Intro to Audio Spring Final Project – The Last of Us

I was given the opportunity to work with Ryan once again! Yay. He, fellow student Ethan, and I decided to recreate all the audio for the Truck Ambush Trailer from The Last of Us. Ryan and I drove two hours to my hometown and grabbed some guns and my mother’s truck. We also headed to a nearby “shooting range” where the locals bring their junk to shoot it to kingdom come. We were able to get some excellent crashing and breaking sounds from a couple broken televisions, multiple glass bottles, and some metal objects. Ryan also recorded gun shots and reloading and unloading for personal use.

We did not have professional voice actors to use, so Ethan voiced Joel and Ellie and I voiced the “Injured” Man. I also played and sang the Hank Williams song that is featured throughout the trailer. If we had more time on this, I would have liked to re-amp the song through an older radio and record that unique, grainy sound. I enjoyed working on this project and I hope I can work with Ryan again on future endeavors.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sound Effects Recording at The Pit (Pics)

First Impressions Audio

So far learning in the studio has been somewhat intimidating. I still do not fully understand most of the internal signal routing or the work on protools. However, the more hands on experience I have the more comfortable I am in the studio and I am getting the hang of headphone mixes, cues, talk-back, and protools basics.

Understanding Audio

The API 1608 mixing console is a great piece of analogue equipment, when combined with Pro Tools, giving an Engineer greater control over mixes and recordings.  Tracing the signal flow is fairly intuitive, once you get past the initial shock of the learning curve, everything is right where it should be. I am excited to learn this console, and produce my own tracks.

First Impressions

Having spent many hours in a recording studio many years ago, the basics seem to be relatively the same but the vernacular has changed some. Each studio and console has it’s own geography and labeling system for things, echo sends for effects sends. Hopefully my memory will serve me well enough to retain the new words vs. continually translating the old ones.

Multitrack Audio Thoughts

Well I thought there was a lot to the Toft mixing board in the Audio Studio. Now, Terry (my new professor for Summer quarter) has us learning to use a BIGGER mixing board. At least this one has LED buttons which make it easier to see what is activated. Everything is a little confusing to me right now, but I think it’s because I haven’t really gotten a good look at the board. We’re crammed into a tiny space and must look over each other’s shoulders to see the board. So that’s a bummer.