HWe've written about how the sound came together on both “ Les Miserables ” and “ The Hobbit ” last year, and now that the Superman franchise has been revived once again, we’ll take a look at how the sound on “Man of Steel” was put together.
The folks over at Soundworks Collection have put together a great video starring the sound team of the movie, speaking on how they created the sounds of not only earth, but also Krypton for the movie.
The worlds of music audio and movie audio are fairly distinct, but there is some interesting overlap between the two. For one thing, when you look at the control room during the mixing phase of audio for a music album or sound for a film, you’re likely to see the exact same scene: an engineer sitting in front of a computer with multiple tracks pulled up in Pro Tools (or the DAW of choice).
One of the biggest differences is the fact that movies have to be mixed for surround sound, and “Man of Steel” was mixed with a new Dolby Atmos technology that actually allows for even more directions of audio, including front-to-back and up-and-down in addition to left-and-right. But when it comes down to it, this is all just a balancing act the same way records are: making sure all parts are clear and audible where they need to be, with no frequencies blocking out sounds that need to be heard.
In fact, one of the engineers working on the film describes how they often had to work with the orchestral score of the film, and how they had to make the score work with the dialog and other sounds of the film. He describes the process of basically surrounding the primarily dialog and sound effects of the film with music, creating the effect of a “cathedral” with the music around the main sounds.
In addition to this, the engineers got to have a little fun creating the sound effects of the movie, and it’s pretty interesting to see their tricks revealed. For example, they employed a crane to drop a 9,000 lbs. piece of concrete over and over again, recording it each time. Additionally, some of those crazy and weird noises that make up the background noise of Krypton? It’s actually just very small pieces of rock being dropped over a toy xylophone.
Check out the video explaining more about mixing for film in the video.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
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2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
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4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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