WRITTEN BY KATIE MAYNARD
SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
We are so excited to showcase our latest work in the new Netflix animated TV show, Centaurworld! In honor of the shows release, we asked one of our sound editors to dive into some of the magical sound elements she created for the show. Get ready to learn about how Katie designed the “magical artifact” seen in the trailer and first episode of Centaurworld!
What was your brainstorming process?
I knew the design for this artifact needed to be magical, but not sparkly chime-y magic. I couldn’t use high pitch chime glisses or anything too cutesy. I also knew the artifact required room to be expanded upon and utilized beyond this first episode, so I needed to make at least four basic builds -
1. The artifact turning on or activating
2. A loopable steady sound for the artifact when it is glowing
3. The artifact indicating it was growing in power
4. The artifact deactivating
I began to compile things that sounded magical but not too sci-fi or shimmery. Some of the elements I used were the sound of a tube spinning, ghostly whooshes, and some fun feedback sounds.
Could you give a step by step process of what you added?
I wanted to start with the glowing steady since that would be the most basic sound of the artifact. I layered together a few pulsing layers as well as the sound of the tube spinning, after I processed it and made it sound more magical. I’ll go into more detail as to how I processed it later.
Next, I wanted to give the artifact some life for moments it would be featured, like the activation and deactivation. That’s when I just started to look for elements that sounded like they would be in the same family as the steady I already built. I found some high ringing feedback effects as well as some ghost whooshes. I processed a gong since it had an eerie magical feeling to it already. I used some one-note chimes that sounded less sparkly and more tonal as well.
Once I added together a bunch of elements I thought sounded really cool, I went through each individual element and balanced the volume of it relative to the other elements so it would sound cohesive. Once I created those four builds, I was able to expand on the artifact as necessary, and I knew I would have enough material for it to feel like a fully designed element for the rest of the season.
What would you suggest to new editors on how to go about this specific design work?
I would always suggest designing something with the big picture in mind, meaning always thinking about whether you will need to expand on your build in the future or not. If you design something that only works for the scene you’re working on, you may run into trouble when that element evolves and becomes bigger, malfunctions, or is just generally more prominent in an episode.
Also, make sure you have a loopable steady for something that may be featured for minutes at a time - it’s the worst if you only have a couple second steady that you need to stretch for a five minute scene!
Any plugins that you used that you would recommend?
I LOVE using a combination of reverb, delay, and the reverse plug in when I’m designing something magical. For example, I used the sound of someone spinning a hollow tube which was pretty fun and tonal to begin. I then reversed that clip, added reverb, added delay, and then re-reversed the clip to make it sound a little more ominous, distant, and magical.
I also tend to use Vari-Fi and other pitch manipulating plugins for special moments where my design ‘turns on or off.’ All of these plugins come standard with ProTools!
How did you make this unique?
I had a lot of fun trying to come up with a magical design that would come off as very mysterious, as there was so much mystery associated with the artifact in this first episode. It wasn’t supposed to sound evil, but it was still supposed to sound ominous. It needed to cut through layers of music, dialogue, and even a scary minotaur army, so I knew it needed to stand out frequency-wise as well. This narrowed my search down quite a bit, so I just had fun layering unique elements together which ultimately made a really signature design for this first episode of Centaurworld.
Listen to all the magical elements together below.
Hear Katie’s magical artifact sound design at 0:06!
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