Strange Tales - musings of a sound monkey

Happy nearly Halloween again chumsies! And with Halloween comes the raft of increasingly traditional activities - trick-or-treating, Asda trying to sell 30 different types of plastic skeleton, eating all the sweets the local kids didn’t come round for/turned their nose up at/shunned in favour of hard cash etc, and trying to do fiddly wiring work in the freezing cold and dark at a massive concrete space in Rotherham.

Yes, it’s Magna time again, and once again the GNG Entertainment roadshow has taken up residence in the Face of Steel Hall. Last year’s Hybrid-X was our first big attraction with the GNG chap, an everyday love story of animal-human hybrids and their love of human flesh, stuck together in a super-secret biological lab with hilarious consequences (more or less). This year, we are entering the murky world of post-apocalyptic survivalists who are apparently a bit miffed that there hasn’t been an actual apocalypse yet (no matter what you think of Cheryl Cole), and have been locked away for nearly 50 years underneath what has now become Magna. Despite the warnings from popular cinematic history, GNG have taken the decision to open the vault, Bunker13, and see what’s inside…. what could possibly go wrong…..again.

And with Bunkers, come sound…. or so I thought…. the first thing I tend to do with a new project like this is develop a set of visual style sheets that get pinned up around the studio. I think I’m slightly synaesthetic in my approach to sound and I’m much better at generating sound canvases to images than just starting with a blank canvas. I think it’s come from my love of movie soundtracks since i was a kid and when I first realised the power that sound could have in reinforcing visuals. But, interestingly, the reality of sound in large underground spaces is quite counter-intuitive. I’ve been to a number of old bunkers and tunnel systems in my life (I was brought up by rats and we liked foreign holidays), including the wartime tunnels in Jersey, the hydroelectric tunnels in Manapouri NZ and a few actual nuclear bunkers, and the interesting thing about the sound of them is…. there’s very little.

Most of the sound in tunnels and bunkers is generated by yourself, one of the key things about building an underground bunker is that it isolates the occupants from the outside environment, and hence sound. The walls are fantastic reverberant surfaces and tunnels make great sounding chambers, but there’s generally very little down there to make sound itself (as a billion schoolkids bellowing “Whooooooooo” and “Boooooogies” in echoey spaces will attest). Even a trip to other media examples of bunkers (I’m a massive fan of the Fallout games which all feature survivalist bunker environments) reveals a very lazy cabal of sound-designers indeed, they all seem to have gone for reality…. imagine that….

So, I’m on my own here - that’s fine. Been there before…. usually am with GNG - (I remember Gary Oldman being asked during the filming of Dracula how he prepared for the part when Winona and Sadie were off doing needlework and pony-riding, and he replied “I’m a 1000yr old blood obsessed warrior king who has renounced the church and turned completely to darkness - how the f**k do you think i prepare for the part???”)

The first key was populating the space myself. Questioning the brief about what exactly the monsters of the week were helped somewhat. Mutated and crazed but more or less human. Good, can work with that. Lots of muted screams, wails, inhuman noises, scattered around the sound canvas with varying reverbs and EQs. I tend to set up each canvas with 6 vocal channels - 3 left, 3 right - 2 each panned about 5% LR, 20% LR and 2 80% LR, each pair with their own aux fx channels. This means placing sound elements in the spaces is much more visual in the DAW arrange window, an approach which I find really intuitive. The same is then repeated for other fx elements and there are usually a few channels for beds and drones.
 
One of the pictures in my style sheet was of the Brackley bunker, designed for emergency management planning in the event of a nuclear war. A huge feature of the structure were massive ventilation turbines, and air scrubbing systems. Excellent! HUMMING and WIND! The drum and bass of soundscape design. One of the things I’d wanted to do after last year at Magna and spending a lot of time in the building, was record some of its own environmental sounds and use them in this attraction. The first available windy day, me and the R09hr hoofed off to Magna to record the building itself. Various bits of it howl like a banshee when there’s wind blowing thru and so I’ve got a stack of various metallic surfaces and gaps acting like giant reeds, great sounds. Many of those have now been built into the drones and sound beds and provide a starting point for the rest of the sounds. Some of the sounds were loaded into a sampler module as well so they could be played and modulated in real-time during bounce-down as well, giving a much more organic and dynamic sound canvas.

The mighty Omnisphere was mined for ethereal and darker tones as usual. The long evolving pads and drones, combined with the Harmonia Engine which can be assigned to the mod wheel also gives these already characterful sounds more movement and space.  Reverb levels needed to be dialled right up to create that ‘false environment’ as the physical walls of the attraction were plasterboard and doing a great job of deadening the entire space.

One major difference this year has been that there was no custom written ‘theme music’ unlike Hybrid, Killers and Haunted. This was at the request of GNG who wanted a pounding bass sound instead for the laser maze area (supposedly an air scrubbing system), so just to serve them right, I couldn’t just leave it at that could I, too easy…. so… in fact the track is made up of actual metallic striking samples rather than drum sounds and is designed to emulate some form of massive mechanical system on the verge of oscillating itself to death. this hopefully ramps up the urgency for folk to make their way round the maze fairly briskly, which is of course impossible, so all it actually is aimed to do is disorientate and confuse. So far…. it seems to be working!

Bunker13 runs from 21st-31st October at Magna in Rotherham. 

This last 2 weeks have seen me working with the mighty 2Act Theatre Co again, this time on the controversial stage adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

Many aspects of the production are challenging, right through from staging, but the sound aspects are particularly interesting as for the sound designer and composer, there are a number of very rigid parameters to work around dictated by the script itself (should you choose to be dictated to!), but often that can present its own interesting challenge in finding a seam of partially moulded creativity.

Much of the music centres around the integral use of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and in particular the 4th Movement - The Ode To Joy, possibly one of the most iconic pieces of classical music ever.   The central protagonist is addicted to a life of ultra-violence and drug propelled acts of moral abandon, and is finally caught by the authorities after being betrayed by his companions or ‘droogs’. The authorities use Alex as a guineapig for a morally questionable new aversion therapy called the Ludovico Technique. One aspect of this therapy is the use of things the patient holds dear, against them. In Alex’ case, this is Beethoven’s 9th, which is linked in the treatment by images and soundscapes of violence, butchery and sadism.

This is a good place to start for the sound designer…..  Burgess was a great exponent of creative, even playful, structures within the story and there are many well-documented examples of some of the constructions used within the story; use of polyglot merged languages; and mirrored first and second halves of the plot to name but 2. So, it would seem churlish not to play along….

I decided early on that there were three main bodies of music that I would need - the treatment/’authority’ music; Alex’s world music; and incidental/environmental music.  Much of the incidental music is carefully selected sections of the 9th, often picked for juxtaposition against violence or distressing scenes, highlighting the violence with serenity and drama.  At one point in the prison, Alex chooses Wachet Auf by Bach (in an inexplicable left turn at the lights - and if anyone knows why Burgess chose this, please comment here!), but this is the only obvious departure from the predominant use of Beethoven.

One small script reference is given to Alex protesting at the use of Ludwig and Handel in the treatment, so in my cacophonous remix of the 9th for the treatment section, I did actually mix in a reversed segment of Handel’s WaterMusic in the build up to the climax. 

So, for the music used by the authorities, I chose to use ‘stock’ versions of the 9th (Karajan for completionists who might be interested), albeit somewhat carved around using Multi-mode filters, ring modulators and multi-band distortions for the treatment pieces.  Rising tone generators were also used to produce 20Hz to 20kHz sweeps during the treatment to produce an incredibly uncomfortable experience for the audience (especially for the under 18’s in the crowd!). LFO-driven slicers and gates were also used to produce a disorientating panning ‘sampling’ effect in a nightmare scene.

For Alex’s world of the Korova bar and also for the house and bows music (which I included in Alex’ world), I decided to write music from scratch. This presented challenges as well as the genre choice for Clockwork is tricky at best and here’s why… Burgess wrote the novel in 1962, to be set in a vastly changed political climate of the near future, probably what we would now call…. the past! Then came Kubrick and the now iconic but (not unfair to say) dated score by Walter/Wendy Carlos, which was ground-breaking at the time, and has planted itself indelibly in the minds of anyone who has seen the film - me included!  (Interestingly, Carlos ignored many of the directions for specific music laid out by Burgess, (including Scheherazade in the prison not Wachet Auf) and though tempting to go with this electronica approach, I decided to go down a more contemporary line.

One interesting (to me anyhow) thing about buggering around with the 9th and the main Ode to Joy theme is actually how difficult it is to bugger around with. I wanted to go with a straight minor version, but actually that’s incredibly difficult.  I hate to sound slightly metaphysical for a minute here, but the more you try, the more you are drawn back to the theme in the major - it’s almost as if the Ode to Joy was created to always return to the joyous major. yes, technically, you can re-score it, you can sit and do it on paper, but if you’re a muso, you just try it. For me, there’s just something that just keeps bringing you back to that theme.   I finally succeeded but you know? it felt very wrong.

For the house, entracte and bows music, I wrote 3 variations on a theme of the 9th which i titled ‘The Broken 9th’ , ‘The Restored 9th’ and a dance called ‘Love in the Middle Ages’.  All the instrumentation was based around long sustained and ebow’d 8-10 tracked harmony electric guitars (all played in, not auto harmonised - hate those things!), against a vocal sampled rhythm from Stylus RMX and a great long evolver patch from Omnisphere. 

All in all, as with every project i get the opportunity to work on for 2Act, it was hugely interesting process and again, I am immensely grateful to Simon Carr and Sam Dunstan (in his really impressive directorial debut) for their trust in allowing me the freedom to sit in splendid isolation and experiment with these things, often only appearing at the tech/dress with finished pieces. 2Act chose pieces to perform that challenge the sound designer/composer constantly, and I can’t wait for the next one again.

In the meantime, for those that are intrigued to hear some of these things I keep banging on about, I will shortly be releasing an album of the last couple of year’s worth of pieces I’ve written for theatre and scare productions probably on CDBaby and CD called ‘At Different Stages’.

Viddy you all soon my horrorshow droogies

p-a-d 

The good ole boys at GNG have been on the phone again! I thought I’d escaped this latest attraction, but a fairly panicked phone call last week somehow had me standing a couple of days later in what claims to be York’s most haunted house.

“What’s the brief?”
“It wants to be as f&*%ing creepy as hell”
Looking around me in the wooden clad walls of the Seance Room, leaning on grand old leather backed dining chairs round a massive circular oak table adorned with a scattering of ouija boards and a central crystal ball illuminated by a dim single overhead light - which was the only light in the room, I felt forced to ask…
“So what do you want me to do about it - have you seen this place?!?” 
“Creepier…. mad sh@t everywhere….”
This was admittedly one of the briefer briefs I’d had recently from Gaz, but I played along…
“How long have I got?”
“Install’s Tuesday, press night Thursday” - it was already Friday.
A quick count of the rooms totted up 7 separate and very distinct areas that would need soundscapes.  As usual, all of the rooms would have very different characters and feels and so there needed to be real reflection of that in the different pieces. Like Killers in Whitby, it would be a long attraction run (4hrs) and so there was the issue of actor sanity to consider, long loops, constantly evolving and changing.

35 Stonegate in York has a reputation as the most haunted house in the city (and it has stiff competition - pardon the pun). Certainly as just a building it is a remarkable place to walk round, you can genuinely feel heritage and history oozing from the walls and beams. It’s full of rat-runs and little staircases and tiny corridors - no wall is straight and the ceiling height changes constantly from room-to-room. It’s a lovely house, built in its current form in the 15thC and most recently remembered as the old Psychic Museum owned by Jonathan Cainer and one Uri Gellar!
Due to the timescale, unlike most of the other events I’ve done with the boys, I wasn’t treated to the very comprehensive story brief for the attraction that I would normally get and so the sound creation would have to be much more evocative than narrative this time.

And so Friday afternoon after returning from York I sat down with 7 very blank Digital Performer files in front of me, a stack of old FX libraries, my trusty foley recorder (Edirol R09hr), a keyboard and the soon to be melting newest version of Omnisphere.
I’ve mentioned before that one of the greatest things I like about working with GNG is the sheer trust that they place in you and the confidence they fill you with that you’ll just ‘get on and do it’. It’s a blessing and a curse, and with barely 48 available work hours (given other client commitments and jobs), it felt much more like the latter this time.

The sum total of the brief this time was:
Stained Glass room - low ambient sounds (it has many of those already!)
Stairs - low spooky music
Summoning room - louder spooky music/chanting
Mask room - chaotic spooky sh%t
Mirror room - freaky sh%t
Dining room - guttural sounds, odd sounds
Seance room - chaos! 

And that’s what I worked to.  72hrs later and clutching data discs, the last of my wakefulness, ipod shuffles, allocation charts, and a sack trolley full of amps, speakers, cables and adapters (parking in york is nowhere near anywhere!), I found myself walking up to the doors of 35 Stonegate with my good friend Jess ready to install.

Which was also fun.  Haunted Live & Extreme (for so it is called) would be running from 7pm till 11pm for 4 nights, but during the day, Haunted would still be running their own carefully timed and triggered full light and sound controlled attraction in the house.  Nothing that we installed should be seen by members of the public before 7, and we couldn’t tap into any of their impressive built-in system otherwise it could (and undoubtedly would) upset the balance of their entire system. Guided by the superstar Steady (in-house tech at Haunted) we set about doing the most subtle, careful and ingenious install i’ve done in a while. Speakers were hidden in fire places, behind anti-macassars, behind suits of armour, masks, in cupboards, under tables, anywhere a JBL Control 1 would fit, we’d stick one.  When we ran out of those (did I mention it was very short notice?!?) Steady would run off and find a nice amp and speaker combo they’d got spare from their install.  It was huge fun - hard and quick work (we only had 2hrs a night!) and at times downright creepy - the venue has little or no working light, which was a real joy when it came to the Seance room where we would all find excuses to go and fetch bits of kit together rather than be left to work alone in there.

And so for the next 3 nights you will still be able to hear my humble attempts to make an already massively creepy but groovy house, even creepier.  Live actors, live FX, deeply unnerving soundscapes and spooky lighting all combine to make a great evening out.  Treat yourself to a little scare - I did even before anything was powered up!

Scare ya later…   what was that noise????????

I’d like to tell you about a friend of mine called Alison. Alison bakes. Alison bakes a LOT. she makes groovy things, like lemon drizzle cake, muffins, carrot cake. and she takes them into her work and shares them. and whatever new batch is being made, Alison lovingly teases colleagues the night before on FB to let them know what’s in store for tomorrow……

and because of what is going on countrywide with the troglodyte contingent of our society, she’s concerned this evening that to tell her colleagues what she’s baking seems trivial. I disagree. tonight more than ever, the things that people like Alison do are more important than ever. this was my reply to my friend…..

“nothing at a time like this is trivial, random acts of kindness are the beautiful things in this world that keep humanity just one step away from barbarism. keep baking and plotting, it’s a truly enlightening thing. f#ck it, maybe that’s what we should all do, let’s not let the events of this week be the epitaph of society; but everybody tomorrow, make something simple and give it to someone you care about. just that. be an Alison Martin-Campbell. just for a day, and let’s lift society out of the shattered glass and ashes.”

it wont change the shattered lives, wrecked by looting and violence and intimidation, and maybe I’m just an old hippy who was born in the year they stuck flowers down the barrels of guns, but I’m sick of violence, disrespect, anger, and selfishness. I’m sick of retribution and revenge. I’m tired of people not taking responsibility and pride in their own role in society. maybe we should all just bake, give a small bun to someone you love or care about tomorrow. it won’t change a thing, but for one small moment, society will be a better place, and it will be your fault. con te.

the earplug debate
As most of my day-to-day job is studio work, detailed audio editing, and live musical theatre work, I tend to be quite serious about protecting my hearing as much as possible. I routinely carry earplugs round with me as I got sick of getting caught out in my youth by dodgy ‘function DJs’ with long blown PA systems, and I’m a fan of motorsport too so it’s always a useful thing to do. I’ve read the H&S reports on exposure levels and time limits, but I just tend to think - simplest thing, wear plugs. I use Elacin ERs and they are great for still allowing a very clear attenuated signal thru that’s pretty flat so speech and definition don’t suffer a jot. (that does mean I can hear the state of DJs rigs far better than they can!). For the most part it’s rare that the next day doesn’t have some form of editing or production to do so its easier to just wear them and know my hearing is going to be perfectly ok next morning.
I get my hearing professional checked every year so I can see if there’s any fluctuations and holes in the ranges as I get older.
But, the contentious question is…… should one do a live mix with earplugs in? we’ve all been to gigs where the hearing’s been a bit ringy the next day, and as a sensible live engineer, you’d always go for clarity over volume anyday, but CAN you mix in earplugs. I mix for a pub band occasionally and they have a pretty good quality PA and it’s easy to keep it fairly clean, but pubs are pubs and levels can get a bit looser as the evening goes on and the crowd get drunker.
Just as an experiment, I tried it the other night. I had some important editing/mixes to do the next day in the studio and I really couldn’t risk any short term hearing impairment at all. So in went the trusty Elacins and immediately I could hear everything embarrassingly clearly again. I adjusted mixes I thought we’re ok, nipped the plugs out and hey presto, they did sound better. even the most rookie sound personage knows about listening fatigue, even in the studio, but this event seemed to suggest that the ability to do finely detailed mixes degrades with volume far more than I’d ever given it credit for. I thought the mix was ok-ish, but after listening at a neutral attenuation (the Elacins are for all practical purposes flat response except for a couple of peaks at very low frequencies and another at about 1-2k.) I realised how much better I could make it. so, it begs the question, I can’t be the only engineer who’s ever tried this, so do other folk do it?
by the end of the evening my ears felt fresh as at the start, and my mixes the next day were handed over in the confidence that they would be ok and unaffected by any battering from the previous evening. a couple of friends who are long in the tooth engineers also admitted to the practice but I’m now wondering just how widespread it really is?
answers on a postcard or hearing chart please.