Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546054
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 75 Every event has a beginning, a middle, and an end: an impact, a reaction, and debris. But variety is just as important. Rodrigo Morales: The secret to creating cohesive yet not repetitive sounds is timing and textures. We all expect a concrete object, like a wall, a roof or a floor, to sound very similar regardless of how often you destroy it. In order to avoid "sameness," I played with the timing of some of the elements on each variation; sometimes a metal groan might come later or change the texture and instead, you hear a metal stress and creak. Mari S. Minto: One of the things that helps keep Battlefield destruction interesting is the range of materials involved. Everything from props such as aircon units, computer screens, glass bottles, and bicycles to doors, windows, and cars. Brick. Metal. Concrete. They all break, collapse, and react differently. Then you have scale on top of that. The destruction of a small object tells a very different story from the destruction of an entire building. Rodrigo Morales: Our maps are located all around the world which means there's a lot of variety in things like houses and props! In REDSEC and EASTWOOD, for example, we have houses made with Spanish tiles, so we knew we needed to bring those details out and made bespoke sounds for them. This not only brings variation to our destruction language, but also gives unique personalities to each map! Objects of the same material (plaster, concrete, glass) like walls, floors, K-rails, roofs, etc., can become a wall of noise very fast, so in order to avoid that as much as possible, we made each one of them with different quality, some might have larger tails whereas some others are more transient heavy. This allowed us to have a high concentration of destruction parts without them fighting each other for a space in the mix. The combination of all these things made it, so we created a destruction language that is unique yet consistent without becoming repetitive and without confusing players as to what is happening around them. Mari S. Minto: What becomes foundational is not one specific material, location, or recording technique. It's the combination of the material we capture, the perspectives we record, and everything we learn while we're out there listening. That combination of materials, scale, behavior, and understanding helps keep the soundscape feeling fresh over long periods of gameplay. DETAIL INSIDE THE CHAOS THE SOUND OF A SOLDIER Battlefield 6 received recognition for its sound effects and Foley work. How closely did the Foley and sound effects teams collaborate during production? David Jegutidse: There is no separation of Foley and other sound effects in our team structure. People like Drew Elder and Tom Wright for instance focus on weapons as a Drew Elder location recording