alanaholevas

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155 Blog 15

https://www.findamasters.com/masters-degrees/course/mfa-games-music-and-audio/?i2018d7073c42858

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155 Blog 14

Please share your favorite thing that we did or that you learned in this class.

I liked the day we looked at the electronic mixing board. It was cool how it could be programed and how many of the voices and sounds could be live mixed. I liked learning Adobe Audition. I’d never worked with a sound program before. It was a bit intimidating as first. Once I figured it out I had a lot of fun working on the mashup project. The foley day! That was awesome. I tried doing some foley after that day we walked around campus recording the different sounds. I thought that was great too, I became aware of the sounds in everyday life and started thinking about how they could be used or changed to sound like something else. I liked reading the script and designing the sounds for the intruder too. That was completely new to me as well. Scripts are formatted so oddly compared to other texts I am familiar with. I most enjoyed learning about and working with Audition, there’s so much freedom to create with that program. There was a lot of research I did for the blogs and I actually had a good time looking things up about sound design. It’s such an interesting field the way it merges art, science and technology, how it effects all digital media around us.

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155 Blog 13

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155 Blog 12

Ben Burtt is a sound designer, film editor, director, screenwriter, and voice actor. He worked as a sound designer on various films, including: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, WALL-E and Star Trek.

He graduated with a major in physics from Allegheny College. Burtt won a scholarship to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he earned a master's degree in film production.

He is also known for the Wilhelm scream, and creating many of the iconic sound effects heard in the Star Wars; the voice of R2-D2, the lightsaber hum, the sound of the blaster guns, and the heavy-breathing of Darth Vader. Burtt is also voiced WALL-E and created the robotic sound of WALL-E's voice, along with all the other characters in WALL-E, and was the sound editor of the movie.

Burtt pioneered modern sound design in science-fiction and fantasy-films. Before his work science-fiction films used electronic-sounding effects for futuristic devices. Burtt blended found sounds to create his effects. The lightsaber hum was created by merging a film projector idling with feedback from a broken television. The blaster effect was created by hitting a guy-wire on a radio tower with a hammer.

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155 Blog 11

I listened to War of the Worlds. The way it’s structured makes it feel as though while listening to a music channel on the radio the news cuts in periodically. The show then transforms into interviews with people “on site” on the farm. The interviewer describes the scene while a group of scientists and people talk in the background. The humming sound coming from inside the spaceship was a unique sound I couldn’t place. When all the people start panicking it sounds as if they’re really there, on site and not in some recording studio. The environmental sound effects they achieved are awesome. It sounds like they’re moving locations, you can tell where they are before they speak a word. But by far the best part is when the creatures are slowly getting out of the ship, all the people are panicking, someone screams and the broadcast suddenly cuts off. In that instance, having no sound was just as powerful, if not more so, as having sound. 

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155 Blog 10

https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/sound-designer-games

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155 Blog 9

The entire song is at a mid level, nothing stands out, nothing is unique to the other sounds, all sounds mix and merge together. The percussion is softer and acts more as ambience. The almost monotone sound throughout the song goes with the lyrics and the mood. The artist wants to be hopeful and is waiting for a change, but knows it won’t come. So he lives his life in a monotone, disillusioned manner. He knows how the story will end, expects failure, but goes through the motions of life anyway. 

The high bells are louder while the soft bass falls off into the background. The bell’s dominate the song. Every sound is unique and clearly discernible from the other sounds. The individual sounds complement each other without merging or overlapping. 

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155 Blog 8 Free Blog

Sound design in video games!

More specifically proximity, speed, and material sound design. There’s so much to cover in this area but I’ll be focusing on footstep sound effects. Footstep sound effects are awesome to me. They can pull you into the digital world or annoy you with the same step sound looped indefinitely. How does it work?

Basically when the control node for a direction is activated the sound is tied to the control and will activate as well. Many older games are made this way. The problem with this method is the actual animation of the foot touching the ground won't perfectly match the sound. Slap a fade in the beginning and ending of the action and you’ve got basic footstep sound every time the player moves the character.

Newer games tie the sound effect to the animation frames. This method allows much more precision. The sound plays at the exact moment the foot hits the ground. Instead of fades the character’s speed is taken into account. If the speed is under the decided value the sound won’t be triggered. The parameters can use even more complex values. For example, if the foot doesn’t make contact with the ground –while the character is sliding or falling– the sounds won’t play. The ground’s material can also effect the sound. This allows for different sound effects to be played based on what type of material the character is walking on, how fast the character is walking or running, and from what height the character is landing on the surface. All of these values effect the sound of the footstep. 

These parameters can also be used on NPCs (non player characters). If an NPC runs up to the player from a distance the footstep sound can be calculated based on proximity distance. 

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155 Blog 7

Take a moment to sit somewhere and just listen for a few minutes.  What sounds are in the foreground, background and middle?  

It’s late at night. I hear the fish tank bubbler going to the left. There’s a loud consistent high pitched squeal that is somewhere in the middle background. To the right geese sound in the distance. There are many electrical noises all around. The fridge makes a reverberating hum to the front left that overpowers the aquarium. Quiet wind blows by outside to the right. The sound of my own typing overpowers all other sounds. The dam makes a low rumbling that can be felt more than heard, the almost inaudible sound of the lake water moving falls off into the far distance.  

Can you tell where the sounds are located without looking?  

I can tell where many of the natural sounds are coming from without looking but the unnatural electrical hums and squeals are more difficult to place. 

How would you layer these sounds in a theatrical situation to create this same effect?  

I’d place the louder sounds at the top sound bar and adjust volume for each added sound one at a time while comparing them to the previous sound layer. 

Would certain sounds be routed to different speakers or would they all come out of a pair of main speakers?  

To achieve the same effect I’d have the sounds routed to different speakers.

How would you mix the levels and EQ so that the sounds in the foreground dominate and the  sounds in the background receed? 

I’d boost the bass frequency of the distant sounds and the treble for close sounds. The midrange sounds I’d have to hear and layer accordingly so I could achieve a similar effect to what I’m hearing. 

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155 Blog 6

The movie I watched this week was WALL-E. WALL-E is an interesting film because the majority is dialogue free, but not sound or music free. The sound and music alone had to be both the narrative and language of the film. One scene where the two robots are flying through space, propelled by a fire extinguisher, is particularly of interest. The listener is able to track the position of the robots on the screen through the sound alone. The sound was well designed, the music and effects are beautiful and the sound mix is able to emphasize and capture the emotions of the story without ever saying a word. I love hearing the spray from the extinguisher mixed with the robots’ mechanical and synthesized sounds. But the detail of the lesser sound interactions are just as well thought out and mixed.

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155 Blog 4

The style of music I like from the past, before the 2000’s, is Electronic music. I find the interesting sound effects used in Electronic appealing. I get tired of songs quickly but the changing effects in Electronic hold my interest. I primarily listen to Electronic fusion genres. There are many sounds created for Electronic of the past that have been perfected and are still used today in more current songs.    

Technorama - Project @

Written and produced by Markku Raski. (1994) Street Beat Records

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155 Blog 2

When I hear these three sound effects I feel anticipation. They suggest something is about to happen, an action scene, something with high intensity. The sound effects are ominous, suggesting the situation could be dangerous. 

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155 Blog 3

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155 Blog 5

I am most interested in designing for fantasy because it’s usually set in a fictional universe with fictional creatures. I would enjoy designing sound in this style because I’d have the possibility to design completely new sounds. I’d have to find sounds that feel right but I’d have a lot of freedom to be creative in this genre. 

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155 Blog 1

On my 7th birthday my dad took me to see the movie Treasure Planet at the Marina Del Ray UA Cinema 6. It was the first time I saw a movie in a theater and the first time I heard a movie in a theater. When the lights dimmed and the movie started the sound hit me from every direction. It was the most beautiful amazing thing seven year old me had ever experienced. The movie had high-tech sound effects, lasers, thrusters, outer space sounds mixed with ocean animal calls and creaking ship noises, and an orchestra soundtrack that surrounded and engulfed me. It felt like I was really there inside the movie. The uplifting orchestra soundtrack made me feel incredibly small compared to the vast visuals of space. The level of sound details in the movie made the experience all the more amazing. Every move the characters made interacted with their environment and created sound, whether it was walking on a creaking ship or tiptoeing across a metal grate the minuscule sound details made the visuals come alive. Seeing the movie in the theater made a lasting impression on me and I’ve been interested in 3D animation, outer space, technology and sound design since.