WRITTEN BY KATE FINAN, CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST
The Design Challenge
At Boom Box Post, we primarily work on animated television series, which means that much of our design work is linear and lives within the context of the story. However, every once in a while we’re thrown a fantastic curveball and are asked to design for something outside of our usual sound-for-picture role.
Recently, one of our television series came to us with a design mission: to create the sound of a train yet to come in a future season, which they wanted to integrate into a toy immediately. It turns out that they were so in love with the visual design of the train that the production team created, the toy production was fast-tracked so that they could have it ready to be stocked on shelves coinciding with the air date of this awesome future episode!
What we were given (I wish I could show these to you because they’re so cool, but unfortunately I can’t!):
The animatic (storyboards timed to the dialogue to create a video) of the sequence where the train is introduced for the first time
3D pictures of the train from different angles
A copy of the script for the train episode
Now, I can’t show you a visual of what the train looks like--you’ll have to scour the shelves for the toy in about a year and try to guess (good luck with that!). But, I can tell you that to me, it has these characteristics:
A sleek and futuristic conductor’s car
Playful, almost toy-like cabins for the passengers
No train track
Linked cars, which looked almost like an old-time rollercoaster
A set of wheels on each car
The Creative Idea
After watching the animatic, I noticed that when the train was first introduced, the characters heard it from very far in the distance, and immediately say something similar to, “Do you hear a train? Don’t be silly, we don’t have a train!” Additionally, when the characters talk about the train, they often use the words “chugga chugga.” From this, I decided:
The train needed to go “chugga chugga” (this seems obvious, but we discussed a LOT of different design options which did not include this)
It needed to be a sound that clearly reads as a train without any visual to support it. To me, that meant a train whistle! And maybe even a crossing bell!
It needed to sound real, with real motion, and real weight because it would need to function in the episode. After all, a train is essentially a vehicle.
But, it would also need to be fun and playful so that children would want to press the buttons on the toy.
It needed to be something that would not annoy the pants off of parents when their kid pressed the button 500 bazillion times in a row. (You fellow-parents out there know what I’m talking about….)
After many rounds of audio sketches, incredibly varied new ideas, notes, revisions, and a deadline fast approaching, I decided to go all out in designing my favorite concept for the train and crossed my fingers that it would be approved. My idea: to design a train that used my own voice to create a rhythmic, almost musical, chugga-chugga engine along with pistons, a train whistle created by own voice, an array of percussion instruments peppered in to keep it fun and driving, and a few key library sound effects as sweeteners.
I didn’t want my voice to be overt in the final product. This wasn’t going to be a case of “LISTEN! KATE IS ACTING LIKE A TRAIN!” Instead, I wanted to use my voice as an undercover tool to add personality and depth to the train that you can’t get from sterile library sounds.
The Design
The Train Engine
I started by choosing a tempo of 120 BPM, and recorded and edited my materials to match. First, I recorded the meat of my design: a chugga-chugga steady.
Then, I recorded myself making piston sounds on the first beat of each measure and layered in real SFX pistons to add color and texture.
After that, I recorded an additional vocal rhythm to layer on top of my chugga-chuggas. I recorded myself playing the cabasa on beats 2, 3, and 4, and then sweetened with shorter pistons from my SFX library.
Together, those parts made up my engine:
The Crossing Bell
Now, it was time for the icing on the cake. That is, the two sounds which would SCREAM, “It’s a TRAIN!” to any kid watching the show or playing with the toy: the crossing bell and train whistle.
For the crossing bell, I found a great one in my sound effects library and retimed it to 120 BPM with clear accents on the first beat of every measure.
The Train Whistle
Finally, I created what I like to think of as the piece de resistance of the whole thing: the train whistle. Now, if you think about a train whistle, it’s actually a chord. Because it’s the harmony of the chord that gives it that train-like quality, I knew that I could create one out of literally anything. Continuing with the idea of using my own voice to make all of the sounds of the train, I decided to record myself saying “Choo choo!” and then layer different pitches to create the whistle.
Reddit came to the rescue and I found that passenger trains use a major 6th chord for their whistle, while freight trains use a diminished 7th chord for theirs (to denote more urgency when you see a giant freight train whizzing by on the tracks). I went with the major 6th chord so keep it kid-friendly.
Here is the recording of my voice doing three different types of whistles.
And here are the same materials with my voice pitched and layered to create a major 6th chord.
The Final Product
And finally, here is everything all together! It was approved!