It was commented to me about our episode of “The Birds” that the original “Escape” episode had more believable “tapping” sounds of the birds on the window than our “digital” sounds. That made me laugh because of all the sound effects (SFX) I used in our episode, the tapping was a sound I generated myself and recorded! I have talked about SFX before, but I thought this time I’d talk about “live performance” and “pre-recorded” SFX in audio drama.
It’s pretty common knowledge that in the radio shows of the 1930s-1950s they performed the SFX live right alongside the actors. No doubt you’ve seen examples of the tricks the sound men did to generate footsteps, gun shots, doors, etc. in the studio. This was a necessity, especially in the 30s when they didn’t have the technology to record. In fact, many shows would be performed twice in one night. Once for the East Coast and again for the West Coast. The stress on the sound men was high as they worked to hit their cues. In fact, one of my favorite stories has to do with “Inner Sanctum” (that I talked about at the end of one of the episodes we adapted). The now famous creaking door sound didn’t work as rehearsed. Live and thinking on his feet, the sound engineer sat on a swivel office chair (think the old wooden ones with metal swivel components). That swiveled chair made the creaking door sound! And once established, the show had to use it that day forth. Then, one day, a well meaning young employee discovered the chair and, wanting to help, oiled it to stop it from squeaking! The sound man discovered this live on air, and just simply made the SFX with his mouth!
Side note! These radio show SFX were not called “Foley.” Foley is a term named after their creator, Jack Foley, and they specifically relate to post-production SFX in film. And they are still used to this day in modern films, although, like our modern audio dramas, there are digital SFX available now. One way or another, post-production sound is vital, as the sounds picked up by the microphones during actual filming might not be what the filmmaker needs.
So there were definitely pitfalls when it came to doing the SFX live. But in modern day audio dramas, even if the show decides to record live together as a cast, chances are they are not also doing the SFX live. It’s quite and undertaking and an expensive endeavor to find someone to not only perform them live, but to have the materials in place to do so. Plus, with the easy access to pre-recorded sounds found all across the internet, really, it has become a way to save money, stress and time.
I have not been shy talking about how the task of searching for and obtaining just the right SFX I need in a scene is a grueling task. Yes, there are a ton of websites that provide free or paid packages of SFX out there. My trouble is when I search those sites, the keywords for the sound that make sense to me “door slam” are not found in the databases. I spend more time trying to find alternative ways to say “door close fast” “door close hard.” GAH! If you read my last musings about editing, I said editing is a part of production I wouldn’t want to give up. But finding SFX? Please! Someone else do it for me!! What I have been doing to save myself time is cataloguing every SFX I have ever used so I can first search for them in my own collection. But every episode I end up with some sound I still need to acquire.
This leads me to the “birds tapping” SFX from “The Birds.” I have one I used in our “Snow White” episode, but it was very short and if I repeated it it would sound repeated. At a loss, I decided to create the SFX myself. I tried a few different glass surfaces, tapping with different objects. I finally landed on the handle end of a wooden spoon on a medium sized glass picture frame. Then, just as I do with my vocal recordings, I tapped away in front of the microphone. I varied it up, how many taps, how quickly/slowly, etc. Until I knew I had a long enough recording to last through the dialogue of the scene.
That is not where this SFX recording ended. After I placed it into the scene in editing, Jeremy, who does the audio engineering, added a bit of reverberation effect to it in our DAW (digital audio workspace) to make the SFX sound more like a bird on the outside of a window. That “Snow White” SFX I had also had that FX on it, so it made the SFX more believable.
A little on “believability” in SFX. While I try to find the right sound to represent the SFX I want, sometimes it’s simply a matter of telling the audience “this is what you are hearing” and they buy it. Which, really, is why those early sound men were able to use popping balloons for gunshots. No, it’s not really a gun making that noise, but it being close and it being in the context of the scene, the audience believes it.
The criticism I received about the window tapping sound was that they believed the live in-person SFX were more threatening as they felt it seemed more present in the scene with the actors. *shrug* The same person did at least admit our bird sounds were more authentic than the original show. I don’t know what they did for birds back then, but I certainly have heard a lot of cats in shows that in no way sound like an actual cat. They are clearly a human making the sound. Trade offs, I guess?
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the SFX in Madison. Yes, they are pre-recorded, but I spend a lot of time building the “sound-scape” so it can enhance the scenes. But the SFX are not the priority of our show. Madison is a comedy. And being able to hear the dialogue is far more important to us. There are plenty of award-winning audio dramas out there with expertly crafted sound effects. Good for them. I bet they aren’t as funny, tho.
-Chrisi (aka Madison)
