Building the Beefy Sound of ‘Lego Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum’

What could be better than Captain Marvel? How about the LEGO animated version of Captain Marvel! Even though she only makes the briefest of cameos in Lego Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum, it just completely reaffirms her awesomeness as the best Avenger ever, LEGO or otherwise.

Wait. I think I got a bit sidetracked on a “Captain Marvel is the best” kick. Let’s start over…

Lego Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum — available to view on YouTube and Disney NOW — melds mech suits, world domination mayhem, Marvel Avengers, and LEGO animation into a fantastically funny 4-part mini-series.

The post sound team — Ewan Deane (supervising sound editor, re-recording mixer), Nolan McNaughton (Sound Effects Editor/Sound Designer), and Jamie Mahaffey (Sound Effects Editor/Sound Designer) — got the dream job of creating sound for over-the-top, fast-paced animated action sequences for the LEGO versions of the Marvel Avengers. Since these characters have established and iconic sounds that audiences expect, the sound team worked with a small Skywalker Sound-supplied library of effects as the base layer for their own design work, thus keeping the characters’ sounds franchise-approved while matching picture.

Here, Deane, McNaughton, and Mahaffey talk about their approach to designing sound for LEGO versions of Iron Man, Hulk, Black Panther, Spider-Man, Black Widow, and other Avengers, and share shots of their Pro Tools session, offer tips on mixing action sequences and manipulation library sounds, and more!

 

How did you get involved with the Lego Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum mini-series? Who was your point-person on the show and what were the goals/direction for how the series should sound?

Ewan Deane (ED): I got involved through the production company post supervisor Troy Sitter. We had been working for years together on a different Lego property and another series.

The direction was to keep the show sounding cinematic, not cartoony, and to keep it in the Marvel soundscape universe.

 
 

Unlike the LEGO animated films, Climate Conundrum doesn’t have that clicky LEGO sound. The foley and impacts are more ‘realistic.’ For instance, Cap’s shield sounds metallic and so does Iron Man’s suit movement. Were their guiding parameters for how this LEGO universe should sound?

ED: After discussions with the director and other stakeholders, we felt going with a “clicky” sound would take away from the size of the characters and impacts we wanted to create. We never leave the characters’ universe as they do in the films, so we stay with what the visual cues tell us it should sound like.

 

LEGO Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum – Episode 1: “Iron Rivalry”

What about the guns, explosions, and body impacts? Were there guiding parameters for how violent these could sound, given that it’s a kids’ show?

ED: I use my judgment on what we can get away with, but the sound has to glue itself to the screen.

Nolan McNaughton (NM): My goal was to make everything sound as big and as badass as possible. The kids watching this series are used to the heavy-hitting realistic sounds in the MCU and I wanted to match that intensity against the visuals we were working with.

 

These are all iconic Avengers characters with established sounds. How did that impact your approach to the character sounds?

ED: With an audience who are pretty well versed with the Avengers universe, we were very aware of not reinventing the established feel of the properties. My goal was not to take the audience out of the show with the wrong sound and feel.

NM: This was definitely one of the most exciting and intimidating parts of working on this series for me. I prepared myself before starting on the project by re-watching some of the Marvel movies and paying closer attention to each character’s sounds.

We received a small library of select sound effects from Skywalker Sound…

We received a small library of select sound effects from Skywalker Sound for Iron Man’s Suit, Cap’s Shield, and Thor’s Hammer. These iconic sounds were a great asset for us to reference, being isolated from the dialogue and music. We had to build upon and re-create our own versions of these sounds in order to have a bigger more diverse palette to work with and to cover all the specific actions in the show. All other sounds in the series were created from scratch.

 

LEGO Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum – Episode 2: “Friends and Foes”

Let’s look at some specific character sounds. What went into the design for:

Iron Man/Hulk Buster? (His suit, his jet…)

Jamie Mahaffey (JM): We started from a small library sent to us by Skywalker which made up about 20% of the final sounds. The original sounds were a great starting point but didn’t play very well in the context of the show we were making.

Iron Man’s suit and his jet were augmented with an array of sounds depending on the moment. Flybys, landings, takeoffs were all enhanced to cut through more and to have more impact.
 

Captain America?

NM: For Cap’s shield, I started with the sound effects from Skywalker. As Jamie said for Iron Man, this got it part of the way but needed much more for every moment on screen. I layered in more metal, whooshes, and impacts based on what the action called for. Any time Cap’s shield ripped past the camera, I over-exaggerated it with larger stylized stereo whooshes.

Any time Cap’s shield ripped past the camera, I over-exaggerated it with larger stylized stereo whooshes.

His motorcycle was a 1986 Harley Heritage. I had a battle with myself and asked for Ewan and Jamie’s input on what to use. It looks like a dirt bike, but dirt bikes don’t sound powerful or mean. In the movies, it’s a Harley, so I decided on that, as it sounds much more powerful and throaty than dirt bikes tend to sound.

 

LEGO Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum – Episode 3: “Wild Weather”

Hulk?

NM: Obviously, he needed to sound BIG, he’s the Hulk! Everything he interacted with needed to reflect that as well. For the punches, I beefed up a variety of punch effects with processing first, making a palette of stuff I could grab from whenever he popped up in a scene for some smashing. I layered these palette punches based on the action.

I also added jet-like whoosh sweeteners and larger explosions…which helped sell the speed and weight.

After finding whooshes that had the character I was looking for, they were processed with Black Box Analogue Design HG-2, which adds tube harmonics and saturation. It colors things nicely when you want to thicken something up.

I also added jet-like whoosh sweeteners and larger explosions to his jump launches and landings, which helped sell the speed and weight.

For his feet, I used fleshy sounding bass drum impacts, jump/stomps in a resonant room with some limiting, and various rock/stone type explosions with a Low Pass Filter.

 

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War Machine?

NM: For his jets, it was important that he sounded different than Iron Man and the other jet propulsion vehicles in the show. I tried to find deeper-sounding jets than Iron Man’s and also pitched things down.

I really enjoyed making all the weaponry pop out from his back. That was a combination of servos, quick air chuffs, mechanical metal clacks, gears, gun foley, thicker-sounding metal impacts, and some UI power-ups.

I wanted to create a nice “THUNK” as it fired to reflect the thick stubby tube and the rocket body itself.

It was such a simple thing, but I liked the shoulder cannon/rocket shooting sound. I wanted to create a nice “THUNK” as it fired to reflect the thick stubby tube and the rocket body itself. The bys and tails of the rockets turned out pretty cool in a couple of shots too.

 

Justin Hammer/Detroit Steel?

NM: Detroit Steel and Iron Man (Hulkbuster) were going to be in the same scenes throughout the series. With this in mind, I designed Detroit Steels’ metal steps, suit, servos, and jets to be sonically different from Iron Man’s to not conflict or mask. I used thinner, hollower-sounding metals but still big and large, versus Iron Man’s thick, heavy, clang, chunk-sounding metal to contrast.

I designed and printed down all his footsteps, servo moves, and laser Gatling guns to mono effects.

For efficiency, and to save timeline space, I designed and printed down all his footsteps, servo moves, and laser Gatling guns to mono effects. This made everything way quicker and easier to cut, especially with how fast we had to move on the series.

I made multiple versions of the same footsteps with different layers muted or EQ’d to reflect different distances — for instance, if he steps right in a front camera versus a wider shot or maybe he’s in the background. I then had different steps to use based on the perspective.

 

Spider-Man?

NM: I was pretty excited about this one, despite his super brief appearance in the show. It was amazing to put my spin on the classic “THWIP.” Again, I designed and printed a bunch of stuff to mono effects first. I definitely got a little carried away and created way more stuff than I needed, hahaha!

For web impacts, I used multiple wet splats, rubber exercise band snaps (the really large and wide ones), ricochets, and bullwhip cracks.

For web slings, I used metal tape measure movements with sharp airy swishes.

 

Black Widow?

NM: I exaggerated all her movements with super-fast, sharp, and complex-sounding swishes. Ninja super-assassin like… you know? Then for her jumps and launches, I used clean-sounding bungee type whooshes, mixed with some low energy fast whooshes. I made the punches extra punchy…. hahaha see what I did there?

 

Thor?

NM: For Thor’s Hammer, I started with the effects from Skywalker, then built upon them for the action on screen. He had a very brief appearance in the series, but it was a lot of fun making that hammer sing and those lightning/electrical effects zap.

I’m very proud of how that weather tower explosion turned out in EP 3 at the 15:30 mark when Thor throws his hammer at it. Ewan did an amazing job of mixing this sequence.

 

Black Panther? (His suit reacting to impacts sounded so cool. His fight scene in EP 3 was awesome!)

NM: Thanks so much for the compliment! Black Panther was a lot of fun as well. A common theme in this series was finding and designing sounds that sonically differentiated themselves from other similar sources. Black Panthers motorcycle versus Captain America’s in EP 3 was another instance of this. It ended up being a mix of primarily Ducati Panigale and pitched down Honda CBR 600, but there were others in there as well.

His suit’s kinetic energy effects were various bassy synth sounds, low cinematic type impacts, and some resonant metal rings. Some of these elements were processed with Soundtoys Tremolator and also pitch-shifted downwards over time with Waves SoundShifter.

 

AIM fighters?

NM: So many types and so many vehicles holy cow! Where to begin… there are lots of lasers… haha… I’ll only speak to those.

Again for efficiency, and to save timeline space, I designed and printed down a ton of laser blasts first. I wanted there to be a variation to these. There are many going off at the same time throughout the series.

I made three types of laser blaster sounds and two types of laser cannons with four different speeds…

I made three types of laser blaster sounds and two types of laser cannons with four different speeds (singles, semi-auto, automatic, and rapid-fire). All were built with multiple layers (five or six I think). To add even more variety to each of the three types, I muted certain layers and printed down multiple versions. This gave me a large palette to pull from. Basically, laser blaster A1, A2, A3, A4 and B1, B2, B3, B4 and C1, C2, C3, C4. Clear as mud, hahaha!

Very handy for future use now too ;)

 

Captain Marvel? (My favorite Avenger!)

NM: Very short appearance in this series as well, but she is the bomb! I hope there are more episodes in the future, as I would love to design more stuff for her.

I had a very specific sound in my head I wanted to achieve. It was important to give her flying/energy sound a lot of weight and to make her sound super powerful. I achieved this with some nice heavy bass whooshes and then built out the energy presence with lots of layered synths effects and synthy whooshes.

 

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Where did your source sounds come from? Did you do any custom recordings? What libraries provided useful elements for your designs? (Like those great servo sounds for the mech suits and UI sounds! Also the lasers and explosions…)

JM: For Iron Man’s mech suit, I was utilizing a number of libraries depending on the scene: SOUNDMORPH, SOUND LIBRARIAN, BLASTWAVE FX and RUPTURE were the main four along with some custom metal foley sounds for certain impacts and arm swings. Servos were created from the BLASTWAVE and SOUNDMORPH libraries and then manipulated to suit the moment.

NM: Initially, time was a bit tight so I wasn’t able to get out and do any custom recording. I always try to pull from my own library of recordings whenever possible and was able to use those sound effects in a variety of places. For example, I had recorded some quadcopter drones for a previous project and they proved useful for the flying plantation machine in EP 1 and the flying AIM copter soldiers in EP 3 and EP 4. I recorded at 96 kHz, so the slowed-down versions at 48 kHz worked well for the larger plantation drone.

BOOM “Destruction” was great for layers of explosions.

BOOM “Fire & Water” had great stuff to create unique sounding jet propulsion-based vehicles.

There were so, so many more manufacturers and indie sources as well.

 

LEGO Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum – Episode 4: “Red Skull Rising”

I loved the fight in the country, in EP 3 and EP 4, with Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye versus AIM. It was hilarious! From the truck’s bumpers making sparks on the road because Hulk was riding on top, to the cow meandering past, to the camper van windshield with the AIM fighter sliding down it. It was so fun! That’s one of the things that the LEGO animations do so well, mix conflict with comedy.

In terms of sound, how are you able to support that? How did you have some fun sonically with that scene?

NM: Very fun sequence indeed with lots going on throughout.

I love the LEGO movies for that reason as well. It was nice to play in the action-packed world of Marvel, but still be able to lean on comedy or over-the-top sounds when you need to, pulling from the LEGO aesthetic.

It was nice to play in the action-packed world of Marvel, but still be able to lean on comedy…

You couldn’t get away with this type of stuff on a live-action MCU project for the most part, so that made this series very unique. I leaned on my cartoon and animation experience, as I am familiar with those classic cartoon sounds, when and how to use them, and the comedic timing needed, which is key.

 

What were your favorite scenes to design? What did you like best about it sonically? What went into that?

JM: For Iron Man, my favorite scenes were the fight scenes. Nolan would send me what he had designed for the other character(s) and I would work with that.

NM: I liked the end battle/fight scene in EP 1. All the chase scenes were a wild ride too. EP 2 had the city chase, then the air chase at the end. In EP 3, we had the desert chase and country road chase, and in EP 4 we have a continuation of the country road chase. Sonically they have so much to offer with all of the interactions between vehicles, weaponry, crashes, explosions, and characters. These were a real treat to work on. :)

 

What was the most challenging episode in terms of sound? What were your challenges and your sonic solutions?

ED: I have always found storm sequences to be tough to mix. Many years ago I mixed a show called Storm Warning. I later called it “The White Noise Show.” Winds, oceans, hail, rain, etc. can take up so much sonic space; it’s hard to get it to have energy in the scene as well as the score.

Winds, oceans, hail, rain, etc. can take up so much sonic space

The sounds that create the environment have to have movement, they can’t be static. The wind storms in these shows were tough, but making sure the frequencies in the score are different from the sound elements the storms have is crucial.

Plus, see a gust hear a gust, not a constant barrage of wind.

NM: They were all very busy and challenging in their own way.

A new vehicle was introduced in every episode. That was very challenging, especially for the jet propulsion-based vehicles, which is naturally a very broadband, white noise-type sound. In EP 2, near the end, there is a dogfight/chase scene with smaller AIM jets. The Spidey Jet, and War Machine were all flying around at the same time. Using the right sounds for each was important to clearly define each craft’s movements.

…the most challenging part of the series was making every character, prop, weapon, swish, whoosh, or vehicle sound stand out from the other

Generally speaking, the most challenging part of the series was making every character, prop, weapon, swish, whoosh, or vehicle sound stand out from the other and “cut through” the chaos in the busy action-packed scenes. This was accomplished by a great mix by Ewan first of all.

Choosing sounds in editorial and design also had a part to play — sounds with pitched movement to them and varied frequencies in contrast to the other effects in the scene. Also, it was important to be meticulous in the edit process by moving sounds in and out of the spotlight quickly, and then giving the big important story moments, or actions close to the camera, a little extra layering love.

 

In terms of mix, what format did you mix in (was this 5.1?)

ED: The show was mixed in 5.1 with additional stereo versions provided.

 

The mix is so great! When it comes to those busy action sequences, with character VO, big music, and design, do you have any mixing tips on how to make those work so well? (For instance, the storm scene in EP 4… there’s tons of wind, music, dialogue, character-specific effects like Tony’s Hulkbuster mech… a full-spectrum of sound that needed wrangling!)

ED: Thank you for the compliment, much appreciated. I have been mixing action sequences for a while now and the method that works for me is to start with dialog and music. Get those elements working, as the score is the glue and drives the scene and the dialog tells the story and connects you with the characters; it has to be heard.

…start with dialog and music.

As I work in the effects, I look to see what is moving the scene forward and puts the viewer into the scene. I was very fortunate to have a great team to work with. All major sounds came with lots of layers. A lot of low end to an explosion might sound great on its own but add in a score with the same frequencies and you have the bottom end taking up way too much energy and simply not working for TV. With a few elements to choose from, you can design the sound that works for the moment.

NM: Big props to Ewan for the mix on the series! It sounds amazing!

 

In terms of sound, what are you most proud of in Climate Conundrum?

ED: I have always said that post-production is a team sport. I was very proud of the team I assembled and how everybody worked together for the same goal, to make a great show.

I have always said that post-production is a team sport.

I am also proud of when the director and producers get the preview mix I supply before the playback day, the notes are minimal and complimentary. Playback days turn into a fun, enjoyable experience — instead of reworking a scene to death, the comments turn to fun creative experiments that make the show better.

The Black Panther fight scene was damn cool though, as was when Iron Man and Justin Hammer destroyed the climate tower. And the slow-mo of Clint, Hulk, and Black Widow when their truck was blown up was pretty nice.

JM: I totally agree with Ewan, the most rewarding part is working together as a team to design a world from scratch. Especially a world like the Avengers! So fun!

NM: I’m very thankful to Ewan for giving me the opportunity to work on this series and I am proud of everything we created as a team. I’m proud to play in the Marvel world and put my spin on some of these iconic characters’ sounds for the viewers and kiddos to enjoy.

Also a shout out to Maureen Murphy and her crew for doing an excellent job on the foley!

ED: Even though foley does not fall into the “editorial” realm, it was a fairly large part of the soundtrack.

…shout out to Maureen Murphy and her crew for doing an excellent job on the foley!

Every footstep, prop the characters touch, metal bang, etc is all covered by the foley team. Sometimes those sounds are very prominent, sometimes those sounds are blended in to add an element that is missing from the effects edit. What did I say about team sport…

Thank you very much for your interest in our work on LEGO Avengers. I have supervised and mixed LEGO Jurassic World, LEGO Spiderman and now LEGO Avengers. I think this series was the most challenging but at the same time the most rewarding. I was very happy with how the shows turned out, as was the director and producers — and we have another set of shows to look forward to this summer!

A big thanks to Ewan Deane, Nolan McNaughton and Jamie Mahaffey for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Lego Marvel Avengers: Climate Conundrum and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

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