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Principle of Operation: The Libraries |
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The whole idea behind SoundBuiler is to create a tool that allows you to build your own library of backgrounds. textures and Foleys. Thus the program itself is powerful enough to create a complete track, it is best suited to generate specific soundscapes possibly in surround to import later in your DAW being mixed and edited with all other elements of your film (dialogs, music etc.). So why use SoundBuider and not simply import an effect from your standard sound effects libraries? Analysis of a background environment If you think for a moment of how a background track for an image is composed, you will realize that unless you will record on the field the exact surrounding environment during the camera shooting, you will always have to deal with sounds that do not belong in space and time with that sequence. |
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| In fact when you look for background textures into your standard libraries for matching a specific image, you will often find incomplete or unwanted elements in the tracks. This is normal due to the extreme complexity and variability of environments that may include many different elements like for example in naturalistic or urban soundfileds. So most of the time you will have to edit your sounds, eq unwanted frequencies, add missing elements etc. The SoundBuider libraries Even if SoundBuilder allows you to import your own audiofiles it has been designed to be used with its own libraries. A SoundBuiled library is composed of 2 different types of sounds: 1) Backgrounds 2) Single Elements. The idea is that a complex surrounding environment is composed of a basic background texture that has no added elements, but that represents just the impression of a dimensional space. |
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| Over the background you will add all those elements that are needed for the picture. The program will handle all the necessary spatialization routines layering and balancing all elements at once. Let’s say you will have to create a soundscape in 5.1 for the following picture. First of all you will look in your Natural Environment CD (one of the libraries included with the program) and browse into the background folder. There you will find a list of soundfiles that will have names like “AirPressure_dry”, “Rainy”, “Windy”, “HotDay” etc. Once loaded in the Background channel in SoundBuilder (see below) you will hear a sample of the chosen space in 5.1 (providing you have a 5.1 monitoring system, otherwise you can choose stereo or mono format). This might be a gentle windy day impression or a rainy nite sensation, or any other dimensional impression but you will not hear any specific elements (birds, leaves, insects etc.) capturing your attention. Now you are ready to add and move your specific elements. |
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SoundBuilder allows you to add up to eight different single elements (you may however bounce all complete sound to disk as new background). Browsing the Single Elements directory of the same CD you will find sounds like leaves. birds. insects, sands, grounds etc. Once loaded you will simply move them in the space window or directly on the movie window and SoundBuilder will do the rest. When you are done just bounce to disk in the format required (5.1, LCRS, Stereo, Mono etc.). From a single library you will be able create an infinite number of sounds creating your own sound library for each specific production. SoundBuilder libraries not only will allow you to save time and gain exact matching of your sound to the film, but you will also notice an amazing increase in sound definition. This is due to the fact that during recordings all sounds have been focused for single types. Doing so you will achieve an extremely clean sound with no unwanted noises or other sound elements on the floor. The result is an extremely low noise, dynamic and high definition sound in surround.
How a Background is created. As we said before a background is a sound file that has been already recorded in 5.1 using special microphone techniques developed by Riccardo Mazza in the past years to create his famous Dolby Surround Encoded Renaissance sfx library. Those techniques have been evolved for the SoundBuiler project and a whole new surround on location recording tour have been accomplished to capture the right material either for background or single elements. |
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| SoundBuilder libraries format SoundBuilder libraries are standard audio. We provided 16 and 24bit on 44.1 and 48Khz , so that you may choose right away the right format for your session. Also if you may import a SoundBuilder library file in your DAW, those files have been specifically created to be used within the program and they won’t be very practical outside its contest. In particular Backgrounds are 5.0 interleaved files that SoundBuilder handles as native format without de-interleave them. |
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Single elements are mono files since they will be spatialized by the program. All files (background and Singles) have been edited so to loop indefinitely with enough duration and variation that you won’t recognize they are repeating themselves. SoundBuilder have been designed to handle this looped file with no delay between the start and end point calculating its timeline as if you load an endless file. This process is automatic and it will guarantee you to have enough time for your scene. The scheme above illustrates how a SoundBuilder library is composed and how it works. Considerations and conclusion This is a very experimental project and also for us that are developing it’s an adventure to discover always new possibilities and ideas. We expect in the near future an increasing number of libraries for SoundBuilder also produced by third party sound designers. In this spirit we give our support providing know-how, procedures and the trademark to print on the library for free. If you are planning to create and commercialize a library for SoundBuilder please ask for our third party developers form and we’ll be happy to support you within our possibilities. The market for video's sound is growing as fast as technology grows through all new wide band broadcast media ranging from telephones to satellite. SoundBuilder simplicity of use is a key point also for those professionals that belong to the video world and maybe with little experience in the audio field. On the other side also professional and experienced sound designers may find an invaluable tool in creating perfect soundscapes in surround in minutes. System Requirements |
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