Rodney Gates: I wish I knew how to make something sound large, other than just using reverb tail. One way this can be achieved is by pitching something at multiple intervals – an octave down, two octaves down, and blending with the original. This makes whooshes longer and fatter, and impact sounds beefier. Letting the sounds pitch and change their duration naturally is smoother than keeping their length the same as the original, but the time-correction has it’s uses for keeping heavy sounds short (as long as they are blended a bit with the original, most pitching artifacts are hidden in this process). Also, working with the highest sample rate and bit depth files you can helps a lot with fidelity (24-bit / 96kHz is great, with 192 being even better). The higher sample rates help keep the high-end of the sound as the upper harmonics are brought down during the pitching process, whereas rates of 48kHz and below have their limits, causing the sounds to get darker the further down they are pitched.

DSR: What is your weapon of choice (or method) to create production elements (whoosh, sci-fi sounds, etc)?

RG: I like to use Waves’ Doppler plug-in for creating whoosh effects. However, I wish it handled audio files at a higher sample rate than 48kHz since it’s pitching sounds as it’s core usage.

For electronic sci-fi sounds, adding light MetaFlanger is nice to “tech” something up a bit. For a little low-end emphasis, a Rectified (Pro Tools plug-in) sine wave around 80Hz (or sweeping around that area) is cool to add.

Plug-in automation is your friend, too – it can add a lot of movement to your sounds when using it with plugs like MondoMod or Enigma, etc.

DSR: What file formats do you prefer to have a resume delivered in and what does it take to get you to watch someone’s reel online?

RG: Usually a Quicktime video is fine (stereo or 5.1), whether it’s streaming online or on disc. YouTube at high quality, or Vimeo are decent choices too (if showing video). I try to watch everything that’s sent to me and offer constructive feedback.

DSR: I have a degree in music, and I have mixed a lot of live shows, I have also done voiceover. I really want to get into this industry. What is the best way to get a foot in the door?

RG: Read what I covered in my initial Bio / interview on DesigningSound.org – I go over a lot of it there. Being persistent and keeping your eyes open to what positions become available.

DSR: What has been your favorite project you have worked on thus far?

RG: From a creativity standpoint, it has been “Transformers: War For Cybertron”. I had wanted to work in the sci-fi realm for a while before finally getting to do it.

DSR: Thanks for great articles Rodney. In your “featured sound designer of the month” photo on this site, it seems like you are using a lot of hardware. Can you tell what kind of hardware boxes you use, what you use them for, and which is which on the picture?

RG: That photo was my former office at High Moon. Mackie monitoring all around, on the left a Digidesign PRE, a Presonus ADL600 mic pre were were trying out, and below that an Avalon 2022. Those are Behringer ultracurve pro outboard EQs in the upper-left, and a Mackie HUI controller center. On the right (can’t really see) are Dorrough meters and a Dolby DP564 decoder.

At SOE, I run Pro Tools | HD on an 8-core Mac Pro, with a Euphonix MC Mix controller, through Blue Sky 5.1 system with Dorrough meters. We also use Soundminer Pro for our sound effects database organization. We don’t have a lot of outboard gear due to the fact that we do not have a recording space right now.

DSR: What sort of things do you look for in new talent? Is it also worth learning C++ as well as audio middleware tools?

RG: New talent should use the tools and resources that are available out there – see my “Getting the Gig” article on DesigningSound.org for additional information. There isn’t really a need to learn C++ unless you are heading down the programming route. However, Audio Programming is a specialized niche, and a worthy career choice as they are usually in heavy demand.

DSR: How often do you find yourself needing to use sounds that you didn’t record yourself, or using any synths?

RG: We use commercial library elements every day, though not usually by themselves (they are always edited in some way, or just part of a more-complex sound). Synths can come in handy when going for that kind of synthetic effect (we got a lot of mileage out of Moog Voyager during the production of “Transformers: War For Cybertron”). However, I usually would only use a synth for part of a sound. Say a spell-cast in fantasy land…if it’s a pad sound, they can make nice tails for sounds that are usually comprised of elements that are more organic.

DSR: How often, if ever, do you get useable results from severe pitch or speed (or both) alteration of any recordings?

RG: I do this nearly every day. Pitch is the first thing I usually alter when designing a sound for something. I like to double-up sounds that are pitched an octave or more to make something sound heavier, or pitch it much higher if it’s meant to sound smaller / faster.

DSR: Any tips for using convolution or vocoding, or similar in sound effect design?

RG: I haven’t experimented much with using the convolution process for things other than reverb tails yet, though I’m sure you could get some great results (using Altiverb or other processors). Vocoding is cool but has its limitations – if you’re going for robotic voices, you can do a lot with it.

DSR: As an Audio Director, How do you make sure that your team of sound designers, audio programmers and composers share the same vision regarding the game audio.

RG: Good question. A lot of the time, with sound designers on the team, this can be automatic as we tend to think the same way on a lot of things already. With “Clone Wars”, it was easy to do being a game built on the canon of the Star Wars universe that we are all familiar with. For other projects, I can generally use some terms like “gritty” or “slick sci-fi” to impart the ideas and as we progress into the project, it will become automatic second-nature way of creating the sounds for it.

For composers, the approach needs to be more carefully-structured. They will benefit greatly from concept art, video capture of gameplay, story / lore and descriptions of a game’s pillars from meetings (as they are usually contract and out-of-house). Sometimes a course correction or two in the beginning may be necessary to help set the tone or palette, and then they’re off running.

DSR: Also, What kind of word description (adjectives, verbs or onomatopoeia) approaches do you have for your sound design team, so that everyone is on the same page?

RG: I actually tend to do this a lot with emulation of a sound verbally – especially when discussing the syllables a sound should have and how they play into one another. Usually the sound designer I’m speaking with gets it, with minimal actual word usage needed.

Here are the questions made by the readers and answered by our special guest Jamey Scott.

Designing Sound Reader: You said you enjoy building scenes from scratch. Where do you like to start? Background to foreground? Foreground to background?

Jamey Scott: I prefer background to foreground. Frequently background stuff gets discarded as mixes get bigger, but I like to have it to work with.

DSR: How heavily baffled is your ADR recording room? Is the ideal space for ADR a completely dead room, or do you like having reflections in it for options?

JS: My ADR room is relatively small with 702 fiberglass on the walls and a cloth covering, so reflections are minimized. There’s a window, but I usually have it covered with a thick curtain to eliminate bounce. My ADR recordings don’t have any reflection problems and there is no “room sound” in them, so I think it’s a better way to go for flexibility rather than having a built in sound. You can always give it color later but you can’t take it out, so it’s important to record as dry as possible, in my opinion.

DSR: Which type of mouse do you use? Are you a trackball or classic mouse user? How do you mix string swells and emotional music where you “feel” your way through the faders with a mouse?

JS: I just use a regular old optical mouse.. $9.95 @Frys. I’ve tried to get used to trackballs as a lot of friends swear by them, but I never could. When I make fader moves with music, I use the virtual faders in ProTools and just move them up and down with the mouse. Frequently though, I get better results just tweaking the automation envelopes.

DSR: What’s your favorite compressor/EQ in Pro Tools for dialogue mixing?

JS: For dialog, I normally use the Digi EQ7, though I’ve been known to use Filterbank quite a bit too. Just depends on the sound of the source and what I’m going for. For compression, I use very transparent things in general, such as the Waves Rcompressor and MV2. I try to stay away from compressors on film dialog as I generally prefer a traditional sound but in games, it’s sort of unavoidable, so I try to use things like MV2 which brings out the lower stuff a little more gracefully than a brute compressor.

DSR: What is your favorite noise reduction plug-in or hardware for reducing background noise for dialogue tracks?

JS: I just love Izotope RX2. It’s freaking magic.

DSR: Do you have a track limit for the amount of sounds you combine for a sound design element?

JS: Limit? No. Whatever it takes, right? I’ve never exhausted my primary HD3 system on a single serious of sounds, if that’s what you mean.

DSR: What sort of word clock or synchronization do you use with your Pro Tools I/Os?

JS: I clock and redistribute through an Apogee Big Ben off of my SyncIO. I have a lot of systems to sync so I need that extra distribution source.

DSR: What sort of outboard gear do you own and use often, if any?

JS: I’ve pretty much eliminated all of my outboard hardware over the years. I used to have so much, but as new plug ins come out and I get comfortable using them, I generally phase out the hardware equivalents and just end up donating them or selling them. I still keep some FX boxes around like my TC Fireworx which has some things in it that I haven’t been able to replace with plugins yet, but I’m sure that eventually it’ll go away too. Makes a great D/A converter anyway :)

DSR: Do you use any type of mastering or “sweetening” on your film or video game mixes?

JS: I have a last pass mastering stage on my primary mix bus that I use on everything. It includes the Waves 360 plugs that I use for bass management and crossover points. I also do a last pass limiting stage here. However, I don’t ever compress or anything like that on my master. I know a lot of music mixers do that, but I find it introduces an uncontrollable variable and I don’t like that. I try to maximize my dynamic range and I do that with disciplined mixing instead of compressors.. takes a little more time, but it’s worth it.

DSR: Do you cross-check your mixes on any other types of systems or alternate sets of speakers in your mix room?

JS: I only really mix 5.1, so that limits the venues that I can test in. I do however, have 2 home theater systems in my house that I sometimes check on. I’ve also taken a lot of my predubs to mix on studio stages over the years so I’ve become pretty keenly aware of where my system’s strengths and weakness’ are. I’ve been working in my room and speakers for almost 8 years now, so any time you mix on a system with that amount of frequency and time, you know how your mixes are going to translate and I’ve certainly gained that perspective over time to the point that I don’t really need to reference check. I do to satisfy client curiosity, but that’s about it.

DSR: What do you use to monitor iPhone games you sound design? Do you have a way of loading the sounds onto the phone and playing them back as if you’re playing the game?

JS: Heh… yeah, I email myself the sound and then play it through the phone. Very unsophisticated, but it works :)

DSR: Even when you are designing and mixing a film or video game by yourself, do you still pre-dub or do you mix in a session with all of the elements so it’s easy to go back and forth from the units as opposed to going back and having to open pre-mix sessions to change something?

JS: Good question. Every mix situation is different. You should check out the workflow tutorial I recorded for this feature series as I talk about that quite a bit. To sum up, for small mixes, I create ballparked stems and then mix them in a master stem session. For larger mixes, I mix on 2 machines and have all of my tracks live, stemming out to a dubbing recorder. If my clients want to mix on a stage, I do a very advanced predubs and rent a stage pretty much just for sanity check, but I rarely rent out stage time for builds and predubbing. It’s a waste of money, and my studio translates extremely well, so there’s really no need.

DSR: How do you archive your projects once you’re done? What type of long-term backup media are you using for your projects? Do you back up your projects as you’re working on them and what type of storage do you have?

JS: I have a NAS system connected to my network which has mirrored, hot-swappable drives. My systems back up nightly using ChronoSync, but when a project is completed, I optimize the sessions, get rid of the junk, and then back them up to two drives, one I keep in a safe deposit box, and the other in a vault at my studio. I keep them indefinitely because you never know.

DSR: What program or software do you use to handle picture and timing changes?

JS: I’m still doing it old school style, reading off an EDL. I’ve yet to use software that does it reliably and because I automate things on my master busses which don’t get included on region checks, I have to move them by hand anyway so until I’m fully convinced that a software solution can do it reliably, I just do it manually or I have an assistant do it.

15. I asked Aaron Marks this one when he was interviewed here, but I’d like your opinion as well. Do you find that the video game industry is moving toward specialization, i.e. hiring certain people only for GUI sfx and other people only for weapon sfx, etc. or do you find the industry prefers the “one-stop shop” for sound effects, hiring one person/team for the whole package?

JS: I think it varies based on the scope of the games that the developers are doing. For smaller, handheld games, I say one-stop-shops are the way to go. Saves money, employs guys for a long time, and everyone’s happy. For AAA console games, it’s advantageous to split it up to get the best guys working on the best aspects. Sometimes devs have many people attack the same aspect and let the game designer listen to all of the concepts and then determine which way is the best way to go. I see a lot of that these days and although it has the potential to create a schizophrenic sound concept, it can certainly be beneficial by providing a large palette of options. I think a lot of people spend a lot of time trying to predict trends and patterns but the truth is, every developer is going to evolve into a system that works for them. For some it’s contracted out, others want it all in-house. There are no rules and you should use that knowledge to empower yourself to do what you want, how you want it done. I hated depending on company budgets to determine what kind of gear I used, so I decided to build a kick ass mix stage and work from home and that’s what I did. There will always be developers who will give you a chance to prove your worth in whatever form you’re offering it, so create a plan for yourself, and when the time comes to offer what you’ve got, be sure you can back it up and make your clients keep coming back for more of it. That’s how it’s done… trends be damned!

DSR: Related to the question above but do you see that changing in the future, 1, 5, 10 years down the road?

JS: I’ve only experienced the game industry in an upward momentum. There were a few down times but in general, the game industry has grown immensely over the past 20 years. It’s taking over the sphere of media influence that most of us hoped for a long time ago but never really imagined could really happen. If my kids are any example, they’d rather play a video game than see a movie or watch tv 9 times out of 10. Same with all of their friends. So that’s the generation that will determine future demand of media and my sense is that games will dominate from here on out. Eventually, movie making may evolve into an interactive form and regain some ground, but I think it’s pretty clear that the medium itself is going to have a hard time competing with interactive entertainment. That said, I think the 10 year forecast for games is pretty bright. I think games will become more ambitious both artistically and theatrically and there are going to be some incredible opportunities for hip and innovative sound people. I can’t predict what form that will be in, whether it will be specialized, in-house, contracted, or whatever, but I have my plan and that is to keep on doing what I’m doing, learn as much as I can, and keep pushing to improve both personally and as a contributor to the larger picture.

DSR: Also, I notice recently there’s been quite a rise of small-scale SFX libraries popping up, a number of which are highlighted here on Designing Sound. Do you find these being used more and more, or are the large cover-all libraries still the standard? Similarly, what sort of percentage of SFX do you create for an average game? Is it more or less than in film?

JS: I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer this questions because I specialize in custom solutions and signature sounds. I’m mostly hired for the things that need to sound unique or give a game a signature sound so I use library material in a very limited way. As a sound worker, it’s great to have a big library and know where everything is, but as a sound designer, you’re more of a craftsman and library is just one tool in your quiver. I would not say that there is anything standard anymore. Games that use the same old tired sounds get clobbered in the reviews, so you really need to bring a more exciting and innovative game to the table if you want to work as a game sound designer.

DSR: Lastly, do you have any creative ideas for how to get into the industry when you don’t live in any of the “big” cities a la LA, Seattle, NYC? For example, I live in Minneapolis and will have to remain here for a few more years and I’d really like to start establishing myself but don’t have anywhere near the opportunities, at least in the video game industry. Are there any good ways to get a hold of small games developers, like a “gamasutra” of little guys. Thank you very much for taking the time both to interview and to answer!

I recently hired an assistant who lived in the north midwest area. He basically attended engineering school and then moved out to LA and hit me up for an internship. He proved his worth as an intern so I hired him and now he’s my right hand man on a AAA game. It ultimately comes down to your skills and your professionalism. You can find opportunities as a remote freelancer for small things like iPhone games. That’s actually pretty easy these days as there are so many game developers and the audio needs aren’t tremendously demanding. You should really focus in on what you do best, demonstrate it and then hustle to get work and impress potential clients. Eventually you’ll either land a job or a client or something that starts to open more doors for you. Persistence is rarely unrewarded.

DSR: Hey Jamey. First thing. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us. Second, I’m interested in knowing more about the way you use QuicKeys in your daily work (I’m also a big fan of this program). Thanks in advance!

JS: My pleasure! I’m glad that there is an audience for this stuff. I use quickkeys for anything that I would have to otherwise do repetitively. For example, if I have a bunch of files that I need to separate with a gap on a time line, I’ll create a quickkey sequence which selects the region, nudges it by a set amount, selects the next region, and then loop it by a specified number. Saves tons of time. Also for keys that I find ergonomically confounding, like zoom…I use that more than anything so having to reach across the keyboard for it just won’t do. I assign my control-z and control-x for that so that it’s right under my left hand at all times. There’s tons of them and I frequently make them on the fly to avoid repetitive gestures.

DSR: As a Sound Designer do you also have to work with software such as Fmod to organise and code your audio or is that done by someone else? A lot of games now use the real-time processing of audio do you try and record everything as dry as possible?

JS: There’s a significant distinction between “sound designer” and “technical sound designer”, which deals with sound design from the implementation aspect which is becoming significantly more prevalent these days with the new middleware packages. I am not an ace at these programs but I have designed many custom game audio engines that have similar functions that these programs excel at so I have a great grasp of the underlying concepts. I’ve sort of steered my career towards a creative content provider so the more I work doing that, the less likely I am to have the opportunities to get really deep with these programs. I like doing that kind of work, but it’s just not where I’m at in my career at this point. As far as how dry I create my source, I generally have some sort of ambience in most of my sound. I use ambience to define a global character to the sound of a game or film. I’m not talking about long reverb tails as game engines are getting really good at that now and it’s a waste of memory to have long tails on sounds, but in terms of the actual character of a sound, I definitely use early reflections and I even use specific frequency feedbacks and buildups to my designs for interesting colors.

DSR: Let’s say you get a new video game to work on, what kind of visual do you receive? Screenshots, unrendered or rendered cinematics, a pre-built alpha version of the game? Do you automatically have to send your files to the programmer or you have a sandbox to test them quickly in an environment that is interactive? Great articles. Thanks a lot.

JS: Every situation is different. When I’m an audio director, I get daily builds of the games and I stay involved on a daily basis here at my facility. When I’m sound designer, I usually get movies of ingame events that I create sound to and then I mock up how they should sound when implemented. When I do concept designs for things that aren’t in the games yet, I work from sketches or even audible descriptions, so it spans the possibilities. I recently created cinematic soundtracks for Risk Factions off of a script which was then animated to after the audio production was complete!

Photo by "Jean H. de Buren"

Here are answers to the questions you sent to David. Many thanks for the amazing support during this month! It was awesome!

Designing Reader: I have lots of questions. David is a hero of mine. How do you organize your editing sessions? In what way do you find is the best way to organize your tracks – i.e. do you use track naming conventions, track colors, region colors, etc. etc.

DF:

Track Colors – Only to denote elastic audio tracks. I color all my elastic audio tracks the same color just so I can quickly tell which ones are elastic.

I begin with a session that has about 5 premixes.

Each set of premix tracks is bussed to its own 5.1 bus.

I have a master fader for each 5.1 bus, and I start with this pulled down -6 or so. A lot of unnatural dynamic squashing occurs when tracks get summed/combined out the same bus. But if you have the bus on a master fader and it is lowered so it never clips, you can prevent this.

Each 5.1 buss also comes up on its own aux track, so I can then SEND that buss to a record track if needed. (Master Faders don’t have sends, so I use Aux tracks here.)

Each Aux track is output to a master 5.1 summing buss, for the composite 5.1.

DSR: Do you acoustically treat your cutting room?

DF: Yes, mainly to prevent slap reflections, or anything that might cause phasing errors. I’m extremely sensitive to phase problems, so I’m a stickler for speaker distance from my head. However using Waves 360 across my monitoring outputs makes it a lot easier to set up a better monitoring environment. You can delay each channel, and also adjust levels, etc. Just make sure this is on your monitoring outputs ONLY, and that you never record or bounce anything that has gone through the setup or the phase and levels will be all out of whack.

I always find the low end from room to room to be the worst set up, and I always have a hard time trusting low end when I’m working in a new room.

DSR: How much time did you have to rework the Ringwraith scream and the dog snarl sounds in LOTR?

DF: Fortunately, there was time. The wraiths were more stressful because they were a major character rework. The Warg sounds were mostly approved in the attack sequence, so they weren’t a complete overhaul like the wraiths were. I can’t remember for sure about the wraiths, but I’d say there were at least a couple of weeks??? I came down with a nasty flu during that time too and missed a couple of days. I was certainly addressing other things during that time, but it wasn’t an overnight redo. Also, the wraiths evolved over the trilogy. There wasn’t enough material generated in FOTR to carry us through all three films, at least without repeating myself too much. So that was nice. I got to revisit them each time, saving the approach I liked from before and expanding on it with other approaches, and new source. By the time we got to ROTK, almost all of the human elements were my voice. I did re-use wraith screams from FOTR though, for continuity’s sake.

DSR: How do you decide a premix or mix is finished? What is your gauge or method you use to sign off on a project?

DF: I wish there was a better answer for this, but quite often it’s when time has run out. Occasionally, things just flow and I’m content with what we’ve got printed early on. It’s an art form, yes, but there’s a business behind it that allows us to dabble in this art form. We have to keep a level head and weigh both sides and keep things moving.

DSR: What is your method of going about fixes on the dub stage?

DF: Ideally, I’ll go off to my design room and do a fix offline. That way, the mix can keep rolling on other things and not wait on me. I have more of my tools (plug-ins & library, most importantly) available in my design room. Most of the time, the editing station on the stage is just that, an editing station. If I’m being asked to do something interesting, then I generally need more tools than the stock Pro Tools install.

DSR: What determines if you will do field recording as opposed to searching a library?

DF: Generally, I record anytime I don’t have something I need, or if I don’t want to use the same source again. Time and content are obviously a factor too. There are some things in my library that I have so much of, there’s little point in recording more, as the likelihood of getting something new is so slim it’s not worth the effort or time.

DSR: For the Urukhai and the fire Demon of Moria, how did they not end up being mud? How did you create that much bass and low-end without it turning out muddy?

DF: The Uruk-Hai and Balrog were two entirely different approaches design-wise. The Balrog low end was largely due to worldizing in the tunnels in New Zealand. In a sense, it was reverb, albeit a natural real room reverb. We were also given that luxury by where the the scenes took place. Most of the time, it was inside, in the mines of Moria, which lent itself to having large cavernous reverbs. The Uruks were mostly tigers, at least the ferocious fighting elements and tigers have a solid low end that sit alongside an incredibly ragged (in a good way) mid-range.

Honestly, more low end is the note I still get more than any other, and it drives me nuts. Not because it’s difficult to do, quite the contrary – it’s really easy. A subwoofer only reproduces a small range of frequency, and all it takes is to edit in, or generate that using a dbx120, Lo-Air, or Lowender. What drives me crazy is that it’s a “cheap” fix. We can’t get away with booming everything under the sun. So I generally try to get the energy across without the boom track first. You also can’t count on the boom working correctly in every (oh, let’s face it – hardly any) theaters. If we rely on the boom to make our point, we’ll miss making the point in many venues.

DSR: Do you have a special mouse/keyboard setup that you use? QuickKeys? Multi-button input device?

DF: For years now, I’ve been using a Kensington Export Mouse Pro (trackball). It’s funny how some people are trackball people & some mouse people. I’m hands-down a trackball guy. Until earlier this year, I had the Pro Tools Trimmer, grabber, and Selector tools assigned to buttons on the trackball, and it’s super fast to change tools that way. I’ve been forcing myself to use the smart-tool for the past few months. It’s just so frustrating to try to do anything in Pro Tools on the stage, when I’m so used to my trackball & button assignments. I’ve grown accustomed now to the Smart Tool, though it’s not as precise and directed as when I choose specific tools.

And I’m a Quickeys junkie. Some people are clickers and others key punchers, and I’m a key puncher. I can’t imagine working without them. Even if just to call up Audiosuite plug-ins…

DSR: Do you keep a reference mix or Pro Tools session or notes or anything to remind you what elements you used for things? Like the Ents in Lord of the Rings or other awesome effects you have done in the past to remind you for something you may have in the present or future that is similar that you want to have a similar sound for?

DF: Not as much anymore, but in the old days, I was ludicrously anal about saving session copies for every designed sound. I got in the habit after doing a lot of work for Charles Deenen. He’d ask for revisions on a certain sound, and to make sure I COULD address revisions correctly, I’d save a Pro Tools session with the exactly same name as the sound file. At the time though, my entire library was stored as split stereo files, and I was always referencing the files in their original location. For several years now I’ve stopped referencing original, and instead spot sections of file using Soundminer, and making new files. This makes it easier for me to archive shows and be sure I have all the used audio, but I don’t always have every piece for every session available, all the time.

I’ve also converted large portions of my library now to be interleaved. So, even though during Rings I did save off copies of sessions used to make pretty much every file I made, they’re not relinkable now as the audio doesn’t exist in the correct format anymore. About a year ago, I spent a great deal of time, relinking & archiving sessions. I got all the way back to King Kong, and was able to save off copies of sessions with audio. It was disheartening, though, to find I couldn’t do that with most of the LOTR sessions.

DSR: What was the funnest movie you have worked on so far? What was the most difficult movie you have worked on?

DF: I’m going to say Fellowship of the Ring for both of these. I was a huge fan of the books so it was a lot of fun to be involved with that, and especially since all the other areas of the production were done so well. All the pieces are connected, and the direction was good, the cinematography, picture edit, acting, music….. It was all top notch, and that makes us sound better too. It was difficult for the same reasons. There was a lot to live up to.

DSR: Hey Dave, first of all i’m an immense fan…watching the appendices to the LOTR DVDs has very literally been my introduction into sound design and reading about the techniques and ideas used to create the lush, immense sound-design track for the films have sparked my love for sound design. I’ve read how you relished your time at Full Sail in Florida and have been going down the track of the certificate program education (living in Florida, I’m thinking very seriously of Full Sail). I hear a lot of criticism concerning for profit education yet I feel like in an industry such as post production and sound in general, there is much less emphasis placed on your degree/alma mater than your abilities and portfolio. I read countless stories of people that had no formal training and simply learned by “doing it”. How important was your time at Full Sail in learning your craft? Did you ever feel shunned for not having a more formal education (not that Full Sail isn’t “formal”, im just referring to an accredited program versus a non accredited one). Would you, in general, encourage someone to pursue a less formal educational approach to post production trades such as sound design/production from national programs/certificate programs such as full sail and the art institute? Just to clarify, when i say non accredited, i’m referring to 4 year universities that are REGIONALLY accredited as opposed to full sail which is NATIONALLY accredited.

DF: My path included Full Sail. IMO it was a critical piece of the puzzle for me, but everyone has a different path. I tell this to all prospective students. The school provides the tools to learn, the rest is up to the student. If a student takes the courses and forces getting their money’s worth, then they can get a LOT out of it. In the working world, people don’t usually have time to train noobs up. At school, it’s the teacher’s JOB to train you, or at least teach you those things one doesn’t know. I was a super gung-ho student & wouldn’t let things go that I didn’t understand. I really did get my money’s worth, and that’s why I can say it was such an integral part of my path. I’d have been lost without it. The flip side is, it’s a lot more costly now than when I went. One of the dangers with spending that much money is the pitfall that a student might expect the school to do more than it can (or that its purpose is). Even when I went, I saw people that thought the school “owed them a career” after all they paid for the course. That’s a recipe for failure. The student has to take responsibility for what they get out of the school, and for whatever happens next. Having said that though, Full Sail does (or certainly DID when I went) make the tools available.

Shunned for not going to a 4-year school? Never. Schooling is not the issue. Only experience, ability, and job performance matters. Proper schooling pretty much helps you to not fail when you get your shot. But no one is going to hire someone to, say design their film, based on what school they just came from. In my case, I thought I knew a lot when I graduated, and I did know a LOT more than when I started – a LOT more. But when I started interning, it was another world. It was like a relay race and getting the internship was simply passing the baton. If I hadn’t had the schooling, I’d have dropped the baton. But fortunately, I was able to grab the baton & keep running. But make no mistake, there was a LOT of race left…..

DSR: “Yay” for Full Sail! Class of 2005 here. I’d like to hear how your time was there as well. Personally, I’m glad I attended.

DF: Arguably the best year of my life.

DSR: Hi David, I’ve read Erik Aadahl using the Altiverb with SFX as IR, like you mentioned in your previous article (loading a thunder clap). Erik apparently used a metal ratchet on a voice or a glass ding for a voice in the ice cave of “Superman Returns”… I’ve looked into the “Altiverb IR Processor” to import and convert an effect as IR but didn’t succeed. I got some good results with the IR-1 from Waves just doing a drag and drop but I’d rather use the Altiverb. Could you explain a little more in detail about this process? Thanks a lot!

DF: Easy! No need to use the Pre-processer. The good folks at Audio Ease just let you use split stereo SD2 files. Just put a folder in your IR folder, and export split stereo SD2 files to that folder. Youi’ll need one folder for each IR you want to make. Then inside Altiverb re-scan your IR folder. Done.

But be patient. Not many sounds work well as IR’s. Just try a lot of different things & you’ll find some interesting sounds. Watch your monitor levels though!!! A real IR has a very short impact at the head followed by a tail. Most sounds I tried were very loud because the transient part at the head was always too long. Just keep your volumes low while exploring this.

DSR: Hi David! I’ve been a fan of yours ever since watching the behind the scenes footage of the LOTR trilogy. During my studies I worked on a LOTR fan film (www.bornofhope.com) which took me back to the saga and must say it was fun revisiting the films and studying the sound design in the film. Anyways, one of my questions was regarding your use of FX as a sound designer. Do you create for example reverb or delay sends in your sessions to work with and how do those then move over to the dub stage. Are you printing all FX to tracks or does the dubbing mixer take your material and reverbs and translate that using more expensive effects units?

DF: I do not set up sends to my own reverb auxes, for any edit sessions that are going to a mix. Even if the session is being mixed all in Pro Tools, generally the mixer wants to set up their own chain & reverbs and the reverb I do deliver depends on the situation. If I’m comfortable enough that the reverb is correct, I’ll marry it to the sound. However there are plenty of situations where it’s not appropriate to do that. If the original sound needs to be placed anywhere other than pretty hard Left & Right, it’s best to print a 100% wet reverb file alongside the dry original, so both can be placed correctly. If you marry the reverb to the sound, you pretty much tie the mixers hands with what can be done. I’ll give an example. In FOTR, when Pippin knocks the skeleton down the well, we had recorded most of that debris in the tunnels, and lots of pieces at some distance. When that was mixed, it needed to pan around and sound like it was coming from different locations. That became a difficult sell because when the “source” sound got panned, the reverb moved around with it.

DSR: Hello David, Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. I would really love to learn about the process in which you develop monster/creature vocalizations. How do you connect various sources and elements and make them sound as one. I would also love to know which sound design tools do you like to use for making organic sounds. Thanks.

DF: I think the trick is the same for many types of design and not just creatures. I look for elements that are from entirely different ranges, so they don’t mask each other, but can complement one another. Actually, I try to layer as few things together as I can get away with. This makes the composite more natural, and less likely to sound like multiple things put together. Also, using less elements prevents as much cross-pollination (less shared) of sounds between creatures.

As far as organic goes, I stay away from modulation & synthesis (obviously), but even granular synthesis. The simpler the better for organic. McDSP’s “Analog Channel” has been very good to me, and remains an important part of my processing chain.

DSR What would be the treatment for a foley to make it sound like it’s produced underwater? Would you use any convolution techniques for that? and if “yes”, how would you create that impulse?

DF: Underwater is one of those sounds where films have completely misled the audience. We expect underwater sounds to be very dark, and almost dreamy, whereas actual underwater sounds are much more hyped in the high end than sounds traveling in air. If you’re going for the traditional underwater sound, then the first thing you’ll have to do is roll off a lot of the high end frequencies.

DSR: David I love your work but I´m just wondering about one thing. In the field recording special you said regarding the si-crows: “if someone hears a sound that they’ve heard before, even if they don’t realize it, the wrong sound can take them right out of the movie experience…” Thats what´s happening to me every time I watch LOTR and “The Wilhelm” comes in(or any other movie where this sound is featured). Is this to keep up the tradition or why do you keep on using this sound over and over again…

DF: The Wilhelm is a great example of how a familiar sound can yank the audience right out of the experience. This happens to me every time I hear it. I considered that when we were talking about using it in FOTR. Its use, or rather over-use, had already become borderline “too recognizable”. It was approaching that line, but IMO hadn’t crossed it yet. We wanted to use it more as an homage, rather than considering it the best sound for the job. We knew it could potentially backfire, so we let Peter choose. I think it was who Ethan that had a quicktime video showing most of the incarnations, including Star Wars, Raiders, Toy Story, and others. We showed that to Peter so he’d know exactly what it was and he loved it! He was all for it so it was decided to put it in. If we were building the films today, I don’t think it would even get a consideration. Its use has gotten way out of control.

DSR: I’m taking a year off high school and trying to make the most of it. I’m working at a community radio station, doing my own recordings and doing as much reading as I can. I really feel I’m making progress every day. My question is. What can I do to get ahead? I’ve asked several professionals and semi-professionals, and they all say “Just keep doing it” but, that’s not a very satisfying answer. So I’m going to be really specific on what type of answer I want. I work really hard to get an interesting recording, and I tinker with mastering, but when it comes down to it, putting hours into a recording, doesn’t make me more knowledgeable about things like what’s happening when I use an effect, or what bit rates mean, ect. I take lessons from a man I met when I did my senior thesis on recording in highschool which really helps, and I tried doing recordings every day, but my setup takes so much time to setup and deconstruct that it was taking an hour to do a minute of recording. I don’t really do any thing except stray recordings now and then, and I’m not much of a recording musician which makes recording songs hard. I don’t have very good equipment which severely brings down the quality of my recordings, and I’m not going to attend a college until next fall,so, what do I do in order to keep learning and building skills with what little I have? I have a million different questions, but right now, I feel that this one is the most urgent for me

DF: There’s a lot of info there, and I apologize but I’m not sure what parts are the question. If I’m reading it right, you can use only your existing equipment, which you say isn’t very good? I would recommend getting a handful of the proper tools. Without them it would be like trying to learn to play drums on a banjo, or build a house with a screwdriver and a pair of scissors. The good news is, these days you can get some pretty serious tools for very little money. When I started, you’d want a Synclavier – $100,000, plus video & multitrack equipment – probably another $30,000. Then along came Pro Tools and people could start to work from home for about $20,000. Now for about $500 you can be recording and editing – at least the basics. Interfacing with other people and extra processing, etc., all starts adding to the cost. But you can get started on your own time, at least training yourself, pretty cheaply.
IMO there is no shortcut to experience, which is as the others have said, to just keep doing it. To learn ABOUT bit rates, effects, and all that sort of jargon, a school like Full Sail was just what I needed for that kind of knowledge. I don’t know what the end result is you’re going for (i.e. – where you want to be and do), but one thing you can do if you want to learn Sound Design, or sound for picture, is:

1) Pick up a Sony M10 recorder, as well as a windscreen for it at – gigwigwindscreens.com. Recording things won’t get any easier than that.
2) Grab a copy of Pro Tools LE (this is by far the widest used platform – it would be a great benefit to know how to use this). I’d get one of the interfaces that has inputs (i.e. – not an mBox Micro) for flexibility down the road.
3) Pick clips of movies you like, and make your own sound effects to those pictures. Then compare what you’ve done to the film’s released track.

Harry Cohen referred to one of my old tricks, to “learning licks off a record”. He was referring to that trick guitarists used which was to listen to a solo over & over again & practice playing it until they can copy it not for note. I used to do the same sort of thing, but I’d sample in sounds I liked from my favorite films, like an explosion. I’d put that sound in sync with what I was working to, then I’d analyze that sound & try to re-recreate it from my own sounds, until I could remove the sound I was copying and no longer miss it. I learned a lot of tricks that way.

DSR: Hi David. Have you ever tried to record a loud impact sound in a recording studio & found the recording to be small & unimpressive compared to an outdoor recording of the same action?  If so, do you have any techniques for recording more powerful sounding impacts indoors?

DF: Impacts and loud transient sounds typically need an environmental space for sound to bounce off of. An exaggerated example would be a gunshot in an anechoic chamber. It would just be a short bright loud pop. What makes a gunshot interesting is the trail, and the same with thunder. Of course there are subtleties in gunshots too that differentiate them without the trail, but I’m just trying to exaggerate a point. What makes them most interesting is the way the environment reacts to the initial sound, and we interpret it all as one event, just by association. So where an anechoic chamber would steal the character of a gunshot, so can close micing an impact steal its character. There’s no great trick to puling that off, but I’d make sure not to mic too close. It’s tricky to do that indoors, as you wind up with a boxy/roomy sound pretty quickly. Things also play in a mix a bit better when they’re not so close mic’d.

DSR: Treebeard in a Land Cruiser!?! Who knew? Did you actually choose to use those worldized recordings? I think this was before Izotope RX… how much clean up did you do on your field recordings? Or did you leave them a little dirty for reality’s sake? Thanks so much for sharing!

DF: Yes, we did use those, but they were used more for the animalistic part, and for the wild ents. As far as clean up goes, sometimes I do leave dirty messy things in the sound as taking those out can sometimes strip the life out. This is where working on a linear sequence (film style as opposed to video game on-demand events) has an advantage. In a linear form, sounds will go by only once, so we can get away with some messy elements. In the King Kong extended version, there was an encounter with a Triceratops. Some of the animal sounds I wanted to use were those of a bull at a rodeo, but there was a little cowbell in the recording. This was before Izotope RX so the only way I had to get rid of the cowbell would have been to edit it out, and that would have stripped the vocal element of most of the character I wanted. So I went ahead and tried the scene, cowbell and all. As it turns out, the people that were encountering the Triceratops had a lot of metal items with them like lanterns, etc.. Fortunately, the cowbell sound wasn’t a perfect cowbell, but more just a metallic knocking. WIth all the other mayhem in that scene, the extra bit of metal in the vocal didn’t hurt one bit, and our brains connected it with any number of other things we might have seen on screen.

There’s a video of it here.

Insert “We need more cowbell!” joke here…… ;)

DSR: Hey Dave, just two questions: You mentioned using a schoeps M-S rig out in the field. I was wondering especially with your animal recordings, do you tend to record animal vocals with a cardioid much like a vocal in order to capture more air around the animal or do you zero in with a hypercardioid to cut out unwanted elements like cage rattle, hoove movement, handler noise, etc? Obviously there seem to be pros and cons to either. Which do you prefer?

Also a Synclavier question: If you had another Synclavier or something like it where would you see it being most useful with your current set up? Or have you come so far with the modern technology that you would be hard pressed to find a use for it?

DF: All my Rings animals were recorded as 2 channels of mono. I used a 416 on one channel and one half of a Schoeps CMXY on the other. I wound up using the 416 side in my design, almost every time, not because of the shotgun isolation but because of the aggressive character the 416 has. It has this ragged (nice ragged) midrange that I just love. The CMXY is a great stereo mic, and it’s what you see in that little softball-sized Rycote, in the recording videos and other photos. It’s a great sounding mic, but when recording FX, a lot of times I do want that shotgun side. MS gives you the best of both worlds, and when decoded to XY, it sounds every bit as good as an XY recording to me. Tim Nielsen had a Schoeps MS rig on FOTR, and we did some tests between our two rigs. I was satisfied with how his MS decoded into XY. It wasn’t until after ROTK, though, that the disk based recorders became readily available. I was pressing Sound Devices for a 722 for ROTK, but it was just vapor-ware at that point – nowhere near ready. Man, would it have saved me some time, though. Anyhow, when the 722 came out, I also wanted an extended range mic, so my MS Rig goes to 40khz. Actually, it’s just the shotgun side as I don’t think there’s a figure-eight capsule that is extended. I had such great luck with the 416, I was reluctant to switch to the MS, but the new Mic proved itself on more than one occasion, to the point my 416 is all but retired.

Synclavier? If I could hook one up to my library and have Soundminer export sounds to it like I currently do to Pro Tools, I would definitely be interested. I haven’t touched a Synclav in about 13 years, but there are still times where I wish I had one so I could get back into those performance based moves.

DSR: Cool videos, thanks David! Just a quick question. Why do you prefer polyphonic over varispeed? I usually use varispeed as it more or less emulates tape based time stretching and to me it holds up better. I am just curious as to what pros polyphonic offers you in your work flow. Thanks!

DF: Varispeed changes the pitch as well as speed and that’s not what I’m after. If I was using only the global stretching/contracting for the entire region, then this wouldn’t be AS much of an issue. But when using and moving the warp markers, varispeed jumps to different pitches depending on where the marker gets moved, and I don’t want my sounds jumping around in pitch. The same thing is happening in Polyphonic, but it’s a timing change not a pitch change, so it doesn’t stand out in the same way.

DSR: Was there an auditory reason you wore gloves when recording the hobbit knives?

DF: Sort of…… it hurt my hands to smack the things together without gloves. So wearing gloves just let me hit them harder.

DSR: how often, if at all, do you dabble with synthesis and making sounds strictly from that?

DF: I hack away at synth material every now and then when the need arises. But I mostly just generate a lot of source elements to use when I do. I don’t know much about what I’m doing tweaking the parameters. Well I know what oscillators & filters & such do, but I never really know what tweaking one will do to a particular part of the sound. It’s a lot of trial and error, just fun making noises, and saving the best bits.

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.

DSR: What type of headphones are you using to monitor while you’re recording?

RN: For field recording I have used the Sony MDR-V900HD Studio Monitor Type Headphones.
For studio recording I absolutely love the Sennheiser RS-180 wireless headphones because they are wireless. The sound quality is not “wired” quality but it’s very good considering the price ($300) and the flexibility of working wireless in the studio.

DSR: How well dampened or deadened is the ADR studio you worked in? Was it extremely dead like an anechoic chamber or was it slightly live? Also, how big was it (dimensions)?

RN: The reflections are controlled so there are no flutters or standing waves that cause frequency bumps. My ADR room is designed in such a way that I can control the liveliness of the room by exposing concrete or wood by quickly removing carpeting. The lower half of two side walls has baffles that can be removed to increase reflections. In the corner I have two 4 foot traps stacked 8 feet high to eat up a 300 HZ bump at the back of the room. The most important sound treatment happens on the front and back wall and ceiling. An anechoic chamber is not recommended unless you only need the sounds for pure sound design and even then that can be over done. The room is 17 by 19 by 10.

DSR: While recording ambiences, do you set the mics extremely still or do you like to walk around with them to get a constantly changing environment?

RN: Both. It depends on the situation and the desired effect that is needed. If you are shooting a moving POV remember to move slowly so that the perspective change is always minor (not jarring).

DSR: How do you think the Zoom HN4 compares to the 2? Specifically the preamps?

RN: I only used the H4 so I can only compare to that unit. The H4N was a significant improvement but let’s be clear that the H4N is great for general sounds, if you are recording pure tones or ultra-quiet sounds you’re better off with the Zaxcom Deva 5 or a similar quality recorder.

DSR: Do you also choose different preamps to work with for the right sound like you choose different mics? Or do you always use one type of preamp?

RN: I had two SoundDevices preamps for these purposes but I found the controls to be clumsy (very sensitive and easily altered when field recording) and the additional bulk was unwarranted for the quality difference. It’s really important to get to a good sound and quickly record it before the opportunity has passed. Now I don’t have any additional pre-amps, hold it; I forgot; I do have a EAA PSP-2 and BeachTek DXA-6A. Otherwise I use the onboard pre-amps on the Zaxcom Deva 5, Korg MR-1000, and H4N.

DSR: What sample-rate do you record/edit at? If you record at 96 or 192, what do you use to downconvert it?

RN: Depends on the sound and purpose of the sounds. If a sound can be recorded really clean and is for sound design: 192. If the sound is for editing only then 96.

DSR: Do you ‘master’ your sounds before you put them in your library (and the Sounddogs shop) or leave them as you recorded them.

RN: Always master them. Mastering is harder work than recording, by far! The good thing about mastering is you learn how your microphone sounds and most importantly you learn not to breath on the mic, shuffle your feet, crunch rocks, have keys in your pockets, have your cell phone, etc. By mastering the sounds you curse yourself for all the editing you’ve caused yourself to do.

DSR: Do you prefer mon sounds to work with in surround or stereo?

RN: This is more of a mixing and editing question. If you are moving a specific sound in a surround environment mono is practical. Stereos are good for ambiance and backgrounds.

DSR: How do you “clean” your takes from undesired backgrounds, specially when recording outside?

RN: “Backgrounds” suggests you are talking about a constant noise in the background of a recording. This depends if I am mastering a specific or background, if it is a background you’re kind of hosed, the three things you can do are: cut out the most offensive sections of noise. secondly EQ the offensive noise to minimize its perceptibility and noise reduction (Izotope). If the sound recorded is a specific, then shoot with your back to the undesired background and the good sound at the directly in front of the microphone. Also record multiple takes so that your chances of getting a clean sound is higher.

DSR: Do you always use a preamp between the mic and the recorder, or do you sometimes use the recorder’s preamp?

RN: See answer above.

DSR: How do you make recordings under the rain? I mean, covering the mic with an umbrella or something will produce undesired sounds!

RN: An umbrella will introduce too much noise from the rain hitting the umbrella. Look for an elevated canopy to help shield the microphone or record briefly with a jammer on your zeppelin to help protect from rain.

DSR: Do you use acoustics at all when you are field recording?

RN: Yes absolutely. Acoustics and near reflections can help color and build sound considerably. Clap your hands in the corner of a room and in the middle of the room, the difference is substantial. I like to elongate short sounds by adding near reflections.

DSR: Do you position your subjects for the best possible acoustics? Like if you were recording an elephant, would you go so far as to place him away from the side of a building to get rid of the echo slap-back?

RN: Yes, but it depends on what the need of the sound designer is. With the example you have given, a near reflection (close to the wall) might be less noticeable as a medium reflection that would be more noticeable. The initial sound blast will hide a very close reflection but it cannot hide a medium long reflection because the time difference of the reflection is longer and is not hidden by the decay of the original sound.

DSR: How do you apply acoustics to your recordings?

RN: Positioning the sound source or the microphone. Also physical reflectors (boards, metal sheet) can be positioned for desired effect.

DSR: Do you use compression in your recordings? Or do you apply it afterwards?

RN: No. I very rarely use a compressor.

Below are the answers to all the questions that readers made to our fantastic May’s guest Jim Stout.

Designing Sound Reader: Hey Jim, Just wanted to send a note about how much I’ve enjoyed the interviews and topics presented the last few weeks. Great material and information for a budding sound effects editor. Thanks dude,

Jim Stout: Thanks, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it. It’s been a lot of fun to do.

DSR: Hey Jim, thanks for the videos on explainging how to create atmosphere and organic sounds. I’m amazed by the openlabs neko ex5! It’s awesome and it’s a tool that you can tell it makes your life easier. How easy is to learn to use it? You also mention that you’ll put Kyma into neko. That would create the total sound design tool. When do you think that’ll happen?

JS: The EX 5 is really easy to learn, mainly because of the OpenLabs program that comes on the EX 5 called RIFF. It allows you to layer, stack and configure VST effects in any way you want- and then you can just play them. You can play it on the keys or, if one of the plug-ins or VST instruments has its own clock-based modulation, you can use RIFF to synchronize all of it.

And, I’m going to put a Kyma Pacarana on my Neko ASAP.

DSR: Hi Jim. I was wondering about how are the caustic treatment you have on your studio… could you share a picture of that? Also… what would you recommend me for basic acoustic treatment? (mostly for sound effects designing).

JS: I’m actually in the midst of rearranging my studio (I like to keep things changing), so I don’t really have a pic at present. But, if you’ve got the time, just build your own out of some 4”X2” s, some heavy fabric, and polyester batting. If you search the internet you’ll find a lot of really good articles on how to build these.

DSR: Hey Jim, thanks for sharing all this amazing tutors. Just want to know how much field recording do you do? Also, how do you get hired by sound effects companies such as hollywood edge? How could I get a work making sound effects for them?

JS: I do field recording whenever possible. There’s never a time when I don’t have some sort of recorder on me.

I started doing stuff with Hollywood Edge after they contacted me about something I sent them. If you’re looking to get some work, the best advice I could give is just take a chance and shop what you’ve got around. You never know when you’ll get a call back.

DSR: Jim. I’m curious to know more about your field recording process. What kind of micas do you use? What specific use do yo give to each of those mics?

JS: My “go-to” mic’s are all Rode. I feel like for the price, they’re hard to beat.

I don’t really go into a field recording situation with specific uses for the mics in mind. I kind of just play it by ear. When I’m out in the field things can change very quickly, I have to be able to go with the flow. Sometimes the very sounds I’m trying to focus on end up taking a back seat to something surprising and new.

DSR: Hi. I read on the Jim’s interview that he will be launching his own sfx label. When will it be released? Could we get more info about that?

JS: Yes, a download service is in the works. It will debut on this site in June. Stay tuned for more information.

DSR: I imagine living in Austin you end up collaborating a lot via “virtual” meetings. Can you discuss the tools you use in order to work with people located outside of your local area?

JS: It really depends on who and what I’m dealing with. Like with Josh Kay and Richard Devine it’s mostly iChat and ftp file transfers, Hollywood Edge is all digidelivery for deliverables and email. Other than that it’s just skype, and conference calls the rest of the time. :-)

DSR: Where are the greatest future opportunities in the field of sound design? What advice would you give to someone who wants to develop their sound design skills to a professional level? Thanks!

JS: I would have to say the gaming industry or sounds for the mobile device industry (things like applications for iPhones, iPads, Droids, etc.). And, just keep on doing what you’re doing- research, don’t be afraid to experiment and take chances, and learn from anyone you can. Find a work flow or process that works for you and develop that.

DSR: Are you concerned about the idea that working in sound design solely depends on a human sense, namely sense of hearing, which is in constant decay and modification? do you think the fact that your sensitivity to certain frequencies becomes lower as you age could significantly affect your performance as a sound designer? (considering also growing hearing loss due to natural factors as well as the intensive exposure to sound which is sometimes involved in the daily routine of a musician/composer/sounddesigner).

JS: No, I can’t say that I’m all that concerned. I mean, I don’t have much choice- like you say, hearing is in constant decay- so I try not to abuse my ears monitoring too loudly or anything like that. And, you can always use an RTA to check frequency levels.

DSR: Jim, Could you suggest a decent entry level mic for sound design/field recordings? If not a specific mic then could you tell me what I should look for in a good mic?

JS: The Rode NT4 stereo mic is good. But, I’d also recommend getting a good portable recorder that has decent built in mics, like the Zoom H4n or the Sony PCM-D50. If you can, listen to some of them. If you like the way it sounds, try it. The most expensive is not always the best.

DSR: Hey Jim. I am currently doing a Masters Degree in Sonic Arts. I love Sound Design and have recently created the audio for two clips from “Layer Cake”, and “Pixars Lifted”. These clips had good visual material to work with but I was wondering if you could recommend any clips that would be good to work on for a portfolio? I always find good clips but find that they often have a lot of vocal sound in them and I prefer not to work with clips of that nature as my overdubs look rather bad. Can you recommend any good films, short films, or clips that might allow me to gain the attention of potential employers? Ideally I would love some film makers to post their film with the dialogue audio that I could sync rather than having to remove speech entirely – but that’s never going to happen :(

JS: The first thing that comes to mind are some scenes from Aliens (1986). There are some great selections that are just built on the intensity of the moment, free of dialogue.

DSR: What`s your favourite Vst Fx Plugins for Sounddesign ?

JS: It depends on what I’m going to do, but my favorites are Alchemy, Reaktor, Kontakt; for FX, anything by Universal Audio.

DSR: Hi Jim! im from Colombia, and let me tell you that it’s an incredible oportunity for me to learn daily so many things just by looking at your videos or reading your articles. I just love sound Design, but it has been a difficult experience to find information (i mean good info) about the subject. Currently im studing in Argentina, a carrer called Audiovision based on the book Michel Chion wrote, and im really exited with what i have learned til now. My question for you is:
Can you recommend any book or DVD or any source of information related with Sound Design, specially about the post-production technical process? because i really had read a lot about the importance of a good sound design in relation to the “message” you want to communicate, but not about the “how”. Currently im using Logic Pro 9, is it a good DAW to work with SDesign? Thnks a lot, i really appreciate your anwer!

JS: Unfortunately, I can’t think of any book or DVD about the post-production process. Truly, some of the best sources for info are going to be blogs, like on this site and other sound design dedicated websites. Erik Aadahl’s feature a couple months ago gave some good insight into the post-production workflow.

Yes, Logic Pro 9 is a great program. But, ultimately most big projects will reside in ProTools.

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.

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The deadline for questions is April 28th and the answers will be published on the final post of the special. Chuck will choose and answer any questions that he want. Note that all questions will be considered, but not all will have to be answered.

So, this is the end of the Erik Aadahl Special. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Here are the answers to all the questions made by the readers on comments, email, twitter, etc. Thanks for participating!

Designing Sound Reader: Hi Erik, I see you’re using the 191 for most of your SFX gathering. Do you ever record in other stereo formats like XY or ORTF?

Erik Aadahl: Some people find the 191 Matrix box cumbersome, but unfortunately it’s needed to power the mic no matter if you shoot XY or MS because of its funky pin arrangement.

I never use the 191 in XY mode. I like the flexibility of shooting MS when I’m editing, to dial in a stereo spread that I like. When I record, I set my Sound Devices 722 to monitor MS-decoded over the headphones.

But if I want to smash up a mic I’ll use a more bulletproof XY mic like the AT825. For atmospheres, spaced pairs can give a nice wide image too. I haven’t shot ORTF (microphones angled 110 degrees, 17 cm apart) since film school but I do like the effect of it. 99% of the time I shoot MS.

DSR: Hello Erik. I just finished to read your interview. Thanks for all the questions, terrific stuff! I read you studied in the university and got lots of learning there. I’m curious about the status of a self-studied person (like me) in the film sound industry. Did you know someone who learned sound design by himself? I really worry about it and would be great to hear your opinions about this kind of education.

EA: Yes I went to film school, but I have to say that most of what I learned was on-the-job. There’s no match for learning from a mentor and just going through the experience. A lot of what I know is from endless hours experimenting and working. The best education was starting in television, where I had to crank out an hour’s worth of editing every 5 days, switching from sci-fi to period dramas to animation from week to week. I learned more practical knowledge that way than in film school. But I still have tons to learn. The learning should never stop.

DSR: What was the special trick with the rack of plugins controlled by a Theremin Erik Aadahl discovered when he was working on Transformers – Revenge of the fallen.

EA: I’ve been getting that question a lot. The most important thing I want to convey in all these sound design dialogues is this: it’s about the process, not necessarily the end goal. For me, the art of sound is not about reproducing the work you like, but experimenting, improvising, making a challenge for oneself and finding your own voice. That’s the fun of it!

I like to be open about how I make sounds, but the modified theremin is one of the few things that I’d like to keep secret. With it, we made signature sounds for Transformers ROTF that I’d like to keep exclusive to that universe. We’ll be evolving the technique even more in Transformers 3.

DSR: How much percent of the sounds you create are sort of “finished” in your mind before you even start working on them? Respectively, when do you think is it better to have a pretty detailed idea of the sound in advance or on the other side, when do you prefer to sort of jump into the wild and go by intuition? Hope this question will be picked ; ) All the best and many thanks in advance!

EA: Great question. When I start working, I’m looking at a blank canvas that I can fill with any combination of colors. It could be minimalist, it could be complex. When I begin, the possibilities are infinite.

Sometimes I know exactly what I want it to sound like, and then all I have to do is reconstruct the sound in my head. I also like to make noises with my mouth when I work, and use that as a “sketch” for design.

But other times I don’t know what the best option is yet. I might try something and decide later that it can be better. In this case, I throw out my work and start over.

It’s good to have an improvisational attitude though, and not get stuck in any one way of doing things.

PS: I think you were looking for a way to decode MS footage within Soundminer. You can do that by typing “M/S” into the >>Channel Layout<< column. (works for playback AND transfer)

You are absolutely correct! My associate P.K. Hooker adds that for the ability to adjust the stereo spread — beyond the default 1 to 1 decoding in Soundminer Pro — putting a VST like Waves Stereo Imager in the VST Rack is a great method. Thanks for the heads-up!

DSR: Hi Erik. I’m following all the posts from your special. I really love all those great articles. We know a lot about your actual job, your work on transformers, etc. But what about your start? What were the first sounds you create? What are the best experiences you had in the early days?

EA: The first sounds I made were for music, when I was still a kid playing with MIDI. But once I got into television, because of the speed required for the short schedules, I almost exclusively used sound effects libraries. It was a really important learning experience and forced me to be clever and manipulate the “wrong” sound into the “right” one. The first design I did in a serious way was using an old Eventide harmonizer, hooked up to my KT-76 keyboard which I’ve had since I was 17 and still use to this day. It was for a PBS series called “The Shape of Life”, for an episode featuring dragonflies fluttering around. I didn’t have any good recordings of dragonflies, so I cheated with some design. I recorded wing flaps on the foley stage using a piece of stiff plastic clamped to a bicycle wheel spoke. I spun the wheel, letting the plastic slap rhythmically against different textures to make fast wing beats.

Then I took those sounds in the harmonizer to make dopplers out of them. They became the sounds of little dragonflies flying past the camera. These days, with Waves and other tools, it’s much easier to make dopplers.

Another fun experience I had was for a Disney television movie that had soapbox derby races. I remember squeezing into one of those tiny carts and racing down a hill with zero control, headphones on and recording to DAT. The recording turned out terrible, with tons of wind noise and mic handling. I’d do it a little differently these days; a windsock and shock mount would be a good start.

DSR: I’m a big fan of Transformers, and as a sound geek also love your work on the robots and all the sound effects there. Each robot has a lot of different sounds. I can detect some of the sources of those sounds, but some others are rely difficult to me. Could you tell me more about the sources for the robots transformations, or how you process some king of sound, etc. Many thanks erik. Keep the amazing work!

EA: Some of my favorite sounds are sounds that you can’t tell if they are synthetic or real. One of those is the sound of Frenzy hacking into Airforce One’s network. It sounds synthetic, but it’s actually a very squeaky hinge in my kitchen. I could swing the door open and closed and make all sorts of “SQEAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIKKKKKK!!!!” noises that sounded to me like a modem spitting out shrieks of data. There’s a bunch of stuff around my house that badly needs WD-40 lubricant, but won’t get it until I’ve recorded the squeaks.

Some other sounds are totally processed. One I like is the weapons power-up for Blackout in the first movie, when he destroys the Soccent military base. You hear a whine that starts low pitch and starts to rise and rise and rise until it turns into a laser blast-style gunshot. I made this exclusively with a signal generator, Waves SoundShifter and Altiverb. I took a tone, graphed a slow rising pitch bend from -6 semitones to 0, and at the peak quickly dropped the pitch to -12 semitones. I put some Altiverb on the peak of the pitch, so it could ring out to give a laser energy decay feeling. It sounds like a complicated series of sounds, but it’s actually as simple as it gets :)

DSR: 2 questions: 1) when it comes to processing audio what plugins do you always you head back to and was there something specific you used to create that quintessential electronic vibrate that really defines the Transformer feel? And 2) After you finish working on a film and having the freedom while working to record such fantastic sounds (at the film budgets expense), do you keep the sounds or do they all remain the property of the studio who fits the bill? If you do get to keep them have you ever thought about releasing/selling libraries?.

EA: I commonly use the Waves bundle, Altiverb, GRM Tools and SoundToys. The Transformers signature electric vibration can be made in a bunch of ways depending on your tools. Rather than say exactly how I did it, and avoid copies appearing everywhere, I encourage people to experiment and come up with their own methods.

Yes, I retain the mastered recordings and design I’ve made over the years. Things put in a movie are the property of that movie. But sounds made in my own time, which there are many, are my own. Maybe one day I’ll make some public.

DSR:Hey Erik. You’re a fantastic person. Thanks for sharing all your great knowledge. I’m just wondering what is your favorite sound design technique? Is there a technique or a specific process/chain with effects you use a lot? If so, could you told us what are your favorite plugins or tools to work with?

EA: My central design technique is recording different flavors of sounds specific to the movie, palettes of sounds I use to edit and design with. Before I record, I’ll often make a list of categories of sounds I want to collect.

If I know I’m doing a robot movie, I record anything that is appropriate for that: the sounds of every motor and servo I can get my hands on, for example; the sounds of energy would be useful too, so I’d record anything buzzing or groaning. That might involve recording things that you’d never associate with “energy”, like groaning metal doors or the rumble of a washing machine or my dog growling.

I guess I’m trying to say that it’s important to allow myself to think abstractly.

My most common tools are the simplest ones: the ProTools pitch tool, EQ and compressor. Waves is also a favorite tool. Like I mentioned, I use SoundShifter and Doppler a lot.

DSR: In following this site and the works of the sound designers featured. One thing has come to my attention. The lack of women, I have only ever seen Anne Scibelli mentioned. As a professional in the industry for many years, (with some great titles under your belt!!!) what is your take on the lack of women working within the field?

EA: You are absolutely correct, women are under-represented in our field. I don’t really know why. A lot of the women I work with are Dialogue/ADR supervisors and editors, or work in foley. Ann Scibelli is definitely a big inspiration.

On “Shrek Forever After”, I have the pleasure of working with my friend Anna Behlmer, who has mixed almost all of Dreamworks Animation films and has something like 9 Oscar Nominations under her belt. She’s definitely another woman to look up to.

DSR: I’m still wondering what was this special trick with the rack of plugins controlled by a Theremin you discovered on the last Transformer… Hope you’ll let people know what was the secret one day ;-)

EA: Thanks for the question. Please refer to question #3 ;)

DSR: First of all, Thanks for the interview, really opened my eyes. Now, I’m new on this.
I want to know what’s the best order to work on sounds on a motion picture? First Voice then Ambience/Room tones or should i start with the first layer sounds? Any book you recommend for beginners?

EA: There’s an old adage: “Dialogue is king”. Because of this, dialogue is often mixed first. Re-recording mixers Andy Nelson and Anna Behlmer have a nice technique where Andy does a pass of final mixing on the dialogue first, then music, then Anna comes in and does her effects pass, balancing against the dialogue. Usually, you don’t want the audience to strain to hear the actor’s lines. When I work, I always refer to the dialogue track and balance against it.

A good book that will give you an overview of sound for film is Tomlinson Holman’s “Sound for Film and Television”:

http://designingsound.org/2010/03/new-book-sound-for-film-and-television-third-edition-by-tomlinson-holman/

Tom was one of my teachers in film school and the inventor of THX. He’s got some fantastic insights.

DSR: I thought I had the coolest sound design trick on the block with a few of those hematite magnetic balls to record. Such interesting sounds. Then I watch the SoundWorks vid on Transformers 2 only to find that you have already taken this idea to the next level with the Reedman robot. Great work. How many of those magnets did you work with? And any tips on recording them? I’ve been trying some contact mics.
How about the processing afterward? The sounds seemed to cascade together as the robot formed. Mindblowing secret techniques are welcome :)

EA: Hah! Cool you picked up on those magnets too. I worked with two different types of magnets: the round types you saw in the video, and some oval-shaped ones I found. The oval-shaped magnets gave more interesting “twirl” sounds. The round ones were sharper and buzzier.

I tried recording them on the first Transformers movie, but couldn’t really get it to sound right. The mic I was using wasn’t directional enough, and I wasn’t in a quiet enough recording environment.

The sounds of the close up ballbearings zipping around in “Revenge of the Fallen” are completely unprocessed, believe it or not. That’s what I love about those magnets.

The sounds for when the balls combine were made by individually cutting each little “pop” a thousand times to make an exact clicking zipper pattern. A short delay creates an electric feel that weaves in and out of the zipper sounds.

DSR: Sometimes I don’t have the field recordings I want or need, and I’m unable to get them.When this happens to you, how do you work around it?

EA: If you don’t have the ability to record something fresh, you don’t have it in a library, and you don’t know anyone who has recorded it that you can borrow from, you need to get clever. This is the part of sound design I love more than anything.

Each and every sound is nothing more than a collection of frequencies that change over time. You can use these frequencies like paint, combining them to make new colors.

On Superman Returns, I needed the sound of a continent rising. This would have been impossible to record, and even then probably wouldn’t sound very expressive anyway. So what I try to do is think about scale; what can I record on a small scale that magnified is similar to what is up on screen. So for the rush and roar of water, I used waves on the beach. For the crunch of rocks, a made a steady rumble out of crunching rice cakes. These smaller sounds, when slowed, become magnified and grow in scale.

I try to think of all sounds as being on a continuum of reality. Different sounds from tiny to huge are just on different scales. The same way a nucleus resembles a planet, a Ritz cracker snap resembles the Earth splitting open.

So if I don’t have a sound, I try to think: “what does this resemble?” … “What can I record that is similar to this thing?” In one movie I used the snap of a firecracker, pitched to 1/10 speed, as a distant explosion rolling out over a vast canyon.

If it’s something really specific you don’t have a way to record, like a 1941 Spitfire prop engine, then you might be screwed. If you can’t record it, find it from a friend, or use a library effect, then the best you can do is reproduce it as accurately as you can. The internet is a great tool to do some research; find out what a Spitfire sounds like so you can best match it.

DSR: Hello Eric, big fan of your work. I was curious what are some of your favorite plug-ins for processing recorded sounds? I remember hearing in some interviews that you like the soundtoys plugs, and others. I also would like to know what you are using for doing all your pitch shifting (Serato PitchTimePro, X Form?)? I am assuming that you do most of all your editing in Protools.

EA: Yes, I do all my editing in ProTools. Above I mentioned some of my favorite tools. Most of the pitching I do is with the Soundminer search engine pitch function, the ProTools pitch tool, Waves SoundShifter and once in a while Pitch N Time. If I want to do a realtime performance, I use my keyboard pitch wheel triggering Native Instruments Kontakt.

With Soundminer, I sometimes slow things down to extremes. Recently, I took a recording I did of a river in Thailand, slowed it to 5% speed, and recorded it into ProTools via Rewire to make underwater ambiences.

Soundhack is also a great tool for more extreme pitching. On “I, Robot” I used it to cleanly slow hummingbird chirps -40 semitones to make robot motors.

Thanks to everybody for the great response and all your excellent questions!

Cheers, Erik

There are several ways to make your questions:

• Leave a comment on this post
• Use the contact form
• Write to designingsound [at] gmail [dot] com

The deadline for questions is March 25th and the answers will be published on the final post of the special. Erik will choose and answer any questions that he want. Note that all questions will be considered, but not all will have to be answered.

Here are the answers to the questions you made to Charles Deenen. Even if you don’t made any question to him, you could find really great infromation related to different topics.

(some questions are combined and/or edited down)

Designing Sound Readers: 1a. Every single company I look at, and every website I go to always says the same thing; “Applicants must have at least 3 years experience in the field of Sound Design” and leads me to my question: How are you meant to “start” a career in Sound Design when every single place you look tells you that 3 years experience is needed. How did the people who work for these companies get their first job without the 3 years? I mean you can’t have 3 years experience. . . if every job (even your first) needs 3 years experience to actually get into!
Any advice for someone like me who is seemingly staring into a black hole of nothingness.

1b. I understand I could do freelance work. How would I go about becoming a recognized freelancer though? How do you become freelance? Is there an organisation that you become a member of that allows people looking for small Sound Design jobs to select you from a catalogue?

1c. I’m very intensely serious about becoming a sound designer, I’m working with an indie dev. team, and am paying a very healthy sum of money to attend an audio production school. When I get out of this school, how do you suggest I start looking for my first professional gig? doing sound design for commercials, or even cell phone GUIs, or just any gig that will pay me to make sound. Are there any like, job boards just for sound designers?

Charles Deenen: You’re asking the holy grail of questions :) The first question I think is “how is my work going to get noticed and liked enough for me to get hired”. My advice stems from how I hire new freelancers. This might be very different from other people though.

Often I’ll look for videos on youtube, vimeo and other places for new and exciting ways that people have used sound. Usually they’re easy to find, especially if people have commented about the use of sound. Then I’ll contact them and see if they’re open for a test or some small freelance work.

Another way I hire freelancers is when they send me some work to look at it, without being pushy. After several times, something might catch my eye and will keep it in the back of my mind for a future project. Don’t be pushed off though by the “3 year experience” phrase. The work will speak for yourself. If your work rocks, the developer or post-house would be crazy not to hire you. Tools and processes can be taught, but talent is hard to brew.

Sadly, human resources will indeed filter your resume by the experience, so find new and creative ways to get the Audio Director/Lead to look at your work. Maybe even have them give you a specific task to do, so you can show off your work when given direction. This will show how you interpret direction. If time is critical, I have to admit I usually will go back to proven sources and/or word of mouth recommendations.

A catalog of sound-designers? I don’t know of any website or book that would be a catalog of sound designers. There are some organizations like the MPSE and unions that could maybe assist with this. Sounds like a great idea for somebody to make a site with demo-reels from sound designers. Would save a lot of hassle trying to find the right person.

DSR: 2a. Congratulations for your work on the NFS franchise, Shift is one of my favorite games! How you record those cars and all the noises of them? 
2b. Last week I recorded some engines and general cars sounds. I was satisfied with the work done on some recordings, but I had problems with other sounds. I can’t get the “heart” of the engine, maybe I’m missing something… So my question is: can you share some techniques you use on cars/engine audio recording? Is there a way to position the microphones to get better sounding engines?

2c. What mics you use for cars recording?

CD: Howdy, and thanks for the support on the NFS games. NFS Shift and all the other NFS games are the work of a team of people, but I’ll try to answer this for the team; Most of this is captured in the two “Need for Speed” articles that we just did on this site. We record cars in various ways, but we get some of the best results when doing it on the road vs. clinical environments with dynos etc. We also look for cars that have a lot more “bite” and pressure level vs. stock cars, Skids are done in a similar way, except we use the opposite car; a very quiet car with various tires, various surfaces in hopes to get the perfect artifacty squeel. Beyond that we got turbos, transmission whine, wind-noise, air-movement. All these get recorded in the traditional way, with lav & condenser mics near the sources. Most gets recorded onto Sound Devices 744T’s. We usually hire some of the best recordists to ensure the process runs smooth, and that owners leave happy. Hopefully the NFS articles answer most of your questions. If not, feel free to shoot me an email.

Regarding positioning mics; Without knowing what car, what mics, and what locations you tried already, this is hard to answer. I know this sounds cheezy, but use your ears, and learn what the characteristics are for each mic you use. Take your wind-shielded lav (MKE2’s and/or Audio Technica’s are common due to their ability to withstand high pressure level), and place it in several spots on the car, repeating the same movement. You’ll quickly learn what location that mic works best. When listening to the engine, you’ll notice there are locations with build-ups of “noise” (bad), and build-ups of tonality (good). Watch out for hot parts though! On the exhaust, we’ve noticed that placing it too close to the exhaust will get you a lot of air-movement, but little tone. Again, it’s critical that you find the location that will extrude the most amount of “tone”, and the least amount of “noise”. Practice, test, experiment, and learn.

Besides the aforementioned lav mics we use a plethora of other mics (neuman 191, SM57, 421, D112, Sennheiser MK’s etc.). But often its much more important on where to place it, then what mic to use. Placement for getting that aforementioned tonality, and resistance to wind is the most critical issue. Placement of mics comes from experience in regards to acoustics and aerodynamics, and having made many mistakes. If it makes you feel better, I still not happy with my results either.

DSR: 3a: Hey charles good job on the soundminer video, really great to see how you can get a great sound effect so fast. I see you use a lot of plugins there… Could you share more information about some of the best plugins you use for your projects (not the video)?

3b: Your video on sound design with soundminer is superb! You have a lot of effects there. I wonder how you know what effect has to be there? Any method to identify what could be the best plugin or the best structure to use in a chain? I already have some experience on that, but watching that video I get a little confused seeing some effects I don’t use and could help me a lot in the future.

CD: I’m going to try to answer these both at once. You got a few hours? There’s a HUGE list of plugs I use and love, but I’m still not the king of plugins. But I’m close to becoming the kings’ servant though :) Honestly, all kidding aside, I use whatever solves the problem. I naturally have a few “reach for” plugins like:

• Waves L1, Ren-compressor, Rbass, Z-noise & Mondomod
• Soundtoys Filterfreak, Soundblender & Phasemistriss
• Digidesign Lo-fi, recti-fi and d-verb (yes, d-verb for it nasty bad reverbs)
• A ton of the McDSP plugs like ML4000, Filterbank and Analog channel

Other plugins I reach for are the full GRM set, Eventide set (love their H3000 factory), Alitiverb, various granulators (KT granulator etc.), Avox warming plugin, PSP plugs etc.

The process usually is to reach for what I know, and if that doesn’t solve the problem, I reach for others. On the VST side, I try out at least 1-2 new ones every week or so, and sometimes run into some great gems. I visit some websites like KVRaudio.com, and find some new gems there occasionally.

However, plugins are tools. Tools to manipulate sounds which become part of a soundscape. All the plugins in the world won’t help you build a soundscape, but that’s quite obvious. Treat your plugins as your tools, learn what the tools do, so you can spend more time being creative with your sound editing. Knowing what effects to use stems from knowing your tools. You wouldn’t reach for a hammer when a saw is needed right? Often its also about experimenting, doing things you normally wouldn’t do. The answer to your question is not a straightforward one, but please read the section in my first interview on this site about the 3-day test I did to myself. Try to recreate somebody else’s sound with only a handful of sounds. You’re going to have to rely heavily on processing, and you’ll find a thousand ways of how -not- to achieve the result. But at the same time you’ll learn a thousand ways on how to get a different sound than expected. That experience will carry forward in you knowing what to use, when and where.

DSR: 4. I’m studying sound some time ago, everything by myself, with books, websites and practice (There are no sound schools in my country). Lately I’ve been working on some projects (redesigning videos) and feel I have already a good material to show. Now what worries me is how to get hired on a company without having “official” study. What you could advise me? What do you think would be the best way to get into the industry?

CD: We seem to be in the same boat, I haven’t had any formal study either, so never let that block your way. Just like question #1’s answer, the key to it all is to have will-power, and find ways to show your talent. In the early days it was much harder to reach everybody, but now with the internet you can show your talents to everybody, and send out links easily. Before you try to send your video to companies, audio directors and sound supervisors, get feedback, lots of feedback. There are several groups (like the yahoo sound_design group) where people are very open to share their feedback on your work. Learn from that feedback (especially the ones which request improvement), and resubmit. You learn from the mistakes, and mistakes will make you grow. Often you have to go through a hundred mistakes before you reach the solution.

2nd, before sending it out, really do a gut-check and question if your work can compete against the majority of productions out there in a commercial world. If not, maybe time to go back to the table, and research what you can improve. In my time I’ve met a fair number of sound designers who became “cocky”. They thought their work was amazing, simply due to the sheer amount of time they had put into their work, or the sophisticated differentiation they provided with their work. They forgot to check however if the work stood up against the “expected” norm for a commercial release. Their work might have been awesome in terms of an art-school project, but maybe too strange.

Also, the accompanying note can tell a lot about the person. During the 90‘s somebody send me a piece of sound design done solely on a violin. He plucked it, scraped it, banged on it etc. and in the end it simply wasn’t fun to listen to and plainly annoying. His letter stated it was the best work he’d ever done. If he had stated it was an experiment showing off what he can do with manipulation (which was awesome), we probably would have asked for a 2nd demo.

To better answer this, I forwarded the question to Tristan Beulah (one of EA’s new young sound designers) about how he got into the industry and give a different spin on an answer; “Even within the sound industry there are niches. As with any industry, the trick is to find out what makes you stand out and leverage that to your advantage. Work on your primary skills and demonstrate them in the best light possible. You obviously don’t want to end up as a one-trick-pony, so improve wherever you can. The idea is just to figure out what makes you you, and find out where you can slot in, then go for it.

Cut down on the clutter: select your best works and put those in an easy to navigate portfolio. Don’t make it a chore for prospective employers and clients to find you and decide you are exactly what they are looking for. A web address is a lot easier to distribute than DVDs, too, so if you don’t have a website, you might want to start there.

Also, like any industry, you need to meet the people you’re trying to work with. That means directors, sound designers, studio managers, whoever. The majority of my peers just getting into the industry are making strides through acquaintances, not cold calling. Find sound related events, film related events, projects you can contribute to, anything that puts you in front of the people you want to work with. There’s no risk in putting yourself out there and making an impression. Don’t be a nuisance, just be a passionate sound designer and try to find projects you want to work on. Make friends in the industry. With experience, and time, you’ll work your way into the industry.”

DSR: 5. I can see you work with proprietary software at EA. Do you use middleware solutions such as Wwise and FMOD? What are the advantages you find to work with your own software?

CD: I personally don’t really use any 3rd party middleware for commercial projects, but several projects at EA do. I’ve experimented with them during my free time to see what the buzz is about. Usually the manufacturers have to make the 3rd party software super user-friendly, and fill the common feature-set. They usually can’t get to the specialized tasks that certain games require. The advantages of our own software is within that boundary. We can write it in a way it’s optimized for the game, does specialized processing techniques, and in general is more CPU friendly than “general” packages.

DSR: 6a. Hello Charles, thanks for the articles. Loving your special a lot. I was wondering if you can share some mixing tips to get great sound on cinematics.

6b. NFS trailers/teasers have really crazy cuts between different scenes. Do you know about a technique or tips to deal with that kind of videos?

CD: Great questions. Apologies that my answer won’t be great and probably something you’ve heard before. What you’re asking has to stem from doing; analyzing other people’s work, acquire (honest) feedback from people who’s work you respect, and improve. The basic tips on doing fast cut cinematics and trailers would be:

• Work with your picture editor to have him/her edit the picture to a pace. Regardless if that pace is music and/or soundeffects, they get inspired by the pacing of the sound, just like you’ll get inspired by the pacing of the picture. Without a picture editor who really knows how to use sound, sound intensity and pacing, you’ll always be stuck playing second fiddle trying to make something out of nothing.
• Work with your picture editor to build up trust. We often get the video, and will re-edit it a bit in protools to match pacing of a crescendo, breathing room, beat-cut or similar. Then we give the OMF or edit-list back to the editor to conform picture to.
• Don’t cut every sound that you see. When you watch the video the fist time, quickly speak out, or write-down what you were focusing on, and only highlight that sound. Those are the main sounds to work on.
• Then on pass 2, figure out where sound can provide enhancement; can it enhance the story, the pacing, the contra-feel etc. Any way to enhance the music? Are the hits big enough, are there holes which require FX support? are the drums sharp enough? etc.
• Pass 3: figure out which soundeffects can be tied together. It’s easy to edit a sound in for a car-by, followed by a wipe, but can you find a way to combine the 2 into a seamless sound so it won’t feel so choppy? Never edit exactly “on the cut”. You’ll find it often plays much better if you don’t attach to picture too closely, but instead ramp in and out. Move the sound out of the picture, don’t just stop it (unless it’s for an “effect”)
• Pass 4: figure out where you get bored. Are you providing enough intensity build-ups, does the video leave you wanting more? Is your heart beating just a tad bit faster? (this means that intensity build-ups were working) Do you find yourself breathing different while watching it? (if so, you probably provided enough gaps, valley and peaks)
• Pass 5: toss out anything not needed, especially sounds which are just noise. Less is more.

That’ll get you started with the general stuff. As always, listen and learn from other people’s work, then clearly figure out what sets your work apart, and how you can sell your skills.

DSR: 7. What could you recommend me to improve my sound design skills? Any practice or method to analyze or remake the sound?

CD: For this, lets go back to the first interview where I mentioned the 3 day test I put myself through. The best way I’ve improved on my sound design is by constant practice and tryouts, learning from peers and mentors and pushing myself:

• Know and learn your sounds/library, and what they represent in real life
• Go out and record new material. This will not only get you new source, but also exposes you to the real world. You’ll get to appreciate what happens to sound when it travels; air distortion, pitch-bending, phasing etc.
• Pick one of your most favorite sounds. Now pick 5 sounds from your library in random, 1 from each category (i.e. kitchen, gun, ambience, vehicle etc.). Then try to make that favorite sound from ONLY the picked 5 sounds. This will make you learn how to do processing. Don’t give up. Do this at least for 3 days. Again, it’s not important if you get the perfect result, but what is important is all the ways you found how to apply processing, and get to your learn what your plugins do.
• Now learn how to create movement. Listen carefully to real world movement (car by’s, jet by’s etc.). Then try to create that movement using your plugs, and bit of other sounds on your own sounds.
• Last but not least, and this is the harder one. Grab a video from somewhere that inspires you. Redo the sound, but give it your personal twist, and get feedback. Honest feedback. Find your harshest critic who you admire. The feedback might be painful, but improve, redo, and continue.

DSR: 8. I made some sound remakes to trailers and animations. I realized that the hardest thing is to evaluate yourself and see what are your mistakes… Could you list some of the most important things to analyze from a sound design reel or example?

CD: When I listen to somebody’s sound design reel I watch for a few things:

• Originality. Does it sound new, refreshing, or is it the same old stuff
• Clarity; does the sound designer understand the difference between simply placing a sound to picture, and placing it to picture for a reason.
• Does the sound designer really understand how to make a clear, clean sound-bed, without creating a wall of noise, or elements which “stick out” as improper.
• What are the mixing-skills, and musical skills of the sound designer. Do they understand musical timing, valleys, peak and musical tonality.

When evaluating yourself, compare your work to others’ who you admire, back to back. You’ll always find ways to improve. Sooner or later you’ll find that you don’t have to compare anymore, or can’t find anything really wrong anymore. That’s when you know you’re getting better (I’ve yet to come to that stage :)

Your work is never better or worse than somebody else’s, just different. It’s up to you to find out what the consumers click with. That’s what you’re really learning, and for all we know, you’ll come up with the next new sound-scape for others to learn from.

DSR: 9. Sometimes a sound completely stumps me and I have no idea how to make it, or even what to start with. When this happens to you, what do you do?

CD: AHA! Great to hear I’m not the only one. Welcome to the club of reality :) If I don’t have any ideas, I jump out of windows, take a dive of the empire state building, and swim on the bottom of the ocean… kidding aside, it happens to all of us. But I do have some methods to help me get ideas.

• If you have an example file you’re trying to emulate, Dissect. Dissect. Focus in on each frequency band, and try to figure out what’s happening there. Play the sound back at half-speed or even quarter speed. This will tell you a lot of info.
• When starting on a new sound, I often start randomly playing sounds in a library program like soundminer, and toss in some plugs, move the pitch, activate reversinator plugin etc. You’re looking for inspiration of a sound that moves you. You’ll hear it when you hear it. When I’m completely out of ideas, I’ll simply start putting random things to picture, and sometimes you bump upon something that really works well. Once that happens, your inspiration will take you further, and you’ll shape it. It usually is that first hump you have to get around. Most of the time that original sound that inspired you to begin with doesn’t even survive the cut.
• Hum/sing it a sound into a microphone, and then process that. Sometimes you can make the sound better with your mouth than you can find it in a lib, especially if they are surreal sounds.
• Use the peers around you. Talk to them, show them the picture and get ideas on what they would do. Sooner or later one of them will give you a route you hadn’t thought about which will totally inspire you.
• Acquisition of new sounds. Sometimes it just takes a few new sounds to get you inspired when you hear a certain element. Either record or buy a commercial library. Several sites (or so I heard) also provide free sounds. So there should be a plethora of sources to get you going.

Hopefully some of this was helpful. You can always reach me by email, facebook or linked-in if you have any further questions. I hope you had fun reading the articles this month. Cheers !

-charles