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Common Sound Editorial Mistakes That Can Become Big Mix Problems

As a mixer, I see all kinds of issues cropping up that originated in sound editorial. And with my background in sound editorial, I’ve surely committed every one of them myself at some point. Here’s a list of some common problems we see on the mix stage. Avoiding these problems will not only make your work easier to handle and more professionally presented, but it will also hopefully save you a snarky email or comment from a mixer!

Sound Effects With Baked In Processing

As soon as you commit to an EQ, Reverb, or other processing choices with Audio Suite, your mixer’s hands are tied. Yes, you may be making a very creative choice, however, that choice can not be undone and often processed editorial simply needs to be thrown out and recut to make it mixable.

But what if you just have you present your creative vision in this way, be it for a client review or to get an idea across? In that case, your best move is to copy and mute the sound clip. Place the copy directly below the one you plan to process so it can easily be unmuted and utilized. In this case, your mixer has the option to work with the dry effect. Another alternative, if you’re dealing with EQ processing, is to use Clip Effects. Just be sure that downstream the mix stage has the proper version of Pro Tools or this information won’t be passed along.

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How about if the sound has room on it, but you didn’t put it there? I’ve gotten handclaps that sound like they were recorded in a gymnasium cut in an intimate small scene. That’s just a bad sound choice and you need to find a better one.

Stereo Sound Effects Used for Center Channel Material in Surround Or Larger Mix Formats

Sound editors, especially those that work from home, do not often cut in a surround sound environment. The result of cutting in stereo for a surround (or larger format) project, is the lack of knowledge on how things will translate.

One of my big pet peeves is when center channel material – actions happening on screen, in the middle of the frame – is cut with stereo sound effects. The result of, say, a punch or distant explosion cut in stereo when translated to the 5.1 mix is a disconnect for the listener. Ultimately, we as mixers need to go into the panning and center both channels to get the proper directionality.

Now, it’s not an impossible problem to solve when working in stereo. Just avoid cutting sound effects in stereo tracks that do not engulf the entire frame, provide ambience, or are outside of picture as a whole. Your mixer will thank you for it.

Splitting Sound Effects Build Between Food Groups

We have written extensively on the idea of using “Food Groups” in your editorial to keep things organized (see links below).

The dark side of this, however, is some editors can get carried away with these designations. The error to avoid here is to be sure anything that may need to be mixed together, stays together.

For example, if you have a series with lots of vehicles, it may seem to make sense to have a Car food group, as well as a Tires food group. The Car group would get the engine sounds and the Tires the textures, like gravel and skids. But when it comes time to mix, this extra bit of organization ends up making the job extremely difficult. If a car goes by from screen left to right, the mixer needs to pan and ramp the volume of those elements. If you group them all together in one chunk of tracks, it’s an easy move to group them. If you split them up among food groups, the mixer then has to hunt around for the proper sounds, then group across the multiple food groups. It’s simply too cumbersome. Not to mention that it takes the functionality of the VCA out of the picture. A solution, in this case, would be to simply have a Vehicle food group that encompasses all aspects of the car that could require simultaneous mixing.

Layering Random Sounds Into Food Groups

Speaking of food groups and functionality, the whole point of a food group is to be able to control everything by using one fader (VCA). That functionality also becomes void if sounds not applicable to that group are dropped in.

For example, if we have an Ambience food group with babbling brook steadys and a client wants all the “River sounds” turned down, the VCA for that food group makes it a snap. However, if an editor cuts splashes of a character swimming in that same food group, it suddenly ruins the entire concept. True, splashing is water, but that misses the entire point of the food group.

Single sounds layered in with long ambiences render the VCA useless

Single sounds layered in with long ambiences render the VCA useless

Worse yet, is when an editor simply places sounds in an already utilized food group because they ran out of room on other tracks. This only works as a solution for layout issues if you have an extra, empty food group.

Breaking Basic Rules In Order to Follow Another

There’s a basic hierarchy to rules of sound editorial. Some rules you just can’t break, plain and simple. Like crossfading two entirely different sound effects with one another. That’s a mixing nightmare, one that simply needs to be reorganized in order to successfully pull off the job. But sometimes the breaking of these rules comes with the best of intentions. I have two examples for you.

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In this case, the editor ran out of space in a food group and opted to use this crossfade, rather than break up the food group. It’s important to not only know the rules but even more important to know when to make an exception. In this case, there was the simple solution of moving this one sound into the hard SFX tracks, or simply adding a track to the food group (with permission from your supervisor or mixer), solving the issue and not creating any new ones.

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Here again, we have an editor with the best of intentions. An insect is on-screen moving in and out of frame from left to right. The editor thought that since the camera angle did not change, it did not warrant cutting the second chunk of sounds on a different set of tracks. Mixing this once again is impossible. As there is no time between the fading out and fading back in of the sound, there’s no magic way for the mixer to change an essential property, in this case, the panning. A proper understanding of perspective cutting would have avoided this issue.

Over Color Coding

Using colors to code your editorial is another topic we’ve covered extensively (see links below).

While color-coding your work is immensely helpful, here too lies a potential issue.

Let’s say you have a sequence in a swimming pool. There are steady water lapping sounds, swimming sounds, big splashes from jumping off the diving board. An editor may see this and think, it’s all water so I’m going to color all of these elements blue. The purpose of the color code is to delineate clips from one another to speed up the mixing process. When an editor liberally color codes their work one color, you end up with no relevant information at all. In this case, each of these categories of sounds should be colored differently from one another so that it’s obvious they are for different parts of the scene.

POOR LAYOUT FOR FUTZ MATERIALS

Materials that need special treatment, like sound effects coming from a television, need to stay clustered together within an unused food group or at the very least on the same set of tracks. I like to have my futz clusters live on the bottom-most hard sound effects tracks, color coding the regions the same to make your intentions absolutely clear. This allows the mixer to very quickly and easily highlight the cluster and set a group treatment, like EQ. Think of it as temporarily dedicating some tracks for this purpose and stair-step your work around them, being careful to not intermingle non-futz materials on those tracks for the duration of the necessary treatment, which is equally problematic.

Why go to the effort? If you sprinkle these materials throughout your editorial, it becomes a game of hunting around for the mixer to find what needs futzing. Odds are your mixer will need to stop mixing and reorganize your entire layout to fix the problem and make it mixable.

Bonus Issues

Guerrilla Recording: Be Your Own Foley Team at Home

The art of foley is an amazing magic trick that can really bring a production to life. If your project has the budget for custom foley, I would highly recommend taking advantage of skilled professionals to help bring this element of your soundtrack to life. That said, not everyone has the money and access to a professional foley team. Never fear! You can be your own foley team with incredible results. All from the comfort of your home, at little to no cost.

Why custom recordings?

There was a time of course, where everything for a soundtrack was recorded. Nowadays, sound libraries are an amazing tool at our disposal. However vast, libraries can’t necessarily fill the exact needs of every project. Or maybe you find the perfect sound but are only given one or two options to work with. Shameless plug… this is a situation we remedy by including lots of options in our own original sound libraries at boomboxlibrary.com.

Additionally, keep in mind that anything you record is entirely unique to you and your project. That’s great sound design! Of course use libraries for the nuts and bolts of any project, but pick out a few special elements to record on your own, giving yourself a completely original palette to design from.

What are some examples of props easily recorded at home?

We are humans, surrounded by junk we have collected. Put it to good use! Look around your home with your sound editor brain and start to think of things in a new way. Get creative. I find that small props (like writing with a pencil, bubble wrap, cardboard handling) are all best served with custom recordings. This allows you to control the performance, tailoring to your exact needs. After all, handling a cloth pass entirely with a library is a tedious task that could be accomplished in a fraction of the time with a live recording.

Of course, don’t limit yourself to props. Remember that small recordings can become BIG builds. With pitching and processing, the right source materials can really let your creative brain fly.

As a jumping off point, here are some great examples of what you can record at home:
– Source vocals for monsters, robots, aliens
– Stressed materials like creaking wood, rubber stretching
– Foliage movement like leaves shaking and brush movement
– Body interactions like head or beard scratching
– Specific toy props

When I worked on a series that needed mutant mushroom movement, I scoured the house for “squeaky” sounding items. Ultimately, I found that if I rubbed together layers of my wetsuit (acquired for surfing… this is Southern California after all), I got this super strange and unique sound! I was able to “perform” the wet suit to produce all kinds of different pitches.

The Low-Cost Lowdown

Here’s the thing. You can get amazing recordings these days on a smartphone. Trust me, I’ve already blogged about it. And since writing that post over three years ago (we’ve been at this a while), the tech has only gotten better. But ok, if you really want to go Pro-Am with your home recordings, you can purchase a portable recorder. That’s a tool you’ll not only have for home recording but one you can keep in your day bag to have on hand any time the sound design muse comes calling. A worthy investment.

We could do an entire post on portable recorders (and probably will). For now, however, I polled our team (all very experienced guerrilla recordists) and they suggested the following listed in price from highest to lowest:

The Setup

You’ve got your phone or your recorder, now it’s time to set up your recording space. Of course, the quieter the better so try and avoid recording near shared walls, doors or windows. To keep your recordings free from room reflections (the sound bouncing off the walls) you want to record in as “dead” a space as possible. In fancy studios, this is achieved with dampening measures; padded walls, high-end sound diffusers and traps. So what space does the average home have that is isolated and pre-treated to be dead sounding? The answer is in your closet. All of the hanging clothes in a typical closet provide tons of free sound absorption, and the doors provide isolation. If your closet doesn’t have a light, or the light is noisy, get yourself a headlamp. Trust me on this, I’ve done it. A lot. And in some very small closets. Realistically all you need room for is yourself (cramped if necessary, as we suffer for our art), your recorder, your props, and if necessary a playback screen. Which brings me to my next point…

Picture Playback and Recording

If you want to record in sync with picture playback, I’ve got a hack for that as well. Save your video file somewhere you can access it on your phone or tablet; I like google drive. Voila, instant playback device. Mute the sound, and start playing back with ample lead time. Start the recorder and then verbally count down by the second along with the timecode prior to your performance. This will give future you a reference point for syncing up your recordings in Pro Tools later on. A few seconds worth should be enough to lock it in. Before you wrap up, always remember to record a few seconds of room tone so you have it for potential de-noising later on.

Final Tips

Guerrilla home records aren’t perfect, but they can come pretty close. With the ability to custom record as close by as your nearest closet, you have the ability to unleash your creativity at virtually no cost.

 

WRITTEN BY JEFF SHIFFMAN, CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST

 

The Lowdown On Mixing – Re-recording mixer Jacob Cook

DIALOGUE

When we mix an episode of animated TV, we always start with the dialogue. I usually start by setting reverbs for each scene, then mix the dialogue line by line to get it in spec and sounding natural throughout the show. Any panning, extra processing or additional reverb is also added at this time. The dialogue serves as the anchor for the rest of the mix, so it’s very important to get this locked in before adding any other elements!

MUSIC

Next, we add in the music and ride the levels throughout the show. I’ll dip it for dialogue when necessary and boost it to help keep the momentum and add excitement.

BACKGROUNDS/AMBIENCES

Then, I’ll mute the music again and mix the backgrounds and ambiences. By mixing these without the music we ensure the scene will sound natural when the music isn’t playing. Then I turn the music back on and foley is next, meaning footsteps, hand pats and movement tracks. Like music and backgrounds, the levels will vary show to show and client to client depending on preference. I’ll set an overall level and ride faders when needed throughout the show, adding panning when necessary.

SOUND EFFECTS

Lastly, I bring in the rest of the hard sound effects.  These are organized into food groups such as mono effects, stereo effects, whooshes, toon, etc (shown in the photo below). Again, how these are mixed varies show to show. This is an oversimplification of the process, but this is the basic sequence I follow.  I usually wrap up with a few watch downs in 5.1 and stereo to make adjustments and take one last look at mix notes from the client.

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What do you look for in a good mix?

It is important that the mix supports the style of the show. Something with a lot of action should feel exciting and have a dynamic mix. An educational preschool show needs a mix that will help direct the viewer’s focus correctly and highlight the information being presented. I also think a good mix supports the story and doesn’t distract the audience. It is important that the sound is helping support the narrative and storytelling style.

Do you have any technical/creative prerequisites you think would be helpful for a mixer?

You definitely need to be an expert in Pro Tools. Understanding all of the ins and outs of writing automation through all the various parameters is essential. A strong basis as an editor is a good start here, but it helps to push into the mixing workflow and familiarize yourself with things like preview mode, latch prime in stop, surround panning, VCAs, grouping and plug-in automation. The best way to learn about these is get your hands dirty. Read the manual or some tutorials and start mixing.  You will quickly learn where you can speed things up and the benefits of the different automation modes.

Creatively, the best thing you can do to prepare is to watch a pro work and learn how they approach each mix. I learned all of my mixing skills and techniques from watching Boom Box Owners Kate and Jeff mix and adopting their methods. Once I understood what they were doing and why I worked to get faster and developed my own techniques and style!

Referencing other shows and films is also a great way to get ideas and help your mixing improve. Critically listening to a mix on TV or in a theater can really surprise you, and I would recommend paying close attention to how the music and sound effects levels change throughout a film.

What do you wish you would’ve known before becoming a mixer?

Probably that it’s OK to not be able to hear EVERYTHING all of the time. It took me a while to really understand this, and it’s definitely fundamental.  It’s important that the mix doesn’t sound cluttered through the whole show with an abundance of unnecessary sound. Editors cut for complete coverage, but as a mixer, it is your entire job to decide what sounds or music are most important for the audience to hear at each moment, and not overwhelm them with sounds that don’t support the story the filmmaker is telling in a scene.

Also Latch Prime in Stop, which lets you write automation without playing back. When I first started mixing I probably wasted a lot of time writing panning and volume automation in real-time that could have easily been done in a half a second when stopped.

What would you say the hardest obstacle is when it comes to mixing?

As I mentioned in the previous answer, the hardest obstacle is determining where to direct the viewer’s attention and how best to accomplish that. It can be extra challenging when you consider how much time, effort and creativity went into each sonic piece. The sound effects editor may have spent all day creating an amazing glowing steady for the magic orb in the background, but if the characters are having an important story conversation, it is not the time to feature those sound effects. You may really love the cello melody in this particular scene, but you know the audience needs to notice the distant explosions that draw the character’s attention off-screen. You make hundreds of these types of decisions during a mix and learning which direction to take things can really make or break the final product.

Hopefully, Jacob’s insight gives you a better understanding of mixing! If you enjoyed this post, you should also check out Jeff’s mixing post about the technical side of mixing:

DEMYSTIFYING THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF MIXING

WRITTEN BY JACOB COOK – RE-RECORDING MIXER, BOOM BOX POST

 

Building a Library From Home

A COLLABORATIVE POST BY TESS FOURNIER – SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST

As a sound editor, having a well-rounded library is very important. Some of you might be lucky enough to have a library provided to you by your company and others might be wondering where the heck you even start. There are plenty of great libraries out there on the web that you can purchase or download for free with no effort of recording at all but there are also going to be things that you will need to record yourself. A good place to start is by recording small handheld props. Recently we came across needing these types of recordings for a new series. Check out some helpful tips below!

For this blog, I’d like to specifically use the veggies/fruits I recorded as our focus. The main benefit of recording food is being able to snack while you’re doing it. Am I right?

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You can’t tell me that picture doesn’t make you a little hungry! Alright, let’s break these recordings down into four primary points:

Recording Quality

There are many things to take into consideration when recording sound effects such as your meters, how far you are from the microphone, the noises happening in the room you are recording, etc. To get an in-depth look on some tips for recording, please check out this blog Jacob did! In my case, it was really hot the day I recorded these veggies, but I turned my A/C off for the sake of the recording! I also unplugged my refrigerator because it was making too much noise. Maybe sweating while recording will make you feel like you are working harder too!

Variety

Make sure you have a good amount of variety with whatever you’re recording. You don’t want to get to the editing stage of the records and wish that you had more variations and have to go back to step one and record again. For these veggie records, not only did I get a lot of different foods to prep, I also tried to make sure how I cut them was varied; short, long, sawing motion, ripping, etc.

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Save the Extras

I didn’t intend on recording and labeling knife-downs and carrots dropping, but they were a by-product of my main recording. Rather than just deleting them, I cleaned and labeled those as well because you never know when they’ll come in handy!

Clean and Properly Label

Lucky for you, Jacob loves to write blogs about recording sound effects! So, check out this blog he did to see how to edit these files. If you are too lazy to click the link, I will give you a short rundown:

Clean up the recordings as best you can by getting rid of background noise/etc. Cut out any excess you don’t need (like me picking up a new potato to record or coughing, etc between takes). Put like sounds together (sawing cuts should be one file, ripping, another, etc). Label properly – for these I labeled them with the type of food, how they were handled/cut (cut, rip, saw, etc).

Recording sound effects can be both fun and stressful at times. My best advice is to make sure you are having a good time and come into it prepared. Start brainstorming ideas and make a list of things to record and then get at them all at once! I’d say it is better to record too much than not enough. Make sure to record PLENTY of food….so you won’t be hungry for the other recordings.

You can read the original blog and more from Boom Box Post Here

 

Sounds Like Summer

June 20th officially marked the first day of summer, which means we are practically halfway through the year! Somehow the never-ending 2020 is managing to pass by in the blink of an eye. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we have been in quarantine for nearly 4 months now. I guess time flies when you’re stuck inside! Luckily, the world is slowly beginning to reopen just in time for us to enjoy the sunshine.

With the changing of the seasons comes a whole new world of sound. So, let’s discuss some key summertime sounds to keep an ear out for and record to bulk up your SFX library this time of year!

Sounds Like Summer:

  • Beach AMB – seagulls, waves, sandy wind gusts
  • Fireworks
  • Campfire
  • Summer Crickets
  • Water Activities – sprinklers, water balloons, water guns
  • Lawnmower
  • Ice Cream Truck
  • Air Conditioning
  • Slurpee Slurps
  • Badminton/Volleyball

Tips and Tricks:

Fireworks: Most towns have a celebratory firework display every 4th of July. Click here to check out a helpful blog post written by Boom Box Post-co-owner Jeff Shiffan about recording sound effects with your phone. In the post, Jeff uses fireworks as an example! Who knows, maybe you’ll also get some cool crowd reaction walla. I know I’m definitely that person who OOH’s and AHH’s way too loud at a good firework show.

Badminton/Volleyball: If you can get your hands on a badminton or tennis racket, quickly swing the racket back and forth to produce different swish/wipe SFX’s. These types of sounds are really handy to have in your library—especially when working in animation.

Ice Cream Truck: Does the ice cream truck not visit your neighborhood? That’s ok, you can make your own! Did you know the iconic music played by ice cream trucks across the world is public domain? The melody is from the folk song “Turkey in the Straw”. Download yourself a clip of the tune and throw it into a plugin like Doppler by waves. Make sure to check out these two blog posts (The Doppler Effect, Creating Motion In Sound Design Using Pitch) for tips on how to create the perfect “by”!

Slurpee Slurps: When I think of summer, I think of night drives with my friends to the local gas station for slurpees. Who doesn’t need a good straw slurp SFX in their library? I feel like it would come in handy more than you would imagine. Any tumbler and straw will do the trick! Although, if you can get your hands on a slurpee I recommend the Coca-Cola or banana flavor.

A COLLABORATIVE POST WITH Boom Box Post

 

 

Post-Production Mid-Pandemic – Boom Box Post

We recently received a request to write a post on how we’ve been dealing with the global pandemic. While I am a bit worried our audience may be exhausted by COVID-19 coverage, I think it’s important to share our experience at this time with one another. With that in mind, I hope this post brings some information your way about work from home workflows as well as our unique perspective as a boutique post-production studio dealing with the crisis. I’m also hoping it may spark some new conversation about how we are all working in a creative, collaborative field while isolated from one another. So let’s dive in!

Since starting the studio, Kate and I have tried to have as many editors work in-house as possible. We love having our team interacting with one another every day. Great for creativity, tough in this crisis. We had a challenge on our hands sending everyone home.

When it became very apparent that the COVID-19 crisis was getting serious (around mid-March) Kate and I started to formulate a plan to transform Boom Box Post into a remote studio over multiple phases; each phase triggered by differing levels of danger. Preparing for the worst (full stay at home orders) just in case. Oh what a simpler time!

CREATING A REMOTE STUDIO

Phase 1 – Sending our Editors HOME

I started by visiting every editor to audit what kind of equipment each had at home. Results ranged for fully able to work from home to having no gear at all. With this information, I was able to create an individual checklist for each staff member, down to the cables, of what they would be taking home from the studio.

At this point we decided to send all non-client-facing staff home for their own safety. It was a bit chaotic loading up cars with gear but everyone was in remarkably good spirits.

Phase 2 – Sending Our Client-Facing Staff HOME

Very quickly it became obvious that our clients were no longer going to be able to come by the studio for in-person reviews. In the span of 24 hours, we heard from all the major studios that staff would either be sent home or isolated to only their corporate workspaces. It was at this point we decided to send Brad Meyer, Lead Sound Editor and Tess Fournier, Supervising Sound Editor home as well. We also worked out a VPN remote control system for media management and were able to send Sam Busekrus our Assistant Editor/Office Manager home.

Phase 3 – Everybody Goes Home

On March 19th, California issued the “Safer at Home” order and it was time to send home the last holdouts (myself included). Having been over a decade since I worked from home, I needed to set up shop from scratch. My kids moved together into one room, my son’s former bedroom becoming my home studio. I packed up every piece of gear into my car, even a desk, and chair! The studio was officially empty as of Friday, March 20th.

After almost six years of building Boom Box Post from the ground up, this is something completely different.

Re-Recording mixer Jacob Cook and I still go in about once a week to mix alone on our stage. I have to be honest, going into an empty studio that was so vibrant only a month prior is very odd. With each room stripped of all gear, devoid of our amazing staff, it’s a shell of what it once was. Will we be able to bounce back just a quickly as we sent everyone home? For sure! But for now, it’s still very sad for me.

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

Getting everyone working at home was a challenge but even more importantly, we needed solutions that would work well for our clients. After all, we needed to show we could continue to do great work with client direction even in this new setting. After extensive testing, here are some of the strategies and tools we settled on. Note: we are in no way paid to endorse any products.

SyncSketch

The big hero of the pandemic for us has been the remote review platform SyncSketch. With this web-based program, we are able to upload client videos which can then be reviewed either individually or in sync as a team, leaving timecode specific notes tagged with the reviewer’s name. Once complete, notes can be downloaded as a PDF with thumbnails of the shots being referenced. It’s as simple as watching back a Quicktime but without the mess of typing out timecode and organizing them into an email thread. This alternative to attempting ‘live’ reviews over a video conferencing solution has proven to be the most effective since the quality and playback remain rock solid. All it requires is rendering our mixes to quicktime and setting up review timelines and deadlines with our clients. We have used SyncSketch for spotting and previewing sessions, ADR calling and final mix reviews. Best of all, SyncSketch employs the highest level of security, so clients know their data is safe. After introducing SyncSketch to our clients, a number of them implemented it internally for their own production use.

UPS Battery Backups

In the early days of the California “Safer at Home” declaration, I didn’t know what kind of access we would have to the office. Our server is the heart of our business, all media coming and going from this central location. I ran out to Best Buy and bought the two largest battery back up units in stock. Advertised as giving us about two full hours of power backup, I figured this could buy us some time in a power outage for this critical part of our infrastructure.

ETHERNET CABLE

Building CAT-5 cable is a very specific skill. Lucky for me, I wired multiple houses in college with ethernet (it was the early 2ooo’s and rental homes in Bloomington, Indiana weren’t coming pre-wired back then). As it turns out, home wifi isn’t necessarily going to cut it when our editors need the ability to download very large files in short time frames. I spent quite some time on the floor of my office creating very long custom cables (the biggest was 40 feet!) so that our team could wire up directly to their routers.

Zoom Conferencing

Zoom seems to have gotten the lock on conferencing for this crisis. And it’s no wonder why. In my testing, it’s clearly the most stable. When a session has required ‘face to face’ interaction, we’ve turned to Zoom.

Security

While we have the majority of our staff in the office, we did already have a few editors working from home. This proved very beneficial as we had already put in place stringent remote work security protocols which we simply had to apply to our new work from home staff.

In the midst of all our work from home prep, I was so proud of our team’s resilience that I tweeted about it. This caught the attention of Teresa Morrow, co-host of the Tonebenders podcast. They reached out to ask if we could participate in a roundtable discussion on how we were handling the crisis. You can listen to Kate and I recount our experience in detail in this surprisingly fun (given the subject matter) conversation.

COVID-19 has stretched the very idea of adversity in business for us. That said, I’m doing my best to focus on the positive here. Who knows what kind of efficiency changes will come out of this crisis? I’ve been keeping a running list of post-COVID to-dos, a lot of which are going to be improvements. I try very hard to be grateful, but I think this change of pace has still shown me how much we have in this studio and this incredibly talented team of sound pros. It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day operations and lose sight of the amazing work happening around us. I know that when we return to the office, things are going to be quite different. It’s my hope that I’ll appreciate our shared creativity even more once Boom Box Post is under one roof again.

Stay safe out there.

JEFF SHIFFMAN, CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST

Post-Production Mid-Pandemic Part 2: Staying Connected

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff wrote a great post about our journey from an in-studio editorial and mix facility to an entirely work-from-home team with remote client services. He talked about all of the challenges of quickly pivoting our entire business model in the face of COVID, which was no small order. You can also hear more about that time if you listen to the Tonebenders COVID & the Sound Community Round Table that we took part of. They caught us mid-transition, and we were tired, overwhelmed, but so appreciative of our team’s ability to rise to any challenge.

But, now we’ve all moved on to a whole different phase of the pandemic: one where we’re fairly settled into our new normal and just waiting to see how long we stay here.

Our Business During COVID-19

We, at Boom Box Post, are among the lucky ones. Because we work in animation and our clients aren’t on set, our entire Los Angeles client-base was able to transition very quickly to work-from-home, thus keeping our operations alive and well. That is far from the case for our live-action counterparts. But, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t also seen changes in the amount and type of work that has come through our now-virtual door.

Unlike live-action, animation is often done overseas and then shipped back to an LA-based production company. A number of our television series are animated in China, India, Israel, and other countries that have undergone various degrees of government-mandated quarantines. Some of these companies were able to set up part of their staff to work effectively from home. But in most cases, workers do have the means to work from home, and schedules were delayed for as long as those closures persisted. In this way, our business is being greatly affected not just by US legislation, but by health concerns and political action across the world.

Additionally, on our series, all dialogue is recorded in a voice-over booth here in LA. With Safer at Home in place, currently, all sessions have been canceled. Some productions were able to quickly gear up to get all of their talent recording effectively at home–a very tall order considering that some of that talent consists of child actors who are not as tech-savvy as an adult professional voice actor. But others are making do with sub-par home recordings done in whatever fashion is possible, considering them scratch, and planning to record the real lines when we are all allowed back in the studio again (whenever that may be). Some series are mixing with scratch in place and planning to punch in at a later date. Others are holding off on mixing all together until all materials are available to avoid confusion in the post-COVID aftermath.

Whatever each crew has decided, none of it is simple, and none of it is consistent from series to series. So while we have been able to adapt amazingly well and continue our business in a way that few are lucky enough to do, it has been a struggle to keep up with all of the different needs, demands, and concerns depending on each unique client situation.

Great Things that Have Happened

On the upside, some amazing things have happened. Number one, I’m typing this blog post while sitting in my backyard, sipping iced tea, on a beautiful Los Angeles day. So really, how could I possibly complain about this? We’ve all had more time with family lately (um…. for better or worse. You know what I mean, fellow parents!!!). I haven’t eaten this many home-cooked meals for at least ten years. Maybe twenty, if we’re honest.

And we’ve proven yet again that we, at Boom Box Post, have the best staff in the biz. We have not received one single complaint through this whole transition–even a good-natured gripe during one of our Zoom Tipsy Tuesdays! So while I’m sure that everyone is tired of learning all this new technology (I feel like my head will explode if I’m asked to figure out one more remote playback solution or video conferencing platform), I think we’ve also learned so much in a very short time that will benefit our workflow in the future.

How We Are Staying Connected

Meet Roger, Tess’s new pup!

It’s hard to feel like we’re all part of a cohesive team while working in isolation. So, we’ve been trying hard to continue our usual team-building and social engagements. But, we’ve had to get creative in order to keep things fun!

We’re still organizing virtual team lunches from time to time when we watch each other slurp spaghetti and spoon leftover chili into our mouths while oohing and ahhing over how cute everyone’s cats and dogs are. I have to admit, the pets are a great addition.

We started a #recipes channel on Slack so we can share easy recipes that require few or very easily modified ingredient lists since grocery shopping can be hit or miss these days.

We goaded Tess into adopting a dog. The pressure was real. But she’s going to be an awesome dog mom, and I think we can all agree that those dog walks are clutch right now.

And, we’re still doing our Lunch & Learns and Tipsy Tuesdays via Zoom! They’re incredibly chaotic, but it’s cool to see everyone in their natural habitat. And it always reminds me how much I miss having a big, vibrant, talented team surrounding me all day.

Tips from Our Team in a Time of Turmoil

 

Because, as I mentioned, our team has been so amazing about not saying a peep about how COVID is affecting them, I decided to reach out to ask what their experience has been so far and if they have any tips on how to stay sane during this tough time. Here’s what they had to say!

What do you miss the most about the office?

Tim: I feel like everyone is going to say the thing they miss most about the office are the people. Which is true, I do miss seeing everyone’s face every day. But I think what I miss the most is our server. At-home internet just isn’t it and I miss being able to download large sessions in 2 seconds. I also miss the act of actually going into the office. My commute always turns into a karaoke session…

Jacob: I miss seeing my coworkers and eating lunch with them. I miss hearing about what is happening in all my friends’ lives and taking a relaxing break with them during the day.

Brad: I miss my full 5.1 rig. I currently only have the capabilities for stereo. However, I’m no stranger to cutting shows that get mixed in 5.1 in stereo, so it hasn’t been too hard to adapt.

Tess: I miss seeing everyone every day and catching up! Both coworkers and clients.

Sam: I would just say being around the whole team. Working at home can get lonely and boring not having others to talk to. I would say being able to socialize and going to other people’s rooms for a question or for whatever reason makes the time go by a lot faster. Another aspect is that it’s a change of scenery. Working from home is just the same thing over and over again. I hardly even know what day of the week it is anymore.

For you, what’s the best part of working from home? 

Kirsty: For me, the best part of WFH is I don’t need to deal with traffic anymore. It’s great that there are only 20 feet from my working desk to my couch. But I also miss being able to communicate with people in the office. Now we have to type in Slack. I’d love to congratulate people in person for their promotion or pet adoption.

Natalia: Being able to have home-cooked meals! I like to cook so that’s a good thing about working from home, also I’m fostering so I get to spend much more time with the dog!

Tim: I adopted a cat a few months ago, so it’s been nice to spend all day with her. She is almost always on my lap or by my feet while I work. It’s also nice to be able to keep an eye on her and tell her to STOP SCRATCHING THE COUCH!

Tess: Honestly, not a huge fan of working from home. But I’m glad we’re all being safe!

Jacob: It is awesome to lose my commute. While I enjoy listening to my podcasts on the way to work, I enjoy using the extra time to cook breakfast and tidy up the house before I start working in the morning, not to mention the extra time with my wife after work.

Brad: Having my wife as a coworker!

Sam: There are a few major pros of working from home that I love. The first one being that I get to be around my dog all day so he does keep me somewhat entertained. The second one is not having to drive to work. Everyone knows LA traffic sucks so not having to deal with that is amazing. One other bonus is being able to wake up later. All I have to do is walk from my bed to the computer!

Do you have any hot WFH tips? 

Natalia: Be organized, especially if you have different work projects going on. And also, have a dedicated space for work and don’t bring it into your personal space of the house. You need to create boundaries between work and downtime within the same home. Also, set a strict schedule for when to work, pretty much keep the same schedule as if you were going into the studio. If not, you’ll end up losing track of time that way. But also, don’t forget to stand up and take breaks from time to time!

Tim: I have made multiple quarantine playlists. Jamming out while I work helps keep my mind off the fact that I haven’t left the house in weeks. So if you’re someone who can focus while listening to music, I definitely recommend putting on some tunes!

Jacob: I like to set hourly benchmarks for myself when editing sound effects. I sort of did that before WFH, but I find it to be extra important now that I have all the distractions of my home close at hand. This way I always know where I am and where I should be in my work, and I’m never surprised if I am running behind at the end of the day.

Tess: Best WFH tip I have is to keep your regular schedule! I’ve found that to be tricky, but if I drift out for a day I’m much less productive than when I’m strict about my schedule.

Brad: Be conscious of the work time/home time divide. When there’s no clear cut end to your workday and you don’t have to leave work to go home, it’s hard to know when to stop for the day, which can lead to fatigue on your ears, eyes, and mind.

Sam: I think the most important thing for me is taking breaks away from the computer to not lose sanity. Exercising on my lunch break and going outside for a few minutes at a time throughout the day really does help me personally.

Do you want to share any fun internet time-wasters to brighten everyone’s day?

Greg: I play sudoku, solitaire, Tripeaks solitaire, and wordscapes. For websites, addictinggames.com is a classic for a multitude of quickplay games, mix.com is the updated version of stumbleupon. It’s now a browser add-on that you can just click the button and it takes you to a random page of your selected interests. Everything from games to photography, science and technology articles, comedic/satiric articles, etc. etc.

Also there’s this classic for a good throwback game every once in a while https://gold-miner-games.com/classic-gold-miner.htm

Tim: My friends and I have been playing skribbl.io over Facetime a lot. It’s basically Pictionary without the teams. I don’t like to share my wins.

Kate: If you’re having a hard time with the utter silence of working from home, you can use this office noise generator! Move the sliders to make just the right mix of chatty colleagues, aggressive typer next door, room tone, and that solidly 90’s printer technology that can screech louder than any banshee.

Jacob: I love the Youtube Channel Kittisaurus. Watching the cats get up to shenanigans is always a good laugh.

 

Part One of this Blog was written by JEFF SHIFFMAN, CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST

 

3 Easy Steps to Cutting Classic Cartoon Sound Effects

At Boom Box Post, we specialize in sound for animation.  Although sonic sensibilities are moving toward a more realistic take, we still do a fair amount of work that harkens back to the classic cartoon sonic styles of shows like Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes.  Frequently, this style is one of the most difficult skills to teach new editors.  It requires a good working knowledge of keywords to search in the library–since almost all cartoon sound effects are named with onomatopoeic names rather than real words like “boing”, “bork”, and “bewip”–an impeccable sense of timing, and a slight taste for the absurd.

I used to think that you were either funny or not.  Either you inherently understood how to cut a sonic joke, or you just couldn’t do it.  Period.  But, recently, I began deconstructing my own process of sonic joke-telling and teaching my formula to a few of our editors.  I was absolutely floored by the results.  It turns out, you can learn to be funny!  It’s just a matter of understanding how to properly construct a joke.

WHAT NOT TO DO

Before I get into what to do, I think it’s important to point out what not to do.  When editors start cutting classic cartoon sound effects for the first time, they pretty much always have the same problem.  They stumble upon the Hanna-Barbera sound effects library and find some really funny sounds.  Bulb horns–those are always funny!  Boings–hilarious!  Splats–comic genius!  Then, one by one, they start sprinkling these in whenever they feel there’s a dull moment.

Let me say this once: A single funny sound effect is almost never funny.  It’s like blurting out the punchline of a joke without the setup.

Here’s an example of a joke: Someone stole my Microsoft Office and they’re going to pay.  You have my Word.  

I know this is a super lame joke… but it is a joke nonetheless and if you told it at a party, you’d probably be rewarded with an awkward groan/chuckle.  Cutting just a single bulb horn at a random moment is like yelling out “Microsoft Office!” in the middle of a party and expecting people to laugh.  It’s just not funny.  Cutting cartoon sound effects is not the artform of adding “funny” sounds randomly into a visual work, it’s the art of telling a sonic joke.  And to tell a joke, you need three parts: the introduction, the setup, and the punchline.  If you want to go one step further, you can add a bonus part: the tag.

AN EXAMPLE OF JOKE CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS

Love him or hate him, this video example of Jerry Seinfeld talking about his process in writing a Pop-Tart joke is very illuminating.  There are many different elements that go into how funny your joke will be perceived to be.  They are things like: how incongruous are the words (or sounds) to each other, how surprising is the punchline at the end, how well were elements from the setup woven back into the punchline, how well did you captivate your audience by the “story” of the joke.  With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why it would take two years to craft the perfect Pop-Tart joke.

Watch the video here.

ANATOMY OF A JOKE: THE INTRODUCTION

When telling a joke, this is your first sentence.  It lets the audience know where you’re starting.  In the case of Jerry’s Pop-Tart joke, this is when he starts talking about breakfast in the 1960s being composed of frozen orange juice and toast.  From this, we understand that this is going to be a joke about breakfast.

In sound, the importance of the introduction is all about timing. Take a Mickey and the Roadster Racers that one of our editors, Brad Meyer, and I worked on.  There was a sequence where all of the characters were driving around and Goofy was holding a stolen diamond.  It was incredibly valuable and he was nervous to be mistakenly caught with it and possibly taken for the thief.  At one point, he abruptly came to a stop, the diamond flew out of his car and landing in a Ferris wheel bucket.  The Ferris wheel then began to turn around, and the two characters (one good guy and one bad guy) scrambled to enter the bucket with it.  Up they went with the diamond to the top when it, of course, slipped from their hands, bounced down the spokes of the Ferris wheel one by one, and then landed neatly in Goofy’s car at the bottom.

In this sound design example, choosing the point at which we kick off the joke is key. Like I mentioned earlier, if we just sprinkle cartoon sound effects in whenever anything slightly “toony” happens in the visual, it’s not really a joke.  We’re just shouting funny-sounding words at a party.  Instead, we need to choose an exact moment to begin the joke.  That moment would be when the diamond flies out of Goofy’s car.  We chose a simple sail zip whistle to kick this off, and a glass clink when the diamond landed in the bucket. Those two sounds were our introduction to the joke. Keep in mind that from this moment, our goal is to make all of the following cartoon sound effects create anticipation leading up to the final “punchline” effect.

ANATOMY OF A JOKE: THE SETUP

In Jerry’s Pop-Tart joke, after introducing us to the idea that he’s talking about breakfast, he continues his setup by us about the downside of all of the prevailing breakfast foods of the 1960s.  Then, he announces the arrival of the Pop-Tart, likening it to the arrival of an alien spacecraft, and he and his friends were like “chimps in the dirt playing with sticks.”  As he points out–in that phrase alone, there are four very funny words: chimps, dirt, playing, sticks.

The setup is the story.  It takes us on a journey and gives us all of the elements we need to pull together the punchline.  But, notice that the more incongruous the elements of the setup, the better the punchline comes off.  What do breakfast, aliens, chimps, dirt, and sticks have in common?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  This is exactly why it’s a great setup.

In sound, the idea is the same.  You kick off the joke with something that makes sense (like a sail zip for an item flying into the air).  In the example of the scene from Mickey and the Roadster Racers, we cut completely incongruous cartoon sounds for the landing of the hero and villain in the bucket (timpani hits), followed by a spin whistle for them scrambling to grab the diamond.  Then, when they got to the top, we cut different pitched glass “tinks” (ascending in pitch with each one) for the diamond falling and hitting spokes of the Ferris wheel along the way. Not only are all of these sounds funny on their own, but they are funnier because they are so different from one another.  Also note that these sounds, although different from one another, continue to build tension leading to the next moment.

ANATOMY OF A JOKE: THE PUNCHLINE

In the Pop-Tart joke, Jerry gives the punchline of wondering how they knew that there would be a demand for “a frosted fruit-filled heatable rectangle in the same shape as the box it comes in, and with the same nutritional value as the box it comes in.”  And he goes on to wrap it up by telling us that in the midst of hopelessness, the Pop-Tart appeared to meet that need of the people.  This punchline works because it harkens back to the introduction when Jerry tells us of the dire state of breakfast choices in America.  The people were in need, and a savior appeared.

In our sonic cartoon example, we did the same thing.  We started with an introduction of a sail zip, then lead to a whole batch of incongruous sounds that built anticipation, and then, as a punchline, we used a reversed sail zip to lead us to the final glass clink of the diamond falling into Goofy’s car.  Thus, the joke was bookended.

ANATOMY OF A JOKE: THE TAG

In Jerry’s example, he talks about wanting to develop an additional end to the joke when he ties in the “chimps in the dirt playing with sticks” with the Pop-Tart punchline.  This would be the tag.  In a cartoon, it might be one final sound at the end of the gag that really finishes it off, like two slow eye blinks from another character who just watched the joke take place.  When you see these visual “tags,” be sure that you always consider them part of the joke as a whole and keep the sounds part of the same family.

FINALLY, FARTS

Because you made it to the end of this incredibly long blog post, you shall be rewarded!  So, here is a video of my favorite comedian, George Carlin, telling fart jokes.  Being that we work in animation, we at Boom Box Post love nothing more than a good old-fashioned fart joke.  If you want extra credit, you can analyze this bit to see how the intros, setups, and punchlines work together.  Or, just sit back and enjoy the smell….

Watch the video here. 

This blog is a repost for Kate Finan at boomboxpost.com. Check out the original post here which includes audio clips.

 

 

Women in Audio Engineering

During the first week of November, my alma mater, the DePaul University School of Music, held an 11-day music festival with numerous masterclasses, panel discussions, and concerts to commemorate the unveiling of its new Holtschneider Performance Center.  I was asked to take part in the panel discussion sponsored by the Sound Recording Technology department titled Women in Audio Engineering. The panel sought to bring to light the fact that although women are a minority in music production and audio engineering (according to Women’s Audio Mission, women make up five percent of all audio professions), there are many notable women contributing in these fields. In addition to highlighting the professional hurdles and triumphs faced by the all-female panel, the moderator, Tom Miller, Director of Sound Recording Technology at DePaul, also posed several important questions regarding how we, as an audio community, can strive to achieve parity in the future.

Highlighting a Few Amazing Women

Although women from every generation continue to forge ahead in our field, the hard reality of being only five percent of the industry means that women rarely have the privilege of meeting one another.  My hope with this post is that the accomplishments of the women I recently met at this panel can inspire and invigorate fellow female (as well as male and non-binary!) audio professionals from afar.

The women listed below are not affiliated with Boom Box Post or the opinions expressed in this blog post. The following bios were supplied to DePaul University by the panelists themselves:

Christine Schyvinck

Chris Schyvinck is Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Shure Incorporated, the world’s leading manufacturer of microphones and audio electronics. As the highest-ranking officer at the Company, she is one of a few women to hold an executive position in the pro audio industry. Her leadership has been integral to the steady growth and profitability of Shure.

During her tenure, Chris has led critical initiatives for the Company, including reducing material costs without sacrificing product quality, dramatically improving on-time delivery, and globalizing manufacturing operations. She joined Shure in 1989 as Quality Control Engineer. After several promotions, she moved into Process Engineering, becoming manager in 1997. In 1998, she was made Vice President of Corporate Quality.

Two years later, Chris was named Vice President of Operations, responsible for Corporate Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, and the Company’s manufacturing facilities in Mexico and China. She was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2004 and directed the opening of Shure’s first manufacturing facility in China one year later.

In 2006, Chris was tapped to head the Global Marketing and Sales Division, assuming management of the Company’s Business Units in the Americas, Europe, Middle East/Africa, and Asia/Pacific regions as well as the strategic integration, marketing, sales, artist and public relations, technical support, and customer service functions. Sales increased by more than 78 percent during her ten-year period as Executive Vice President of GMS.

In 2015, she was designated Chief Operating Officer, and, in 2016, was appointed Shure President and CEO, becoming only the fourth such officer in the Company’s 90-year history.

Currently, Chris leads the Company’s eight divisions: Administration, Finance, Global Legal Services, Global Marketing and Sales, Human Resources, Information Technology, Operations, and Product Development.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the former Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board for the School of Mechanical Engineering at UW-Madison. Chris recognized Shure as the perfect blend of her two passions (music and engineering) and rejected employment offers from larger manufacturers. While working at Shure, she completed her Master’s degree in Engineering Management from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University and is currently seated on the Board of Industrial Advisors for that program.

Mary Mazurek

Mary Mazurek is an audio engineer, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and PhD candidate. Her audio broadcasts and recordings are regularly heard on WFMT, Chicago. She has worked with: the European Broadcast Union, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Steward Copland of the Police, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to name a few. She is a practicing media artist whose works have been exhibited in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. She is also a sought-after educator and is currently writing her Ph.D. dissertation, which concerns developing an epistemology of noise in music and art.

You may also read more about Mary’s journey in this adaptation of a speech she gave on September 12, 2018 at the Recording Academy Task Force On Diversity and Inclusion at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Marina Killion

Marina Killion is an accomplished audio engineer based in Chicago. She is currently the Senior Audio Engineer at Optimus, where she has worked since 2009. She does everything from sound design, dialog editing, Foley, ADR, to final mix. Marina has a background in classical music performance, and studied Sound Recording Technology at DePaul University. She has worked on many notable campaigns such as Chicago Blackhawks, UPS, Reebok, Always, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Invesco, and Olive Garden. She is currently mixing her third feature length independent film, and has previously mixed three documentaries, two web series, a television pilot, and many short films in addition to her commercial projects. Her work has been shown at the Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago Comedy Festival, Midwest Independent Film Festival, and many more. She also won a Silver Addy Award in 2014 for her work with the Eastern Board of Cherokee Indians.

Kate Finan

You all know me!  But, if you don’t, feel free to check out my bio here on our website.

Starting the Conversation

Because I found the panel’s questions to be incredibly thought-provoking, I wanted to share them with all of you so that you might think about your own answers and possibly engage with your peers on this important topic:

What can we do to attract women to the audio profession?

How can we support women in our industry?

What can we do to break down the “good old boy” perception of recording?

Resources

Finally, I am supplying a list of my favorite resources for women in the audio industry or for those who would like to support their female or non-binary peers.  Most of my suggestions are geared toward women in STEM, post-production, or animation since those are the areas in which I work. So please feel free to comment with any of your own suggestions for other areas of the audio industry.  Here they are in no particular order.

And don’t forget to join your professional organizations so that your voice can be heard at the highest levels of our industry!

 

How to Push your Sound Design to the Max

While Not Stepping on your Mixer’s Toes

We get a lot of questions about how much you should do in your sound design pass versus how much to leave to your mixer. So, although I’ve written a few posts on this topic (such as Whose Job Is It: When Plugin Effects Sound Design vs Mix Choices and Five Things I’ve Learned about Editing from Mixing), I thought it was time for another brush-up.

As some of you may know, I’m a long-time sound designer and supervising sound editor, but I just started mixing a few years ago. While attending mixes as a supervisor definitely gave me a window into best practices for sound design success (aka how to make sure your work actually gets played…audibly), I got a whole new vantage point for what to do (and not do) once I started having to dig through sound design sessions myself! So, while I am a fledgling mixer and you should always speak directly to the mixer working on your project before making decisions or altering your workflow, I feel that I am qualified to share my personal preferences and experiences. Take this as the starting point for a conversation—a window into one mixer’s mind, and hopefully, it will spark great communication with your own mixer.

Below, I’m sharing a few key concepts that there seems to be confusion surrounding in the “who does what” debate. I’ve personally come across these questions or situations, and I’m hoping to spare you the headache of doing any work over due to a lack of communication. Here they are!

EQ

What Not to Do

I was recently the supervisor and mixer on an episode that was almost entirely underwater. My sound effects editor EQ’ed every single water movement, splash, drip, etc. that occurred underwater with a very aggressive low-pass filter. While this made total sense from a realistic sound point of view, it completely demolished any clarity that we might have had and muddied up the entire episode. It was very hard to locate the sound effects in the space and even harder to get them to cut through the dialogue, more or less the music! Unfortunately, this was done destructively with audio-suite on every single file (and there were thousands of them probably). Every single one had to be recut by hand from the library, which was an insanely arduous task.

What to Do Instead

I’m going to say this once, and then please just assume that this is step one for everything below (I’ll spare you the boredom of reading it over and over): STEP ONE IS ALWAYS ASK YOUR MIXER BEFORE YOU START APPLYING ANY EQ.

I think you can safely assume that there’s, at best, an 80% chance that your mixer does not want you to EQ anything. Ever. So always ask before you destructively alter your work. With EQ’ing it’s especially important that the right amount is added given what else is happening in the scene, and clients often have opinions about how much is too much for their sense of clarity in the mix.

The better way to approach EQ is to ask your mixer (again, asking because this may require a change to their mix template which requires their approval) if it would work to place any FX that you think should be EQ’ed on a separate food group with no other FX mixed in. Having all underwater movements on one set of tracks clearly labeled UNDERWATER FX gives your mixer the ability to quickly EQ all of them with just a few keystrokes and knob turns. And then he or she can also very easily change that EQ to mesh well with the music and dialogue or to satisfy a client note. It also means that he or she can put all of those lovely water effects on one VCA and ride that if the clients ask for any global changes to the volume of water FX. Win-win!

The same is true for any batch EQ’ing of FX. I like the “split onto a separate food group of clearly labeled tracks” method for other things, too, like: action happening on the other side of a door or wall, sound effects coming from a TV or radio, or any other time that you would imagine EQ should be applied to a large selection of files. So yes, split it out to make it easy and obvious for your mixer, but no, don’t do it yourself.

Reverb

What Not to Do

Don’t add any environmental reverb. Just don’t do it. Keep in mind that your sound design doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s layered on top of dialogue, music, BGs, ambiances, and probably more! What sounds right as a reverb setting to you while working only on your FX definitely won’t be the right choice once everything else has been placed in the mix.

What to Do Instead

Let your mixer decide. If you do it as an effect for one singular moment (I’m thinking something like a hawk screech to establish distance), only process individual files and also provide a clearly marked clean version in the track below. That way, your mixer has the option to use your version, or take it as an indication of what the clients like and redo it with the clean one. But before you go ahead and use reverb as an effect in your sound design, always check in with your supervisor first. He or she will be able to draw on all of their experience on the mix stage, and will be able to let you know if it’s a good idea or not. From my experience, the answer is that it’s almost always NOT a good idea.

Trippy FX

What Not to Do

Say you’re designing the sound for a super trippy sequence like the POV shot for a drugged up character. You may be tempted to add a phaser, some crazy modulation, or any other trippy overall effect to the whole sequence. Don’t do it! That takes all of the fun out of your mixer’s job, and furthermore really ties his or her hands. They need the ability to adjust any effects to also achieve mix clarity when the music and dialogue are added. So it’s always best to let them choose any overall effects!

What to Do Instead

Go for it with weird ambiences, off-the-wall sound choices, and totally different BGs to make it feel like you’re really inside the character’s head. Feel free to process individual files if you think it really adds something—just be sure to also supply the original muted below and named something obvious like “unprocessed.”

Panning

What Not to Do

Don’t spend hours panning all of your work without first speaking to your mixer. Your understanding of panning may be wildly different from what he or she can actually use in the mix. I’ve seen a lot of editors pan things 100% off-screen to the right or left, and I just have to redo all of it. Panning isn’t too difficult or complicated, but it’s really best to be on the same page as your mixer before you start.

What to Do Instead

Some mixers love it if you help out with panning, especially if they’re really under the gun time-wise. Others prefer you leave it to them—so always ask first. If you want to be sure that your spaceship chase sequence zooms in and around your clients during your FX preview, just make sure to ask your mixer first about his/her panning preferences. How far to the L/R do they prefer that you pan things? What about how much into the rears? Do they mind if you do it with the panning bars, or will they only keep it if you use the 5.1 panner/stereo pot?

LFE Tracks

What Not to Do

Don’t cut your LFE tracks while listening on headphones. You may not realize that what you’re putting in the LFE should actually go in our SFX track because it is low in pitch, but not in that rumble-only range. It’s nearly impossible to cut your LFE track without a subwoofer, since true LFE sweeteners in your library will look like they have a standard-sized waveform, but will sound like almost nothing in headphones!

What to Do Instead

Keep in mind that any files that live on the LFE tracks are going to be bused directly to the low-frequency effects generator which can output approximately 3- 120 Hz. That is super low!  So only cut sound effects that have only that frequency information in them, or that you only care to hear that part. Any other mid-range “meat” to the sound will be lost in the mix.

 

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