Capturing the Sound of Berlin

Ask Video Sound Design 102 Capturing the Sound of Berlin [Tutorial]

Join sound designer Timo Preece as he sonically explores Berlin’s abandoned structures while recording a plethora of unique sounds. Then, see how he transforms the audio in his DAW as builds an amazing sound library!

Timo Preece is a master sound designer. In this exclusive “docu-torial”, you join him on a audio journey recording objects found in a derelict Nazi ballroom and the abandoned, former Stasi counter-intelligence headquarters. With a camera crew and a cool collection of mics and field recorders, he records all kinds of strange and wonderful audio from old metal pipes, ghostly pianos to eerily reverberant former torture chambers.

Along the journey you learn all about field-recording with all of its technical challenges. Timo explains different kinds of microphone recording techniques using X/Y mic placement, ORTF, Spaced Pair and more. You also learn reamping and worldizing techniques that’ll turn any pre-recorded sound into a symphony of electro-acoustic goodness.

The final section of this course explains the science and art of creating your own impulse responses. Timo records the acoustic ambient fingerprints of these decrepit locations and then he shows you how to convolve them with any sound in your library. These convolutions, essentially, bring the essence of field-recording environments directly into your DAW enabling you to infuse any sound with the spaces that you’ve recorded.

This is more than a course. It’s an electro-acoustic adventure!