A COLLABORATIVE POST
BOOM BOX POST
This past summer, our interns Renata Schmult and Jennifer Bonilla were hanging new posters around the office and we found ourselves with an extra acrylic sheet from an old poster frame. Most wouldn’t give it a second thought before disposing of the piece of junk… but as they say, one’s trash is another’s treasure. For an ambitious sound editor and recordist like Renata, this lone acrylic sheet sparked other ideas. She bent, wrenched, wobbled, flapped and fumbled the acrylic sheet, excited by the expressive sounds she could produce of it. She planned out a list of recordings and brought the sheet into our new, sparkly, remodeled VO booth to see what she could record! Below are some of the sounds she achieved from the session!
Wandering the office looking for Renata… finally found her
The various pitch bend sounds Renata performed provide useful layers to classic toon design or source material for more experimental design. We created some simple variations by pitching the recordings up and down. The slower bends are expressive and versatile but can be especially useful for bubbly, slippery, boingy effects, or even more organic alternates for synthesized 8-bit video game sounds. The faster, higher pitched bends can serve as alternatives or layers to poinks or string plucks—great for toon reactions.
She really dives into the classic toon with the wobble performances. These effectively convey a sense of nervousness, embarrassment, awkwardness or instability (check our our series: Toon Sounds for Conveying Emotion). The slower, lower pitched wobbles feel like a strong design layer to enhance visual effects or trippy, designy moments like this fever dream build Sound Effects Editor, Jayson Niner created recently. And you’d never guess, but the low rumbles she created with this same sheet of acrylic can be utilized to bolster a wide gamut of thunderous textures, earthquake rumbles, thrusters, etc.
Thanks to Renata for contributing these useful sounds to the Boom Box Post sound effects Library!
We hope you enjoyed listening to the expressive sounds she was able to produce from an otherwise unremarkable piece of junk! Post and stay tuned for more Intern Recording Challenges.
If you enjoyed this blog, check out these:
INTERN RECORD CHALLENGE: HULA HOOPS
APPRENTICE RECORDING CHALLENGE: TYPEWRITERS
INTERN RECORDING CHALLENGE: HARD SOUND EFFECTS