6 Things You Didn't Know About Sound Design
With Matthew McGuinness, Sound Designer on The Pirate Queen
Good sound design helps communicate what’s happening on screen and, in doing so, enriches the overall user experience, making it a key part of any project. Matthew McGuinness has a background as a musician, sound designer and lecturer, so has a wide range of experience to draw on in this field. Here he shares some fascinating insights into both the history and world of sound design:
1. The birth of stereo sound
British engineer Alan Blumlein invented stereo sound technology in 1931 following a disappointing listening experience at his local cinema with his wife in London.
2. The early days of electronic music
In 1956, pioneer husband and wife duo Louis and Bebe Barron scored Forbidden Planet entirely using electronics only to be shunned by Hollywood and the Musician's Union who legally forced them to remove the word 'Music' from the credits (opting for 'Electronic Tonalities' instead).
3. Finding a location’s ‘fingerprint’
Any location's sonic response or 'fingerprint' can be captured by exciting it with a short sharp sound (like hands clapping) and measuring the resulting sound wave. This 'impulse response' can then be applied to any pre-recorded sounds to make it seem that they are originating in a different location.
4. Anechoic chambers
There are however special rooms called anechoic chambers with such a high amount of sound absorbing material on the walls, ceilings and floors that no amount of reflections can be heard, giving the effect of being in an infinitely large space. These rooms are used for research and testing equipment.
5. The impact of personality on listening capabilities
Introverted personalities are able to listen more carefully than extroverted ones, although this also means that introverts can be more affected by excessive sound stimulus and find it harder to concentrate in the presence of sound stimulus.
6. Identifying ‘meter’
Although domestic animals have a wider hearing range than humans, humans possess a unique ability to identify 'meter' in sound, which is the grouping of beats into patterns. This is a relatively new brain function, learned in the womb, and means that we expect to hear things 'on the beat' even if there is no rhythm present.
Matthew McGuinness
Matthew is a musician, sound designer and university lecturer based in West London.
In 2009 Matthew moved from Dublin to work for Air Music Group, promoting crossover jazz artists including Jamie Cullum, Ludovico Einaudi and Kyle Eastwood. Matthew then shifted into technical support with a role at Facebook as a content creator and live event technologist, before moving on to independent audio-visual content production, working on various short films and immersive projects as well as releasing electronica under the name 'VAAST'.