Post apocalyptic LA hyper-opera

 

Composer/sound designer Phil Curtis is using Kyma to provide electronics and sound design for a new production of composer Anne LeBaron‘s opera, Crescent City, directed by Yuval Sharon and performed from 10-27 May 2012 at The Industry in Los Angeles.  Described by LA Times critic Mark Swed as a “darkly mysterious, troubling yet weirdly exuberant and wonderfully performed new opera,” the production is a meta-collaboration that includes six visual artists who were asked to build installations for the sets (shack, cemetery, junk heap, swamp, hospital and dive bar) in the Industry’s large warehouse-like space.  Variously priced tickets determine where you, the audience member, gets to sit (or roam), and the espresso bar has been deemed outstanding.

Curtis is using Kyma to spatialize sounds in the vast performance space and to create a swamp ambience at the climax of the opera as the Voodoo queen and healer Marie Laveau sings one final invocation and is swallowed up by the sounds of the swamp.

Set in post-Katrina New Orleans, the libretto metaphorically examines the way people deal with disaster and post-apocalyptic scenarios, including nurses, Voodoo, and Loa. As Swed enthusiastically concludes: “We now have something that can genuinely be called L.A. opera.”

 

Kyma, Curling, & Fondue

Cristian Vogel‘s Curling Sound System, part of the Antigel music and dance festival in Geneva, is a live sound track, captured and manipulated during a curling match between two highly-ranked teams, one from France and one from Switzerland. Vogel will be using eight Wiimotes to track the infrared signatures of candles positioned around the hall and wireless microphones to capture the slipping and sliding sounds from the match; he uses the Wiimotes and the audio signals to control live sound manipulation in Kyma. The event will culminate in a fondue supper with music in the restaurant of the Curling Club of Geneva.

10 February 2012 at the HALLE DE CURLING TIVOLI / Chemin du Fief-de-Chapitre 9A / 1213 Petit-Lancy / TPG 14 / ARRÊT Quidort

Micro-Cinematic Essays on the Life and Work of Marcel Duchamp dba Conceptual Parts, Ink

Artists Mark Amerika and Chad Mossholder‘s Micro-Cinematic Essays on the Life and Work of Marcel Duchamp dba Conceptual Parts, Ink will be premiered soon as an installation at  The Centre for Creative Arts in La Trobe. Described as “a collaborative ‘conceptual art’ album featuring the writing and vocals of Mark Amerika and the sound design of electronic music composer Chad Mossholder,” about 90% of the sounds were crafted in Kyma. The work is divided into nineteen tracks, each focusing on the work, language, notes, and influence of Marcel Duchamp on contemporary forms of remix practice. An exploration of glitch, microtonality, and the spectral analysis of recorded voices over time, Mossholder and Amerika challenge us to rethink the interrelationship between critical writing and critical listening.  This work was made possible thanks to a visiting artist residency for both artists at the Centre for Creative Arts at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Interview with sound designer Sylvain Lasseur

Sound designer Sylvain Lasseur is not just bi-coastal; he’s bi-contintental, working part time in Paris and part time in Los Angeles!  We recently had a chance to ask him a few questions about how he uses Kyma for 5.1 sound design and to explore some of the differences between post production work in Paris and Los Angeles.  By the end of the interview, the discussion turns to food, wine, and the Marx Brothers.  Read on!

SSC: Sylvain, you’re currently based both in Los Angeles and Paris.  How do you split your time between the two?  (e.g. is it summers in LA and winters in Paris? Or does it depend on which project you’re working on?)

SL: In fact, it depends on the projects. The ideal thing would be to spend winters in LA and summers in Paris, but that’s just a question of weather and has nothing to do with sound!

 SSC: You graduated from the Louis Lumiére Cinema School in France.  How did  you decide to attend that school?  Have you been interested in cinema since you were a child?  Were you always interested in sound design?

SL: I’ve been interested in sound since the age of about twelve years old. I learned to play the piano and I had a Uher portable tape recorder to record sound for slideshows, to record music, etc…   The next natural step was to study at a school where I could learn about sound.  During my studies, my interest in cinema began to grow and it finally took over.

SSC: What are some of the movies that most inspired you to pursue your profession?

 SL: The first three Star Wars and The Right Stuff convinced me to embrace the profession of Sound Editor and Sound Designer even though, in France, at that time, “Sound Design” was a very hazy notion. More recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and No Country for Old Men inspired me to continue to progress in my profession.

 SSC: You’ve made a specialty of designing sounds for 5.1 surround.  Do you conceive of the sounds with surround in mind from the outset?

SL: In fact, I begin each movie by asking myself, “What sounds would serve the movie and enhance the story being told?” –this before even considering the use of surround.

Some movies need a lot of surround and others just a little bit.  For that reason my  Kyma modules are ready for 5.1, giving me the tools to do as much or as little as is needed.  But if there is a recurrent sound in the movie,  I often design the sound first and then I apply a process to put it into surround on each recurrence, as necessary.

SSC: Do you place independent material in the surrounds?  Or processed versions of the other channels?

SL: I have no specific recipe for that either. With ambience or atmosphere, it can be interesting to place independent material in the surround.   It’s also very interesting to use a processed version of the stereo channels (granulated, pitched, delayed….) in the surround. Here again, it depends on the movie. The director and the story guide you.

SSC: In your opinion, what is the most powerful use for surround sound? 

SL: Surround sound creates and defines the visual space in a film, creating a third dimension. It gives you the opportunity to shrink or enlarge the visual space through audio. It’s also very powerful for sound fx such as spaceships passing by…

SSC: Is there such a thing as “the Hollywood sound”?  Similarly, do French films have a particular “sound”?  If your eyes are closed, can you sometimes tell where a film was made just by the sound, even before the first word of dialog is heard?

SL: In general, French movies are more intimate and American movies are more spectacular (even with your eyes closed)!  The “music” of the French language, (pronunciation, tone, tonic syllable emphasis), and the English language are very different.  It seems to me that there is more flexibility when mixing English dialogue than French dialogue.   The dynamic, the spectrum, the use of the bass and the use of the surround are different from language to language.  I’ve never tried, but if I closed my eyes I would probably be able to hear the difference between a French or an American sound track.

 SSC: Is there a difference in the way post production is done in US films and French films Or does this vary more from film to film than it does from country to country?

 SL: I would say that the big difference is the budget. You just have to compare the sound crew of a French movie and an American movie to see the difference. In France, most of the time I am alone or with an assistant to edit and design the sound for a feature film, usually with less time than for an American film.

In America, a sound crew is composed of a Sound Supervisor, a Sound Designer and multiple Sound Editors.  That makes a huge difference!  In America, each person’s work is more specialized, the time is longer and the budgets are bigger…  which changes everything about the way the work is done.

Of course, this process varies from film to film depending on the film and the budget.  That said, most of the time, the needs of a French movie are not the same as an American movie.

SSC: Can you describe your working process with director Catherine Breillat?

 SL: I have done five movies with Catherine Breillat, so we have built up a very confident relationship.  She begins by explaining to me what her movie needs, then I work on it for a while.  Periodically she comes to my studio to listen to my “work in progress”. She tells me what she likes and doesn’t like, I make the appropriate adjustments, and so forth. Before the mix, she has heard and approved all the sound editing and the sound design.  She is very specific about what she wants.

 SSC: Were you able to utilize Kyma on The Last Mistress?

SL: Yes, I used Kyma for atmosphere, wind and sound effects.

SSC: You sometimes control your Kyma sounds with the pitch and level of your voice.  Can you compare this to using a  fader or other controller?

 SL: I have to say that I was a singer in a band for a while. I feel comfortable using my voice and find it more intuitive and immediate that way. I also find that it’s more alive and organic, especially when I manipulate animal sounds. When I do this, sync to picture, I find good intonations and accents more quickly than with a fader or other controller.

SSC: Can you point us to a particular scene in one of your films where we can listen for Kyma?

SL:  I can think of a couple of examples where I used two really different approaches:

Chrysalis for the sound fx, especially at the beginning of the movie and

The Trail (La Piste) for the wind in the desert, especially at the end of the movie when there is a wind storm.

 

SSC: What advice would you give to a sound designer who is just starting to learn Kyma?

SL: Kyma is like a language. You have to learn the vocabulary and the grammar before you can express yourself and become fluent. So, read the manuals (a few times), be patient, persevere and don’t forget to break the rules…

Kyma is so modular and flexible, it’s like an open invitation to create. The possibilities are endless…  It’s just a question of language!

SSC: Do you have a set of “tools” that you’ve created for yourself in Kyma that you come back to whenever you are working on a film?

SL: Yes, I have a set of tools that I’ve created for myself, all oriented 5.1. Most of the time, I come back to this set of tools, but I continue to create new “sentences” all the time, when I have an idea (and time to do it).

SSC: Can you reflect on your “process” for creating new effects in Kyma?  Do you start with your favorite Sounds and modify them?  Do you look through the Sound Library?  Or is it different every time?

 SL: In fact, it’s different every time. I can start with a sound, modify it, or take just a part of the sound to add it to an another sound or part of an another sound. Sometimes, I start with nothing and I build the “sentence” I want. Sometimes, I look through the Sound Library, which is a gold mine of inspiration.

(NB., You can hear more of Sylvain’s Kyma sound design work on his web site.)

SSC: Have you ever intentionally left a scene completely silent?

SL: I have no recollection of having left a scene completely silent, but almost silent, yes! Silence and nuances contribute to the dynamic. I can’t imagine listening to a philharmonic orchestra playing a symphony forte, with no silence, for an hour and a half. It would be unbearable!  For me, two perfect examples of the judicious use of silence, juxtaposed with “interesting” sound are: No Country For Old Men and Mulholland Drive.  Very inspiring.

SSC: Describe your ideal meal ((who would be there, what is on the menu, where is it, what does the table look like, etc)

 SL:

FADE IN: Ext.:  North rim of the Grand Canyon on a beautiful summer day, before sunset….

A table is dressed on two interlaced grand Steinway pianos on the edge of the North rim. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Herbie Hancock are playing a free adaptation of the “Sound of Silence”.

Superimposed, scroll the credits in alphabetical order:

Ethan and Joel Coen…… The Directors

Albert Einstein…. Relatively as Himself

Herbie Hancock…. As Himself

Nelson Mandela…. As Himself

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart… As Himself

My Wife… As My Wife

Me…     As Her Husband

And:

The Marx Bros… As The Waiters

CLOSE UP: On the Menu

Appetizer:  French Oysters served on the half shell

accompanied by grilled lobster tails

Wine: 1959 White Mersault, Premier Cru

Main Course:  Roast Venison, sauce Grand Veneur

accompanied by a fricassé of wild   French mushrooms

Wine: 1961 Chateau Margaux

Followed by:   Arugula & Warm Chèvre

As you may have noticed, women are woefully lacking at this meal, so I decided to include them for dessert!

Invited are:

Lucille Ball….. As Lucy Ricardo

Coco Chanel…. As Herself

Rita Hayworth… As The Beautiful Woman

George Sand…. As Herself

Meryl Streep….. As Julia Child

Dessert:     The most fabulous chocolate cake in   the world (or any dessert, as long as it’s   chocolate!)

Digestifs:   Aged Amber Rum, Poire Williams,   Mirabelle….

(and cigars for the Marx Bros.)

And may the party continue until dawn….

….. or we could just order in pizza!

SSC: Thank you, Sylvain!  I think it’s time for all of us to order out for pizza and watch your show reel on line!

 

Disney Film Features Speech to Wolf Howl by JED Sound

During the final mix for Disney’s Treasure Buddies, director Robert Vince asked sound designers Pat Haskill and Jean-Edouard Miclot to morph the voice of a puppy named Mudbud (voiced by Ty Panitz) from a human voice to the howl of a real puppy.  After a frantic and ultimately unsuccessful search of their sound libraries for a domestic puppy howl, the sound designers finally located a recording of a wolf pup that sounded close to Mudbud’s speaking voice, and they cross-faded from the actor to the wolf howl.  Unfortunately, the result still sounded like two independent layers. That’s when Jean-Edouard had the idea to load the two samples into Kyma’s Time Alignment Utility (TAU) where he could experiment with morphing using a tablet until he got the smooth transition he wanted. Re-recording mixers Gord Hillier and Samuel Lehmer mixed the sound in and, according to Jean-Edouard, “everybody in the studio loved how natural the transition from human to animal was made.” You can hear the morph in the scene starting about 36″ into the following clip:

Kyma International Sound Symposium 2012

The Kyma International Sound Symposium is  four inspiring days and nights filled with sound design, ideas, discussions, and music, and it offers a wide range of opportunities to increase your Kyma mastery: from introductory master classes, to hands-on question-and-answer sessions; from thought-provoking presentations, to inspiring concerts and after-hours discussions with new-found friends and colleagues.

This year’s symposium KISS2012 will be on banks of the mighty Mississippi River, September 13-16, organized by St. Cloud State University School of the Arts and Symbolic Sound. The KISS2012 theme, reel time || real time, puts the spotlight on reel time (sound for picture), real time (live performance), and all timescales between, including sound design for games, live cinema, live improvisation ensembles, live performances from a score, sound design for live theatre, live signal generation for speech and hearing research, interactive data sonification, interactive sound art, and more!

Kyma X.82 A Synthesis Engine for Alternative Controllers & Interactive Sound Design

The culmination of two years of research and development, Kyma X.82, a new software update for the Kyma X/Pacarana sound synthesis engine, is specifically designed to take advantage of the expressive capabilities and extended control offered by today’s new crop of alternative controllers and cutting edge musical interface designs.

The recent explosion of interest in new musical interfaces and alternative controllers for sound design and music has created a need for sound synthesis and processing engines that can take full advantage of the increased bandwidths, higher resolution, lower latencies, continuous pitch and velocity values, and subtle expressive capabilities of these new controllers. Symbolic Sound has a long history of support for alternative and extended controllers in Kyma X, and Symbolic Sound’s newest release, Kyma X.82, introduces several additional features to support these innovative musical interfaces and alternative controllers.

Features in Kyma X.82 include over 20 new morphing sound synthesis algorithms, support for 14-bit MIDI controllers, and the publication of Kyma’s OSC protocol to support and inspire future developments of new instruments and controllers that can exploit Kyma’s responsive, high-resolution sound synthesis and processing algorithms in a seamless, plug-and-play manner.

Kyma Control Tonnetz

Whether you are a sound designer performing expressive creature voices to picture, an electronic musician performing live on stage with alternative controllers, or a composer using physical controllers to create dense multi-layered textures of sound in the studio, you will be able to take advantage of Kyma X.82’s ease of parameter-mapping, low latency, high-resolution parameters, and legendary sound quality. Additional features of the new release include enhanced multichannel panning and effects, higher quality spectral analysis, and a 40% speedup in the software executing on the host computer.

Sound and Video Examples

3d Morph on iPad

Using one of the new Morph3d objects to morph among a re-synthesized Tuva singer, bongo, flute, angry cat, female voice, violin, cat meow, and shakuhachi using Kyma Control on an iPad.

Morphadasical

The foreground ‘melody’ is performed live on a Continuum Fingerboard, using KeyTimbre (near/far) and KeyVelocity (pressure) to morph between re-synthesized violin, trombone and flute. In the background, Kyma is generating the Sax/Flute morph pattern.

Medieval Miasma

The key-mapped spectrum of an organ is re-synthesized through a FormantBank with a slowly changing formant. The voice is a key-mapped spectral analysis/resynthesis using sine wave oscillators.

Peace Flute

A key-mapped flute spectrum is re-synthesized with a time-stretched attack and played on the Tonnetz in Kyma Control.

Spectres

A re-synthesized voice morphing to re-synthesized bowed glass performed on the Kyma Control keyboard. In the background, a key-mapped piano spectrum performed on a standard MIDI keyboard is re-synthesized through a FilterBank with vinyl clicks as the input to the filter.

Cloud Cadence

A key-mapped CloudBank on a set of piano samples, performed on a standard MIDI keyboard.

PNO Squeal

Key-mapped piano spectra re-synthesized by a FormantBank played on standard MIDI keyboard with ModWheel controlling the formant to create the ‘squeals’.

For more sound and video examples from Kyma X.82, please see Sound and Video Clips

For a full list of features in the new release please see the Kyma X.82 Press Release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samy Bardet’s sound design for “Un Monstre á Paris”

Sound designer, Samy Bardet, used Kyma to design a singing monkey, some supernaturally fast growing plants, and the voice of the ‘monster’ in Bibo Bergeron‘s new animated feature, Un Monstre á Paris.

 

We recently spoke with Samy to find out more about his work in sound design for film:

 What is your earliest sonic memory?  (from childhood?)

The purring of my cat Mao.

When did you first realize that you wanted to be a sound designer? (Did you start from the side of music?  From audio engineering?  In other words, how did you come to be a sound designer?)

After a short stint as a live sound engineer, I fell in love with sound for motion picture and became a sound editor.  I started out by doing a lot of cartoons for TV. That period was essential because I learned editing, creation, and sound design.

My first movie was Le général, le chien et les oiseaux… in 2003. But it was Persepolis in 2007 that was a real revelation for me and it was that experience that made me decide I wanted to be a sound designer for motion picture.

Do you remember how it was that you heard about Kyma and how or why you decided to use it in your work?

I first heard about Kyma about 10 years ago…but at that time it seemed to me a very strange and inaccessible machine.

But then I met a director named Valérie Moncorgé and worked on her film Le forcené. That was an unforgettable experience; there was no music, only a few voices and a lots of sounds.

Her favorite sound for picture was the work that Hamilton Sterling and Richard King did on “Master and Commander”. One day she came in with an article talking about the sound design on Master and Commander; in the article she had circled the name “Kyma”, and she asked me “What is this?”. In order to answer her, I decided to buy one!!!

For Un Monstre á Paris, please tell us about the evolution of the singing monkey sound, how you imagined it, how you realized it, how you performed it, etc.

I started with the voice of -M- singing like an opera singer. When I saw the animation, I first tried using the classic monkey sound but it was unsuccessful.  Those sounds were too short and not close enough in frequency.

I finally found a sample of capuchin monkey whose frequencies were closest to those of the human voice. I analyzed the human voice and the capuchin monkey in the Tau Player. Then I performed the result using my Motormix and, after several tries, once I was able to perform it in sync with the picture, the result was incredible!!!!

I understand that there is also a scene of a plant or plants growing at incredible speed.  Can you tell us more about that scene and how you designed and controlled the sound for it?

This was created with a SampleCloud (one of my favorite prototypes) and played on the Wacom tablet.  I took a short sample of leaves rustling, and with this magic tool it became a giant sunflower!

Who is the monster in Paris (and how did you design his voice)?

The voice of the monster in Paris is a mix between rock singer Matthieu Chedid ( “-M-” ), a raccoon, and my own voice … I used the Tau player again to morph these three sources in order to make him credible and sensitive.

From the point of view of the sound designer, what are the differences between working on an animated feature vs a live action feature with human actors?  Or is it virtually the same?  Do animated features give you more latitude for sound design?  Or is it the same either way?

The editing is very different. In a live action feature, you’re constrained by the way the sound was spoken during shooting, and especially by the ambience. It must match exactly.

In an animated feature, you receive only the voices, so all the atmospheres can be created by your imagination…

In the end, though, I think that sound design is not so different between live action and animated features, because even in live action features you rarely use “real” sounds (of guns, cars, etc), it’s always exaggerated to make it more spectacular. And it’s the same in animated features.

Where does Kyma fit in your arsenal of sound design tools?  Do you turn to Kyma for specific kinds of sounds or ways of working?

I’m working with a Pyramix which is the tool I find most flexible and effective for sound editing (and I think it is less well known in the US).

My Pacarana is connected via a Capybara (used as an audio interface) directly through digital inputs and outputs to the Pyramix. That way I can use Kyma as an external effect, sending a sound from the Pyramix. Or I can play Kyma Sounds and record directly in the Pyramix.

What would you identify as the strong points of Kyma or the sort of things that Kyma is best at?

Kyma is especially impressive when you want to treat a real sound and want it to stay organic and real-sounding… for example, with voices…

Were there any sounds on this film that you could not have done without Kyma?

The monster, the singing monkey and a great morph between a metallic sound and the name of “Raoul”.

Describe your ideal meal.  Who would be there, what would be on the menu, where would it be, what would the conversation be like, etc

You would be there to talk about your vision of sound…

Einstein would be there to explain to us this strange dimension called space/time and also explain why today a neutrino can go faster than light…

Someone would be there to give the beginning of answer on the origin of life…

There are too many things to talk about with so many interesting people; it’s too complicated to reduce it to one meal…

If you were to give advice to someone who is just starting out as a sound designer, what would that be?  What would you advise them to study, where should they live, what kind of work could they do to prepare themselves?

1. Listen to real life all around you; this is very inspiring….

2. Sound can be simple®

3. Break the rules.

What’s next for you? Do you have a project lined up (one that you are allowed to discuss yet?)  What new sound design challenges are in store for you in 2011-2012?

I’ve just finished the sound design for an exposition in Paris. And I’m preparing a new motion picture called The Marsupilami by Alain Chabat; this is very big sound design challenge.

Thank you Samy!  We look forward to seeing (and especially hearing) Un Monstre à Paris!

Zelig Sound 360 Project & Black Ocean Branding

London UK-based Zelig Sound, creators of music composition and sound design for TV, film, advertising and branding, recently created the sound and music for “The 360 Project”, two dramatic short films by Toronto-based director and photographer Ryan Enn Hughes that capture peak dance moves using 48 simultaneously firing cameras surrounding the performer (designed by The Big Freeze).  The result is a cross between photography, video, and ‘digital sculpture’, where time is frozen but is then unrolled in new three-dimensional sequences.

KRUMP 360 (The 360 Project) from Zelig Sound: Composition & Sound on Vimeo.

Sound designer Matthew Wilcock and his team used Kyma, performed on a Wacom tablet, for the whooshes, passes and synth sounds in both 360 pieces, BALLET 360 & KRUMP 360. They used Kyma to create a selection of sounds around the timbre they wanted, and later brought them into a DAW to edit them and layer in the music.

 

BALLET 360 (The 360 Project) from Zelig Sound: Composition & Sound on Vimeo.

The team used the same process on a Zelig Sound branding project for Black Ocean. Wilcock estimates that 70% of the sound for Black Ocean was created by Kyma controlled by movements and gestures on the Wacom tablet.  The team set up the film to run in a loop while recording multiple performances of custom-designed Kyma Sounds on a Wacom tablet.  They then took the results of that session, and edited, selected, and layered them in their DAW.

Black Ocean Ident from Zelig Sound: Composition & Sound on Vimeo.