Now, you have the opportunity to do your own questions to David Farmer. Please read the exclusive interview first. Maybe you can find your answer there.
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 September 28th and the answers will be published on the final post of the special. David will choose and answer any questions that he want. Note that all questions will be considered, but not all will have to be answered.
Like I said, 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.
Do you acoustically treat your cutting room?
How much time did you have to rework the Ringwraith scream and the dog snarl sounds in LOTR?
How do you decide a premix or mix is finished? What is your gauge or method you use to sign off on a project?
What is your method of going about fixes on the dub stage?
What determines if you will do field recording as opposed to searching a library?
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?
Do you have a special mouse/keyboard setup that you use? QuicKeys? Multi-button input device?
One more:
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?
In addition to all of Ryans great questions that I have also been wondering, I am also curious how you go about cataloging all of your recorded sounds. When you bring them in, do you just edit them down with cuts and fades? Do you ever use light noise reduction? Also, do you use meta data to organize your sounds, or do you just use standard file naming?
What was the funnest movie you have worked on so far?
What was the most difficult movie you have worked on?
I know that the LOTR movies had tons of reconforms and were the birthplace of Virtual Katie.
Ideally, how would you deal with reconforms?
In reality, what does the workflow actually look like?
thanks!
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.
“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.
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!
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?
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,
David
Hi David,
how do you do when you have a vocal recording made in a studio (for exeample dubbings), to sound like it was recorded outdoor?
And what’s the technique put some distance to a recording taken too close?
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!
GriG
Hi David, me again!
;)
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?
Great feature again! Thanks DS
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…
Thanks
Sebastian
I would really like to hear Dan’s question answered, because I’m working through the same problems as far as my future education goes.
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.
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?
Thanks!
DIE