nofilmschool » sound

Audio101: Learn About Submix Basics and the Power of the Bus

Dave Kendricken — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:30:50 +0000

Just as digital imagery can be manipulated in post with a number of approaches — combinations of which may be used to achieve pretty much the same effect — working with audio is a malleable exercise. It’s become even more malleable recently thanks to innovative sound manipulation interfaces which provide a powerful palette for painting, re-painting, and un-painting sound. That said, some tenets of the basic audio interface design haven’t changed much in decades. One such basic is the submix. Check out a great demonstration of the undiminished usefulness — and power — of ‘subs’ below. (more…)

Remix, Isolate, and 'Photoshop' Audio with Celemony's Melodyne & Sony's SpectraLayers

Dave Kendricken — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:40:39 +0000

Anyone who’s ever learned the basics of sound manipulation in a waveform editor, such as Audacity, knows how difficult it is to separate sounds from a mixed-down recording. I grew up with Sound Forge back when it was still owned by Sonic Foundry, and quickly came to understand how impractical it can be to isolate a clean vocal track from, say, a CD rip. A company called Celemony and their audio editing platform Melodyne is now making it incredibly fast, easy, and intuitive to do just that — and much more, like autotuning those isolated vocals for remixing. Meanwhile, Sony is likewise doing the “impossible” with its impressive frequency editor/clean-up tool SpectraLayers. (more…)

Get a Behind the Scenes Look at the Music of 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'

Joe Marine — Mon, 27 May 2013 05:34:38 +0000

Michael Coleman, of SoundWorks Collection, has taken us behind the scenes of both the music and sound design for many big films, but most recently he took a look at the production of the score for Star Trek: Into Darkness. While that film has received its fair share of fans and detractors, the score itself is particularly interesting as it develops new themes and builds off the previous material. Check out the fantastic BTS video with Music Conductor and Orchestrator Tim Simonec below. (more…)

Tascam Targets DSLR Filmmakers with Its New 4-Channel Audio Recorder - the DR-60D

E.M. Taboada — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 02:00:42 +0000

Despite all the advances in image resolution and quality, most DSLRs on the market still require separate audio recorders for quality sound capture. We’ve previously covered and compared affordable external audio recorders for DSLR filmmakers, and although great tools in themselves, if there’s one common drawback shared by these recorders it’s that they were designed for live music/event recording, rather than filmmaking. Enter Tascam’s new offering — the DR-60D — an audio recorder designed specifically with DSLR filmmakers in mind. Here are the details: (more…)

Balancing Sound Design, Music, and Non-Stop Action with 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation'

Joe Marine — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:41:22 +0000

If you’ve been following the SoundWorks Collection series, hopefully by now you’ve learned a thing or two about sound design and the professionalism and effort that goes into bringing us the subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, effects and mixes that really bring motion pictures to life (I know I have). Michael Coleman, who produces the videos, keeps churning out gold — this time we’ve got the crew behind G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and the work that goes into being objective and trying to find the right balance between sound design, music, and dialogue throughout a non-stop action film. Check it out below. (more…)

Ever Wonder What Goes into Film Trailer Scores? Learn All About Epic Trailer Music with Yoav Goren

Joe Marine — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:46:54 +0000

Advertising and the movie business go hand in hand, and a huge piece of that puzzle is the music accompanying film trailers. But have you ever wondered how movie trailers get their epic scores, even though none of that music typically finds itself in the film? That’s where the movie trailer composer comes in. Michael Coleman over at SoundWorks Collection is consistently producing excellent behind the scenes videos related to sound professionals in the film and TV industries, and today we’ve got another fantastic piece with composer Yoav Goren, who writes music specifically for trailers. (more…)

Get a Crash Course in Production Sound from 'Parenthood' Mixer Nicholas Allen

Joe Marine — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:11:49 +0000

Getting good quality sound on-set can sometimes feel like an impossibility, especially on lower budget productions. While the sound mixer can often go underappreciated on many of these productions, their job, if done correctly, is right up there with the 1st AC (or focus-puller). If your movie is not in focus it’s going to distract the audience, and at the same time, bad audio will be even more distracting. SoundWorks Collection has profiled professional sound people from all across Hollywood, and today we’ve got a video that goes in-depth with Nicholas Allen, who is the sound mixer on NBC’s Parenthood. (more…)

RØDE's New smartLav iOS Lavalier, VideoMic Upgrade, Plus Apogee's iPortable Recording Studio

Dave Kendricken — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:57:28 +0000

We recently posted about RØDE’s iXY microphone and Rec app for iOS devices. While perhaps not suitable for everyone’s needs (or inversely, budget), it marks another step toward a lone multi-purpose tool handy to the crafty filmmaker — the iOS iPhone/iPad. While I’ll never own one, even I have to hand it to the iLeatherman. In a pinch, it’s a light meter, it’s a GoPro, it’s a shot designer, and with iXY and RØDE Rec, it’s a dual-system audio recorder, too. Now, RØDE continues its drive to make iOS a viable field sound-rec system with the smartLav lavalier microphone — as does the Apogee ONE, a like-minded iPad portable ‘recording studio’ system. RØDE has also upgraded its VideoMic for those run-and-gun shooters unsatisfied with smartphone sound — check out the details of each below. (more…)

Bad Robot's Creative and Technical Paradise with Avid's Dyamic Collaboration Environments

Dave Kendricken — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:56:02 +0000

At the end of last year, Avid announced a free webinar exploring Bad Robot, the film and TV production company co-founded by J. J. Abrams — which, judging by the success of such projects as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Lost, and Star Trek, is doing more than one thing very, very right. Don’t worry if you missed that webinar, though, because Avid has recently shared a 20-minute video breaking down Bad Robot’s studio space — and not only is it an enviable one for any independent because each step of the creative process is fostered there, but also because its Media Composer workflow of collaboration taps the future directly. (more…)

Building the Sounds of a Plane Crash, Layer by Layer: SoundWorks Collection Spotlights 'Flight'

Dave Kendricken — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 03:40:17 +0000

The right blend of subtlety and hyper-realism varies in any successful effect, be it in light or in sound. The SoundWorks Collection has brought us many insightful looks into the sound design and mixing challenges of several films — in a recent case, though, a specific scene (to which sound is truly integral) is broken down, layer for layer, sound by sound, and shot by shot. Check out SoundWorks’ look at the crash scene from Flight below. (more…)

The Search for Osama bin Laden, and the Cinematography and Sound Design of 'Zero Dark Thirty'

Joe Marine — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:47:34 +0000

One of the more controversial films to be released this year (at least according to the news media and members of the CIA and U.S. Congress), Zero Dark Thirty is the story of the search for Osama bin Laden and the people responsible for finding him. The film is the first from Kathryn Bigelow since her Academy Award winning The Hurt Locker. The movie is getting attention for obvious reasons (and we’ve already got to hear from the screenwriter, Mark Boal), but it’s also being made in a way that few other Hollywood projects could even come close to replicating. We’ve got an in-depth look at the sound design, as well as some words from the Director of Photography Greig Fraser, ACS, about shooting on the Arri Alexa with practically no lights on set — plus, a bonus interview with one of the lead actors, Jessica Chastain. (more…)

Building the Fantastical Soundscape of 'The Hobbit' with SoundWorks Collection

Dave Kendricken — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 01:30:43 +0000

Speaking of The Hobbit, thanks once again to Michael Coleman’s indispensable SoundWorks Collection we now have another angle of the rather extensive amount of behind-the-scenes material on the film (trilogy). Previously we’ve had a look at the environment the crew created to be creatively conducive, questioned the aesthetic nature of its 48 frames-per-second acquisition (and delivery, in many cases), all the way back to the films’ truly epic on-location shooting and production design. But foley work, mixing, and sound design in general are things that end up getting less making-of attention than the imagery of films, so check out the SoundWorks mini-doc that rounds out The Hobbit BTS goods below. (more…)

Win 130 Royalty Free Songs During December Just by Tweeting

Justin Minich — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:00:00 +0000

If you’ve been enjoying Luke Neumann’s weekly music freebies and the daily free music he released this past July, here’s a chance to add even more free tunes to your collection. This time the sonic goodness is coming from Josh Molen of The Tune Peddler. Each week in December he will be giving away his entire library of 130 pieces of royalty free music to a lucky winner. All it takes to enter is the click of a tweet button. Here are the details on entering, as well as streaming samples of some additional free Christmas music Molen is releasing: (more…)

Creating the Sounds of a Brutal Beat-Down in 'Killing Them Softly'

Dave Kendricken — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 00:34:11 +0000

Sound can surely soothe, but so can it unsettle — I’m sure we can all think of examples of movie movements that were made (or perhaps broken, in some cases) by accompanying sound effects. It may be the heightened styling of places or situations whose soundscapes are familiar to us, or it may be the understatement of realism to highlight the weight of a dramatic moment. Whatever the case, sound design lends a texture of palpability to the world going on beyond that living screen you’ve been staring at — and in certain instances, to the elicitation of a cringe. One such circumstance lies in wait for you should you find yourself seeing the newly released crime drama Killing Them Softly. (more…)

Sound Designing 'Life of Pi': From (Almost) No Usable Production Audio All the Way to Dolby Atmos

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:54:31 +0000

The footage I’ve seen of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (released today) so far looks pretty fantastic. I know it’s adapted from a novel, I know there’s a man and a tiger on a boat, but other than that I really know nothing about this movie — just that it looks intriguing from a pure imagery standpoint. That, and the next logical step from there, which is that it is probably going to be breathtaking in stereo. How does one create a soundtrack suitable for the visual side of this experience? Thanks once again to Michael Coleman’s Soundworks Collection, we now have an inkling of exactly that — and of how the sound design team crafted it for Dolby Atmos — beginning with almost no usable production tracks. (more…)

Weekly Freebie Project: 100% Royalty Free Music Available Every Week from Neumann Films

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:00:41 +0000

Luke and the team at Neumann Films are trying to do us a favor. We in the production world aren’t used to getting much for free, and that’s because we don’t — but that doesn’t mean the things we do get for free have to be lacking in quality. If you missed Luke’s tremendous month of free music in July, don’t worry, there’s more professional-grade royalty-free totally costless music where that came from — available for download every single week. (more…)

SoundWorks Collection Brings Us the Sound of 'Skyfall.' Plus, a Sit-Down with Sam Mendes

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:23:24 +0000

Skyfall has been given a fair amount of attention here on NoFilmSchool recently, as there truly seems to be a great amount of interesting material regarding the making of the film passing through the internet, and also because some things are just plain old too cool not to share. You may also be well acquainted with something else we can’t get enough of — the videos from Michael Coleman‘s consistently excellent SoundWorks Collection series. If you’re not yet acquainted, SoundWorks provides rare insight into, you guessed it, the creation of films’ soundtracks — a facet of the craft we don’t get to examine nearly as often as the visual side of things. Now, thanks to another well-produced offering from the SWC, we get to merge the two aforementioned subjects together, and round out the making-of coverage we’ve had so far on the latest 007 film. Read on to watch SoundWorks Collection’s The Sound of Skyfall. (more…)

Blackmagic Cinema Camera Audio Quality: Using External Preamps to Get Better Sound

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 03:02:35 +0000

The folks at juicedLink have already presented us with strong evidence that using the company’s Riggy Micro/Assist low-noise pre-amplifier configuration with DSLR shooting has major advantages. First and foremost, it greatly improves the noise-floor performance of on-board recorded audio, even matching high-end dual-system recorders in its signal to noise ratio — additionally, though, using any good preamp avoids the mobility and convenience you lose with having to use a separate recorder, plus the need to sync in post. Now, juicedLink’s Robert Rozak performs another exhaustive test, this time to illustrate the benefits of using the Riggy Micro/Assist setup with Blackmagic’s Cinema Camera — plus major audio issues that must be addressed with that camera system. Check out the video below to see the results. (more…)

Behold: The Great (ENG Wireless Mic) Shootout of 2012!

Benjamin Dewhurst — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:00:57 +0000

Good location audio will make your film shine. The less you have to redo in post the better, as nat sound will bring a level of realism to any project. There are many tools available to help you achieve better sound, from a bevvy of tried and tested field recorders to some crucial on-camera mics like the ever-popular Rode, but what about those hard-to-reach areas away from the camera? Clearly wireless mics are the solution, but which mid-range system is the best? Thanks to Dave Dugdale of Learning DSLR Video, we have our answer. Check out the wireless mic battle of the ages after the jump. (more…)

What is Foley? Award-Winning Foley Artist Gary Hecker Takes Us Inside The Craft

Joe Marine — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:49:50 +0000

What is Foley? What does it take to be a Foley Artist? Many of you might be very familiar with the craft, or maybe you have only heard the word in passing, but Foley is one of the many sound elements that helps bring a film together. It’s arguably one of the more important parts of sound design, because many of the important sounds that really add to the character of the film are all created in post on a Foley stage. SoundWorks Collection, who has given us quite a few tremendous videos, takes a look at the art of Foley with Gary Hecker, who has worked on films like The Empire Strikes Back and Robin Hood. (more…)