Freesound Forums

Is anyone out there doing audio for film/video post? I see a lot of musicians, but not many sound designers.

I mostly do sound for TV documentaries and promos. I was just wondering if there were any like minded folks lingering here.

-Richard Humphries

RHumphries
Is anyone out there doing audio for film/video post? I see a lot of musicians, but not many sound designers.

I mostly do sound for TV documentaries and promos. I was just wondering if there were any like minded folks lingering here.

-Richard Humphries

Cool! I study sound design at the school for music & Technology in the Netherlands. So although im not pro I do feel lik eminded. I just finished doing sound design for a very short animation.

I am currently in school in Chicago for post production audio.
Right now I am doing sound design for an animated project.
Like Anton said, I am not pro, but am like-minded.

I am also doing location sound for various film shoots.

Count me in. I'm actually sound engineer, mostly doing mix, editing, and sound designing for tv and film.

Bye.

i am going to split hairs here, but there is a small species of musicians that essentially are sound designers. what i mean is that the "music" that they make is focused entirely on engineering specific samples to layer well with each other. the artform i am refering generally doesn't have musical rhythm or melody and incorporates many field recordings. sometimes i call it "sound collage". actually most folks who do "sound collage" are very avid field recorders are can be found wandering around with professional quality field recorders . . . (and microcassettes

I do both, although mostly music.

Maybe thats true NicStage, yet thers one big difference, sound design is usually coupled to another medium or context. Like for film or games or animation or whatever, music stands on its own usully. So even though both may use the same base material, the choices for that material are pretty different.

Anton
Maybe thats true NicStage, yet thers one big difference, sound design is usually coupled to another medium or context. Like for film or games or animation or whatever, music stands on its own usully. So even though both may use the same base material, the choices for that material are pretty different.

true, but with the kind of artwork i am refering to the line is essentially non-existant. the concept you're suggesting is purely semantic, though. what i mean is that it is correct that in general "sound design" refers to engineering/creating audio in order to unite it with another medium, and "music" refers to performing/recording audio as an artform unto itself. but there is definately a breed of artists (i am probably one of them) that regard both concepts as identical.

my logic, in a nutshell, is this: music is nothing more than a word for "fancy sound(s)". music is nothing "more" than sound, and sound is nothing "more" than music. now i know some people are thinking "well music has rhythm and melody", but i am sure those folks can easily think of some released audio artwork that really had neither of each or little of one. and i love to create music (with plenty of rhythm and melody), so i am not simply some avante-garde specialist. i just also have a passion for creating audio art that essentially is nothing more than sound design. really the only thing that makes audio artwork stand on it's own is if there is an audience that can appreciate it standing on it's own. i can tell you from experience that there is definately a small (yet existent) global audience that appreciates field recordings, "sound collage", etc (rhythm/melody not necesarry but also not shunned) "on it's own".

I just joined this site today.

I do Post for Film, TV, DVD, and now I focus on the future of Video Game Sound.

nicStage
i am going to split hairs here, but there is a small species of musicians that essentially are sound designers. what i mean is that the "music" that they make is focused entirely on engineering specific samples to layer well with each other. the artform i am refering generally doesn't have musical rhythm or melody and incorporates many field recordings. sometimes i call it "sound collage". actually most folks who do "sound collage" are very avid field recorders are can be found wandering around with professional quality field recorders . . . (and microcassettes

I agree with what you are saying. I think Sound Designer is a perfectly valid description of what you are doing.

I was asking specifically about sound for film/video post production because I am interested in having a resource where I can go if I need a particular sound for my work. For instance, last fall I worked on a documentary about Tajikistan. My collection of Tajikistani sounds is very limited, so I had to make do with what I could fake or could salvage from the shoot tapes. It would have been great if I could have found a various Tajikistani ambiences here.

While I appreciate the skill and art of making unusual sounds, I'm not really that interested in using anyone else's bloop, whoosh or techno loop-- that's stuff I can make on my own. What I am interested in are reality sounds that I have not recorded because of time, resources or location.

-Richard

RHumphries
Is anyone out there doing audio for film/video post? I see a lot of musicians, but not many sound designers.

I mostly do sound for TV documentaries and promos. I was just wondering if there were any like minded folks lingering here.

-Richard Humphries

I do a little sound design for animation/new interface models/installations

It would be very nice, as you say, to have a resource where audio post folks could search for specific ambiences. I did some work earlier this year for an experimental PHd animation, and was surprised how little freely available resources were available on the net.

Six

RHumphries

I agree with what you are saying. I think Sound Designer is a perfectly valid description of what you are doing.

I was asking specifically about sound for film/video post production because I am interested in having a resource where I can go if I need a particular sound for my work. For instance, last fall I worked on a documentary about Tajikistan. My collection of Tajikistani sounds is very limited, so I had to make do with what I could fake or could salvage from the shoot tapes. It would have been great if I could have found a various Tajikistani ambiences here.

While I appreciate the skill and art of making unusual sounds, I'm not really that interested in using anyone else's bloop, whoosh or techno loop-- that's stuff I can make on my own. What I am interested in are reality sounds that I have not recorded because of time, resources or location.

-Richard

i see your point. i really was splitting hairs / going off on a little tangent. it is neat to be able to search through the samples randomly or by using the tag system, but i bet someone in your line of work could really benefit from more database fields, like location, etc. then you could search for "location: tajikistan" or something similar. i am always so curious how sounds were recorded to begin with, and i kind of wish there were some "gear" fields, like "condenser / dynamic mic", "mic model", "recorder model", "media", etc, etc . . .

RHumphries

I was asking specifically about sound for film/video post production because I am interested in having a resource where I can go if I need a particular sound for my work. For instance, last fall I worked on a documentary about Tajikistan. My collection of Tajikistani sounds is very limited, so I had to make do with what I could fake or could salvage from the shoot tapes. It would have been great if I could have found a various Tajikistani ambiences here.

While I appreciate the skill and art of making unusual sounds, I'm not really that interested in using anyone else's bloop, whoosh or techno loop-- that's stuff I can make on my own. What I am interested in are reality sounds that I have not recorded because of time, resources or location.

-Richard

Richard,

Are you aware of the Yahoo Group: sound_design@yahoogroups.com? There are some amazing sound designers and recordists who frequent that forum that probably have the resources or contacts that you are looking for.

Working for Technicolor helps me in this way since we have sister studios around the world. We have studios in Rome, Thailand, UK, Denmark, etc.

Cheers,

Hi Philip,
I think ive seen your msg's on sd @ yahoo, im the one spamming freesound all the time
Im curious how you get assigned a job at your company, do you get to pick them or do you get very specific requests, like create sound that does x or something else ?

Philosophy

Richard,

Are you aware of the Yahoo Group: sound_design@yahoogroups.com? There are some amazing sound designers and recordists who frequent that forum that probably have the resources or contacts that you are looking for.

Working for Technicolor helps me in this way since we have sister studios around the world. We have studios in Rome, Thailand, UK, Denmark, etc.

Cheers,

Yes, I've been on that group for some time. Reading the digest is my morning ritual. That's actually how I found out about this site.

-Richard

Anton
Hi Philip,
I think ive seen your msg's on sd @ yahoo, im the one spamming freesound all the time
Im curious how you get assigned a job at your company, do you get to pick them or do you get very specific requests, like create sound that does x or something else ?

Well ... It depends on our client. We have a wide range of clients that require different needs. At Technicolor Interactive we pretty much handle all the services that the Game Industry needs ... high concept design, script services, cinematic visuals, in-game visual assets, in-game sound assets, cinematic sound/mixing, game localization, voice casting, directing, recording and editing.

As far as sound work (me) goes ... Cinematics are a given ... Make them sound great and deliver final mixes to be used in the game. But as far as in-game sound assets go, some clients are more hands-on than others. One company we worked with last year gave us carte-blanche (for the most part) by giving us updated builds of the game and letting us decide on the sounds that we needed (we had access to the designers and programmers for questions on triggering and sound engine application). That would be a best case scenario for freedom. But sometimes freedom can be too much and a bit overwhelming.

At the end of last year we completed in-game sound assets for Sony's God of War. We did a lot of surround ambiences and creature design for the game (God of War is too cool - if you've played it, you know). Sony sent us a list of what they needed via Excel spreadsheets and we went down the list. This option kept us on track with the needs of our client, but also gave Sony a great deal of material to pull from to see what worked best in the game. I feel that if we are not implementing the sounds ourselves (Technicolor), then this is my favorite way of providing for the clients needs. Very simple - They tell me what the want ... I give it to them. Not that there wasn't any creative dialog between the two companies, just a straight-forward approach that lends itself to a good working relationship.

Our staff has had many years in the Game Industry in our various fields and we have developed many relationships with various developers and publishers. Our goal is to create the best for our clients.

I know that's a long answer ... I hope I stayed on target.

Cheers,

I was wondering if any of you knows about any enterprise on this field at Spain.

I would like to know also what studies/knowledge do the people on this enterprises have. I am talking of audio of course.

Thanks.

Hi Phillip,

Your reply was more then i could have hoped for, thanks for the insight. Your work seems like it s a lot like I envision my future to be like at this point.
I study sound design over here in the Netherlands, could you perhaps shed some light on what in your opinion would be the "absolutely needed" skills. A realise this is a bit of a vague question. The reason is that i like to evaluate the education im receiving to what is expected in the real world. Sometimes your teachers are aware of a totally different real world then whats a couple miles away...

Thanks,

Anton,

Well if you are going to school for audio. You are way ahead of where I started. I have 2 university degrees - business and psychology. I thought I was going to be head of a corporation someday.

---Uhhhhh .... not any more.

My background is music and technology. I grew up in a family that loved and valued music. My father worked with computers and we had computers at home since you could have computers at home. I was always told, though. that music was a great hobby, but not a career ... hence, my degrees.

Well ... That turned out to be true. After moving out to LA for music for movies, I fell into post-production audio and fell in love with sound effects design/editing and mixing. Now that is my career. Music helped, though. I see every scene that I cut or every level of sound that I do for games as it's own musical score. A good sense of timing also helps.

So as far as education goes ... real world experience is the true school. If you are in Audio school and want to see how the real world works .... get an internship or an assistant job at a well known company with cool people who are open to teaching (or at least open to you having some time in front of the gear). Open your ears as well as your eyes and mind and be aware of the work they are doing and how they are doing it. Don't be afraid to ask questions .... ask to stand over someone's shoulder when you can. Get out and record sounds ... name them something completely different than what they really are (for example .... record an espresso machine steamer, but catalog it in your library as "ghost screams"). Think emotively. Watch great sound movies .... why do those movies have great sound?.....because they help tell the story. We are story tellers .... with our ears.

As far as game sound goes .... join a MOD team and get some experience at what it takes to make sound for games. Use those MODs on your reel and resume to developers .... There's more than one audio director I know that hired these people based on their MOD work.

Here's the unfortunate and limiting part. Learn the audio systems that are most commonly used by professionals. When they want to hire you on ... they don't necessarily want to take the time to teach you Pro Tools. You should know Pro Tools ... in Europe you should also learn Nuendo and Pyramix. Knowing how do do your job with these tools will put you a step above somebody who plays with Logic or Cubase (not that there is anything wrong with these systems for music .... but for post they are not used).

I hope that's a start.

Again, thank you, this is exactly what i wanted to know.
It confirms some of my intuitions and assures me that im on the right track. Ive slowly ventured into mod stuff (actually in open source engine land).
Ive been running around with the DAT recorder from school (some of the sounds can be found here). Having blast ofcourse. Im now saving up for a bit of an upgrade on the recorder quality (Im still debatting buying an FR-2 or work the summer and buy a 722).
The nice thing about my school is that we are in the same building as the digital arts school. Which has both animation & game design courses. (all 4 year for a BA). So i can come in contact with a new generation of designers in those areas.