Sitting there as credits rolled after a Dolby Atmos presentation of Brave this past summer, I felt excited for the potential of this budding format. Before the film, a few seated moms and dads were even verbally excited as the usher announce that we would be watching the film in a new sound format. During the film, the theater was saturated with sound, I truly felt immersed at … [Read more...]
Dangerous Ambiences
Guest Contribution by Tim Prebble I suspect growing up in a very quiet location on a farm in the South Island of New Zealand may have something to do with it, but I feel I have always been very aware of ambient sound. I have vivid sound memories from childhood, of ambiences! Waking up before the birds and waiting for them… The sound of the wind in blue gum trees and the … [Read more...]
Ambience and Interactivity
[We are currently having a few problems with page formatting and embedding SoundCloud links, please bear with us until we fix it!] ‘Ambience’ is a word with a broad definition. It is perceived differently and can mean different things to different people. We are constantly surrounded by a wide range of sounds - some natural, some man-made. Ambient sounds don’t necessarily have … [Read more...]
Backgrounds: Sound Design Under the Radar
Guest article by Douglas Murray Remember, all rules are meant to be broken! With that principle in mind, let's scratch the surface of the grammar and possibilities of an aspect of film sound design: backgrounds (also called BGs, atmospheres or ambiences). Backgrounds offer a powerful opportunity to use sound for maximum impact. Movies essentially need to have background … [Read more...]
Building the World in Your Books
Guest contribution by Chris Didlick We are Box of Toys Audio, a music and sound design company with studios in London and Stockholm. We provide audio services for commercials, branding, trailers and all manner of projects. With the ongoing innovation and expansion of digital media we are sometimes offered new and uncharted avenues for creativity, which is why when we were … [Read more...]
Room Tone = Emotional Tone: The Importance of Hearing Ambience
am·bi·ence noun /ˈambēəns/ ambiances, plural; ambiences, plural The character and atmosphere of a place - the relaxed ambience of the cocktail lounge is popular with guests Background noise added to a musical recording to give the impression that it was recorded live Wherever you may be reading this article, stop whatever you are doing, and … [Read more...]
My Impressions of Dolby Atmos
One of the hot topics at AES this year...and by “hot,” I mean a subject that had multiple conference sessions devoted to it...was the concept of adding height to the spatial information presented by multi-channel surround formats. I’m sure a fair bit of the enthusiasm for this subject is caused by the announcement and release of Dolby Atmos earlier this year. My experience … [Read more...]