Sound Design for “The Gene Pool”

I have a pretty extensive sound library, but I ran into a roadblock when creating the motorcycle effects for The Gene Pool: all of my field recordings were of motorcycles coming or going, and therefor they always incorporated the doppler effect, rendering most of my motorcycle effects useless. I needed sustained motorcycle sounds to authentically coincide with the dialog and staging.

Thanks to some ducking compressors and a library created by Colin Hart, I was able to create some awesome sound effects for the show.

Here is a sample of his field work:

Yamaha R1 Blog Demo by Colin Hart

I really appreciate the lengths that Colin Hart went to in order to record a consistently high quality soundset. I’m really impressed with his effort and grateful for his contribution to this show.

For the record, I wouldn’t have the nerve to do this, I would worry too much:

We had 2 Sanken Cubs on the bike. One up front next to the top of the gas tank, and the other next to the license plate. Next, we had a Shure SM57 attached next to the other side of the license plate, facing down towards the exhaust. Last, we had a Neumann KMR81i attached next to the swing arm, facing back towards the exhaust.

[box]J.S. Epperson is the sound designer for The Gene Pool. He has previously created sound and voice over work for Arouet, Arts West, Redwood Theatre and Theatre 9/12. You can read a clever paragraph or two about Epperson on the Cast and Crew page or you can visit his website. Read some fabulously nerdy blog posts about Arouet sound design.[/box]

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