Today I’m going to be discussing a virtual instrument called Gravity by the folks at Heavyocity. It’s loaded into and powered by Kontakt Engine by Native Instruments. While Gravity itself doesn’t have a free version available, Kontakt is available as both a free version and full version. Gravity is an incredible, extensively customizable virtual instrument designed predominantly for use in modern scoring. It’s comprised of 4 instrumentation sections: Hits, Pads, Risers, and Stings. Each of these 4 main sections breaks down further into complex blends of the loaded-in beautiful, high quality samples within the category as well as the simplified individual samples for additional customization with the effects and other adjustable parameters.
From its beginnings in 1920’s live broadcasts to “walking” with MIDI, Foley has always been a valuable form of character development, allowing viewers to learn more about a character through both visual and auditory cues. Whether we realize it or not, we can unconsciously assume more about a character by the sounds they make, as we did to first survive in the wilderness by detecting on-coming sounds as family or strangers. Foley artists can achieve unique footsteps that we learn to recognize in their own performances, but how have digital Foley techniques impacted character design? Boom Box Post’s Foley editor Carol Ma dives into the details of character design through digital Foley.
In this blog series we will be surveying our Boom Box Post team on different audio tools and equipment in hopes to help you decide if the chosen products are worth it or not! Up first, Pro Tools Ultimate!
When I hear telemetry, I’m reminded of the music of twentieth century Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg. He used a style called Serialism, which took a mathematical approach to developing melodies and rhythms and focused on atonality. He developed a technique called the tone row, which takes the twelve chromatic notes of a scale, and places them in a random sequence. The sequence is then manipulated by flipping it backwards and turning it upside-down. This develops into a chaotic composition with a melody that is difficult to follow, much like a typical telemetry loop in a sound library.
Space Controller allows for a new way to pan sound sources instead of the traditional method of using knobs, joysticks, or a computer mouse. There is a separate app for mobile devices which allows the device to be used as a movement reader to pan the sounds according to the position of the device.
From Back to the Future to Edge of Tomorrow, the concept and interpretation of “interdimensional time jumping” has been a key feature in sci-fi films and TV-shows. Such out-of-this-world story telling requires the support of creative and exciting sound design to immerse the viewer into the stretching of space. Read on to learn how Jessey builds a unique time jump sequence.
Welcome to the battle of the memes! It is up to you, the readers, to vote a winner for your favorite audio post production related meme created by our Boom Box Post Team!
Before audio post-production was even a possibility, composers would incorporate the emotion and the action of what they saw on the screen into their musical scores. They played the role of sound FX editor and composer, with a technique referred to as “Mickey-Mousing” where the composer would exaggerate a character’s movements with specific orchestration and musical motives. Now that sound FX editors have taken this role in post-production, Mickey-Mousing is less common, so it’s key for sound FX editors to make cuts that work with the music in the overall mix for a film or tv-show. Here are some considerations and tips that our team shared on their approach to editing with music in mind.
Collaborating is a big part of our industry. Even in sound editorial, where we are usually by ourselves in a room when we work, we collaborate in projects with mixers, supervisors, Foley artists, and also share editorial with other sound designers/editors.
We are all familiar with the saying, “You learn something new everyday!” Well, in hopes that we can all continue to learn and grow together, I would like to share with you a few super simple workflow “hacks” that had me questioning, “How did I not know this before!?”
Whether you’re mixing for film in 5.1 surround or Dolby Atmos, it’s important to consider a key element of human auditory perception: localization. Localization is the process by which we identify the source of a sound. We may not realize it, but each time we sit down to watch a movie or TV-show, our brains are keeping track of where the sound elements are coming from or headed towards, like spaceships flying overhead, or an army of horses charging in the distance. It is part of the mixer’s role to blend the auditory environment of a show so that listeners can accurately process the location of sounds without distraction or confusion. Here are some psycho-acoustical cues to consider when mixing spatial audio.
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!
I am extremely excited to announce that Boom Box Post has officially broken ground on a brand new facility. Boom Box Post Verdugo will be 6,000 sq ft of state of the art post production sound space. Collaboration is of the utmost importance to us and we are thrilled to be able to house our growing staff under one roof.
We have a new Office Manager/Assistant Editor at Boom Box Post! It is our pleasure to introduce you to Zanne!
Over-cutting in your SFX editorial is a really easy mistake to make, but one that can be a real headache for your mixer. Today we’ll go over a quick tip to help you avoid adding too much to your FX builds.
When searching your library for interesting layers to add to a build, it’s very tempting to add every sound you hear that you think is appropriate and cool. But this can lead to bloated builds that make mixing pretty tricky. This is especially true if this build continues in a scene for a while, or god forbid, needs to be cut to perspective.
Something that was adapted during work from home was how the Boom Box Post team discussed recent film and series binges. These discussions prior to quarantine typically took place around the lunch table, but now they have shifted to a designated watch and listen slack channel. I’d love to invite you into the discussion and highlight a few of the films/tv shows we have been streaming recently.
We are very excited to announce that we were nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards this year! Many of our team members were part of these nominations, and we are ecstatic to share their good news with the world!
With only a week left in June, we crossover the halfway point of 2021 and enter the second half of the year. So far in 2021 we have worked on a handful of amazing new projects, all of which we are extremely proud of and excited to share with you.
From giant mecha robot fights, to ancient black magic or car chase sequences, the types of projects we work on as sound designers come in all different shapes and sizes. Animation particularly as a medium continues to surprise me, and you never know what to expect when you open up a new episode for the first time.
Through all of the genres, styles, and stories that we get thrown our way, one of the things I see editors consistently have a difficult time with is, you guessed it…TOON! I know that may seem surprising, and that on the surface the concept of “toon” might appear basic or juvenile. But the reality is toon is a tricky beast that can be tough to master. Whether it’s a toony series, toony sequence, or the occasional comedic accent, I want you to be ready if you ever find yourself working in the world of toon. So for this blog post, I decided to give a crash course on “The Art of Toon.”
Quiz time!!! Don’t worry…there’s no need to stress out about it. We haven’t done a sound quiz in awhile and we know how much you guys love these so we figured why not!? If you haven’t checked out any of our sound quizzes thus far, we are putting some links at the bottom of this blog. Enjoy!
