It's been a long time! I haven't updated for so long because I've been travelling the world. Considering the luck I've had with three studios in a row shutting down on me, this time I had the money saved and the time to spare, so went and ticked a whole bunch of things off my bucket list - Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Canada.
So here I am again, six countries and over 20 cities later, financially quite a bit poorer but what a lot of brilliant experiences I've had. Took a lot of photos. Ate a lot of fantastic food. Lost a lot of hats.
What does this have to do with audio? Well, a good chunk of what I did was sight-seeing, but I brought my handheld recorder with me. A lot of Asia was a terrible wash in this department - Japan might be the international champion of noise pollution. But I managed to catch a least a couple of recordings of the iconic train crossings. Was ready to cry when walking on a nightingale floor though, and not being able to catch anything in the recording beyond mellow background jazz!
I did however record some amazing ambiences in Lousiana's bayous, a variety of snow footsteps (in Canadian 'Spring'), sea lions in San Francisco, and a whole host of other interesting sounds encountered along the way. I'm still going through them, and probably will be for a while yet. Maybe later I'll put them up on SoundCloud.
Attended GDC as well, which was very inspiring. Despite something like eight years in the industry now, it was my first time attending and a hell of an experience. It's exciting to see audio tools growing better and better, giving more and more autonomy to audio designers. Lots of great ideas for where we can look into taking games audio next. Plus it was a fantastic chance to meet and talk with more audio people, and get my fingers back on the pulse of what's happening in the games industry after the last several months of globe-trotting.
I find myself a bit indecisive what to do next though! I would like to get back into a studio environment, working on a team and really dancing on the bleeding edge of audio integration tools and techniques, but it's a big time for indies right now too! And I have all the equipment I need to set up a very nice home studio for freelancing as well. Life's a bit uncertain these days, but that's audio. No end of things to keep me busy though, hopefully I'll remember to post about some of them!
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse
It was a lot of fun to work on. For a good chunk of my career the first line of the audio style guide was 'don't make it cartoony', but for once the style was very much 'make it as cartoony as possible!' which was an enjoyable challenge. I love gritty realism as much as every other sound designer but there was a private little burst of glee when it came to making cute mushrooms sounds and deflating flowers. It also involved a lot of thinking outside of the box! What would a dolphin made of jelly sound like? Or a bouncing Letter A?
For a nice change, too, we had enough time to do a lot of original recording as opposed to relying on library sounds. In many ways though, I think it might often even be a time saver - all that time you normally spend trawling the library for the closest appropriate sound, and then trying to get enough variations or massaging it to fit better, whereas when you're recording it yourself it's so much easier to match what you need and have twenty variations of it!
I shall also fondly remember this as the project on which we ruthlessly abused the shepard tone.
It was a fantastic team and the project has a lot of good memories. I've worked in teams both good and bad, but when the team gels and communication flows and everyone is on the same page it all goes so much more smoothly. Sadly, this was Sega Studio Australia's last project, and I already miss everyone terribly. Hopefully we'll all cross paths again in the future, perhaps at other studios, or perhaps the indie scene! Some are already having great success in that arena.
In the meantime, I would recommend everyone who enjoyed the original Castle of Illusion check it out! It's already out on Steam, PSN and XBLive.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Taking Care of Cables
I've recently been trawling the rich minefield of Youtube for tutorials on making your own contact mic, since it is apparently both cheap and easy to make your own. That post will probably come later, after I get my hands on some piezoelectric transducer elements. But Youtube Recommended Videos threw up a classic that I thought worth sharing here.
How to properly coil an audio cable, using the over-under method.
It took me an embarrassingly long time in my professional career to discover this technique - I wasn't even aware of it until someone observed that I obviously hadn't ever been taught to properly wrap a cable, which sent me scurrying (again) to Youtube to fill that void in my knowledge. One of those small things that's surprisingly easy to miss when your knowledge is a combination of self-taught and learning from other professionals who assume you must know something so basic already! Maybe this post will spare someone else the embarrassment.
How to properly coil an audio cable, using the over-under method.
It took me an embarrassingly long time in my professional career to discover this technique - I wasn't even aware of it until someone observed that I obviously hadn't ever been taught to properly wrap a cable, which sent me scurrying (again) to Youtube to fill that void in my knowledge. One of those small things that's surprisingly easy to miss when your knowledge is a combination of self-taught and learning from other professionals who assume you must know something so basic already! Maybe this post will spare someone else the embarrassment.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
New Toys
It seems like it has been hardly any time at all, but my trusty Zoom H4n was simply no longer cutting the mustard for my portable recording wants and needs. So the time came to upgrade! (...Before the end of financial year.)
So after much deliberation, I chose a Sony PCM-D50.
These have actually been on the market for a while, and don't appear to be in production anymore (?), which is a crying shame because from the looking around I've done this is still the best handheld recorder on the market. When I bought the Zoom it was both a great deal cheaper and had XLR inputs, which tipped the boat in its favour at the time, but aside from the occasional planned field recording trip the XLR inputs didn't get much use and my growing dissatisfaction with it prompted me to go searching for an upgrade.
I'm absolutely in love with it. Having both the monitor and record levels on such smooth-turning dials was the first thing I noticed and appreciated. The buttons as well are fantastic and near-silent - one thing that was always very annoying with the Zoom was how every button press was massively amplified, and how incredibly sensitive it was to any sort of handling noise. The start up time is a smidge faster than the Zoom, and the menus themselves nicer to navigate given the button layout. It also feels sturdier, despite weighing roughly the same as the Zoom with the batteries in. The benefits of an aluminium casing instead of plastic.
In terms of size it's about the same, although half the width, which saves space. It's about the same size as a Nintendo 3DS XL actually, so if you're in need of a case, they're cheap and easy to find. It also has 4GB of in-built memory which the Zoom lacks, although the tradeoff for this is being stuck with the Sony Pro Duo memory cards which are a lot pricier than the standard SDs.
The real value, of course, is in how much better the Sony's microphones sound compared to the Zoom's. The first and most obvious improvement being the significantly lower noise floor, which alone is worth the upgrade. The microphone quality is really great bang for buck here, you would have to pay a heck of a lot more to get something better.
This is definitely supplanting the Zoom H4n in my bag. I'm hoping to at some point in the future to purchase another portable recorder with at least four XLR inputs for the more heavy-duty planned field recording sessions, at which point I'll retire the Zoom for good. Super excited to go do some spur-of-the-moment field recording with this thing!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Pitch Correction Shenanigans
Since I've specialised in sound design more so than music, I've actually not needed to do much in the way of pitch correction in the past, since most of the time of any music mixing or composition I do tackle is usually of the synth and midi-sequenced variety, so tuning concerns and pitch problems very rarely come up. The occasional sound effect has been nudged into key but that's usually been something fairly simple and easily accomplished by ear.
However, recently I wanted to sample a steel tongue drum, with one of the goals to make a VSTi of it.
(This magnificent bastard)
It's a lovely instrument, a slightly lavish Christmas present to myself last year. It's fun and easy to play, and quite meditative, but as you might expect, its pitch varies dramatically according to ambient temperature, by up to as much as a semi-tone sometimes.
This is okay so when you're just jamming for fun solo, but for the purposes of a VSTi some pitch correction is necessary - especially if you ever want to throw it into a composition with any other instruments. Which is where my adventure into the world of pitch-correcting plugins has come in.
Here's a small snippet of the session recording, to get a feel for the sort of sound a steel tongue drum produces:
For the steel tongue drum, the vibrato and overtones from the resonance - which is a huge part of the drum's sound - rule out pretty much anything other than Melodyne, which after some fairly exhaustive research appears to be the only polyphonic-capable pitch correction plugin floating around. It's tough to swallow, though - $300 is a big investment for a plugin, especially one that you would have need of infrequently. It would definitely be a must-have for anyone more heavily involved in recording and mixing music though.
This is probably to the surprise of absolutely nobody in audio - Melodyne is fairly well known as the gold-standard, standing head and shoulders over Auto-Tune. But in looking for alternatives, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of WavesTune! It can't handle polyphonic, but based on my admittedly limited experimentation with it, with vocals and a lot of other instruments the result is even smoother and more natural-sounding than Melodyne!
VariAudio in Nuendo (and Cubase too, presumably) wasn't too shabby either, although its analysis was somewhat spotty and required a great deal of intervention. Still, considering it comes with the program, I was also pleasantly surprised by it. By controlling how much you want to flatten the pitch on a segment-by-segment basis it was very easy to preserve the vibrato, which is something a lot of the pitch-correction plugins stomp all over.
I gave Audition's pitch correction tools a whirl too, for curiosity's sake. The Auto Pitch Corrector actually wasn't too shabby with basic tasks, but like any automatic process is prone to blowing up in your face horribly and spazzed out at the slightest hint of vibrato. The manual pitch correction is a bit better and more versatile, but nice as the interface controls were, you would need to either have perfect pitch or pair it with some hardcore analysis, and its tolerance before it starts sounding horribly processed is extremely narrow. Still, it's a feature that could eventually catch up to Steinberg's VariAudio... if Adobe spends any time on it. The pitch manipulation tools in Audition took a massive step back after 3.0 and have never quite recovered.
For now, though, Melodyne and WavesTune get my votes of confidence! Urgh, now to decide how much use I'll get out of Melodyne in the future... $300 isn't horrific for a plugin of that calibre, but when the money is tight... maybe I should have bought it instead of the drum!
However, recently I wanted to sample a steel tongue drum, with one of the goals to make a VSTi of it.
(This magnificent bastard)
It's a lovely instrument, a slightly lavish Christmas present to myself last year. It's fun and easy to play, and quite meditative, but as you might expect, its pitch varies dramatically according to ambient temperature, by up to as much as a semi-tone sometimes.
This is okay so when you're just jamming for fun solo, but for the purposes of a VSTi some pitch correction is necessary - especially if you ever want to throw it into a composition with any other instruments. Which is where my adventure into the world of pitch-correcting plugins has come in.
Here's a small snippet of the session recording, to get a feel for the sort of sound a steel tongue drum produces:
For the steel tongue drum, the vibrato and overtones from the resonance - which is a huge part of the drum's sound - rule out pretty much anything other than Melodyne, which after some fairly exhaustive research appears to be the only polyphonic-capable pitch correction plugin floating around. It's tough to swallow, though - $300 is a big investment for a plugin, especially one that you would have need of infrequently. It would definitely be a must-have for anyone more heavily involved in recording and mixing music though.
This is probably to the surprise of absolutely nobody in audio - Melodyne is fairly well known as the gold-standard, standing head and shoulders over Auto-Tune. But in looking for alternatives, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of WavesTune! It can't handle polyphonic, but based on my admittedly limited experimentation with it, with vocals and a lot of other instruments the result is even smoother and more natural-sounding than Melodyne!
VariAudio in Nuendo (and Cubase too, presumably) wasn't too shabby either, although its analysis was somewhat spotty and required a great deal of intervention. Still, considering it comes with the program, I was also pleasantly surprised by it. By controlling how much you want to flatten the pitch on a segment-by-segment basis it was very easy to preserve the vibrato, which is something a lot of the pitch-correction plugins stomp all over.
I gave Audition's pitch correction tools a whirl too, for curiosity's sake. The Auto Pitch Corrector actually wasn't too shabby with basic tasks, but like any automatic process is prone to blowing up in your face horribly and spazzed out at the slightest hint of vibrato. The manual pitch correction is a bit better and more versatile, but nice as the interface controls were, you would need to either have perfect pitch or pair it with some hardcore analysis, and its tolerance before it starts sounding horribly processed is extremely narrow. Still, it's a feature that could eventually catch up to Steinberg's VariAudio... if Adobe spends any time on it. The pitch manipulation tools in Audition took a massive step back after 3.0 and have never quite recovered.
For now, though, Melodyne and WavesTune get my votes of confidence! Urgh, now to decide how much use I'll get out of Melodyne in the future... $300 isn't horrific for a plugin of that calibre, but when the money is tight... maybe I should have bought it instead of the drum!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Recording Workshop in Melbourne
Had the opportunity to head down to Melbourne for a sound recording workshop a week or so ago held by Stephan Schutze. Stephan hired out a studio in Docklands for the day to record some things that aren't easy to record normally, like flaming torches and arrows and dry ice-on-metal, etc.
This is a quick picture I snapped of the space - impressively large! Once the doors were closed it was wonderfully insulated from outside noise, but of course that massive expanse of concrete made for some incredible reflections! I'll be curious to see how many of the final recordings that compromise. Although the reflections sounded fairly epic in themselves, I kind of wanted to record an impulse response of it!
A lot of the workshop wound up covering familiar ground, but it was definitely a lot of fun just listening to someone be so enthusiastic about sound recording and share some of his recording anecdotes. I think if the same workshop turned up three or four years ago it might have saved me a lot of lessons learnt the hard way!
There was far too much material covered for me to remark on at length, but the biggest points of interest I took away from it were:
1. Dry ice on metal is a very cool combination, and I have to find a way to play with this myself sometime.
2. He showed off a neat hack using a pair of lapel mics and a drilled-out manikin head as a cheap binaural microphone solution. I'm extremely curious as to what the recordings of that one will sound like and how effective it is versus an actual binaural microphone.
3. Safety first! Made me think twice about smashing up that vintage TV that I've been lugging around since University days. Vaccuum tubes involve some fairly toxic chemicals, who knew! Also when it comes to miking up a car, taking not only moving parts but heat into consideration, as well as wind noise not just from the car's movement but from within the motor itself.
4. For field recording, specialist groups will get you further than more generic approaches. An interesting angle I hadn't considered before, but obvious in retrospect!
5. Splitting signals, having one channel running hot and the other at a much lower volume for safety. This is something I normally try to do when recording with multiple microphones, but the idea of multiplying out the signal was an interesting one I'll have to explore at some point.
Perhaps I'll have more food for thought once the videos and recordings come out, but overall, it was a good experience (and also great to catch up with some of the other audio people present). It's pretty rare to find any sort of audio workshop happening in Australia - plenty for music production but precious little dedicated to other audio disciplines! So major props to Stephan for going out on a limb and organising it.
This is a quick picture I snapped of the space - impressively large! Once the doors were closed it was wonderfully insulated from outside noise, but of course that massive expanse of concrete made for some incredible reflections! I'll be curious to see how many of the final recordings that compromise. Although the reflections sounded fairly epic in themselves, I kind of wanted to record an impulse response of it!
A lot of the workshop wound up covering familiar ground, but it was definitely a lot of fun just listening to someone be so enthusiastic about sound recording and share some of his recording anecdotes. I think if the same workshop turned up three or four years ago it might have saved me a lot of lessons learnt the hard way!
There was far too much material covered for me to remark on at length, but the biggest points of interest I took away from it were:
1. Dry ice on metal is a very cool combination, and I have to find a way to play with this myself sometime.
2. He showed off a neat hack using a pair of lapel mics and a drilled-out manikin head as a cheap binaural microphone solution. I'm extremely curious as to what the recordings of that one will sound like and how effective it is versus an actual binaural microphone.
3. Safety first! Made me think twice about smashing up that vintage TV that I've been lugging around since University days. Vaccuum tubes involve some fairly toxic chemicals, who knew! Also when it comes to miking up a car, taking not only moving parts but heat into consideration, as well as wind noise not just from the car's movement but from within the motor itself.
4. For field recording, specialist groups will get you further than more generic approaches. An interesting angle I hadn't considered before, but obvious in retrospect!
5. Splitting signals, having one channel running hot and the other at a much lower volume for safety. This is something I normally try to do when recording with multiple microphones, but the idea of multiplying out the signal was an interesting one I'll have to explore at some point.
Perhaps I'll have more food for thought once the videos and recordings come out, but overall, it was a good experience (and also great to catch up with some of the other audio people present). It's pretty rare to find any sort of audio workshop happening in Australia - plenty for music production but precious little dedicated to other audio disciplines! So major props to Stephan for going out on a limb and organising it.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Recording all the fun and weird things
Been feeling a little bit scatterbrained lately! That's my only excuse for not updating this blog for so long. It's a poor excuse, I know, and likely to be repeated.
Part of my professional development goals at Sega is to record something at least once a week, and it's been really awesome so far. Back when I was with KMMGames I did make an effort to record when I could, but it was largely a mixture of opportunism and need. The audio room was in the less-than-ideal position of being wedged between train tracks, a construction site, and the QA room, which meant I was limited to either waiting for a quiet moment or only recording very loud sounds.
No such issues at Sega! The rooms are very well insulated which makes it extremely convenient to set up a quick recording session, even if only a single mic for five or ten minutes. It's paid off very well so far, with a rapidly growing library of sounds, many of which have already been useful.
Here's a picture of just last week's recording props:
A bit of soft discarded plastic from a popped plastic ball, a wind up toy fan, and a bunch dried clay bits that were leftover from a sculpture I made when I was in an arts-and-crafts kind of mood after cutting through Lincraft one day (incidentally, the source of all my arts-and-crafts moods). They sounded kind of interesting when I was gathering them up to throw them out, so instead stored them in a bag and put them with the rest of the junk I packrat for potential recording.
Useful discovery - bits of solid clay actually make very good rattling bone sounds. With a little bit of processing and layering I think you could make a pretty good sound set for a skeleton out of these.
One advantage to recording your own sounds where possible which has come up with this is not only how many more variations you can record - because however good the libraries are, it's rare you can get more than a couple of decent matching variations from the same sound set - but also the potential to play some of them like instruments. To drag the sounds out, or make them short or punchy, soft or violent, or use them on or with a wide variety of surfaces. One thing I've been learning to do better is to not just record the obvious sound a prop makes, but to wring every single possible sound out of it.
Just some of the things we've recorded in-studio lately have been rubber and leather gloves, squeaky toys, paper and plastic bags, balloons, silly putty, soft furry slippers, a vampire cape, and a jaw harp.
It's been a lot of fun, too! If I were to come up with an art analogy, recording sound is like working directly with paint and clay, as opposed to working in photoshop or 3DSMax. You can get really great results either way, but there's something very satisfying about dealing with the raw materials, even if it's often more clumsy and uncontrollable.
Part of my professional development goals at Sega is to record something at least once a week, and it's been really awesome so far. Back when I was with KMMGames I did make an effort to record when I could, but it was largely a mixture of opportunism and need. The audio room was in the less-than-ideal position of being wedged between train tracks, a construction site, and the QA room, which meant I was limited to either waiting for a quiet moment or only recording very loud sounds.
No such issues at Sega! The rooms are very well insulated which makes it extremely convenient to set up a quick recording session, even if only a single mic for five or ten minutes. It's paid off very well so far, with a rapidly growing library of sounds, many of which have already been useful.
Here's a picture of just last week's recording props:
A bit of soft discarded plastic from a popped plastic ball, a wind up toy fan, and a bunch dried clay bits that were leftover from a sculpture I made when I was in an arts-and-crafts kind of mood after cutting through Lincraft one day (incidentally, the source of all my arts-and-crafts moods). They sounded kind of interesting when I was gathering them up to throw them out, so instead stored them in a bag and put them with the rest of the junk I packrat for potential recording.
Useful discovery - bits of solid clay actually make very good rattling bone sounds. With a little bit of processing and layering I think you could make a pretty good sound set for a skeleton out of these.
One advantage to recording your own sounds where possible which has come up with this is not only how many more variations you can record - because however good the libraries are, it's rare you can get more than a couple of decent matching variations from the same sound set - but also the potential to play some of them like instruments. To drag the sounds out, or make them short or punchy, soft or violent, or use them on or with a wide variety of surfaces. One thing I've been learning to do better is to not just record the obvious sound a prop makes, but to wring every single possible sound out of it.
Just some of the things we've recorded in-studio lately have been rubber and leather gloves, squeaky toys, paper and plastic bags, balloons, silly putty, soft furry slippers, a vampire cape, and a jaw harp.
It's been a lot of fun, too! If I were to come up with an art analogy, recording sound is like working directly with paint and clay, as opposed to working in photoshop or 3DSMax. You can get really great results either way, but there's something very satisfying about dealing with the raw materials, even if it's often more clumsy and uncontrollable.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Succeeding Quickly VS Failing Quickly
An idea I was introduced to recently was the concept of 'Succeeding quickly' as opposed to the more popularly spruiked 'Failing quickly'.
'Failing quickly' is one way to explain a popular method in the creative side of the sound design process - for those troublesome sounds which you might not already have a very clear idea for. It can also be described as 'throwing things at the wall to see what sticks'. It's like rapid-fire brainstorming in sound design terms.
'Succeeding quickly', on the other hand, is more a case of working on a series of sound effects quickly, dumping the ones you get stuck on in favour of moving on to new ones. The idea is that rather than spend a day on a sound you just can't seem to nail, you move on to the next sound, and then the next sound, some of which you will probably get first go.
I'd always thought the former method the best approach. After chewing on the idea for a while though, I think there's a great deal of merit to the latter approach. Without putting a name to it, this is what I will naturally do on any project which I have free range on. Certainly this was my approach on Happy Feet 2, where audio milestones were few and non-descriptive.
The advantage of this was that time didn't get wasted troublesome sounds. I could move on, take care of the low-hanging fruit, and often when I revisited the sound effect the next day I would have much better luck.
Some of it was simply due to being creatively refreshed - lots of artists or writers will tell you how some days they can spend hours on a piece and then the next morning do the same work in minutes (a phenomenon I've noticed that diminishes with experience, but can still occur to the best of us.) Another reason might be because in the intervening work I've found some inspiration or fallen it into a creative groove. Either way, at the end of the day, the result is you have more bang to show for your buck (literally, as the case may sometimes be) and a lot less frustration.
Of course, this is more useful is the earlier stages of a project, when there a long list of sound assets that need to be made. Later on you don't have the luxury of moving on to another sound, because the sound that is giving you trouble needs to be designed yesterday. That's when the 'Failing quickly' approach can come in handy again.
Anyhow, this is one of those things which is fairly obvious when you stop to think about it, but I'd never actually stopped to think about it before, and putting it down in words helps in figuring out the why and how. And with that, you can decide which approach best fits your current needs.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Happy Feet
Happy Feet 2 (the videogame) has been out for a while now. It was the first project I ever tackled completely solo (from a sound design point of view of course). For a budget game
in the openly reviled sector of kid's licensed games, it has reviewed
decently, although considering the last time I checked most of those reviews
seemed to be in foreign languages it's hard to tell for sure.
I had planned to make a big blog post about the challenges involved with mixing a rhythm game with an adventure game, or the rationale behind some of the design decisions, some of the localisation challenges, or even a post-mortem on all the things I'd wished I'd done differently with fresh ears and a little bit more distance and wisdom (and more than a few facepalming moments). Now that I've reached this point, however, this picture is all that comes to mind:
I hope I never have to use maths to sync sounds to an animation ever again.
I had planned to make a big blog post about the challenges involved with mixing a rhythm game with an adventure game, or the rationale behind some of the design decisions, some of the localisation challenges, or even a post-mortem on all the things I'd wished I'd done differently with fresh ears and a little bit more distance and wisdom (and more than a few facepalming moments). Now that I've reached this point, however, this picture is all that comes to mind:
I hope I never have to use maths to sync sounds to an animation ever again.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Risk in Sound Design
Caught up with one of my old colleagues a week ago and we inevitably got to talking shop. The sound design scene in Australia feels very small sometimes so any opportunity to exchange thoughts and tips is always eagerly seized upon.
One thing we were talking about which gave me some good food for thought was the role of risk in creating stand-out sound design.
The ultimate challenge for a sound designer is not merely being a good sound designer, but a great sound designer. And the thing that separates the two is more often that not the one who takes the risk. There is the way that you know will sound 'right' - the sound and mix that you are certain will work, because it's tried and true and audiences have been trained to accept it. I think there's a lot of merit to this approach, because sometimes the audio isn't there to be the star, and all you need is something safe and functional. There's a common saying in sound design, which is 'if you've done your work right nobody will notice it'. Also known as 'bad drummer syndrome' - you only notice the drummer in a band if they're bad.
However, if this is all you do, you run the risk of falling into being a 'good' sound designer instead of perhaps a 'great' one. This is where the risk comes into play. It's the work which does something different that is most often remembered. The one which chose a novel approach to the mix, which maybe chose unusual sound effects for mundane objects, which pushed the envelope of originality. Creativity and originality are traits which are often lauded in the sound design profession, but I think it's far better to describe these traits as 'risk-taking'.
Thinking about it in regards to game audio, I think this can manifest most strongly in implementation. When technical factors become involved, it's very easy to choose the easier solution, the one you know will be implemented correctly and will work and sound right. But in doing so you often throw away the opportunity to go one step further and do something really impressive. It's a trap I've often fallen into in the past, especially on projects when I've been frustrated with a lack of code support and so will reach for the basics first and only then try and reach for more ambitious implementation. While this is a good approach in theory - you have the safety net of at least being able to do the bare necessities - in practice it's more likely the most basic option is the one you will eventually end up with. It's a far better bargaining position if you reach for the most ambitious option first, and if necessary then work your way down.
Of course, the biggest issue with taking risks, is that sometimes you will fail. You have to be prepared for that, too. But just like investment, the biggest risks can also pay the biggest dividends when they work out.
Anyhow, there's a bit of what's been occupying the stream-of-consciousness the past week.
One thing we were talking about which gave me some good food for thought was the role of risk in creating stand-out sound design.
The ultimate challenge for a sound designer is not merely being a good sound designer, but a great sound designer. And the thing that separates the two is more often that not the one who takes the risk. There is the way that you know will sound 'right' - the sound and mix that you are certain will work, because it's tried and true and audiences have been trained to accept it. I think there's a lot of merit to this approach, because sometimes the audio isn't there to be the star, and all you need is something safe and functional. There's a common saying in sound design, which is 'if you've done your work right nobody will notice it'. Also known as 'bad drummer syndrome' - you only notice the drummer in a band if they're bad.
However, if this is all you do, you run the risk of falling into being a 'good' sound designer instead of perhaps a 'great' one. This is where the risk comes into play. It's the work which does something different that is most often remembered. The one which chose a novel approach to the mix, which maybe chose unusual sound effects for mundane objects, which pushed the envelope of originality. Creativity and originality are traits which are often lauded in the sound design profession, but I think it's far better to describe these traits as 'risk-taking'.
Thinking about it in regards to game audio, I think this can manifest most strongly in implementation. When technical factors become involved, it's very easy to choose the easier solution, the one you know will be implemented correctly and will work and sound right. But in doing so you often throw away the opportunity to go one step further and do something really impressive. It's a trap I've often fallen into in the past, especially on projects when I've been frustrated with a lack of code support and so will reach for the basics first and only then try and reach for more ambitious implementation. While this is a good approach in theory - you have the safety net of at least being able to do the bare necessities - in practice it's more likely the most basic option is the one you will eventually end up with. It's a far better bargaining position if you reach for the most ambitious option first, and if necessary then work your way down.
Of course, the biggest issue with taking risks, is that sometimes you will fail. You have to be prepared for that, too. But just like investment, the biggest risks can also pay the biggest dividends when they work out.
Anyhow, there's a bit of what's been occupying the stream-of-consciousness the past week.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Video Games Unplugged
Wow, have not been updating this blog at all. Lately, much of my spare time seems to have been eaten up with things like computer woes and paperwork and all those annoying life errands that pile up after being neglected for so long. This has extended to all the movies and TV shows and games I want to play as well, though I did at least get the opportunity to play Journey (PSN) and cannot recommend it highly enough. It's one of those moving game experiences that people will talk about for many years to come, in the same company as titles like Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. It had a wonderful soundtrack and beautifully polished, understated sound design, which I am heartened to see as a trend with these venerated titles.
Regardless, the topic I'm writing about today is far more pedestrian - a brief report of the Video Games Unplugged: Symphony of Legends concert performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in conjunction with Eminence over the weekend. By the 'in conjunction with Eminence' part I am assuming Hiroaki did much of the organising, Philip Chu did the conducting, Eminence provided the arrangements and MSO performed it. I did not recognise any of the other core Eminence members amidst MSO's ranks, and most tellingly Hiroaki did not perform himself, which was somewhat disappointing.
The show itself was excellent, however. There were some complaints about a feedback hum throughout, though from where I was sitting it was not at all obvious. MSO did a much better job than expected, actually - historically, a lack of familiarity and respect for the source material has led to some less-than-stellar adaptations of video game music. Play! at the Sydney Opera House a few years ago was very good, but they definitely didn't get the dynamics right, something which has long set Eminence apart from their peers.
MSO rose the occasion wonderfully, though. Only in some parts did it feel as though perhaps some instruments were being drowned out, usually by the choir of all things, which more typically suffers from the opposite problem. The soloist they brought on board was stunning, and deserved all the accolades she received.
I didn't have a program handy, but the setlist by memory, in no particular order, went something like this:
Gravity Rush suite - I want to play Gravity Rush so badly now.
Starcraft II and Diablo III themes! Very cool to hear Diablo III before the game is even out.
Shadow of the Colossus: Couterattack - My only complaint is that Counterattack is only two minutes long. That is not nearly enough Shadow of the Colossus music.
Civilization IV Baba Yetu! Another piece I absolutely never expected to hear. This one was quite nice as it was a different style and stood out as a breath of fresh air amidst the other pieces.
Skyrim - The choir for this was awesome. It was also prefaced by a highly amusing skit and animation. See here.
Two pieces from Bioshock! Pair Bond and Elanor I think they were called. This was briefly marred by a crying baby. Who brings a baby to an MSO performance?
Warcraft Suite - this was from the special collection Eminence did a couple of years back. Very good to hear live.
Secret of Mana: Angel's Fear and Seiken Densetsu 3: Meridian Child - were far and away the highlights for me! I couldn't believe they did Meridian Child! It's long been on my wishlist of pieces but I had long given up on it, since SD3 so rarely gets a look in. Look, someone was kind enough to load it up on to Youtube. (Along with everything else too! Go check it out, even though it's of slightly dubious sound quality.) I think my favourite thing about these concerts is when they go to the trouble of creating an orchestral arrangement for older soundtracks. It's the aural equivalent of having an old 2D sprite game remade in photo-realistic 3D.
Two pieces from Assassin's Creed - these were excellent, the vocalist in particular was amazing. The second piece was more rock, which again was a nice departure from the style of the evening.
God of War and Uncharted also made appearances - the former was appropriately epic, the latter very well executed but somewhat forgettable amidst its brethren.
They also did a stack of pieces from Soul Caliber. Way too many really, made sense since they had Junichi Nakatsuru as a special guest (he has a habit of coming to Australia for these things - and in fact, secretly bought a ticket to Night in Fantasia 2009 and sat in the audience so he could hear his work) and also were hosting the fighting game championship. I'm somewhat surprised that nobody figured out to turn down the sounds or music from the game to allow the orchestra to play though. They fumbled that one.
Also, naturally, FFVII: One Winged Angel. Lovely as always, but guys, there's heaps of music from Final Fantasy, do a different one! They have enough for a dedicated concert series, for god's sake. There is always the dilemma that there may have been many first-time attendees who would be excited at hearing it, but it would be silly to play Beethoven's 9th at every single classical concert, surely? ...I am complaining but I still enjoyed it.
Encore was Metal Gear Solid 1-3 medley. A repeat from Night in Fantasia 2009, but an awesome one.
And one last bonus worth noting: The event was hosted by Wil Wheaton and the PvPOnline guys! They were fairly amusing, although a tiny part of me can't help but wish there was less of them and more music.
One of these days I'm going to write up my dream set list for a video games concert, with the rules that I must not have heard the pieces live before. Considering the recent track record of my wildest video gaming dreams coming true (Dissidia, Theatrhythm, Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright...?), it's worth a shot, right?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The Last Story just got a bit more interesting
Just a quick post to break the drought - the latest 'Iwata Asks' feature Nintendo ran on their website featured a particularly interesting interview about the Wii title The Last Story, the most recent collaboration between Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu, most famous for their work on creating the Final Fantasy series.
The interview can be found here.
What I found particularly interesting was the discussion about what sounds like a great deal of interactive music - not exactly fresh ground in games, but I'd be especially curious to hear what Uematsu has come up with, especially given the prominence of melody in his work - melody often being the first thing sacrificed in most of the truly interactive music systems I've seen implemented in games so far. The Last Story has now earned its place on my 'must play' list. One last outing on the Wii I suppose - for once, the game is rather aptly named (although we all know how that 'Final' Fantasy thing turned out.)
I was also quietly amused by their discussions about the 'future need of audio directors' in games.
The interview can be found here.
What I found particularly interesting was the discussion about what sounds like a great deal of interactive music - not exactly fresh ground in games, but I'd be especially curious to hear what Uematsu has come up with, especially given the prominence of melody in his work - melody often being the first thing sacrificed in most of the truly interactive music systems I've seen implemented in games so far. The Last Story has now earned its place on my 'must play' list. One last outing on the Wii I suppose - for once, the game is rather aptly named (although we all know how that 'Final' Fantasy thing turned out.)
I was also quietly amused by their discussions about the 'future need of audio directors' in games.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Recording Field Trip Post-Mortem
I haven't posted lately as I've been unexpectedly busy - and so have quite the backlog of topics to post about.
To start with, I went on recording field trip up north at the start of the month. Just me, a couple of microphones, my laptop and my car.
The highlight of the adventure was definitely the colony of flying foxes. While I already have a small collection of relatively good recordings of a single flying fox (the result of a combination of far-too-late-nights and a dash of good luck), how often do you have need of a single bat in sound design? It's almost always a flock of them going someplace. I hit the jackpot.
They kind of look like seed-pods from a distance!
I turned up around an hour before sundown, and they were already in full swing, chattering and fussing and generally making quite the din. Unfortunately, remote though it was there was a somewhat noisy bridge a few hundred metres away, a rather excited stormbird, and a stack of ducks having a grand old time, but I wasn't in any rush and neither were the bats, so out of a solid two hours of recording (two SD cards and two sets of batteries...) I managed to get a fair chunk of usable sounds.
Here's a short sample of the spoils:
FlyingFoxes by ReeAudio
Chattery little things, they don't shut up. I'd hoped to get some decent wing-flapping mixed in when they all took off at dusk, but of course, bats are terribly silent fliers.
I used two microphones, the two native condensers on my Zoom H4n, as well as my Rode NTG2 for narrower pickups. Not the most high-end setup but certainly got the job done. While for the most part that particular recording session went well (I remembered plenty of batteries and extra storage space), it was quite windy, and in a moment of poor oversight, only had the standard foam wind shield for the NTG2, which rendered a lot its recordings non-salvageable. Mental note to pick up a dead cat for that one at the first opportunity - the dead kitten for the Zoom stood up the task admirably. Quality wind shields are important for field recording. It's a lesson I apparently have to relearn for each microphone.
Also a mental note - next time I'm recording near a river, or at dusk - bring mosquito repellent. In the end, I walked away with 32 bug bites.
Totally worth it.
As for the rest of the field trip, I caught a stack of birds and natural ambiances as well, and even hit up the local 'zoo', which had a cockatoo that was microphone-shy (quite happy to screech and talk and me whenever the microphone wasn't pointing at it), as well as some pigs and goats and chickens.
There were also a few very vocal emus, which for the record have one of the oddest bird calls of all time. They sound almost like a drum.
Emu by ReeAudio
Other highlights included the beach for some ocean ambience, because you can always use the soothing sound of waves, which I won't bother putting here as everybody has heard the ocean a hundred thousand times before. The surf was unfortunately fairly mild the day I went though. Here's a lovely picture all the same:
All in all, a great success! Over the years I have not had the opportunity to do nearly as much field recording as I would have liked, so the chance to spend a couple of days doing nothing but that was a good experience and resulted in some great contributions to my personal library.
Next on the agenda is the Lone Pine Sanctuary I think. It's not very well known, but koalas make the most hideous sounds that would be perfect for a monster.
To start with, I went on recording field trip up north at the start of the month. Just me, a couple of microphones, my laptop and my car.
The highlight of the adventure was definitely the colony of flying foxes. While I already have a small collection of relatively good recordings of a single flying fox (the result of a combination of far-too-late-nights and a dash of good luck), how often do you have need of a single bat in sound design? It's almost always a flock of them going someplace. I hit the jackpot.
They kind of look like seed-pods from a distance!
I turned up around an hour before sundown, and they were already in full swing, chattering and fussing and generally making quite the din. Unfortunately, remote though it was there was a somewhat noisy bridge a few hundred metres away, a rather excited stormbird, and a stack of ducks having a grand old time, but I wasn't in any rush and neither were the bats, so out of a solid two hours of recording (two SD cards and two sets of batteries...) I managed to get a fair chunk of usable sounds.
Here's a short sample of the spoils:
FlyingFoxes by ReeAudio
Chattery little things, they don't shut up. I'd hoped to get some decent wing-flapping mixed in when they all took off at dusk, but of course, bats are terribly silent fliers.
I used two microphones, the two native condensers on my Zoom H4n, as well as my Rode NTG2 for narrower pickups. Not the most high-end setup but certainly got the job done. While for the most part that particular recording session went well (I remembered plenty of batteries and extra storage space), it was quite windy, and in a moment of poor oversight, only had the standard foam wind shield for the NTG2, which rendered a lot its recordings non-salvageable. Mental note to pick up a dead cat for that one at the first opportunity - the dead kitten for the Zoom stood up the task admirably. Quality wind shields are important for field recording. It's a lesson I apparently have to relearn for each microphone.
Also a mental note - next time I'm recording near a river, or at dusk - bring mosquito repellent. In the end, I walked away with 32 bug bites.
Totally worth it.
As for the rest of the field trip, I caught a stack of birds and natural ambiances as well, and even hit up the local 'zoo', which had a cockatoo that was microphone-shy (quite happy to screech and talk and me whenever the microphone wasn't pointing at it), as well as some pigs and goats and chickens.
There were also a few very vocal emus, which for the record have one of the oddest bird calls of all time. They sound almost like a drum.
Emu by ReeAudio
Other highlights included the beach for some ocean ambience, because you can always use the soothing sound of waves, which I won't bother putting here as everybody has heard the ocean a hundred thousand times before. The surf was unfortunately fairly mild the day I went though. Here's a lovely picture all the same:
All in all, a great success! Over the years I have not had the opportunity to do nearly as much field recording as I would have liked, so the chance to spend a couple of days doing nothing but that was a good experience and resulted in some great contributions to my personal library.
Next on the agenda is the Lone Pine Sanctuary I think. It's not very well known, but koalas make the most hideous sounds that would be perfect for a monster.
Friday, November 18, 2011
At risk of becoming a link farm...
There were some more interesting sound-in-games articles this past week that are worth a read.
First off from Gamasutra is 'I want it to sound chocalatey'. Fun title aside, I think it hit on some great points - the most pertinent being that as sound designers, we need to encourage feedback even from people who don't feel like they can 'speak the language', and to let them know it's okay to use more emotive or non-technical terms. I've definitely found that in the past it's been difficult to get any sort of feedback from other departments, who are always quick to say, 'well, I don't know anything about sound.' It doesn't matter! Feel free to use what words you have.
To quote Scott Rogers from his book 'Level Up': 'I need this creature to sound like a phlegmy cougar from hell... but make it sound more shriek-ey than growl-y.' Did you do it? Congratulations! You are now ready to be a sound designer.
I recall once where my one direction for a massive roar was to make it more 'meaty'. I pitched it down, added some watery elements to make it sound more wet, and modulated one of the layers at high speed to make it sound like it physically hurt the throat, as though bits of flapping skin were being torn loose inside. In the end, it was exactly what the designer had been looking for, but he didn't need to specify all those individual steps. That part was my job.
Develop Online also had an article exploring the trend of working for free and the corresponding controversy surrounding it. You can read it here.
The first half of the article reads more like a PR defence - 'we do pay for our music!' - but later on it tackles a few more of the issues related to crowd-sourcing and the potential effects on the profession. In a field where the number of people are trying to break in greatly outnumber the pros already working in it, it's a valid concern, and not just for sound designers or composers but artists and writers too. Unfortunately, I feel that market forces decide this matter, and no amount of debate on the industry's part will change things. Much like how Nintendo can beg people not to sell their games for one dollar, but that won't stop them from doing it.
In other news, I've been setting up a new desktop PC as an exclusive editing station, mostly so that I don't have my DAW competing for resources with background programs like Steam or anti-virus or chat clients, and the hard drive can be dedicated entirely to programs and sound data, instead of having to compete with games and photos and funny cat videos. It might do some good things for my productivity besides - there are a few too many distractions floating around on my personal computer...
First off from Gamasutra is 'I want it to sound chocalatey'. Fun title aside, I think it hit on some great points - the most pertinent being that as sound designers, we need to encourage feedback even from people who don't feel like they can 'speak the language', and to let them know it's okay to use more emotive or non-technical terms. I've definitely found that in the past it's been difficult to get any sort of feedback from other departments, who are always quick to say, 'well, I don't know anything about sound.' It doesn't matter! Feel free to use what words you have.
To quote Scott Rogers from his book 'Level Up': 'I need this creature to sound like a phlegmy cougar from hell... but make it sound more shriek-ey than growl-y.' Did you do it? Congratulations! You are now ready to be a sound designer.
I recall once where my one direction for a massive roar was to make it more 'meaty'. I pitched it down, added some watery elements to make it sound more wet, and modulated one of the layers at high speed to make it sound like it physically hurt the throat, as though bits of flapping skin were being torn loose inside. In the end, it was exactly what the designer had been looking for, but he didn't need to specify all those individual steps. That part was my job.
Develop Online also had an article exploring the trend of working for free and the corresponding controversy surrounding it. You can read it here.
The first half of the article reads more like a PR defence - 'we do pay for our music!' - but later on it tackles a few more of the issues related to crowd-sourcing and the potential effects on the profession. In a field where the number of people are trying to break in greatly outnumber the pros already working in it, it's a valid concern, and not just for sound designers or composers but artists and writers too. Unfortunately, I feel that market forces decide this matter, and no amount of debate on the industry's part will change things. Much like how Nintendo can beg people not to sell their games for one dollar, but that won't stop them from doing it.
In other news, I've been setting up a new desktop PC as an exclusive editing station, mostly so that I don't have my DAW competing for resources with background programs like Steam or anti-virus or chat clients, and the hard drive can be dedicated entirely to programs and sound data, instead of having to compete with games and photos and funny cat videos. It might do some good things for my productivity besides - there are a few too many distractions floating around on my personal computer...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Another great piece on audio from Gamasutra
Team Audio Relies On You To Let Us Know
Great, if pedantic, list. I'd say it's worth reading just so other departments know what kind of flow-on effects their asset use and changes have for sound. VFX especially. One of my worst nightmares was on a game where the big, massive, damage-dealing steam bursts and fires were then later used in miniature by the hundreds as set dressing.
Very amusing writing style, besides.
On the personal front, I finished up my contract with KMM Interactive Entertainment a week or so ago and have moved back into liquid asset phase. It's a lousy time of year to be fishing around for studio work, so I'll be looking into some freelancing in the short term. It would be nice to stay in Australia, but with the state of local industry I've been brushing up on my Japanese and French (for Japan, France, or Canada) and sorting out that American passport too.
Hopefully I'll be able to use the time to do some more field recording as well! And maybe brush up on some neglected skills. And do some work on my own indie game projects. And maybe finally play some of the games I haven't had the time for in recent months. ...There's never enough hours in the day!
Great, if pedantic, list. I'd say it's worth reading just so other departments know what kind of flow-on effects their asset use and changes have for sound. VFX especially. One of my worst nightmares was on a game where the big, massive, damage-dealing steam bursts and fires were then later used in miniature by the hundreds as set dressing.
Very amusing writing style, besides.
On the personal front, I finished up my contract with KMM Interactive Entertainment a week or so ago and have moved back into liquid asset phase. It's a lousy time of year to be fishing around for studio work, so I'll be looking into some freelancing in the short term. It would be nice to stay in Australia, but with the state of local industry I've been brushing up on my Japanese and French (for Japan, France, or Canada) and sorting out that American passport too.
Hopefully I'll be able to use the time to do some more field recording as well! And maybe brush up on some neglected skills. And do some work on my own indie game projects. And maybe finally play some of the games I haven't had the time for in recent months. ...There's never enough hours in the day!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
That awful sound a starving buffer makes
I know this was merely meant to be a parody from Dorkly.com, but this is extra funny for all those soundies who've ever had an NDEV kit crash on them while wearing headphones with the volume cranked high.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
About Audio Milestones
Saw this piece on Gamasutra today, it is definitely worth a read, as it's a matter I've complained about many times in the past.
Gamasutra - Opinion: Team Audio VS The Milestone
In my personal experience, another method not mentioned here has been to simply bump the audio requirements for milestone to the next milestone (up until the last one, of course). There are issues with this, however - not least being developers often wanting to 'sell' their current milestone work to the publisher by adding sound. I even worked on a team once where it was common to receive requests to make sounds for assets that didn't exist yet, as a sort of placeholder to cover for them. Like how cheap animations will sometimes use a still shot of a car careening around a corner and have sound do the work of movement with tyres screeching and engine roaring. This occasionally led to some really awesome developments, where the animator would hear the sound, like it, and then animate to the sound effect. Much, much, much more often, however, it involved a whole lot of redesign. Which is okay early in the project when you have time to spare, but gets a bit stressful later when you simply don't have the time to redesign sounds.
In that respect, I think the separate 'Audio Milestone' is a pretty good idea... except setting it up like that has the potential to erode any collaboration you can get with the rest of the team as they create their assets. It's really really easy to become the closeted sound fairy that adds audio to the build you put under the pillow, but the very best sound design comes from working closely with the team, where they can communicate what audio cues they'd like and can in turn meet you halfway in things like firing rates or features or flybys (how much cooler could you make that flyby sound if it were a little slower/faster/came from behind?)
Another way, which has happened more often than not, is that audio doesn't even get included in the milestone schedule. I've never quite figured this one out, but I'll take it as a mark of trust that they believe Team Audio will get it all done in time.
Gamasutra - Opinion: Team Audio VS The Milestone
In my personal experience, another method not mentioned here has been to simply bump the audio requirements for milestone to the next milestone (up until the last one, of course). There are issues with this, however - not least being developers often wanting to 'sell' their current milestone work to the publisher by adding sound. I even worked on a team once where it was common to receive requests to make sounds for assets that didn't exist yet, as a sort of placeholder to cover for them. Like how cheap animations will sometimes use a still shot of a car careening around a corner and have sound do the work of movement with tyres screeching and engine roaring. This occasionally led to some really awesome developments, where the animator would hear the sound, like it, and then animate to the sound effect. Much, much, much more often, however, it involved a whole lot of redesign. Which is okay early in the project when you have time to spare, but gets a bit stressful later when you simply don't have the time to redesign sounds.
In that respect, I think the separate 'Audio Milestone' is a pretty good idea... except setting it up like that has the potential to erode any collaboration you can get with the rest of the team as they create their assets. It's really really easy to become the closeted sound fairy that adds audio to the build you put under the pillow, but the very best sound design comes from working closely with the team, where they can communicate what audio cues they'd like and can in turn meet you halfway in things like firing rates or features or flybys (how much cooler could you make that flyby sound if it were a little slower/faster/came from behind?)
Another way, which has happened more often than not, is that audio doesn't even get included in the milestone schedule. I've never quite figured this one out, but I'll take it as a mark of trust that they believe Team Audio will get it all done in time.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Concert Report: The Music of John Williams
I've been negligent in my posting for the past month or so. I've been updating my resume and showreel for when my current contract ends, and showreels are one of those things that you can worry at endlessly, making a hundred little tweaks that eventually bring you in a circle.
And so, I am quite overdue on the latest concert report: A little over a month ago, I headed down to Sydneyagain for the day for a concert that has long been on my bucket list of concerts.
The event in question?
Again, I can't shake that suspicion that somebody has been reading my diary and making all of my wildest dreams come true. A John Williams concert in Australia is awesome in itself, but one hosted by Shaun Micallef? That is right up there with that Professor Layton versus Phoenix Wright crossover.
That said, it actually wasn't so many months ago that I would have quite happily never listened to the Star Wars soundtrack again - I have spent almost three of my six or so years as a sound designer working on various Star Wars and Clone Wars games. Time can apparently heal all wounds, as the prospect was quite exciting and I bought the tickets before fully registering my actions.
It was held, much like the Distant Worlds concert, at the Sydney Opera House, which is always a treat.
There were cosplayers! Who I unfortunately did not get pictures of, because we arrived with only ten minutes to spare. But there was little girl dressed as Princess Leia which was the cutest thing ever (and an equally adorable little Darth Vadar), and a sand person! A couple of generic Jedi wandering the floor too.
Had fantastic seats, only five rows back, dead centre. And I'm pleased to say that Shaun Micallef is as amusing live as he is on TV.
THE SETLIST:
Olympic Fanfare - written for the 1984 Olympics, I was more familiar with the 1996 Atlanta Games version, so it was nice to hear the original! You actually feel like the Olympics are starting when you listen to this piece of music. While listening, it occurred to me how surprisingly rare it is to hear such boldly brassy original compositions these days.
Theme from Lost In Space - Shortest piece of the set, highly enjoyable, though I cannot remember the television show to save my life.
Theme from Jaws - You wouldn't expect this to be that exciting as a full piece, but there was more complexity to the Jaws Theme than I recalled.
Highlights from Close Encounters of the Third Kind - a tediously boring movie, with a much more interesting soundtrack.
Adventures on Earth - Concert suite from E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial) - Very nostalgic, made me want to watch E.T. again. Though the middle section had the effect of lulling me to sleep like a particularly pleasant lullaby.
Theme from Schindler's List - This piece of music is singularly moving and it is very important to never ever listen to it when feeling sad or depressed. The solo violin was performed beautifully.
The Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark - Everyone knows the Indiana Jones theme, right? Sydney Symphony didn't put a single note wrong.
Theme from Jurassic Park - They did however, get some of the timing slightly off with this piece, though honestly, you would only notice if you'd listened to the theme a hundred times before. In that respect, the Sydney Symphony had quite the task before them.
Theme from Superman - Shaun Micallef has ruined this forever, as I will now be hearing 'Is it a bird, is it a plane, it's Su-per-man!' with every stab of the motif. This performance I could not fault at all.
INTERMISSION.
The second half started with the March from 1941 - I hadn't even heard of this movie, it was a military piece with a sort of Hogan's Heroes feel to it. Turned out Steven Spielberg directed the movie, will have to check it out somtime.
Then Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter - I could have listened to this for the whole two hours. They did a stunning job with this. I'd heard it performed by the local Pops orchestra before, but it didn't come close to this performance.
Sayuri's Theme from Memoir's of a Geisha - this was a beautiful rendition of Sayuri's theme, and such a departure from John William's usual style, a wonderful meld of asian and western instruments. Proof that even after sixty years of writing music, he still has something completely new to offer.
Then, for the final run... Highlights from Star Wars. This section in particular was executed flawlessly, and fulfilled a lifelong dream to hear live. The very first soundtrack I saved up to buy with my own money was the two-disc special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope - which was fiendishly expensive for the time. I still have that CD today.
They started off with the Main Title, and dropped the concert hall into darkness... and then the conductor lit up a lightsaber, and conducted the first few notes with it!
The Imperial March was of course next, and the bar staff came out dressed as a very convincing Darth Vadar accompanied by a retinue of Stormtroopers.
Then Princess Leia's Theme.
Then the Catina Band Theme! True fact - I can listen to this music loop for hours at a time for months on end and not get sick of it. I know this because I have in fact done this, as I used it as placeholder music for one of the levels on The Force Unleashed.
They finished off with the Throne Room and End Titles. And so concluded an absolutely mind-blowing concert.
My only complaint is that there wasn't more. The encore was only a quick reprise of the Superman theme.
Maybe for the best, because then we had to race back to the airport to catch our flight home!
....One of these days, hopefully I won't have to travel 1000km to attend such concerts. I am trying not to be too cut by the revelation that Distant Worlds is going to play again in Adelaide late 2011, while Brisbane continues to languish in the film and game concert wilderness.
And so, I am quite overdue on the latest concert report: A little over a month ago, I headed down to Sydney
The event in question?
Again, I can't shake that suspicion that somebody has been reading my diary and making all of my wildest dreams come true. A John Williams concert in Australia is awesome in itself, but one hosted by Shaun Micallef? That is right up there with that Professor Layton versus Phoenix Wright crossover.
That said, it actually wasn't so many months ago that I would have quite happily never listened to the Star Wars soundtrack again - I have spent almost three of my six or so years as a sound designer working on various Star Wars and Clone Wars games. Time can apparently heal all wounds, as the prospect was quite exciting and I bought the tickets before fully registering my actions.
It was held, much like the Distant Worlds concert, at the Sydney Opera House, which is always a treat.
There were cosplayers! Who I unfortunately did not get pictures of, because we arrived with only ten minutes to spare. But there was little girl dressed as Princess Leia which was the cutest thing ever (and an equally adorable little Darth Vadar), and a sand person! A couple of generic Jedi wandering the floor too.
Had fantastic seats, only five rows back, dead centre. And I'm pleased to say that Shaun Micallef is as amusing live as he is on TV.
THE SETLIST:
Olympic Fanfare - written for the 1984 Olympics, I was more familiar with the 1996 Atlanta Games version, so it was nice to hear the original! You actually feel like the Olympics are starting when you listen to this piece of music. While listening, it occurred to me how surprisingly rare it is to hear such boldly brassy original compositions these days.
Theme from Lost In Space - Shortest piece of the set, highly enjoyable, though I cannot remember the television show to save my life.
Theme from Jaws - You wouldn't expect this to be that exciting as a full piece, but there was more complexity to the Jaws Theme than I recalled.
Highlights from Close Encounters of the Third Kind - a tediously boring movie, with a much more interesting soundtrack.
Adventures on Earth - Concert suite from E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial) - Very nostalgic, made me want to watch E.T. again. Though the middle section had the effect of lulling me to sleep like a particularly pleasant lullaby.
Theme from Schindler's List - This piece of music is singularly moving and it is very important to never ever listen to it when feeling sad or depressed. The solo violin was performed beautifully.
The Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark - Everyone knows the Indiana Jones theme, right? Sydney Symphony didn't put a single note wrong.
Theme from Jurassic Park - They did however, get some of the timing slightly off with this piece, though honestly, you would only notice if you'd listened to the theme a hundred times before. In that respect, the Sydney Symphony had quite the task before them.
Theme from Superman - Shaun Micallef has ruined this forever, as I will now be hearing 'Is it a bird, is it a plane, it's Su-per-man!' with every stab of the motif. This performance I could not fault at all.
INTERMISSION.
The second half started with the March from 1941 - I hadn't even heard of this movie, it was a military piece with a sort of Hogan's Heroes feel to it. Turned out Steven Spielberg directed the movie, will have to check it out somtime.
Then Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter - I could have listened to this for the whole two hours. They did a stunning job with this. I'd heard it performed by the local Pops orchestra before, but it didn't come close to this performance.
Sayuri's Theme from Memoir's of a Geisha - this was a beautiful rendition of Sayuri's theme, and such a departure from John William's usual style, a wonderful meld of asian and western instruments. Proof that even after sixty years of writing music, he still has something completely new to offer.
Then, for the final run... Highlights from Star Wars. This section in particular was executed flawlessly, and fulfilled a lifelong dream to hear live. The very first soundtrack I saved up to buy with my own money was the two-disc special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope - which was fiendishly expensive for the time. I still have that CD today.
They started off with the Main Title, and dropped the concert hall into darkness... and then the conductor lit up a lightsaber, and conducted the first few notes with it!
The Imperial March was of course next, and the bar staff came out dressed as a very convincing Darth Vadar accompanied by a retinue of Stormtroopers.
Then Princess Leia's Theme.
Then the Catina Band Theme! True fact - I can listen to this music loop for hours at a time for months on end and not get sick of it. I know this because I have in fact done this, as I used it as placeholder music for one of the levels on The Force Unleashed.
They finished off with the Throne Room and End Titles. And so concluded an absolutely mind-blowing concert.
My only complaint is that there wasn't more. The encore was only a quick reprise of the Superman theme.
Maybe for the best, because then we had to race back to the airport to catch our flight home!
....One of these days, hopefully I won't have to travel 1000km to attend such concerts. I am trying not to be too cut by the revelation that Distant Worlds is going to play again in Adelaide late 2011, while Brisbane continues to languish in the film and game concert wilderness.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
A Reminder To Always Carry A Microphone
On Friday, having changed bags for evening classes, I completely forgot to bring my portable recorder with me.
Normally, not a big deal. But on this particular Friday...
On the way to lunch, I passed a demolition site. Where they'd broken out the wrecking ball.
During lunch, a trio of military helicopters flew overhead at speed, to practice for the air show for the River Festival launch the next day.
On the way back from lunch, the demolition crew had moved to some of the side buildings, and were taking out the windows with sledgehammers.
Needless to say, lesson learnt.
Normally, not a big deal. But on this particular Friday...
On the way to lunch, I passed a demolition site. Where they'd broken out the wrecking ball.
During lunch, a trio of military helicopters flew overhead at speed, to practice for the air show for the River Festival launch the next day.
On the way back from lunch, the demolition crew had moved to some of the side buildings, and were taking out the windows with sledgehammers.
Needless to say, lesson learnt.
Friday, August 12, 2011
For Want of a Plugin
Working in video games, you often get to cover the whole range of tasks in the audio spectrum - mixing, recording, sound design, implementation. Ambience, foley, voice over, music. It's good, it keeps things diverse!
Sometimes, though, you feel as though you've turned into Dr Frankenstein as you wield scalpels to painfully perform cosmetic surgery on a face that was already beautiful.
Today was one of those days. I'm still not entirely sure what happened further up the line, but it turned out the pickups that were recorded for one of the languages used a different voice actor for the main character to the voice they recorded the rest of the lines with. They went to some effort to use a soundalike, but the result unfortunately remained jarringly obvious, especially as many of the lines are played back-to-back with lines performed by the original actor.
With little prospect of a re-record so close to submission, the best bet was to try and mould the new voice over to better match the original - at least enough to fool an ear on casual listening.
In other words, my goal for the day became to make 25 lines of this:
Sound as much like this as possible:
This is one area I've found Audition has always been pretty good for - this kind of awful corrective surgery. It's always been a bit weak in multitrack and surround editing (although reports so far indicate that the latest edition of the program have gone some ways into correcting this), but as a stereo editor, once outfitted with some external plugins, it's one of my favourites.
I do wish there were more EQ-matching plugins around, though. This would have been the perfect moment to have a reliable one on hand. The few I've tried in the past have hovered between not very good and nightmarishly user-unfriendly. To the point where I get better results attacking the spectral view with an effects brush and painstakingly fiddling with graphic and parametric EQs, flicking back and forth between examples.
The ideal such plugin would be to load an example waveform in for analysis, then to save that analysis out as a preset that can then be applied to the sound you wish to modify (with adjustable parameters, naturally). There have been a lot of instances where this would save me so much time - instead of fiddling with EQ, I could focus on other areas like pitch and volume correction.
I've heard there's a fairly expensive ProAudio VST bundle going around with something a bit like this. But in retrospect, maybe this is actually a bit lazy. I have, essentially, just made a wish for a plugin that will do half of the mastering process for me. Next request: Press button, make soundtrack.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)