The Boom Box Post blog provides insights into the creative sound design process of Boom Box Post's owners and employees.
In my opinion, creature vocals are crucial to sound design. Nobody wants to see a gigantic dragon on screen and then it sounds lame… It should stand out and fit the part! So, where do you start when you want to design a ferocious dragon? There is no right or wrong way, but Jessey can give you some insight on how she designs her dragon vocals!
2020 may be over, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. After the year we all had, don’t you think it’s important we start taking better care of ourselves? If so, check out these 5 work from home tips to help you start 2021 stress-free!
Those who are reading this are probably also ready for 2020 to be over. It has been quite a year in many aspects. Putting aside all of the craziness of the world, we thought it would be nice to give you an inside look on audio skills we have improved upon or learned in 2020 and individual goals that we have for 2021!
This year was unlike any other, and while 2020 had many lows, there is a lot we are thankful for this year! We are honored to have been nominated for 3 Daytime Emmy Awards, 4 MPSE Awards, and begin work on 7 new series! We are very lucky to have had such a busy year full of so many exciting projects, but like the rest of the world we are ready to move onto 2021 and leave 2020 behind us. We hope you have a safe holiday and happy new year!
The art of foley is an amazing magic trick that can really bring a production to life. If your project has the budget for custom foley, I would highly recommend taking advantage of skilled professionals to help bring this element of your soundtrack to life. That said, not everyone has the money and access to a professional foley team. Never fear! You can be your own foley team with incredible results. All from the comfort of your home, at little to no cost.
This year to bring some holiday spirit in our work from home lives, we decided to do a signature cocktail contest! Those at Boom Box who wanted to participate were allowed to make ANY drink of their choice and we would vote. All they had to do was post a picture/video for us and how they made it. If you are looking for some holiday drinks to whip out this year, look no more! We have some GREAT ones for you.
If you’re a sound editor, then you know how important having a good sound library is. Not only is it important to have a well rounded library but it is also necessary to continue adding to it. I’d like to introduce you to a fantastic web based sound library called Soundsnap. This website is great for editors of all experience levels and since we’re getting close to the holidays, it could be a great gift! Check it out below.
We released two new custom libraries this week: Squish Splat Ooze & the 1966 Ford Mustang, and to celebrate we made our entire Boom Box Library store 25% off. Today only, we’re giving out a Cyber Monday code to get an EXTRA 20% off on top of that. Just add CYBERMONDAY during checkout.
We are extremely proud to announce the release of our second Boom Box Library this year: The Squish Splat Ooze SFX Library!
The Squish Splat Ooze Sound Effects Library contains a wide variety of gelatinous liquid sound effect recordings. We used a combination of the Sennheiser MKH 8040 & MKH30 with a mid-side configuration to capture the sounds of flarp, JELL-O, bubbling liquid, mac and cheese, mud, and slime. Recorded sounds include include drops, slaps, impacts, squeezes, steady movements, and more recorded with a variety of thick viscous liquids.
We are extremely proud to announce the release of our newest Boom Box Library: The 1966 Ford Mustang!
To create this library, we recorded a vintage 1966 Ford Mustang GT model. This model boasts a v8 engine (225 hp, 168 kW, 228 PS "289"), grille-mounted fog lamps, disc brakes, reverse lights, and a hard top. The 1966 GT interior includes an instrument panel with a speedometer, fuel gauge, temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge and ampmeter in five round dials.
During the recording session, we placed five different microphones at key locations on the car and recorded accelerating, decelerating, driving steadies, idling, and revs simultaneous with them all. Then, we recorded pass-bys of various speeds, pull aways, pull in and stops, doors, ignition, levers, switches, windows, and more using three different shotgun microphones. All takes were recorded at the high sample rate of 96 kHz.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year again and we want to start off the season with our holiday gift guide! Considering this year is unlike any other, we have a great mixture of audio, work from home, and 2020 escapism gifts that even Scrooge himself wouldn’t bah-humbug!
The latest gear and hottest plugins are regularly trendy topics of discussion in the sound community. But for this week’s blog post, I’m going old-school and throwing it all the way back to good ol’ PHASING! (Hold for applause)
Now, I bet you are thinking to yourself, “What is phasing exactly?” or perhaps “How does it apply in the real world?”, and most importantly “Do I even need to know this?!” Well, you’re about to find out…
Here at Boom Box Post, it is our job to bring the shows we work on to life with sound. Our editors have perfected the art of storytelling and conveying emotion through sound design. I thought it would be interesting (and mostly funny) to let the Boom Post Post team do what we do best. So I asked the question, “If 2020 was a sound effect, what would it be?” Let’s listen to the responses!
At this point, we are deep into quarantine and if you are like me, you are struggling to find things to keep you entertained at home. I am tired of torturing myself looking at cooking videos and constantly being hungry! So, that leaves me wanting to make a fun sound quiz for you all. Not too long ago, Tim created a quiz where you guess what sound something is and it was a big hit! The crazy thing about sound effects is that the sound you think something is, is NOT always right. Enjoy below!
Can you believe Fall is already here? Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, so to help us all get into the spirit I thought up a fun list of Fall-themed sounds you should consider recording for your sound library this spooky time of year!
If you’re like me, then you think being a re-recording mixer sounds not only intimidating but also very confusing. I think of the giant mixing board with a ton of buttons and nobs on it. YIKES. I thought the best way to get my questions answered was to ask one of our re-recording mixers, Jacob! He has his hands in all of our shows so he definitely has the lowdown. Let’s jump right in!
Whether I’m working on a Halloween special or just a spooky scene, I often find myself needing to make scary vocals. There are so many ways to achieve a haunting voice, but I’m going to talk about a few tools that I like to use. To get started, you need four plugins and a vocal recording. This can be laughing, a spooky saying, or even an elongated breath.
We’ve all been there. Upon starting a new project you’re told “picture is locked” which means there will be no further edits resulting in timing changes. Projects that stick to this promise are a dream. However, the reality of creative work is that it’s ever-evolving; and that includes picture editorial. Timing changes are inevitable, but they don’t have to be dreaded. With the right process, conforming to new picture can be relatively painless.
At the very beginning of 2020, Women’s Audio Mission reached out to me to ask if Boom Box Post would be interested in contributing to their upcoming Los Angeles popup by giving a workshop on sound design for television and film. We decided to put together a small event in May for 15-30 people which would introduce the audience to sound design and include some hands-on interactive components.
And then… COVID hit and it seemed that this plan to collaborate would need to be put off indefinitely due to travel, health, and safety concerns.
But, WAM being the incredible resource that it is for so many people in our industry, they quickly pivoted and created WAM Everywhere Live Classes, a series of free virtual workshops “to keep our community connected, supported, and learning during this time of social distancing and beyond.”
Boom Box Post turned 6 at the end of August and over these 6 years we have written a handful of blog posts. For both our new and OG readers, we thought it would be helpful to round up a list of posts that feature free resources. During this turbulent time of COVID-19, we definitely recommend taking advantage of these awesome tools!
