The book To Become A Sound Designer is written as a handbook of advice, tips and tricks for aspiring sound designers. This is a literature review of the book and an overview of some of the key tips and tricks inside that can help boost your understanding and work ethic as a sound designer by miles. Throughout this book, many of the topics that he outlines within working with sound, relate to my first learning outcome, of working as a sound designer in the industry.
Moroz wrote this book all from personal experience and including many of his own encounters from past experiences of starting up as a sound designer, including the gear he started up with, how he used it and what he recorded, the software he used to compile his audio recordings on, and loads of nifty little tricks when working in DAW’s to speed up your workflow and productivity!
In the opening of the book Moroz talks about starting off, and his first bit of gear that he used to record sound the equipment he used was a Zoom H4n recorder and a Rode NGT-2 shotgun microphone equipped with a pistol grip. The setup itself is very simplistic but also works in both production value of capturing sound and also isn’t too expensive with the Zoom able to purchase for around £150 and the NGT-2 for about the same price. Both pieces of gear are well built and sturdy and also have been my choice of equipment in this project.
His next chapter in his book he talks about motivation, of course motivation is a key element when working as a sound designer especially if you’re working freelance. He states that the hardest point to work is when you lack motivation, this can be due to seeing the works of other sound designers and then you personally undervalue your own work. Moroz’s advice is to not look at the bigger picture, “but what is in front of you at the time” (Moroz 2016) he says that if there is nothing in front of you then that’s your problem – so basically if you’re not working on any projects at the time and instead idolising the works of others then this will cause a lack of motivation. His advice is to use the free time you have when you don’t have projects to experiment and try new things, so that when the workload does come through… you’ll have plenty to work with and progress with your own work.
He also gives some key guidelines that you can stick to when working to help boost productivity and motivation, like setting yourself deadlines. He advises that when you’re setting yourself a deadline, try to set it a little earlier than when you expect to finish a project, this way you will be constantly pushing yourself but remember not to set the deadline too early Moroz states that a little ambition can never hurt anyone, but if you rush the project too much you may end up taking quality out of the final product. Having loads of finished pieces is great! but if the quality isn’t there then that can also result in diminishing your own motivation yet again! so Quality over Quantity.
Moroz talks about relaxation and how it’s undermined but also can be quite dangerous. Without any downtime you wont be able to have those sparks of inspiration, but if you take too much time out from work you’ll end up loosing focus, your idea’s and maybe even the project itself. I too struggle with the balance of time out and time working … I think it’s a very fine line that differs from person to person and only you know when you can get it right. Personally I like to take an hour or two off from a project or when I’m doing my University work I might switch to another project for a while instead of this one, like my dissertation or my case study. But as Moroz said I will generally find myself lost in my dissertation and I’ve almost forgotten what I was writing about in this project.
Moroz also makes a strong point about asking questions, to which I agree. Asking questions about your work and getting opinions is great and can broaden your own image on your work, there may be something you’re missing or overlooking due to just listening to it over and over and eventually your ears will get tiered.
On a final note of this section on motivation Moroz makes a quick point about when you’re working on something and “When it Sounds S#’!” he states that over time… when you keep working at something, and it doesn’t sound like it’s getting any better, a break is needed. He suggests to leave that sound for a couple of hours or days and give yourself time to rethink what’s actually required to formulate the sound you want.
In the following chapter of the book Moroz explains the best ways of using what you’ve got in both software and hardware. He starts by saying how backing up your work is imperative, loosing recordings can easily break a project especially if the deadline is fast approaching and you can’t go back to the location to re-record those sounds. He states the same rules apply when buying hardware. If you’re walking round a location with a lot of hardware and gear you’re more and more likely to lose your gear! He says to label all your pieces of equipment with all your contact information which could be the saving grace of a lost recorder, as well as insuring all of your equipment incase of theft and damage, being a sound designer isn’t always cheap, as mentioned before a beginning setup can cost around £300 so when you progress and the more equipment you purchase the more it’s worth, and it’d be lovely to think that everyone in the world is an honest being, but of course you can’t take that risk. This is also something to take heed when hiring equipment out, make sure it’s taken care of, any misplaced pieces of hired equipment may end up costing you more than you bargained for.
When starting out as a sound designer, location sound record artist etc. Moroz reminds us to use our imagination with the equipment we have, he says it’s easy to fantasise about what we don’t have, but we should use this to push the capabilities of what we do have to their limits, constantly trying to get great recordings out of equipment. He stated that he used his startup gear of the Zoom H4N and the Rode NGT-2 lasted him years and that he still uses them occasionally in his work. One thing that I picked up on as quite interesting, he spoke about how once he wrapped his NGT-2 mic in cling film and attached blue tac to the end of it and used it as a makeshift contact mic.
Before buying new equipment it’s known that you should master what you’ve got at the moment, making sure you can get every last bit of quality out of it, so you know it inside and out, not only will this expand your knowledge on your current recording process and method, but when you do purchase new equipment you’ll already have a head start on how to use it. This also links in nicely with motivation… when you know how to use what you’ve got the best possibly standard, you’ll be able to imagine many different ways to perform and improve your work therefore increasing productivity.
Moroz talks about styles of a sound designer and more personally “Learning your own style” he states that this just comes down to experience, the more you do, the more you’ll learn about your production method! A great way to learn though is by analysing the methods of others, he says to look up their techniques and tricks on how they record, edit, design and approach a scene and from there you can decide yourself whether you like their style or not and if you want to implement any of their techniques into your own production method.
He adds a very handy point for any starting out sound designer about equipment, both microphones, recorders and additional equipment. He starts off by outlining four microphones (Rode NTG-2, Sennheiser MKH416, Rode NT1-A and the AKG C414) and adds a brief description of the mic and it’s uses. Each of these mic’s Moroz has used himself and gives his own opinions on them all, I myself have used the NTG-2 and the AKG 414’s before finding them very precise in providing clarity as well as an overall sturdy build. Below are his thoughts on the microphones.
-Rode NTG-2: “This is a fantastic mic for it’s price. Although it has a low impedance which makes it trouble some to record quiet sounds, it’s a great choice to learn how to overcome hardware downfalls in imaginative and interesting ways.”
– Sennheiser MKH416: “A great mic for production audio and field recording with an impressive track record. Using this for production audio as always been a joy and I would recommend this for experiences operators as its pickup field is fairly acute.”
Rode NT1-A and AKD C414: “If you’re looking for LDCs (large diaphragm condensers) for both foley or voiceover work these mics could be a great choice for you. Both have a different tonality, so try to choose the one that works best for your project.”
On the topic of recorders now Moroz picks out four which he has used and analyses them just like he did the microphones. The recorders he chose are
– Zoom H4N: “Yes the noise floor is high and the battery life drains faster than your wallet at a theme park but this recorder definitely has versatility on it’s side if you’re using it for a variety of applications; for example it has the ability to be used as a 2 track interface, 4 track recorder (2 line ins) and even a guitar tuner. It is by no means the greatest portable recorder in the world but it does have a soft spot in my heart for gear as it undoubtably helped develop my field recording skills in the early years.”
– Sony PCM-M10: “During the time of owning one of these I have begun to believe that this portable recorder is made of pure compressed magic. With a signal to noise ratio of 87dB or greater (1KHz IHF-A) when set to 24 bit it’s incredibly low. It’s rugged and has a battery life that seems to last generations.”
– Sound Devices 702 and 744T: “Overall fantastic and robust recorders. They are very user friendly and have many exceptional functions such as their built in limiters and storage options. Although they are on the pricy side they have been the staple recorder for many situations in the past.”
So there, Moroz has given us a brief overview of four different mics and recorders which he has used in the past and labelled their positives to give starting up and up and coming sound designers an overall picture of what to look for within equipment. In my personal opinion, I do enjoy using the Zoom h4n as I find it very user friendly and easy to handle and also comes with a stereo input on just the recording device itself, so if you didn’t have a microphone to hand although of course it’s advised, you can still get a decent recording.
He also adds in about other equipment that you’re going to need especially when recording sound on location, such as boom poles, flight cases headphones and windshields for you mics.
Towards the end of his book, Moroz writes about the one thing we all want to know … how to get work. He says that in the entertainment industry there is no real right or wrong way to get work. He suggests to look at what software a company uses and learn it inside and out so they don’t have to waste any time training you. He inputs a piece of advice given to him back in 2014, where it basically states to just keep emailing employers, but making sure that the emails do not consist of any grammatical errors. Sending out CV’s and cover letters to all companies that you may wish to work at, but not just sending it to the company try to get the email address of the employee you specifically want to speak to or emailing straight to the human and resources dept. He states to be formal and professional and not to start the email off with ‘Hi’, making an impression is everything. I will be adding an extra blog post on a guest lecture we had from Mark Hill who is a sound designer at Soho Square Studio’s in London, who had some pretty interesting idea’s in coming out of university and getting a job in sound design in the real world.
A few other tips and tricks Moroz add’s to project professionalism are simple things like adding a email signature and adding your number in the standard arrangement of your country.
Creating an online presence such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Vimeo, Facebook and Youtube. The more they have to see of you and your work… the better.
There are a couple of extra points that Moroz makes throughout his book, which I want to go over other blog posts, such as the use of software and DAW’s whats best? why? and little cheats for these DAW’s to make production faster… and technical terms of working with film such as picture lock dates and so forth.
