The Boom Box Post blog provides insights into the creative sound design process of Boom Box Post's owners and employees.
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Editor Post
It’s very rare that a sound editor will cut in a single sound effect to match a visual on screen. Usually, we’re layering multiple effects together to create something new. Why do we do this? Because the result is usually something more rich and interesting than a single effect by itself. But layering can be unnecessary and frustrating for your mixer if you don’t do it with purpose. I’d like to talk about the right and wrong ways to layer sound effects to get the most out of your editorial.
Let’s discuss distinct winter sounds to capture and enhance your sound library!
Over the past few years, Dolby Atmos has become an increasingly common format in the industry. We are starting to see more and more movies, TV shows, and albums released in Atmos. What was once originally reserved for Hollywood blockbusters, has now trickled down to smaller scale productions, animation, and even childrens content. Thanks to advancements in technology, Atmos has grown increasingly accessible. Gone are the days when Atmos was a gimmick that could only be experienced in major theaters. With new affordable products such as soundbars, Atmos has been introduced into households across the world.
Foley is a crucial element in the world of filmmaking and audio production. It refers to the art of creating and recording sound effects to synchronize with the visual elements of a film or other visual media. The history of Foley can be traced back to the early days of cinema, and it has since evolved into a specialized and essential field within the film and television industry.
Before I began learning how to mix professionally, Pro Tools automation was a complete mystery to me. Working in post production often necessitates at least some understanding of automation, and if you’re mixing, you need to be an expert.
At Boom Box Post, we have the opportunity to work on various different types of animation, ranging from children’s animation to adult animation. When it comes to animation, whether it's targeted at children or adults, sound effects have a significant impact on the overall feel and immersion. Sound plays an important factor in bringing animation to life. In this blog post, we'll delve into the fascinating world of sound effects and explore the key differences between those used in children's animation and adult animation.
Jayson Niner recently moved from his position as assistant sound editor to editor here at Boom Box Post. We sat down with Jayson to get his thoughts on his new position, and if he has any advice to offer.
Did you enjoy What’s That Sound part 1, 2, and 3? Let’s see if you can guess what sounds we have come up with this time! Listen carefully!
Dialogue editing is an essential part of the post-production process for animated TV shows, and one we take very seriously at Boom Box Post! Clear, crisp, organized, and coherent dialogue is the bedrock of any TV show. Meticulously shaping, enhancing, and cleaning up the voice performances does wonders to breathe life into the characters as well as streamline the mixing process.
Digital Foley is often a straight-forward and technical element of the sound design we create for a TV show, and it can become a simple skill for an editor’s toolbox that amplifies each episode. Though footsteps are a small detail in the entirety of a sound edit, it is sometimes tedious and overwhelming to transition similar Foley edits between episodes. Listed below are a few quick alternative solutions that I use when editing Foley.
In animation, large crowds serve to support the fullness and sonic versatility of a scene. However, it is easy to get lost in an audience’s hyperactivity and noise, which can potentially distract the listener instead of guiding them through the narrative of the show. Read below to see how sound effects editor Ben approaches a stadium crowd design.
Creating an exciting sound mix for television can be a HUGE challenge. Way back in 2020, I explained the basic structure of my mixing process, but there is a lot more to mixing than just following a list of steps. I also like to consider goals or objectives I want to achieve during the process. These vary from project to project, but here are three mixing objectives I often keep in mind while I work through each mix.
Not too long ago, I was given the creative opportunity to build a unique version of a camper van out of non-traditional motor sounds. The job was to make something that resembled a motor out of sounds that were not machinery or would sound like a realistic engine. This was a fun challenge and proof of concept that you can make a motor out of anything!
With such a wide variety of TV shows, our sound effects editors can end up designing some pretty out-of-this-world sound effects builds, like balloon nightmares, interdimensional time jumps, and even monster armies! For another imaginative look into some of the exciting sound effects we create at Boom Box Post, sound effects editor Natalia is sharing a deeper dive into how she approaches designing a magical tree transformation. Read more to learn how finding unique library sounds can contribute to a supernatural metamorphosis.
As I’m building upon my sound editing skills, a critique I often receive is that my sound effects build is not utilizing a fuller frequency range, so it’s not as impactful during previews. Developing a dynamic frequency range into my builds isn’t just important for having powerful sound moments, it’s also essential for ensuring that the sound effects translate on all possible listening platforms, like a huge Dolby Atmos theatre and tiny pair of ear buds. In order to tackle this challenge, I asked two of our supervising sound editors, Brad Meyer, MPSE, and Tess Fournier, MPSE, to play a frequency-association game. I named some commonly referenced frequency ranges, and they followed up with sound effects that come to mind, and why these particular ranges are valuable for creating effective sound effects builds.
As an animation dialogue editor, I usually work with clean and high quality recording files. However, in the past two years, the pandemic changed a big amount of my work routine. The files I received are mostly recorded by voice actors themselves at home from Zoom meetings. Some files are recorded from a bad microphone position, some are recorded in a reverberant space, and some have frequency humming in the background. I spend a lot of time cleaning up the recording files as best as I can, so I’m always on the lookout for a good noise reduction plug-in. DNS One from Cedar has a good reputation from a lot of mixers and dialogue editors, so I gave it a try.
Creature vocals or monster vocals, if you will, are one of the more conceptually challenging elements to telling a story through sound. I always struggle with, “Is it real enough?” or “Is this vocal believable for this creature on screen?” Of course, that’s a matter of personal opinion and experience, but there are some approaches that make the design process of these vocals a little more palpable and easier to arrive at the “finished” product.
Today I’m going to be discussing a virtual instrument called Gravity by the folks at Heavyocity. It’s loaded into and powered by Kontakt Engine by Native Instruments. While Gravity itself doesn’t have a free version available, Kontakt is available as both a free version and full version. Gravity is an incredible, extensively customizable virtual instrument designed predominantly for use in modern scoring. It’s comprised of 4 instrumentation sections: Hits, Pads, Risers, and Stings. Each of these 4 main sections breaks down further into complex blends of the loaded-in beautiful, high quality samples within the category as well as the simplified individual samples for additional customization with the effects and other adjustable parameters.
Space Controller allows for a new way to pan sound sources instead of the traditional method of using knobs, joysticks, or a computer mouse. There is a separate app for mobile devices which allows the device to be used as a movement reader to pan the sounds according to the position of the device.
Before audio post-production was even a possibility, composers would incorporate the emotion and the action of what they saw on the screen into their musical scores. They played the role of sound FX editor and composer, with a technique referred to as “Mickey-Mousing” where the composer would exaggerate a character’s movements with specific orchestration and musical motives. Now that sound FX editors have taken this role in post-production, Mickey-Mousing is less common, so it’s key for sound FX editors to make cuts that work with the music in the overall mix for a film or tv-show. Here are some considerations and tips that our team shared on their approach to editing with music in mind.
