Sound Engineers: A Brief Description

After all the dialogue has been recorded and the additional sound effects have been created by our exceptional Foley artist, it is time to blend these pieces together to create a finished piece. Enter the sound engineer.

The sound engineer works with mixing boards and audio consoles in order to mesh the sound effects with dialogue and oftentimes a music score to create a finished product. These engineers work with clients to create the perfect project the client is looking for. Sound engineers also pull from libraries of sound effects and ambiances to create the most realistic scene possible. (if that is what the client is looking for!) Sound engineers often have strong backgrounds in music theory as well as in audio manipulation. Most are able to play at least one instrument and have the ability to read sheet music. Of course a sound engineers personal musical preference must be set aside in order to work effectively with different types of music scores. Modern day sound engineers have been able to move away from large and unstandardized standalone D.A.Ws to D.A.W software that can be easily installed on most computers. Therefore many sound engineers must be self taught since the changing technologies of the D.A.Ws require them to keep up with the times. Keeping a hundred tracks organized in a project can cause serious headaches if the sound engineer is working with software he/she has not been exposed to yet.
Sound engineers often keep long hours, may times having to travel great distances and spend very long hours in a studio environment in order to keep clients happy. However with the potential to make big bucks as well as the chance of recognition within the industry, sound engineers are able to survive long hours and nagging clients on a daily basis.
Oftentimes individuals who are looking to enter this industry will volunteer as a runner or errand boy at a audio studio. Since experience and contacts are more important than degrees in this industry, some engineers will teach themselves and enter the field with little academic training. Speaking of audio studio errand boys yours truly is looking for a position. :D

What is a recording engineer?. (09, September 2010). Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-recording-engineer.htm

Recording engineer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.schoolsintheusa.com/careerprofiles_details.cfm?CarID=1078

Foley's Got the Right Idea

Now that some of the necessary materials required for sound design have been discussed we can look at the individual fields that make up the world of sound design. Oftentimes these vary between video game creation and film making so both of these fields will be touch on.

One of the major issues in creating sound for film is that the main production microphones are unable to pick up the subtle detail sounds that make scenes believable. Because of this, film studios may employee a Foley editor to create the detail sounds in a separate studio environment. First termed in honor of Jack Foley, these sound editors employ creative methods in order to cheaply create unique sounds without having to go to the real source of the sound. Jack Foley first used this method of sound creation during the transition from silent movies to movies that had actual sound effects. Foley and his crew created the sound effects in real time as a projection of the film progressed in front of them. Now we no longer need to create sound effects in real time since DAWs are used to break the sound effects into individual tracks that can be used where they are needed.

Foley editors work closely with the rest of the audio team during the final stages of film production. These editors are paired with Foley artists who actually bang the boards together to create gunshots or hit pieces of meat to create punching sounds. This stage can oftentimes take several weeks to even months, yet it is crucial in order to make a film believable. One can speculate that in the future more advanced microphones can eliminate the need for these Foley editors and artists.

In my browsing I stumbled across some interesting Foley solutions:
-Bird Wings Flapping- Gloves flopping back and forth
-Earthquake- Slowed Wood Cracking
-Gore- Wet Washed Leather
-Breaking Trees- Eating potato chips

Filskov, D. (n.d.). The guide to sound effects. Retrieved from http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/index.php

Sound effects. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brucevanpatter.com/sound_effects.html

Skillset. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/post_production_sound/article_4768_1.asp

D.A.W... What a Cutie.

As a sound designer one needs a way to manipulate recorded sounds and voices. Enter the DAW or Digital Audio Workstation. DAWs are used to synthesize, edit, and manipulate sound in a digital format. Early DAWs were standalone workstations with diverse interfaces that differed from workstation to workstation. Eventually these early DAWs were standardized and revamped allowing for easier use among consumers. As personal computers have become more powerful and user friendly, DAWs have moved from standalone stations to the consumers personal computer’s hard drive. With the ease of using a personal computer and the standardization of the DAW interface, the market for DAWs has exploded. As a student I have a limited knowledge of more professional grade DAWs however my personal favorite, Audacity, gives much of the power without all the confusion and price.

I am a cheap guy so nothing makes me more excited than free stuff. Topping my list of things I received for free is Audacity, a free multiplatform DAW. Audacity is an easy to use editor with a variety of editing functions including cross fading, normalizing, and noise removal to name a few. Recording is a snap as well with single click activation and the ability to record from a line-in. This allows for the recording of not just microphones but also any device that can be connected through the line-in including tapes and records. A variety of file formats is supported including wav and aiff however wma and aac are both not supported due to their ownership by Microsoft and Apple respectively. Even Audacity cannot be perfect with its inability to publish audio works. Therefore a third party publishing software needs to be used in order to publish your works.





For the price Audacity is a godsend. Other more powerful DAWs can cost you from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. I find Audacity much simpler to use in many situations as well. The learning curve for Audacity is minuscule and I highly recommend for everyone to acquire this program. Besides, it’s free so why not?

Audacity 1.2.6. (2010). Retrieved from http://podcast-software-review.toptenreviews.com/audacity-review.html

Audacity. (2008, November 11). Retrieved from http://linuxmint.com/software/?sec=item&id=1067&release=4

Digital audio workstations. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/daw/daw_defined.php

Hear That?

Another crucial component to any sound designer who, well, wants to make sound is the speaker. Although speakers come from a very simple concept of a cone and wire wrapped around an electromagnet, their complexity can be incredible. Today we will be looking at SoundLab's impressive Majestic 945 speaker but first we will take a look at exactly how a speaker works. Every speaker, from the ear buds that come with handheld FM radios to the gargantuan speakers used at a Lady Gaga concert, is built the concept of a wire wrapped around a magnet. Of course larger and more advanced speakers do improve on this concept yet the basic concept remains the same. As a summer camp counselor I built speakers with my campers that consisted of a Styrofoam bowl, a piece of paper, and a magnet wrapped with wire. The sound quality was not impressive as can be expected but the small speaker did play when plugged into a standard stereo system.

Speakers work by sending electricity through a coil of wire that is mobile within the speaker. As the electricity passes through the coil, the fixed magnet changes the direction of the flowing electricity causing it to vibrate back and forth. These vibrations are then amplified by the shape of the cone and the material stretched over this cone. When the transmitted signal becomes too complex for a single speaker to accurately output, a more advanced speaker with multiple cone/magnet combinations can be used to retrieve a better quality sound. Larger speakers can have a woofer for bass frequencies, a midrange driver for midtones, and a tweeter for the highest frequency. Each part takes a different section of the incoming frequencies and (hopefully) outputs it with a higher quality.

Check out the totally majestic Majestic 945 by SoundLab. Standing at 104inches and weighing in at a whapping 216pounds, the Majestic 945 can reach frequencies as low as 24Hz and as high as the ultrasonic frequencies. The human ear has a range of audible frequencies that begins at 20Hz and ends at 20000Hz. Therefore the Majestic 945 has you covered, even when it comes to frequencies only your dog can hear. SoundLab boasts the Majestic 945 as the “Storm Speaker” since it apparently is able to reproduce sounds as soft as rain drops as well as thunder claps realistically. The Majestic 945 employs a large plastic film diaphragm in order to create a more spacious sound that fills the rest of the space that the speaker is not. Think this speaker is right for you? A pair of these expertly crafted beauties can be yours for the low low price of just 32,470!



Butterworth, Brent. (June). Out of this World. Retrieved from http://jazztimes.com/articles/26048-out-of-this-world

Majestic 945. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.soundlab-speakers.com/majestic.htm

Planar speaker asylum. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=mug&m=149818

Roberts, Rick. (n.d.). Sounds and vision. Retrieved from http://blogs.chron.com/soundvision/archives/2006/04/cutting_edge_sp.html