A short film by Serge Marcotte, The Greens, for which I did sound design, was selected by a film festival in Romania (Bucarest, March 2012). This festival differs from others in that it welcomes both filmmakers and sound designers. On the thirty films in competition, about half were represented by the director or the sound designer, or both. Screenings, meetings, seminars with themes, group meals were on the menu! Cultural exchange guaranteed!
How come this invitation for sound designers?
As a tribute to a pair of young Romanian director-sound designer, who tragically perished together in a car accident, the “Next Cultural Society” created the Next International Film Festival. The creative approach of Andre Toncu, the sound designer of the Romanian duo, now serves as an inspiration for all generations of filmmakers and sound designers, a wish that he had made during his lifetime. What a powerful example of the importance of sound in the film process. I would love not to have to convince anyone of that.
It is still very hard for me to conciliate sound design and web design at the same time. I finished to work on War Witch at the beginning of February, so I am writing a series of posts that will lead to new collections. Stay tuned! A lot of new ahead!
As an appetizer, here are my Web Echoes…
Steve Papagiannis, a supervising sound editor from the Los Angeles area, started Stavrosound blog about six months ago. So far, his articles are oriented towards dialog editing and it’s particularities like crackles or even more dreaming ideas like this. Very cool!
One Stop Digital, Excellent technical resource for Pro Tools users, published this post that talks about programs that conform sound to picture. More possibilities.
Internet plays an important role in my creative, technical and learning process. It is also a great source of motivation, particularly when I discovered Sound Designer’s blogs and Independent SFX Libraries and their makers, few years ago. Since then, I improved my surfing skills by using RSS feeds to centralize information in an aggregator daily. Collecting, marking, saving and later following the flow of specialized news that come automatically in my computer without loosing any time searching. Every week, I discover new sites, blogs, SFX boutiques, opinions products, tutorials on a wide range of subjects… The content is accessible and contribute to my reflections and learning about sound. I would like to share a few of particular interest in this Web Echoes 1, an ongoing News Report that I instigate today, as a way to share content and help to grow collectively and individually! This one is more technically oriented towards Impulse Response, Pro Tools functions and workflow, conforming and sound metadata!
1. Brought by Designing Sounds last week, from the team at ArenaNet, they did a recording session in a never completed Nuclear Power Plant, recording tones and all sorts of incredible sounds. Wow! I am very impressed! This presentation video is instructive for our ears as an authentic document for future constructions. I look forward to see more. Impulse Response in progress…
2- This post from Ian Palmer’s Post-Production Sound Blog talks about working from home. It confirms a reality that will increase over time. Technology gives us solutions to work remotely and gain flexibility and efficiency. Ian is starting SFX collections as well, here is the link.
Café de Flore is still warm out of the oven, it reaches this week our screens after exciting Premieres in Venice, Toronto, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Québec, Ste-Adèle and others!
2 films in one ::: The two stories of the film evolve independantly which allows for a different sound aesthetic. Then, they tend to bleed in each other, but the emotion persists, the pace is accelerating, the music spins and the magic works.
Work in progress ::: Personally and passionately edited for more than 10 months by Jean-Marc Vallée, and gradually reaching the sound editorial crew as the version evolved, the film was built to the end… yesterday! That defined the post production process. As editor, Jean-Marc was very much involved in sound editing and mix. Dialogue editor Mireille Morin digged down the sources with numerous additions and alternatives to clear the dialog to a very mediculous level. Sound effects editing was done using mostly original recordings. We premixed and conformed before final mix, always aiming to improve to the maximum potential of our sources and our resources, still ready for new ideas and picture changes… before the official deadline, Venice! Music is obviously a very important theme with Jean-Marc Vallée’s films. Working closely with DJ/sound editor Luc Raymond to tweek and adjust the soundtrack to the end. The entire sound process was a real and true team work.
The Evolution of technology ::: Work in progress needs control of all the elements to the end, not always easy to follow with picture changes. I discovered new applications and web tools during Café de Flore that helped to deal with the situations : DropBox, SoundCloud, WordPress, Google Apps, Evernote, and other sound related applications Edimarker, Edicue,Pro Remote, idisplay, Lockstep! These apps are very promissing to help us achieve the tasks of film sound. There are new solutions close at hand. First, should we adopt them collectively.
Seventeen years of projects, recordings and sound design are behind the creation of this website and my online Sound effects Collections store, available to sound designers from all over!
Development of a sound designers community on the Internet
In recent years, a larger growing community of sound designers took up residence on the Internet. Sites like Designing Sound or SoundWorks Collection succeeded in firmly establishing themselves and offering a variety of very accurate content. Their use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has contributed to spread and extend the phenomenon. The number gives even more meaning to sharing! Other user forums sites such as Social Sound DesignandSounddesigners.org have become very popular platforms and facilitate discussions on any topic of interest regarding various postproduction sound professions. Sound designers, mixers and other recognized professionals participate more and more actively. Information is available to anyone who seeks it. I subscribe to this trend that seems beneficial and here to stay. I would like to contribute progressively over time.
Bilingual website
The site is available in French and English. One way to promote exchanges between film cultures!
Exploring the site
The links on the right column lead to other sound design sites of high quality. They have inspired me and I warmly thank the authors. The Films section covers my work as a film sound designer. I wrote a text for the latest most significant work.
Sound Collections
The sound collections will be made available online gradually. The first two have the following labels:
This collection of water sounds focuses on different water surface sounds and water actions, such as lapping, waves, streams, brooks and rivers in different states and conditions. These are the most interesting sounds from my personal sound library in the category WATER. This category would be good for adding more precision and textures in doing sound design for films, video games, television, theater, webtv or other sound requirements.
At first, I approach the sounds of watercourses. Ditch, brook, stream, lake, river, cavern, sea, lapping, reef, wave are on the menu. Sometimes, there are different perspectives of the same subject.
The sound of water varies greatly depending on the morphology of the site, the type of watercourse, its flow, the weather conditions, the seasons and the sound recording itself. The key for me as a sound editor and sound designer is to maximize the possibilities.
The sounds were mostly recorded during various trips, first to the United States, in August 1994 when I traveled alone, microphone in hand, from East to West and North to South through a large part of U.S. territory, then in the Quebec rural and natural areas (boreal forest) of North America with its streams, lakes and rivers and also the St-Lawrence River and Gaspé Peninsula.
Consulting my sound effects library to determine the choice of the starting collections helped me notice the large range of train sounds that I collected through the years. The sounds of trains have always been very inspiring for me.
They are part of the large family of industrial sounds. Steam trains, electric trains and diesels are on the menu. Trains become a topic interesting to develop in sound design. They are excellent for locating a place, a neighbourhood, to drive a scene, to mark the passing of time, to distract, to make a transition effect or other particular sound effect. They can also be a lot more than just trains.
The collection of train sounds is made of atmospheres or ambiences, usually quite long, including grinding, rumbling, vibrating, steam hissing, Dopplers, horns, pass-bys, whistling, swishing, singing, rhythmic beats, clanking and squealing.
Key Elements:
A steam train with most movements necessary:
A 24-hours Electric train ride, in Eastern Europe that I did in 1996.
Train movements, pass-bys, squeaks, Doppler, creaks, crackles, rattles and others are included:
Sounds in rail yards with locomotives and rail impacts and Diesel Engines complete the collection of sounds
Here is a preview via my SoundCloud account: DEMO MPSFX_TRAINS01 by martin pinsonnault
A wide range of possibilities for sound design
The large palette of sonorities and the large spectral response of train sounds added to the processing possibilities of pitch, EQ, compressors and other sound programs and tools, then added to the sound of movement makes it a very powerful tool for sound editor and sound designers or any audio artist in films, video games and other sound editing profession. By using various plugins, sounds of trains can be transformed into multiple objects and sounds. The possibilities are limited only by the extent of our imagination!
Metadata and technical specifications
The Metadata, embedded in the wav file, includes a clear definition of each sound, using an exhaustive vocabulary of audio description, available in English and French for the moment. It is compatible with most DAW’s and Audio Software available. The Metadata has a huge potential for the treatment of any digital file such as photos, videos and sounds. This cataloguing tool becomes very enriching for any type of sound editor, sound designer, audio artist or web designer. Descriptions are more precise and exhaustive and searches can be more specific by combining words when searching. I also hope this site deepens the theme of Metadata in future years. I followed what many of you have written on the subject. I already have few ideas!
On this website, you will find various subjects that I care about as a Sound Designer and Sound Collector. Sound Effects Collections are available on line to the benefit of Sound Designers, where ever they are!
Café de Flore is still warm out of the oven, it reaches this week our screens after exciting Premieres in Venice, Toronto, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Québec, Ste-Adèle and others! 
