Soundworks Collection SuperCut

Recently I had a down day at work and decided to catch up on all the videos at the SoundWorks Collection that I had never had a chance to watch.  Then I got inspired to make a supercut out of the videos.  Check it out:

They say it because it is true.  The sound is there to serve the story.

Sound Collector's Club

Do you know about the Sound Collector’s Club? If you don't, you should.  Here's why: it's awesome... in theory.  The Club has the potential to be a fantastic tool to build up your SFX library with new sounds from all around the world, and at an extremely low price point.  In order to join the club, a new member only has to pony up 20 British pounds, or around 30 dollars American/Canadian.  Which is so little given the number of effects you get in return.  Yet in order for it to be as great as it can be, we, as a sound community, have to support it and not take it for granted.

For those of you out there that are not familiar with what I am talking about, you can thank me later, because you are going to be so glad once you are in the know.  The Sound Collector’s Club (SCC) is a collective of sound editors and field recordists from around the world, that crowd-sources collections of SFX based on monthly themes.  Everyone who contributes to a given theme gets access and permission to use all the other sounds contributed by everyone else.  This is a win/win situation for all involved.  The small fee to join up simply covers the server fees. Other than that, this whole endeavor is essentially community-run.  British sound supervisor Michael Maroussas is the mastermind behind this project and he has put a lot of work into getting it up and running.  He deserves a ton of credit for pulling this all together.  Bravo Michael.

A selection of past themes from the Sound Collector's Club.

Here is why you should join, and join NOW:

• You'll build your own SFX library quickly, in two ways.  First off, in order to get everyone else’s sounds you have to add your own original recordings to the pot.  So it'll force you to get out your gear and head out into the world to record.  So you'll get your own new sounds plus everyone else’s sounds as well.  
• You'll  sharpen your skills by recording things you might not have thought about otherwise.  You'll also get to hear how others recorded similar subjects and learn from those recordings as well.
• You will be forced to up your game and come up with quality recordings.  Because you'll be sharing with other professionals, and you wouldn't want your sounds to be disappointing, right?  So you'll stay focused and work hard to get great results.
• You'll get access to international sounds.  I live in Canada; if I need original ambiences from South America or Africa, I can't go get them myself.  Yet I have a bunch of these sounds in my library because of this club.  Same goes in reverse.  The African recordists now have some ambiences of winter in Canada.  Specific ambiences and other effects like these can otherwise be very hard to source, so easy access to these is an invaluable asset.
• This is a fantastic networking tool.  If you're an up and coming sound editor looking for a gig, the SCC could really set you apart. Lots of established audio post professionals from many different countries are active in the Club.  If one of them is interviewing you and you can tell them that not only have you been busy building your own library but that they already have some of your sounds in their library - you might just get their attention.  It shows you are out interacting with professionals and have at least a basic understanding of recording techniques, metadata, and file management.  All things employers are looking for.
• It's great for networking for even the most established sound people as well.  Say you are working on a project that has a scene taking place in a country far away from your home base and you need a specific sound that you can't find in your library or any other commercial libraries.  You can go on any number of forums to ask for help, but who knows what you are going to get? With the Sound Collector’s Club you can look for someone in the club from that area and listen to what they have already contributed and judge for yourself if you think they will do a good enough job before you even contact them.  

This train and many others passing at full speed are in the Trains: Designed theme

All these reasons plus countless others make the Sound Collector’s Club a really great resource.  Yet sadly I don’t think the SCC is living up to its potential.  This is in no way the fault of its creator, Michael Maroussas.  He's done all the ground work for us (legal, technical, promotion, testing and improvements, etc.) and set up a fully functional system - all we have to do is use it.  Yet I have felt recently that the momentum the club had built up over its first year has started to dissipate.  Michael’s personal career seems to be taking off with his own big new projects, so his time he can devote to the Club will be lessening.  It's up to the rest of us to follow through on our end of the deal.  We have to help spread the word and recruit new members because the more people that take part, the more sounds become available for everyone.

I have sounds in the Night & Day theme of Toronto in winter.

So what can we do to help get this fantastic crowd sourcing project to new heights?  I have a few ideas:

• Revive talking about the club on social media.  When the SCC first arrived I saw it pop up on quite a few blogs and explode all over Twitter.  In the time since, I don’t see it mentioned as much.  So when you upload a new sound to the club, let everyone know!  Send out a message on Twitter, write a blog about how you recorded your new sounds.  Tell anyone who does not know about the club how great it is and how much greater it could be if they joined up too.  New blood in the club will lead to new excitement about the whole thing.
• Think hard about some ideas for new monthly themes.  This is one of the hardest things for the Club.  A great theme engages everyone to grab a microphone and hit record. But original themes get harder to come by after a couple years.  So try to think in new ways that might play to the strengths of a crowd sourcing project: what's missing from your library that we could all go out and record?  What kinds of things might yield different sounds depending on where in the world they were found? What sounds so cool that everyone will be excited to go record it as soon as they can?  Ask your friends in audio post if they have any ideas. Get talking to people and brainstorm together.  Then share your ideas with everyone. The best way to get people involved will be to come up with great themes that will inspire people to go out and record (and then come back and share!)
• Everyone in the club should make an effort to find one new member.  If we all do that, we double the club right there.  That seems like a reasonable goal.  I'm not saying we go door to door like we are selling Girl Guide cookies, but rather simply spread the word to people who are already in the field.  For the price point and the amount of sounds available, the concept should sell itself to the right people.
• The members in London, England have had a couple of meet-ups based around the club. A bunch of recordists gather together to record new sounds for a specific SCC theme.  They socialize, learn from each other’s techniques, try out differnt gear, and leave with a ton of new content that they can cut up and post to the club.  I have never taken part in a meet-up like this but it sounds like it could be a great way to spend an afternoon or evening.  Recently Shannon Penner of Plunk and Boom in Toronto reached out to me with a similar idea; hopefully we can come up with something concrete in the new year.  (Any Toronto area sound people who are interested - please let me know and I will keep you in the loop.)  See if something like this might work wherever you are.
• If you have better/more ideas let me/everyone know.

The sound of rain hitting my tent while in Iceland's interior in included in the Rain theme.

I feel like if we as a community can breathe a little new life into the whole project it will even better than it already is.  Young people, recent graduates and hobbyists alike should get all over this.  It's a fantastic way to add a bunch of gigabytes-worth of quality material to your personal library.  If you are the type that is out recording sounds anyway, you could be using the club to multiply your library many times over.

I have added winds from the Grand Canyon to the Wind theme as well as many train and car passes to those collections.

It's impossible for everyone to contribute every month.  Life gets in the way, workloads don’t permit the time...  I've disappeared from the club for months at a time when large projects are on my schedule, but I always come back.  I'm always glad I did when I get access to a new theme and listen to the new sounds I get as a result. 

I am not saying the Club needs to change the way it works -  it's chugging along just fine.  I just feel like it could become a whole lot more if we can get more people involved and renew the excitement and buzz around it. 

Just by the way, I am not associated with the club other than being a regular member; I don't benefit personally by promoting it and I don't mean to step on anyone’s toes with this post. I just hope that a resource as special as what has been created with the Sound Collector’s Club does not lose the momentum that others have worked so hard to build up.

OK, rant over! Thanks for swinging by.  Now get out and record something!

The cheers of this crowd at a political rally I have added to the small crowds theme.

New Tonebenders Episode and Book Review of Field Recording: from Research to Wrap

Episode 4 of the Tonebenders podcast has been released. You can go grab it at www.tonebenders.net, or subscribe through iTunes via the quick instructions found by clicking on the “?” icon on our website.  We are having problems getting the podcast up on the official podcast directory in iTunes, but for now through a couple quick clicks you can force iTunes to subscribe.  If podcasts are not your thing you can listen through the youtube clip above too.

 

This episode Dustin, Rene and I are joined by Paul Virostek to have a long conversation about the various different ways we all master and database our sound effects recorded out in the field.  It is surprising how differently we all go about this.  Paul is the expert we brought in to help us sort through the differences.  He runs a great blog I have talked about here before called Jetstreaming.org.  On his blog he regularly goes into the behind the scenes details about what has to happen to build a SFX library for sale to the general public.  Although I have no real interest in selling the SFX I record, I am also aware that cataloging the sounds properly is of great importance if I want to find sounds years from now.

Paul VirostekPaul has also written an eBook that has just been released called “Field Recording: from Research to Wrap”.  We talk about the book in the final act of the podcast, but I had not read any of the text yet at that point.  Over the last week I have had a chance to really dive into the book, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts about it with you. 

 

First off it is a real professional product.  It has clearly been well edited as it is easy to read and well laid out.  I loaded it up on my iPad and was reading right away.  I have found independent publications can be a pain in the butt in the past, often featuring clunky layouts, that don’t transfer to easy reading.  That was not the case with Paul’s book.

 

I also really like the way the book flows.  If you are new to field recording or are thinking of getting involved, this book is your new bible.  It will help you navigate everything you are going to run into in your recording adventures. This really must have stuff.  Newbies should also strongly consider the delux version of the book that comes with a companion book called "The 30-Day Quick-Start Guide".  This second book offers a 30 day program to follow. This walks you through everything you need to actually get sounds on tape, including templates for a ton of forms, checklists and diagrams.  

 

Yet for those of us that have experience out in the field already, this book has a lot to offer still.  Paul has broken things down in a way that makes me think about things differently then I had previously.  Categories large and small are boiled down into digestible chunks.  For instance in his chapter about research he writes about finding talent and breaks this down to 3 categories:

 

1. Performers. 
2. Consultants. 
3. Gatekeepers.

 

The idea being that “performers” are people who will actually perform the act you are recording, “consultants” are people who will help you find the best version of things to record and finally “gatekeepers” are the ones who you need to actually grant you access to the objects you want to record.  Obviously in some circumstances one person could be all three but in many other cases you will need to search out each category on its own. This is something I knew already but I had never really taken the time to break things down to be able think it all out like this.  Paul goes into much more detail and makes everything clear and easy to follow. 

 

Now this is not the most glamourous example (for more exciting examples of these new ideas, you will have to buy the book!!) but I think it illustrates the extent to which Paul has broken things down.  If this book existed 10 years ago it would have saved me a lot of mistakes and sped up my learning curve quite a bit.  I am looking forward to finishing the book over the holidays, I have not even read the final third of the book yet.  It deals with what you need to do to wrangle your recordings into useable individual sound files in your master library.  I am sure that will open my eyes to a lot more great nuggets of wisdom from a guy who has been there and done it all with a microphone.

 

The ebook is available at Paul’s Jetstreaming website.  It costs $17US ($24 for the delux version) and I have a feeling it will pay for itself nearly instantly in terms of time saved based on the lesson’s learned.  It will be worth it to have on your phone or tablet out in the field as a quick reference guide.  I think the info really shines in the area of getting ready to record.  That is not the most exciting part of the shoot but getting the prep right makes the exciting parts run smoothly and this book will help with that immensely.  

 

If you are on the fence on if this book is for you, please take a listen to the Tonebenders podcast featuring Paul and get a feel for his thinking and personality.

 

Finally if you have any comments or ideas for future episodes of the Tonebenders, please let us know!  Head over to Tonebenders.net and add comments to the show notes.  We would love to hear from you all.

 

Chasing Ice in Iceland

I recently saw the film "Chasing Ice" directed by Jeff Orlowski.  It's a really great documentary film that follows the story of National Geographic photographer James Balog and his quest to document in photographic form the accelerating decline in glaciers worldwide.  The film has won numerous awards, including a Sundance award for the cinematography, for which Orlowski must share the acclaim with Balog, whose startling time-lapse sequences of retreating glaciers drive home the message about the perils of a changing arctic climate.  A less talked-about element of the film is the sound design.  The film features two breathtaking scenes of a glacier calving.  Calving is the dramatic breaking-off of huge chunks of a glacier as it 'flows' into the ocean.  When these massive pieces break off they float away as icebergs. "Chasing Ice" shows a calving event which is the largest ever caught on tape.  Essentially, a chunk of ice about half the size of Manhattan breaks off of a glacier in Greenland while the cameras are rolling.  It's an astounding thing to see on a theatre screen.

The scene was shot from 2 miles away, so location sound was most likely just buffeting arctic wind and distant rumble... I left the theatre wondering how they went about designing the sound for such a powerful scene.  How do you create the sound for something that perhaps no person has ever before witnessed? Well, these are exactly the kinds of questions we like to talk about on the Tonebenders podcast, which, if you've been following the blog lately, you'll know is the sound-design podcast that I just recently started co-producing.  So I contacted the sound designer on the film, Dustin Cawood, to talk about his experience working on "Chasing Ice." He spoke to me from his edit suite at Skywalker Ranch in California and I was able to put these questions and others to him, and we also talked about about another big project he worked on this year, Steven Spielberg’s "Lincoln."  I can't wait to share that interview in an upcoming episode of the podcast.  Mr. Cawood is a very interesting guy with lots of great insight into the sound design process. 

Dustin Cawood

"Chasing Ice" really struck a personal chord with me, right from the opening scenes: photographer James Balog, camera in hand, intrepidly climbing over iceberg bits and venturing into the frigid waves breaking on Jökulsárlón beach in Iceland. I recognized the beach right away, since my wife and I spent our honeymoon traveling and camping throughout Iceland. We spent a day right there on that same beach. 

Jökulsárlón beach scattered with Iceberg chunks that did not make it out to sea.

Iceland is indeed a cold land of vast glaciers, but that's not the full story of this remote island.  We traveled through the country in late June, during the height of the melting season, when daylight lasts 24 hours.  As the glaciers melt in the spring, the water overflows the land on it's way to the sea, and creates waterfalls everywhere you turn.  The most iconic waterfall in Iceland is Gullfoss.  It's located a short drive from the capital city of Reykjavík, and about 5 minutes away from the eponymous Geysir, the country's most powerful geyser.  Gullfoss is a spectacular sight to behold as it cascades over many different levels of cliff rocks until it finally drops into a deep crevasse in the earth’s crust. From certain viewing angles, the water tumbles over the falls and then seems to completely disappear.  I was able to record a bit of the sound of the water coming over the “staircase” section of the falls.  Take a listen as you look at some of the pictures we took that day.

Those rainbows are not photoshopped, it is just a magical place.

One camping stop on our trip was in Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður National Park, (I have no idea how to pronounce that) near the Skaftafell visitors centre at the southeast end of the country.  We read in our guide books about a great hike in the national park that would take us to Svartifoss, a beautiful waterfall that flowed over a cliff made basalt columns. So after dinner at our camp site we set out on our quest.  The strange and startling thing about Iceland is the seemingly incompatible landscapes that exist side by side.  Our hike took us through green pastures dotted with with trees and covered by tall grasses and wildflowers.  All the while we were just a couple of kilometers away from of one of the largest glaciers in the world, Vatnajökull (area: 8,100 km²).  It was worth the hike for sure.  By the time we arrived at Svartifoss, it was well into the evening, but of course the sun was still high in the sky.  After a good hike deep into the wilds, in an already fairly remote area of the country, the waterfall we came upon was just about the most peaceful thing I have ever encountered.  Again, here is some sound from Svartifoss to listen to while you look at some photos of the area.

The final Icelandic water sound I'll share is the water rolling in on Vík beach, which is along the island’s southern coast.  This beach is a popular tour stop because of it's black lava sand as well as the view of Reynisdrangar.  Reynisdrangar is a formation of rock columns jutting out of the ocean just off the beach.  Legend says the rocky formations came to be when trolls were struck by sunlight and turned to stone.  The very locaction where the following audio was recorded has since been featured in the music video for Holocene by Bon Iver - go to the 5:08 min. mark of the video to see the rock formation in all its glory. (Svartifoss Falls are also featured in the video at 2:51 and Jökulsárlón beach can be seen around 2:15.)

BON IVER "Holocene" from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

Here is the sound of the waves rolling in on Vík beach.

I love this sound because of the strange combing effect the basalt columns produce as the waves rush past them.  I could listen to it all day.

At the time, when I was seeing all these beautiful waterfalls in Iceland, I was only thinking how breathtaking and amazing they were to behold.  After seeing the film "Chasing Ice" I now realize  these recordings are the chilling sound of the glaciers seeping away into the ocean, never to return.  How depressing is that...

Here are some photos of some of the other waterfalls we encountered throughout Iceland.  All photos courtesy of Ehrin Albright (the good ones) and myself (the out of focus ones).

For more blog posts and recordings from my Icelandic adventure click here.

Recording Boxing Up Close (Sometimes Too Close)

This past spring I was contacted about recording a set of specific sounds for an upcoming French-language documentary called "Trois Boxeuses" about women’s boxing. The documentary was to be a big part of the CBC’s ramp-up to Olympic coverage on the broadcaster's French language channel. (The CBC - the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - is Canada's public broadcaster and largest television network.) The London 2012 Olympics were to debut women’s boxing for the first time in official Olympic competition and this doc was part of the lead-in to the network's television coverage of the games. The sport has been gaining momentum recently, especially in Quebec where many of Canada’s top-ranked female boxers hail from, including Ariane Fortin and Sandra Bizier - who are two of the main subjects of the film. Canada’s most accomplished amateur female boxer is Mary Spencer, a 3-time world champion and one of Canada’s medal hopefuls at the London games. Mary is the third boxer featured in the film. 

During shooting, the documentary ended up covering a different kind of drama than the producers had anticipated. In the Olympic qualifying tournament in China all three boxers were unexpectedly eliminated in the first round, including the normally dominant Mary Spencer. Suddenly it looked like not a single one of the featured athletes was going to even make it to London. The story might have ended right there but for the inscrutable politics of Olympic sports. The doc team continued to follow the three women right up to the 11th hour before the opening ceremonies, as they waited to hear whether one of them would be awarded one of the 'wildcard' berths and have a chance to be the first woman to win an Olympic medal for boxing.

Here is the trailer for the documentary:

The documentary needed some fresh punch impacts, for scenes ranging from the big Olympic qualifying fights and training bouts all the way down to scenes of daily workouts with the heavy bag. To get these sounds I was given access to Canada’s only women's boxing gym, Newsgirls, for an hour before it opened up for the day, as well the services of a former Canadian nationally ranked boxer, Savoy Howe, who is also the owner of the Newsgirls gym. Savoy Howe has a storied career in the sport, including being the first openly gay boxer on the circuit when she was first starting out in 1993. She is included in the 100 Most Important Moments in LGBT Sports History on Outsports.com and she has also been profiled by ESPN.com (not a website known for its fulsome coverage of women’s boxing.) Savoy is the real deal.

Savoy Howe instructing a student at Newsgirls

Lucky for me, the boxing student Savoy would be sparring with while I recorded, Teresa Morrow, was also the re-recording mixer on this doc. So I'd have an experienced sound pro on hand to help out during the session. The goal was to record them sparring and also to record Savoy working various kinds of training devices, including heavy bags, double-end balls and speed bags. Also on my list: footwork in the ring and the bells and buzzers that signal the start and end of each round of a match.

After arriving and being introduced to Savoy, I was given a quick tour of the gym. It was immediately clear that this place had a lot of authentic character. It's basically a large warehouse space filled with various kinds of punching bags and well-used training devices, all surrounding the centre-piece of the gym - the boxing ring. 

Visually, it was all you could ask for from an old-school boxing gym, but in terms of sound there was going to be a problem. Most of the gym was lit with large banks of fluorescent tube lights, and they were buzzing pretty loudly. In addition to the lights, there was an electric transformer located at one end of the gym that was also humming away. Before any useful sounds could be recorded these environmental noises would have to be dealt with. Normally the simple answer for buzzing lights is to just turn them off, but when you are in a large warehouse-like space with no windows, turning off the lights will plunge you into total darkness. It would be tough to record people boxing if they can't see each other. Luckily, I keep a lamp in my kit and there were a couple of spot-lights around the gym to get us enough light to continue on. It was still pretty dark in the gym but we would get by. 

Next up was killing the loud hum created by the transformer box. We located the breaker box and started throwing every switch it offered, but none of them seemed to kill the humming. So we went with a tried and true technique and piled blankets and jackets over top of the transformer box to deaden down the humming to a manageable level.

Now we were ready to record. First up, Savoy warmed up with some jump rope. She started slow and then sped up. The rope made some fantastic sounds as it whipped around. 

I had Savoy work on the speed bag next - she made it look so easy. We did three recording passes, first working the bag slowly, then faster and then super fast. When I tried to hit the speedbag it was embarrassing. The bag went swinging and pitching around in all directions. Yet when Savoy went to work she had the little ball in perfect control - I was able to get the microphone in nice and tight.

Next we went over to the heavy bags. There were various kinds in the gym, and after listening to the way they all sounded we picked two that had some nice thump and smack. The first one was quite solid and each punch was a great thud. We also chose one heavy bag hanging from chains that clinked and clattered on each impact, making the punches sound “room-rattling” with each arm swing.

When I first met Savoy, I must admit I was surprised at how small she was - I wondered how someone that size could be so successful in the ring. Well, once I saw her throw a few punches it became immediately clear that she is a force to be reckoned with. I was terrified and I was 10 feet away on the other end of a boom pole. She was confident too. At one point I wanted her to give the heavy bag a quick series of punches in rapid succession, so I suggested she beat up the bag like she was in a bar fight. With a deadpan look, she informed me that if she was ever in a bar fight there would only be one punch - and the fight would be over. Fair enough, point made.

After making Savoy beat the hell out of a few more training bags it was time to get her in the ring for some sparring. Followed by getting Savoy to beat the hell out of some punch mitts. 

Finally, we let Savoy take a moment to take a breathe. She had been active for quite a while at this point and we were really putting her through the paces. Of course while she was catching her breath I stuck a mic in her face to record the deep breathing. 

I found out that breathing is actually one of the biggest challenges when recording boxers. Part of the training a boxer goes through is learning to channel energy through breathing. This means that with every punch thrown Savoy would exhale loudly, interfering with the sound of the impact. She was good about trying to keep quiet while throwing the punches but clearly it was an ingrained reflex, as every couple minutes I had to remind her to try to keep her breathing quiet while we recorded. Finally, we inverted the rule and got her to punch in the air with full breathing, and got fantastic, powerful exhales, grunts, efforts, and gasps.

It was a lot of fun to go out to such a cool environment to record such iconic sounds. I was also extremely lucky to work with such a great person; Savoy was fantastic. Now it was time to get to the other half of the job in the edit suite. Punch effects are fast and loud sounds that are extremely short in length. Mastering high-transient sounds can be tricky, especially if you plan on adding any compression. Frank Bry of therecordist.com recently did a great post on how he masters explosion sounds. Punches can offer similar challenges. 

I like to build various versions of each sound in these situations. One version I call 'CLEAN.' This would essentially be the original recording edited so the top and tail has clean edit points. Then I make another version, or many other versions, labeled 'EFFECTED.' These sound files would be rendered with plugin processing included in the final version of the file. This means after I finish with the editing stage I end up with at least two versions of the same original sound event, and each would enter my master SFX library looking like this:

PUNCH Heavy Bag Punch Impacts, Multiple, Slow, CLEAN 

PUNCH Heavy Bag Punch Impacts, Multiple, Slow, EFFECTED

With this system, I am not tied to whatever processing decisions I have made in the mastering stage. The mastered sound is ready to use in an edit, but I can also always go back to the 'virgin' sound file to apply other compressions or effects processing as I come up with new ideas of how I want to use this sound.

To date, I haven't had a lot of experience with recording high-transient sounds, so creating a set of finished effects I was happy with was a real learning experience... which is to say that it was a challenge, and challenges are what make my job fun and exciting.