Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/33429
Audio for New Media Broadway’s Ralph Kelsey uses Pro Tools to create sound for ’s Abby Cadabby Web game. TV show mixed with new, storyline-related Flash animations in which the characters in- teract with kids playing online. Grush, used Pro Tools and Logic with synths, plug-ins and live drums and guitars. “The score gave us a lot of creative free- dom and the ability to experiment with differ- ent moods and the way the video storyline twists and turns” depending on the options chosen, says Yessian.“What’s nice about new media is the lack of time restrictions, which let the composing and sound design teams cre- ate with a more free-thinking mindset.” SESAME ST. & BROADWAY At Broadway Sound (www.broad- wayvideo.com), Broadway Video’s sound di- vision, a Sesame Street character is getting a new sound palette for her Inter- net game series. Season one of Abby’s Fly- ing Fairy School, starring fairy-in-training Abby Cad- abby, launched on the Sesame StreetWebsite last year with 13 eight-minute interactive games. Designed to promote children’s rea- soning and problem-solving skills with clues related to subjects like patterning, esti- mation and subtraction, the games involve kids in figur- ing out how to get the dust bunnies back under the rug, wrap gifts with rappin’ rhymes and complete a challenge to get Cinderella to the ball. Using a Pro Tools|HD V.9 system and an array of samplers, Broadway Sound senior VP/studio operations Ralph Kelsey created new audio for Abby’s games. The games feature video pods extracted from the 36 Post • May 2011 www.postmagazine.com “I used a palette of sounds that existed within the shows and added or modified sound effects and music,” he says.“A music loop runs continuously through the game. We could use music that’s part of the episode, but often it wasn’t loopable so we created our own loops, with a similar feel, from MIDI sources.” As with any interactive game, Kelsey also crafted player interface sounds as well as audio cues for correct answers or multi-part answers that lead to a correct outcome.“We mapped out a sound scenario that led to suc- cess,” he says, “always taking care to include an element of encouragement for the kids even when they give an incorrect response.” Sometimes Kelsey modified sound effects designed for the series by longtime Sesame Street fixture Dick Maitland. Sometimes he tapped his “full-bore MIDI capabilities” to create sound effects that were musical in na- ture or he pulled elements from the studio’s extensive sound effects libraries. “Sound design is always based on layers — stretching sounds, pitching them down, adding effects — to create a whole new sound.That’s where experience comes into play,” Kelsey notes. Signature sounds recur from game to game, such as the fairies’ magic wand wave and the shiny, bell-like “twinkle think” mo- ment. Kelsey says,“The level of compression and EQ I apply to the [show] dialogue trans- lates well to the Internet.The big challenge is pickups of the prompt voices, which can be recorded independently of the episode. So sometimes a matching element is involved to capture the enthusiasm of the voice actor.” He says compared to broadcast sound lev- els, those for the Web are “as close to digital zero as you can get.”With levels 7-8dB louder than broadcast, the Web “tries to maximize what the digital realm can hold.” Sesame Str eet