Ableton Live for Sound Design :Tron Legacy

[houseplant]

Recorded a 10 minute walk through of the Ableton live project. I'm currently editing the video and should have it posted within the next couple days.

In the mean time. Over the last month I've put some time into a second Ableton Live sound design project. This was strictly for fun.... Star Wars The Old Republic : Deceived.

The project took approximately 162 audio tracks. 4 custom reverbs... Custom foley... grunts... and Light Sabers using a combination of synthesis and didgeridoos. I've already written out a tutorial sheet for this and will be recorded it this weekend. I plan to make a regular series of this... at least once a month. All for fun and to share... hopefully encourage others who may use.. or want to use Ableton for post.



Video is still processing.. should be up in HD soon.

Thanks everyone for taking a look. Let me know what you think.

Update: 9-10-2009
Added project screen shots. Had to zoom 50 percent out in Abletons Preferences to see all of the tracks across 2 seperate screen shots.

[iamstudios]

Dude, you are goooooooooood. I'm completely in awe by so much talent...

[houseplant]

Originally Posted by iamstudios

Dude, you are goooooooooood. I'm completely in awe by so much talent...

wow, thank you! I really appreciate the compliment. I still have a long way to go... still learning everyday from people way better than me.

Btw... You have one of the coolest websites I've ever seen. The sound design is simply stellar. You have a perfect example of how great sound can really bring things to life. Bravo!

[djgizmo]

if you don't mind me asking... how are you 'nudging' the audio into place? (moving it left or rate frame by frame)

[djgizmo]

btw, for some reason... youtube doesn't like your SW video. I keep getting buffering issue when I've already buffered the entire thing.

If you're using video to show off your work, might want to try vimeo or the like.

[soupking]

To the OP, You're a sound design maven.

My favorite part of this entire job is that there's no sonic inertia. It's like the physics are completely binary.

Stop.

Go.

Crash!!

Very clean, my g'friend said the same thing upon me showing her the clip.

The library was very uniform too. If I could be interested in anything that would be my next question. Sense of sound library upon establishing shot etc.

[houseplant]

Originally Posted by djgizmo

if you don't mind me asking... how are you 'nudging' the audio into place? (moving it left or rate frame by frame)

Unfortunately Ableton does not have a key command for nudging left or right.... so its all done by moving events with the mouse. I use markers as reference to line up transients...then just move them until the feel right. Its definitely not easy in Live.

Youtube buffering issue: Odd.. i'll look into it. Seems to be ok on 2 machines here in the studio. Sorry about that...not sure why thats happening on your end.

-Chris

[djgizmo]

Originally Posted by houseplant

I use markers as reference to line up transients...

-Chris

Ahh, so you're using the original audio for reference/marking points. I was under the impression you're stripping the audio completely and was doing the audio from complete visual reference.

[houseplant]

Originally Posted by djgizmo

Ahh, so you're using the original audio for reference/marking points. I was under the impression you're stripping the audio completely and was doing the audio from complete visual reference.

No. I'm scrubbing through the video using the left and right arrow keys.. and dropping markers (ableton calls them locators) to spot the specific point where I'd like a sound to start or end. Sorry for the confusion

[houseplant]

Originally Posted by soupking

To the OP, You're a sound design maven.

My favorite part of this entire job is that there's no sonic inertia. It's like the physics are completely binary.

Stop.

Go.

Crash!!

Very clean, my g'friend said the same thing upon me showing her the clip.

The library was very uniform too. If I could be interested in anything that would be my next question. Sense of sound library upon establishing shot etc.

Thank you!

I'm assuming your asking about the Tron Legacy trailer?

Since it was mostly taking place in this Digital Environment (Game).. I chose to use a palette of predominantly electronic sounds. I chopped and pulled source from some reaktor sessions I recorded stuff from weeks.. months prior. Mostly experimental design sessions in Skrewell. I was able to put together a ton of great textures...stingers...hits...beeps...etc that all sounded from the same realm and that could work in the context of the video. But in contrast to the electronic sounds I wanted to keep close ties to reality and for most of the lightcycles I used motorcycle/airplane sfx taken from libraries. I'd say about 50 percent of the layers were processed through similar frequency shifter...chorus...phaser fx chains... so that may be where the uniformity your hearing is originating from. Even with the organic sounds... I use quite a bit of household glass breaks for the crashes..and lightcycle impacts..but they were sent through a ring modulator to give them that digital signature and keep everything within the same realm.

Im editing a walkthrough of the video as we speak... should be done soon. I'll explain and show exactly what was done.

-Chris

[djgizmo]

Ahh thanks for clarification on the markers. Was completely unaware one could scrub with locators.

Like others have said... you are an artist and an inspiration to the rest of us little guys.

[soupking]

Originally Posted by houseplant

Thank you!

I'm assuming your asking about the Tron Legacy trailer?

Since it was mostly taking place in this Digital Environment (Game).. I chose to use a palette of predominantly electronic sounds. I chopped and pulled source from some reaktor sessions I recorded stuff from weeks.. months prior. Mostly experimental design sessions in Skrewell. I was able to put together a ton of great textures...stingers...hits...beeps...etc that all sounded from the same realm and that could work in the context of the video. But in contrast to the electronic sounds I wanted to keep close ties to reality and for most of the lightcycles I used motorcycle/airplane sfx taken from libraries. I'd say about 50 percent of the layers were processed through similar frequency shifter...chorus...phaser fx chains... so that may be where the uniformity your hearing is originating from. Even with the organic sounds... I use quite a bit of household glass breaks for the crashes..and lightcycle impacts..but they were sent through a ring modulator to give them that digital signature and keep everything within the same realm.

Im editing a walkthrough of the video as we speak... should be done soon. I'll explain and show exactly what was done.

-Chris

That's great info on process.

It sounds very ring modulator now that you mention it. The beaded patterns of the cycles etc. Maybe I'm totally off chart.

It must take a good deal of time of learning your sample library to cast the array of sounds that you want. I have no idea how you put that together, But I'm guessing that must be a large part of being able to connect idea:inspiration:execution in such a practical manner.

Do you have a method that works well for organizing samples?

I feel like I have real chops with beats and sonic ideas, but that my approach is so sluggish that by the time my "board" is built, I've forgotten what I was doing. That happens mostly with beats, I feel those need a real pre-think even before ideas, so when inspiration strikes, you're not stuck programming.

As a foot note, I helped build the Clone Wars banner campaign. I saw you did the sound for that too and forwarded your work to the guy I was working with so he could check it out. Looks/sounds great! Told him to check out the Tron piece as well.

Peace,
-soupking

[soupking]

Also, I apologize if this was asked earlier, but how do you work to sync Ableton with the video playing?

I'm still figuring out how to get the thing to give me stereo options.

Thanks for any help and patience.
-soupking

[nickmaxwell]

Chris, amazing stuff as I've said before. Really looking forward to checking out your walkthrough as I could learn a lot from your process. Thanks for all the info so far!

- Nick

[Jim Stout]

Again, Nice work!

[5down1up]

amazing job, looks and sounds fantatstic

[maria]

Cool, a tutorial would be greatly appreciated

[Googlyman]

Where are your tutorials ?? Wonna learn more on the subject !thumbsup

[houseplant]

My apologies for the lack of follow up content.. I've been swamped finishing up 2 game titles, and can't believe how much time has passed since the original postings. I promise something soon to make up for it. Hang tight

[JSt0rm]

excellent work. How much time did you log into the starwars thing?

[houseplant]

Originally Posted by JSt0rm

excellent work. How much time did you log into the starwars thing?

Thanks! When Bioware/EA originally released the trailer I suddenly had the urge to try and start modeling some saber SFX in various VST packages. I was super excited about the game, and the trailer IS just ridiculous in terms of CG imo.

After I completed the Tron Trailer I felt pretty comfortable with Live for post work so I started spotting in some of my saber SFX and basically it became an addicting process from there out. I'd say roughly spent about 2-3 weekends here and there working on saber sounds after seeing the trailer originally. The basis of the trailer redux work came about in a weekend of work. I ended up spotting the majority of it in a couple of days. Stingers..transitions..basic foley..etc. It took another couple weeks of spare time to build details, extra saber layering(didgeridoos), destruction sfx, and to do several rough mix passes. It was extremely fun to do, and a great learning project. I'd say in total time it was about a 4-5 days (80 hours or so) total time investment over the entire process.

I'm still learning how to be an effective sound designer, and these trailer passes are really great educational tools for me. I'm able to see/hear mistakes I've made and share with the rest of post community.

I have a couple holiday breaks coming soon, and as promised will be posting some additional videos with an in depth look at my process.

Best
-Chris

[JSt0rm]

you get holiday breaks?!!?!?

It's really good. It's hard to not throw everything and the kitchen sink into those huge moments and it always ends up sounding like mud so kudos to you for having the discipline to find the proper interesting sounds for those huge moments. I am by no means an expert on the subject but I can appreciate quality work. 80 hours or more would be my guess on total time. For the light sabers did you play them thru a speaker and swing a mic around to create Doppler?

I just finished a animation project that I ended up taking about 8 hours per 1 minute of video for the heavy action scenes so thats why I asked about time spent

[littlejim84]

Superb stuff.

This is great and very inspiring. I would definitely love to see more on how you did this... Any recording, synth stuff, general tips and tricks. The approach on which you took it.

Thanks Nick for showing me this thread in the first place, this guy is great!

James

[nickmaxwell]

My pleasure, James

[questionable]

Originally Posted by houseplant

I have a couple holiday breaks coming soon, and as promised will be posting some additional videos with an in depth look at my process.

Consider me extremely interested. Very nice work.

[Bendybones]

Astounding piece of work!!
Very well done indeed.
Inspiring!
Looking forward to the tutorial like you can't believe!!

Thanks so much for sharing!

[NoiseTracker]

I have been using ableton 7 (I will upgrade when I can afford it) principally for sound design, as those are the jobs headed my way. I do so so soo want a frame nudge feature, or the ability to go to 1800 bpm (I converted frames/second to frames/minute) I am actually still thinking about this one, using beats/bars to maybe bring that down...i don't know.. also you can go Options>Time Ruler Format and display your time in methods other than seconds (on the bottom of the arrange window).

What I am doing currently for my assignments and outside gigs (usually theatre design stuff, nothing fancy has come by) is nothing nearly as complex as what you have going on there. Given my workload and deadlines I doubt it will at this point, but it is certainly an inspiration to know that someone else is using it for sound design! I have experience with pro tools myself, but there are just some things that ableton does better for me, and most of the time it's enough for me to live with the lack of a 'nudge'.

[gavory]

Hi,

Thats amazing work on the tron trailer.

Im about to start working on a short film for my dissertation and i will be using ableton live for the sound design aspect, then spotting, editing and mixing on pro tools.

I've never used live for post production work before, but this thread gives me confidence that i can achieve my goals with its capabilities.

Did you ever manage to finish the tutorials you were working on as it would be a great help to see your methods before i receive the first cut of the film?

cheers,

Gavin

[Slutpuppy]

Tutorial!!! Tutorial!! (all were chanting in unison)

[007]

Excellent work HousePlant, very impressive!

I've done a few sound design projects in the past, but they were more for a specific tasks, like commercial branding and adding foley-type sounds in various little jobs.
May I ask, how do you go about getting these video clips to do your sound effect mockups? Can you simply download them off YouTube or some other online resource? I'd like to put together a reel for sound design (I do a lot music for post but want to expand and always loved sound design), I just wonder where to get good quality clips like that (ie: movie trailers, commercials, etc.)

Thanks and keep up the good work!