He’s going on a road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco with a small team of sound pros, to interview legendary sound artists, and to record new sound effects along the way.
Here are the plans and ideas for the trip – and how you can help make the project happen:
Hi Steve, what’s the idea behind the Radiophonic Road trip – and who is on the team?
When I started the Hollywood Radiophonic Laboratory – my little independent sound design place – I wanted one of our missions to be sharing of the knowledge behind the craft of sound effects. In fact one of the jobs we’re working on is restoring and archiving the sound library belonging to the late great Kay Rose, who was the first woman to win an Oscar for sound editing – and we’re hoping to produce a documentary on the process.
While I was thinking of what else we could do to promote ourselves and the craft, I got a call from a friend up north, inviting us to tour his facility. I immediately thought it would be fun to gather up some of our crew and go on a roadtrip, and use the opportunity to record things as we went up the coast.
Then we realized, to help fund the trip, we would offer these recordings to whoever wanted to contribute
I was thinking about the route we’d take and looking at a map, when I realized we’d be passing through where some of our former colleagues and heroes in sound design were living now – so I asked a few of them if we could meet with them and sit down for an interview. Then we realized, to help fund the trip, we would offer these recordings to whoever wanted to contribute! It just seemed like a good way to get the word out about us, share some great stories about our craft, record some new sounds, and have a fun adventure with my crew!
We’re still not completely sure who’s coming along, because we’re all independents, and not sure of everyone’s schedule. But we’re hoping to have Chriss Horgan, who is a very talented sound editor. She’s volunteered to drive most of the way, and she also created the brilliant logo we’re using on our T-Shirts that are available through the fundraiser. Sara Evans is a production recordist, who I hope will be booming for us while we record. Charles Maynes is a brilliant sound designer I hope can join us, too. And another name in the hat is Eric Potter, who is one of the best sound effects recordists in the business, whom I’ve worked with for 25 years or so. Oh, and we’ll be meeting our intern Laura Wilcox in the bay area. We found her studying Foley through our pal John Roesch. She’s awesome.
Do you have a route and schedule in place yet?
Tentatively now, we’ll be heading up Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica, stopping along the way. We’re hoping to go the weekend of December 5th.
If you want to help Steve and the team make this unique road trip become reality – and to get some interesting interviews and SFX out of it too – hop on over to their GoFundMe page.
What are some of the sounds you’re looking to record along the way?
Whatever we find! We have a few plans, but we’re going to stop wherever we find something interesting. I hope to get some really good surf, of course – different textures, perspectives, and maybe some multi-channel recordings. We’re hoping to stop in Monterey and meet some sea lions. And in San Francisco I’d like to spend some time recording Cable Cars – and I want to get some of the motors under the road that pull them along. They have a great sound.
What happens with the sounds you record on the road trip?
We’re going to make them all available to those who donate. At the basic levels, you can get a bunch of them online. At the higher levels we’ll have CDs with even more material. Oh, and let’s not forget the interviews!
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You’re also looking to do some interviews during the trip – who are you planning on interviewing?
I’m really excited about this part.. we’re going to be meeting and interviewing a few friends, experts in the field of sound effects design, who will be tell stories about the craft. We’re thrilled to be meeting Richard Anderson, whom I worked with for 25 years. He’s an Oscar winner for his work on “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” We’ll be talking about “Raiders,” and his work on “Poltergeist,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek.”
We’re thrilled to be meeting Richard Anderson, whom I worked with for 25 years. He’s an Oscar winner for his work on “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
We’re also going to sit down with Ann Kroeber, a very talented sound designer, who was married to the late great Alan Splet – the two of them worked on many films with David Lynch. We’ll also be recording interviews with ourselves on the way, talking about our own work and offering little tips and tutorials about out process. And all these recordings will be offered to donors as well!
Are you open to ideas on things to record and people to interview?
Absolutely! We can’t guarantee we’ll get to everything, but we’d certainly love to hear suggestions and ideas!
What do you most look forward to about the trip?
There’s so much about it I’m excited about, actually. Getting out with my crew, recording stuff on the fly, talking with some of our heroes… and getting to share it with everyone. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
If people want to support the project, how can they do that?
They can visit our GoFundMe page and read more about it there, see our updates, and hopefully donate! We’d love for everyone interested to follow us on Twitter as well.
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Nature & Countryside Ambiences High Desert Ambiences 1: Miniature Play Track 10+ sounds included, 94 mins total $35In High Desert Ambiences 1: Miniature, get a mini-nature collection of desolately beautiful sounds of the American southwest as the sun brings to life the songs of desert wildlife. This collection features sounds that will make you fall in love with the desert with the trickling of distant rivers, smooth cricket chirps, echoey caws from ravens so close you can hear the details in their wings flaps, snorts from a cautious yet curious mule deer, choruses of birds at dawn, and much more. Most recordings are well over 4 minutes, with one half-hour night-time track that will make you want to take out your tent immediately. For a mini-nature collection of lush, peaceful nature sounds from the heart of the American Southwest, here’s High Desert Ambiences 1: Miniature.
2% for the Planet:
Two percent of the price of this library is donated to an environmental cause. I view it as an “artist royalty” for the planet!KEY FEATURES:• Sounds in this library are NOT included in High Desert Ambiences 2 and 3.
• This library contains a small selection of both “active” and “quiet” nature sounds from the high deserts of West Texas.
• If you need more “active” or “quiet” nature sounds check out: High Desert Ambiences 2: Active Nature or High Desert Ambiences 3: Quiet Nature.
• Featured on Designing Sound: “Our Favorite Sounds of 2016”
• Desert dawn and evening choruses
• Distant flowing river, songbirds, and insects
• Ravens soaring and squawking in a stark and resonant valley
• Lengthy night-time cricket chorus
• Partially audible and ultrasonic bat clicks up to 70kHz
• Ghostly distant animal calls
• Mule deer warning snorts and jumping movement
• Files ranging from 31 seconds to 30 minutes
• Rio Grande dawn chorus along the Texas/Mexico river border
• Locations: Near Marfa, Texas (in a mountain valley at an altitude of 6,000 ft) and Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande River, Texas/Mexico border.
• These desert ambiences are extremely quiet, so I have included descriptive markers to signal interesting events in an otherwise featureless waveform. These markers can be read in programs such as RX, Reaper, and Soundminer. The markers are also included as .txt files in the sound files folder.
GEAR USED:
• Sennheiser MKH 50/30 MS pair
• Mid/Side recordings decoded to LR stereo
• Sound Devices 702
• Rycote AG MS Blimp
• ***Note – the name of this library was changed from High Desert Ambiences 1 to High Desert Ambiences 1: Miniature on 11/28/17. This was a name change only. No audio files were updated. -
Diffuse City is the unique urban ambience sound effects library you didn’t know you were missing. It captures the urban environment in its many forms – all based around the idea of diffuse ambience.
The Diffuse City library is purpose-built for the times an environment needs to be felt, but not be distracting.
Every track in Diffuse City was recorded with some sort of real life “filter” in mind; be it distance, elevation, time of day, physical material – Anything to provide the feeling of city life with out the specificity of many urban ambience libraries. No distracting close car pass-bys or people talking; only great natural ambience beds.
Diffuse City was recorded in big cities, suburbs, small towns, and rural settings over a span of two years. It was largely recorded over very late nights, when very few people we’re around. Occasionally, however, a car would pass by… a gun would go off… While these were edited out of the recordings, they are included as “extras” in the library. Perfect for adding some flavor to a moment that’s authentic to the environment it was recorded in.
Metadata – and markers:In addition to thorough metadata, each ambience in Diffuse City is embedded with markers highlighting unique moments that aren’t easily visible in a waveform. Software like Soundminer v4.5 and Reaper can display these markers, making it easy to identify distinct sonic moments in an otherwise nondescript waveform.
Markers in Reaper
There are 10 areas of focus in Diffuse City:Elevated City • Distant Highways • Underground City • Distant City • Under Bridges • City Rumble • Empty Parking Lots • Alleys • Industrial • Window Contacts
Hear examples and learn more about each one below
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