Sound Design: My Lifeblood

    So as you may, or may not, know, not only do I love using commas, sometimes inappropriately, most of the time incorrectly, I also love audio! Not in one of those,
     "I love music!"
     "Oh yeah? Who is your favorite band?"
     "OMG, like I couldn't pick just one I love themallsomuchsoamazingzomG!" sort of ways. In the way that it's pretty much all I've been focused on since I was 15 sort of ways. It's the thing, I am told, I am good at and it's what I'm surrounded by every day. Recording and cutting audio is one of my favorite things to do and luckily I am fortunate enough to be doing it for a living.

This is all prep to the nerdyness that is about to occur. Ready? Here we go:

        So I was cruising around the internet listening to sound designers talk about sound design for games, like you do, and I stumbled upon some videos with Mark Lampert, Sound Designer and audio Director for Bethesda games. This series of videos is specific to Skyrim: the single-player, Windows/PS3/Xbox360, action role-playing, 2011 Bethesda release directed by Todd Howard with music by Jeremy Soule. *phew* I thought this was supremely interesting given my audio background and I thought I'd share a few of them with you. (If that's not cool than I'm Aesop Rock... and I'm not...but I wouldn't mind.)

        This is the first one I watched about the basic sound design for the game. It gives a little bit of insight into how he layers sounds to create new sounds. 10 points for Gryffindor if you notice the weird cutaways mid-interview.

        Creating NEW sounds takes a lot of creativity when you're dealing with a world of fantasy. There are familiar elements and creatures that a sound designer needs to create that is believable. This video is dealing with the voices of the characters and dragons.

        Best for last. Turn up your speakers or slap on some headphones for this one. I am Super into the soundtrack for Skyrim. I sometimes start the game and let it play in the background while I clean or wash dishes. Trust me when I say that you've never done epic laundry without an epic soundtrack. Here, Mark Lampert speaks a bit about what went into the mega soundtrack for Skyrim.

        There are way more videos about sound design that I watch a few times a week to keep me pumped on being the best audio engineer that I can be. I will start sharing more of those with you as well but let me know if watching videos on sound makes you want to puke all over your own shoes and I will start a separate blog about it.