Horror Sound Replacement - Update 3: Light Switches and Ambience

Hey guys! Back again with another update on the Horror Sound Replacement project I've been doing lately! In our last session, Richard and I focussed mainly on getting the light switches in place in our Pro Tools session as well as adding some ambience. In addition to these we have also found a very easy rhythm of working together. All of these things and more to come in this blog!

First and foremost - Light switches

As I mentioned in my first update blog on this project, I did a large amount of field recording around my college and captured a lot of different room samples as well as other appliance samples. Specifically, two different light switch samples were captured, one of them being in my room which was rather tight with minimal reverb and the other being in my college study house's hallway, which had a surprisingly large reverb for its size. These two samples worked perfectly for us as in the beginning of the clip, it shows the girl walking out into her hallway, coming from a small room. Judging from its visual appearance, it wouldn't appear to have a large reverb as it seemed to look more like a closet. This is where the sample from my room came in handy as it suited the environment perfectly. Conveniently, there was only one scene where she was in that particular room so it only required one sample! Below you'll find our first screenshot yet of our Pro Tools session!

Pro Tools Session View: Screenshot taken 20/6/18

The second set of light switch samples came directly from the hallway of my college study house! These were perfect as well as the size of the hallway in the film roughly matched the size of the study house hallway. If you're interested in what the hallway and rooms I recorded in the field looked like, you can find the photos of where I took the samples in my first project update blog! Now, the hallway light switches obviously occur a lot more frequently in the film than the small closet entrance. Therefore, it took a lot more time to get them in place than the intro scene. These can be seen in purple on the screenshot!

the menacing Ambience

Funnily enough, the ambience we are using in this project was actually a water sample that was taken by the Brisbane river by Richard. After recording it, Richard then immediately took to Ableton and heavily processed it, slowing it down and applying several effects such as EQ, Distortion and Compression. However, due to the compression on it, it was a rather loud sample and had to be sat down a bit in the mix as well as slightly minimising it by around 4 or 5dB. This can be seen in green on the screenshot!

Our current mode of work

Admittedly, the progression of this project has been rather slow as Richard and I have been busy with other projects. However, this week this project will take main priority by both Richard and myself as we aim to have it done by mid-week next week. The way Richard and I have been working on this project has essentially been myself gathering samples and placing them in the Pro Tools sessions. whilst Richard focuses more towards processing them. Richard has also gathered a few samples of his own upon finding interesting sounds around his house and other areas. However, this is not to say that these are strictly our jobs as we tend to occasionally do a bit of both. This mode of work seems to work for us as we are progressing rather smoothly still. Granted, it can be accelerated so we plan to really buckle down and hustle this week.

Additional Samples needed

After analysing the clip in its entirety, I came to realise that although the field recordings I took were useful, they aren't yet enough to fully complete the sound replacement. Therefore, I will be taking the Zoom H4n out for yet another spin this week to gain the final samples I need. Furthermore, you may be wondering where I will get the vocal samples for the girl from. No need to worry, I have it covered. I really good friend of mine is keen on supplying Richard and myself with the samples we need. Whats great about this short film is that there is absolutely no dialogue which means the only samples we will truly need will be heavy breathing, slight mumbling and scream samples, all of which are rather easy to perform. However, given her tight work schedule the samples will either be recorded in the C24 studio (ideal situation) or with the H4n in her house (not as ideal but still easily workable).

To finish

The next session for this project will be taking place in two days, after this it will mainly be mixed in Pro Tools on a desktop computer as unless we are recording, an entire studio space isn't really necessary for this project. In the next session the goal is to fill out the room sounds and add any other small sound effects that we can. Once I get some of my own free time from Uni and work, I will finally be able to get back out and record in the field again. Stay tuned guys, its about to get interesting! Until next time!

Levels :)