SoundCloud is featuring a selection of recordings from their binaural group – so put on your headphones and check out these cool recordings:
Want to learn a bit more about binaural recordings? Check out the details over at Wikipedia and see the video below on how binaural recording works:
Finally, if you feel inspired to doing your own recordings, you’ll find instructions on building your own dummy head here.
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact
recording 
binaural recording, field recording, recording, recording techniques, soundcloud — 
Colin Hart over at Colin Hart’s Sound Kitchen has an excellent, in-depth interview up with Bruce Tanis, sound designer on Fringe.
CH: “Fringe” has a unique library of effects, often dealing with subjects that we would have no knowledge of how they sound, yet the show remains very organic sounding. What is your approach to designing sound for these things?
BT: I usually try to use ordinary sounds and work on them through plugins and other devices to make them sound interesting. I use a lot of animals and natural events like wind and water to build different effects. Dry ice is my friend! At least as a starting point anyway but they don’t stay there long! Some of the effects, like the weapons or devices usually start from various machines but however big or small they start out, I try to keep their final scale appropriate to what we see on the screen so hopefully that makes them sound a bit more organic as well.
Read the full interview with Fringe sound designer Bruce Tanis here.
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact television sound audio, bruce tanis, fringe, recording, sound design, television sound — While the majority of our work in Epic Sound is in audio for games, film, television and product sound, we’ve also grown to become one of Denmark’s largest studios for audiobook recordings, with hundreds of titles recorded so far.
One of the questions we often get is: How do you, as an external voice actor, break into audiobook narration?
Well, if you’re an experienced voice actor, put together a reel that shows off your narrating skills and submit it. You can send it to us, and to publishers who specialize in audiobook production. They are usually the ones deciding what voice actor should be working on a given title.
But if you haven’t got a lot of experience in voice acting or narration, what’s the best way of getting started?
I usually recommend that budding audiobook narrators head over to a site called Librivox.org to hone their skills. Librivox is a volunteer project where books that are in the public domain (ie the copyright has expired) are recorded, and anyone can download and listen to the results for free. Everyone can join, and you can record in whatever language you want.
Librivox.org is a great way of getting the hang of narrating, and, ultimately, finding out if audiobook narration is your thing after all. They also have forums to help guide you along the way.
And a great bonus of getting involved with Librivox is that not only do you gain valuable experience in narration, you can also use the best bits of your recordings for that all-important voice-over demo reel.
As for equipment, you’ll of course get the best results by recording in a proper studio with a technician at hand, but if you’re just starting out, you can also get some usable results from setting up a small recording space at home or elsewhere. Peachpit has a fine guide to picking the right tools for podcasting – and many of these suggestions also apply to audiobook recording.
Also check out John Pruden’s guide to getting started with audiobooks – part one of the guide is here, and part two is here.
Oh, and while you’re here, you’re very welcome to pop on over to the demo section and check out some of our audio work – do have a listen!
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact voice-over audiobooks, howto, narration, recording, voice-acting, voice-over, voices — Check out the brilliant Aporee sound map, featuring user-submitted recordings from across the globe. It’s easy to upload your own recordings – but if you just feel like listening, stop by as well for an aural journey across the planet.
aporee maps has started 2006, based on former artistic research on mapping, spatial conditions and the navigation between the real and the virtual. It develops from the insight that it is basically impossible to map the complexity of todays public spaces.
Against the background of an increasing awareness of spatial aspects in media and the popularity and presence of visual geographies like google maps, the idea was to connect sound and space, and to create a cartography which focusses solely on sound, and open it to the public as a collaborative project.
Meanwhile it contains 1000s of recordings from numerous urban, rural and natural environments, showing the sonic complexity of these environments, as well as the different perceptions and artistic perspectives related to sound, space and places.
Go explore the Aporee sound map right here!
(via @timprebble)
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact recording aporee map, field recording, recording, sound design, sound maps — The Soundworks Collection takes a look at the sound for Toy Story 3 in this excellent feature – check it out!
Join Skywalker Sound’s Re-Recording Mixer and Sound Designer Tom Myers, Sound Re-Recording Mixer Michael Semanick, Director Lee Unkrich, and Stuart Bowling, Technical Marketing Manager at Dolby Laboratories as they take you behind-the-scenes and discuss the sound of Toy Story 3.
Speaking of Toy Story 3, Tracksounds has reviewed Randy Newman’s score for the film – read all about it here.
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact film sound audio, audio post, film sound, music, recording, score, sound design, toy story 3 sound — Unidentified Sound Object made a great post on how ambient noises can be turned into music:
audioscan is an artistic project conceived by Giorgio Sancristoforo, produced by AGON in collaboration with basemental. The project consists of a multimedia interactive installation and of a live performance combining music and video. Both are based on the sound mapping of Milan. At the basis of audioscan there are 1.580 recordings and phonometric surveys gathered within the perimeter contained in the main ring road of Milan.
Hear the result below – and check out the full post on audioscan here.
Audioscan (#1) MILANO – music created from noise by Giorgio Sancristoforo
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact recording music, recording, sound design — Miguel Isaza over at Designing Sound came across this interesting feature on the sound for Splinter Cell: Conviction:
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact game audio music, recording, sound design — Film Music Magazine has an interview up with Grammy-award winning recording engineer John Kurlander, whose credits include work on the Lord of the Rings, The Hurt Locker and Assassins Creed II soundtracks + many more.
Please explain your role when working with composers. What is the engineer responsible for during the recording process?
The recording engineer / mixer is responsible for session planning, room setup, mic selection, creating the sound recordings, and eventually refining and finalizing those sounds in the mix. It’s a truly wonderful job and just the chance to be working with so many talented musicians is a joy in itself. The best thing is that as technologies and tastes are quickly updating and changing, no two recordings are the same, and it’s a constantly evolving art. Having said that, many of the challenges and pitfalls can easily be avoided by doing lots of homework, research and forward planning. Especially on the large orchestral sessions where time, money and reputations are all on the line.
Read the full interview with John Kurlander over at the Film Music Magazine site.
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound - Contact recording interview, john kurlander, recording, recording engineering — 
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