’m not sure that it is the same as having 2 separate mics.  The box doesn’t bother me, it fits easily into an extra pocket in my recording bags.

DSR: Also, how do you give metadata to your sounds? What’s your strategy in terms of how to name your sounds and describe them. Thx again!

CR: I use Basehead to inject metadata.  I’m always finding new ways to name and describe stuff.  I like to include info about what the source is, when/where I recorded it, what it was recorded for, etc.  It helps later to find that thing that I know I recorded Xmas day 2010.  When I’m describing, I try to think of any words/phrases that I would expect to use to find a sound in a search.  I make sure those words are in the metadata.

DSR: When recording sound fx, how often do you use several different mics to capture different perspectives. I understand that gun sessions is an obvious one as well as vehicle recording. But do you find yourself using multiple mics for perspective/different sonic qualities when recording other more common sounds?

CR: If I’m doing a session where I have a bit of time and can set up in a location (vs running around with my gear), then I will often use multiple mics.  If it is an expensive or rare source then I always record multiple tracks.  I don’t always keep all of the mics when I am editing.  You’ll find some mics that worked better on the source and you use those tracks.  Often, you won’t know which mics worked best until you are back at the studio.  That is why it is nice to have multiple mics setup.  It does take more work though, sometimes that added work isn’t worth it.

DSR: Regarding audio implementing, is it part of your job as a sound designer nowadays? If so, what engines are you usually working with (FMOD,WWISE,etc…)?

CR: I think that in general implementation should be a huge part of game sound design.  Now that I am freelance, I don’t do as much hands on game engine work as I did when I was in-house.  I’m mostly hired to create assets these days.

DSR: Knowing that your audio will be downgraded somewhat for a videogame, do you ever compensate by adding more high end than you usually would in the mix so it pops through more after it gets converted down to whatever format? MP3.. 44K.. or whatever videogames are doing now-a-days?

CR: I don’t generally add high end to compensate.  After doing this for a while, you begin to know when something may have an issue in-game.  Sometimes when a sound is converted into game format, strange things happen, and you have to revisit a sound.  For the most part, I just go off my experience and have a feel for what will and what won’t work once implemented.  But, you never know 100% until it is in the game.

DSR: What software do you use aside from your DAW and sound forge? Do you ever get into Max/MSP, Reaktor, or any other programs? Thanks!!!

CR: Besides my DAW and Sound Forge the only other software I really use is Basehead and batch renaming apps.  I’ve never used Max/MSP.  I have Reaktor, but have not got around to learning it.

DSR: I had a question regarding session file management. With games today having a lot of sounds that often need to be tweaked, do you put the individual layered sounds that comprise an explosion in one session file or have more of a macro file containing all of the explosions, shotgun blasts, etc? I’m wondering what file management practices you would recommend based on your own personal experiences.

CR: It depends on what I’m working on.  For weapons, each weapon gets it’s own session.  I may also have specific weapon fire and weapon Foley sessions for each.  Character/Creature sounds I often just keep one session for each character.  I may have seperate sessions for vocals and for weapons/magic.  For level based sounds like fire, doors, and other events, I often have a session comprised of all the sounds for that level.  It depends on how big the session is going to get.  Another approach would be to have sessions for categories like mechanical sounds, breakables, etc.  I try to sort out the best approach early on a project.  It all depends about the type of work that I’ll be doing.  The important thing is to be able to quickly find the source for all sounds that you design, so that you can do needed fixes as fast as you can.

DSR:  if chuck lost all his all library data today – what’s the first thing(s) he’d do to rebuild?

CR: I think I’d first find the nearest bridge to jump off!  This is definitely something that worries me, and I’ve taken steps to ensure that it never happens.  I have an offsite backup of my library that I check on regularly, so I’m protected in the case that I have a fire, theft, drive crash, etc.  IF I did lose everything, I would rebuild little by little.  I’d probably just build a library from each project I work on.  It would take years to rebuild.

DSR: how is your room acoustic treated? A photo of your studio, perhaps? what you consider is the most important thing for a treatment?

CR: I have acoustic panels and bass traps from GIK Acoustics.  Right now it is pretty basic, I have panels at the first reflection points on the walls/ceiling, and bass traps in the corners and on the wall behind me.  I think the most important thing about treatment is to buy/build a product that is designed to be sound treatment (instead of using carpet or something).  There is a lot of info on the web to read about acoustics and how to treat your room, following the basic guidelines will take you a long way.

DSR: Reading the gun and explosion designing articles, I realized that Chuck have really clean recordings. Do you have any special tip to get clean edits? I’ve an specific issue… When I load the files into the editor and do some cleaning (fade, trim, eq, compression, etc) I see a nice dynamic range and fine amplitude, but when I normalize the file, the maximum value is a little peak (not a clip, just a part with higher amplitude). So if I normalize to -0.5dB that peak will be the maximum peak and the rest of the file wouldn’t be in -0,5db. For example with an engine loop. It’s a constant sound, but it has a little peak. If I normalize that the peak would be at -05 and the rest of the file on something like -3, etc.. I can cut it and make a crossfade, but.. is there a way to reduce this kind of peaks? I don’t know how to normalize and get files with this clean dynamic range/amplitude. Maybe more eq? Compression? What could I be doing wrong? Bad recording? Bad editing?…

CR: If I understand you question correctly, and the problem you are having, I’d say that you should NOT be normalizing your sound.  Normalzing only raises the maximum peak of a sound to a set level.  It sounds to me like you trying to get more level out of the entire sound.  You need to use dynamic processing like compression, limiting, or a volume maximizer (Waves L2, etc).  If you want everything to be at the same level, then you need to squash your peaks down, while raising the level of the rest of the sound, normalizing isn’t going to do that for you.

I work on a lot of games that are filled with guns. Over the years, through experimentation, screwing up, listening to movies/games with great guns sounds, and tips from other sounds designers, I’ve been able to create a process that works well for me. The biggest influence on my gun sound design has not come in the studio, but on the gun range. I’ve shot a lot of guns. I’ve also been around a lot of guns while they were being fired. Hands-on education is really the best way to learn something. So, if you really want to improve your gun sound design, find a way to get out on a range where you can fire some guns off. The feel of a gun’s shockwave through your body as you fire it, the sore shoulder you have the day after shooting, the payoff of destroying a watermelon with a blast from a shotgun, these are some of the lasting lessons that you will learn.

I have a few philosophies/guidelines I try to follow when designing gun sounds for a game:

• Guns are loud. Try to reinforce that in your sound design
• Guns give the player feedback. The player is expecting a payoff when they fire a gun. Your gun sounds need to give the player a sense of satisfaction and make them want to fire the gun over and over again. Gun sounds need to make the player feel like a badass
• The player’s guns need to be the coolest sounding guns in the game
• The AI/Non Player gun sounds should not overtake the player’s. But, they still need to be scary and create stress/tension. Being shot at should not be a relaxing experience
• Bullet shell ejects and gun Foley (reloads, movement, etc) are very important to the sound and help the gun feel more real
• Every gun in the game needs a unique sound. You may have 20-30 different guns in a game. In reality, after a while all guns start to sound the same. Find a way to give each gun its own signature.
• Don’t forget the gun tail/decay. The first few hundred milliseconds of a gunshot have very little character. If you neglect the gun tail, your guns will sound less powerful and they will all sound very similar

Here is a little insight into my gun design process:

• I try to start from sounds of the actual gun if I can. If I can’t find source for a particular gun, I do some research and try to find a gun of the same caliber, with a similar rate of fire, that uses a similar mechanism. For handguns, I rarely start with handgun source. Handguns just don’t excite me; they are usually a lot weaker sounding than the “hand-cannons” that most people expect to hear. Watch the Indiana Jones films, his gun sound is not from a handgun, and it makes him seem really bad-ass when he fires it. When designing sounds for a project that is not based in reality, all bets are off. I just try to create cool sounds that fit the project and worry less about things like weapon caliber.
• Sounds of the bolt/action/mechanism are a very important component to a gun sound. Action sounds make the gun feel like it is a working piece of machinery. These sounds make the gun feel real. Even if they are real low in the mix, you can feel when they are not there.
• I stick to three basic layers when designing guns. Each layer is made up of the minimum amount of tracks that I can get away with. Less is always more. I call my layers: Mech (gun action/mechanism), Body (this best represents the full range of the gun. If I was going to use only one layer, this would be the one), and Punch (this is a bass/boom layer). If needed I will add additional sweeteners, like a layer to give more reverb/space, more bite, or whatever might be missing
• By designing in layers, I can create quick and easy remixes and alt mixes of a sound
• I’ve found the following processes/plugins useful at one time or another: EQ (usually cutting vs boosting), Compression, Limiting, Clippers/Transient processors (Oxford Transmod, Waves Trans X, T-Tracks Clipper), Saturation (Analog Channel, URS Saturator, etc), Bass Enhancers (Waves Ren Bass, Maxx Bass, and Lo Air), and I’ll sometimes use gain to clip the sound. Basically, I just make everything as loud as fuck
• I whipped up a quick sample of a machine gun burst. Below is screenshot of my Nuendo session that shows the layers I used. In this case, my Mech Layer was made up of one track. My Punch and Body layers were each made up of 3 tracks (really it is only two tracks, one mono track and spilt stereo (L/R) tracks). I edit each track and insert plugins as needed. The tracks in each layer are then balanced against each other and sent to a group. I use the groups to easily mix all the layers together, and create remixes or alt mixes, if needed.

Here are the sounds:

Mech Layer:

Punch Layer:

Body Layer:

Mix of all layers:

Sadly, the Chuck Russom Special is coming to the end. Here’s the last interview we made, this time talking about “Quantum of Solace” (the video game), where Chuck was the Audio Lead.

Designing Sound: So ,how do you get hired on Treyarch and how do you get involved with Quantum of Solace?

Chuck Russom: I am a huge, life-long fan of the Bond franchise. I even have a poster from You Only Live Twice (Sean Connery era Bond Film) hanging in my dining room. I had always wanted to work on a project set in that world. When Activision picked up the Bond game license a few years back, I started looking into which studio would be doing the games. Everything sort of fell into place and worked out perfectly.

Treyarch was doing the first game. They were based in LA and looking for an Audio Director. Through a friend, I was able to get my resume into Activision and then into Treyarch. They invited me in to interview and I basically told them that I was a Bond nut and I must work on the game. I guess it worked, because they hired me on.

DS: How early you started to work on the game? How long was it?

CR: I started on the game in February of 2007, it shipped in November 2008. I spent 20 months working exclusively on QoS. That is the longest I have ever worked exclusively on any one title.

DS: The 007 is very iconic… How important was for you? I mean there’re different films on 007, different games etc, and QoS features some scenes and stories from the QoS film and also things from Casino Royale. How those elements influenced you to work on the sound of the game?

CR: Working on the franchise was really a very personal thing to me. It was the only game that I worked on where I came in as a hardcore fanboy. I really approached everything I did from the perspective of a fan. I first interviewed job a few weeks before the Casino Royale movie came out. I knew the game would be based on Casino Royale and its sequel. Before I accepted the job, it was important that I was able to see Casino Royale. I knew that it was a reboot. I loved the book and was hopeful the movie would be the best yet, but with reboots it can be hit and miss. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to work on the franchise if they totally screwed up the movie. I saw Casino Royale as soon as it was released and absolutely loved the new direction. It cemented the fact that I had to work on the game.

DS: How was the storytelling influenced by sound? What were the decisions on the sound side to enhance the story of the game?

CR: If you think about the sound of Bond, you instantly think of the music. Everyone knows the Bond theme. For me, music was the one thing in the game that constantly reminded you that it was a Bond game. Our composer was Christopher Lennertz. I had worked with Chris before on MOH: Pacific Assault and he’d also done the music for the last EA Bond game; From Russia with Love. He came by the studio one day and we talked about the music from Casino Royale and just Bond music in general. It was awesome; he totally got the music of Bond.

Our ideas were totally in sync. We already had a great relationship from the last time we worked together it was great to have the chance to work with him a second time. Chris is so easy to work with and such talented composer. Working with him on QoS was one of the highlights of the project for me.

DS: Lots of guns, explosions, car scenes, all kind of places, etc. I think the field recording had to be heavy. How was that?

CR: For the first several months on the project, there was little game to actually work on. I devoted most of my time recording or planning recording sessions. I’d drive around LA with recording gear in my car looking for construction sites to record for the construction chase level. Record anything I found in my day to day encounters that seemed cool. I hired Foley artists at the Sony Pictures lot to do all of the player movements and body falls. We also recorded a lot of other sounds on the Foley stage. Things like debris, impacts, grenade bounces, weapon Foley, etc. We recorded two days of gun fire and one day of silenced guns and bullet impacts. We drove out the Arizona desert for a day of explosion recording. We also booked two days at a wrecking yard where we dropped cars from a forklift. All of this was in addition to the day to day sounds that members of the team would go out and record. There was more recording for QoS than any other game I’ve worked on. I demanded it. I approached the game as if it were a big Hollywood summer blockbuster. There were some battles with the producers over budgets, but it was worth it, and I won out in the end!

DS: I think another challenging feature was the dialogue. How and where you recorded it?

CR: Dialog was a massive task on QoS. I acted as the Dialog Supervisor for all versions of the game (360/PS3, PC, PS2, DS, and Wii). I hired Rob King, owner of Green Street Studios, to be our Dialog and Casting Director. We ended up recording several celebrities from both Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. This was a huge challenge, as we had to track down every actor and go to them. As the QoS film was finishing shooting, the producers had us come out to Pinewood Studios in London, where they had arranged some of the actors for VO sessions. We were based in England for a few weeks recording at Pinewood and also tracking down other actors throughout Europe. Rob and I went on one whirlwind European trip that had us leaving London on a Friday afternoon, recording Mads Mikkelsen in Berlin on Saturday, recording Eva Green on Sunday in Dublin, and returning to London that same say so that we could prep for our next session in London.

On the way from Berlin to Dublin, we had a flight change in Paris, and we ended up missing our flight, which was the last of the night. We were stuck in Paris for the night with no hotel and no understanding of the French language! It was a pretty interesting experience. Luckily, we got the first flight out in the morning, landed in Dublin, and made it to the studio just before Eva Green arrived! Later, when I thought about the experience and did the math I realized we had been in 4 countries in 40 hours with no sleep. That was one of those experiences that both sucked and was really awesome at the same time.

Being a movie game we were dependant on the script from the film and it came to us very late. Not only was it late, but it changed a lot. Our game script and game design was way behind. We had our writer with us in London and he was writing scripts the day before we had Judi Dench in for a session. All the while, the game design wasn’t final and everything was always changing! The whole dialog process was a mess. We would have celebrity actors recording lines for levels that weren’t designed yet. We had no idea if they would fit the game, and we could only hope that we would get the actors back for a pickup session. There were so many drafts of the script; it was really hard to keep up with all the changes. I also ended up writing all of the AI battle dialog, because our writer was so busy with the rest of the game script.

There is no way we could have pulled it all off if it wasn’t for Rob. While we were in London, talking about the script and our recording plans, he was the one saying that we weren’t going to be able to get it done if we didn’t get moving. He was looking at the deadline and the amount of work and was worried that there wasn’t enough time. The game team had no clue; they would just keep going with their design changes and never lock the script. Everything about the design and script was so up in the air, but looking at the schedule, Rob knew that we had to get back to LA and continue with our recording as soon as we landed! We started casting for our non-celebrity sessions while we were still in England. I listened to a lot of the auditions and made casting picks on the plane back from London. Once back in LA, we went right into scheduling the non-celebrity session. We were in the studio recording for 8-9 hours, 4 actors a day, for a month. As chaotic as it all seemed, it ran like clockwork. Rob had every detail sorted out. The sessions ran like a machine.

DS: You were also the implementer on all the sides. What tools you used for that? How was the process done?

CR: We had a good sized sound team on QoS, up to 6 people at the end. Everyone was really talented and embraced using the tech to implement their sounds. Sound Designers working on levels used the game’s level editor and level scripts to implement their sounds. We had a tool (that hardly worked) to implement sounds onto animations. I handled the dialog and music implementation. For the dialog, I worked closely
with the game scripters who helped implement most of it. I would just follow behind them and change timings and things that didn’t seem to work as I’d hoped. I did all of the music implementation myself. We
didn’t have a fancy music tool. I had to go through all of the level scripts and find the places that I wanted music to start and stop and put calls in for that. We did have a slightly interactive music system, where the stealth music would change to a higher intensity version if the AI detected you. For the most part, the music was scripted by hand, it was me putting calls in that said, when this event happens, play this piece of music and then switch or stop music when this occurs.

DS: You played different roles and you had to make lots of decisions… How good was that for you? How did you feel with this lead position?

CR: As an Audio Lead on a project, you need to position yourself to best help the project succeed. When I first started on QoS, I was the only sound designer. That went on for probably 6 months. During that early period, I spent much of my time recording and building a library and creating a lot of the core sounds like movement, bullet impacts, etc. I also got a good head start on the weapon sound design. As production ramped up, our sound team grew. We got to the point where the sound design was under control, but the dialog and music really didn’t have focus. Sound design is my first love, but I needed to focus my efforts toward dialog and music to help the project succeed. I supervised the production and implementation of both. In addition, I did finish working on the weapon sounds design, I wasn’t about to give up all sound design….

DS: What is the most you learned from working on this game? We everyone learn from both bad and good things, so… how was your learning experience there?

CR: QoS was the most challenging project that I’ve ever worked on. I had never worked on a game for so long before. I’d never come in so early and had as much pre-production time, but still felt so behind as the game neared completion. There were a lot of changes in direction over the course of the project. A lot of staff changes. Trying to be in sync with an in-development film was a nightmare. There were quite a few times when you just weren’t sure what game you were working on anymore, where it was going. By the end, I was working the jobs of 3 people and working the hours to go with it. The only thing you can do is go with your instincts, rely on what got you through the problem projects of the past. The end goal is to have a great sounding game ready when it is time to ship. We had a very diverse, talented, and dedicated sound team and we achieved the goal of shipping a great sounding game.

Some weeks ago we were talking about “HISS and a ROAR“, the new model of Tim Prebble to sell SFX Libraries online. There was another project coming: Chuck Russom FX, a sound effects label created by our guest Chuck Russom.

Who could be better than Chuck to tell us about his new project? This is what he told us:

A couple months ago, I decided that it was time to start working on my own sound libraries. I started a SFX label called Chuck Russom FX. I’ve just released my first Sound Effect Collection: Metal FX. Metal FX is a collection of “odd” metal sounds. Included are individual sounds of several metal objects interacting with dry ice and also cymbals played with a violin bow. If you Pitch, slow down, process,and mangle these sounds, you can create awesome metal groans, wronks, stress, squeals, eerie production elements, and anything else you can imagine.

Metal FX is available for download only. Included in the collection are wav files at both 24bit 192k and 24bit 96k. I started this project because I record so much of my own material that I thought it would be cool to start sharing it with others. My main goals with this and future Collections are:

1. Keep the prices low
2. Offer only High Resolution sounds (24bit 96K or 24bit 192K)
3. Include a lot of takes/variations of every sound in each collection
4. Release smaller, focused collections. Each collection will have a theme or context and all sounds in the collection with fit that context
5. Focus on providing source recordings instead of releasing over-designed sound effects.
6. All sounds will be download only, there will not be any physical releases

Now that I’ve released my first FX Collection, I’m focusing on the future. I already have my second release in production and it should be available sometime in May. I have a total of 6 more collections
already planned and hope to release something new each month, depending on my work schedule. I hope to continue releasing FX Collections for as long as there is interest in them.

As we’ve seen from the recent release from Hiss and a Roar, there are a least two of us who have the same ideas about what sound libraries should offer and how they should be made available. I’m very curious
to see how the sound community receives our efforts, and who will be next to offer up their SFX libraries. It would be great to have a large community of independent sound providers all turning out quality products on a regular basis.

As you can see, the evolution continues. This model is really great: High quality sound sources + affordable price + instant delivery to your computer. What more do you want?

I hope to see more individuals selling his sound effects around the web. This is just starting.

Chuck Russom FX
Chuck Russom’s Blog

This is what a normal Ground Bloom Flower sounds like:

Normal is rarely enough for me. I wondered, what would happen if I threw these flowers into water. I just happened to have a pool nearby to find out! (sorry mom)

One of the readers asked if I could give some tips on how to process library sounds and what to do when you can’t record your own source. It is a common misconception that sound teams that work on films, AAA game titles, or teams that do a lot of sound recording do not use commercial sound libraries. The fact is, no matter how large the budget, or how much time you have to record sounds for a project, there will always be sounds that you are not able to record on your own. Commercial sound libraries are a valuable and necessary tool for all sound designers and sound editors. The problem with commercial libraries is that they have been over-used and include easily recognizable sounds.

The key to using commercial libraries is to use them creatively. Any school-aged kid can look through a catalog, find a sound, and place it into a scene. Using libraries creatively means using the sounds you find in a library as sources to build your own sound creations. When I’m auditioning sounds in my library, whether they come from a commercial source or a recording of my own, I am not looking for finished sounds. Instead, I am looking for layers to create my own sound. I’m looking for the building blocks of the sound I need to create.

Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of library sounds:

• Use the sounds in your library as elements to build new sounds
• Use edits and fades to use just a portion of the sound
• Use processing such as EQ (high and low pass filters), pitch effects, bass effects, filter effects, and modulation effects to give the sound a new feel
• Use the sound as source to create a totally different type of sound. Charles Deenan wrote some excellent articles that highlight this approach here and here
• Mix sounds from multiple sources, including material that you record yourself

I decided to make a quick example sound using only commercial libraries. Since explosions are something that sound people rarely have the opportunity to record, I chose to make an explosion sound. More specifically, I chose to make a rock explosion. I could have taken the easy road, searched my database for rock explosion, and used a stock sound like this:

It isn’t very creative grabbing a stock asset from a library and using as is. And I would not consider this sound design. If I was going to just use stock sounds for my projects, I might as well hire a high school kid to do my work for me while I lay out on a beach somewhere sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them. Actually, maybe that isn’t such as bad idea…..

Anyway, back to sound design. The first thing I do when designing a sound is to think of all of the elements that make up the sound. I’m essentially creating a list of ingredients for my final, designed sound. Here is what I decided I would need for the rock explosion:

• Standard explosion sound
• Explosion decay (or thunder decay)
• Rock impact/smash/crack
• Rock debris
• Sweeteners, if needed

The first sound I need to look for is a basic explosion sound. This will form the base of my designed explosion sound. I will then search for different explosion or thunder decays that I can blend with the explosion sound to make it more my own. Since I’m designing a rock explosion, I want to bring in the sound/feel of rock breaking, smashing, cracking, etc. I will also need rock debris to really sell the destruction of rocks. Finally, if the sound just doesn’t feel finished, I will look to add any sweeteners or additional layers that I feel are missing.

I always try to design my sounds using the least amount of elements as possible. In the DAW age, with unlimited tracks are our disposal, it’s easy to go crazy and just start adding layer after layer of sound. Often this just adds extra noise and takes away from the punch and clarity of a sound, while not adding anything to the sound. Simple is usually better, so I start as basic as I can and then add elements that I feel are missing. I want to be sure that every layer I add really needs to be there. When I’m doing my final mixdown, I’ll even remove layers that I feel do not add anything to the sound. Nothing should be in there just because I have available tracks.

Once I find the sound sources I need in my library, I load them all into my DAW. I use Nuendo, but the process is the same no matter what DAW you use. I put each sound element on its own track, and line up all of the tracks in the timeline. I then edit and fade each sound until I get just the section of the sound that I am looking for. Then I do any needed processing on each track using various plugins. When I’m building a sound using multiple layers, I remain aware of the frequencies that each layer occupies. I approach sound layering like writing music for an orchestra. Each layer should represent its own “voice”. Each “voice” should work together to create the new sound. I’m looking at each layer to occupy a specific frequency range. I use EQ and low/high pass filters to remove frequencies that I feel a layer does not need.

I searched my library and found all the sound elements that I listed above. I loaded them into Nuendo and sync’d everything up to where they worked best in the timeline. I edited and faded each sound until I felt it was only the portion of the sound I needed for that particular layer. I ended up having to add 2 sweetener layers. The explosion didn’t have enough impact for me, so I added a short impact sweetener. I also added a second explosion sound as a sweetener. This explosion has a whooshy-blast type sound that I feel adds some character. I added and tweaked plugins and adjusted the volume/level of each track to build a mix.

This is what my session looked like once all sounds were loaded in, sync’d, and edited:

Here is what each sound element sounded like straight from the library, with no tweaking:

Explo library example:

Rock explo library by crussom

UNPROCESSED SOUNDS:

Rock Impact:

Rock impact by crussom

Rock Debris:

Rock debris by crussom

Explo Base:

Explo base by crussom

Explo Decay:

Explo decay by crussom

Explo Sweeten:

Explo sweetener by crussom

PROCESSED SOUNDS:

Rock Impact:

Rock Impact P by crussom

Rock Debris:

Rock Debris P by crussom

Explo Base:

Explo Base P by crussom

Explo Decay:

Explo Decay P by crussom

Explo Sweeten:

Explo Sweetener P by crussom

Explo Designed/Mixed:

Rock Explo Designed by crussom