SunkenForest

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Binaural // The Pitch

// Binaural // The Pitch

So recently I pitched an idea that I have been toying with for some time, involving binaural recorded sound with a live performance musical aspect. Here’s how it went down. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Through The Eyes Of Others

I am extremely proud to announce that I have been working on a piece of music for an audio/visual exhibition, dealing with the subject of male depression. The aim is to raise awareness of the subject by highlighting the true story of the subjects. Click the link below to find out more details. https://www.throughtheeyesofothersproject.com/our-project

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Wall of Sound

// Wall of Sound

Recently I have been giving a lot of thought to the concept of background noise, in particular urban environmental soundscapes, and how they affect our mental state. Health concerns are a prominent factor of the wall of sound we encapsulate ourselves with. Stress levels are on the rise, and the daily grind stops us from reconnecting with ourselves in a natural way. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Where have I been?

// Where have I been?

It’s been a while, but I’ve decided to put down in writing a few of the projects that I will be working on over the next few weeks. Along with this, I will be writing a few accounts of a recent project which has now been completed, named Andy’s Void. For that, I’ll be talking about the process of replacing all of the sound to a piece of film, and how I approached the task of sound designer.   I…

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Studio Monitor Calibration

// Studio Monitor Calibration

LO10 At some point during your journey as a sound practitioner of any description, you will inevitably find yourself with the task of calibration. Coupling this with sound treatment for your room of choice will be one of the most important tasks you undertake to aid your mixing decisions. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Short Film // "Donkey" 

// Short Film // “Donkey” 

Title “Donkey” Directed by Keir Burrows Running time 6:44   // Synopsis A successful man weaves a poignant story, regarding a chance encounter of an old friend. The unnamed character reminisces over days gone by, and reveals his own fragility through an unwavering self-reflective journal of sorts Watch the film below (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

1 Hour Mix Challenge // Considerations

1 Hour Mix Challenge // Considerations

Completing a mixdown can be a bit of a task in general. Throw a 1 hour time limit into and all of a sudden your outlook changes. It’s like the curse of the record button… an extra layer of intensity is placed on top and it becomes more of a gameshow challenge where you either rush things and drop the ball, or spend too much time on a mundane task and run out of time. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Reflections So I decided to put together a few videos covering the sound design and arrangement of each track from Elemental.

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Taking A Break

// Elemental // Taking A Break

After the health check mentioned in my previous post I decided to find new avenues to explore, and more ground to cover. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Health Check

// Elemental // Health Check

After hashing together a few ideas using the samples created on sound design Saturday, while the results were pretty interesting they didn’t really capture the essence of the project. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Ematika // "Feedback Frequencies"

// Ematika // “Feedback Frequencies”

I finally managed to tear myself away from audio work for a little. Went for a stroll, listened to the birds, enjoyed a coffee, had a sandwich… then did something else. More audio work. Standard. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Sound Design Saturday Rewards

// Elemental // Sound Design Saturday Rewards

Some people choose to spend their weekends strolling in the park, playing fetch with the family dog and reminiscing over days gone by. I chose to spend mine locked in front of the computer processing audio Different strokes. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Seeing Sound

// Elemental // Seeing Sound

I’ve been delving into somewhat unknown territory recently in search of some extra nuggets of weirdness to include in this project. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Clean Up

// Elemental // Clean Up

An update on the next stage I tend to head into after recording, processing the audio files captured in the studio session and exporting them as appropriately named files for later use. Many people find this task the most tedious of them all but I actually really enjoy it. Of course it helps to be of a certain disposition, namely slightly obsessive. (more…)

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

// Elemental // Studio Session 001

// Elemental // Studio Session 001

// Day 1 in the studio So the purpose this afternoon is to increase the health of my assets folder for the project. I really find these types of sessions useful to start the ball rolling on a creative project, simply because I see it as a broad brush stroke on an empty canvas. Sure I have the bigger picture sitting atop the Iron Throne of ideas, but for me this important first step is about…

View On WordPress

[sunkenforest-blog1]

Mild obsessiveness can be a handy personality trait to have, it’s only when you begin straightening your Doctor’s papers while they explain the dangers of obsessive compulsive disorder to you does this become a little more serious.

I pretty much start every project with the same basic organisation methods, although they do change slightly depending on the needs of the project. I find that if you start with the boring administrative side of things straight off the bat, it frees your mind when it comes to the creative part. You don’t want to be knee deep in serious right hemispheric business then find you have to break it in order to hunt through your assets for that final piece of the puzzle.

// Inception (folders within folders)

I always begin with what I find to be the easiest part, the folder hierarchy and structure.

It really pays to get this in order at the earliest junction so you have a home for the impending bounty of assets you are about to receive. You only have to look at your own sample library to see how this can get quickly out of hand once the backlog becomes too great.

If you have a clear structure off the mark it makes for a more efficient way of working and keeping your files in check. Even adding new assets to the existing framework doesn’t become to much of a hassle with the right structure in place.

At this point the folder structure is fairly simple (I tend to colour coordinate once I am happy with the structure), but for the sake of pace this will suffice until the requirements grow. This way of organisation works amazingly well for collaborations when coupled with cloud sharing software such as Dropbox and Googledrive.

Top level folder, with nested folders

At what point do I bump into Leonardo DiCaprio?

// Session Management

This is something I’ve really taken a liking to to speed up my workflow. If you are already armed with details of the project, such as what format it will be in, pacing, audio channel requirements etc. Why not set up your projects in advance? Ableton doesn’t really have a proper context menu item for templates, but this does not mean you cannot set them up.

A little while ago, while suffering form a bout of creative block, I decided to begin setting up blank templates that met the requirements of future projects when the juices began to flow once more.

Top Tip

If you find yourself suffering from the dreaded dried up inspiration, first of all don’t be too hard on yourself. It happens, and it may be that you just need to shift perspective onto other tasks you may neglect normally.

Spend the time doing things like:

organising your sample library

creating templates

sound design sessions

creating presets/channel strips

That way when inspiration does return (and it will) you will be armed to the teeth!

  Projects folder for storing templates

  Ableton also suffers from a major lack of support for post productions needs in spite of supporting video files, except the ability to change from the standard time view to fps. Unfortunately that is about as far as it goes for now much to the dismay of many post production professionals voicing their opinions on the Ableton forum. Pro Tools continues to exert it’s dominance over the professionals market.

Right click the time ruler to show extra timing options

  Below are screenshots of what I call the Overview project for Elemental. This project has the time ruler set to fps as I will be dealing with visual aspects, channels of blank midi clips to give a defined area to work within, groups per section of the piece and banks of 8 audio tracks as a starting point to place elements in.

My default audio/MIDI tracks are also saved with an EQ and compressor as a standard starting point for any processing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With this in place it is much easier to keep the session organised. You don’t want to be scrolling through endless unnamed, uncoloured audio tracks searching for that rogue frequency… I’ve been there too many times before and I refuse to go back quietly.

// Workflow

I work somewhat between a mixture of Ableton Live and Pro Tools, depending on the requirements of the project. Both DAWs have their own quirks, perks and irks most definitely, but for me it is much easier to capture an idea quickly in Ableton. Pro Tools excels at the nitty gritty control overall and this is why it is great to start in one DAW and finalise in another for many people.

Here is a great article written by Ilpo Kärkkäinen (also known as Resound) on why he uses two DAWs when producing music.

  Personally, I purchased an Ableton Push 2  and it would be a chronic waste if I was to compose solely in Pro Tools at this current junction.

Until the time that NativeKONTROL release PXT  support for Push 2…

// Elemental // Organisation Mild obsessiveness can be a handy personality trait to have, it's only when you begin straightening your Doctor's papers while they explain the dangers of obsessive compulsive disorder to you does this become a little more serious.

[sunkenforest-blog1]

Sylvia Massy: Adventure Recording (Video) This is an inspiring Sound On Sound interview with producer, engineer, mixer and author Sylvia Massy…