The last thing I’ll do for my soundtrack is add sound effects. With the pacing provided by the dialogue track and the music track, we’ve got a pretty good idea about the flow of the cartoon. We can also start to sense where to place the sound effects.
As I discussed during the music section, a couple of basic sound effects CDs will help you get started. If you’re really into sound effects, I’ll add another few CDs to your wish list, from our good friends at Sound-Ideas:
n The Hanna-Barbera Lost Treasures
n Jurassic Dinosaurs
The first CD is absolutely delightful. You’ll have to listen to it once just for fun, because you’ll remember the animated scenes that once accompanied these now-classic sound effects. Then listen to it again, and wonder to yourself, “How in the blazes did these
Two of my favorite sound effects categories rolled into one: dinosaurs and wacky Saturday morning cartoon sounds.
people make those weird sounds?” Now listen to it one more time, and plan how you can use those sound effects to your own produc- tion’s advantage.
You’re perfectly welcome to purchase the four-disc set of the otherwise complete Hanna-Barbera SoundFX Library (for $495, at the time of this writing), budget permitting, naturally… or you can get the single Hanna-Barbera Lost Treasures CD for $129.
As a matter of fact, I got my Hanna-Barbera Lost Treasures CD for less than that because (as I may have already mentioned) one of the truly appealing reasons to visit Sound-Ideas.com every 30 days is that they have a blue plate special that changes monthly. I could be wrong, but I think I got the Lost Treasures CD on sale for some- where between $70 and $95. And if even that wasn’t enough for you, if you lose your chance the first time around to get a previous month’s blue plate special at that special price, at the end of the year (sometimes December or January), you can most likely catch it at that price again during their “All You Can Eat Special,” when the previous year’s titles go on sale at one time.
What I particularly like about that Lost Treasures disc is that it has a nice variety of useful sound effects. Obviously most of the sound effects are cartoony in some sense, along the lines of Yogi and Scooby style, classic Saturday morning cartoons… boings, splats, falling down stairs, and exaggerated diving board plunges into a pool. But they’ve also got some rather nice science fiction sound effects, like the types you’d hear in Space Ghost and Jonny
Quest adventures… laser blasts, transporters, spaceships, and so
on. They’ve also got a variety of animal sound effects that can dou- ble as monster effects… elephant roars, camel grunts, and gator hisses.
The second disc I mentioned was, of course, Jurassic Dino-
saurs. Speaking as a verifiable dinosaur nut, it’s pretty obvious why
anyone would want to invest in some prehistoric-sounding Rex roars, Apatosaurus grunts, raptor hisses, and eerie jungle bird ambience sounds. I kid you not… they even have a fire-breathing dragon sound effect sequence. Not only do they provide you with the mixed elements, but they also give you the individual tracks that make up the sequence as well.
All that would have been enough, but they’ve also got a few science fiction sounds thrown in on that same CD. A werewolf transformation, a robot, and fairy wings in flight. They don’t actu- ally fit in with the Jurassic Dinosaur category, but who am I to complain?
From whatever source you choose, you can place your sound effects in your Timeline by importing them (if they’re already in WAV or AIFF format), or you can simply drag them over from your sound effects/music CD onto your hard drive. They should then copy over as AIFF files, which you should be able to import in a program like Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro. (Again, because there are so many different sound editing programs out there, it’s best to check your user’s manual for actual details.)
A program like Final Cut will allow you to pick out the sound effect you need, even if it’s embedded within a sequence of other sounds. For instance, let’s say that I’ve found a cut on one of the CDs with a slide-whistle sound effect, like an object falling down to the ground, and it’s followed by an earth-shattering crash of metal and glass. For whatever reason I don’t necessarily want the sound of that silly slide-whistle. I’m making an adventure cartoon and don’t want silly… in this case, I want melodramatic. But I do need that metal and glass crash.
In the case of Final Cut Express, after going toFile | Import, I’ll place the sound effect in my Timeline by dragging it down into the first two audio channels. (Video channels are listed as V1, V2, etc., and audio channels are listed below as A1, A2, etc. Most audio channels you’ll find work in pairs for stereo.) I’ll select my
Razorblade tool, and place the playback head (a line common in most audio and video programs, that displays your current position in the Timeline) along the point where the slide-whistle ends and the crash begins.
Final Cut Express (not to mention its fully loaded counterpart, Final Cut Pro) is just one of many audio and/or video editing pro- grams you can use to mix and edit sound effects for your cartoon’s soundtrack.
Here, I’m about to import a sound effect.
I’ll click there, then select (with the Arrow tool) and delete the first part of the sound effect, the silly slide-whistle. Now I can move the effect to that point in the Timeline where the crash is needed.
If the two effects are too close together, perhaps with the whis- tle continuing into the crash, or some other such audio calamity, there is most likely another tool at your disposal. In the case of Final Cut or iMovie, you can simply fade your audio in or out, to the point of subtlety that most viewers won’t notice a problem.
The editing process really amazes me, whether it’s audio or video. You can hand the exact same raw footage of cover shots, dia- logue, and even sound effects and music to two different editors, and two weeks later, each of them can hand you back two entirely different films.
One of the most basic things I’ll say about soundtrack editing is hopefully the most important: “Keep it simple!”
The main thing is… is the main thing you’re trying to say in each scene getting across to the audience? In other words, one of the things I would grade my character animation students’ final
In Final Cut, you can clip off parts of the sound effect or music track that you don’t need by using the Razorblade tool (right) to slice sections of the soundtrack (left).
project on was this question: Can a first-time viewer tell what’s going on in this film?
You’re not going to have the luxury of sitting behind every first-time viewer when they see your film to explain to them what’s happening. One of the basics of comedy is that if you have to
explain a joke, it’s probably not that funny to begin with.
On the subject of soundtracks, I’ll usually try to let someone else listen to it before I consider it done… and don’t explain ahead of time what they’re about to see. One of my own common self-crit- icisms is that I have a tendency to let the music get just barely too loud where you have to strain to hear what the character is saying.
And no matter how cool the music track is, no matter how amusing I personally find that particular sound effect, if I can’t hear the character’s dialogue, I’m obviously missing the mark.
Again, keep it simple. In animation, like all good comedy, or even good drama, for that matter… only one thing happens at a time. That’s all the audience can take in, anyway… and they are paying the ticket price, or buying the product your commercial is selling, or purchasing your DVD feature… so just give them one thing at a time to focus on. And if something crazy has happened, don’t be afraid to give the audience a moment to catch up, to chuckle for a second or so, before going on to the next gag. That’s the basis of those pauses from really talented classic comedians like Groucho Marx, George Burns, and Jack Benny. They knew just when to give that questioning glance to the camera or audience, as if to say, “I can’t believe I’m seeing this, can you?”
Timing is one of those things you’re working on at this stage, and that can make or break any film, animated or live action. Some people say you’re either born with it or you’re not. I don’t necessar- ily agree. Like drawing skills or math, you learn it or you don’t… but perhaps some are more eagerly inclined to learn certain skills than others.
If you keep these things in mind when you put together your soundtrack, chances are your completed film will be that much eas- ier to follow and enjoy.