Divisor
Robotic Noises:
Explanation//
The overall meaning of the film is ambiguous, I think it's safe to say that the robots are considered 'slaves' and replaceable. I personally feel as though the clip is a physical representation of recycling - the metal being harvested to be re-created and re-used.
Although the main robot is a slave there is also a sense of power and presence behind it. When creating the sound for the robot I thought about 3 main points: "Does it have authority?", "Organic or Artificial?" and "How closely resembling a human is it?"
In Horizon: Zero Dawn, a 2017 release from Guerrilla Games, the fusion between natural and mechanised is a core element within the game. Anton Woldhek, Principal Sound Designer, explains in an interview that he asked himself the question: "how far can something go before it becomes processed?" A key concept that I also wanted to explore - how far should the sounds be processed before it goes from organic to artificial?
I created sounds based on mechanics but with some elements of natural sounds.
Final Product:
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Robotic Voice:
'Graveyard'//
With the robot sounds I didn't want to give them human senses. It's a common thought that robots don't have emotions but I wanted to show that they could feel so I gave them a voice to communicate with. The first big moment where something bad is about to happen would be the 'graveyard' scene where all the robots are grouped together in one space, waiting for something bad to happen. To give the Robot 'Graveyard' a sense of space and power within the clip I layered multiple sounds and reverb units to give each robot a sense of presence.
The first 'voice', or method of communication, was created on Massive using mapping, modulations and macroing to create something textured. I placed it through Bitcrusher, a Logic Pro X plug-in, to give it a robotic feel - a common practice when creating robotic sounds. The sound felt a bit too harsh so I removed some of the high end and made a cut around 500hz as it felt 'muddy' - whilst removing some low ends. I placed the sound through two different reverb units set at different times. The reason for this was that I wanted to give multiple senses of space as there were a lot of robots within the scene. By having multiple reverb units, it meant the sound could be masked within the space and couldn't be so easily located.
This was then doubled up with slightly different parameters on Massive but with the same effects
Robotic Ambience//
I layered up a new synth sound to give another element to the 'graveyard' scene. The sound was created on Massive, using very similar parameters as the previous sound. When I first heard it, it sounded quite harsh so I cut high frequencies. I placed it in a 4.7s reverb unit to give the sound a sense of space. A phaser was added for a sci-fi feel.
Robotic Movement//
If you record a servo or a mechanical object, it makes creating robotic sounds so much simpler. I recorded a printer scanning a piece of paper for robotic movement. The beauty of the sound is that it's self-contained and not too in your face. When editing, I wanted to keep core properties the same and not edit it too much. I only removed the bass and some high frequencies and time stretched it by about 0.5x.
Inside Helmet:
Initial Ideas and Interference//
Before I started creating the sounds for this piece, I initially thought about what human sense I wanted to give the robots - thought? touch? hearing? I decided to only pick speech, or at least a form of communication, which therefore means that the robots can't hear which is why some of my cuts are so abrupt. If they are a 1st person perspective as the robot, no sounds should be heard except interference.
explain voices//
EXPLAIN LAYERS