By GRANT R. MADSEN
Ever wonder what a motion picture would be like without sound effects? Or how the CD of a popular rock band would sound without post-production mixing?
Both experiences would probably be as pleasing to the ear as eating a bowl of plain corn flakes is to the mouth — bland and not very tantalizing.
People have become so accustomed to the earth-shaking explosions and the slick production techniques used by today’s sound engineers that many would be somewhat disappointed to hear what things really sound like.
The modern-day audio engineer needs to be a well-trained master of sound manipulation who collects, creates and processes sound to make television, film and music audibly pleasing to consumers.
Robert Mott, a sound engineer and author of the book, “Sound Effects: Radio, TV, and Film,” said manipulating the natural production sound is a common practice.
“When the hero bites into an apple, is it crunchy enough for his macho image? When the heroine takes a shower, does the water sound wet and sexy enough? Do the ice cubes make enough clink, are the footsteps forceful, does the silk negligee whisper?,” he said.
Kurt Price, an audio engineer for the LDS Motion Picture Studio, said the sound effects in the final cut of a movie are recorded and added to the soundtrack after filming is completed.
The technique of re-creating the sound in a controlled environment makes the sounds cleaner and crisper, he said.
“Hollywood is always going to hype it up. The louder and faster the better. When you are in the real world and you see a car crash, it’s nowhere near as dramatic,” said Jon Holloman, a BYU audio engineer.
Many of the sounds on the big screen do not ever occur in real life. Drawing on sound effects libraries, computer data bases and synthesizers, engineers can create any sound imaginable, Price said.
“If we don’t have the sound, we’ll go out and get it, or create it,” he said.
Hollywood has always manufactured sounds to get an audience excited. But with the invention of Dolby Surround Sound technology, audiences may soon be hearing more natural sounding effects.
Using a series of speakers that encircle the listener, Surround Sound attempts to re-create the actual environment that is being portrayed on-screen.
“It will be interesting to see what changes we’ll see in the product with this type of technology,” Holloman said.
Rapid changes like this make the audio engineer’s job more difficult than it used to be, Price said.
Price, who said he began working with the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 38 years ago, said doing the audio for TV shows like “Dallas,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “CHiPs” and “Falcon Crest” involved no schooling, and lots of on-the-job training.
Scott Wiley, a sound engineer who graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in recording, said learning how to manipulate complicated machines is key to success in the audio industry.
“It’s a very fast paced industry. They want people that are quick. That requires a real knowledge of how to operate the equipment. You learn most of it doing your own projects,” he said.
Computers in particular, Wiley said, are a huge part of what the industry is and what it is becoming.
“Computers make it much faster and easier to do a job. It gives you lots more options,” he said.
Holloman, manager of BYU’s sound studios, said the strength of BYU’s sound program is that it lets students have the opportunity for hands-on experience with top-notch equipment.
“We have a recording facility at BYU that would be competitive with any in the industry,” he said.
BYU’s program, he said, “sends kids into four general areas — sound for broadcast, theater, film and video and music.”
Everyone in the industry uses the same basic tools to process sound, and it is a person’s knowledge of music itself that gives him or her the competitive edge, Holloman said.
As part of the university’s program, he said he tries to teach students how to make music feel as good as possible to an audience.
“We teach them how to take a good performance and make it sound better,” he said.
Manipulating sound is a lot like what an artist does with a paintbrush and canvas. Which musical effects he employs will determine how listeners will perceive a song, Wiley said.
“I can’t make a bad song good. But there are little tricks I can do to give the listener a different impression of a song,” he said.
