WRITTEN BY Tess Fournier
MPSE Supervising SOUND EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
Tess was tasked with designing a laser beam for a spaceship that would intensify over time. It was important to the story that the laser was not only intense, but extremely hot in temperature.
What was your brainstorming process?
Because the story called for heat, I knew I would want to include some fire in my build. Also, the style of the story was a bit retro, so I felt that using mid-range sawtooth-like synths would compliment that nicely. The visuals of the laser beam had an electric looking aura around it, so I also thought some electricity sounds were needed. Lastly, I knew I wanted this to rise in pitch over time to sell that it was increasing in intensity, so I needed to choose layers that would process well through a pitch plugin.
Could you give me the step by step process of what you added to build the sound?
After brainstorming the elements I needed, I settled on three synth layers I liked. One reminded me a bit of a lightsaber drone, which I felt was fitting for the space theme. One was a straight sawtooth wave, and the last was a bit more etherial which made the sound of my laser a bit more interesting.
Next, I found two electricity layers, both of which provided some interesting texture.
I pitch shifted all of those layers to rise from low-to-high throughout the scene.
Then I added some fire and rumble as a sweetener; those elements don’t usually pitch well, so I kept those static in pitch just to give the build some heft and heat.
All together the build sounds like this.
How did you make this build your own?
I think it’s important to design builds from scratch when working on new projects. It would have been easy for me to find a fully fleshed out laser design, pitch it, and call it a day - but that would not only be a bit boring for me as a sound editor, but also it would have made this sound something that could be heard in any number of other projects. By building up the layers and processing in my own way, I created something new and completely unique to this show.
What would you suggest to new editors on how to go about building a similar design?
If you need something that rises in pitch over a long period of time, make sure you’re choosing sounds that will process well to give you that drama you’re looking for.
Any plugins that you used that you recommend?
I used Waves Graphic SoundShifter to pitch my build from low-to-high. I also used Signal Generator to create the sawtooth synth layer. I usually use various apps on my iPad when playing around with synths, but I knew I wanted that sawtooth feel for this design so I just looked straight to Signal Generator. When I was first starting my editing career, I used to create steadies with Signal Generator a lot and then manipulate them with other plugins. I think Signal Generator is a really useful plugin for creating simple synths and also for dipping ones toe into designing unique synth steadies.
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