We recently highlighted the following blog post from co-owner, Kate Finan for our readers: Five Ways To Guarantee Success When Designing Signature Sounds. Kate’s post inspired me to think of the sounds in our series that have become iconic. As a backgrounds and foley editor on The Loud House, I’ve become familiar with the recurring tropes of this series, one of the most notable being the iconic “fight cloud” brawls. These scuffles feature characters jumping into a big ball/cloud of dust as they wail away and feature our signature sound design to elevate the humor. In this post we’ll take a look at the sound design layers that combine to make the signature sound of The Loud House fight cloud, as heard in the scene below:
For our Signature Sounds of Boom Box Post series I’m not going to dive into a comprehensive sound design guide but rather showcase a few layers. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide on how to design your own fight cloud, check out this post I wrote last year: Mailbag: How To Design A Fight Cloud where I attempted to design my own version. I’m happy to say that after digging into the build we use for The Loud House, my own approach was strikingly similar!
These fight cloud sound effects builds can feel difficult to deconstruct and conceptualize as there’s so much sound happening at once.. In the same way Kate’s post advises us to design signature sounds one element at a time, lets break them down one element at a time.
Layer 1: Impacts. This layer is comprised of rapid fire punches, slaps and various fight impacts. It’s the most important layer of the build for capturing the essence of the characters wailing on each other and providing comedic value. To achieve this, the The Loud House sound editorial team thoughtfully selected, recorded, and processed a large group of sounds that were then edited down and arranged in succession to create a steady stream of brawling sounds.
Layer 2: Body Tumbles: This layer conveys the characters rolling around on the floor and on each other as they fight. It’s comprised of a wide variety of cloth (rubs, movements, pats), body falls and shuffling. Again, these individual sounds are multiplied and cut closely in succession to create constant sound.
And together? Here’s a short example of the full build with just these two layers! It’s simple yet very effective design.
Layer 3: Miscellaneous Flourishes (optional). This layer can include anything from debris to animal screams, any flourish to heighten the humor. These flourishes aren’t as signature as they’re a more case by case basis that considers the full context of the scene.
So that’s it? But what makes it signature? This is where our unique, thoughtful sound choices and original recordings do a lot of heavy lifting to form the identity of these sounds. Here’s an excerpt from Kate’s post on approaching signature sound design that I find very valuable:
[Signature] sounds should be given extra love. These elements should not just sound cool, but they need to embody the style of the show. Ask yourself, what personality should this item have? What is it made from (technology, organic matter, energy, junky plastic, etc)? Should it make the audience laugh? Should it make them cringe? And finally, how can you design this element so that it will always cut through the mix? If it’s signature, it needs to be heard. Take the answers to these questions and then go to work with your design tools. Those could be new libraries that you purchase online, your field recording kit, synth iPad apps, or even just a sine wave and your favorite plugin. Whatever you do, don’t just put an old library sound on it. Make something new and so obviously different that the audience will be forced to think of this show whenever they hear it, because they’ve never heard anything like it before!
what other signature sounds from our series would you like us to break down?
If you enjoyed this blog, check out these:
CREATING MOTION IN SOUND DESIGN USING PITCH
LAYERING SOUND EFFECTS: HOW AND WHY?
DESIGNING A STADIUM CONCERT CROWD