NEWS

We are excited to share with you our new 2020 commercial reel. This reel is a highlight of many of the commercial projects we have recently completed, including campaign videos for the Duke of Lancaster regiment, MyProtein, and Motorpoint.

There’s a lot that goes into assembling a reel, and it’s always a fresh challenge to make one that showcases our work in the most engaging way. There is a lot of contrast between different projects, so fitting them all together in a cohesive way is like solving a big jigsaw puzzle. From a sound design perspective, this reel shows our versatility whilst keeping the consistent level of quality that we deliver on our projects.

We hope you enjoy our work. You can watch it here below.

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We are proud to announce that we have won another award for our work on the American horror film, The Haunting of Pottersfield. This award came from the independent horror movie awards in the “best sound design” category.

This is our 3rd best sound design award for this film, and it has been fantastic to have our work gain praise from multiple awarding bodies in the industry.

The Haunting of Potterfield, directed by Andre Dixon tells the story of two paranormal researchers that stay overnight in one of the most haunted places in the United States. The tone of the film relied heavily on sound design to create an atmosphere and build tension.

Here is what Andre’ had to say about our work together: "Extraordinary post-production services. Excellent communication! Alex is a master craftsman who pays attention to every detail and worked continuously with me to get me the sound I was looking for in my film."

We thoroughly enjoyed working on this film and bringing the story to life through sound design. You can find a full list of winners, as well as more info about the Independent horror movie awards on their website here -  https://filmfreeway.com/IndependentHorrorMovieAwards

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344 Audio Founder Alex Gregson has started a new non-profit organisation called UKan. UKan is a guiding light that helps inspire and accelerate the path to success for young people that have an interest in pursuing a career in the creative industries.

UKan was devised after an article surfaced in the Guardian newspaper citing that ‘A third of film and TV producers are reporting a skills shortage’ in the UK. We started to research and understand why this is happening - there is a lack of knowledge on clear (and alternative) points of entry into these fields for young people. With the UK creative industries growing year after year, it's crucial that we inspire and champion the next wave of talent that are making their first steps into the industry. Not only to keep up with the demand for skilled people, but to keep the UK as the world leader for Film, TV, and media.

UKan is seeking input from creative professionals who want to get involved with the cause.  This can either be through donations, or a small contribution of your time to get involved as a UKan Ambassador. Get in touch via Facebook Messenger @WeAreUKan to tell us how you’d like to help!

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreUKan/

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We are proud to share our work on the new campaign video from MyProtein. This campaign focuses on the stories of 4 real people, as they balance their extraordinary sporting ambitions with their ordinary jobs.We were extremely excited to be working with Myprotein, and the team thoroughly enjoyed the process of expressing the message of the campaign through our sound design.

The video tells the story of a football player, a gymnast, a boxer and a runner. We are shown them working in their day jobs, contrasted with intense scenes of them training for their sport. The sharp and pacy camerawork puts the audience at the heart of the action and conveys a real sense of the dedication required to compete at the highest level. We designed sounds to match the energy on screen and hype up big moments.  Check out the Video Below

Heres what director James Killeen had to say about our contribution -

Would 100% recommend 344 audio. High-level service, extremely welcoming and the meticulous attention to detail was to be admired."

Thank you for the kind words, James!

This video has a strong northern identity running through it, and this is emphasised by the gritty voiceover from artist JSD of the rap group Virus Syndicate. Many of the cast and production crew on this project are from Manchester, and the finished product has a down-to-earth vibe that feels very fresh.

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Company: Boom Library

Product: DEBIRD

Price: $219.99

Our Rating: 4.5/5

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DEBIRD is a new app from Boom library. This simple but powerful tool uses deep learning to automatically detect and remove invasive bird sounds from your recordings.

DEBIRD opens as a stand-alone app, which feels very refreshing from a visual standpoint. Seeing the spectrograph over the full size of your monitor is a great way of visualising the audio, and offers the user a detailed analysis of a sound file.

Working with this product couldn't be easier, Simply load in a sound via the menu “File” > “Open”, or drag and drop. DEBIRD then automatically analyses the audio, identifies and removes the bird songs. There is a toggle switch in the upper left-hand corner that bypasses the effect so you can listen to a before/after. All of this happens in mere moments, due to the incredible deep learning algorithms within. You can then export your sound by going to “File” and selecting Export from the drop-down menu.

It’s worth noting that if you want to keep certain sounds that would otherwise be removed, you can instruct DEBIRD what to keep by using the boundary box, or brush features. DEBIRD can also be used in the exact opposite way it was designed for, to solo and extract bird sounds from your recordings.

For audio professionals working on large film, TV and game projects, DEBIRD is a seriously powerful tool to have in your arsenal. It will free up time that could be better spent on more important tasks, whilst also salvaging recordings that would have previously been unusable without the heavy clean up.

It would, however, be interesting to see how the plugin responds to other natural sounds, and if there is any possibility of removing things like crickets, cicadas, and monkeys. No doubt Boom Library will continue to build on this technology and apply the same deep learning process to other areas. All of this makes DEBIRD an interesting and extremely useful tool and a potential indicator of the kind of technologies we can expect to see more of as we enter the new decade.

Due to the highly specialised nature of this product and its price tag,

DEBIRD is probably best suited to professional studios and the most serious of independent sound designers. People in the beginner/intermediate category may benefit more from putting the $219 towards something more creative, or some new studio monitors, microphones, etc.  

The Bottom Line

DEBIRD does what it says on the tin, and it does it brilliantly. The speed and ease of use, combined with its powerful functions make DEBIRD a fantastic addition to Boom Libraries suite of audio tools. For many audio professionals, DEBIRD will be an absolute godsend!

Get DEBIRD Now!

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