I recently had a chance to sit down with sound designer and sound FX recordist Charles Maynes and chat about his new “LA Underground” sound library, available from Rabbit Ears Audio. Inspired by the gritty and seedy Los Angeles shown in countless films, “LA Underground” is a 10 GB collection of ambiences from all over the city, from the industrial centers near the LA River to … [Read more...]
Viviana Caro: A Career Working With Animal Sounds
Guest Contribution by Leonard Paul You've worked a lot with animals as a sound engineer, could you give a brief history of how your initial interest in audio restoration of bird sounds has led to being the recordist for the Colombian Mountain Grackle in the mountains of Colombia? My interest on animal sounds started when I worked on my audio engineering undergrad thesis. I … [Read more...]
(Mis)adventures in Cat Recording
About three years ago, on a whim, I adopted a 6 month old kitten. I had dealt with cats before at friends’ and family’s houses, but had never owned one, and Luna (short for “Lunatic”) was full of surprises. After her initial "moving in” period, in which she hid under the bed for nearly a week, I discovered that Luna was an exceedingly outspoken individual that needed to make … [Read more...]
As Bobby Darin said, “If I Could Talk to the Animals…”
Might want to be careful if you're going to try recording this critter! We use animal sounds all the time in sound design. Whether it be the twenty some-odd creatures that went into the sound of the Velociraptor in Jurassic Park, or the Elephant bray used in the destruction of the Titanic, they seem to find their way into every situation...sooner or later. This month, we've … [Read more...]
Happy New Year…All Hail the King!
A very "Happy New Year" to everyone in our community from the team at Designing Sound! We're starting off the year with something we don't often associate with sound design. I'm going to assume you've seen The Wizard of Oz before. Recall that scene described in the script above, and remember everything that came before it. Picture the sudden burst of color when you get your … [Read more...]
An Interview with John Roesch
In over 30 years working in sound, Foley artist John Roesch has amassed an impressive list of credits, including major films like "Inception" and "The Matrix" and games like "Final Fantasy X" and "Dead Space." With over 400 credits to his name, John was awarded the MPSE's Career Achievement Award earlier this year. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with John on his … [Read more...]
Credit Where Credit is Due
Guest Contribution by Charles Maynes With all the talk of what “is” or perhaps “isn’t” Sound Design, I think that largely we forget to recognize that ALL of the sound that is in a film, Television program, or interactive experience is “Sound Design”. Often times, we quickly forget the contributions of our dialog, and especially our music department in the way those sound … [Read more...]