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: Bijan Sharifi on LoFi sounds in documentaries
The topic this month is LoFi and I know just who to turn to, Bijan Sharifi from Berkeley Sound Artists. Bijan has worked on many films of various styles, but has focused a lot of time on documentaries. With over 75 films under his belt, he knows how to get the right LoFi sound when he needs it. DS: Hi Bijan and thanks for joining us. Can you tell us a little about your … [Read more...]
Making Retro Video Game Sounds: Introduction to Trackers (1/4)
This is a guest post by Leonard J. Paul, a composer, sound designer and educator who first got his start working on Sega Genesis back in the '90s. You can reach him at the School of Video Game Audio (SoVGA.com) or on Twitter @VideoGameAudio at any time. … [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...]
Useful Lo-Fi Effects
Lo-fi , or low fidelity, is a degraded reproduction of the original source. For the purposes of this article, we will- not surprisingly- focus on only the audio aspect of low fidelity. The reason it is used in audio so frequently is that it has the ability to simulate and mimic recording techniques and mediums, such as tape and early digital audio. Many audio engineers choose … [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...]
Voice User Interfaces in Film and Reality
When thinking of voice user interfaces as pure technology, it may not sound appealing to some of us who are in this business for the art. Even when thinking of the technology behind the art, it is comprehensive why some people would shy away from it. What’s compelling about VUIs, however, is not necessarily the ones and zeros that magically enable machines to speak to us; … [Read more...]