Quick Update

Hello All!

Just a quick update to say that I'm not dead.

There's been a lot going on at home with refurbishing and moving around; I'm currently in a temporary bedroom that consists of a laid out futon and a small bedside table. However, sound moves onwards and I'm trying my best to keep up with it.

I've been working on a couple of things - first, I'm putting together some songs and will be purchasing a few bits and bobs to help me with recording and mixing. To name a couple:

- 2x Yamaha HS80M's - These babies have had a great range of reviews and I found a pair with stands for just under £420. They'll be going either side of my new desk and should help improve mixes drastically.
- 2x Rode NT2-A's - Both of these come with a shock mount and XLR cable, but one will have a reflection filter for that true vocal cancellation goodness.

The Rodes are a desperate purchase to get me in the large diaphragm realm (Yes, LONG overdue). The speakers I currently use are also embarassingly shody, so the Yamahas will really ground me for mixing (i.e. kick me in the face!).

Secondly, I've been putting ideas together for a simple audio-showcase game called 'The Room". It's works on a similar principal to Portal in it's story telling methods. I enjoy my humour, so hopefully it's going to be a laugh to play. It'll be heavy on dialogue from my side, so at this stage I'm writing the script as well as level design.

I hope this suffices for now, hopefully the room (my room that is) will be done in a couple weeks and I can get back to it.

Alex.

Editing and Mixing Sound: The Bigger Picture [Part 1]

How do you start a post like this? Understanding the bigger picture is one of those things that, no matter how much you read up on it and get taught about it, you need experience to really get it. What I'll cover here comes from both teachings and experience (and there is quite a lot to cover) so I've broken down this area into a few posts, starting with the entire production.

The Meaning: The best way to understand your production down to it's finest detail is to have a distinct mindset. That is, you have the knowledge of this 'Bigger Picture' which will guide you throughout the entire process. You can think of it as a go-to moto that will help you make your decisions. For example, some companies have a sentence that sums up what they're out to achieve, such as "Encouraging exploration through innovation". This moto should be used throughout the decision making process as a tool: is the decision I'm making now living up to what we're set out to do? If not, think of something else or compromise.

To that end, you want to have a basic outline for your film, song or game. For sound, this will very much depend on the style of the respective production. A lot of action movies, for example, tend to have 'hyper-realistic' sound design, where exaggerations are made to compensate for how out-worldy the violence and destruction looks on screen. This is similar to classical music, which needs to have a huge dynamic range and little alterations in the way of effects or compression. For a sci-fi game (and film for that matter), the sound design would match the alien elements with unfamiliar sounds and effects (go check out Ben Burtt on Star Wars!). You get the picture though; have a feel for what the production is trying to achieve and base decisions around this.

Planning: All productions big or small need to be planned and prepared as a whole. When I first started putting productions together in groups at college or university, planning always seemed to be second to everything else. I would get stuck into the meat of a project and before I knew it, there wasn't enough time to do some vital elements, like setting aside time for proof reading, mixing, optimisation of audio or video etc. After reflecting on these mistakes, plans were put in place for future endeavours and it definitely paid off. It really did go to show that putting a solid plan in place will help you keep track of the production, find your limits and help you work more efficiently.

There are several ways to go about the start of a plan. It's something that needs a lot of discussion, where everything is laid on the table. The way I would tackle this would be gathering everyone who's involved (or at least the heads of departments) and talk through the entire production. You want to know the following:

- A general timeline at first, which will give you your time limits on production milestones.

- The budget you're working with and how you can fit hardware, software, sound libraries and (most importantly) living costs into it.

- What kind of sounds you'll need for the production; you can start gathering them long before the main production gets underway if you know what you're working towards.

With these key elements now known, the department-specific plans can be put into place. The simplest way to achieve a planning outline is through a Gantt chart. This portrays the different elements of your project in linear form against a time scale, as shown below:

This was an example Gantt chart that came with the app GanttProject, free for mac users.

This not only lists everything that needs doing, but you're able to put realistic goals with them and detailed notes for specific elements that require.. well, more detail. It was a tool I used back in university and still use now in my day job to make sure projects are planned effectively. However, planning is only one side of the first stage in your production; you also have to get to know your elements.

Know your elements: A plan is kind of hollow if you come to do your first task and it's all new to you. No one wants to be thrown in at the deep end with tight schedules and quite a lot of pressure on your shoulders. This is why it's important to get to know the different stages, what's expected of you and your team, as well as the outcome you want and how you'll get there.

While planning each stage, you'll need to have detailed discussions and make plenty of notes regarding the best way to tackle them. In every section, they'll be multiple challenges, so getting your head around them as soon as possible will help you down the road. You will have to account for challenges that arise on the way though; this will be inevitable. Just prepare yourself as best you can.

A good example of this is loss of data. No doubt at some point in your project, there will be the risk of data loss, which can be a huge pit fall for progress. You will need to create an effective system for backing up multiple times at set intervals, even if you do work in a server-terminal set up. You also have to worry about multiple people working on very similar elements: you want to make sure that these files are accounted for, whether they are separated or accessed by everyone. With this in mind, we can move nicely on to another important element of a production:

Keeping Track: This is really really important. As soon as planning is out of the way, you'll probably get started with your area of the project. The key to success from this point onwards is to refer back to your plans regularly; otherwise, why would you have set them up in the first place?

It's quite an easy mistake to make when you're starting out. You really have to remind yourself to look at something to remind yourself of what you're doing. A plan for plan? I suppose that's what it is really. The first step to helping yourself achieve this is by using reminders and notifications on your phones/ipods/ipads/computers. They help me in every step of life, so use them in this instance. Down the road, you'll hopefully come to know of deadlines and how much time remains 'off by heart', just through the use of these reminders, so using them early on should pay off.

Also have regular team meetings (more for games/film). No matter what kind of team you're in for whatever job or project, these meetings will give a clear picture of where everyone is and what needs doing to achieve or surpass the current goals. You may find that you're slightly behind and this can spark some more collaborative efforts from a team member who is slightly ahead of schedule. There may also be changes that are out of your hand, like the budget being used ahead of schedule or current events which affect the production. This is more to keep everyone in the loop to make sure everyone is doing their best to achieve every goal.

Reference against existing products: This can go for any sound project. When mixing and mastering, your ears will get fatigued from doing it for long periods of time. The best thing to do in this instance is go away and either do something quietly or listen to something; something different. This will get your ears out of that style which you've been working with and, when you come back to it, you should be able to have that constructive hearing again.

Aside from this, I know from experience that it's quite easy to get it sounding great for you and your specific sound system. What would happen if you were to play another song or film on the same system though, would yours sound bassy in comparison? tinny? too much in the 2-3kHz range? This is why it's important to listen to other finalised material to make sure you're heading in the right direction. As you'll be creating something that's specific to a style, you'll want to compare it to a few songs/games/films in that style, but there's nothing stopping you comparing it with others. After all, if it sounds good and you want to go for a unique genre, why not? This also brings me onto my final point for this discussion:

Feedback: This should be a HUGE part of your process in any project. As part of the meetings, or when you've come to a personal milestone, ask for what others think of what you've done. Constructive criticism will really help you shape your work not just for what you do now, but in the future too. It's actually the most important thing you can take away from the whole experience, because you can keep what you learned for the rest of your life and through every other project. It really upsets me when constructive criticism is given and isn't absorbed due to a kind of stubborn pride, especially for those who you're genuinely trying to help when they need it. It usually leads to an outcome that could have had more potential by having that extra input from others.

I'll give you an example. Back in university (which I never seem to shut up about, my apologies), I was well into my final project. The whole level was designed and constructed, with systems almost finalised and bugs were being crushed here and there. I took the work to my tutor (Richard Stevens, The Game Audio Tutorial) and he had a quick look at it. Immediately, he was finding flaws in not only where a player can go on the map, but how certain sounds would clash or had a slightly harsh side to them. It was hurtful at first to know that what I had spent so long creating was being torn to pieces, but I am now more than appreciative. A very important point that he made was my level seemed to be very long and ambitious. If I were to cut back on the length and have only 5 sections rather than 7 or 8, I could make the quality of those remaining much better and much more polished, which I did. I swear, that 30 minutes discussion turned my project upside down, but it was all for the better and I can't thank him enough.

Conclusion: I haven't covered nearly everything there is to know about planning and completing a project. In fact, I'll probably add another few posts regarding each different type of production: film, game and song. On reflection, I suppose I should have done this at first, but I think what I have written is useful regardless. I hope you found some use out of it!

For part 2, I'll be covering sound specifically and how you want to balance frequency, volume, panning and effects so there's just enough and not too much or little of these. This will revolve around what I've come to know as the 'Sound Cube': probably the easiest way of understanding all these elements as a whole.

Alex.