Author Archive

BRAND NEW SITE DESIGN, STARGATE & MORE

Stargate Big Finish Audio'sHi. Well, it’s finally here, the new design is up and running, so please go and take a look.

Along with the new design, comes a new RSS feed for the latest news on the site, as well as news about my latest projects, including the one I’m really excited about, Stargate SG-1’s ‘Gift of the Gods’!

Cheers.

Still relaxing….sort of

So, I’m still here, but have been enjoying the break. Well, I say break, but all the other stuff not related to working that had caught up with me sort of took over! I’ve just been reading the script to my latest play “The Dark Husband” and will be starting work on that soon.

Meanwhile, I have been chipping away at a complete web site re-design, and it’s coming along nicely. It’s taking a long time, but I’m finally at a stage where I’m happy with the layout and colours, and have just got to transfer everything across. I suspect it will be some time over Xmas that it goes live.

I’ve gone all html, as it’s going to be much easier to update and change. Currently it’s all tables, which are a bit of a pain. Been using the rather marvelous Microsoft Expression Web that I discovered recently, and really enjoying using that and finding it very easy.

Talking of Microsoft, I must give them credit for ‘Live Writer’ which I am using to type this article. It’s a fine piece of free software, and connect seamlessly with my blog site, and takes all the effort out of posting articles.

Anyway, here’s a sneak peak at the new site design. Just the top left…..don’t want to give too much away :-) but it gives an idea of the complete change that it will be!

image      

I won’t be updating the web site much until the new one  goes up, but then there’s not much to report anyway. So when the new site arrives, it will have all the latest releases updated etc.

Cheers.

Steve.

….and……Relax

relax Having just signed off on “Mind’s Eye” / “Mission of the Viyrans” I take a break for a month, and as much as I love working on these plays, it’s going to be nice to take some time out.

Well, I say ‘relax’, but now I have a list of things as long as my arm to catch up with! I have a full time job on top of the Big Finish work, so there’s not much I can call free time.

I’m looking forward to editing the video of my children from the last year, and catching up on some serious gaming and DVD watching. As well as finishing up some music for TNM, which I’m sure they’ll be please about. I’m even in the throws of a web site spruce up, so watch out for that.

So, off I go……..

Cheers.

Steve.

How I Do It!

Hi. Just sitting here waiting for the ‘Mind’s Eye’ audio files to copy across, so thought I do a little post. I thought it would be interesting to list how I do things from start to finish when working on an Audio, although you may disagree :-). So here goes:

1. Read the script, and at the same time note down all of the Sound Effects needed on my nicely prepared SFX Sheets
2. Receive the Discs & Marked up script from the Studio (i.e. it has the times of recording on)
3. Go through the script noting the recorded project time for each Scene, once again on lovely prepared sheets
4. I then do various things with this info, including sorting the order by the recorded project time and deciding which groups of scenes I will put in each Cubase project. This all helps speed up the dialogue & fx editing later
5. Dialogue edit - go through all recorded material cutting out bits and dropping in re-takes as necessary.
6. Produce a trailer.
7. Get together all the sound effects needed. I may do this earlier, depending on when the play is recorded and I receive the discs. I like to do this, as it makes it so much more straight forward when editing.
8. FX Edit - Basically putting together all the dialogue edits with the sound effects, adding the room reverb, stereo positioning etc. This is the lengthiest process of all, and of course the most demanding.
9. Add the music - Once the FX edits have been signed off by the director, I’ll move on to writing the music. After having a play around with different sounds to see what fits (for which I get a good idea when doing the FX edit), I will just go through from beginning to end adding whatever sounds good and right. I’m not one for writing things before hand around a theme.
10. CD Mastering - Once it’s all signed off and everyone is happy, there’s just the CD mastering to do, which involves marking up the track points, making sure levels are all OK and burning to a disc.
11. …and finally, I’ll give it a listen to make sure there are no glitches on the discs, and this is in fact the first time I will hear the whole thing all the way through non-stop!

 

All together, that will take around 6 to 8 weeks, and I’m currently about to start step 5 with ‘Mind’s Eye’, so still a way to go yet!

Cheers.

I’m Still Here!

bf096_valhalla_big 

Hello. Still here. As it says. I’ve been extremely busy working on the Sound Design for ‘Valhalla‘ and what a challenge that was! I’ve said that a bit recently haven’t I. Maybe it’s just me. Not in this case though, as there was a lot to get right in this one, but I am delighted with the results, and Simon Robinson has added so very fitting music to it. Which is good, as this is the first time I haven’t written the music.

As I said, very busy and have moved on to starting ‘Frozen Time’ now, which should be a walk in the park compared to ‘Valhalla’, but I’m really looking forward to the music on this one. Should be a bit different from anything I have done before - certainly on a grander scale anyway (if it works out). I’m currently working through the Dialogue edit and should get the majority of Sound FX sorted out over the weekend, so I can then can cracking.

Hopefully I’ll get around to updating my main site soon as well, as I’m keen to get the RSS feed working.

Catch you later.

S.

It’s been a long one!

Still working on ID & Urgent Calls. The sound edit for ID is complete and signed off, whereas Urgent Calls is just waiting for feedback. Meanwhile I’m writing the ID music at the moment. It’s been quite a long haul, and I seem to keep saying this at the moment, but ID was a challenge! There are a lot of scenes with a lot going on. In contrast, Urgent Calls was a breeze :-); but don’t let that put you off, as I’ve said elsewhere it’s a gem of a story and Eddiie Robson is a star.

I’m hoping to finish up at the weekend, which then gives me a couple of weeks for a breather before “Valhalla” is recorded. although a lot of that time will be spent getting the sound fx ready. I’ve not seen the script yet, so have noeidea what it’s about.

I love Alex’s cover for ID too, in fact I’m a fan of his work and he’s a nice bloke to boot!

Well, back to the music then.

Bye.

I.D. & Urgent Calls

It’s been a wihle, but I’ve been very busy. Having almost put “Perfect Day” (Sapphire & Steel) to bed, I recently went to the recording of I.D. & Urgent Calls, the latest Doctor who story I’m working on. It’s always an enjoyable day fro me as I get to meet others from Big Finish and it’s great to put faces to names. I try to sit in on the recording as much as possible, as it can be useful, but when you sit in your won little World working on these things, it’s nice to chat and get ‘involved’. Of course I have the missus to chat to, but it all goes over her head :)

So, I am currently sifting through thousands of Sound FX to find the right ones for I.D. and will be recording some sounds over the next few days, which is always fun. I.D. is quite a challenge, but it’s a 3 parter and Urgent Calls will be more straight forward as a 1 part sotry. And by the way, may I say what a fine example of how to write a 1 part story it is, I know that Colin Baker also loved it.

Until next time.

Steve.

…and on to the next

Nocturne is done and dusted at last, and so I trundle on to the next one. that is the Sapphire & Steel play “Perfect Day”, for which I have just finished reading the script - and it’s a corker! I am looking forward to getting my teeth into this one, especially the music :)

So the first stage of the process is done - reading the script and at the same time making note of all the Sound FX that are needed. The 2nd is also done, and that’s to simply start a Cubase project and import all of the recorded Audio in order.

Next I’ll be doing a little processing of the Audio, normally to boost the levels and gate bleed from other mics if possible. Then I’ll go through the marked up script and note down all of the Scenes and where they take place along with the rlevant timings, which then make it easier to do the dialogue edit. All that, hopefully before the weekend!

I’ll pop back to continue the process soon.

Cheers.

Doctor Who - ‘Nocturne’: Where I’m At

I am currently working on ‘Nocturne‘ for Big Finish. I would say I am about 1/2 way through the editing stage, so probably have around 3 or 4 days to get to the music writing. I am of course looking forward to having a bit of a break over Christmas, but I do have deadlines, so will be working quite a lot to get this done.

There’s some challenging sound design coming up with a particular noise that is needed. I’m about half way through getting it right, but it needs some fine tuning; we have ideas (John Ainsworth and I), that I shall work on over this weekend. It’s probably the longest I’ve had to spend on coming up with something, but as it is a key element to the story, it has to sound just right.

The ‘in play’ music was also a bit of a challenge, as the city is meant to be a place of ‘Music & Art’ so there is a lot of it about. I’m pleased with the results, even if on occasion there was a bit of cheating going on ;)

This afternoon I shall be recording some Sound FX that I don’t have in my vast collection (around 30GB!). It’s a good job there’s no one else in at the moment, as some of it will definitley be noisey!

A couple of nights ago I worked on the trailer, so I suspect you’ll be seeing that up on the Big Finish site soon, so keep an eye out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wohoooo - a Blog!!

So, I’ve been thinking about a blog for a while but never got around to it. That is until now, where I received an e-mail from those lovely host people at ‘1 & 1′ to say I can now easily set one up - and they’re right. Within 2 minutes here I am.

What am I going to blog on about - well who knows, but the tag line suggest anything to do with Sound (particularly SF Sounds) and the odd comment on Computers in General perhaps.

So, do check back occasionally and you may well get some interesting snippets of info about what Audio Production project I am currently working on.

Oh, and feel free to registerĀ or make a comment.

Cheers.

Steve.

|