Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1175944
FAVORITE AUDIO TOOLS www.postmagazine.com 32 POST SEPT/OCT 2019 HAYLEY LIVINGSTON Sound Designer & Mixer One Thousand Birds New York City https://otbirds.com/ What is your current favorite audio tool and why? "There are so many different tools out there, but one of my favorites is the plug-in Speakerphone. It's a modulator that imitates every different kind of speaker you could think of. It simply gives you the modulation capabilities that you can vaguely achieve using your aver- age EQ, compression, reverb, etc., but these never get you exactly the sound you want." What are the standout features? "My favorite mode is the toy robot speaker mode, although that doesn't prove helpful very often. It has every variable, from the ambience to the distortion level to the radio tuning. Some of the settings have preloaded real-life samples, such as the background of a subway, while others are completely bonkers — there are about 20 different robot/spaceship options." What is it helping you achieve? "If we're mixing a sound that wasn't in the original recording, our first move is to jump into Speakerphone to try to reproduce that sound. Often times it'll be a cellphone speaker to imitate the sound of someone taking a call when a line was ADR'd in a normal studio, or something even more specific, like a police radio." What are the types of projects you are using it for? "We would normally use it while mixing a commercial or a film. I've never tried it on a music track, but if there was a certain effect/ filter we needed, I'm sure it would have the option for that. It's the tool I most like to experiment and mess around with, which is one of the most important parts of my creative process." JOHN WONG Senior Sound Designer & Re-Recording Mixer Periscope Post & Audio Chicago Chicago www.periscopepa.com What is your current favorite audio tool and why? "The Cargo Cult, Envy. It's a great enve- lope modulator and pitch shifter. What sticks out is that you can analyze the envelope of a source sound and you can manipulate it, and apply the characteristics of it to a different sound." What are the standout features? "The Amplitude Envelope, Spectral Envelope with different settings and pa- rameters is great, but the Pitch Envelope can be a stand-alone tool in itself. You can analyze a clip and free draw out the pitch shift with different types of pitch-shifting algorithms. You can also expand the pitch envelope, invert it and reverse it to your liking. It's like getting a piece of clay and molding it to the shape of what you want it to be." What is it helping you achieve? "The plug-in is helping me create unique sounds, whether it's a more wacky or crazy sound, to sci-fi, or something that is more grounded and practical. The plug-in is just a lot of fun experimenting with to get the sound you want." What are the types of projects you are using it for? "I'm using it on everything that I can possibly think of, from films with explo- sions or creature sounds, to sequences, which has helped me create unique drones and backgrounds, and more. The first project I used it on was last year, which was more of a practical sound. With the help of Envy, I created a unique electric wheelchair motor sound with source materials that our Foley artist Jeremy Zussman and I recorded. We recorded sounds from hydraulic tables, RC cars, and other motorized gears. With some layering and processing, then Envy really helped shaped the sound with the envelopes, but also it created the movement I needed with the pitch-shifting algorithm." PETER BAWIEC Supervising Sound Designer Pace Pictures Hollywood www.pacepictures.com What is your current favorite audio tool and why? "Without any hesitation it would be the new Soundminer v5Pro. Soundminer is at the beginning of the entire creative sound process. From being an incredibly powerful search engine for sound effects to a remarkable sampler that allows me to be even more inventive." What are the standout features? "The brand new addition of the Radium Sampler has changed the game of how we think about our sound effects libraries. Being able to play sound effects with your fingers and manipulate those in an organic way in an instant allows you to focus on performance and gets you in the creative space much faster." What is it helping you achieve? "By adding the powerful sampler to its abilities, Soundminer enables us sound designers to create, share and collaborate more easily, making our work more focused on the creative than technical aspects. Sound Miner al- lows teams of sound editors to work more efficiently by centralizing not only the raw sound material, but also by putting the imaginary playground within that shared space." What are the types of projects you are using it for? "I use it extensively on all the feature film and TV shows that we work on. Its versatility makes it a must-have for anyone doing creative sound work."