The audio drama… Pt.2
I sometimes wonder if anyone else gets so excited by abstract sounds as I do.
Recently I have been delving into hundreds of sound patches from Steinberg Halion, FrozenPlain, Vital, Excite Audio – Evolve, and most recently those by Decent Samples.
So many textures that conjure endless playable potential and possibilities from instruments such as string ensembles and piano to entirely abstract sounds and textures.
There are many that I skip through having no current use for them, but there are just as many that immediately spark ideas and emotions leading to further searches for complimentary patches to layer and build a sonic picture.
That is where it all starts, that sonic picture to depict an emotion.
Paranormal Nation predominantly explores human relationships and inner battles along with the wider series premise of exploration into the paranormal. As such a lot of the non-diegetic sounds are portraying, re-enforcing and foreshadowing; fear, tension, shock, uncertainty and danger. All of which become visceral through the fifth supporting character - sound.
Everything is about an emotion or feeling. Sadness, fear, regret, anger, hope, anticipation, trepidation. Emotion and feelings are what drives a story and in an audio drama both voice and sounds have equally important parts to play. Often it is the ‘sound’ that takes me to the scene and not as may be suspected the other way around with the dialogue being the driving force. Of course, I know where the story is taking me, and as such I am on the lookout for sounds to create the non-diegetic bed to suit the story, but it is most often the case that when I ‘find’ the sound it solidifies how the scene will finally shape.
That fifth character provides the tangible emotion of the scene beyond or despite the character dialogue. A character can say one thing while the sounds portray a very different intention to their words, or it can portray a different outcome to a scene from that the character expects.
For the current project I am working on I have in the region of 300 sound patches favourited to make that initial search a little easier. At times I realise that I need something outside of that set and I drill down though the wider options to find that specific sound. Whatever is the case, it is once I have selected those non-diegetic ‘emotional’ sounds and have started to compose the scene that the script solidifies.
Until that point the script has been created in skeleton form to drive the story, now however the script fully forms in tandem with the ‘soundscape’ neither taking precedence over the other. The current project has four human main characters. For me the series has five main characters – the fifth being the non-diegetic soundscape that provides all the emotional texture not specifically held within the dialogue. One cannot exist without the other and each shapes the other.
I can and do loose countless hours just selecting those sounds, forming ideas with them, building on them - creating and feeling the emotions. Sometimes they take me nowhere near to where I anticipated and they form into something that won’t be used in the current project. They rather join others stashed away for use in some future project whatever and whenever that may be. For example recently casual conversation has prompted music and sound scaping for a giant battle and a non-diegetic sound bed suitable for Alien. Neither have anything to do with my current project but both were engaging exercises in sound design and both offered chances to experiment in different genres and to learn. A recent third piece had no driving idea but developed into the soundtrack for the latest new Dawn promotion.
I am neither an expert in script writing nor sound design (although I have certainly being putting the hours in on both disciplines), but this is how the process works for me. It is also why it is vitally important for me to have control over all the elements in the project to be able fully realise my vision. This is something that has become very apparent to me recently. The two are inseparable in my process and are not open to compromise or other influence. Whether this is a strength or a weakness I do not know.
One of the downsides of this creative process can be the isolation of it all.
Endless hours at what is my favourite place to squirrel myself away at - the production set-up, is both a fulfilling and at the same time quite solitary and potentially lonely experience. While creating the time flies and everything is good, better than good - but what then. I find myself full of enthusiasm, emotion, excitement and yet no one to really appreciate that moment. No one will hear anything until the project matures. Most people won’t really understand my enthusiasm or excitement even if they did experience any of it while in the making. People have busy lives, other interests, and probably not the same level of enthusiasm or appreciation for what I am creating as I do. If they do in some way understand the process and sometimes isolation of creating, then they probably have their own projects which take precedence and their energy.
And so, I often find myself excited to share what has been created and yet with no one to share it with. Of course, my first rendering is not the end. Anything created will go through many transformations – some subtle some less so. Often, I will be glad that I did not have the opportunity to ‘share’ that first version once I reach the final form as they are poles apart. However, it is still often hard to wind down from the creative process and the ‘come down’ can be quite hard. It can also be hard to continue day after day, week after week and month after month with that process when you have to be your own cheerleader and sometimes worst critic.
A vital lesson seems to be one of self-reliance in cheering yourself on to continue to create, to trust in your ability, to follow your passion and to have patience in both the process and for the outcome.
FrozenPlain are great packages by an indie developer. These were my first more cinematic packages going beyond specific synthesiser emulators. The interface I find particularly user friendly and the range of playable ambient sounds is extensive, and I find work extremely well for non-diegetic beds. They don’t have a heavy load on the computer, and you can achieve some great textures combining patches. FrozenPlain have a couple of free very specific case packages, but their packs are very reasonably priced and quite extensive. I do own the entire FrozenPlain library of packages and they have been my go-to packages for starting to create a sound bed.
I will say at this point before I move onto other pieces of software that if I was starting again to build a library for sound design I would start with FrozenPlain. I find their packages extremely good and wide ranging, fairly priced, and as an Indie creator I prefer to support Indie companies if I can.
Steinberg HALion is a bit of a monster (in size) in the field and has various options from the full HALion at a fair cost to HALion Sonic which is free (but has no presets). HALion Sonic is a good way in with a lot of free instrument packages to get you started and it allows you to use the larger developed HALion sound packages when individualy purchased. I am not so keen on the interface in some ways although it is very powerful. I find HALion again very useful for the non-diegetic sound beds but also for the instruments. Apart from very specific sounds I have found that most of my more musical elements are now created through HALion. HALion have a good number of free packages to get you going which is nice.
I will say here that HALion with the free player and a fair number of free sound packages is a good option to get going for free.
Vital is a free player synth and has an extensive library of free and purchased sound packages most community created. I would say that the packages from Vital are my least used and were more of a ‘let’s check this out situation’, and they I feel lean more towards the creation of EMD etc. The patches feel far closer to a synthesizer which is where I believe they sit in the marketplace and as such I own a range of soft synthesizers from Mini-Moog to GX80 to morphing synthesizers, so I don’t really need to use the Vital software.
Excite Audio. The Evolve packages from Excite are aimed at creating non-diegetic sound beds and I have to admit to only using Evolve-Air which was a very specific purchase for a feel I wanted and Evolve Nest. Evolve-Air has some great patches for creating as the name would suggest very breathy and airy non-diegetic sounds. My one concern with the Evolve package though is that is does feel at times very buggy and will often hang when the vst window is open. My production computer isn’t the most powerful, but it sits well within the running specifications and can handle other software without any issue. So, something maybe to consider. I also use a couple of other Excite Audio effect vst’s and these again often glitch.
Lastly but not least – Decent Samples. Not the most innovative name for a company but it does exactly what it says on the tin and again is an Indie developer from what I can see. There are lots of basic free packages from Decent Samples and a good library of sound and instrument packs. These are a very recent discovery and so far I only have two of their sound sets, one being - Organic Orchestra by Venus Theory. This was specifically purchased for non-diegetic sound beds and to really sit underneath everything else going on in that sound bed. Pre-sets are far more limited than say FrozenPlain or HALion but as with all the others they can be modified to an extent as you wish.
Most of my current sound design is created with a mixture of FrozenPlain and HALion. I personally am finding that I use FrozenPlain to create the overall ‘feel’ and then HALion instruments over those tracks for the accents and more musical elements. The string packages from FrozenPlain and HALion used together make for some great cinematic builds.
Disclaimer: The above are all personal opinion based on my limited experience and usage of the packages mentioned and specifically in the context of the type of work I am currently creating which is horror / suspense Audio Drama. I have no affiliation with any of the software companies mentioned and all products were purchased by me.
