audio

Sound Design: Mechanical Roof Tweaks Concert Acoustic in Real Time

soultronick — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:36:01 +0000

Imagine a concert hall that adapts to each performer, during the performance.

Since humans started building large buildings, we’ve been obsessed with the acoustics of our theaters and concert halls. And despite all that time to get it right, we’re constantly deploying new materials and computer-calculated designs to create perfection in the sound of live performance.

Resonant Chamber feels like architectural acoustics has, at last, met its natural conclusion. In a huge collaboration spearheaded by design firm RVTR, engineers, composers, and designers have constructed what are essentially transforming roofs that can adapt to the sound of performers and reshape themselves to complement and amplify the audio.

“The goal is not ‘perfect’ acoustics, but rather variable acoustics for different applications,” explains RVTR’s Geoffrey Thun. “To enable a single venue to provide ideal conditions for a range of music performance and audience configurations would be fantastic.”

The system is described best as “rigid origami,” a collection of triangle panels that hang from a track, driven by motors to shift positions on command. The panels themselves come in three varieties: One is bamboo plywood, which reflects sound. Another is porous polypropylene, which absorbs it. And the third is actually a hollow panel that’s been filled with a speaker. With these three counterbalancing tools at its disposal, the Resonant Chamber can play chess with sound waves, creating a strategic structure to match any style of performance.

But the real promise of the system is its potential to go live. “We are currently developing a customized software interface that can track, control, and predict the physical systems performance in real time,” Thun explains to Co.Design. In this next model, microphones follow various frequencies to make immediate tweaks to the physical and aural landscape. Imagine a rock concert that could add a real chamber reverb to select songs, or an orchestra that could accentuate a melody without changing the volume at which it played.

As of now, RVTR is also looking to scale their prototype, with the goal of creating a 1,000-square-foot installation. “Our early system simulations suggest that the system is scalable,” writes Thun. “We also anticipate that specific geometric patterns utilized to date will likely be modified as will the actuation logics moving forward--that’s why we iteratively prototype.” So the Resonance Chamber of today may look much different than that of tomorrow.

Ultimately, with such a duplicable and adaptive system, RVTR could take over, not just the concert space, but any live environment in need of dynamic adjustment (busy restaurants come to mind). But until then, we’ll all have to do what we always do: ignore that obnoxiously loud bachelorette party at the next table over, and pretend the band we’re about to see won’t inevitably sound worse than they did on their studio album.

Write by Mark Wilson on http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669640/a-mechanical-roof-tweaks-concert-aco...

About the author

My name is Gustavo Guiotto, I'm from Porto Alegre, Brazil. I am an audio/sound aficionado and producer in my own studio, soultronick.com. If you have any suggestions or requests just let me know. You can contact me via email at soultronick@gmail or follow me on Twitter at @soultronick

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: The Sound of Real Steel and Black Swan

soultronick — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:07:28 +0000

Craig Henighan is a well known and established sound designer. He has worked on several big budget movies such as Night at the Museum, X-Men: The Last Stand, Sin City, Jumper and others.

In the video below, Craig Henighan (sound designer, sound re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor), Skip Longfellow (first assistant sound editor), Warren Hendriks (sound designer), Rob Nokes (sound effects field recordist), and Dan O'Connell (foley artista), talk about the sound of Real Steel, one of his most recent productions.

SoundWorks Collection - The Sound of Real Steel from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

In a totally different context, Craig Henighan talks about the challenge of working on the sound design for the movie Black Swan.

SoundWorks Collection - The Sound of "Black Swan" from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Enjoy and if you are a sound designer, send us the link of your site, portfolio or work.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: Elements of Nature

soultronick — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:49:16 +0000

Today I would like to introduce you to a very creative technique to create sounds from elements of nature and day to day objects. I will share with you a few really cool videos.

The first one is from a japanese TV ad and what is interesting about this one is the way that the creators of this piece went all the way back to the very beginning of sound design to recreate a classic from J.S Bach.

Touchwood - NttdoComo

The second video was created by Julian Smith from http://juliansmith.tv and it is called Techno Jeep. The shooting took 7 hours and all sounds are from a Jeep.

Julian Smith - Techno Jeep

The next videos are from Diego Stocco http://diegostocco.com. Diego is a sound designer, composer and performer that creates eclectic musical experiences with custom built instruments and experimental recording techniques.
He's one of the principal creative sound designers for the multi Award winning virtual instruments AtmosphereTM, StylusTM RMX and the new Power Synth Omnisphere®.

Diego Stocco - Music from a Tree

Diego Stocco - Music From a Dry Cleaner

Diego Stocco - Music From A Dry Cleaner from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: The Wizard Ben Burtt

soultronick — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:42:40 +0000

Today I will post about the work of Ben Burtt, one of the wizards of Sound Design for the movie industry. Burtt has worked for a staggering number of awarded movies including such as Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) among other classics.

I am, particularly a huge fan of sound design for animation movies, in which the director has to use all his/her creativity in order to create sounds out of nothing and give life to the characters or objects.

Below you can see some videos in which Burtt reveals some of his sound design secrets used on the Disney - Pixar animation movie: Wall - E(2008)

Ben Burtt Creates the Sounds for Wall-E (Part 2)

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: Need For Speed - The Run

soultronick — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:09:16 +0000

Sound Design is a weekly series of articles we will post trying to share the best works about audio creation. From movie soundtracks, video-games, sound effects, audio branding, sound design techniques, pretty much everything related to creating audio.

In our first post we had to start with something fun, and nothing better than sound design for video-game, especially for this one Need For Speed - The Run.

The Audio Director of the game is Charles Deenan, who has worked on more then 200 game sound design and dozens of movies and trailers. Charles reveal some very interesting details about miking techniques that enhance the game sound effects giving to the players a sensation of being inside a super car such as a Lamborghini Aventador.

Driving The Sound

Capturing The Sound

Anatomy of a Scene

About the author

Sponsored Links:

How the world says Abduzeedo

abduzeedo — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:13:07 +0000

Abduzeedo is 2 years old already and even though the site has grown, we still receive some emails asking about the meaning of the name, and a few weeks ago we got an email asking how to pronounce it or the right way to say it. That's why we decided to write this post.

The word "abduzeedo" was created by me from the portuguese word "abduzido" that means abducted. As the name of my company is Zee, I was always trying to find some words that I could create by mixing with the word zee, such as "crazee", "deduzeendo", "ecstazee", "brazeel", and others.

Now about the pronunciation, it will change depending on the language you speak, the country you live and of course the region of the country you are from. That's why we decided that it would be nice to ask the readers how they pronounce "abduzeedo", and below you can see exactly that. Also we really want to hear you saying it, so feel free to leave comments with videos so we can see and learn how to say abduzeedo in different languages.

Fabio Sasso - Porto Alegre, Brazil

http://fabiosasso.com - http://abduzeedo.com

Aloa - Hamburg, Germany

Paulo Gabriel - Abduzeedo writer - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Rafael Almeida - Mogi das Cruzes - SP - Brazil

Markusm - Oslo, Norway

http://www.markus-design.no/

Adam Georgiou

Tom Nussbaum - Austria/dutch

http://tomlovesyou.com/

Doug Hogan - Detroit, MI / USA

http://www.doughogan.com/

Michael Berg, USA

http://hqubed.com/

Neill Horsman - Sydney Australia

http://http://www.neillh.com.au/

Eduardo Sasso - Porto Alegre, Brazil

http://eduardosasso.com/

Allison - USA

http://www.keetee.com/

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

Sponsored Links:

Get in shape while improving your design skills

abduzeedo — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:47:18 +0000

Nowadays we can have access to pretty much everything, and even for those like me, who don’t have the opportunity to attend to design events such as @media, sxsw, dconstrukt and others, we have the chance to listen to them via podcasts or using Odeo.

The truth is, there are lots of excellent speeches to listen to. From how to get inspiration to the importance of microformats, we can learn a lot from them. And one of the best things in my opinion is that I can throw everything in my iPod and enjoy them while I’m exercising. That means, both my body and my brain can get a work out

Listed here are some of the best speeches, interviews and podcasts that i've come across so far

Jeremy Keith - The Joy of API

d.Construct 2006

Jeffrey Veen - Designing the Complete User Experience

d.Construct 2006

Daniel Burka {15}digg design

CreativeXpert

frog design }{ evolving your design

CreativeXpert

Design 101

boagworld.com: web design podcast

Writing an effective brief

boagworld.com: web design podcast

Andy Clarke: ?The Fine Art Of Web Design? Podcast

@media 2006

Dave Shea: ?Fine Typography On The Web? Podcast

@media 2006

Eric Meyer: ?A Decade of Style? Podcast

@media 2006

Jason Santa Maria - Diabolical Design: The Devil is in the Details

@media 2007

Dan Cederholm - Interface Design Juggling

@media 2007

Mark Boulton - Five Simple Steps to Better Typography

@media 2007

Jon Hicks - How to be a Creative Sponge

@media 2007

How to Be A Web Design Superhero

Andy Budd, Andy Clarke
sxsw 07

Design Workflows at Work: How Top Designers Work Their Magic

Bryan Veloso, Jeff Croft, Veerle Pieters, Kelsey Ruger
sxsw 07

audio

Sound Design: Mechanical Roof Tweaks Concert Acoustic in Real Time

Imagine a concert hall that adapts to each performer, during the performance.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: The Sound of Real Steel and Black Swan

Craig Henighan is a well known and established sound designer. He has worked on several big budget movies such as Night at the Museum, X-Men: The Last Stand, Sin City, Jumper and others.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: Elements of Nature

Today I would like to introduce you to a very creative technique to create sounds from elements of nature and day to day objects. I will share with you a few really cool videos.

Touchwood - NttdoComo

Julian Smith - Techno Jeep

Diego Stocco - Music from a Tree

Diego Stocco - Music From a Dry Cleaner

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: The Wizard Ben Burtt

Today I will post about the work of Ben Burtt, one of the wizards of Sound Design for the movie industry. Burtt has worked for a staggering number of awarded movies including such as Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) among other classics.

Ben Burtt Creates the Sounds for Wall-E (Part 2)

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Sound Design: Need For Speed - The Run

Sound Design is a weekly series of articles we will post trying to share the best works about audio creation. From movie soundtracks, video-games, sound effects, audio branding, sound design techniques, pretty much everything related to creating audio.

Driving The Sound

Capturing The Sound

Anatomy of a Scene

About the author

Sponsored Links:

How the world says Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo is 2 years old already and even though the site has grown, we still receive some emails asking about the meaning of the name, and a few weeks ago we got an email asking how to pronounce it or the right way to say it. That's why we decided to write this post.

Fabio Sasso - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Aloa - Hamburg, Germany

Paulo Gabriel - Abduzeedo writer - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Sanne Terpstra - The Netherlands

Cameron - Los Angeles, USA

Marcelo e Gustavo - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Matt Smart - Bournemouth, UK

LaWrEnCe.J

Fabiano Meneghetti - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Eduardo Rodrigues - Salvador-BAHIA, Brazil

Rafael Almeida - Mogi das Cruzes - SP - Brazil

Markusm - Oslo, Norway

Adam Georgiou

Tom Nussbaum - Austria/dutch

Doug Hogan - Detroit, MI / USA

Michael Berg, USA

Neill Horsman - Sydney Australia

Eduardo Sasso - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Allison - USA

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Get in shape while improving your design skills

Nowadays we can have access to pretty much everything, and even for those like me, who don’t have the opportunity to attend to design events such as @media, sxsw, dconstrukt and others, we have the chance to listen to them via podcasts or using Odeo.

Jeremy Keith - The Joy of API

Jeffrey Veen - Designing the Complete User Experience

Daniel Burka {15}digg design

frog design }{ evolving your design

Design 101

Writing an effective brief

Andy Clarke: ?The Fine Art Of Web Design? Podcast

Dave Shea: ?Fine Typography On The Web? Podcast

Eric Meyer: ?A Decade of Style? Podcast

Jason Santa Maria - Diabolical Design: The Devil is in the Details

Dan Cederholm - Interface Design Juggling

Mark Boulton - Five Simple Steps to Better Typography

Jon Hicks - How to be a Creative Sponge

How to Be A Web Design Superhero

Design Workflows at Work: How Top Designers Work Their Magic

About the author

Sponsored Links: