Doom 2015 Trailer Sound Replacement
This is a project that I'm very excited to undertake, its probably going to be one of the more challenging pieces of post production work I have tried to tackle so far but I feel like I can accomplish a good end result. Not only will there be some interesting and difficult sound design aspects but also I have the opportunity to compose a hard hitting Heavy Metal music track to fit the aesthetics of the trailer. As my preferred genre is horror doing a sound replacement for something within the Doom environment really works well for me and provides me with a chance to expand my abilities in bringing horror environments to life. It also means I can produce some really nasty sounds to freak people out which is always fun, the video bellow is what I will be replacing the sound for.
The first thing that comes to mind when going through this trailer is the amazing sound track produced by Mick Gordon and how I am going to replicate something that works as well as his track. My first though for this is to be similar but different, I know he uses a very complicated synth setup to produce the sounds for the Doom tracks so I'll focus more on what I can do which is produce crushing guitar riffs. After the bulk of my music track is produced I might consider doing some synth reinforcement but I'll have to see how the track pans out first and if I think synths will actually enhance it. The main I want from the music track is to be heavy and driving, it needs to have a high amount of energy that helps to move the trailer along and increase the intensity of the video, because the trailer is already so in your face and intense if I don't match this with the music it will only start to detract from what is happening on screen.
The next thing that stands out at me is the multitude of different gunshot and punch/impact sounds that have to be created. Making all of these sounds as good as whats in the trailer will be no easy feat and I'm not 100% sure I can pull it off, not only that I have to make the sounds fit into the environment and feel like they are being produced from the Doom Slayer himself. I have gone through the trailer inside of Pro Tools and marked out specific sounds that I need to produce and exactly where they need to happen, see image below.
My process will be to just steadily go through the video designing sounds as I go along and find out what is working and whats not. Another thing I want to capture with my sound replacement is the gory nature of the trailer and of the game as a whole to be honest, luckily I have already recorded some zombie gore sounds for a previous project so hopefully those should suffice.
There will be a couple of specific sounds that I will need to record for this project such as gunshot sounds and vocal shouts for the monster screams, apart from that everything else will be sourced from audio I have previously recorded or sample libraries. There will definitely be a lot of experimentation in working out how to make the individual gunshots and monster voices all of which I will hopefully be able to detail in a future blog if I am successful.
Another great thing about this project is that because all of the sound design elements and FX are presumably taken from in game sound all of the sounds I create could also be taken over into a game environment as well. This means not only will I be getting experience with replacing audio for a game trailer I will also be getting experience with producing sounds for a game environment as well. The sound design skills I use and develop on this project will have benefits for me producing audio in multiple different fields within the post production side of the audio industry.
Workflow wise I will probably want to start working on the music track first because I know that's what the main foundation of sound is going to be and the quicker I can get that right the better. I'll be using my typical Metal composition process that I have used for a couple of projects already which is, create a bunch of guitar riffs, work out which ones I like the best, start forming the basis of a song from them and keep on refining the track until it sounds like something decent. After that it will be drum recording and editing then rerecording the guitar to the drums and make everything in time with each other, then record Bass guitar (I don't like playing Bass guitar, it hurts). I am also going to be sticking to an instrumental track like the one in the trailer as I feel like there will be so much going on that the vocals would just be lost and will probably detract from trailer anyway. I also don't know what kind of lyrics I would produce for a Doom music track anyway nor would I want to get someone else in to write any.
When the music track is done or maybe when its close to being done I'll start populating the video with the sound design elements. I honestly don't know how long this is going to take me so its a little difficult to plan my time but I'm going to set myself a limit of 2 to 3 weeks and if i'm not able to come up with stuff within that time frame that means I either haven't tried hard enough or I'm just rubbish at sound design and should choose a different career path. In saying that I am quietly confident that I can achieve a good result but I will definitely have to push myself to make something that I can be proud of. If I am having trouble with certain aspects of the sound design process I do have a great network of talented audio engineers I can contact to provide some advice and assistance if need be but I'll probably be able to work mostly everything out by myself.
I have a relatively clear vision in my head for what I want to produce and achieve with this project all that is left to do now is get started and see where this horror journey takes me. At the very least I know I can produce Metal music and do sound design its just a matter of bringing all of the skills I have learned so far and taking them to the next level. I hope to bring you all good project updates in the coming blogs.