Gordon Durity, Executive Audio Director at Electronic Arts Canada, recently visited VFS to speak to the students in the Sound Design for Visual Media program. Sound Design student Stefan Seslija recapped the lecture for us.

Guest Post by Stefan Seslija

Those of us lucky enough to currently be enrolled in the Sound Design program have been spoiled lately with an onslaught of guest lectures. In the last few weeks, we’ve been graced with the presence of some of the Atlases of Audio in both the game and film industry. If it was possible to be stricken with too much inspiration, one would have definitely surpassed their threshold while attending the most recent lecture, offered by game industry heavyweight Gordon Durity. With over 25 years experience working in audio for both linear and interactive media, Gordon now serves as Executive Audio Director at Electronic Arts Canada. He was a key figure in the creation of a revolutionary new interactive music system, RUMR (Realtime User Music Remix) for EA’s new game, SSX. Last Wednesday, Gordon visited VFS to share his knowledge on interactive music with the Sound Design students.

Gordon first presented us with insight on the progression and evolution of interactive music in contrast to music in linear media. He spoke in-depth regarding considerations that needed to be made for interactive media. “The unique thing about interactivity – users are actually effecting a change in the world,” he said. When a user is playing a game, the choices they make throughout the process changes their environment. Gordon also explained that musical architecture in present day video games has not changed much compared to the past, and how he and his team at EA strive to push the boundaries of interactivity in game music.

Next, Gordon gave us some insight into how he and his team approach improving interactive music and some of the challenges they face along the way. He offered us a look at a proprietary music arrangement tool called Pathfinder and showed us how this tool was used on the Def Jam and NBA Street Homecourt games to generate musical arrangements in real time based on the users actions in the game. He shared the details of how each individual game uses a logic system to feed the Pathfinder. Working this way empowers the audio artists to effectively sculpt how the music will playback in the game.

Later in the lecture, Gordon delved into his groundbreaking work on EA’s SSX and the interactive music system, RUMR.  In this system, game users upload their own custom music to their console. The music is analyzed and processed on the fly and manipulated in real time which is driven by Gameplay. Gordon explained how the system effectively performs a DJ style remix on the user’s music content. He also went into the specifics of how the music is manipulated, which includes different considerations that have to be made based on the nature of the user’s music content. We also got to see the game in action as Gordon showed us specific examples of how the music is modulated and mixed with the other sound content.

In conclusion, Gordon offered some advice to students looking to pursue a career in game audio. He stressed the importance of fully understanding all of the aesthetics of linear media and having a solid grasp of the technologies used in the industry. In this short lecture, Sound Design students were given a wealth of knowledge and insight, and a glimpse into the kind of work it takes to produce at Gordon’s level in the audio industry.

Thanks to Gordon for your inspiring lecture and to Stefan for the recap! 

Renowned Sound Designer David Whitehead recently stopped by VFS to give a special guest lecture to our students in the Sound Design for Visual Media program. Current Sound Design student Laura Titchner recapped the lecture for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Post By Laura Titchner

Last week, students from the Sound Design program had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by prominent sound designer, David Whitehead. David has worked on numerous films, including The Adventures of Tintin, District 9, The Lovely Bones, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He shared a few helpful tips on how to be a great sound designer and provided us with some insight on how to become successful in the industry.

First, David showed us some short clips from several of his films that feature interesting sound design moments, including King Kong, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, The Water Horse and D-War. He told us how he achieved many of the sounds he demonstrated, from what he recorded for the source audio to the effects that he used to get the final sounds.

On District 9, David was responsible for creating the alien language used in the film. He was given the alien’s dialogue in English and then constructed a new word or phrase to replace each of the existing words. To achieve the vocalization of this new language, he created sounds using various objects, such as vegetables and toys to replace all vowels and consonants. To accomplish the natural variation that occurs when we speak, David recorded 40 to 50 different instances of each sound that could be interchangeable. Finally, all of these sounds were edited together to create the words used in the film.

David stressed that, as a sound designer, it is very important to record your own source material as this will give your film its own original voice. He told us to make the most of every sound we record by processing it in numerous ways and to build up our personal sound libraries. Another tip he shared was that when filling a room, start with the sounds you believe to actually be present and then make your design based on those sounds.

To conclude his lecture, David gave us some tips on how to break into the film industry and shared some of the skills and qualities he looks for when hiring someone to work with him.

Thanks to David for sharing his expertise and thanks to Laura for the recap!