Interview with Jeff Schmidt about Ominous Thrill

I was honored to talk to podcast critic Kevin Wan from Tea in the Saraha about my new series, Ominous Thrill.
Listen here.

SHOW NOTES:
Jeff Schmidt is not just a sound designer; he is a storyteller whose canvas is the auditory realm. His debut podcast 'Ominous Thrill' is a gritty, full-cast anthology series that delves into the dark corners of the human psyche. In this Tea in the Saraha episode, host Kevin Wan uncovers the layers of creativity and passion that fuel Jeff's work.

From his early days in broadcast radio to his impressive work on video games like Diablo III and World of Warcraft, Jeff has always been drawn to the intersection of sound and narrative. The discussion takes us through his transition into podcasting, where he found a vast field of experimentation and creative freedom. With 'Ominous Thrill,'’ Jeff has crafted a space to unfurl his artistic vision without constraint.

You’ll hear a candid look at the challenges and triumphs of indie podcasting. Jeff's reflections on the indie space are particularly poignant, highlighting the importance of community and the courage to pursue one's art. His insights into character development and story construction are invaluable for anyone interested in the craft of podcasting or storytelling in general.

The episode also delves into the nuances of sound design, with Jeff sharing his philosophy on creating immersive audio experiences that serve the story first and foremost. His dedication to authenticity, especially in scenes pushing the envelope, is admirable and enlightening.

As you listen to Jeff Schmidt's journey, you can't help but be inspired by his dedication to his craft and his willingness to explore new territories in audio fiction. 'Ominous Thrill' is a testament to what can be achieved when creativity meets technical expertise.

If you're a fan of audio dramas, horror thrillers, or just great storytelling, this episode of 'Tea in the Sahara' is a must-listen. Perhaps you'll find the inspiration to start your own creative venture. Who knows, the next great podcast could be yours.


Birth of OMINOUS THRILL

Hello, Thriller!  I'm Jeff Schmidt - the creator of Ominous Thrill. Thank you for checking in.  This first post is all about how this crazy little indie-audio-fiction series came to be. Hopefully, you'll find a bit of inspiration here, too.  Here we go. 

In 2019, I challenged myself to develop a few story ideas for a potential “horror anthology” fiction audio series that could be “pitched” to publishers. 

They were very simple logline ideas with no deeper story or even characters attached.  It was simply a matter of getting a few ideas down, plopping them into a fancy pitch deck, sending it out to “market” with an agent “shopping it” to publishers and platforms. I figured if someone (anyone??) wanted to pick up the series, the “story” stuff could be developed at that point.  

Well, even back then, in the halcyon days of “stupid money” sloshing through podcasting, there was no “stupid money” to be found for this horror anthology idea. People generally distrusted fiction, horror, and anthology as a monetizable podcast format. This pitch was all three - and to be fair… they were mostly correct. Of these kinds of shows (fiction/anthology/horror), only a few earn back their expenses and more, and they are by far the exceptions. Most projects like this are lucky to make money and are purely a “labor of love” or a hobby.  Nothing wrong with any of that, just the reality of the “market.”

At the time, I was extremely busy working on client projects, so it was too easy to set the whole idea aside and forget about it—except I never really forgot about it. 

It wasn’t that specific project idea that kept burning in me, but the idea of becoming a creator—of moving from being only a service provider to other storytellers and becoming a storyteller myself, developing my own ideas. 

It would take far too many years for me to finally carve out space to do that. But in late 2022, I decided i could put it off no longer. The result is “Ominous Thrill.” 

The idea of making my own series stretches back even further; so far, in fact, it’s embarrassing for me to admit how many years I let go by without acting on my own artistic impulse. 

If there is any lesson to be gleaned from Ominous Thrill, let it be this: no matter your age or station or whatever real or imagined limits you face, do not ignore your own artistic impulse. Do not set it aside to focus only on the needs of others for extended periods. It's frightening how quickly days become weeks, months, and years.  

Carve out space in your life, even if only a few minutes a day—steal back that time for yourself and explore your artistry. And yes, I want you to call yourself an artist. Give your effort the time and dignity you deserve. Leave expectations of success and external validation behind and just DO. What you “end up” with is not the point because you’ll find no end. Trust that the process and journey of doing, making, and exploring is enough to nourish your spirit in ways few other pursuits can.

I'll create more specific posts about the inspiration behind individual episodes in the coming days/weeks/months.  So subscribe and or check back every so often.

Of course, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message directly HERE.

Cheers!

--jeff

OMINOUS THRILL Launches

After years of making other creator’s stories come to life, it was well past time to go out and make some of my own! OMINOUS THRILL is my new audio fiction series. It launched everywhere on Feb 15 and so far the response has been great.

it’s a full-cast dark fiction episodic anthology of stories featuring characters driven by obsession, love, rage, and revenge clashing in the murky worlds of the supernatural and paranormal.

I wrote/directed/cast/produced and sound-designed the series which I plan to release every month.

Seven episodes are ready to go and I’m working on more. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being damn proud of how it’s turned out.

I’ll share more insight into the making of the project as more episodes roll out.

Of course, you can expect me to talk about the project’s sound design, which I think is some of my best work to date.

But I also want to talk about the motivation for doing this in the project first place. Including the challenges of taking on all the roles necessary to bring this to life. What I had to overcome, what I’ve learned so far, and what I’m planning for the future of Ominous Thrill.

Click the cover art above to pick your listening platform of choice.

Please subscribe or follow the show and if you enjoy it, please leave a review and a nice 5-star rating!

Feel free to message me directly with your thoughts too!

Enjoy1

Sound as cinematography

I find Cinematography really inspiring to my audio work. Often more inspiring than sound design.  That might sound strange, considering I am a sound designer in the Audio medium.  

How do we as Audio storytellers create a scene that sounds like this looks?

But even in the Audio medium, "sound" is too often approached as it is in other media - a thing to do last, in service to something else deemed more critical.

For example, in Film and TV, the sound serves the image.

But for Audio Storytelling, it begs the question - what other medium is sound in service to? 

Some might answer it's the STORY! On the surface, it seems that way, but not quite.

The Story is not the medium; the Story is the message.

A message can be delivered over any media (a book, comic, Game, TV/Film, audiobook, a podcast). And each medium offers unique attributes that, when carefully considered, create something far more potent than the Story alone.

How do we as Audio storytellers create Silhouette?

So The Story holds the same place in Audio as in Film and TV. It’s the message. 

Digging deeper, we see that Sound is to your Audio Story what Cinematography is to your Visual Story: the very medium of the Story's expression. And just like cinematography does in Film/TV, Sound offers unique artistic opportunities in how an Audio Story can be told.

How can Audio create Bokeh?

There is no intermediary between Sound and Story in the Audio medium. The relationship is direct. Sound is the very medium through which you tell your Story.  

This direct relationship excites me the most about Audio and is why I mainly work in Audio first media like Podcasts, specifically fiction audio.  

To be sure, oral storytelling is the original tradition. And the simplest form is to point a microphone at it and call it an “Audio story.” But that’s not unlike pointing a camera at the same storyteller and calling it Film. Sure, technically, yes. But is it the art of Film?

How might audio stylize a “walk and talk” like this?

Audio has so much more unique potential to offer our story-telling than that. 

Because the Story is the message - we storytellers get to choose the medium of its expression. And we should choose a medium with purpose, with an eye and ear toward taking advantage of the unique abilities of that medium.

For example, suppose you decided on Audio as the medium to tell your Story. In my opinion, it's essential for you to be as interested in how sound can tell your Story in Audio as a visual storyteller is in how they could use visuals to tell theirs.

One of my favorite parts of Audio storytelling is working with writers directly on finding opportunities to use Sound to its full advantage in their audio stories - long before the first sound is recorded.

Let me know if you’d like to chat about your story, I’d enjoy hearing from you!

Sound Designed Audio Scene DEMOS

Sound DEMOS are finally available!

Now you can listen to individual scenes from selected Audio Fiction series I've Sound Designed.

Just go to the SOUNDS tab above - or CLICK HERE. They’re also on YouTube

SCENES VS MONTAGE

I’ve chosen to share full scenes in this round of examples rather than doing a smash-cut montage of shorter clips. Scenes are the heart of story-telling.

Sharing full scenes is a more realistic demonstration of the craft than a “trailer” style highlight reel.

These scenes range from tense, dramatic, and thrilling/terrifying to soft, quiet, introspective, and humorous. The best stories feature some contrast, so I’ve tried to cover a broad range in these examples.

In sharing these scenes, I hope to make it easier for potential collaborators to evaluate the work without listening to an entire series. The download links are also activated so that they may be more easily shared.

I also hope these inspire others in their efforts at producing audio for fiction series and even spark some conversation.

As always - if you have any questions, let me know; I try to respond to every query.

And if you like what you hear, please CONNECT with me to chat about what we can do with your story.

The Battle of Should vs Could

Follow me on a moderately lengthy trip through the Jeff Schmidt Wayback machine. 

For clarity, I use the word COULD in this article to mean a question leading to exploration - and SHOULD to mean a command.

What COULD something be? vs the way it SHOULD be?

I have long preferred and thrived on creative projects where I'm free to explore what "COULD" - rather than follow the rules based on "SHOULD.”

ONWARD!

After the great financial bamboozle came crashing down in 2008, I began looking at other options for an audio career. I was fortunate to have a good job as a Creative Director in radio, but everything felt very precarious as many of my colleagues were shoved out of work.

I investigated audio work in film and video games. Getting work in video game audio was quite a bit easier than getting film work at that time. I just had to prove my skills, and I was able to start working on reasonably well-known games. Unfortunately, the Film Post industry was not at all like that. 

After a few years of freelance sound design in video games, I thought it was time to get out of Radio and into a full-time J-O-B in games. I was offered a full-time opportunity, but it required a 25% pay cut from what I was making in Radio (no joke), and I'd have to move to Irvine, CA.

If you've never been to Irvine, hmmm - > 

Irvine also had the distinction of being just as pricey as my Northern California digs.  So, I had to pass.

PEW, PEW, PEW!

Shortly after that, in 2011, I learned about a local opportunity available at the game studio formerly known as "LucasArts." 

I applied and got an interview. Next, I had to perform a sound design test. 

The test was to create sounds for a video montage of game footage. That was the standard template of game audio sound design tests at the time, and it was precisely the kind of demo I started my game audio career with by re-designing the sound on a BioShock trailer.

Anyway, when the test package came over, I opened it and was horrified. It was all from a Star Wars game. Now, I should have suspected that was going to be the case, the studio being LucasArts and all, but LucasArts also had a history of other titles like the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango. But no, I had to design Star Wars. I can already hear you - “Jeff, what was your problem? I’d kill to sound design Star Wars sounds! “

Good question - what was my problem? 

It was clear that the purpose of this test was about how well I could create "Star Wars" sounds. 

Blasters (Pew, Pew, Pew), Lightsabers, Tie-Fighters, Vader-like characters, and all the well-known sounds of the Star Wars universe were in this 2-minute video. This test was about meeting the expectations of the Star Wars franchise. The franchise had already deeply established the ways this material SHOULD sound. Of course, the studio claimed they wanted to see how imaginative applicants could be within that framework. Fair enough, Star Wars was their primary business, after all. But that "framework" felt like an awful lot like "formula" to me. 

My work on that test was passable but hardly extraordinary, and it’s no surprise I didn’t make the cut. Nevertheless, this was an eye-opening moment. It was the first time I knew the kind of work I didn’t want to do and why. I loved the opportunity to develop the COULD in things, but not interested in following the SHOULDS of other people’s work. This might be the same reason I never performed in a cover band, but I digress. To continue the history, within a year, Disney acquired LucasFilm and shuttered the LucasArt studio. That gig was not meant to be anyway. 

Based on the sheer tsunami of Star Wars content flowing into the world over the past decade, many talented people do not share my views about this. That's perfectly fine. I don't begrudge them one bit. If it works for them - great. That kind of thing doesn't work for me, and I'm grateful to know that about myself.

The most interesting thing for me is that Star Wars started with COULD. 

Hi, I’m a Samurai - in friggin space!

What COULD a dogfight in space look like? 

What COULD a Samurai in space look like?

What COULD a laser sword sound like?

Ben Burtt (Star Wars' original sound designer) had the privilege of discovering for himself what a lightsaber COULD sound like. The entire Star Wars sound came from his work. Asking "what could…?" allowed Ben to follow his curiosity and imagination, resulting in some of the most iconic sounds in film history.

Imagine if Lucas had told Ben that Star Wars SHOULD sound like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yikes.

That said - after the tremendous success of Star Wars, all those COULD questions were solidified into SHOULDs. Tie Fighters SHOULD sound like this - Light Sabers SHOULD sound like that. Of course, there have been iterations and interpretations, but as far as I could tell, they all stayed clearly inside the lines of SHOULD.

As a side note - toxic fandom is obsessed with the SHOULD of it all.

RADIO - A VERITABLE SHOULD FEST

I constantly faced SHOULD in my radio work. This station SHOULD sound like every other station with the same kind of programming. I always rebelled. And while I had a few victories over the years, more often than not, the baseline expectation - was to meet expectations. Bow to the SHOULDS!

NOW ENTERING THE SHOULD-FREE ZONE - PODCASTS!

That is why I jumped at the chance to work in podcasts in 2015. It was all new and wide open. Public Radio had a LOT of SHOULDS - but PODCASTS didn't!

The primary thrill for me (and still is really) was figuring out what podcast sound design COULD be like. 

Hello! I’m the Blue Sky of limitless possibility!

That led to lots of experiments and unconventional approaches. Some didn’t work, but a few did, namely the approach I happened upon in collaboration with Mark Ramsey on "Inside Psycho." 

I refined and used that approach on numerous other shows covering business, history, undercover DEA agents, jazz greats, and more. The approach was even adopted by Wondery, which rolled it out on countless more shows. Some of which I worked on. But I could never stay on any of those projects beyond the launch.

WAIT, WHO LET THE SHOULD IN HERE?

After a bit, all the COULDs turned into SHOULDs. The same was true for the investigative mini-series on which I worked. For example, Dr. Death S1 was all about COULD for me. S2 was about SHOULD as I had already established what that show sounded like. I respectfully declined to work on S3 or beyond.

These were all cases where even my own COULDS became SHOULDS. That didn’t matter. I enjoyed the COULD part tremendously and hated when it crossed over into SHOULD.

In creative work, SHOULD is a demoralizing word for me. When I see it in producer notes, it’s a shut-down. "This SHOULD be like that" means a decision has already been made. Even if it’s based on something I originally discovered by exploring COULD - SHOULD turns creative work into task work.

SHOULD does not inspire me.

MINOR REALITY CHECK

I acknowledge that we all have to perform a certain amount of SHOULD task-based work in our professional lives. I'm not extreme in my avoidance of SHOULD task-based work. There is an efficiency to SHOULD that we can’t ignore. We don't need to reinvent the wheel on everything. And when that’s clear, SHOULD is perfectly acceptable.

Of course, it’s not always black and white. Most projects are not all COULDs or all SHOULDS - there are often a lot of potential COULDs lurking between the SHOULDS and lots of SHOULD lurking amongst the COULD.

Additionally, there have been fun projects with long-standing SHOULDS where the teams were genuinely looking for new COULDs. Those can be fun, too. We only really know once we try.

Ultimately, it's about knowing what ignites your creativity. I'm grateful to have learned this bit about myself, even if it was a bit later than ideal.

Here's hoping that in 2023 I continue to work more from COULD than SHOULD.

Will I Read Your Script? Yes, I insist.

The inspiration for this article came from listening to an audio fiction producer's webinar. I was surprised to hear them say, "most of the sound designers they've worked with don't read the scripts ahead of time; they don’t want to."

I thought this had to be a mistake. That hasn’t been my approach at all — I’ve always read the scripts.

Since designing my first narrative podcast story, "Inside Psycho," I have studied every script from beginning to end. Doing so enabled me to search out all the audio elements I needed to craft to bring the story to life. I could also identify the character arcs, emotional journeys, and critical tension points.

It was clear that my success as a sound designer depended on more than just creating a list of sound cues I’d need to design for the story. It also hinged on how well I understood the underlying story and how well the script communicated it.

That's when I got interested in how stories were crafted. Since then, I've spent a lot of time reading books, articles, talks/webinars, screenplays, and interviews about story craft, writing, directing, and cinematography. Recently, I have been writing my own projects. More on that another time.

Through my ongoing process of learning about story-telling while also designing audio for a LOT of stories, I started being able to notice problem areas in scripts. There were mostly communication and story issues, but also issues where “sound” could have been used to better effect. In the past, I’d noticed these issues too late in the process.

The typical workflow in my world at that time was simple. I was given a completed dialogue edit and a script simultaneously, with the expectation that I'd start designing immediately and get a mix back as soon as possible.

Now, the built-in assumption with this approach (which took me years to finally realize was false) is that this "story" I received to work on is “ready for post-production.”

I'd often discover parts of the story didn't work while trying to design them. Since there was no feedback mechanism or workflow to address this, I had to "design through" these broken story bits. Then I’d submit the mix and wait for producer "notes" in an attempt to fix it. As you can imagine, it always came back to haunt with often onerous rewrites and restructuring. These were the changes that were best and most efficiently made on the page, or at least in reviewing the dialogue edit rather than after the episode had gone through the sound design phase. Of course, this can happen to even the best-planned project. But those situations are exceptions rather than the rule.

Am I writing an audio-drama, or coding ransom-ware? Only mid-journey knows for sure.

When I focused more on audio fiction, I changed how I worked. First, I request to see scripts up front, often even before committing to a project. I’m often made aware of the story without the script - but the script tells me HOW the story will be told. That’s important to me. It also helps me understand how ready the script is to go into production. Second, after I’ve read the script and made notes, I need to meet with the writer/director/creative lead to go through it, page by page, scene by scene. I want to be able to ask questions, talk about the story and script to gain a deeper understanding, and, if needed, make suggestions. In 90% of the cases where I could use this process, it helped improve the project. Not always, but most of the time.

Of course, not every project lends itself to this workflow precisely. And not every project wants that level of involvement from the sound designer. That’s fine. But that's how I've chosen to work because I believe it results in better outcomes for me and the whole project.

All this is a long way of saying - yes, I’ll read your script.

In fact, I insist.

Spooky Season is ON!

Is there a better time of year for sound than Halloween?

Audio is the driving force behind the most effectively terrifying horror/thriller tales across film, TV and yes - even audio first media like Podcasts!

I'm thrilled and grateful to report that I've been creating terrifying audio for a few exciting horror projects this year - here's the latest!

DARK SANCTUM

A 7-episode Horror/Thriller/Fantasy fiction series. It's an homage of sorts to classic anthology series like The Twilight Zone and Tales From The Crypt and finds me reuniting with my long-time collaborator/partner Mark Ramsey.

Dark Sanctum features the acting talents of Bethany Joy Lenz (One Tree Hill, Dexter), Clive Standen (Vikings, Doctor Who), and Michael O’Neill (Jack Ryan, Dallas Buyers Club).

Listen to Dark Sanctum in stunning Dolby Atmos surround sound - only on Wondery+

THE TIMEKEEPER

The Timekeeper is a 2-hour Horror/Thriller YA audio drama staring Judah Lewis, (The Babysitter, The Babysitter: Killer Queen) Chandler Kinney (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) and Arjun Athalye (Are You Afraid of the Dark)

The story follows Charlie (Judah Lewis) and his best friends Zoe & Gama (Kinney & Athalye) as they're pulled into a life-and-death version of a supposedly cursed video game called "13 Keys"

The series made its live debut on TWITCH on Oct 21, with part one, and then part two live on Twitch on Oct 26th.

There is also a web3 companion game that uses clues from the audio story as it mirrors the game in the story with NTF prizes and bonuses. This was a super fun project to work on.

Check it out - tick-tock!

I HEAR FEAR

Finally, for fans of narrative-driven, “enhanced audio book” style of fiction, I worked on three episodes of I HEAR FEAR - a 6-episode anthology series of scary tales inspired by real events.

Hosted by two-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan.

Episode 1 “Dance To Death”

I'm psyched to have worked on these original horror series. Can we make Halloween year-round? I'm going to get working on that! I think winter, spring, and summer can make great spooky seasons too!

Happy 5th Anniversary "Inside Psycho"

My journey into Podcast sound design & scoring began with Mark Ramsey and “Inside Psycho”.

Episodes 1 & 2 (of 6) were released on Wondery on this day - March 23, 2017.

It actually started in 2015.

I had been editing Mark’s semi-monthly podcast “Media Unplugged” where he and Tom Asacker would dissect current headlines from the media space and offer their insights. Mark and I shared common views on many issues on the media space, specifically that Commercial Radio (where we both earned our keep) wasn’t using audio to its full creative potential.

Mark wanted to do something to demonstrate that belief for his upcoming “Future Audio Festival - HIVIO”. HIVIO was a cross-media “un-conference” of people specifically interested in, well, the future of audio. Mark asked me to create a :90 piece of audio that would demonstrate the “Power of Audio” to be played at the festival. You can hear that piece here:

Afterward, the piece made the rounds in commercial radio management mainly as an example of how to sell clients on the “Power Of Audio/Radio” ….advertising.

Cue sad trombone.

That wasn’t really the point I was trying to make - and it certainly wasn’t the point Mark was trying to make. We were interested in harnessing the “power of audio” to create compelling content.

But all was not lost. For one, the piece was the first real demonstration of my attitude about audio - that audio lets us CREATE ANYTHING and GO ANYWHERE - so why don’t we?

Mark pitched me the idea of creating an “inspired by” docu-drama style podcast about the making of a classic movie - in this case, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller PSYCHO! The concept for the series was very simple. Inside Psycho was not going to be a film history, critical review, or talking head/interview podcast.

Instead, it would use a single narrator who would dramatically tell the tales of the making of the film and occasionally assume the roles of characters in the stories. It would feature elaborate sound design, and production. Mark wanted the sound to be its own character in the series. But…. we would not use the original soundtrack or any clips/audio from the film.

Crazy, right?

What the hell - it was podcasting in 2016, so we went for it.

We started with a 6 minute "proof of concept” which was eventually used as the series trailer. Listen below.

Mark had already targeted a potential platform he thought would be a perfect fit for the project, but they were only interested in video. They didn’t understand why anyone would “listen” to something like that. Ahhh 2016, we don’t miss ya that much!

But Mark had more than a few other ideas. After all his future audio conference HIVIO brought together lots of forward-thinking people. One of whom was Jeffrey Glasser. Jeffrey was an NBC TV Executive who had just left a prime TV Programming role to start a little podcast company with fellow TV Executive Hernan Lopez. That company… Wondery.

According to Mark, Jeffrey heard the 6-minute trailer and thought it was unlike anything he had heard at that time. Plus, it didn’t hurt that the entire team behind this “unique” production was just Mark and me. Wondery wanted to know if we could make 6, 25- 30 minute episodes. Mark checked with me - we agreed to do it and Wondery supported us to make “Inside Psycho” - which launched as I said - on this day in 2017.

Over the next few years we followed up with series like Inside The Exorcist, Inside Jaws, Inside Philadelphia, and Inside Star Wars. Each series grew more elaborate in writing and production but always remained true to the same two-man show of Mark and me.

During that time Wondery took the basic concept we had created with the “Inside…” series and learned how to deploy it to tell all kinds of stories. The approach had become a kind of Wondery “house style” as it was used to stand up many of their most popular series.

It started with Business Wars, which I helped launch with the debut series Netlifx vs HBO. The “Inside” approach also drove the series American Innovations, American History Tellers, American Scandal, Imagined Life, and many others including recent ambitious series like Against The Odds. It’s a very versatile format in the right creative hands and Wondery proves to be a true master at it.

So it was Inside Psycho that introduced me to Wondery and that led Wondery to invite me to work on many of their high-profile investigative mini-series like Dirty John, Dr. Death, and… well, you can see the credits on the “works” page.

So this post is just a quick trip down memory lane and a tip of that hat to the podcast series and creative partner Mark Ramsey that started my “official” podcast career. I’ve had so many great podcast series to work on because of that one special show.

The Inside… series might be over - but Mark and I have a few other tricks up our sleeves that I look forward to talking more about in the coming months.

Embed Block
Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

Podcast Movement 2022 Los Angeles

Just a quick note to mention that I’ll be participating in a panel at Podcast Movement next week about “Sound Design for True Stories”.

If you’re in LA let me know and maybe we can connect. Otherwise, it should be streamed live to “virtual” attendees.

AFTERSHOCK nominated for Ambie Awards

It seems I just can’t stop writing about AFTERSHOCK on here! This time it’s to share that the series has been nominated for an Ambie Award in the Best Indie Podcast category. Additionally, David Harbour was nominated for Best Actor in a fiction podcast category. No surprise there as David was quite brilliant (seemingly effortlessly) in the series. Obviously, a nomination is not a win (yet???) but it’s nice to have the work we all put into this series recognized a bit.

Now Mixing in Dolby Atmos

2021 was the year I upgraded my studio from Stereo to 9.1.4 to mix audio in Dolby Atmos. 

For those unfamiliar, Dolby Atmos is an immersive surround sound platform that's been in use in cinema since 2012, and Home Theater setups a few years later.  Most modern smartphones today can decode Dolby Atmos audio.  You've probably already heard it in the cinema, at home, or in video games.

The main difference between previous surround sound formats such as 5.1 is the addition of overhead speakers and some technical magic to allow sounds to be placed beyond the exact physical speaker locations.  Some people have tossed around the term "3D audio" to explain Dolby Atmos but after mixing and referencing a LOT of Atmos content for the past few months I disagree with calling it "3D". More on that in a bit.

But first the big question: why upgrade my studio to a cinema surround format when most of my audio work is listened to on headphones?  The short answer is because Dolby Atmos can be listened to on headphones.  And that is the real benefit of working in Dolby Atmos. I can mix a project in Atmos and the playback will conform to whatever setup the listener is listening on.

The adoption of Dolby Atmos at the consumer level has been increasing for years in soundbars and phones but received a major boost last year when Apple announced support for iPhones and AirPod Pro in Apple Music (along with Tidal, & Amazon Music, and a few others). Since then Apple has introduced MacBook laptops supporting Atmos and there will be even more.

The Atmos format is finally reaching the level where it will be in the devices consumers already have or will have without them even needing to ask for it. It's even coming to automobiles. Podcasts will be the next entertainment platform I expect to support the proper delivery of Dolby Atmos content. Probably even in 2022. So for these reasons, I felt like now is the right time for me to get working in the format and upgrade my studio with a 14 speaker system.

To date, I've remixed both seasons of the Wondery audio drama "Blood Ties" as well as the first episode of season 1 of Dr. Death and The Apology Line in Dolby Atmos. I'll probably create another article about that experience in the coming weeks. I expect to be doing a lot of mixing in Atmos this year and hopefully will find some time to post about those projects as the year progresses.

3D AUDIO?

Let’s acknowledge that marketing language is often simply an exaggeration. If you’ve heard the term 3D Audio it’s purely a marketing term. I don’t think it’s Dolby’s term as I’ve never seen or heard them use it.

That said - I have seen many productions that use the Dolby Atmos platform call their own work “3D Audio”.

From my point of view - this is a misleading term mainly because it sets an expectation I don’t think Atmos can always deliver.

When compared to 3D Film/TV/Video, Dolby Atmos sound is far more subtle. So far there is nothing I’ve heard in Atmos including my own experiments and work has delivered a WOW effect on the level of seeing 3D visuals like Avatar. Dolby Atmos is not what I’d call “holographic” which is what I’d want to hear before calling something 3D sound. That said - I know marketing people need to hype things and will continue to use the phrase - just know that it’s often just that - marketing jargon.

Still, Dolby Atmos absolutely does allow us to create far more dynamic and enveloping sound for our projects than good old stereo. And with headphone support improving all the time - that experience will be available to more and more people in the weeks and months ahead. I’m fully on board and am looking forward to the incredible sound we can create in Dolby Atmos.

SHOULD SOUND BE INVISIBLE?

Over the years, I’ve heard various Film & TV sound editors say the way they know they've done a good job is if the audience doesn’t notice their work. Of course, that makes sense for TV & Film where the image is the dominant force. Sound is there to support the images which is the dominant medium.

When we turn to audio stories, like podcasts, I consider it a major missed opportunity if the audience doesn't notice the sound.

Unlike in TV/Film, sound IS the image in audio stories. To treat sound as subordinate is ridiculous because sound IS the very medium itself.

If you were thinking sound should be in service to the story or writing, that’s still a bit myopic in my opinion. Of course, all the crafts serve the story - that’s table stakes. But when a story moves across different media, it is the story-telling that should adapt to take full advantage of that media's unique capabilities.

The story-telling adapts to the medium.

This is why you wouldn’t publish a screenplay as a novel. Or treat a novel as the screenplay. The story-telling and writing adapt to meet the medium.

Audio is simply another medium for which the writing and story-telling must adapt.

If you're choosing to tell a story as an audio story, you should be open to exploring the uniqueness of the audio medium.

“In audio story-telling, the sound isn’t serving a greater form - it IS the form. ”

When we adopt this view, we are well on our way to using sound to its full potential. The good news is I’m here to help!

I’ve found it most productive when my role is treated more like a cinematographer than a film sound editor. While I use many of the tools and techniques of film sound, the purpose and intent are more like cinematography as sound is how we create our images. That imagery should be rich and vivid and sparkle with life. It should enchant and delight the audience as any character might.

Sound is the stylized layer that builds the world our characters inhabit and how we feel about it from moment to moment. Sound Design is to audio stories as cinematography is to film.

Approach sound in that way and you’ll be amazed at what you can create.

Immersion PT 3 - 3D Sound Hiding in Plain... hearing? The Sound of Aftershock

In the previous two articles, I covered the basic origin of Binaural audio or "3D Sound" and some things to consider when deciding if it's the right approach for your story.  I also shared that I have been using Binaural audio in all my work since 2017. That's what this article is about. 

As I mentioned previously - my general approach with Binaural has been to use it in subtle ways rather than in obvious ways that would call attention to itself. But, of course, there are exceptions, and I'll share some here.

My approach has been based on the way film sound treats surround sound. The general guide in film sound (not a rule) has been to be a bit conservative with the rear surround speakers - to use them to gently wrap the story world around the audience without drawing too much attention to itself.  The point is to enhance immersion but avoid creating distractions "back there" that might take attention away from the screen. Of course, this is only a guide (most films adhere to it, though), but many ignore this rule to great dramatic effect. 

Even in documentary work, I start with backgrounds and ambiances. I love creating deeply layered and evolving backgrounds in my audio stories. It's a great way to paint the world outside the dialogue and situate our characters in a place and time. To my ear, this is one of the main ways to create sonic immersion.

Let's take an example from the fiction series I designed, "Aftershock," and the main interrogation room.

Pop on some headphones and take a listen to this clip where I walk through my approach.

So there are the main ambiance sounds placed normally.  And then more layers of ambiances binauralized to appear behind the listener - like surround sound speakers.  And just like in film these sounds are usually a bit quieter than the main ambience sounds in front.  The point is to gently wrap the world around the listener and create more depth. 

It's common for me to put moving things "back there" as well.  Like this exterior example in post-earthquake LA.

Again we have the upfront backgrounds - and the "surround" background. Plus the activities binauralized to create a sense of distance, scale, and depth to the world.

Ok - sounds good- but what else?  How about characters! It’s one thing to have immersive environments but we need to do more that just plop our characters on top. How?

Returning to the Aftershock interrogation room - here's a demonstration of various ways 3D can help put our characters IN the world.

So we have what I call the "narration zone" - this is where the voices sound completely upfront and as close as they can get. This is where narration sits. Our characters should not be in this zone unless they are narrating the story. 

The main level is what I call the "personal space" zone - or distance. I like characters to be about 3- 6 feet away from each other and our listeners. This feels most natural to how we're used to listening to others speak in real life. By using this 3- 6 ft of personal space as a baseline we not only have a more realistic spatial relationship between characters and the listener - we also have room to make more creative choices in moving our characters closer or further away depending on the needs of the story. 

I also identify Far away Zone - that seems obvious and there are numerous examples in Aftershock of characters who start out far away and come closer.

DANGER ZONE

And then there is the “Danger Zone” - or the Intimate Zone. The Intimate Zone is very close to each other and to the listener - almost ASMR close. This zone is the “Danger Zone” because it’s very easy for it to be confused with the Narration Zone if characters exist at this distance for too long. Like anything else, it loses its effect the longer it persists or the more it’s used.

I learned this lesson the hard way on a project where the repeated request was to move the characters “closer”, “closer”. Following this request put the characters almost constantly in the Intimate Zone. As a result, to my ears, the characters sounded separate from the sonic world the listeners were supposed to believe they existed in. This is probably the most common misstep I hear in audio drama - “Studio voice” closeness of characters tacked on top of distant backgrounds.

The solution is to push your characters back a few feet. Don’t worry - we will still be able to hear and feel them. And when they do move in close to the Intimate Zone… it can be really powerful.

So those are some of the more subtle ways I've been hiding "3D sound" in plain ... hearing. These kinds of examples are used countless times in nearly every series I've worked on - documentary and fiction.

So how about a more upfront example? From a documentary?

Here’s a section from episode one of Wondery’s “The Vaping Fix”.

This is a first-person account and the sound design is intentionally dramatic. The use of 3D Sound is more upfront and stylized here to deliver a sense of hyper-realism.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to talk about Binaural sound without mentioning Mark Ramsey’s “Inside the Exorcist” docu-drama. It was in designing the sound for that series where regular use of 3D Sound really started for me.

Here’s a sample from Episode 1.

The entire series makes use of Binaural audio, but it’s not a 3D show. The “3D” elements exist as a spice rather than the main point.

These examples were created with various commercial binaural audio tools including software and microphones to spatialize the sounds.

What about Dolby Atmos?

Atmos is getting more and more use for Podcasts so I decided to start working with it. It was too late to use it on Aftershock episodes as they were already finished - but I did get the chance to design and mix the Aftershock trailer in the Dolby Atmos tool.

Again - best heard with headphones as this is a fairly upfront example of the Binaural “sound”.

So that wraps this series on “immersive” audio tools and techniques for audio stories. I hope this was helpful to you in thinking about this topic - and I look forward to hearing from you on your approaches and what you’ve been up to with it all. Obviously, this can go very deep and there will always be new creative ways to use these tools when the stories really inspire it.

As always please reach out with any questions or comments!

Cheers!

Let's Talk "Immersion" PT 2

Welcome back! If you missed the first part going over the brief history of the tech being used to deliver "spatial audio" to headphones, please check it out below.

So I'm not going to bury the lede - Immersion is in the EARS of the listener.

That's it.

We can use fancy tools to put sounds around our listener - or use the simplest method of talking into a microphone to create an immersive audio story. But, in the end, it's up to the listener to decide if they are immersed.

Think about it - is the person sitting in the driveway with the car running until they hear the rest of a story on NPR any less "immersed" than a person listening to a Dolby Atmos mixed audio drama?

So with that in mind, let's return to the question I raised in the previous article - WHY use spatial audio tools to tell your story? Will using these tools create that driveway moment for your listener? It might! But not only because those tools are being used.

People get immersed in STORY and CHARACTER - the audio treatment of those components (like spatial audio) can enhance, detract or make NO difference to the kind of immersion the listener feels. But story and characters are the main tools to build immersion - and then the treatment.

For me - the reason for nearly everything I do in design and direction has to be in the story. And better still - on the page. Tools and techniques come later when we ask and answer, “what’s our intent”?

It doesn't matter if we're using Ambisonic recording techniques (Wolverine), Neumann Head recording (The Darkest Night), Dolby Atmos mixes (QCODE), or the many, many hybrid approaches (like I have used since 2017) if the story, the writing, and presentation don't lend itself to immersive USE of spatial audio techniques - simply putting sounds 360 degrees around our listener won't create more immersion for them.

Technical aside: Headphones are the great equalizer of spatial audio as all the tools output a similar-sounding Binaural headphone mix to deliver the 3D effect.

In-person, however, like a theater with multi-speaker arrays, the 3D audio effect can be truly remarkable with several tools operating in that space.

Dolby Atmos has the most buzz presently. But even Atmos delivers a Binaural mix to headphones. At that point, the spatial results between the tools are minimal.

Craft and intent still rule the day regardless of the tools used.

What kinds of shows lend themselves to the immersive use of spatial audio?

On the surface, Fiction seems obvious, more than Documentary maybe. More than celebrity chat shows, maybe. But it's not always an all-or-nothing approach.

I used spatialized audio in all my work (documentary and fiction) since Inside The Exorcist in 2017. But, even then, it was not the main dish - it was spice done for effect in an otherwise “normal” stereo production.

The reason this has been my preferred approach is two-fold. First and most importantly - I haven’t worked on many shows whose stories called for full spatial audio treatment. Second, writing for audio is hard - writing for Immersive use of Spatial Audio is still harder.

The second is more personal. I often haven’t liked the sound of spatial audio as the main dish in shows I’ve heard. Over time, I've realized this has more to do with the design approach and craft employed than the tech itself. I've heard some great spatial examples where story and design came together to create a rich sonic experience. But more often hear clumsy uses of the tools and techniques that don't seem narratively necessary.

So it’s a good idea to listen to as much spatial audio as you can. See what you like, what you don't like. What works and what doesn't. You'll find many design decisions are head-scratchers - like panning characters to the extreme sides for no narrative reason other than (Hey, look, I’m over here!)

You'll also get a sense of what it sounds like. Spatial audio definitely has a SOUND. The various tools all have different ways of recording or computing the binaural output you hear. You probably won't tell what tools are being used just by listening - but they all impart a certain quality. You may like it - you may not. Listen and be the judge.

Quick sidebar: Unfortunately, we all HEAR differently. It's true. It's based on physics and beyond the scope of this article, but the shape of your ears, their distance from each other, the size of your head, the distance from your shoulders all conspire to create the unique way you HEAR the world. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Presently mass-market spatializing software only delivers you a few models of what the world sounds like to an average-sized person. So unless you're close to average, some of this spatial audio stuff is just going to sound weird for you. For me, for example, binaural audio sounds like it’s coming from just behind my ears, leaving the center in front sounding empty.

Anyway - examine your story for how spatial audio might help tell the story and enrich the story world for the listener. A few starter questions:

  1. Is there a lot of activity, movement, and action? Spatial audio is perfect for that.

  2. Is there a lot of sonically interesting locations where you spend a fair amount of time? Spatial audio can deepen those scenes and put the listener there.

  3. Is it narratively important for sound and voices to come from anywhere AROUND or above the listener? Spatial audio can do that!

  4. Does it need to sound REAL? Spatial audio can help with that. But so can properly be recorded and designed productions. Listen to “The Truth” by Jonathan Mitchell, which has long set the standard for vérité style audio drama without the “3D” effect. I seriously doubt his listeners feel “less immersed” for that fact.

So the bottom line - examine if you have reasons built into your story to use Spatial audio. Is it narratively driven - or as an effect? Effects can be cool - I use them ALL THE TIME for moments that need special treatment!

I’m simply encouraging you to make a conscious and deliberate creative decision about spatial audio rather than succumbing to the hype, encouraging a few too many people to slap "3D Audio" onto their productions without deeper thought or intent.

Next time I'll go through examples from my work where Binaural audio was hiding in plain… uhh hearing? And if it’s “hiding,” - can it still be immersive?

Till then!

Let's Talk "Immersion" PT 1

We're hearing a LOT these days about Immersive Audio, and by that, most are talking about the buzzy new "Cutting Edge" 3D Audio, Apple Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos, etc.

The goal of spatial audio is to create “immersion” by placing our story world 360 degrees around our listener.

While this is exciting (present hype notwithstanding), not much here is actually NEW, let alone "cutting edge,"

ALL of today’s approaches and technologies for spatial audio will deliver to the headphone listener the same result that has existed for decades - Binaural Audio.

From Wikipedia:

The history of binaural recording goes back to 1881 with the first binaural unit, the Théâtrophone.

Skipping ahead a bit

In 1978, Lou Reed released the first commercially produced binaural pop record, Street Hassle, a combination of live and studio recordings.[24]

Many Binaural Audio Dramas have been and still are being produced and broadcast by the BBC. For example, Stephan King's "The Mist" was available in "terrifying 3D Audio" on CD in the early 1990s. Here’s a picture of my copy.

unnamed.jpg

So why all the buzz and interest now? The explosion of Podcasts?

No.

The development explosion in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) was the main driver in my view.

VR/AR product developers quickly realized that while they could fool the eyes with VR headsets, the immersive effect was lacking without corresponding spatial audio. And for that, they turned to the tech that already existed - binaural playback over headphones.

While binaural techniques were well known for many years, there weren't many new tools to do the work. So recently there has been a Renaissance of spatial audio tools being created giving us lots of often very affordable ways to process and deliver Binaural audio to headphones. Naturally, this tech made its way to Podcasts where everything old and busted is NEW AGAIN!

Side note: I've been using binaural audio in EVERY series I've designed starting with Inside The Exorcist in 2017.

More on that and the most obvious set of questions when it comes to using spatial audio - WHY?

Does simply using this tech make our stories more "immersive"?

Is there more to be considered?

I'll cover that in my next article on “Immersion”.

Stay tuned!

THE SOUND OF AFTERSHOCK: Pt 2 - Over The Shoulder Audio

In the previous article, I shared how I borrowed some camera techniques of cinematography to craft the sound of the Aftershock audio drama; in that case, I discussed the concept of ZOOM. Those instances came from being inspired by the performances of those scenes and the way they were written.

Catch up on it here if you haven't read it yet.

This time I'll talk about how I borrowed the "Over The Shoulder" shot for Aftershock starting in Episode 3. Listen to the full episode 3 here:

The “Over The Shoulder” (OTS) shot is very familiar, typically used in exchanges between characters where there is a camera behind the shoulder of each character looking at the other. The director CUTS between character perspectives to enhance the story-telling.  Most of the time OTS shots are ith other shots - but for my purpose, I simply wanted to see if the OTS camera technique could be employed in an Audio Drama.

Holy Over the Shoulder Shot, Batman!

Holy Over the Shoulder Shot, Batman!

Oh hey look - the camera is over YOUR shoulder now!

Oh hey look - the camera is over YOUR shoulder now!

The idea was inspired by the script. It was January 2020 - I was in a plane flying from San Francisco to Burbank to join Sarah Callies, David Harbour, and Mark Ramsey for an Aftershock recording session. I had just gotten the scripts for Episodes 3-6 and was reading through them on the plane. 

In Episode 3 there's an exchange between Wayne and Dover. Instead of them being in the same room - Wayne was handcuffed and behind glass. I could instantly SEE in my mind what this would look like on TV or Film. The camera would likely employ a lot of OTS shots - bouncing between sides of the glass. Sometimes it would be on Dover's side looking at Wayne, other times it would be on Wayne’s side looking at Dover.  

I knew I could make the audio sound like that but I wasn't sure it would play without the visual support. Would listeners "get it"?  When I got to the studio I told Mark & Sarah my idea and they were all for it.  It was just up to me to figure out the HOW.

Here's the very first instance of this OTS technique from Episode 3

Two main things make this work.

First - the ROOM TONE for each room has a different sound. While they exist on the same vessel and need to be similar, they need to be noticeably different.

I knew ROOM TONE wouldn't be a significant enough change for most listeners to track that we were switching perspectives. So I employed a SPEAKER effect for the character on the OTHER side of the glass. 

By shifting room tones back and forth for each character and hearing the other feeling come through a bit of speaker - I knew I had sufficient sonic language to play with this dramatically. 

Here's the following example from a bit later in Ep 3 between Dover and Cassie.

Once this sonic language was established it was used for nearly all the interrogation scenes for the rest of the series.

That left the larger question about WHEN to cut from one room to the other.  In other words - this idea had to go from being a clever sound design technique to an intentional story-telling device.

My general rule for the first pass was to always start these scenes by being IN the room with the DOMINANT character in the exchange. The subordinate character would start on the little speaker in the OTHER room. This reinforced the power-dynamic in the interactions.

Most of the time that meant we started with Dover as he is leading the interrogation. It could SHIFT over the course of the convo - (like in E1 example where Wayne tries to assert his dominance) In all cases I would then use my gut to decide when to bounce back and forth as the drama dictated. 

The producer team of Sarah Wayne Callies, Ben Haber, Mark Ramsey & Patrick Carmen and I would discuss the WHEN and WHY to cut between perspectives. In the end, I kept to my approach for the first pass and then made adjustments about when to switch rooms based on ideas from the team. In later episodes, Sarah felt the technique was so well established that we could use the SPEAKER effect minimally for a few words and just bounce to the other room whenever that character was speaking without the speaker effect - using only ROOM TONE. 

So there it is - the Over The Shoulder shot rendered in Audio Fiction! Did it work for you? Were you able to track it in your mind’s eye or were you wondering …. what is happening? Lemme know.

I'll take more dives into the inspirations for the audio design of Aftershock in the coming weeks!