Tag: Sound Design

[quote]AT RISE: Lights come up on an empty living room, perhaps even while the audience is still settling in. The opening bars of Doris Day’s “Everybody Loves a Lover” blast.[/quote]

And so begins Christi Stewart-Brown’s The Gene Pool. As the opening scene progresses, it becomes clear that this charming Doris Day gem not only sets a certain tone for the show, but it provides deep insight into Mira, the character that became my musical connection into the play.

To Mira, music is something to aspire to: it is an ideal. Mira is no Pollyanna, as the opening song suggests, but she lives by the open, honest and sincere approach to life embodied by the song.

Mira is decade blending music lover that favors female singers. She is positive, vital, romantic and strong to the core. And this playlist is my interpretation of her musical taste…

By the way… These links go to Amazon.com, a great resource for music MP3s.

Preshow

Kundalini Yoga Waltz by k.d. lang
Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon
Dumb Blonde by Dolly Parton
Hush, Sweet Lover by k.d. lang
Love Will Keep Us Together by The Captain and Tennille
Something To Talk About by Bonnie Rait
Downtown by Petula Clark
These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ by Nancy Sinatra
I Fall To Pieces by Patsy Cline
(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me by Sandie Shaw
Heart Of Glass by the Puppini Sisters

Music From Act I (Script)

Everybody Loves A Lover by Doris Day
What Ever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) by Doris Day

Intermission

I Will Survive by the Puppini Sisters
A Little More Love by Olivia Newton-John
Hurting Each Other by The Carpenters
Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman

Music From Act II (Script)

Leader of The Pack by Better Middler

[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]

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]