Hi Gianpaolo, please introduce yourself and sounDesign:
Hi Asbjoern, I am a creative technologist for digital media working in Italy. I started my career as a computer science engineer at the university, and after many years I quit my research job to work as a consultant for companies and institutions. As many of us working in the field of sound, I am a musician and music-obsessed, so moving my technology skills to the field of sound was a natural process.
The story behind sounDesign is very simple and starts in 2004, when I met Sara Lenzi (the other cofounder) during a course on the design of sound in public spaces. After some months we decided to create a digital publication with the goal to study and collect all the information about the use of sound in diverse fields. A blog was the best solution and then sounDesign was born.
After so many digital years I can say that sounDesign is now strongly focused on unveiling stories about the use of sound in modern communication. I am not interested in driving a copycat of many other super cool websites out there. I don’t work as a conventional sound designer, but more properly as a sound communicator. My goal is to discover and discuss how sound is used today (and tomorrow), and to build a multi-sensory channel of communication with people. As simple (or complicated) as a waveform :-)
What’s been one of the best moments running the site?
I guess one of the most important moments in these years was surely the switch of language from Italian to English. I remember when I published the first post (this interview with Time Prebble) and saw the results in Google Analytics. Boom. I said myself: “Oh, f***, why didn’t you do this before?”. By the way it was the right time.
My favorite story so far is surely One Year in Sound, because it is a real story of someone like us: A guy from Italy going to Vancouver Film School and then starting a real professional career in sound. I know Carlo Ascrizzi’s posts were a great inspiration for many people who want to learn how to work with sound and where. Reading comments and tweets by people following Carlo’s sonic adventures was really something emotional for all of us.
Is there anything that particularly excites you within the field of sound at the moment?
First off, product sound design and sonification. These are two fields of sound communication which yet don’t succeed in going mainstream, because of many issues related to technology limits.
Good product sound design is really hard to develop. But maybe the latest solutions in acoustics and 3D printing can work together to give us a novel direction for the coming years.
Sonification is still considered something hidden in the secrets of research, something providing bad results in terms of perception. Here we need musicians and big data scientists to work together and make innovation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Another important topic which strongly interests me is education, related to people who want to work, but also to customers and companies. As sound professionals we have to support people to learn the difference between music and sound, what a sound strategy really means – instead of explaining the difference between an MP3 and a FLAC file, or what a parametric equalization is.
Our responsibility in these years has changed. We have to focus more on the results (and the market) than on the technologies.
What can readers do to support sounDesign?
I would like to see a more open-minded approach while reading the articles. Sometimes I see people commenting on the last software or wasting a lot of time explaining why 192K is useless and bla bla bla. Sometimes I see our articles are not published in groups or forums because they don’t report a plugin or a DAW name in the title.
This is old culture of sound. We are living in an exciting period for human history, we have to embrace more than criticise. The k-chit sound of the Apple Watch has the same importance of the last list of VST plugins, if you are real sound pro. |
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I guess subscribing our newsletter is the best way support us because we can create a real connection with people with our same state of mind.
Can you share anything about your future plans for the site?
A new digital strategy in some months, that’s to say: starting from a new website, we are going to build a new brand identity of sounDesign. After so many years now we know who is reading us and why. Then we can build a digital place where we can grow up together. And this can be possible only within a new digital identity.
Please share this:
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Forest and Mountains features nature and wildlife sounds from California, Washington, and Oregon. Included are a number of bird recordings and forest ambiences, along with some insects, winds, rivers, and rain.
These were recorded over the past three years in various forests, foothills, and mountain environments. A lot of these took place in or near Southern California’s Angeles Forest and San Gabriel Mountains, an area that spans 1200 Square Miles and varies vastly in terrain.
Also included are some sounds from Northern California, along with recordings from the Pacific Northwest.
The recording techniques for this varied as sometimes I went with the recorders running unattended to capture night, dawn and early morning. Other times I’d record while being close by.
Working as a Sound Effects Editor I’ve curated this collection with Editors in mind. Background Ambiences and Spotted FX can really bring a location to life and give it so much story and character and that was a lot of the inspiration behind putting this all together.
The Locations
California (61 Files) – This is where a majority of the sounds from this library were recorded and specifically Southern California. Variety of areas and different environments, mostly in Southern California around Angeles Forest, from Lower Elevation Foothills to more rugged mid-elevation Mountain Canyons and then much Higher Elevation and more remote terrain. Also included are a few recordings from the Eastern Sierras and Northern California.
Washington (19 Files) – Southern WA in Gifford Pinchot Forest and various Northwest Forest areas near Puget Sound.
Oregon (16 Files) – Lakeside Recordings in forest and marsh at Klamath Lake in SE Oregon.
The Birds
Prominent / Specific Birds (36) (Closer Mic Perspective and more detailed) (* denotes multiple versions)
Acorn Woodpecker, Barred Owl, Black-headed Grosbeak, California Towhee, *Canadian Geese, *Fox Sparrow, *Great Horned Owl, *House Wren, Northern Flicker, Oak Titmouse, Pacific Wren, Pileated Woodpecker, *Raven, Robin, *Song Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Swainson’s Thrush
Other Birds Featured (17) (Mixed together from various perspectives, calm to busy depending on time of day, and then closer to more medium and distant sounds.)
Acorn Woodpecker, American Coot, California Quail, California Towhee, Cassin’s Finch, Fox Sparrow, Great Horned Owl, Hose Wren, Mallard, Mountain Chickadee, Northern Flicker, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Oak Titmouse, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Poorwill, Raven, Red-tailed Hawk, Spotted Towhee, Steller’s Jay, Western Tanager, Western Wood-Pewee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Wilson’s Warbler, Wrentit, Yellow-throated Blackbird, Zone-tailed Hawk
General Forest (9) – A mix of some wildlife (Chipmunk, Deer, Bullfrogs), and more general lighter forest ambiences.
Insects (7) – Crickets from various perspectives and different forests along with some Grasshoppers.
Rain (4) Light to heavier in a canyon with dense vegetation, some with distant birds.
Rivers (5) Smaller detailed creeks to faster moving rivers.
Wind (11) A mix of calm to heavier with gusts, vegetation, and tree creaks.Metadata
Detailed with descriptions and markers and photos to easily navigate and allow for options when searching. UCS was used to categorize and various bird species are identified. I’ve also labeled the metadata with what I consider Lower Elevation (up to 1500 feet), Middle Elevation (2000-5000 feet), and Higher Elevation (above 5000 feet). Included are the season of the year which was mostly Spring and Summer. Using Open-Tier in Soundminer you can use these to help get a bit more specific to particular environments.The Gear
Sound Devices MixPre-3 & 6 | Zoom F3 & 6 | Sony PCM-D100
Mics
Sennheiser MKH 8020 | Sennheiser MKH 8040 |
Sennheiser MKH 30 | Clippy EM 272
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Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries General UI Sounds Play Track 136 sounds included $10Hello Creators!
Here’s my new pack: “General UI Sounds“
I wanted to create a sound pack to cover different situations in an user interface.
I hope you enjoy implementing this sounds in your project!Making-Off
All this sounds were originally recorded with a Zoom H6 (cardiod microphone), and were processed in Logic Pro X, mainly editing the recorded material but also I used the Logix Pro X sampler.
Some considerations
1. Keep in mind this sounds can be used in a variety of situations, I put a name to the SFX but this doesn’t mean it can’t be used in other contexts.
2. The sounds are in 44.1Khz/16 bit format. I have the original files at 96khz/24bit also, if you need this format, please contact me.
50 %OFF -
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Sound Boosters – Affordable, Premium-Quality Libraries to Elevate Your Creative Workflow!
This pack includes:
Sticky, Fishy, Slimy, SUSHI GORE! Boost your sound palette with a grotesquely fresh selection of sticky slashes, bone-crushing hits, and squelchy splats. Perfect for horror, action, combat or dark comedy. These sounds can be pitched, layered, and mangled into a buffet of auditory brutality. From skull-cracking crunches to gut-squeezing squelches, every file is packed with cinematic detail and seafood-inspired savagery. Sushi Gore delivers the wet texture and disturbing flavor your project demands.
• 169 hyper-detailed gore and blood sound effects
• Unique blend of sushi inspired squelches, crunches and slashes
• Build a SUSHI MONSTER with bone breaks, flesh rips, weapon impacts, footsteps and vocalization
• Perfect for horror, action, cinematic, monster, zombie and survival games
• Fully UCS-standardized filenames, with rich metadataWith a minimum of 8 variations per action, this library is perfectly suited for both game audio and film, offering the versatility and depth required for high-quality production!
21 %OFF