The Backwater Gospel Sound Design

This project is the one I'm most proud of. I first contacted the creator of the animation through email and he graciously let my team used it for our project. That same first week I started scheduling voice actors and Foley artists (our team members) for the recording session. My goal was to be present at every recording session. Some days I walked and others I recorded voice and movements.

Something that helped my workflow was to mix in
the sound right after it was recorded. So for example, once the footsteps were recorded I would do a rough mix with EQ to get the right location of the sound and a bit of panning. Another team member was in charge of the music so I did not worry about that in the rough mix until the last week. Once all the voices were down I mixed in the reverbs for every scene. The church was my personal favorite, I kept in mind the size, the material of the building and all the people in the church. I made sure there was no movement from every character without a sound.

At times I had to lay different Foley sounds over each other to get the right feel for the situation, like in the fight scene. The fight scene consisted of kitchen knives, cooking pots, wood and ice. Everything mixed in together made a great decapitating axe.

After everything was recorded it was time to treat the mix to a 5.1 process. This was done in the SSL Duality console. Apart from panning I kept in mind the EQ, therefore as an object moves across the screen or from far to close with a jump cut, the EQ sweeps according to placement as well as panning. Overall it was a huge project. These animation projects, with voice over, sound design, Foley and mixing are ultimately the projects I enjoy most working with.

Sound Design for Deprivation

I was approached for this project after it was filmed. The plan from the director was to only record film and do all audio in post production. Given the intimacy of the piece I decided to approach the recording process as raw and natural as possible. I started by outlining every sound effect and Foley that needed to be done. After a few attempts of placing sounds from my personal sound effect library, I realized that pre-recorded sounds would not work for this piece.

The recording set up consisted of the shotgun microphone Sennheiser MKH 416 placed over my bed aiming at the area right below my pillow. My recording rig was just an Mbox 2 with Pro Tools. I reenacted the scene about 3 times with emphasis on the sound of the sheets. Then I did more detailed recordings of the writing on the paper and I tried a pen and a pencil, and although it is a pen on the clip, the sound of the pencil fit the mood better.

We then got the talent in the studio for a recording session that lasted about 2 hours. He hit it right on the spot. I gave the director the choice of a studio microphone with the Neumann u87 and a shotgun mic, the Sennheiser MKH 416 to which he chose the latter.

Mixing was simple, I applied EQ to certain sounds I wanted louder. Close ups have more information in the high frequencies while the actor's voice is deeper in the low end. The director provided classical music for the score and he took the creative decisions on the spots where they belonged. Overall this was a quick enjoyable project with great audio and video quality.

ADR Editing for Beguilement Part 1

It takes a whole team to make any production successful. The talent of Beguilement was so involved and professional that it made the ADR process so much simpler. After finishing filming Part 1, the director and I wanted to have options for the film so we decided to ADR the main conversation of the two main characters. It took us two 4 hour sessions of recording, and although one of our actors had no previous experience with ADR, once she got her rhythm she hit every cue.

For microphones I used the go to Neumann u87, the Rhode NTG-2 previously used during filming, and the industry standard shotgun mic, the Sennheiser MKH 416. All microphones were placed above the talent's head a couple of feet away from their mouth, just like it would be placed during filming. I took all microphones directly into the SSL Duality console and recorded into Pro Tools.

The Pro Tools session had the video from Beguilement Part 1 with the time code on the lower right hand corner. The original audio was kept for reference for the talent to use. The recording kept looping over a complete line until the talent, the director and I agreed on a successful line. All lines were kept on a playlist. At the end of the day the playlist for each character had over 300 tracks with partial lines in each. Only in a couple of lines some syllables were replaced by unused tracks on the playlist.

The editing process was easy. All clips were trimmed less than a frame at the beginning and at the end with a very small fade in both places. At different locations the fades were different in order for the sound of the room to fade into the room. Later the Foley and room tone were added to complete the environment of the scene.

EOC

The Audio Industry has become not only a passion but a lifestyle. I am an Audio Professional. Although I am not a producer yet, I have a Bachelor Degree in Audio Production. I am committed to providing excellent service in the field while expanding my knowledge every day. I work with live sound, studio recording and sound design for films and animation. My favorite projects are mixing music and dialogue, in live environments and inside the studio. I am not afraid of pre production and paperwork, being prepared for a session or a show is essential for success. After growing up around musical talent, I learned to appreciate the sound, feel and meaning for all types of media. Understanding the science and having the heart are required to build a strong foundation for an excellent piece of audio, whether it is music or dialog. Success is not measured in the numbers of shows, projects or sales but in the passion collected into a project and the reward of enjoying the final mix. I am a passionate audio professional with experience in audio editing, mixing, studio recording and live sound.

The Audio Industry has become not only a passion but a lifestyle. I am committed to providing excellent service in the field while expanding my knowledge every day. I am a passionate audio professional with experience in audio editing, mixing, studio recording and live sound.

I am a passionate audio professional with experience in audio editing, mixing, studio recording and live sound.