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Sound effects?

Discussion concerning the TV, film, and comic adaptations.
Sound effects?
Post by Dca   » Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:13 am

Dca
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Location: Boston, MA

Please tell me you're working on a vocabulary of sound effects. If well done, they become iconic, shorthand that seeps into popular culture. Star Wars is the prime example, although the Star Trek communicator ringtone has jumped the shark.

I can understand if this is less amenable to public review and feedback than Nimitz's look and feel. But I'm really curious what the cough of a flechette gun sounds like, among others. Bleek! And of course, the silence of a fusion plant letting go.

Do other kibitzers have particular events in mind that need their own auditory signature, or ideas of what they should sound like?
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Re: Sound effects?
Post by Duckk   » Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:21 am

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I demand at least one Wilhelm scream! :D
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Re: Sound effects?
Post by hvb   » Wed Nov 05, 2014 3:22 pm

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Duckk wrote:I demand at least one Wilhelm scream! :D


I am sure Nimitz will supply (along with a set of second hand eyeballs if anyone is interested :mrgreen: ).
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Re: Sound effects?
Post by Dca   » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:18 am

Dca
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Location: Boston, MA

Duckk wrote:I demand at least one Wilhelm scream! :D

Yes, exactly. Raiders featured a Wilhelm and lots of delicious quotes. But iconic sound effects? Not so much. If Evergreen (and RFC) want to build a multimedia empire worthy of a Disney buyout, iconic sound effects are essential. And honestly, I wish all the financial success that might imply for them. Especially RFC. (Yes, I rode the Raiders ride at Disneyland last summer. Not in the same league.). As much as starship appearance needs to be different among polities, sound effects need to differentiate from so many other movies.

But back to the practicalities. What are the key sound effects that need to be right? Does a pulser have overtones of a nearby lightning crack? The Blackbird assault gives lots of room to hear plasma rifles and tribarrels and powered armor movement. What do you hear when you read the Stories?
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Re: Sound effects?
Post by Michael Everett   » Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:25 pm

Michael Everett
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The previous thread on sound effects can be found here, although it was primarily about space battle sound effects.
A while back, I wrote:Technically, sound can propagate through space, although the actual method of transmission is different. In normal atmosphere, sound is waves of compression travelling through the air, also known as pressure changes. In space, sound is the kinetic energy of the particles carrying it.
What this means is, for instance, explosions will be silent until the blast wave hits the microphone. Assuming the microphone isn't destroyed/severely damaged, it will pick up the "noise" of the explosion at that point.
So, for explosions, having the explosion happen silently and then the sound crashing out of the speakers as the blast wave passes might be a good compromise between reality and artistic license.
Or not.
I think I'll leave it to those with more experience than me...


For the ships drives, I think some sort of deep, not-quite-subsonic rumbling remenisciant of a distant vibration (such as a heavy lorry a couple of streets away) since the drive system is gravity-based.

Pulsars... I think a brief "charging whine" lasting maybe a quarter-second followed by the sound of the dart breaking the sound barrier.

Plasma rifles I think could be derived from the sound of a blast furnace in operation, but a lot quieter.

Beyond that... drawing a blank at this point.
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But I try nonetheless, And even do my own artwork.

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Re: Sound effects?
Post by Dca   » Sat Nov 08, 2014 9:15 am

Dca
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Location: Boston, MA

Thanks for the thread reference. My thought here is a little different, to develop a vocabulary of distinctive sound effects as essentially brand awareness tools. That's why I posted down in the Evergreen forum. Well, that and to consider a medium complementary to the visual and verbal ones that have been hashed out so thoroughly.

The more I think about it, the more critical Nimitz's vocalizations seem to me. Bleek, chitter, ripsaw scream. But never fear or doubt. R2 had a lost-in-a-ravine fear sound that helped the audience empathize. The closest I can think of here is scolding to Honor's self-doubt. Or maybe crooning. I think doing this well could help build an emotional connection that might be difficult otherwise in such a hard sci-fi story.

It would also be fun to play around with building an "ominous hummm" sound or whatever. If I had more time. Sigh, life is short, and I'm already too old for prolong. I'd love to actually hear some of these sounds in addition to reading about them.
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