Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512183
66 M PS E . O R G recording rain. This resonated with me because we had several consecutive projects where rain was a constant backdrop. In regard to this, Russian speech is much more vulnerable in a mix than English speech due to the variety of word endings and the peculiarities of some consonant sounds that ensure clarity. (I once worked in dubbing and had the chance to compare this within the same M&E across different languages.) In our case, the rain within the scene fell on various surfaces, actively changing its intensity, starting and ending in a single shot. It became evident that real recordings don't allow for such controlled sound variability. These films were in Dolby Atmos format and tests with actual textures didn't yield a good spatial effect. So I came up with the idea to mimic the rain by pouring grains of various sizes onto different studio surfaces, adjusting the density by controlling the pouring speed. In Sound Particles, we formulated the start and finish phases, created waves, and movement in space. To ensure that the grains poured evenly and not in clumps, I placed them on a surface that vibrated due to a bass shaker. I adjusted the shaker's frequency to not interfere with the rain's texture but enough to overcome static friction and ensure that the grains poured uniformly. Sonically, it sounded more like light hail, but it retained its distinctness without generating a constant noise component that could mask speech. With the help of a chickpea falling onto a large forged chair, we achieved a very low sound. This allowed us to sculpt a rain spectrum in such a way that even when reduced in the speech spectrum, it didn't lose its sense of intensity and power, preserving the dialogues' clarity in the mix. We also often face challenges with crowd scenes. Most historical films require the creation of streets with shouts, accents, and the vitality of people with the presence of horse-drawn transport. This is quite challenging to record in a studio and assemble from individual library elements. Open space recordings feel more like a village while city recordings differ greatly in acoustics. When processed with a reverb, the result is a rather static picture perceived more like a radio play rather than a living city. To address this, we enlisted artists, gathered props, sourced appropriate dialogues and situations from Russian literature and organized a nighttime recording. We rent old city sets from Mosfilm which had solid walls, several streets, and real cobblestones. The recording was made from different points, including interiors. Outdoors, we simulated the natural movement of people, household items, and even harnessed a horse cart. Of course, the "quantum effect" of recording manifested itself fully. On that very day, the ventilation in the adjacent shooting stage broke, making the night less quiet than desired. In the morning, unfamiliar birds arrived which we couldn't chase away neither by shouting nor slingshots. Despite these challenges, the recording became a lifesaver for dozens of both historical and contemporary films and it justified all the expenses. Students often tell me that I have it easy because, by local production standards, our studio handles high-budget projects. This isn't entirely true. When I started, I didn't have my own equipment and rented everything at my expense. No one trusted me with large projects back then. Only later did I acquire basic equipment. Step by step, you invest with maximum effort and responsibility, simply because it's fascinating! I was even surprised to be paid for this, given that I hadn't yet clocked my proverbial "10,000 hours" and was mostly experimenting, often reinventing the wheel. CM: The sound IS the space… PD: I cannot forget the introduction of DSpatial and our first experience using it, thanks to Rafael Duyos. Finally, someone realized that the sound could exist beyond the little panorama window in Pro Tools. That the track format isn't equal to the monitoring format and the monitoring format doesn't equate to the number of speakers. Modern post-production DAWs should stop pretending to be multi-channel tape recorders and become environments where sounds are tied not to tracks but to space! This is a separate vast topic. Our works on the films The Duelist and Viking were among the first done using Reality and some snippets from these can be found on the DSpatial website. While making music in a band, we all shared ideas, but the final say was always with Yan Nikitin, simply because he was much more talented and understood the broader picture. Upon entering the film industry, I tried to adhere to the same principle. Sound operates differently. Not all my decisions may please the director and not all of the director's choices may please me, but their vision is always paramount. It's essential to explore various pathways in sound. The key is not to adopt a passive service- oriented attitude but to continue the search. In a sports drama, we couldn't reach an agreement with soccer fans about recording specific