MATTHEW BOGAN
Sound Design | Film | Television | Video Games
RED DEAD REDEMPTION SOUND DUB
Year Two | Creative Project | UW308464
During my second year of studies, I was assigned the task of completing any audio related project most appropriate for my current skillset.
At this time I was fascinated by the world of sound design, becoming passionate about writing music to evoke emotion in keeping with themes and motifs, and creating foley elements within my own home using everyday objects. Also, the latest Rockstar game had released, which intrigued me.
Resulting in the decision to implement audio into a minute-long trailer for the massive video game triumph ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ by Rockstar Games. The story takes place in the heart of the Americas at the turn of the century, outlaws are beginning to be hunted down and modern civilization is developing. I made use music to portray the key themes of the story and foley to immerse the viewer into the world.
LOCATION RECORDING STAGE
Capturing Wildlife to Immerse the Listener.
In order to capture an authentic array of wildlife I decided to situate my recordings at a variety of locations. This ensured I would be able to capture differing wildlife, allowing for a more diverse library of audio clips. I decided to record at Monikie Wildlife Park, Crombie Wildlife Park and Craigmill Den - each are located near my home. This allowed me to travel to these locations at differing times of the day - some at dawn, midday and nighttime. The time of day was of great importance to me, I understood that different animals are prevalent
at different times of the day. This was of great importance to capture accurate audio.
I aimed to record a variety of birdsong, wind passing through treetops and any
animals I could find at these locations - however some proved to become very difficult.
For this location recording I used my Tascam DR40X, along with a small windscreen and tripod attatchment - these ensured I would not introduce wind rumble or impact rumble.
All tracks were recorded at 48KHz and 24-Bit.
MUSIC PRODUCTION STAGE
Writing and recording around the main themes.
In order to write and record a piece of music that would be fitting to the setting, theme and pacing of the video, I played to my strengths and stick with instrumentation I am comfortable with. Within the western genre, exceptionally bright and clean guitars washed over by spring reverb are extermely popular, along with other stringed instruments.
The nature of the video itself called for a slow and building piece of music, that would enhance the beautiful scenery the player would be immersed within.
Because of difficulties gaining access to the college's studios, I decided that the best method of recording would be at home using my recording setup. This allowed me to experiment in my own time, creating a bank of guitar tracks - alternating with guitar parts and pickup selection. Once composed my guitar sections, I booked Eastlake One in order to record my D.I. tracks through the amplifiers on offer in the live room.
In order to re-record the guitar parts I used a modified Bantom to Male XLR cable, this allowed me to run a XLR through from the control room to the live room. Using the 'Link' feature on a D.I. box, I was able to convert the balanced signal to unbalanced and send the signal through a guitar amp using a regular TRS cable. I used both a Shure SM57 and a Ribbon microphone, allowing me to blend the two signals captured to my taste at a later date. I also used two amplifiers for each part, a Fender M80 and Fender Deluxe Reverb - this allowed me to not only enhance my bank of audio files, but gave me more options when mixing.
Using the ProTools Suite I was able to finalise the piece, allowing for addition of drums and strings to add atmosphere and impact to the final section. Mixing was also done at home using my PreSonus speakers and Status Audio CB-1 headphones. I was able to achieve a blend of all elements by using Multi-Bus mixing - this technique routes groups of tracks to their own independent master fader. This allows me to make changes to entire sections as one unit, making EQ, compression and level changes in order to blend all elements equally.
All tracks were recorded at 48KHz and 24-Bit.
EDITING STAGE
Manipulating audio and synchronising to video.
While all Foley, Environment and Music tracks were recorded using similar techinques, this does not prevent a vast difference in perceived loudness. The best method of ensuring that all tracks are perceived at an equal level a LUFS meter should be used. I utilised the Youlean Loudness Meter and Maxim plugins to set all tracks to -13 LUFS, the industry standard for sound effects and game/film music. This ensures no damage will occure to both the listener and the playback equipment.
I used the ProQ3 equaliser to remove unwanted frequencies on specific tracks, i.e. on location recordings must have all frequencies below 200Hz, to reduce wind and impact rumble. Compression was also used on specific tracks such as bass and guitar, providing a focused sound that is much easier to mix.
Automation was also used to control the panning of specific tracks to match the movement within the video, volume automation was also used in order to mix the Foley and Music tracks.
Find below my final video with both diagetic and non-diagetic sound implemented.
Evidence
I have also created a folder containing all music, foley work and sound effects used within my final video. Each subfolder contains specific notes on the recording and editing process, they also contain guides on the format for each file – giving details on when and where each were recorded. This will be available to download from the link below: