An Exclusive Behind The Scenes On Designing Sound – With Jack Menhorn

Designing Sound editor-in-chief Jack Menhorn

Hi Jack, please give a brief overview of what Designing Sound is all about

“Designing Sound is a resource dedicated to the art and technique of sound design, with the aim of sharing information and knowledge for free.”

We do news, reviews, interviews and in-depth articles about sound design for film, games, TV, and anywhere else creative use of sound can be found. We currently have 11 Contributing & News Editors and we are constantly sourcing articles and posts from members of the film, TV and video game industries which gives us a broad coverage of topics and discussion.
 

How did you get involved with DS, and what’s your role?

I was posting news and articles on Creating Sound for a little while before I was approached by Designing Sound’s founder – Miguel Isaza – about taking over the Editor-in-Chief role on DS.

I humbly accepted and have been trying to keep my head above water ever since. While Miguel was running things, he did everything and did it all very well!

Since my arrival the role has been democratized out so that we are more of a hive mind than a hierarchy.

We all try to contribute as much as we can when we can and some have specialized roles and talents or interests above that. For example: Varun Nair is our WordPress and webhosting master in addition to being an overall audio programming master. Shaun Farley has done a great job hosting webinars and wrangling interviews with huge names in the film sound industry.

I try to still have the “editor” hat on and keep us all organized and moving, in addition to being the point of contact for emails and questions/suggestions.
 

What’s your vision for DS, and how do you and the team set the direction for the site?

There is no *one* vision for DS. I am 1 of 11 equal and important voices that make up the decision process on Designing Sound.

We try to follow “quality over quantity” and focus in on great topics and discussions, even if they take some time to put together. We aren’t doing this for page views or click-thrus. We take pride in helping enrich the audio community as best we can.

DS has monthly topics which we try to plan out months in advance. That process is just throwing ideas out and see if anyone likes them and if there’s enough meat on the bone for multiple articles.

From there everyone is free to write or find someone to write articles on the subject. Additionally, we aren’t limited to that month’s topic and take/make articles, interviews, reviews as they come.
 

What’s been your best moment being involved with DS?

Mine personally is a tie:

– Interviewing Capcom Audio Director Tomoya Kishi was a delight. It took a little while to put it all together but I think it was worth it. I am a huge fan of many Japanese games and especially their interesting aesthetics visually and aurally.

I feel a dialogue between East and West sound design communities would be a great benefit to both sides of the ocean. I think – for whatever reason – Japanese sound design is overlooked in the West when it comes to awards or recognition.

I hope I was able to contribute slightly to raising the visibility of some great talent and work.

– Going to GDC 2013 and meeting Designing Sound readers! It was truly amazing to introduce myself and see people get super excited and talk about how much they love Designing Sound!

I live in the middle of nowhere so it’s difficult to get to many meetups and engage the corporeal sound community.

While we have analytics that show us how many readers we have; it’s totally another wonderful and humbling thing to meet people who read and learn from words we posted from a home office while petting a cat.
 

Do you see any emerging trends within the sound design community?

There is definitely more of a positive online presence to our community. Blogs (like the one you’re reading right now), Creating Sound, Designing Sound, in addition to things like Social Sound Design and Tonebenders Podcast, have increased the amount of information and interaction dramatically.

This free exchange of ideas is empowering and gratifying to be a part of.

Also, the indie sound library scene has also exploded in the last few years and I don’t see that really slowing down.

We might reach a critical mass of the number of sfx producers the industry can sustain – but when people like Frank Bry, Tim Prebble and many others keep putting out such great content, we’ll keep buying it!

This has a side effect of lowering the barrier of entry for aspiring sound designers to pick and choose source sounds they need for a project only when they need them, as opposed to throwing down thousands of dollars up from for a behemoth library.

If these cheaper alternatives hadn’t popped up a few years ago like they did, I might not have been able to break into sound design!
 

Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:

 

1

reel2reel

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Ambisonic Overview: ALASKA

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Clocks Vol. 2

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High Tech Interface Sounds

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Latest releases:  

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  Sci-Fi Organic Lifeform Textures Play Track 99 sounds included $12

  'Organic Lifeform Textures' by Bluezone Corporation is an inspirational sound effect library offering a selection of 99 ( 24 bit / 96 kHz / stereo ) unusual and mysterious sounds : From huge organisms to tiny insects, unexpected groans to invertebrate creatures moving through mud, this SFX library will offer you ultra high quality malleable textures for all your projects. This downloadable sample pack is very usefull for pro editors, film makers, music producers and video game sound designers.

  All sounds were recorded using various sources and processed meticulously using high-end gear. These sound effects have been layered to give you ready-to-use elements. You can easily pitch, modulate, mangle and stretch these sounds to create thousands of variations. 'Organic Lifeform Textures' has been designed to enhance science fiction, mystery, suspense and fantasy video game and scoring projects. Note: The background ambience in the demo is not part of the product but is added free of charge.

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  Space Cargo Play Track 138 sounds included $22

  Bluezone Corporation presents 'Cargo – Spaceship Sound Effects', a new sci-fi sample library covering a wide range of elements including cockpit and interior ambiences, interface and beep sounds, reactor rumbles, spaceship passby sounds and more. Created with a large selection of high quality recordings and then meticulously layered, this downloadable sample pack will enhance your creative potential with as many as 138 highly usable sounds.

  All sound files are named according to their content and sorted thematically. WAV files are provided as 24 Bit / 96 kHz and sorted in 11 folders. In order to give you ready-to-use sounds for your productions, all samples are royalty-free for all your commercial projects.

  Add to cart
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  Whooshes Cinematic Metal – Titan Play Track Up to 4600 sounds included From: $119 From: $95.20

  CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN pushes big screen sound design beyond its comfort zone. New and unheard HITS, BRAAMS, BOOMS, IMPACTS, STINGERS and much more await you in the comprehensive Construction Kit and devastating Designed edition. Get over 12GB worth of clean, dazzling sound effects – available as individual components as well as layered, processed and ready to use.

  The library is available in two versions & a special bundle:

  CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN CONSTRUCTION KIT
  CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN sounds massive from start to finish. This Construction Kit in particular starts off with an unusual amount of kick. While foley and other, more meticulous applications are certainly possible, the main purpose here is to bring out the big guns and stomp any hint of moderation into the ground.

  LOCK AND LOAD
  Supplement your designs with detailed, high-end metallic sounds. The Construction Kit allows you to build unique, multi-accent effects that not only impress in scale, but also in fidelity, rhythm and character. This library particularly shines in situations, where the visible picture doesn’t necessarily produce the envisioned sound, but warrants its own supernatural emphasis.

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  Files: 700 • Sounds: 4200 • Size: 10.9 GB

  

  
  

  CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN DESIGNED:
  Optimized for trailers, action scenes, in-game cinematics and special effects, the Designed edition brings fresh and exciting sounds to the table.

  Discover the force of aggressive, low, soft, processed, clean and tonal HITS, BRAAMS, IMPACTS, SCREECHES, STINGERS and SLAMS.

  DARK AND POWERFUL
  Paint a sense of dread and awe – CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN Designed can evoke fear of the unknown but just as easily kick into rampage mode: Empowered, ready for battle and thirsty for revenge. Find your perfect blend of haunting thriller and jacked, gritty anti-hero.
  Files: 100 • Sounds: 400 • Size: 1.5 GB

  

  
  

  CINEMATIC METAL – TITAN BUNDLE:
  THE BUNDLE – The best of both worlds at a discounted price.
  The Bundle gives you the full sound design power as it contains both – the DESIGNED and the CONSTRUCTION KIT edition at a discounted price.

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  Files: 800 • Sounds: 4600 • Size: 12.4 GB
  

  Included sounds – keywords:
  Braam, impact, rattle, squeak, rumble, clang, crunch, bell, groan, squeak, creak, cymbal, stinger, rusty, gate, container, flam, click, chain, dragging, thwack, bolt, door, train, metallic, iron, sliding, pole, oil drum, scrap, nail, gutter, break, steel, rim, scaffold, crowbar, swell, brass, hook, grate
  
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  Environments New Zealand Ambiences Play Track 27 sounds included, 88 minutes mins total $30

  New Zealand Ambiences is a beautifully crafted ambience library exploring the incredible country and sounds of New Zealand (mainly focusing on the South Island). This library will take you on a sonic adventure exploring the many unique birds and creatures ranging from locations such as: Haast, Queenstown, Lake Paringa, Lake Wakatipu, Te Anau, the Clay Cliffs and Pukaki!

  Recorded at 24 bit/192 kHz you’ll have the flexibility to pitch these ambiences and bird songs to create some truly amazing other worldly atmospheres!

  Add to cart
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  City Life Jamaican Vibrations Vol. 2 Play Track 90 sounds included, 702 mins total From: $30

  Get the sounds and ambiences of Jamaica in this very special sound effects library, featuring almost 12 hours of authentic recordings.

  An Additional Library of Vol 1. the Jamaican Vibrations SFX library includes Walla sounds of Jamaican Patois chatting, urban and village ambiences, high mountain atmospheres, forest sounds, car rides, coffee farm working sounds, wooden house sounds, roomtones, beaches, as well as a luxury hotel visit. So if you're looking for the real sounds of Jamaica, here they are:

  Select options

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The Sound Effects Summer Sale is now live!

Land huge savings on 100s of excellent sound effects libraries right here

How can people help and support your work on DS?

Contribute! If you want to support us please contact Shaun or myself if you want to write an article.

Comment on posts or just start a discussion somewhere/anywhere!

Also: Keep reading, commenting and retweeting so more people can learn from and engage with this wonderful and unique sound community we have.
 

What’s next for DS?

We might be in early planning stages of building a robot octopus to attack anyone who uses the Wilhelm Scream.

January is Dialog Month and then February is Animal Recording/Design Month. I am excited about both of these topics and we hope to have a good about of great articles and discussions.

I will also hopefully be at GDC 2014 with some other DS people, so come and find us!
 

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About Jack Menhorn

Jack Menhorn is a sound designer and occasional composer for video games. He lives in North Carolina and really likes cats. You can check out his website here.