NEWS

Electromagnetic coil pickups provide users with the ability to capture the sound of electronic signals in everyday items. This can provide some quite unusual and fascinating results for Sound Designers.

Complex Simplicity

Coil pickups are magnetic transducers, that convert mechanical energy into electric signals. The user simply has to connect the pickup to an electronic device which they want to record. The resulting audio can then be transferred to a recording device via a standard jack cable.

As well as this technology being extremely accessible, it also rejects outside noise, provides unheard sounds, and can be especially interesting when the user changes the signal live (i.e with a phone). Opening apps, making selections and locking the phone all create interesting modulations. Take a listen to the following recordings we made:

https://soundcloud.com/344audio/sets/electric-coil-pickup-recordings

Budget Friendly

The great news for any cash strapped Soundies out there, is that this tool doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get your hands on. In regards to a price vs usage factor, we have to say that coil pickups are exceptionally valuable. JrF microphones offer these for as little as £15, which easily puts them into the 'must have' category.

They can be attached to items you already own, and used in the field on less conventional electronic devices. We recently recorded a failing lightbulb, then processed the signal to create an electronic Sci-Fi bullet for a challenging moment in a film.

Further experiments can lead to live performance, using the electronic signals as wavetable oscillators and creating bizarre abstract soundscapes.

We hope that you have considered getting hold of an Electric Coil Pickup, after hearing how this budget friendly tool can revolutionise your Sound Design.

Let us know what you think below.

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We were asked to visit a local college whose Music Technology students wanted to learn more about the world of Sound Design. Take a look at this video where we turned our Fireworks Recordings into Bomb Sounds and a Techno Track for them.

During the making of this video, we put together a FREE Sample Library utilising the sounds we've created.

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Get them here:​

https://www.facebook.com/344audio/posts/1919931411563780

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Over the past 3 decades Japanese animation or "Anime" has steadily gained prominence outside of Asia, and now is growing into one of the most popular entertainment genres.

Whilst Anime shares many similarities with western animation, there are many differences, as you would expect from an art form that originates from a different culture.

In this article, we will look at what gives anime sound effects there trademark aesthetic and how you can replicate these sounds in your own work.

Use Sounds that are heavily stylised, with less focus on realism

Anime tends to focus on more "high concept" worlds and themes in its stories. Even in programs with a fairly grounded plot and setting, there is always some element of fantasy, melodrama and heightened reality present.

Because of this, Anime is heavily stylised in many areas of production, and sound design is no exception. Sounds are often quite unrealistic and have a cartoon quality to them. More focus is placed in the aesthetic style of the sound and the feeling it creates, rather than how things sound in reality.

Gunshots are a classic example. Whereas in western productions, and Hollywood in particular, you may expect to find beefy, high fidelity gun sounds with an emphasis on realism, anime gunshots are more highly stylised and make use of more synthetic layers, even if the weapon itself appears to be "normal".    

Other examples include heavy swishes and whooshes to enhance a punch, or over the top sword "shing" effects to draw attention to the hero.

Blend synthetic with organic elements

A common feature of anime sound effects is that they often have a synthetic quality to them, even if its the sound of something fairly ordinary. This goes back to the days when sound effects libraries were limited so audio teams made use of the synthesizer equipment they had access to.

For a classic anime punch effect, try layering punch or impact sound effects with a synthesized element to help them pop and give them that satisfying punchiness that is so characteristic of anime sound effects. Synthesised kick drums, toms or other percussion work especially well for this kind of thing.

Modular and FM synthesis is also really great for designing machinery, weapon or sci-fi effects, as they can produce a wide range of metallic tones and colours. These effects are further enhanced through the use of rind modulation, and pitch modulation.

Here we can observe the use of synthetic elements to enhance to gunshots in Sword Art Online.

Use filters and tape saturation

Much of the "classic" anime sound comes from the shows of the 80s and 90s. Sound effects whether organic or synthetic in their origins were recorded onto tape, which naturally gives sounds its own distinctive tone and colour as a result of tape saturation.

If you have the means, try recording sounds on to tape before running them into your DAW. Experiment with different parameters such as the playback speed, or vary the strength of the signal being written on to tape.

For those of us working in the purely digital realm, you can also achieve a similar sound through the use of tape emulation plugins, or by applying EQ and filters which mimic the properties of analogue gear and tape recording.

Tape emulation plugins:

Waves Kramer tape

https://www.waves.com/plugins/kramer-master-tape#eddie-kramer-on-the-kramer-master-tape

PSP Vintage Warmer 2 http://www.pspaudioware.com/plugins/dynamic_processors/psp_vintagewarmer2/

FabFilter Saturn 2 https://www.fabfilter.com/products/saturn-2-multiband-distortion-saturation-plug-in

Embrace Cliche

Anime embraces what western audiences tend to perceive as cliché sound effects, with

cheesy bell sounds, mickey mouse effects, humorous tones for embarrassment and heavy slapstick moments all being commonplace in anime sound design.

Anime also presents a turbocharged version of "cuteness" that is often emphasised through sound effects such as bubbles popping, melodic and bouncy synth tones and fizzing effects.

Try and break out of the western mindset, and don't be afraid to try ideas that you think are overdone or are too cliché. It might be the perfect ingredient to give that classic Anime sound you are going for.

Keep it simple

Because of the nature of the storylines, and the "visual busyness" of each frame, Anime tends to feature a more simple and direct use of sound effects.

The audience is already flooded with visual information, so to avoid overloading the audience anime sound design typically emphasises specific moments on screen, as opposed to covering everything which would be the natural inclination in the west.

Anime production is also notoriously rushed and often working with very limited budgets. Often sound designers simply don't have the time to record foley and therefore rely on an extensive bank of tried and tested sound effects.

We hope you enjoyed checking out this article!

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We are pleased to share with you some of the behind the scenes processes from our work on the Canadian racing film Challenger.

Based on true events, when a race track owner loses his business due to the world wide pandemic, only one thing can save him from his despair...

Challenger is a heartfelt short film with a great story and a unique setting, with the film taking place in the Humberstone race way in Canada. This film presented an interesting challenge from an audio perspective, as we had to live up to the intensity of the racing scenes, whilst not overshadowing the more emotional elements of the story and the films musical score.

Director Daniel Everitt-Lock had this to say about the film:

Challenger was originally shot as a piece to advertise some new kit that we had bought for rentals, but then when the narrative we route for the piece unfortunately came true a few days after we finished shooting, we decided to make a full short in honour of the track and the owners.

When creating the sounds for the vehicles in the film, we took the approach to make everything sound as natural as possible, meaning that all the sounds would come from the location sound of the real vehicles going around the track used in the film.

The filmmakers really went out of their way to give us the best possible sonic ingredients, which was a massive blessing and helped us to create a memorable and exciting soundtrack.

Microphones were mounted to the front and back exterior of the vehicles. The drivers then performed several "takes" of racing around the track to capture the full range of sounds that you hear on the track such as engine revving at different intensities, gear changes, heavy braking, tire squealing and wheels churning the dirt track.

We then took all of this source material and used it to create the soundtrack for the racing scenes in the film. The inclusion of exterior sounds was especially useful, as most car recordings you find in sound effects libraries tend to be interior, and don't have that raw, visceral sound that we needed for the race action.

We really enjoyed this approach to designing a race scene, and we plan to release a forthcoming sound effects library using the vehicle sounds from the film, so that you can get in on the action as well.

Working on this film also presented a unique challenge because of the dialogue. All of the lines in the film occur when the characters are wearing their racing masks, so we had to assemble the dialogue from the rushes and decide on the best moments for them to be spoken. This then had to be carefully balanced alongside the sound effects and the musical score, which takes a fairly heavy role in the mix, driving the film forward between the racing scenes and cut-away shots.

All of the work for this project was completed remotely by our team, including the mixing stage where the director patched in using our remote workflow.

For more work from director Daniel Everitt-Lock including his colour grading studio True Colour check out the links below:

https://www.everlockproductions.com/

You can watch the completed film below:

We hope you enjoyed this article!

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We often get requests for a look into the Sound Design process, so we set some time aside this Halloween to demonstrate a creative and experimental approach to working on this video.

During the making of this video, we put together a FREE Sample Library utilising the sounds we've created.

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Get them here:

https://www.facebook.com/344audio/posts/1906608462896075?__mref=message_bubble

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