Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1524863
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 127 and play it back. It works like a compressor, because when you compress on tape, it always sounds good. I get some spikes out of the sound that way, and I really like the quality of the sound when it's been through that machine. PA: The sound becomes warmer or how would you describe it? MSA: Often I'm working on something that's more digital or synthesized, and it's like that analog process makes it more real. It's quite subtle, but still enough to kind of tie things together. Especially if I process all the sounds that way—it's like it glues the soundscape together. PA: Could you talk a bit more about your process? MSA: I work a lot with real sounds I've recorded. Often quite strange sounds. It can also be taking a recording that actually sounds good, which I then run through something, using a transducer and a contact microphone. Danish composer and sound designer Katrine Amsler also built this instrument for me that you can strum and make strange sounds with. I like the sound to feel alive or different. It's hard to put into words. But I think that's how I achieve a certain texture. And then there's the space. I think that's really what I work with the most. I mean reverb or first reflections. It's actually rare that I add reverb to sounds afterward when I'm working. The reverb is something that's inherent in the sounds I'm working with. In that way, the reverb helps define the size of a sound. The sounds have their own timbre. The result is a very spacious mix, almost like a spatial composition. I think there are very few examples of good Atmos mixes in games, whereas there are many good examples in film and TV. And I think it might have something to do with the fact that in games, there has been this idea that you have a lot of sound sources that you pan around. It can quickly seem very strange if it's all just extremely pointy. I'm not really interested in panning mono sounds around. Or of course, it can be good in relation to specific things that are around you in a world. But if you imagine that you're spinning around, it typically sounds so weird if every single sound pans around you. It's not at all similar to what it sounds like if you go out into the street and Martin Stig Andersen's studio–on the table stands the instrument 'The White Elephant,' built by Katrine Amsler. Recording sounds with Katrine Amsler for Back 4 Blood (2021).