It was the summer of 1973 and Wayne Bell was part of a crew of young filmmakers making what would become the cult classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Forty-five years later, Wayne is still in Texas, doing what he loves and making sounds for films. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Wayne and gain some insight into the sound of The Texas Chain Saw … [Read more...]
Interview with Ben Minto, Sound Director from Dice
In this interview, Ben Minto, who worked as sound director on Star Wars Battlefront, tells about what sets Dice apart from the typical triple A studios and what his responsibilities are as a sound director. He also talks more generally about his sound design process; for example how he uses sound libraries to create new source material. Read the interview here. … [Read more...]
Designing Sound With Artifacts – An Experiment
Whenever we add some sort of lo-fi effect to a sound we usually get two things, the removal of some details of the sound and the addition of artifacts. This can be a bunch of different things, like aliasing and quantization error in the case of bit crushing, distortion, speaker emulation, or the more complex artifacts created by data compression (mp3, aac etc.). I'm interested … [Read more...]
Designing Signature Sounds
Not all sounds are created equally. There are sounds that demand just that extra attention. Kate Finan, from Boom Box Post, calls them “signature sounds”. They're the sounds that give a movie or game character. Sounds that we can recall even when we are doing the dishes or having a conversation. These sounds bring characters to life and help make the world unique, believable … [Read more...]
Using Convolution Reverb For Designing Lo-Fi Sounds
When I think lo-fi, I think lo-fi sci-fi. I think of games like Alien Isolation, Bioshock, SOMA. Films like Alien and Blade Runner. I think of gritty, chunky sounds. Interfaces or devices that click and clatter and that have been through the ringer more than once. I think what makes lo-fi sci-fi so great is how everything seems to be grounded in some sort of … [Read more...]
FACT Magazine: Bratislava’s LOM is bringing affordable field recording to the masses
Photo courtesy of FACT In this article, John Twells explores the work of Jonáš Gruska in providing relatively low-cost equipment for field recordists. Gruska, the founder of LOM and creator of the Elektrosluch, also explains his motivation for creating his recording devices. I was an experimental musician and a field recordist on a budget and I had to improvise with my gear … [Read more...]
This Maze of Screams and Whispers is as Unsettling as it is Arousing
Rafael De Cardenas, visionary designer, and Sahra Motalebi, sound artist, combined to bring an eerily unsettling, yet super aesthetic environment based on the design of the maze, entitled AMAZE. The space itself looks like a David Lynch movie combined with mid century modern design, and the sound is a wild, interactive vocal-only sound scape by Sahra Motalebi. … [Read more...]