What Is Being Used For Film Today?

[mkruse]

I'm learning more about Sound Design but have hit a dead end.

What software/hardware is being used by sound designers to manipulate and synthesize audio today in film (Hollywood)

The only information I can find via Google is a hardware unit, Kyma, which was used on some of the Star Wars films to manipulate recorded sounds.

Ie, the Tie fighter was a combination of an elephant call and a car.

Have studios moved to various plugins within daws?

[BertKoor]

They use anything they can get their hands on that seems fit for the purpose and fits the budget.

Thus not too different from what you and I do

[ATS]

I'm learning more about Sound Design but have hit a dead end.

What software/hardware is being used by sound designers to manipulate and synthesize audio today in film (Hollywood)

The only information I can find via Google is a hardware unit, Kyma, which was used on some of the Star Wars films to manipulate recorded sounds.

Ie, the Tie fighter was a combination of an elephant call and a car.

Have studios moved to various plugins within daws?

check this out https://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra2-patch-banks#darkzebra

[whyterabbyt]

They use anything they can get their hands on that seems fit for the purpose and fits the budget.

what he said

The only information I can find via Google is a hardware unit, Kyma, which was used on some of the Star Wars films to manipulate recorded sounds.

Ie, the Tie fighter was a combination of an elephant call and a car..

No, there were no Kymas in 1977.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

An ability to think outside the box, a few mic's, any daw, and a few plugins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO3N_PRIgX0

[kelvyn]

Junkie XL - Synths and Orchestra. He’s got an amazing selection of synths and has a fantastic YouTube channel where he explains in detail what he uses and how he constructs things.

Hans Zimmer - Composes in the normal manner using orchestration and synths. He works very conceptually so for Interstellar the main instrument was a church organ (obviously combined with other instruments) whereby for the Dark Knight one of the lead instruments was a treated cello. There are also some very informative videos on YouTube where he explains his philosophy and working methods.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - Use a variety of electronic devices, synths and other noise makers. There’s a great video where Trent Reznor explains how he uses the Swarmatron for the Social Network.

Cliff Martinez - Crystal Baschet. There’s also a great video where he explains it’s use in some of the films he’s composed for.

Essentially - and after they have discussed things with the director - all the really great composers start with a concept and go from there, using the most appropriate means necessary to achieve the sound they have in their head.

In the end it’s down to being the right person with the right concept, as recently seen by the swopping out of Johan Johansson for Hans Zimmer on the new Bladerunner soundtrack. I’m sure Johansson did a great job probably just not what the studio/director wanted in the end. I personally found the Zimmer soundtrack pretty unmemorable.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

There seems to be some confusion as to whether we are talking about sound design, composition, or sound design for composition. I felt it was the first option, but perhaps the op could confirm

[GaryG]

There seems to be some confusion as to whether we are talking about sound design, composition, or sound design for composition. I felt it was the first option, but perhaps the op could confirm

Seeing as OP quoted the TIE sound then I thought sound design too.

My understanding is there's some misconception that everything's done 'synthetically' now with plugins and computers whereas in truth, the truly creative sound designer is still happily stabbing lettuces, waving fluorescent tubes at CRTS etc. With loads of post-processing options nowadays too obviously.

[kelvyn]

I think it’s important to clarify the difference between Sound Design and Foley.

Foley work is usually responsible for creating natural sound effects - rainfall, footsteps, doors creaking, thunder etc.

Sound design is usually more a creative device that enhances certain elements of a film that one wouldn’t normally be described as music - crashes, booms, whooshes, zaps, electronic soundscapes etc.

Interestingly enough Hans Zimmers use of the cello in the Dark Knight is more sound design than music, so there’s an interesting crossover where if the instruments aren’t playing what would be normally defined as music then it’s sound design. It’s the same with synths... if they are not playing something recognizable as music then that’s normally characterized as sound design.

But Foley is NOT sound design in the generally accepted terminology.

[mkruse]

Thanks for all the answers so far. I'm looking at sound design. Currently I have have Serum and Alchemy in Logic. In the future I'd like to get Zebra for composition as well. I'm more interested in what they are using for audio manipulation in post production.

So say they record two natural sounds, combine them in post and manipulate them past recognition to create a new sound, for something that doesn't exist yet (such as our Tie Fighter). What is being used in the post production part?

[mkruse]

I found this great Youtube video about the sound design of Star Wars if anybody is interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... TbtHVFyKoQ

[deastman]

Thanks for all the answers so far. I'm looking at sound design. Currently I have have Serum and Alchemy in Logic. In the future I'd like to get Zebra for composition as well. I'm more interested in what they are using for audio manipulation in post production.

So say they record two natural sounds, combine them in post and manipulate them past recognition to create a new sound, for something that doesn't exist yet (such as our Tie Fighter). What is being used in the post production part?

I think you’re making a huge assumption to suggest that most sound design is the result of a morph between two natural sounds. If you really want to go that way, then yes, Kyma is still the most widely used audio morphing tool. There are others, such as Zynaptiq Morph, but that is comparing a one trick plugin to a vast, modular, graphical programming language running on dedicated hardware.

[mkruse]

I'm not making that assumption, it's simply one example. I also didn't suggest that this is the only case. All I'm asking is what they use to manipulate audio in post. The only information that I have found is Kyma, and that certainly is not within my budget.

[zenophilix]

If it works and sounds good, it's being used. Not a lot to say there.

[kelvyn]

There are no hard and fast rules as each creative sound designer has their personal methodology to achieve the sound they are looking for.
Distortion, reverb, pitching down, pitching up, granular fx, warp fx, reversing etc, all play a role in a sound designers tool box. Just experiment with what you have and I’m sure you’ll slowly learn what makes sense.