Here’s another behind-the-scenes look at my sound design process for PVKII.
PVKII Audio Devlog 2: player foley and bridges
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Tag Archives: foley
Cinematic Sound Design Demo Clip: Dark City
In this clip from the 1998 Alex Proyes film Dark City, I have completely replaced the soundtrack with original sound designs. I wanted to avoid using library sources so I started by recording as much as I could myself.
For the footsteps and foley, I built a small platform using wooden pallets and scrap lumber. The rope strain sounds came from a number of different types of ropes, combined with a wicker basket that I twisted and pulled apart. All of the vocal sounds started from my voice and I used the FL Studio vocoder to impart some different texture layers to the Strangers. Although I was able to record some actual sparks with the help of my father, most of the electrical elements at the end came from an experiment with a contact mic taped to a wooden dresser with a thin chain dragged over it. The brain creature was a combination of a squeaky keychain, synthesized elements, mouth noises, and a layer of cooked pasta for the extra squishiness.
More recording projects
One of the video clips that I’m redoing the soundtrack takes place on a wooden billboard scaffolding. I needed to record clean footsteps, impacts, and friction sounds, but it can be difficult to control all the variables. There are some boardwalk areas near my house that I’ve recorded in the past, but I’ve always had to struggle with noise from the wind and waves, not to mention distant boat and car traffic. I found a wooden pallet outside of a dumpster the other day and saw my golden opportunity.
This turned out to be pretty good (and free) foley stage.
The clip involves a couple of bodies falling onto wood, so I made myself a foley dummy. I filled a gym bag with shoes, clothes, and books and dropped it from various heights to record these.
This should be good for the main meat of the body falls.
I wanted to record some heartbeat sound effects for a game project to use as an auditory health cue, so I set out to try and build a sort of stethoscope using household items. I took the plastic lid of a cd spindle and wrapped the open end with saran wrap and affixed a rubber band around it to form a diaphragm. I drilled a hole in the other end and attached a cardboard tube that was just wider than one of my condenser microphones.
This is one of the recordings, after a little bit of compression and noise reduction:
The cheap-ass foley stage experiment
One of the sound clips I’m working on has footsteps on boardwalk and ladders. There aren’t any good environments to record nearby, so I’ve taken it upon myself to build a temporary foley stage in my living room using some leftover wood from my college dorm-room loft and a sheet of scrap plywood.
I’ve been able to get different sounds by changing the configuration (plywood above or below the boards, etc.).