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AUDIO FOR ANIMATION www.postmagazine.com 30 POST APRIL 2016 of old and new tech; it's computers and combustible engines. Kevin's direction was to keep it believable but fun and ex- citing at the same time," says Fountain. The Ratchet & Clank film, adapted by Rainmaker Entertainment from the popular game series originally developed by Insomniac Games, is the origin story of how Ratchet (a lombax mechanic voiced by James Arnold Taylor) and Clank (a little robot voiced by David Kaye) meet each other while trying to save the Solana Galaxy from being destroyed. The film hits theaters on April 29th. Fountain found inspiration and source material for Ratchet's rusty world in the most fitting of places — a junkyard. Equipped with his field-recording rig (two Neumann KM184s, a Sound Devices Mix Pre and a Sony M10 recorder), Fountain spent half a day capturing metal bashes, smashes, scrapes, and creaks. "I found a lot of dead vehicles, cars, trucks, trailers, a snowmobile, a school bus and motorcy- cles. Whenever one looked interesting, I'd stop and hunt for unique impacts, creaks, squeaks, switches, doors and movements that I could use as character elements in the film," says Fountain. If a pile of debris looked particularly promising, Fountain says he'd chuck other objects at it in hopes of generating interesting sounds. "You try and get as much variation in terms of size and intensity, and when you feel like you've exhausted the discovery, you move on." Those metal bashing sounds were certainly useful for the film's robot battle sequence. By layering the junkyard re- cordings with heavier impacts, like explo- sions and car crashes pulled from sound libraries, Fountain was able to create a robot battle with beef and character. Fountain also recorded other sounds, such as the propeller and engine of a radio-controlled B-25 plane, which ended up providing a great base for the onboard sound of Ratchet's ship. He also spent time at his dentist's office, recording drills, vacuums, air compressors and even a machine that makes false teeth. Fountain describes that machine as "a cross be- tween a 3D printer and a machine drill." He even recorded the sliding sound of his minivan seat for the main robot leader's feet. "Victor (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) is this huge beast of a robot, and Kevin [Munroe] wanted him to sound massive and rusty. I recorded myself working the chair in my minivan back and forth. It had this great ratchet and clunk sound that became a central element for his move- ments." To add a rusty flavor, Fountain had sound effects editor Dashen Naidoo sprinkle in elements from his junkyard field-recording trip. For the cute little robot Clank, Naidoo took the lead. He cut in a range of beeps and blips that echoed Clank's emotion throughout the show. The small servo and metal rattling sounds that accompany Clank's movements were a combination of Foley provided by Foley One's artist Steve Baine and mixer Peter Persaud, and Naidoo's sound effects. The film's hand-held weapons, which range in size from small blasters to the bigger buzz-blade gun that shoots a boo- merang-style saw blade, are a combina- tion of sci-fi sounds and realistic elements. For example, the buzz-blade's spinning sound was created from multiple sword 'shings' that Fountain processed using the GRM Tools Doppler plug-in. "That Doppler plug-in is like a tremolo plug-in as well, so it's giving you pitch and modulation. And you can automate the speed of the move- ment," says Fountain. When the blade makes contact, Fountain used a realistic radial arm saw sound, just sped up to match the faster pace of animation. Ratchet & Clank — mixed at Deluxe Toronto by re-recording mixers Christian Fountain and Naidoo (inset) collaborated on the sound for Ratchet & Clank.