Thursday 17th May 2012 – How to Make a Robotic Dinosaur – Jay Harris – Sound Designer

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jay

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an old advert that Geoffrey Lebreton had put up asking for help creating sound design and music for his animated short. The advert was old so he had found the help he was looking for, but as I really liked the trailer I asked him if he wouldn’t mind me making my own version of the trailer. He consented to this and here it is!

The trailer only really presented one problem and that is it’s fast-moving nature. This adds to the excitement and mystery of the animation, which is vital for a trailer but meant it could be difficult to follow. To ease this, I wanted to emphasise continuity and detail. Continuity was actually handed to me due to the presence of the ‘runner’s-eye-view’ sections that punctuate the piece. The idea behind adding detail to very short movements was that such detail would make the viewer catch these occurrences as they should serve to prick up the viewer’s ears. I had to be careful though as too much would make the whole thing messy.

With these ideas in my mind, I started work on my favourite part, and that was creating the noises that a gigantic mechanical dinosaur may make!

I started off with the roar at the end of the clip. I could have created my own dinosaur sound, and probably would have done it by combining the noises of various animals (I hear elephant and lion roars are popular) but I heard a perfect ready-made dinosaur sound so I used that instead! The interesting part here would be making it sound mechanical. I did this by trawling through my own recordings and included a clattering fairground ride, the noise of a very old and powerful motorcycle having it’s engine revved and another mechanical-sounding noise (I cant remember where this came from though!).

Next came the sound of the dinosaur running. This was achieved by combining recordings I had made of my electric car windows going up and down and also of the car door slamming shut. These were shifted down in pitch to make them sound lower and therefore more massive. These sounds still weren’t cutting it though as they still sounded far too small. To combat this, I found a synth recording that sounded like giant footsteps and overlaid it. This had a lot of bass in it and was therefore perfect for conveying immense size. On a technical note, I passed all of the sounds through the same compressor and reverb unit to ‘glue’ them together and make them seem as one. Finally, I fed the roar through a further compressor far too loud to make it distort and give a sense of the sound being painfully loud.

Next were the shuffles and movements of the other characters, which were recorded in real-time as a foley artist might. A few takes were made and combined to get things just right. Then, I recorded the gasps and vocalisations of the characters. These were made using my own voice and then processed and shifted in pitch to sound more alien, as if the characters would have made the sounds themselves.

Of course, some kind of background soundscape was also needed to place all of the characters in a realistic atmosphere. This was achieved by using three recordings of various deserts found online. These were trimmed to take out any parts I felt unsuitable.

After getting all of the volume levels just right, I played and recorded the instrument sounds to add atmosphere, got the levels right and then subjected the whole mix to the same reverb and compression to make it sound like that the recordings are all of the same space, and to also ‘glue’ them together more as a single experience.

Well, there’s only so much you can say about a 16 second short so please do have a watch! See if you can spot the noises that I added!

Feel free to peruse my website to find examples of other projects which I have been involved in as Sound Designer. You will also find other works of sound including orchestral and band composing as well as my soundscape work. Soundscape can be applied to film as well as your experiential marketing campaign and sensory branding to enhance your project’s success.

Contact me if you would like me to work on your film or discuss your entire audio package.

If my work in sound design for film, composing or the use of soundscape in events interests you join my mailing list to find out more.

Thursday 8th December 2011 – Music for Berlin Montage

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Jay

Here is a montage containing various photographs of Berlin taken by a friend who asked if I would like to make some music for it.

I wanted to use a mixture of synth as well as orchestral sounds to fit the various moods throughout the video. This is because working with this combination presents a slightly different challenge: orchestral instruments on their own pretty much balance and mix themselves really as the orchestra is a well-designed instrument in it’s own right and is a well-trodden path. In an orchestra, each instrument has it’s own particular function, frequency range and timbre meaning each has it’s own space to sit in (although there is overlap if you need it). This ‘personal space’ ensures each instrument get’s it’s voice heard with clarity and/or effect because building up similar frequency ranges and incompatible timbres can lead to a confused and ‘muddy’ (unlcear) sound. Synth sounds don’t really come with this control as such because any synthesizer can create such a huge range of sounds on their own and therefore output any range of sound frequencies; it is up to the musician to make the instrument focused and efficient in it’s intended area by adjusting it’s controls.

As the combination of orchestral and synth sounds can sound pretty cheesy, I made a conscious effort to stop that from happening by thinking about the sounds that I needed to use for effect. The synth sounds weren’t replacing orchestral sounds as such (which would be a sensible choice as they could just slot in this well-honed instrument), but had an atmosphere to convey. Orchestral instruments could have done these jobs (although slightly differently) but the overall effect is a precise mood that I wanted to convey.

Well, there are the reasons for my intended path on this one! Please have a watch/listen below and let me know what you think. If you would like me to do something similar for you, or you know somebody that would, please do get in touch.

Displayed with kind permission from Peter Flower.

Fast Tube by Casper

Thursday 13th October 2011 – Watching the Stars

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Jay

Download:

This week, I have started work on some original bedtime music for children. Those of you that have been reading my blog for a while may know about the EP I released called Bedtime Nursery Rhymes, and this is a follow-on from that. This time, rather than use well-established children’s tunes, I wanted to create something with the same concept of sleep-promotion but with original music and with no association to anything lyrical (to keep the focus on the sounds).

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the concept I have been using to create sounds and I thought I would talk about my first go at creating this new bedtime music using these ideas. This track was started with just the name ‘Watching the Stars’ which, as you can see, provided me with two concepts: the idea of watching (stars), and the stars themselves.

I started off by creating the stars, as this would be most obvious and could lead to other ideas. I needed a sparkly, shiny sound; which I translated as high-pitched, pure with some kind of quick, defined attack (note onset). The initial sound would also fade quickly but echo as well as move across the soundscape randomly with varying strengths (some stars are brighter than others!). My synth of choice seems to be Logic’s Sculpture at the moment so I created this sound (along with the others used) using that.

Next, I looked at ‘watching’ and ‘watching stars’ in particular. From this I gathered a sense of space, in terms of being outside (better than watching under glass I think!) as well as the enormity of outer-space; a sense of wonder and amazement; and a sense of calm. As another issue, I realised that the piece would need some kind of melody to make it listenable, although this shouldn’t be too catchy or strong as these factors could impede relaxing and sleep. Having some kind of melody would also serve the second concept of ‘watching’. This is because a melody moves and gives a sense of movement and this is exactly what happens when you scan any particular scene; your eyes move as well as the thoughts accompanying them.

The initial melody I used, although calming, didn’t go anywhere and the monotony it created was far from creating the sense of wonder that I wanted, although the intended meditative affect was there. Thankfully, Sculpture has a great envelope function that allows you to change the character of the sound over time which adds some variation as well as a sense of ‘something bigger’. I also thought that things would need to be randomised a little to enhance the feeling of the enormity and again, ‘something bigger’. To do this I accompanied the main, varying melody with other notes created using a slight variation of the same synth sound and made them bolster the main melody but also to confuse it a little.

The final part of the puzzle was to ground the whole piece in a physical space. This was done using reverberation as usual, but also by using a backdrop of sound that I had recorded whilst in Italy over the summer. This is the sound of crickets that I had recorded near Rocco on the Italian Riviera which I trimmed to give a clean file that would seamlessly loop. The recording wasn’t perfect though as there was a bit of wind and rumble from cars, so I just cut out all of the low frequencies. As the noises that crickets make aren’t in the same range as low rumbles, this didn’t compromise the audio too much and it is generally the high frequencies in sound that give you the sense of space that I required. You will notice that the cricket noises aren’t very loud at all and that’s because I didn’t really want the cricket noises as such, but a sense of the atmosphere that the sounds were created in. To achieve this as subtly as possible, I made sure that the noises of the crickets were loud enough to be just heard, but when taken out left the whole piece feeling emptier. Of course, the actual character of the cricket noises do add a lot to the feel of the piece but I feel the setting deserved more attention than this subject matter.

Well, here it is below. Press play to have a listen and let me know what you think! I aim to create other pieces like this for the same concept but using other themes over the next few weeks.

Download:

Thursday 31st March 2011 – Bedtime Nursery Rhymes

Posted on March 31, 2011 by transientmusic

‘Bedtime Nursery Rhymes’ is a little project that I have been working at on-and-off for a few months now amongst all the other stuff that I’m involved in. It grew from a combined wish to work on something that had a more obvious market and also for me to have an excuse to experiment with conceptual sound; playing with sound synthesis is something I have wanted to do more of for a while now.

The idea of the compilation was to choose well-known nursery rhymes that I could use and tailor to work together as a whole to promote calm feelings and aid sleep in children. Also, I have fond memories of certain story books that I read as a young child due to the magical atmospheres they created. If I could create something that would invoke these kinds of magical feelings whilst having a valid use and it also allow me to experiment, I would be very happy.

To create these atmospheres I would need a palette of songs that would invoke visual imagery as well as work towards that calming feeling; the songs chosen were almost of little importance as it was the effect that I wanted to create, however, choosing well-known tunes would have an obvious advantage. So, I ended up choosing: ‘Curly Locks’; ‘It’s Raining It’s Pouring’; ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’; ‘Rock-a-Bye Baby’; ‘Kum Ba Yah’ and ‘Brahms’ Lullaby’ (originally known as ‘Good Evening, Good Night’).

For the sounds I used some synthesizers from the Logic Pro audio recording and production software, the Sculpture synthesizer in particular. Sculpture works on a basis that other synths don’t usually take into account. Synthesizers usually allow you to make various types of sound wave and then merge them together in different ways to produce different sounds. They usually also allow you to manipulate these sounds further using various effects but Sculpture was designed to work a bit more like a traditional instrument. Within the software you effectively manipulate a string like you would do on any traditional, analogue instrument; you get to choose what this string is made from (glass, wood, metal), how the string is being vibrated (plucked, hit, etc) and even how the medium around it is behaving (is it thick like water or thin like air?). Amongst these parameters you also find more traditional synth settings (which I wont go into in fear of alienating the non-musical reader!), some effects and even a control over the imaginary pick-up that converts the string’s vibration into electrical energy (like the pick-up on an electric guitar which enables it to be an electrical instrument). One function of Sculpture in particular that I have not yet talked about is the most interesting for me as well as being important considering the thematic nature of the music: As described, Sculpture allows you to use different types of string manipulation (plucking etc) but you can layer three types on top of eachother and one of these can even be an input from an audio clip. Any audio clip at all can be used to morph your sound and, as will be seen, it is this that formed the basis of some of the tracks.

Now for the actual pieces of music…..

The tune for ‘Curly Locks’ is actually used in various nursery rhymes but I used this one as I wanted to create some visual imagery and I thought a great way would be to make some sounds feel curly… The sounds used here are therefore wavy, slightly pulsating and also move around from one speaker to the other. I also chose to have a bouncing ball effect sounding Sculpture’s imaginary string. Being the most lively of all the tunes I decided that this one should be first.

To enable calm passage into sleep I decided that each track should merge into the next and next up would be ‘It’s Raining, It’s Pouring’. This used the Sculpture synth in a more obvious manner and predictably enough I chose an audio clip of rain to sound it’s imaginary string. I also used a similar idea with ‘Kum Ba Yah’ where I used an audio clip of a fire burning. For both of these tracks I wanted the main melody to be far away from the background noise. With ‘…Pouring’ I wanted to invoke the feeling of being inside , safe and dry behind a window on a quiet evening whilst watching the rain. The rain and uncomfortable wetness that goes with it would be very distant and in real-life it is the rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain on a window that I personally find very comforting. This idea was very similar in the creation of ‘Kum Ba Yah’. For this one I wanted the effect of somebody telling a magical story around the camp-fire before bedtime in a forest that Tolkien may have written about; distant, other-worldly melodies convey the story whilst other background noises emulate the fire and the non-threatening wild-life within the forest. Not somewhere to be scared, but somewhere to excite the imagination.

‘Twinkle, Twinkle…’ was designed to feel like staring up at a clear, silent and soothing night’s sky. I always get a childish wonder and amazement at how vast the night sky is when I look at it and it is this I wanted to capture. Towards the end of the track, the stars even begin to sparkle at various points across the sky. The music then gradually merges into ‘…Baby’ and it is here where I really wanted to step down a gear towards sleep. The rhyme conjures up images of wind in the tree-tops as well as sleep (although I didn’t want to have any mention of any falling cradles!). So, for this I chose noises synthesized to sound like calm breezes and after a while of playing around with the sounds and rhythm, I noticed that I could create a soft, regular breathing noise of somebody sleeping.

Finally, Brahms’ Lullaby makes a soothing entrance to finally lull the listener to sleep with all of the imagery of the previous tracks to fuel wondrous dreams . There was no real obvious connection of sound here for me but I fondly remembered a music box my mum once owned that played this tune so therefore I tried to create a music box tinkle to carry the melody. There are a couple of pre-made music box sounds amongst all the synth on Logic Pro but as they didn’t really hit the spot I ended up creating my own that I felt was delicate enough. The background noise in this track was actually one of the first things that I thought of when I came up with the idea for ‘Bedtime Nursery Rhymes; arguably the most comforting noise we are ever exposed to could be said to be the noise a baby may hear in the womb and I have actually heard a couple of sleep aids that try to replicate this. Of course, I have no scientific basis around choosing the sounds that I did but I could not deny that these sounds really had a pleasing, meditative effect on me. Therefore I decided to create my own version but, as with all of the sounds I created for the collection, I wanted to hint and influence imagination rather than force-feed. The imagination is a powerful thing and above all I wanted to get this working to create fond memories that could even stay with some one into adulthood. I thought that if I could create a special state of mind that would excite and intrigue then I would have achieved what any musician hopes to do. Why should edgy music for adults be needed to achieve this…?