Get the story behind the sound for this brilliant ‘Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’ Trailer:

Hi Yohann, how did you get started in sound – and how did you get involved with Deus Ex?

Hello! After being active in the Montreal music scene as a guitar player, I was offered a job as an in-house music composer in a small videogame company. From that moment, I realised the importance and the power of sounds other than music in the videogame/film world. Music plays a big role in carrying emotion, but sound design lets you become completely immersed into a virtual world that could otherwise be dull.

My involvement with Deus Ex all started in 2009, when Steve Szczepkowski, Executive Audio Director at Eidos Montreal hired me as a sound designer to work on the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I think from that moment, we established a good relationship based on trust, so he just keeps calling me to mix and do the sound design for the game trailers. Having been part of the audio team, it might also be because I know the sound universe of the Deus Ex franchise very well :)
 

What was your overall vision for the sound for the trailer?

This is a long trailer. At first, since there is a lot of voice over, I thought it could be a music-driven trailer with very little SFX. But it kind of evolved with many more sounds than I imagined at first. The superb music track provided by Sasha Dikiciyan is doing a very long crescendo, and I wanted to strengthen that by adding some specific sounds at the right moments.

It’s important to me that the sounds heard match what is going to happen in-game

It also immerses us into the sound universe of Deus Ex which is very important. Since this is a marketing trailer, it’s important to me that the sounds heard match what is going to happen in-game. It’s a part of the trademark I think.
 

What were some of the key elements you focused on?

The main thing for me is to have the voice carry the message clearly without putting everything else (music and sounds) too much in the background, as it’s often seen on TV. It’s also 5+ min trailer so we need to entertain the listener so he doesn’t quit after 30 seconds, keeping the interest going till the end. The sound design approach for this is a blend of sci-fi production (steam punk style), natural or regular ambiences, and some over-the-top mix of fighting sounds. There is also a particular focus to keep on augmentation sounds – like the Nanoblade that comes out of Adam’s arm. This is a pillar of the game so it needs to shine.

The key thing here is to immerse and not overwhelm the listener with popping-out-of-the-mix sounds. Everything needs to be placed carefully and at the right level (which is totally subjective, he he!) so the listener doesn’t get distracted by them. To me that is what I had to keep in mind, given that the music track is very well constructed, effective and full.
 

How did you go about balancing the mix?

I mainly work with 3 master subgroups: voice, music and sound effects. I always start with the voice, to have it as clear as possible, and then blend the music in. When I have a relatively good mix of these two elements, I start doing the sound design process.

I always start with the voice, to have it as clear as possible, and then blend the music in.

To me, you should not start sound designing without the voice and music track in place first. That could lead to over designing, and most of those carefully-designed sounds freshly created could get lost, or clash, in the end when adding the other elements. It’s also an easy way to overfill the mix, and you don’t want that. Less really is more sometimes.

Once the sound design is done to taste, I sometimes – if needed – use a small amount of the underestimated ducking technique. I put a compressor on the music and on the SFX subgroup, with a sidechain input fed from the voice subgroup to lower their respective volume from a few db just when the voice is active. It lets the voice cut through the mix easily, and if done with moderation and care, you don’t even hear it. The key is to not overdo it because it can sound pumpy, and that is not what you want.

Later when I think I have everything, I start adding mastering plugins on my master bus to achieve the levels wanted, and to make the whole mix shines. It’s also at this stage I start fine-tuning the automation of the 3 subgroups to bring back what could otherwise get lost with the final compression. That’s it, really. No rocket science here.

Deus Ex trailer sound design in full swing (view large image)

Any surprising sources for some of the trailer sounds?

There aren’t that many weird sources for most of the sounds, except for some barbecue tools for the blades. This is not so uncommon, though. I’m using a bunch of commercial and home-made libraries, and I’m playing with regular tools sound designers use all the time for pitch, filter, reverse etc.

I had an old mechanical camera that was doing some very unique and weird clicking sounds that I’ve used for the augmented arm sounds

I’m a big fan of light distortion too. It glues things together. I had an old mechanical camera that was doing some very unique and weird clicking sounds that I’ve used for the augmented arm sounds. It makes it special.

What were the hardest parts to get right?

Everyone likes Elias Toufexis’s (Adam Jensen) great voice, which is rich and gravely. It sounds very cool and down pitch. It’s also the very hardest type of voice to cut through a busy mix. So I needed to spend a good amount of time on compression and EQ to make sure we didn’t lose details in the mix. For his voice I always use a multiband compressor to cut some specific low-mid frequency dynamically. That makes it easier to cut through and it instantly brings some clarity by removing any unwanted muddy close-mic sound.
 

Did you do any custom recordings for the trailer?

Over time, working for Eidos, I built a specific library of different type of Foley for some specific events, character, or suit types, for example. I’m reusing some of them, but the game evolves constantly so it’s not always possible. I also like to recreate some of the sounds done in the past, and make them more up-to-date with new tricks or sounds. In this trailer, I didn’t have a lot of time to create the sounds and mix so I used almost exclusively what I had at hand. When there is more time, I like to experiment in the studio, recording some weird scrap things but it’s not always possible.
 

What are your favorite moments in the trailer from a sound perspective – and any favorite sounds in there?

I really like the overall feel of this trailer. The buildup is very gradual and is not distracting. But my favorite moment could be from 4:44 till the end, when the big music theme kicks in. It gets very epic and the blend of everything I like is happening: Combat takedowns, Nanoblade, the plane engines etc.

It’s really busy but everything that needs to be heard is there. I’m very attached to the combat sounds when Adams kills some of the agents. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past to create a kind of distinctive sound when this happens, so those would probably be my favourite sounds. I also like the Mankind Divided textural sounds at 5:43. A bunch of time spent on that one too. It kind of mixes organic sounds with some mechanical ones to make that dark nano technology matter comes alive.