Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546054
92 M PS E . O R G right moments. The re-recording mixer Glen Gathard at Molinare is himself a Foley mixer, so we're able to build a rapport with him when we're creating the Foley. Blake and Glen were able to exchange notes, and he really understood our language: "Hey, what's working? What isn't working, how much effects processing do you want? How is it sounding?" DE: Another important vendor for this game was Mimi Nishikawa at An Image Sound here in Japan. KJP made a very specific request to procure sounds for a special vintage dirt bike that appears in the game. Mimi went to great pains to track down the exact make and model of the bike, which proved to be a challenge because nobody really has them in working condition. But she finally found one and recorded it out on a country road—it was a massive win to be able to make this request a reality. Mimi also contributed mechanical recordings sourced at a local bakery that went into the DHV Magellan ship interiors, and also recorded toys with the world's biggest tin toy collector here in Japan to provide sounds for Deadman's lab. JW: On the dialogue side, we worked really closely with KJP. They had several internal team members focused on dialogue, and we would work together and trade tasks. A lot of our focus at SIE was on recording, editorial, voice design, and making sure we were aligned with KJP's creative direction. We also helped coordinate recording studios around the world based on our actors' availability. It was definitely a global effort, with a lot of really talented audio designers and engineers around the world helping us define the soundscape. EM: As you alluded to earlier, the KJP audio team is world renowned for incredible cinematic sound and music on so many amazing games over the years. What was it like collaborating with them directly on this project, and was there anything that surprised you about their preferences? JF: Blake and I got to travel to Tokyo to meet with SIE and KJP. It was an incredible trip. When we were there, we spoke with the whole team and realized that they were equally obsessed with texture and Foley. I was thrilled to see that both SIE and KJP had compact Foley stages where they could do a lot of custom sound effects and Foley ideation. We actually brought Sam's boots from the first DEATH STRANDING to both stages. I was able to chat with members of the team to learn about the importance of Foley in their game. For us, the collaboration wasn't just about throwing content over the fence—it was really understanding that we had our hearts and ears together on this. Their enthusiasm was so apparent. During that trip, one of KJP's sound designers ran into their prop closet and just started pouring out Foley props that they had collected over the years to work on these games. It was a great experience comparing and sharing sounds together. DE: I was supporting KJP with spotting the cinematics and what they wanted to hear was already well notated in their spotting notes. They were always open for us to experiment, and they gave us that room to bring ideas to the table. That was really refreshing when it worked. EM: Derrick, what stage were the visuals and edits in when you first started on those? DE: When I first started, a lot of the big moments were mostly fleshed out, though the visuals were still in gray box. We knew certain scenes would be really important. We'd get notes like, "Behind Sam & Lou