In the meantime, I’m pleased to announce my musical side project singlefrequency.

In short: singlefrequency is an experimental musical collaboration with various forms of art and media.  I have so many friends in different areas of the creative realm and I thought it would be cool to experiment with the whole idea of “audire fabula” in a new way.  I might write out a little musical sketch and send it a to a writer friend – this might inspire them to come up with a short story idea – this might, in turn, inspire a visual artist to come up with a quick painting – this comes back to me and the piece continues to evolve over and over again.  I like the idea of having a completely nontraditional and no-stress method in which to come up with something new with a group of talented friends.

I officially opened the doors to the singlefrequency bandcamp page a couple of days ago if you want to check it out:

Likewise, if you all have one of them there fancy facebook pages, you can “like” singlefrequency (that is, if you truly do “like” singlefrequency) here:
https://www.facebook.com/singlefrequency 

Anyway.  That’s it!  I’ll try to update this site a bit more frequently in the future…I have a wealth of field recordings that I’m itching to share with you all.

As you can see; it is a gorgeous piece of hardware.
—
We decided to test out my dpa 4061s with a quick and dirty recording session.  We mounted the mics up above each exhaust pipe under the car using some magnet mounts and painter’s tape that he had lying around.  I gave it a quick quick level test and we drove around his neighborhood a bit with me sitting in the backseat and watching the volume meters.

I was pretty surprised I didn’t get more road noise than I did (there is some later in the recording)…but damn that engine pumps out the signal.  After monitoring; I noticed that we mounted the mics a *little* too close to the exhaust, as we get plosive pop and a touch overload when The Beast starts in on its really low lope cycle (most noticeable on the first 45 seconds of the recording), but nothing we can’t address on the next session.

We didn’t have a *ton* of opportunity to really put the pedal to the metal (we were in a residential neighborhood, after all), but he was able to sneak in a few moments to let it roar a bit.

We’re already planning on having a more robust session sometime in the near future (we were on a limited time frame this go around) and I’ll plan on getting a lot more high RPM stuff, some drive-by whooshes and a host of other goodies.  Until then, take a listen:

1969 Chevy Camaro by Zachary Quarles

Nerd Info: Used the dpa 4061s that went into a Sound Devices Mix Pre and Sony PCM M10.

Thanks Josh!

Anyway, enjoy!
AIR wind howl fan ventilation duct air conditioning ZQ 4 by Zachary Quarles

Nerd talk: I recorded this with a R0de NTG-3 and a Sennheiser MKH30 in M/S configuration into a Sound Devices 702.

If you’re interested, check them out!  It’s pretty entertaining reading some of them from the first couple of years in my career.  I was a spaz.  Not any more.  I’m totally normal now.  Yep.

No editing or anything. Just sliced it out of the session and uploaded. Have fun!

PLUNGER water toilet gurgle slosh splash water liquid ZQ 2 (Snippet) by Zachary Quarles

SoundWorks Collection: The Sound of Rise of the Planet of the Apes from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Info from SoundWorks Collection:
Acting as a foundation with an origin story for a new film series, Director Rupert Wyatt takes the audience on the science fiction summer hit, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The stunning visual effects produced by Weta Digital for the apes are complimented by the wide range of sounds recorded and edited for the film.

Leading the sound team is supervising sound editor and sound designer Chuck Michael and co-supervisor John Larsen with the talents of first assistant sound editor Smokey Cloud and sound re-recording mixers Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett.

Chimp Haven serves as The National Chimpanzee Sanctuary. They are an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide lifetime care for chimpanzees who have been retired from medical research, the entertainment industry or no longer wanted as pets. For more information visit:
http://chimphaven.org/

Sound Credits:
Ron Bartlett - Sound Re-recording Mixer
Simon Bright - Sound Assistant
Derek Casari - Adr Stage Engineer
Smokey Cloud - First Assistant Sound Editor
Susan Dawes - Dialogue Editor
Dawn Fintor - Foley Artist
Destin E- Gautier- Sound Effects Field Recordist
Tim Gomillion - Sound Recordist
David Grimaldi - Sound Effects Editor
Kathryn He - Sound Assistant
Doug Hemphill - Sound Re-recording Mixer
David Husby - Production Sound Mixer
Mildred Iatrou - ADR Supervisor
Helen Luttrell - Dialogue Supervisor
John Larsen – Co-supervisor
Darryl Marko - Boom Operator
Chuck Michael - Addit Sound Re-recording Mixer
Chuck Michael - Sound Designer
Chuck Michael - Supervising Sound Editor
John Morris - Sound Effects Editor
Mark Noda - Sound Mixer: Second Unit
Rob Nokes - Sound Effects Field Recordist
Jonathan Rimas - Adr Mixer
John Soukup - Sound Transfer

Anyway, a couple of months ago, I decided to go for it. I started doing some heavy duty research in terms of what was currently available and relevant in the modular world, what the online “scene” was like (I knew I would need some sort of support system when I had very specific questions about my choices in modules), what my goals were, and what I ultimately wanted to focus on as a sound designer. Plus, I just really didn’t know what the hell I was doing, so I needed to start at ground level. After talking with a few friends that share a very similar ideology with music and sound-design as myself, I started down the path.

Ultimately, I decided to go with the eurorack format. Eurorack is classified as a “small format” and has sort of exploded in the modular community due to it’s relatively cheap barrier of entry price point and massive amounts of options in terms of modules. The tradeoff is that the connectors are all 3.5mm (not 1/4″), so it’s not the cleanest signal on the planet…but that was actually pretty appealing to me. I wanted something that had a very gritty character to it because so much of my other stuff is very clean/sterile. I wanted something a little twisted in my arsenal.

It’s funny. When I bring the subject of modular up with my colleagues in sound, it’s usually a polarized response.

Response #1: “Dude, why?? Software synths are so much cheaper/easier!”
Response #2: “YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES”

It is true that software synths are cheaper. This path gets expensive very quickly. It’s also addicting. You hear demos for another module and suddenly, you’re reaching for your credit card in a haze of pure, unfiltered gear lust.

The thing about modular (and quality hardware in general) for me is the immediate, tangible creation of sound. I love software. That’s how I make the majority of my income, but sometimes I can feel disconnected from what I’m working on. There’s something so satisfying and inspiring by having direct contact with what’s in front of you. It allows me to get lost in my own creativity very quickly. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I was first discovering music and technology. There’s so much exploration and “oh, whoah” that it’s incredibly exciting and reminds me why I love my job so much.

Plus, I’m the type of person that likes to get outside of my comfort zone. I think it helps me as both a sound designer and as a person. If there’s something that I don’t understand, I dive in. Sometimes I might ask really dumb questions and do really dumb things, but that’s how I learn. I’ve never been the sort of person that can just read a tech manual and be ready for anything…I need to jump in and start swinging. This might lead to my head bashing the top of my desk repeatedly for awhile, but it puts everything in context for me. Plus, we live in a very exciting time in terms of sharing of information. If I’m stuck on something, I hop over to google and I can generally find what I’m looking for (or find someone that will be able to direct me down the path a bit easier).

Ultimately, this becomes another tool in my toolbox. It’s another link in my chain which allows me to express my own personal voice as a sound designer.

Anyway. After doing more research, I decided on starting my modular off pretty small but I wanted it to pack a punch. I have a 6U tabletop case with nine modules (with another couple on their way) and a 1000ma12 power-supply (general note: cases/power supplies can be surprisingly expensive. That’s one thing I wasn’t expecting, so do your research!). I actually had a custom case made for me by Matthew Goike that was cheaper (and much prettier) than most of the retail products out there. I sent him an email with what I was looking for and he just happened to have the parts available for that particular model, so he put it together from scratch, dyed it black (I wanted something black for my studio), packed up a power supply, and sent it to me. Take a look at this beaut:

Photo by Matthew Goike

It should be mentioned that an absolutely essential element of me putting this initial modular together was the Eurorack Modular Synth Planner webpage. The operator of this page goes through pretty much any and every eurorack module out there and carefully pulls in pricing data, power consumption, rack space information, and a graphic of what it looks like so you can organize your case exactly how you want before you start putting the modules in. Some information isn’t available, so you might want to double check any module to confirm power usage and what not. This truly is the work of a passionate member of the modular community and several people help by sending in suggestions of new modules that may have flown under the radar and whatnot. It’s pretty remarkable and a huge time-saver.

Another element for me that was really important was bridging this new hardware set to my DAW. Like I mentioned earlier in this post; this needed to become a strong link in my chain and it needed to behave nicely with the rest of my gear. I originally went down the traditional MIDI-CV path, but after the advice from several people, I discovered a company by the name of Expert Sleepers. Since I consider myself to be pretty awesome at sleeping, I checked them out. They have a host of software programs and hardware modules, but the set that I decided on was the ES-3 with the Silent Way plug-in. Check them out. Pretty slick stuff.

Alright, alright, so it’s an involved process and requires a lot of snooping around and planning before you actually make the jump. I will say that it was incredibly exciting when I finally got the first modules all anchored in and powered up. In fact, I just set Ableton to record and puttered around for about an hour and captured it all. I did some slicing, so the below soundcloud file is about 30 minutes long. A word of warning: There’s not much in the way of “music” in this. It’s essentially noisescape…it’s me patching and routing in real-time as a method of understanding what each module sounds like independently and how they work with each other. Some of the noise in there is just that: noise. But there’s also some really excellent gems that would have taken much longer in software to achieve…plus, having a full analogue sound is just incredibly sexy:

Modular Test Bed by Zachary Quarles

At any rate…if you find yourself tumbling down this rabbit hole, be sure and stop by the Muffwiggler Forums and Analogue Haven (if you’re in the States). They are essential way-stations for the newly modular obsessed.

Enjoy and make some noise.

First Patch

Drones by Zachary Quarles

Keep in mind, I am not the contact on these jobs. I’m just spreading the word. Hit the links to apply.

Audio Director:
http://jobs.zenimax.com/index.php?a=view_job&jobid=92

Highly competent in running an audio department for a AAA game studio. Assumes the top position on the audio department, ensures the highest possible audio quality for the product, helping establish and optimize production pipelines, mentoring junior team members, and contributing to the execution of the vision of the game in close collaboration with colleagues.

Responsibilities:

• Design, create, supervise and execute original audio content in accordance with the vision as provided by the Creative Director
• Supervise the Audio Department
• Maintains and elevates the audio experience across the entire product to AAA+ standards
• In-game implementation of all types of audio assets using proprietary tools and systems
• Management of project’s audio design
• Maintains project’s audio-related documentation
• Influences overall project design & ideas
• Guides and assists in development of audio related tools and production pipelines
• Working with external sound/music providers
• Assists in troubleshooting and debugging of game audio systems

Requirements:

• Minimum 4 years experience in creating audio for games; including shipping at least one AAA title in a leadership position on the audio department
• Ability to make high quality audio samples and process externally created music, VO, and SFX for in-game use
• Excellent working knowledge of modern studio equipment and industry standard audio tools (i.e.; Pro-Tools, Sound Forge, etc.)
• Strong sound design & technical skills
• Excellent understanding and experience of scoring cinematic moments
• Deep familiarity with most musical genres
• Familiarity with a variety of audio middleware applications (wWise, Fmod, etc.)
• Experience managing external composer and audio assets providers
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of the video game development process
• Able to manage large scale audio asset production
• Great communication and leadership skills
• Excellent organizational skills and experience working closely with audio programmers to define technical requirements and specifications
• Strong artistic and creative sense

Senior Sound Designer:
http://jobs.zenimax.com/index.php?a=view_job&jobid=101

Highly competent in designing and creating sounds for video games. Assumes a prominent position on the team, helping establish and optimize production pipelines, mentoring junior team members, and contributing to the execution of the vision of the game in close collaboration with colleagues.

Responsibilities:

• Works closely with the Audio Director and Creative Director to develop all types of audio assets
• Create high quality sounds for numerous settings, types of gameplay, visual effects and narrative events
• Implementation of sounds in the game using multiple techniques in close collaboration with gameplay designers
• Assists with final mixes to establish an overall powerful and polished audio experience throughout the game
• Assists in troubleshooting and debugging of game audio systems
• Assists with tools development

Requirements:

• Outstanding sound design skills
• Great experience with designing and creating audio assets for video games and/or movies or equivalent
• Technical understanding of implementing audio using proprietary software or commercial middleware in a video game
• Outstanding work ethic and attention to detail
• Strong communication skills
• Deep familiarity with most musical genres
• Excellent working knowledge of modern studio equipment and industry standard audio tools
• Understands the user experience
• Ability to interface with internal and external development teams
• Skill at post production and mastering
• Good understanding of the video game development process
• Excellent organizational and analytical skills
• Ability to define technical requirements and specifications
• Strong artistic and creative sense

The metrics involved just over 70 people. Not a be-all-end-all survey, by any stretch, but a nice little “focus” test to see how people listen to their stuff. I tried to get a myriad of different types of consumers. From audio nerds, to “regular” people, to some friends/family, and to coworkers. The results brought a few surprises along with a few accurate predictions that I had spinning around in my noodle before I put this thing together.

For those of you that missed the survey, I broke it down into varying kinds of media:
1) Movies/Television
2) Console Games
3) PC Games
4) Mobile Games/Music

In addition to that, I asked a few “gear” related questions:
1) What type of Audio Connection(s) do you use?
2) Do you use a subwoofer?
3) If using surround: What configuration are you using?

So, bearing that in mind, let’s check out the results!

Movies/Television:

So, with Movies/Television, we see a pretty even split between stereo and surround, which was pretty much exactly what I had thought would happen. We see a handful of users still using mono as their primary listening habit, which is pretty interesting to me. I’m guessing that’s from using older tvs, because I thought that the HD/Digital standard was stereo (due to HDMI)…meaning I thought all tvs coming out now had two speakers in a stereo spread. The “other” category brought up some interesting results. We had some users using 2.1, simulated surround, and one LCR.

Console Gaming:

This one was a bit surprising to me as I thought it would be identical to “Movies/Television” with the same split of stereo/surround users. My reasoning behind this was that I thought that the user would be using the same hardware setup for console gaming as they did with movies and television. It’s still close, but it looks like stereo pulls ahead with just a couple of additional numbers. I’m guessing because the user isn’t using HDMI or Optical on their console but they are on their DVD/bluRay/cable box…interesting.

PC Gaming:

This is another result that I predicted pretty accurately. Most users are running a stereo setup or headphones. This makes perfect sense for the hardcore LAN gamer or the casual social gamer. There are still a number of surround users (just two less than headphone users)…but in the “other” category, we see alternates to stereo and/or headphones, ie: using laptop speakers or headphones when they are in bed…and one user that is using stereo but with their left speaker blown out! FOR SHAME!

Mobile Gaming:

This is an interesting category. There is a wealth of mobile gaming happening right now, whether that be with a dedicated portable gaming system (Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, for example) or with the steadily growing mobile phone gaming market (top contenders being iPhone or Android). We see a hodge-podge of results here…many of which are people using the internal speakers of the device that they are playing, which I find interesting. That’s essentially giving you mono playback (on most devices, anyway). Next would be headphone users, which is pretty predictable. I sort of put “external speakers” as an option down on a lark, but discovered that a chunk of people do, in fact, use them. Not nearly as many, but the market is there. People that play on mute was also a predictable outcome. It’s the nature of the beast. Most of the “other” results were from our dedicated surveyors that do not have a mobile gaming device.

Audio Connections:

This particular survey was simply a curiosity for myself. I wanted to know how many people were leveraging HDMI and how many RCAs were still floating around. I was actually predicting that RCA would beat out HDMI, but that wasn’t the case. I knew those would be the top contenders with optical trailing behind (but still a very solid contender). “Other” contained a few surprises. Some users said they use different connection based on the source (which explains the difference in Movies/Television and Console Gaming), one user was rocking a TRS audio jack (represent!) while another was simply using a miniplug. Pretty interesting stuff.

Subwoofer:

I was pretty surprised by the number of people that use subwoofers and not a surround system. I guess I shouldn’t be, since it’s much easier and cheaper to get your 2.1 system up and ready for some sweet bass response from your media…but I was surprised, nonetheless. Users with subwoofers more than doubled those without! Cool!

Surround Configuration:

This was another interesting result, although not incredibly surprising. A 5.1 surround configuration is far and away the most widely used of the surround spectrums (I’m in this camp as well) with 7.1 trailing far behind. No one was using 4.1, 6.1, or 8.1. A handful of people were still using Prologic, some didn’t know, and the majority of the “other” category consisted of users that didn’t have a surround setup (I should have put “I Don’t Have Surround” as an option)…with one person that is rocking a 3.1 setup (LCR.1).

So there you go! Some very interesting numbers there and definitely some info to chew on for a bit.

Many, many thanks to all that participated! It was a lot of fun to see how you all are listening to the media that we all love.