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...]
2-day workshop – Creating ‘Cinematic Voices’
A two day course focusing on the voice and its import on cinematic sound will take place in York, UK next month. Taught by industry specialists Neil Hillman, Adele Fletcher, Adam Severs and James Hyde, and led by Dr Sandra Pauletto (University of York), Creating Cinematic Voices: from script to mixing will cover a wide range of topics, including dialogue production … [Read more...]
The Most Powerful Tool in Your Toolbox
Guest Contribution by Richard Gould ...and a hold-over from last month's "Voice" theme I didn’t realise it until recently, but I’ve been a sound designer for most of my life. I may have only discovered the term “Sound Design” a few years ago, and I may have just graduated from studying the craft of sound design itself, but like most of us, I’ve been designing sounds since I … [Read more...]
Adding Your Voice to the Mix
Guest Contribution by Joel Raabe At night in the darkness, I often hear voices in my head. Though it’s strange to admit, as I drift off to sleep after a long day of cutting dialogue or mixing the latest program, indistinct voices emerge and converse in the surround field of my theta wave brain. The wash of leftover phonemes from the work day somehow eases me to sleep, a … [Read more...]
The Voice In…
Michel Chion is a well known voice in film sound theory. A lot of people have heard of, and possibly read, his book Audio Vision. For some reason, The Voice in Cinema is a little less popular. This post isn't really meant to be about Michel Chion or his books though. We're focusing on the idea of "voice" this month, and it's hard to come up with a header image that is relevant. … [Read more...]
Interview: Randy Coppinger
Randy Coppinger has been dealing with voice and microphones for over sixteen years and is currently Dialog Production Supervisor at Disney Publishing Worldwide. He is active on twitter and his blog with studio anecdotes and thoughts concerning asset management, microphones, acoustics, recording and anything else related to audio and voice. In this interview we tackle topics … [Read more...]
Spectral Analysis: Interview with Jeff Macpherson
Thanks to Brad Dyck for contributing this interview. For the past two decades, Electronic Arts’ FIFA franchise has been the most successful selling sports video game series of all time and Audio Director Jeff Macpherson has been overseeing the sound of the games since 2006. Creating a smooth, realistic commentary system along with dynamic, exciting crowds is no small feat … [Read more...]