Early last year, we pointed out In Pursuit of Silence on Kickstarter. The initial campaign was early production funding. We then had the opportunity to interview the director, Patrick Shen, while he was in the middle of production and get a glimpse into the progress of the film. Now they're at the point where they're working to raise finishing funds. We support this film and … [Read more...]
Spaces From Noise
Impulse responses are great for recreating spaces, whether it is a resonant glass bottle or a large cave. Here's a handy a trick for sculpting your own impulse responses, and therefore your own reverbs, from something that we spend a lot of time getting rid of -- noise! If you listen to an impulse response by itself, you'll find that it has noise-like qualities, except the … [Read more...]
A Brief Tour of Automotive Sound Sources
Guest Contribution by Michael Hermes Modern cars are boring. They’re safe, practical, and quiet to the point of being uninteresting. A passing sedan glides by with a gentle whoosh of air passing over the car and the tires on the pavement. It makes for a pleasant ride to work but a short article on sound. Cars didn’t start out quiet, though. Decades of engineering and … [Read more...]
Silence is the Sound of Listening
"One can look at seeing but one can't hear hearing" - Marcel Duchamp As you may know, silence is the topic chosen for this month here at Designing Sound. One may think silence is not existent if we value it as an absolute sonic absence, but here I'm going to examine its role and possibility towards the act of listening to sound, silencing, not as that state of complete sonic … [Read more...]
The Dialog Re-Assign Workflow
My first exposure to noise reduction processing was with Waves X-Noise, working clip-by-clip, finding a snippet of noise in the clear, setting the noise profile, then processing the clip before moving to the next one. This offline processing method, while effective, would end up taking a lot of time, especially on long-form projects. Similarly, if you had a processed clip that … [Read more...]
Designing Sound Discussion Group – Room Acoustics Webinar Rescheduled!
It took a little while, but we've finally been able to get this follow up webinar rescheduled for this Saturday! If you've attended any of our previous Designing Sound Discussion Group presentation in the past (and have been anxiously awaiting the follow up presentation to last month's with Dennis Foley from Acoustic Fields), you may be wondering where the registration link … [Read more...]
Interview: David Hendy, author of “Noise: A Human History”
David Hendy is part media historian, part writer/broadcaster, and completely passionate about sound. Most recently, he created the excellent 30-part radio series on BBC Radio 4 Noise: A Human History, also available as a book under it's slightly longer title Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening. While most sound designers preoccupy themselves with the quality of the … [Read more...]