Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that all of the sounds we hear in our life are actually the result of post-processing in our brains? That what you hear might not actually be what the person next to you hears? The combination and coordination of organs that goes into the interpretation of fluctuations in atmospheric pressure is truly a marvel. We've given ourselves a … [Read more...]
Documentaries
When we start talking about sound design most people will automatically think about it in relation to action or sci-fi films; maybe horror or animation. Occasionally, you'll find people talking about the use of sound in a drama...frequently in those cases, the idea of employing hyper reality. It's a far more rare occasion to find people talking about the use of sound in … [Read more...]
Synthesis Tips for the Non-Synthesist
Guest Contribution from Steven Smith Introduction In some ways it seems quite strange to find myself authoring a post on synthesis that has as its main topic: “Not everyone needs to be a synthesist”. But from another angle of practicality, it makes a great deal of sense. Many of us already have found ourselves naturally diving into certain areas of synthesis from within the … [Read more...]
Patch a Day Challenge
Anton Woldhek, whose name you may recognize from the Game Audio Podcast, is a little excited for this month's theme. So excited, in fact, that he wants people to join him in a "patch a day" challenge. I think it's a great idea, though I'm doing a bit too much traveling at the moment to probably get started on it until next week (though I suppose my Pure Data Wavetable … [Read more...]
A Space
The world we inhabit is ever shifting. People and animals are constantly on the move. Water laps against wood or crashes against a sandy beach. If considered from a somewhat solipsistic approach the buildings, trees and mountains around us even shift in position. With all of those positional changes comes a new sonic interaction. The squirrel's chitter no is no longer to our … [Read more...]
All Ears!
We have two words that are most commonly used to discuss how we interact with sound: hearing, and listening. Hearing is a passive act. Pressure waves move our eardrums, the motion is converted to an electrical signal, and our brain tells us that there is a sonic phenomenon in the space around us...perhaps it even provides us with identifying information. It's what comes … [Read more...]
All those things that get us around…
I held off on the announce post for a few days, because we had a few articles that spilled over from last month's theme. Now that we're caught up, it's time to dive into this month's theme...Vehicles! Do we really need more of an introduction than that? My guess is no. And sure, there's a rail car at a drag race in the image above, but we're not single-minded. There are … [Read more...]