Game Informer has published several videos about the sound of “Transformers: Fall of Cybertron”.

When we decided upon Transformers as a cover story, I started asking around the office looking for ideas for our video coverage. Without a second of hesitation, Game Informer’s own Jeff Cork demanded to learn how the team at High Moon Studios recreates the iconic sounds of the transformations. We are happy to say that we captured the process on video along with many other glimpses inside the creation of audio for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Three separate videos each capture an element of the audio work being done for the game, from the fun of foley sound capturing, to working with the inimitable voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen.

Full article

Water Foley is a new sound library of water movement, footsteps and sound effects released by HISS and a ROAR and recorded by Tim Prebble.

This library was recorded in two exterior swimming pools, one interior pool, a sandy beach at low tide, a river, a stream, a rock pool at low tide and a swamp. Apart from human movement, footsteps and splashing I also used kelp and seaweed to emulate the more complex sound of tentacles, which along with some of the mud suction sounds are very useful components for creature design. In all cases I have minimised background ambiences as much as humanly possible; through microphone choice and placement along with time of day & tide movement. The two exterior pools were recorded multichannel, using two MKH70s and a stereo Sanken CSS5.

Water Foley is available now at $49. The package includes 1,663 sounds in WAV (96kHz/24-Bit).

Now here’s our usual q&a with Tim, talking about the release:

DS: What inspired the library?

TP: It is motivated by my past experiences of having to edit water effects or footsteps with not quite enough source material… so now I have too much! When you think of someone walking along a beach, and then into the waves a foley performer can only do so much. Even when foley studios have a pool of some form it can often be problematic  for violent or aggressive movement, and even knee deep water has such distinct pitch to it that really the only way to solve it is with the real thing. But when you need it the season or weather may make it difficult to record, so I’m trying to solve my own problems!

DS: So you waited for summer and went to the beach?

TP: The recordings in this library were actually done over the last eight months. Some locations I really had to avoid in summer eg the swamp in Waiohine Gorge would be deafening with cicadas in summer. But I also wasn’t keen to freeze so I recorded there back in Autumn… I knew I wanted to do recording in swimming pools but an interior pool really limits your use of to only interior sounds, as they are such reverbant places and water really triggers reverb. After asking around I found some friends of my sister who live in the country and have a pool. So I hired my nephew and my brother in law to perform for me and got great material. Then when I was in Samoa the first time back in February I totally lucked in & stayed at a resort on Savaii where I was the only guest (it was the off-season) and they had a great exterior pool, so I recorded a lot of material there too.

One of the beach footstep recording sessions I did at Scorching Bay, which is a sheltered sandy beach and is usually busy in summer, but I waited for a cold day when a storm had just passed and I had the beach to myself. It was just a matter of knowing when the tide was out to minimise the waves & ocean ambiences. The same applied with the rock pool recordings which I did around the South Coast of Wellington. You need a 4WD to get there but initially I went for a different reason, to record some kelp sounds.

Back in 2009 I was working on a film called UNDER THE MOUNTAIN by Jonathan King and the film contained some nasty slimey shape-shifting creatures called the Wilburforces. They had tentacles and after a lot of experimenting I managed to create some great sounds for their movements using seaweed. In New Zealand some parts of the coastline have kelp growing in the sea, in the form of long strands of seaweed. So I took a machete and cut some long slimey bits off and then performed movements & hits etc in a sheltered rock pool. While I was there I did some more footsteps and wading recording, but it was only the way back I realised I’d driven through a couple of fords. So I set up my mics, waited for a 4WD to go through so I could set levels, and then recorded lots of passes at various speeds, getting a run up so I could turn off the motor. Fun!

DS: What mics did you use?

TP: With the footsteps I recorded in mono as I needed to be fairly close, so I used my Sanken CSS5 in mono mode. I also did some with my MKH70 and its interesting to compare the two – the MKH70 is such a great mic, but in mono mode the Sanken performed really well. With the pool recordings I used two MKH70s as well as the Sanken CSS5, the latter giving a tightly focused stereo image whereas the MKH70s are wider & more discrete, which can be useful. When I was splashing water across the pool, the movement in the MKH70s is way more pronounced than the Sanken, but it really depends on the context of use as to which is more valuable later on.

DS: What are some of your favourite sounds form the library?

TP: It is easy to get seduced by some of the stranger sounds, like the kelp movement or the mud suction sounds from the swamp. But it is so great to finally have lots of clean, dynamic water effects – it really makes cutting a scene involving water a joy rather than a headache.

DS: Whats next for you and for HISSandaROAR?

TP: My next film, Andrew Adamson’s Mr Pip, doesn’t start until January so I am finally getting a chance to catch up on all my own projects. While it’s been great to have had such a busy year, its also been frustrating to have to put lots of other projects on pause. Finishing the rebuild of my modular synth with cases from Matthew Goikes is another of those long term projects I’ve been waiting to do – it likes a whole new universe of sound!

Next for HISSandaROAR is a big high rez library of CONTACT MIC recordings. People keep asking me for a copy of my contact mic Christmas present from last year, so I’ve spent a lot of time recording a whole new library and it really is such a diverse collection of dynamic material thats just prime for manipulation and design work. After that is the SPRINGS library and then hopefully, at long last, THE DOORS! It’s a somewhat boring, time consuming process to actually finish The Doors library for release, so other things keep taking priority. But I swear it will be released this year, although I am not starting any new crowdsource libraries until I can develop a better process…

My next big field recording trip is to Bouganville, Papua New Guinea at the end of January. It will be a more difficult trip than Samoa but every bit as fascinating! I spoke to some of the crew and apparently the village they filmed in had very few birds – omnipresent dogs & chickens, but the insects are phenomenal!!

[Article by Ian Palmer]

Dreambase is the result of Alex and Mark’s (two ex-Dolby employees) desire to setup their own post-production sound facility and work in the more creative side of the film industry. Dreambase is located in the former GWR radio studios with two edit rooms and a VO Booth/ Foley Room between the two rooms.

I visited there last year simply to say hello and was surprised to learn that they were editing and mixing feature films using Logic. Inspired by the recent Mix article I thought I would write this article to find out why they are using the DAW instead of the industry standard Pro Tools.

Ian Palmer: You’re a relatively new studio. What made you choose the Apple/Logic platform?

Alex Hudd: Initially it was for cost reasons. I had used Pro Tools since 2000 for music recording but as a Mac user was aware of what Logic was capable of, and the extensive tools it possessed out of the box. The software is so intuitive and the audio library browser is well integrated with the package that track-lays for sound design and composition are very quick to rough out and start working on. Of course Logic’s strength is the ability to compose and this had also been very useful in some projects that I have composed music for. The recording take management in Logic is excellent for ADR sessions as it’s very easy to find the best lines from multiple takes, compare them and bounce out to a composite.

IP: What have been the advantages of such a decision?

AH: We saved money on the initial start-up costs which for a studio can be quite considerable, especially as we had overheads like rent to pay each month.

IP: Have there been any drawbacks?

AH: Lack of compatibility with studios running Pro Tools exclusively is a drawback but the projects we have worked on have been mostly ‘in-house’. At the end of the day we can bounce out any number of stems to take to another studio and import into their own systems but not being able to pass over automation or plug-ins is a disadvantage time- wise.

Editing is not as quick as with Pro Tools as Logic doesn’t posses the equivalent of a ‘Smart Tool’. Also the I/O setup is pretty basic so complex bus routing is not as easy as it is in Pro Tools. We use both Logic 9 and Pro Tools 9 at the studios depending on the project we are working on. And with OMF/AAF interchange it’s easy to exchange files between the two systems.

IP: What hardware are you using?

AH: We use an RME Fireface 800 as the main I/O which is used with Logic and Pro Tools, plus a Rosendahl Synchroniser. We use the Euphonix Artist Series as hardware controller with has excellent integration with both Logic and Pro Tools.

IP: Have you ever worked with another studio and used OMF exchange files?

AH: Yes, we have had OMFs from other facilities and been able to import into Logic with no problems. We have also exchanged Logic projects with other studios running the same software. For example, they might have track-layed and premixed in Logic and then passed the project to us for a final surround mix. It makes for a very quick turnaround.

IP: Pro Tools has AudioSuite to apply changes to audio files quickly without having to setup channels routing and re-recording in real time. How does Bounce-in-Place compare?

AH: Bounce In Place is fine but you have to be organised to make sure you keep track of the tracks! I would love to see an AudioSuite equivalent in Logic (a bit like Soundtrack Pro), however you can do a lot of basic processing such as gain and pitch shift by using the Sample Editor in Logic and applying the processing from there. But beware, you canʼt apply processing to multitrack sound files from within the Logic Sample Editor. Soundtrack Pro has this one covered but it would be nice to see this in Logic now.

IP: You run a Mac Pro without any additional processing hardware. How has the software/ hardware combination performed? This is especially interesting for your feature film work. How does the system hold up running so many tracks and plugins?

AH: We run an 8-core Mac Pro and the performance has been excellent so far. Occasionally you get unexpected crashes, much like you do with Pro Tools but it’s incredibly rare. On a recent feature film we used Logic for Dialogue Edit, ADR, Foley, Sound Design and Final mix, and it handled everything beautifully whilst maintaining good sync between the video and audio. In the final mix we had Dynamics and EQ on most channels along with bus sends to several different Space Designer 5.1 reverbs and it worked very well. Merging separate dialogue, music and effects projects for the premix and final is very straightforward too.

IP: How much in depth automation control do you get with Logic and the MC Artist control surfaces? It uses the EuCon protocol, how does that compare to ProTools?

AH: You can automate pretty much everything in Logic from plug-in and surround panning parameters to mute and bypass. The usual Write, Latch and Touch and Read modes are all available. It doesn’t have a Touch/Latch combo mode as Pro Tools, which can be especially useful for small setups where you want certain parameters to latch such as plug-in automation where it might not be easy to keep your hand on the controls and others to touch such as the fader level. Manual editing of automation parameters is also very easy, which is incredibly useful for very complex sound moves in action and animation projects.

IP: How useful is Audio Quantizing for dialogue and ADR editing?

AH: The Audio Quantization Engine in Logic is excellent, especially for syncing alternative dialogue takes on scenes. In the last film we did with Logic one of the scenes had some prop noise during the shoot so it was decided to wild-track the dialogue from the scene whilst it was still fresh in the actors mind. The scene was probably around 3-4 minutes I think, which is a long time! Using the Flex Time tools in Logic, syncing the dialogue syllables and nuances was much quicker and ultimately more accurate than cutting and cross-fading. For ADR it means that even a close-up can be re-voiced with great accuracy.

IP: Do you use any other 3rd party audio software such as SoundMiner or izotopeRX? If so how well do they interface into Logic and your workflow?

AH: I have the PPMulator meters for the broadcast work we’ve done, but apart from that I tend to use the stock plug-ins. I work in quite a traditional way I guess, so rather than purchasing the latest ‘do-all-analogue-warmth-celebrity-mixer-transformation’ plugins, I tend to use multiple processing to get the effect that I’m after, understanding the physics of sound more than just pushing a magic button. In Logic you can easily save channel strip settings so I have a whole variety of channel strip setups to get rid of Red Camera noise, telephone a voice or bus compress the dialogue, for example.

IP: I’ve heard good things about Space Designer as a convolution reverb, how does it perform for film mixing and the requirement of realism?

AH: Space Designer is excellent and has plenty of surround-ready presets out of the box which you can EQ and process as necessary to get the environment you’re after. You can also record impulse responses from locations and to put those into SD for the ultimate in realism! As we all know though what you hear on location and what you hear in the studio can be different so I would expect a little tweaking to take place before we arrive at the realism (or non-realism!) that we are after.

IP: How well do the plugins that come with Logic perform in relation to post sound? Have you bought any additional 3rd party plugins?

AH: the standard plug-ins in Logic are very comprehensive. My favorites are the Match EQ which will take a reference response of a piece of dialogue for example, then apply that EQ characteristic to another piece of dialogue in order to match the overall spectral response of the original. This is great for matching boom and radio mics or for matching ‘boom-over’ and ‘boom- under’ recordings in a film. The Expander is also great for reducing background noise, and this, coupled with the narrow notches on the standard EQ are very effective at removing unwanted interference from cameras or lighting, whilst maintaining the quality of the dialogue.

Frank Bry has released Rifle Actions HD, a new library of gun foley, including 398 sounds (66 files) recorded at 96kHz/24-Bit. Here’s what Frank says about it:

Presenting Guns: Rifle Actions HD, the first in a series of gun foley action sound effects libraries. Included are 6 rifles, old and new: PTR-91 Semi-automatic Rifle (based on the Heckler & Koch G3/HK91), Remington 700 .30-06 Bolt Action Rifle, Ruger 223 Range Rifle, Ruger M77 Bolt Action Rifle, Winchester Model 1892 Lever Action Rifle (very old) and a vintage Winchester 43 Bolt Action Rifle which once belonged to my Grandfather and now is in the custody of my Nephew Kyle.

I have worked on a few games that have required some crazy gun foley. I made the best of using CD libraries but always had to try and gather my own source when needed. When I began recording at 24/96 some years ago I started recording a brand new custom collection of gun actions. This collection contains the standard actions plus some other things I’ve needed in my video game sound design work. As many of you know, some warfare and futuristic shooter games usually need some “over the top” gun foley. I hope you can find uses for these sounds in your creations as stand alone sounds or in conjunction with the other amazing boutique gun libraries available.

Rifle Actions HD is available at $35. More info here.

Niall Collins and John-Paul Borchardt have recently launched Box of Toys, a new blog dedicated to explore the audio post industry on Canada, but also sharing a useful news, videos, articles, and all kind of general content.

Box of Toys is a platform to broadcast new, exciting and nerdy audio related news to you, the surfer! From video interviews with today’s top Canadian post audio professionals to blogs about the technology that will shape the future of sound editing, Box of Toys’ mission is to showcase Canada’s post production audio industry. The site was formed by two post production audio editors and re-recording mixers working out of Toronto Ontario, Canada. Niall Collins and John-Paul Borchardt have been working in the film industry since 2007 and have already earned a reputation for quality and professionalism.

There are already some great posts, including a really nice profile on foley artist Andy Malcolm, who is also owner at Footsteps Studios, Uxbridge. Take a look:

Click here to view the embedded video.

More stuff of the Box:

A Conversation with Morgan Freeman

MOS: Location Sound Horrors That Bleed Through to Post

Sound: The Rodney Dangerfield of Film Production

Here, there or everywhere?

Box of Toys on Twitter

Twisted Tools, makers of awesome Reaktor ensembles and crazy sound packs, have released Jedsound – Twisted FX, a free collection of very unique samples recorded and created by sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot.

We are excited to offer an amazing new collection of sounds by sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot.

It isn’t everday you can get your hands on unique and properly recorded field recordings, sound effects and foley sounds, so grab ‘em while they’re hot and feed them into your favorite Twisted Tools device!

To get you inspired, we’ve even added a bank of fx presets that make use of these sounds in Scapes.

The package includes 128 WAV files at 24-Bit/44.1kHz. Download here (requires free registration on Twisted Tools). I also recommend you Jean-Edouard’s blog, specially if you’re interested on cool sound experiments and recording inspiration.

Sound Categories: Rubber Balloon, Elastic, Groan Tube, Slide Whistle, Putty Noise, Whoopee Cushion, Sound Pipe, Dog toy, scientific toy, Springs, Slinky, Laser, Magnets, Bell, Wind chime, Plane, Train, Jackhammer, Wrench, Digital Camera, Vacuum Cleaner, Underwater Metal Dings, Underwater Singing Glass Rings, Underwater Sprays, Statics, Electromagnetic Fields, Motors, Servos, Electric Shaver, Faulty Light Bulb, Wolf, Moose, Crows, Dogs, Cricket, Bumblebee, Flies, Door, Chair, Rock, Dumpster, Ice cracks, Whooshes, Dings, Squeals, Squeaks.

Chuck Russom FX has released Gun Handling HD PRO, a new library loaded with 417 sounds from 13 different guns.

Gun Handling is a collection of Gun Mechanism and handling sounds. Featuring sounds from 13 different rifles, handguns, and shotguns. Included are sounds such as: gun cocking, magazine inserts/removes, bullets being loaded, dry firing, and more.

All sounds are newly recorded and mastered at 24bit 192K using a Sennheiser MKH800 high res condenser mic and a AEA R84 Ribbon mic. Both mics were run into Great River mic preamps to help make the sounds phat and huge.

Gun List

• Kimber 1911 .45 ACP Semi Auto Handgun
• Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum Revolver
• Smith & Wesson SW9VE 9mm Semi Auto Handgun
• Walther P38 9mm Semi Auto Handgun
• Walther P99 .40 caliber Semi Auto Handgun
• Mossberg 500 Pump Action Shotgun
• 1897 Coachgun Double Barrel Shotgun
• Ruger 1022 .22 Semi Auto Rifle
• Ruger Mini14 .556 Semi Auto Rifle
• Saiga 7.62x51mm Semi Auto Rifle
• SKS 7.62.39mm Semi Auto Rifle
• Mosin Nagant M44 7.62x54R Bolt Action Rifle
• Marlin .357 Magnum Lever Action Rifle

Gun Handling HD PRO – $49 | 878MB | 417 WAV Files | 24-Bit 96kHz and 192kHz versions | Metadata ready

If you bought the old Handgun Foley Library, send an email to Chuck for a special upgrade price.

SoundWorks Collection has published a new video profile, featuring the creative talent of Sound One Studios talking about the story of the facilities and also about their workflow, collaboration and approach.

The history and creative talent that fill the halls of Sound One is a who’s who of the New York film and audio community. Many memorable projects have been crafted at Sound One such as “Black Swan, “Chicago” “The Sixth Sense”, “The Wrestler”, “Brokeback Mountain”, “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Casino”, “Fargo”, “MIB” , “pi” , and “The Big Lebowski”.

Sound One is home to five re-recording studios, two ADR studios, a Foley studio with a comprehensive prop collection, and nearly one hundred editing suites, Sound One is centrally located on Broadway in the historic Brill Building in midtown Manhattan.

After the succes of the Sound Design for Pros Webinars, David Sonnenschein is announcing a new webinar series, this time with Ric Viers, author of the Sound FX Bible and  CEO of Blastwave FX.

Whether you are starting out or have several years under your belt, this is the opportunity for you to get professional with your film audio know-how (and know-why).  This 6-week webinar series will cover:
– How do you talk to the producer to get the gig in the first place?
– What kind of prep can you do with the script to keep in budget and get the best recordings?
– What gear and techniques do you need to solve those tricky dialogue scenes?
– How can you integrate your skills with the picture editor and music composer?
– What tools are available to help audio support character, emotion and story?

You’ll have the opportunity to get personalized feedback on your own work, as each week we’ll screen selected participants’ submissions, along with a Q&A session.  The topics we’ll cover will be:

1. PREP – Analyzing the script, Equipment needed, Director/Producer rap
2. PRODUCTION – What you need, How to solve location challenges
3. SOUND DESIGN – How to choose the right sound and why, Applications, Story, Emotion
4. POST – Dialogue, ADR, Character Development
5. POST – Sound Effects Recording, Sound Effects Libraries, Foley, Plug-Ins
6. POST – Music, Mix, Interfacing with the Director/Composer/Editor

The series is $299 and if you sign up by December 15, you’ll receive a coupon for 35% off any downloadable Blastwave FX product.

Sign up HERE Jan. 10 – Feb. 14, Mondays 9-11am PST | Sign up HERE Jan. 11 – Feb. 15, Tuesdays 6-8pm PST

Enrik Anton sent me a very cool video tutorial, where he shows how to use Native Instruments Battery for sound design. He show several things about building a palette of sounds in the sampler, grouping sounds, tweaking them, assigning different trigger options, layering, etc. He also put some kind words there:

This is a demonstration of how this software can be very useful for sound design work. I did it because I would like to return the effort that Miguel Isaza is doing in his blog “Designing Sound” that has been an inspiration to many of us.

Many thanks for the video, Enrik! Hope the readers enjoy it!

And what about you? Do you like to use samplers in your sound design work? Feel free to share your experiences with us!