THE ECHO

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEShowcase:MatildaFoley artist:Ruth Sullivan

ISSUE 3 // JUNE 2012

Sound design in the 1930s

Over the past few months we’ve beencanvassing your opinions on how to evolve theAssociation of Sound Designers into anorganisation that works better for you. By thetime you receive this we’ll have discarded ourlargely unused online forums in favour of anemail based group. We’ll have introduced threenew membership categories: CorporateDesigner, Corporate Member and Non-Commercial Organisation.

These first two categories allow members whojoined up via a corporate membership but whoare eligible for the other membership categoriesthe opportunity to receive the same benefits asif they had joined as individuals.

We also polled our members on what theywanted us to run training courses in, as well aswhere they wanted them held. This received aphenomenal result.

The most popular course titles were: Setting upa Sound System; Sound Effect Design &Management; Advanced Qlab; Ableton Live forTheatre; Radio Mic Useage;Working with LiveMusicians; VectorWorks / AutoCAD forBeginners; MAX/MSP for Beginners; and

Networking (the audio and data kind, not thebuying people lots of drinks kind).

Some of these topics are too big for a singleseminar so we’ll break them down into a few.We’re planning to offer half of these coursetitles to our members - for free - over the courseof this year.

We’ve changed our news delivery system a little,rather than focusing on email updates everyfew weeks, we’re now posting news items onthe website as they happen, then putting a linkon our Facebook and Twitter pages to alert ourmembers to the news. You can follow us onTwitter or ‘like us’ on Facebook to get theseupdates, with the relevant buttons on the frontpage of our website. The news articles arewithin the members only area of the website soonly ASD members can access them.

Last but not least we’ve made some changes toThe Echo magazine. We wanted to create aslightly less formal magazine, and one thatcontained more from our members. We’ll still becreating really useful factual resources, but we’llalso be bringing you more insight into the restof the sound design community:focusing on a

EditorialIssue #3Copyright Association of Sound Designers 2012

Edited by Sarah Rushton-ReadPrinted by Premier Print GroupDesign by Made In Earnest

Cover: Reproduced from Newnes Practical Mechanics,December 1935. Used with permission from IPC Media

All submissions for future issues of The Echo are verywelcome. They may be edited to fit the house styleand for length.

Adverts can be purchased by any corporate memberof the ASD, rates on request.

Views expressed editorially or by correspondants arenot necessariily those of the ASD.

Contact us atnews@associationofsounddesigners.comwww.associationofsounddesigners.com

THE ECHO

few of our members in each issue, who they are,what they do and how they do it. We’ve alsobrought onboard Sarah Rushton-Read to editthe magazine, allowing us a bit more time to doeverything else. Sarah brings a wealth ofexperience to this job, having written forLighting and Sound International for manyyears, as well as founding the Women in StageEntertainment (WiSE) association.

Gareth FryChair, Association of Sound Designers

WelcomeFor those that don’t work in the technical arts,and indeed for some that do, sound design is amysterious art that is often difficult to fathom.Most audiences, be they film, stage or music,give sound or sound design very little thoughtuntil, of course, it goes wrong! I confess that tosome extent I am one of those people.

Of course my background as an industryjournalist and PR means I know a fair bit aboutthe equipment from the technical specificationand capability perspective. However, I find thatthe focus is increasingly on the technology itselfand less on the end user. I was thereforedelighted when Gareth asked me to edit TheEcho.

My hope is that by editing this magazine Iwould answer the many questions I have, aboutthe design process, what inspires and motivatessound designers and how they develop theirideas to add dimension and meaning to aproduction.

I have not been disappointed. This issue of TheEcho is packed full of fascinating storiesincluding Carolyn Downing’s insight into themind of Olivier Award-winning sound designer,

Simon Baker, for his work on the RSC’s Matildaand the sometimes weird activities of FoleyArtist Ruth Sullivan.

It’s an absolute pleasure to be editing The Echoalongside The Association of Sound Designers.It’s a fantastic magazine and I know that in timeit will become a must-read for all soundprofessionals from all sectors of the industry. Inthis issue, we celebrate various aspects of thepro-audio world, from design to personalprofiles, and from cutting edge kit to equipmentnostalgia.

My background, when I worked at the coalfaceof theatre and opera is predominantly inlighting design. I know first hand how the variedtalents of sound and lighting designers,technicians and engineers escape critical reviewin mainstream press. Through The Echo, and theactivities of the Association of Sound Designers,I hope that we can increase the visibility of thewonderful achievements of SDs, and provide areally entertaining and informative read alongthe way. Now enough of me - get page turning!

Sarah Rushton-Read Editor, The Echo

Showcase:Matilda The Musical

If you asked Simon Baker what his top tip forany budding sound designer would be, you’dimagine he’d draw on his wealth of experiencein a wide variety of genres, from both straightplays to musicals, including the mega Lord ofthe Rings, and with companies such asKneehigh, whose work takes him from Cornishclimes to the bright lights of Broadway. But no.It’s much simper than that.“Tell the story” hesays. No wonder then, with such wisdom andpassion, he has courted a number of awardnominations (Olivier - Lord of the Rings 2008,Brief Encounter 2009, Tony - Boeing Boeing2008, Brief Encounter 2011). It was, however,Matilda the Musical that finally brought himthe Olivier accolade of Best Sound Design earlierthis year. I wondered how he felt to win after allthose near misses “Scared - I thought I’dmisheard and Emma (Rice - my partner) had totell me that it was me”.

Simon is especially pleased that his work onMatilda was recognised in this way “I’m pleased tohave won it for this show for many, many reasons,mainly as it’s been such a tough journey.”As onecan imagine, Simon has seen a lot of changes in

the industry over the years, as he explains“Analogue to Digital in all areas. Conventional toline array loudspeakers. Pretty much everythinghas changed.The thing that hasn’t is the job.Weare still there to use sound to tell stories.”Simonwas ideally matched from the get-go to be part ofthe team comissioned to tell the well-known andwell-loved Roald Dahl story Matilda.

Anyone familiar with the original Roald Dahlversion will know it’s quite a dense book so Iwas amazed at how it was translated into theconcise family-friendly format of a commercialmusical, without seemingly missing a beat ofthe story. I asked Simon about how the creativeteam collaborated in this storytelling process:“I’ve worked with Matthew and that team a lot.Most of us did Lord of the Rings together andI’ve also worked with Matthew on many of hisstraight plays. When you’ve worked withsomeone a lot quite a bit goes unsaid. Youunderstand each other’s shorthand. I knew thatfor him the key to the story was in the Matildafantasy sequences which we later learn are theback story of Miss Honey and Trunchbull. Tellingthese and finding the language for them wasgoing to be key. I know Matthew well enough tounderstand his story process - if I could makethese work then the rest would be OK.”

This artistic collaboration certainly had a great

Matilda The MusicalCambridge Theatre, LondonOpened 24th November 2011Sound Design by Simon BakerSet Design by Rob HowellDirected by Matthew Warchus

No.1: Bique HadderslyNo.2: Scot CarterNo.3: Clare HibberdNo.4: Pheobe GoslingProduction Engineer: Tim StephensOrchestration and additional music by ChristopherNightingaleMD Alan Berry (Orignally Bruce O’Neill)

“The key thing is tohear the words, thevocals are the key -

always. Without thewords, you're sunk.”

CAROLYN DOWNING

beautifully crisp vocals, and considering theintricate Tim Minchin word play and small voicesinvolved in the many ensemble numbers, I didn’tmiss a word. Simon describes the challengesinvolved in creating this:“The show is tough todo. Its a dense score and a dense vocal oftensung by tiny voices.The rhyming meter is erraticat times and the lyrics challenging.The biggeststruggle for me was making the overall dynamicshape work.There’s a point when you believe thelevel coming from the little girl DSC and atipping point where you don’t.The level of theMatilda dictates what happens everywhere else.The key thing is to hear the words, the vocals arethe key - always.Without the words, you’re sunk.”

As Simon goes on to explain, dealing with theintricate vocal score and creating such aneloquent sound did not just happen overnight, orwith any amount of telekinesis…..“We workedlong and hard on them. I used a MADI recorderduring band calls and previews and recordedevery line, then would stay up all night workingon it.The challenge, as with any show withchildren, is the multiple team system. Matilda hasthree teams of 10 plus 4 Matildas.That meansthe matrix of voices is huge. Finding a paththrough that, not being reliant on click tracks andtherefore keeping the scale of the vocal believableand yet audible was the challenge.”

experienced. It seems that this is somethingSimon is passionate about, “It is subtle - formany reasons. Firstly, theatre is a storytellingenvironment, a seated experience. Making ashow as loud as it goes, whilst on trend, justfeels wrong to me. Matilda is a tiny girl lost ingrown up world trying to find a voice. Makingeach vocal or number massive would meanthe scale of the story and the scale of thevisual would be out of proportion with thesound.” I wondered if the young audience hadany bearing on his design choices. Simondraws on his own personal experience toexplain, “I have two children, 9 and 13 years,who see a lot of theatre and live events. Takethem to a concert or gig and there are happywith ‘loud’ - they are participating in a differentway, they can move around, stand up, wanderoff. Sit them in a theatre when the show’s tooloud and they put their hands over their ears.They want to participate, to engage but thesound won’t let them in - what one designermay see as excitement is actually doing theopposite – it’s pushing people away. I watchthe audience a lot to gauge their reaction. Atits core Matilda is a family show - ourdemographic means we have a lot of childrencome and watch. The subtlety is a brave choicebut it is a choice.”

The result of such subtle and sensitive work was

effect on this 30-something woman who wastransformed into a gawping five year girl onentering the auditorium – pure joy indeed. I wasimmediately enveloped by a myriad of coloursand supersized scrabble tiles spelling out thatvery word - ‘joy’. My next thoughts soon broughtme down to earth however: how did Simonattack that challenge? I spied, within the chaosof letters, a tiny Meyer line array system, 16 Minato be precise. The rest of the rig is Meyer: acombination of UPM-1Ps, MSL-2s, UPJs andUSWs, though the surrounds (all 56 of them) areMartin Effect 3Rs, Simon’s favourite surroundbox. Simon tells me more about how he arrivedthere:“The design is based around a cascade ofoversized scrabble tiles. These cover theproscenium. At the Cambridge this was ourbiggest challenge. How to keep the look and feelof the set yet still get sound through them. Thefirst thing drawn on the show was the Prosspeaker positions. We were pretty locked intothis system from that point on.”

Roald Dahl’s beloved book Matilda is taken bythe pigtails and exploded into two and a halfhours of delight for young and old. The youngbeing the centre of attention as the youthfuleyes and ears in the audience follow Matildaand her school friends through theiradventures. I was struck by the gentle natureof the mix compared to other musicals I’ve

All images Manuel Harlan

The show started its life with an incrediblysuccessful run at the Royal Shakespearecompany’s Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It must have been quite a transfer of ashow of this nature from thrust to proscenium. Iasked Simon to outline the challenges involvedand it seems it was quite a relief to be movingto a more conventional venue! “The Courtyard isgrim for a musical like this. No matter whereyou put a loudspeaker it seems to only cover afew seats - that means lots of loudspeakers butyou can’t then get a solid vocal block sound. Thestage front is also very low so again you can’tget a decent front fill position. Without a solidcentre or front fill you’re in trouble - I was introuble at the Courtyard. The Cambridge is moretraditional.” However difficult it was creatingthe technical elements of the show at theCourtyard, it did mean Simon was well preparedfor the move to the West End “Having had theexperience of doing the show at Stratford weknew a lot about what the system needed to do.It then becomes a process of working out howto do the show in the new space. Before youknow it you’re in to the land of complextechnical drawing, line array calculations andmadi rack allocations and the fun of creating anew show creatively seems miles away.” Simonwas joined in that land of complexity by an everhard working team – “Tim Stephens was myProduction Engineer who was great at keeping

me in check and organised. The show team areall brilliant and continue to be so - it’s a toughand demanding show to run.”

One of my favourite elements of the show wasthe integration of sound effects within themusical score, another aspect that wasdeveloped during the production time inStratford. I asked Simon to describe his initialthinking behind the sound effects design:“Iknew the show needed magic rather thanfantasy. I knew it needed to be larger than liferather than cartoon. It needed to be soundeffect equivalent of Quentin Blake illustrations.”So it seems it required a great deal of subtleimaginings, teetering between genres thatoften sit side by side.

This sense of an integral sonic design was mostprobably due to the collaborative approachwithin the team “Chris (the Orchestrator) and Ihave worked together before and our keysprogrammer Phij Adams is also a usual fixtureon the team so collaborating comes naturally. Ifone person has an idea - which ever way round -then we give it a go.”This collaboration isparticularly apparent when we follow Matildaon her first day at Crunchem Hall PrimarySchool, the scholarly residence of the much-feared headmistress Miss Trunchbull and thebeloved Miss Honey. The school gates are made

up of lettered blocks which become the playfulvisual toys of the ensemble number “SchoolSong”. It was a joy to hear the blocks adding anextra percussive element to the song and I wasintrigued to hear about the origins of this idea,or was it a happy accident? “It was an accident –it’s actually a nightmare as the blocks fall on thedown beat of the first syllable on all the keywords. We worked long and hard with differenttypes of blocks to make it work.” It wasn’t such ajoy for everyone, then!

Pure storybook magic was conjured in the othermajor theatrical moments, especially theAmanda Thrip pigtails throw. Even with ainvestigative eye, I was unable to see themechanics. I was intrigued as to how Simonapproached this from his department.“Theseideas normally start with me making a series ofdemos and then keeping forwarding the ideauntil it works. I love making those kind ofmoments and understanding what Matthewlikes in space means that whilst tricky to dotechnically, creatively they come quite quickly.”

Finally, I asked Simon what he’d wanted to be whenhe grew up? “This is what I wanted to do ever sinceI watched a Blue Peter episode about BBC radiophonic workshop and how they made the TARDISsound. Since then I’ve always wanted to run offwith a group of mavericks and tell stories.”

Product name: Soundminer ProWhat it does: Wrangles sound effects.Why I like it: The sense of liberation I get when Ican find and audition a specified sound withinmilliseconds from a library I invested just a few£k in is fantastic. Of course, it only works if youtake the time to populate the familiar librarieswith loads of useful metadata (much more thanjust a description in iTunes) and catalogue yourown recordings. When done well, you can searchreally fast using a thesaurus that is optimisedfor sound words (ie explosion = explosion,boom, blast, etc); audition – with varispeed anda waveform overview; process through a rack ofyour VST plugins; then spot to timeline in ProTools, doing all necessary sample-rateconversion (etc) on the way. You can havemultiple ‘spotting lists’ so you can file sounds fordifferent parts of a production and send themto the right Pro Tools sessions. It’s a heftyinvestment, but it pays for itself in time savedwithin weeks. If you can’t afford Pro, there arevarious cut down versions. Throughout thecourse of my career I’ve used paper catalogueswith audio CDs, FileMaker databases, M&E Proand then MTools – before stumping up forSoundminer 10 years ago. There’s even a roulettewheel so you can hear sounds you mightotherwise never know you owned. Oh, andSkywalker Sound & Pixar use it! www.store.soundminer.com

Product name: iZotope RX 2What it does: Noise reduction and spectralrepair.Why I like it: Compared to Digidesign’s DINRand Bias’s SoundSoap, iZotope RX 2 can actuallyremove noise without making what remainssound like it’s underwater! What’s more, feelinga bit more like using Photoshop, you can removecoughs and dropouts by cloning the audio oneither side – which is pretty special. Even if youdon’t need to repair something, it’s reallyinformative to look at the spectrogram of, say,birdsong. It’s also interesting to make selectionsin the frequency domain and listen to them.There’s an offshoot new product called Iris thathas real potential for sound design. ApparentlyPeter Gabriel uses RX to make weird newsounds rather than clean up old ones… I lastused it on Our Father at Watford Palace Theatre:I did a rough demo recording of a voice over in adressing room and was able to remove hissfrom my pre-amp, traffic, aircon and even thesound of the chair creaking mid-word to cleanup the file enough to use it without having toredo the whole thing completely.www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

RICH WALSHJob Description: Sound Designer & Senior SoundDepartment Project Manager at the National Theatre.Profile: Rich has been designing sound for theatre for21 years, and has spent the last 11 at the NationalTheatre.

A FEW OF MYFAVOURITE THINGS

Top to bottom: Soundminer Pro; iZotope RX 2; sound operator Sean Knowles

Product name: A good operatorWhat it does: Makes your sound design live andbreathe with the actors and the audience sothat every performance is an integratedexperience for all.Why I like it: The award-winning sound designerPaul Groothuis taught me that a good operator isthe single most useful tool a sound designer has.Nothing can judge and ride the level of anunderscore or effects mics, or shape the dynamicsof a piece of music like a good operator.They canhear what the audience hears and respond tohow the actors are playing a scene. Economicsoften dictate – that especially with plays – you lockdown your design to a series of sequences that aretriggered by a DSM, who often can't hear them,and relentlessly chug through the motionsregardless of whatever else is going on onstage orhow many people there are in the auditoriummessing with the acoustic. On Travelling Light inthe Lyttelton, I could have automated all the fades,builds and dips of the pre-recorded music in QLab.However, my operator Sean Knowles sensitiveresponse to the actors, his feel for the VCA movesand his ability to adjust the timing in response towhere in a musical phrase a scene changecompleted made the show sing and did justice toGrant Olding’s beautiful score.We even madepeople wonder whether the band was live or not -apparently! I recommend that every SoundDesigner do a stint as an operator to see first handhow a show can change after Press Night!

In the 1930s Gramophone records containing sound effects were widelyavailable and cost 4 shillings each. Each side of the disc carried betweenthree and six sound effects, separated by a quarter-inch wide smoothsurface to aid placing the needle in the correct place.

Gramophones had horns to acoustically amplify the sound on the record,meaning that the needle being placed and lifted would also be amplified,and there was no volume control. Where budgets permitted a Radiogramwould be used – essentially a gramophone with an amp, speaker andcrucially a volume control!

Two radiograms could then be used sequentially to create a continuoussound track, like crowd atmos, using the volume control to cross fadebetween machines. A radiogram could produce a louder sound than agramophone but was significantly bigger, which had to be factored in tothe offstage space available. The sound quality of gramophones andradiograms was poor, so certain effects such as thunder remainedunachievable with this medium.

A variety of electrical effect machines could be hired in.The Strand ElectricEngineering Company produced a machine to mimic an offstage car. Itconsisted of a sewing machine and an electric motor, which had leatherstraps attached to the flywheel, all connected to a dimmer. At low speed theleather straps produced a rhythmic tap, which became a continuous purr athigher speeds.The contraption was contained in a ported box, which couldbe covered to create the effect of the car getting closer or further away.

Strand produced a similar machine to create the sound of an airplane.A crucial difference between now and the 1930s was that labour was cheap,and technology was incredibly expensive, unreliable and not verysophisticated.‘Effects men’were employed to produce live sound effectsfrom the wings of the stage, and would also operate the gramophone(s). Asenior effects man would be responsible for creating a range of soundeffects using their voice, various contraptions and by conducting stage crew.

A lot of time and effort was put into the creation of these ‘noises off’: forthe 1926 production of ‘The Ghost Train’ at the Garrick Theatre, sevenstage hands were utilised to create the sound of the train using thefollowing equipment: a garden roller pushed over slats of the wood (forthe joints in the rails); three cylinders of compressed air (whistle, steamand exhaust); a large tank; a large thunder sheet; a thick thunder sheetand mallet; a whistle; a side drum and wire brush; another side drum andpadded mallet; a bass drum; some heavy chains; and finally sandpaper fora distant puffing effect.

Simpler effects were used regularly: wind machines, thunder sheets, rainsticks being some of the most common. One of the main advantagesperforming these effects live was that the effects man could play thedevice like an instrument, responding to what was happening on stage, oreven driving what was happening on stage. Effects men were expected tobe sensitive to the sound they were creating. Of course, this wasn’t alwaysachieved and the techniques weren’t always executed with skill – one ofthe relics of this era is the use of coconut shells to emulate horses hooves,

Blasts from the pastSOUND DESIGN IN THE 1930S

something now known more for its potential comedy value – though thetechnique is still used to this day by Foley Artists. Vocal mimicry was oftenused for certain types of effect, such as animal calls. Various methodswere employed to either acoustically amplify the performers voice, or tomuffle it to give the sound distance. The effects man’s voice would oftenbe called on to produce a whole range of other sounds that were toocomplex to achieve mechanically – from musical instruments tomotorcycles - though other effects would be often be layered on top toachieve more realism.

Frank Napier’s 1936 book ‘Noises Off’ provides a fascinating insight intothe job of being an effects man, a job that bears many similarities withthat of the sound designer today. He describes his normal process ofmapping out the effects in advance with the director, deciding:“Which arethe most telling moments for silences, climatic sounds or steadycrescendos…. During rehearsals, inspiration and the needs of the momentwill etch in the details, and gradually a complete composition will becomposed”.

He also describes how the most important qualities of a good effects manincludes sensitivity to the rhythm and drama of the sound they arecreating such that a sound that is made offstage supposedly by acharacter, must have the emotional value of that character at thatmoment. Whilst he made considerable use of technology, he was aware of its severe limitations but,“Consequently there is a great deal offun left in the effects man’s life: the business has not yet been ruined bymechanisation”!

A lot of the techniques of this era transferred into the film industry,notably Foley work and the sound design of animated features. A greatfeaturette on their use in animation can be found on Pixar’s ‘Wall-E’ DVD,narrated by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt.

The sound illusionistRUTH SULLIVAN,FOLEY ARTIST

London-based Ruth has created sounds for Hollywoodfilms, including The Hours, and British TV dramas, such asDownton Abbey. In fact she is one of just ten professionalfreelance Foley Artists working in the capital. As she tellsThe Echo magazine:‘Creating the sound of zombies eatinghuman entrails will always be an interesting job to do!’

How do you describe what a Foley Artist does?In general terms, a Foley Artist recreates anysound an actor makes in a scene, for examplefootsteps, the rustle of moving fabric andclothing and anything they do with props. Webuild up tracks (layers) of sound until everythingexcept dialogue is covered. There are just ten ofus doing this professionally in London!

What’s a typical day for you? We usually start by watching a few minutes ofthe film/programme then record a ‘moves track’.This entails following the movements of theactors on screen manipulating some suitablematerial, usually soft denim. We can add othermaterials like leather or police jackets onanother track. Then we go through each scenerecording footsteps, literally step by step, foreach of the main actors. We also do backgroundtracks for crowd scenes if necessary.

We have to make sure we’re on the right surface,which is harder than it might seem as we don’talways get a clear shot of the floor. Also you can’talways rely on the original recorded sound forclues. For example, the servants’ area in DowntonAbbey LOOKS like flagstones but is recorded on awooden floored set, so obviously we have torecord our footsteps on stone.The actors’dialogue will also have to be re-recorded as theoriginal sound is stripped away.

How did you become a Foley Artist?Completely by chance! I applied for what Ithought was a dancing job - it turned out thattwo established Foley Artists, themselves formerdancers, were recruiting people to train up sothey could run a small agency of artists. Whenthey explained what the job entailed I couldn’tbelieve it!

What steps are there on the career ladder arethere for you? None really! Once you’re an established artistyou’re likely to remain one - until you choose tomove onto other projects... It’s always nice to geta big feature film though! And obviously it’sgreat when you do a good job for an editor or astudio and they call you back for more work. Butit’s not the sort of career that allows you tomove into other areas, it’s so specific.

What’s been your favourite project to work on,and why? It’s a funny job, being a Foley Artist, and certainlysome of the best projects may not always bethe best in terms of production values. Forexample, I will always remember working onHighlander IV (straight to video!) because wehad so much fun chopping off heads andexploding buildings! I also did all the Foley forDead Set, the horror drama series by CharlieBrooker. This entailed making outrageous sound

effects of zombies eating people’s entrails,which are always fun to do. Working onMamma Mia! was SO much fun, whereas theintricate sound effects for Any Human Heartwere completely absorbing and incrediblyrewarding to make.

What has been the most difficult project towork on? Actually, some of the films I’ve done in Lisbon –a beautiful city where I’ve experienced some ofthe highlights of my career - have been thehardest! There’s always a shortage of timeallowed and very few props in the studio. It’s areal challenge to produce the work but alsohugely rewarding too.

What is the most challenging aspect of yourjob? Figuring out ways to produce certain soundeffects and creating exactly the right sound insync with the picture. Working with differentpeople in different studios. Running on the spotall day can be challenging, too.

What are the working hours / pay /employment stability like? Working hours vary according to the studio buton average we work an eight-hour day plus anhour for lunch. Freelance work is neverparticularly stable and projects will often get

moved around if the editing is behind schedule.Sometimes you’ll have work booked a month ortwo in advance but often you won’t know fromweek to week if you’re working or not. It makesfor an interesting life.

What is your one big bug bear when it comes tosound, or your industry? Probably the lack of time and acknowledgment!We seem to be required to produce more workand in far greater detail than ever, particularly astechnology has advanced so much with moreand more complex editing. It’s common toassume that the need for Foley is beingsidelined in our digital world but althoughthere’s a great deal of pre-recorded sound thatcan be added to a soundtrack, there’s no realalternative to the simplicity of an artist addingextra effects in a studio.

A pre-recorded sound effect of a glass being putdown may be easy to find but we can make itsound as though the actual actor on screen isputting it down - and on the right kind of table!Equally you can find dozens of footsteprecordings online but fitting them to the actual

movement of the actor is incredibly timeconsuming. An artist can follow an actor’s stepsand record them in a couple of takes. Basically,we will make the right sound according to whatis happening on screen at the time, not soundsthat were made for another project and justmight work, if you edit them for long enough.We can make a scene come alive. Lack ofacknowledgement of the importance of Foley isvery hard, especially when budgets are beingsqueezed all the time. It seems ridiculous whenyou know how much programmes can be soldfor or how much films make at the box office.

What is the one piece of equipment that youfind most useful? Um, my feet? Perhaps my coconuts?! I found thisnice quote which kind of sums it all up: JoeSikorsky, who worked with Jack (Foley), recalls“Jack emphasised you have to act the scene...you have to be the actors and get into the spiritof the story the same as the actors did, on theset. It makes a big difference.”

RUTH SULLIVAN, FOLEY ARTISTTV includes: Downton Abbey, Spooks, Hustle, AnyHuman Heart, Whitechapel, Merlin, Case Sensitive,Inside Men, Outcasts, Wild at Heart, Skins, Body.

Films include: Troy, Eyes Wide Shut, Mamma Mia!,Proof, 28 Days Later, 1408, The World Is Not Enough(Golden Reel nomination), Paul, Death at a Funeral,Snow Cake, Keeping Mum, Still Crazy, The Hours, MyHouse in Umbria, Running Free (Golden Reelnomination) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers(Emmy winner).

“it’s not the sort of career that allows you to move into other areas, it’s so specific”

Far left: Nick PowellLeft: Matt Padden

NICK POWELL Composer and sound designer Nick has worked extensively with the NationalTheatre, and achieved success in writing for the screen - including BAFTA winnersBeneath the Veil and Death in Gaza. He’s also toured and recorded with manybands including Mcalmont & Butler and Strangelove.

What are you working on at the moment?Currently working on a new OSKAR (my band) and preparing ‘The Danton Case’ forStadsteatren Gothenberg.

What’s your favourite part of your work/process?After the horror and insecurity of the composing process, I love the tech when it’sabout placing sound within a space in a way that serves the whole.

What would you change about your work / the industry?The industry? I wish that theatre held more relevance for a wider cross section ofpeople. The reason a lot of people think theatre is boring is because a lot of it is.My work? Well, I guess I always want to be better. I want that flash of excitementand inspiration you sometimes get when working on a project to be translatedmore successfully to the finished work.

Top tip?If, like me, you’re more from the compositional/ sound manipulation end of things,make sure you work with and befriend some great engineers! I’ve been luckyenough to work with some fantastic engineers. You know who you are.

What are you listening to at the moment?Still in mourning for LCD Soundsystem since James Murphy stopped the band lastyear, so still listening them a lot. Ligetti’s requiem (a reference for my Danton showin Sweden) - amazing!

For more on Nick’s band, visit www.oskaronline.com

MATT PADDEN - HEAD OF SOUND, NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLANDBased in Glasgow, Matt has been Head of Sound for the National Theatre ofScotland (NTS) since 2008. As well as designing for NTS, Matt has designed soundfor shows by Vanishing Point and Corcadorca. He is possibly the only soundengineer to have worked with Sting in such a way that he saw only saw his feetthroughout the process. When he’s not wearing headphones, he takesphotographs.

What are you working on at the moment and what is your role?Enquirer at the NTS - it’s a new site-specific theatre production based aroundinterviews with leading figures in the UK newspaper industry, in the context ofallegations of corruption, bribery and illegal practices. I’m Technical SoundDesigner, and I’m also acting as Programmer/Associate on our other shows.

What’s your favourite part of your process?Making the large and complex sound system seem like it isn’t actually there!

What would you change about your work and the industry?I would like more time to get everything done and better sound control positionsin venues.

Top tip?Beat-matched cued transitions in Qlab (hint: looped bars of silence and a devamp).

What are you listening to at the moment?Gentle rain on an office roof and soft shoes padding down the corridor . . .

Mini profiles

Professional DesignersBobby AitkenPaul ArdittiSimon BakerDominic BilkeyDanny BrightSteven BrownPaul BullAndy CollinsTony DaviesSimon DeaconGeorge DennisIan DickinsonCarolyn DowningMark DunneGregg FisherSebastian FrostGareth FryTom GibbonsDavid GregoryPaul GregoryPaul GroothuisJohn HarrisTheo HollowayMartyn HuntSimon KingEm LaxtonJohn LeonardTom LishmanSteven MayoAdam McCreadyJon McLeod

ASD MEMBERSDavid McSeveneyJon NichollsGareth OwenColin PinkMic PoolNick PowellAdrienne QuartlyClement RawlingPeter RiceNick SagarChristopher ShuttJames TebbAlex TwiseltonMike WalkerRich WalshSarah WeltmanDonato WhartonMatthew ‘Wills’ Williams

Professional MembersHamish BamfordNela BrownSam CharlestonTom CoxGareth EvansAdam FisherChris FullPaul GavinJeremy GeorgeJenn Goodheart-SmitheTom HaresAndrew Hinton

Will JacksonKaren LaukeTim MiddletonDave NortonMatt PaddenKyle SepedeHelen SkieraMathew Smethurst-EvansIan SticklandGraeme WattDerrick Zieba

Corporate MembersRachel Archibald, MeyerSoundChristopher Ashworth,Figure 53, LLCDan Bailey, Orbital SoundLtdMark Boden, DimensionAndrew Bruce,AutographRichard Bugg, MeyerSoundKarl Chapman,Studer/HarmanKarl Christmas, YamahaCommercial AudioIan Dickinson, AutographOliver Driver, AudioAlliance (North) Limited

Ralph Dunlop, SoundNetwork LtdJeremy Dunn, RoyalShakespeare CompanyCarlton Guc, StageResearch, Inc.Thomas Hackley,HAVEsoundDerk Hagedorn, AvidTechnologyRoger Harpum, MeyerSoundDave Haydon, Out BoardChris Headlam, OrbitalSound LtdSimon Holley, Bose LtdNeil Hughes, AudioAlliance (North) LimitedPhil Hurley, Stage SoundServices LTDTerry Jardine, AutographStephen Jones, d&baudiotechnikChris Jordan, BlitzCommunications LtdSimon Kenning, RolandSystems GroupAndy Laurie, DimensionWinnie Leung, MeyerSoundNick Lidster, AutographMatt Mckenzie,

AutographPaul Mortimer, EmergingUKDavid Neal, HarmanInternational IndustriesLtdDavy Ogilvy, DimensionPhil Palmer, RolandSystems GroupJerry Placken, MeyerSoundRichard Rogers, BlitzCommunications LtdStaf Rowley, DimensionAdam Rudd, BlitzCommunications LtdPeter Russell, BlitzCommunications LtdNick Screen, Duran AudioUK LimitedJohn Torger Skjelstad,TTA StagetrackerFlemming Sorensen, TTAStagetrackerMorten Stove, DPAMicrophonesAndrew Taylor, DuranAudio UK LtdJohan Wadsten, MergingTechnologiesBrad Ward, BlitzCommunications Ltd

David Webster, DiGiCoUK LtdRobin Whittaker, OutBoard

Associate MembersChris BarlowBen DaviesStuart DeanNeil DrewittDavid HarveyDavina Shah

Student MembersJerrome Buck-TownsendThomas ClachersBen CollinsChantelle DysonMadison EnglishJeff GaryThyge HaarbergLaura HammondJoe KeatDominic KennedyAlexander KosankePete MalkinJames NicholsonTom RundleElla WahlströmJo Walker

CORPORATE MEMBERS

DiGiCowww.digico.biz

Dimensionwww.dimension.co.uk

DPAwww.dpamicrophones.com

Duran Audiowww.duran-audio.com

Figure 53www.figure53.com

Harmanwww.harman.com

HAVEsoundwww.have.uk.com

Mergingwww.merging.com

Meyer Soundwww.meyersound.com

Orbital Soundwww.orbitalsound.com

Outboardwww.outboard.co.uk

Royal Shakespeare Companywww.rsc.org.uk

Rolandwww.rolandsystemsgroup.co.uk

Sound Networkwww.soundnetwork.co.uk

Stage Researchwww.stageresearch.com

Stage Sound Serviceswww.stagesoundservices.co.uk

TTAwww.tta-sound.com

Yamaha Commercial Audiowww.yamahacommercialaudio.com

Avidwww.avid.com

Autographwww.autograph.co.uk

Audio Alliancewww.audioalliance.com

Blitzwww.blitzcommunications.co.uk

Bosewww.bose.co.uk

d&b audiotechnikwww.dbaudio.com