There are a few scenarios that I, and every other Sound Editor I know, come across in almost everything that we work on. The most persistent of which seems to be water. In the last month alone, I’ve cut a scene with a family of octopuses swimming in a shallow bay, a scene with a whole ocean being split like Moses at the Red Sea, and an action packed surfing sequence.
Cutting Water sounds effects can be really hit or miss if you don’t have the right tools in your arsenal, so here are a few tips to make sure your water sounds really make a splash.
This week, I sat down with our in house foley editor, Carol, to get some insight on digital foley!
As sound editors, speaking about sound design with clients requires a kind of foreign language. I often find myself making silly noises in an effort to either interpret what a client is looking for or to pitch an idea of my own. There’s a shorthand however, that both editor and filmmaker are aware of. An entire language has been laid out for us in the incredible work of sound designers past. I’m talking about films that are ‘in the canon’ for having memorable sound design moments.
A Shepard Tone is a sound that creates the auditory illusion of a constantly rising or falling pitch. One of the most recognizable instances of a Shepard Tone in recent sound design is the Batpod from The Dark Knight. Here, I’ll explain how you can make a Shepard Tone for your own design needs.
A lot of our creative blogs are focused on sound effects, so for today’s blog we are switching it up and giving you some helpful insight on dialogue editing with our in house dialogue editor, J-Lo.
Supervising Sound Editor, Tess Fournier, gave us an inside look at some toon sound effects that she recently created!
This past fall, I took part in a panel put together by Soundgirls, and hosted by Sony Studios, called Career Paths in Film and TV Sound. This was a kickass panel with audio professionals from all different backgrounds, with all different backstories and insights, who are at the top of their game. And our careers are just getting started. We talked about what drew us to the sound profession in the first place. We talked about working our way up with unerring drive and determination from the machine room, the tape vault, the intern desk. We talked about staying all night to observe mixers and read manuals. This was a panel about tenacity. And it just happened to be led by women.
Katie was hired as a sound effects editor a few months ago and today we are going to get to know more about her career at Boom Box thus far and some advice/goals she has!
For this blog post I decided to talk a bit about a tool I frequently use when designing hover vehicles. Waves MondoMod is a great modulation tool and super user friendly to use and play around with to create phasing and oscillation effects. While you can use it for a variety of effects, I really enjoy using it to its more extremes in creating scifi sounds like hovercrafts.
Sound effects editor Brad Meyer is always designing amazing effects with unique builds and altering plugins. This week, well chat with him about a steady and pass by effect he created for a super fast running animal.
We have sound editors coming in to test for us on a regular basis. The single most common difference between an editor who has worked largely alone versus one that has worked within a sound team is the lack of knowledge when it comes to the basics. There are three concepts I consider essential that I ask edit testers about right off the bat: Perspective Cutting, Stair Stepping, Color Coding. I can learn a lot about their familiarity with these concepts based on their response. Even a slight hesitance to answer is a dead giveaway; you’ve only worked alone and without much direction.
A few weeks ago we sat down with our new intern Frederick to learn more about him and his interests. This week we’ll check in with our other intern BriElle Achterhof and find our her background.
We all have technical difficulties from time to time, especially when using software are intricate as ProTools. But, after years of making what seems like every mistake in the book, hanging out on Avid DUC, and stalking Gearslutz.com, I pride myself in my ability to overhear frantic technical freakouts and supply solid advice on the best course of action. Here are a few of the problems I see most often, and and how to get through them while salvaging as much of your work and sanity as possible.
Dynamics processing is valuable for many kinds of audio work. Compressors, Limiters and Transient Shapers have become so ubiquitous that you would struggle to find a piece of recorded music, film or television show where one of these tools was not used. These processes have applications for the sound editor as well, allowing you to control dynamics in your own recorded sound effects or beef up a key element in a build for a big moment. In this basic overview, I’m going to talk about a specific plug-in for the three types of processing mentioned above, but the principles discussed here can apply to any manufacturer’s software, or even hardware tools.
Its a new year which also means a new class of interns! This week we will learn more about Frederick Archuleta and what he is excited about for the next few months of his internship here at Boom Box.
2018 has been an exciting time for us and we have been happy to share it with you! We have had some exciting expansions to our studio including a mix stage, worked on some amazing projects and attended fun events through the year. Here is a look back and some highlights of the year 2018 at Boom Box!
Happy holidays from everyone at Boom Box post!
The SiFi genre offers up so much creativity from a visual aspect but also opens up a lot of potential for cool sound design. This week, we will chat with sound editor Tess Fournier about a futuristic disintegration design she created.
All great editors start out as good editors. The hope is that you evolve as time passes, into an exceptional talent. I have seen it time and again here at Boom Box, often in very short order. An editor with lots of skill and professionalism decides to push for more. These great editors form our core team; the kind of editors you want to keep around. So what’s the secret? Well I’m happy to tell you that going from good sound editor to great sound editor is not that complicated.
A few weeks ago, we sent out our current intern Peter on a field recording challenge to find and capture specific and creative sounds. This week, we will see what our intern Jen found and find out more of her process of recording.
