anybody have.....

[dan the acid man]

bending metal is silent isn't it? or have i got that wrong:whoops:

[RDR]

bending metal is silent isn't it? or have i got that wrong:whoops:

What he is talking about is Foley, most sounds you can record with a microphone fall into a few distinct catagories:

1. human voice
2. Human movement
3. Wooden sounding
4. Metallic sounding
5. Stone sounding
6. Liquid

When you use a microphone it records exactly (or at least within its capable range) and on playback we get to hear things as they are, not as our ears translate them. Most sounds in life we learn to ignore as they bear no relevance for the following:

1. Its not an immediate threat to us (i.e. the hum of a computer fan or the whine of a car engine)
2. We are not an immediate threat to it (i.e. food or something we cannot affect with our action)

When we bring a microphone into play the mental translation we give a sound is lost and we hear things as they are.

Being that a lot of our environment is constructed from wood/metal/stone its not suprising that a sampling mission around the home or anywhere else brings back a limited range of sounds.

In sound design Chion described several different ways sound is percieved on film...

You can find his work here

http://www.filmsound.org/

As for foley, if we need to convey the sound of bending metal it must be over emphasised and usually faked - as someone pointed out bending metal is quiet.

So we must fake:

Metal (what sort of metal is it? Did you tell the audience through showing them on screen? or is the size implied?)
Stress (of the metal, the stress tells a story)
Movement (of the metal)
Size (of the scene)
Power (of the device or thing bending the metal)

The upside of this is that people do not often or perhaps never encounter the sound of metal girders bending so there is quite a lot of artistic license available to us.

Perhaps the following might be useful:

Reverb - to convey size
The 'Pinking' sound when hot metalo cools
Creaking/Squeeking of floor boards
Tension in the accompanying music?
Slowed down plectrum pulled across bass guitar strings?

Just my 2p. ;

[tonyc2002]

cheers dude, very informative. that filmsounds site is definately one for the favourites :)

[dan the acid man]

yeah, good read

[TechMouse]

Thoroughly interesting Chris, good work.

It's fascinating, the difference between actual sound and perceived sound.

[RDR]

Thoroughly interesting Chris, good work.

It's fascinating, the difference between actual sound and perceived sound.

I love it... foley is fantastic.. truly amusing and without boudaires except those provided by our ears and mind.

thanks for th kind words. :cheese: