SOUND DESIGN FOR MONTBLANC BLUE SPIRIT
MADE USING SYNTHESIS, OWN RECORDED SOUNDS, EDITED LIBRARIES' SOUNDS
Starring Lara Uppenkamp & Silvan Rapp. Director: Felix Julian Koch. DP: Maximilian Hillmer. Producer: Leonhard Haselhuhn
All rights to this video doesn't belong to me!
MADE IN ABLETON AND LOGIC PRO
MIXED IN PRO TOOLS
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INTRODUCTION:
Any sound design should not only echo the image but also bring to it what the image cannot provide. If you think that sound design can only provide sound, you are very wrong:)
Sound can convey the feeling of a breath of wind, smell, and color. The ability to smell in sound is called synesthesia. It is based on impressions and life experience. Sometimes when you hear the beer with foam pouring into a glass, you smell it. This phenomenon occurs in a lot more people than you think. It's quite possible that you, the reader, are one of them.
I am a synesthete. And I think that conveying the smell with sound is just as important as avoiding nonlinear distortion. For example, in the case of perfume advertising, if the sound does not convey at least an approximate smell, the sound was made in vain, it doesn't contain as much artistic information as it should.
I am a synesthete. And I think that conveying the smell with sound is just as important as avoiding nonlinear distortion. For example, in the case of perfume advertising, if the sound does not convey at least an approximate smell, the sound was made in vain, it doesn't contain as much artistic information as it should.
This video does not talk about the smell of perfume in plain text. But it is quite easy to guess that we are dealing with a perfume with shades of sea waves and air freshness. You might object that the freshness of the air in the morning and evening is strikingly different. And you're right. Just like the first layer of perfume aroma and its aftertaste. In addition, the video has morning, afternoon, evening, and night.
That is why we must immerse ourselves in the synesthetic world of smell and sound and convey it to the viewer as accurately as possible. Moreover, this may be what will force a potential buyer to purchase this product.
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HOW DO I convey the smell of freshness:
Background textures were recorded in the village Ploskoye near Luga city, where Pushkin lived. It seemed to me that nature sounds the way it should sound in the evening scenes in perfume advertising. I separately recorded the sound of water in river, wind, trees and night crickets. Crickets, by the way, became a big problem, because they had to be cleaned from the records that shouldn't have them.
I used Zoom H6 recorder, which has a lot of hiss, so the FabFilter with low cut became my best friend while sorting the recorded sound.
It wasn't enough to limit my recordings to make a sound I wanted. My sounds are the basis of textures in the Ambience layer, but I had to do some tricks using commercial sound libraries like Boom Library. I used a lot of sea sounds since I couldn't record it myself, but most of the sounds didn't fit.
I solved this problem by adding white and pink noise as the last layer. Of course the noise has been EQ'd, compressed and dynamic automation applied to all variable EQ and compressor parameters to create a realistic sound. At some points, white noise has been added as a sweetener.
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I recorded the foley pretty quickly because they shouldn't sound too detailed here to keep the whole mix sound pure and airy. I recorded old autumn leaves to create the footsteps sound on the beach. The steps have been compressed and EQed. I also recorded the crushed sugar in the sugar bowl to make the footsteps sound more sandy.
All sounds are self-recorded and have been minimally processed. I made a lot of takes while recording the writing pen sound because every take I had an issue with the wrong paper, which sounded like grinding on rough sandpaper. Only corrugated soft paper with a little equalization helped to achieve the desired texture.
All sounds are self-recorded and have been minimally processed. I made a lot of takes while recording the writing pen sound because every take I had an issue with the wrong paper, which sounded like grinding on rough sandpaper. Only corrugated soft paper with a little equalization helped to achieve the desired texture.
I constantly stopped myself from recording layered beautiful and juicy foleys, as they are out of place here. When the foley was starting to sound dirty and heavy in the mix, overloading the overall impression, I had to remove a lot of layers, individually and outside the context of this project, sounded great.
But I have many more projects where I can layer foley and get a delicious rich sound. (Subscribe to check out new projects).
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How do you imagine the cinematic sound effects? I can assume that you immediately think of explosions, trailer hits, and complex multi-part steampunk wooshes. I like it, and I have a project right now when I am able to do this, that's really interesting. Someday I will share it in my Behance.
But today I'm gonna talk about cinematic sound effects for this perfume commercial. It's a little bit different than your expectation of "cinematic SFX" in trailers, blockbusters, etc. It is softer, calmer, and enveloping.
I had to create these SFX sound more carefully and more nature sounded. So I created the Kick Drum with a lot of reverb, but a very long attack to make it sound gentle. The same goes for the whoosh effects, which shouldn't have sounded harsh. All sounds should be barely audible for not to overload the final mix and allow the audience to smell the freshness. The smell of freshness is around 900-1000Hz with the addition of high-frequency harmonics around 7-8kHz. I always had to keep that in mind, while working on this project.
I used Operator, Kilohearts Phase Plant, and a sound of an oak bath broom. It was funny collecting and recording it :)
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The choice of instruments must also be considered so that the viewer can smell the freshness. To create a perfectly matched soundtrack, I remembered many perfume commercials to understand the musical style.
I realized that in this project it would be ideal to compose music for piano, violin, harp, choir, cello, and bells. I thought that this set of instruments would best convey a feeling of freshness and a desire to smell the perfume to the audience, and then, perhaps, buy it. Isn't that the most important thing the advertising producer wants?
An unnamed reference was Rachmaninoff and Сhopin a little bit. I turned off the lights in my studio and recorded each instrument. It was an improvisation, so it took about 1 take for each instrument. Later I added additional tracks to complete the sound of the piano.
Almost all the instruments that sound here are recorded on a midi keyboard using the Native Instruments Kontakt libraries. Some of them are "Noir" for Piano, "Spitfire Studio Strings" for Violin and Cello, and "Elysium Harp by Soundiron" for Harp.
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This video has been posted for a demonstration of my sound design skills. No commercial usage.
