It has gotten better. There are lots of sites now that have sound effects posted. Sometimes one is perfect. Usually I have to mix a couple, slow them down, or speed them up, or play with the pitch until the director is happy.
As well, it has gotten easier to find lists of songs. I have a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of music, but I always forget a song or two. And, I really only know pop music (from the last 80ish years) and quite often I have never heard a perfect, say, country song, because I only know the most popular/crossover country hits. So if I have to do a show about job loss, for example, there can be a lot of songs in the country field that are just right that I've never heard of.
If you are a sound designer, maybe we can help each other. I keep CDs of all the shows I've done. You never know when you're going to need a helicopter, a gunshot, a needle scratching along a record, etc. again. And some things are next to impossible to find. I needed the sound of footsteps on a metal staircase for a show. There was, according to the script, a metal staircase just offstage, and lots of traffic up and down during the show. Well, could I find this anywhere? NO! Wooden stairs were no problem, but not metal stairs. Just when I thought I would have to find a metal staircase somewhere and bring my recording equipment, and get my daughter to go up and down a few times, another sound designer I am acquainted with told me he thought he had the sound on a CD somewhere. He found it, and emailed it to me. It wasn't exactly what I needed but it was close enough. I was able to speed it up, slow it down, make it sound heavier, and lighter, and make it into groups of two, three and more, as the script called for.
And let's talk about music. Let's talk about our favourite performers, present and past, concerts we've seen, new albums (CDs--okay, I'm old), music in general. What do you listen to today? Oldies are easy--I listen to lots of oldies due to my job. The theatre I work in is a dinner theatre, and you probably know what that means--lots of comedies, lots of farces, and generally the audience is over 60. Lots of bus tours from the local old folks' homes. So really, not a lot of appreciation for Lady Gaga in our audiences. But what NEW music do you listen to for enjoyment?
I had a friend recently (on Facebook) saying how much she used to love music, but there was NOTHING for her today. Everything was autotuned, and therefore annoying. I disagreed with her. Sure, lots of stuff IS autotuned. But that's not all that's out there. Maybe on some radio stations. And I guess that's another problem--radio today. You are either a "hit" station, playing nothing but today's teen and young adult hits, or you are an oldies station playing music of the 60s and 70s (or whatever). But it's pretty hard to find a station that plays today's music, that isn't aimed at my daughter and her friends.
Anyway, let's talk! I'll post again in less than a week, I promise! And let's not do gossip, and insults and stuff. There are a lot of websites out there for that. And, to avoid legal problems, let's not post music. You can find just about anything you want on YouTube so if we are talking about, let's say, Chuck Berry and you're not sure who he is, check out YouTube. You can probably find a hundred videos there by him. Pictures are probably okay, although I suppose there can be problems with those too. If anyone owns any photo that I publish and wants me to remove it, I will, as soon as I can.
You can respond to this below or, if you want to do it privately, email me at macblanc@gmail.com. Talk to you again soon!
--Michael, 19 February 2013
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