We recount our five favourite audio moments from the past year. We consider all things audio including music, sound design, compositions, voice acting, events, products and software. Check them out below and if you agree or disagree, comment, e-mail, tweet and anything else using the buttons in the top right!
5. Pro Tools 11
A lot of controversy over this one but we believe that Avid’s Pro Tools 11 was a key release in audio this year. The program works a lot smoother than its predecessor and has a lot of useful features added. In our opinion, PT11 has a lot to offer whether you work in music production, composition, studio recording, sound design or any other audio capacity.
The built in instruments and plug-ins work great before you even add those much needed, and wanted, extras. MIDI has also now been refined and is no longer a huge problem to work with in Pro Tools. The fact that it only runs in 64-bit is the obvious issue, but with most machines going that way we don’t think it’ll be long before everything is only 64-bit anyway!
4. Game Music Connect
Read our interviews with excellent composers and founders of this event, John Broomhall and James Hannigan here: Game Music Connect: Interview with John Broomhall & James Hannigan Game Music Connect 2013 Follow Up Interview with James Hannigan & John Broomhall Plus a review here: Game Music Connect
3. Troy Baker
Although these performances were incredible, our favourite of this year was his immense performance in his role as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins. After Mark Hamil we were dubious anyone could replicate what he achieved with this character. However, we were pleasantly surprised when we first heard the glimpses of Troy Baker’s voice in early trailers and at Eurogamer and he did not disappoint at all as we played through the whole game.
We salute you Troy and look forward to hearing you more in the New Year!
2. Gravity
An epic film with epic sound! We were fortunate enough to see this incredible feature in Dolby Atmos. If you got to watch this film, we cannot recommend enough to watch it in 3D with Dolby Atmos!
Gravity was probably the best implementation of Dolby Atmos we can think of. With space being the most silent atmosphere man can be in, the sound design and score were what carried this film. Every subtle sound is positioned fully utilising the ability to pan things above and around the viewer to create an overwhelmingly immersive experience.
1. The Last of Us
This fantastic game had to be our number one. We were blown away by the incredible sound design and score for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. “Less is more” was the approach taken by the fantastic team lead by Phillip Kovats.
The incredible soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla adds a hauntingly beautiful tone that perfectly reflects the desolate post-apocalyptic world within The Last of Us. We could listen to that
Our favourite specific sound from this beautiful game was the Clickers, mainly because the horror they infuse the player with. Focusing so hard on being quiet means that when they go crazy so do you!
Read/Listen to our interview with Audio Lead on the Project Phillip Kovats right here: Interview With Phillip Kovats
Thanks for reading our top five audio of 2013 and we look forward to enjoying another year with you fantastic audio enthusiasts! Have comments or questions?
E-mail into sam@thesoundarchitect.co.uk
Have a blast!
The Sound Architect
Article by Sam Hughes
Uploaded 27/12/13