The Boom Box Post blog provides insights into the creative sound design process of Boom Box Post's owners and employees.
For aspiring editors and audio students, I always come across one tip in—to start building up a personal SFX library. So I complied a list of 10 spring inspired sounds, that if you have access to, you should go out and record this refreshing time of year!
Sound Particles is a 3D audio software that uses particles. Each particle corresponds to a 3D audio object which is then captured using a virtual microphone. This allows for very interesting and creative sound design as we can place the audio source anywhere in a 3D virtual space. Instead of working on a linear workflow, Sound Particles allows us to visualize and place each sound in a 3D space. Check out a few cool designs we did below!
A few years ago our team was challenged to capture a singular sound that provides insight to their everyday life. I thought it’d be fun for our editors to take on this challenge again, but this time it's quarantine edition!
Recently we decided that our library was lacking in non-english dialogue. Not only do our mixers constantly need them on the stage, our editors in their day to day editorial also noticed we could use them. We took a whole day recording everyone around the office and it was a bunch of fun to act out the long list of ideas we had. We hope you enjoy the funny faces we made!
There are many different ways to be a great leader and a lot of different philosophies that can get you there. But this post isn’t to cover the theoretical side of leadership. This is a nuts and bolts how-to with specific tips regarding software, meetings, organization, and communication specifically pertaining to being a supervising sound editor. Obviously, there are many approaches on this front as well, but here’s what we do here at Boom Box Post with much success.
At lunch the other day, a conversation about minimalism in the Oscar nominated film 1917’s sound design sparked a memory from a few months ago. So let’s take it back to summer 2019... and then I promise we’ll loop back around to 1917.
As sound pros, we are constantly on the lookout for interesting material that we can utilize or manipulate for our work. My ears perk up when I hear a particularly unusual sound. I’ve been recording fascinating audio stuff on my phone for years. I can’t help it. It’s our passion. So with that approach in mind, let me tell you a story about a rubber chicken.
As a supervisor, I’ve found that other-worldly vehicle design is one of the hardest design challenges for new editors. More specifically, creating a sense of motion within designed vehicle editorial is where most new editors need a little extra guidance. In today’s post, I’ll go over how to use pitch processing to sell movement in designed vehicles which do not incorporate engines from our world.
Before I dive in, I suggest if you’re interested in learning about vehicle editorial and design, that you first check out Jeff’s blog post The Basics of Vehicle Sound Editorial. It’s an excellent guide on getting started with editing vehicles and some of what I talk about today will assume you know the basic principles he outlined in that post.
It’s that time again, another internship group has rolled in and they are ready to meet you! For this spring semester, please welcome Jon Odate and Jon Rowland -- and I know what you’re thinking but no, we didn’t hire two interns with the same name to make it easier for us.
This week Jessey Drake answers questions on a few topics that could benefit current/future audio students. Being an audio professor, Jessey knows the ins and outs of how audio schools can improve, helping their students prepare for a career in sound. We wanted to get some insight on common misconceptions and as well as advice for how audio students can prepare for their future!
Happy Tuesday all! Social media is a fun/popular way to get opinions about various things so we thought it would be cool to start a new thing to show off to the blog… Twitter polls! For this first one, I thought it would be cool to get opinions on various headphones that are pretty popular for editing. Check out the various headphones and poll results below!
As some of you may know, I’m a long-time sound designer and supervising sound editor, but I just started mixing a few years ago. While attending mixes as a supervisor definitely gave me a window into best practices for sound design success (aka how to make sure your work actually gets played…audibly), I got a whole new vantage point for what to do (and not do) once I started having to dig through sound design sessions myself! So, while I am a fledgeling mixer and you should always speak directly to the mixer working on your project before making decisions or altering your workflow, I feel that I am qualified to share my personal preferences and experiences. Take this as the starting point for a conversation—a window into one mixer’s mind, and hopefully it will spark great communication with your own mixer.
It’s been awhile since we’ve done a creative build blog post so here’s the first one of the new year! This week I sat down with Brad to look at a fun build he did for a snow cone machine. This one had several builds slightly different from each other so check it out below!
We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with their loved ones! 2019 was a great year for Boom Box Post. We got to work on so many great projects and are super proud of what we accomplished. The good thing about living in an internet/social media driven world is that a lot of the content for the shows we work on is available online and we would like to share some of that content with you. Check out below some great projects we worked on in 2019!
We hope you have a wonderful holidays with your family and friends!
I spent about five years working from home as a sound editor. In terms of life/work balance, they were some of the best years of my career. But thriving as a work from home freelancer isn’t easy. I’d like to share with you some of the best strategies and tips that helped me make the best of it.
With Christmas right around the corner, I decided to go around the office and ask what everyone wants from Santa (but audio gear only)! I thought it would be a fun way to get in the holiday spirit and give our readers on the blog some ideas if they’re looking to get gear! Check it out below.
In case you didn’t know, doing internships are GREAT. Not only are they a great way to get your foot in the door, they are also a great way to find out what you want to do. Last year when I was an intern at Boom Box, I always knew that I wanted to come back and work at Boom Box down the road. Luckily I got the opportunity a lot faster than I expected and now run the internship program! How full circle, I know! I think a lot of students in college and recent graduates know the importance of internships, but don’t know how to be a good intern. So, I’m going to give some tips on what I think makes a good intern.
From now through Cyber Monday, enjoy our biggest sale yet! This year, we’re offering 50% off everything from Boom Box Library. You don’t have to wait until Black Friday—go ahead and shop now!
We often talk on this blog about recordings we make and sound library files that we use, but rarely go into detail about how these files are prepared for use. At Boom Box Post we edit and label all of our sound recordings before adding them to the library. Different editors approach this in different ways, but here is my process for taking a good recording and turning into a great library sound effect.
