Highlight: Here's how the inspiring sound for this Audi spot was created

Posted April 16, 2014 by Asbjoern Andersen in SFX interview

It’s always great to experience projects where the music, sound design and visuals blend together really well – and that’s what I saw and heard in this new contest entry for The Audi Talents Awards.

The sound was created by Etienne Marque and Pierre-Jean Beaudoin from France, and I decided to ask Etienne to share some details on how they did it.

First off, let’s have a look at the full video, featuring sound by Etienne Marque and Pierre-Jean Beaudoin:

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And here’s the sound design in isolation:

Hi Etienne, please introduce yourself and the project:

My name is Etienne Marque and I’m a French audio designer. I’m currently at Ankama where I work on several projects such as games, TV shows, commercials, etc. I also do freelance work.
The spot was done with my friend, composer and sound designer Jean-Pierre Beaudoin. It’s a submission for the 2014 edition of the French Audi Talents Awards contest.

What’s the contest about?

The Audi Talents Awards program was created in 2007 to support young designers. It focuses on the fields of Short Film, Design, Contemporary Art and Music. A professional jury selects projects, meets the artists and selects one of them in every field. Audi offers a year of sponsorship for the winners.

How did you decide on what the spot should sound like? And how did you achieve the great rhythmical flow and sync between the sound and visuals?

Our goal was to mix/morph music and sound design as much as possible. We had a long exchange while watching videos on how we imagined the cutting, rhythm and tone should be. So before we even started working on it, we already had a good overview of the project.
We work iteratively. We do a quick run individually based on our initial discussions and impressions. We put together music and sound design; listen, then revise again. We do this process a number of times until we’re happy with the results.

How did you create the soundscape for the spot?

I used sources from my sound bank, in addition to some field recording and synths. For the field recording, I particularly went for small motors, electric machines (computers, printers, coffee machines, etc), various mechanisms. For example, I used the CD player of my car when the screen comes out of the dashboard at 2:03 in the video.

Did you use any particular plugins or SFX libraries?

Some plugins & tools: Pro Tools 10 (a lot of Elastic Time), NI Reaktor (I’m a big fan), Camel Audio Alchemy, SoundHack freeware, Plogue Bidule. The gear included a Rode Nt6, JrF contact mics and pickups, Mixpre-D and a ZoomH2n.

What was it like working on the project?

We did three videos for the project – and out of the three, this one was the funniest to do. It was also the one that we feared the most, but in the end it turned out to be super quick and fun to make. We did fewer iterations than expected – and even if it is sonically quite heavy, we are very happy with the result. The biggest constraint was time. We did this as a fun side project, so time was limited.

What’s next for you?

Right now I’m working on several unannounced projects for Ankama, as well as some personal projects. I am always looking for new projects and new challenges.

Thanks to Etienne Marque and Pierre-Jean Beaudoin for sharing some details on the project!
Find out more about Etienne’s work here, and Pierre-Jean’s work here.

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