axel rohrbach

BOOM library release

Axel — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:27:12 +0000

We did it. Our first product is online. Check this out:
BOOM library
Metal recordings and huge metal sound designs. I personally use it for trailers blenders and hits, logos, wooshes, weapons, impacts, explosions, cars and vehicles, armor sounds, … I can not even count how often I used them yet. Just visit the website to get some more detailed information or join us on facebook:
Facebook BOOM library

Battlestar Galactica Online

Axel — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:56:29 +0000

I just finished my work on BigPoint’s E3 trailer for the game Battlestar Galactica Online. Now I know how handy this “Cinematic Metal” library really is. I used the BOOM Library all over the trailer.
Some words about this work:
“Really fat!” Sven Liebich – Head of Art, Bigpoint
“Superior work!” Lars Wagner – Technical Director, Virgin Lands
“Now, that is cool.” Ronald D. Moore – Executive Producer Battlestar Galactica, Universal
“The best trailer I have received in my time at Universal” Gary Lokum – Senior Manager Interactive Games, Universal
“FRAKKIN’ AWESOME” Steve Coulter, SYFY

Battle Star Galactica Online – E3 Trailer from BOOM Library on Vimeo.

Crystals

Axel — Fri, 28 May 2010 09:33:39 +0000

New stuff from the BOOM library. Using only the “Cinematic Metal – Construction Kit” sound effects, Olaf Bartsch and I created some crystalized sounds for a logo animation of the animation studio we can dance. Check out some more possibilities of the Construction Kit’s recordings:

Crystals from BOOM Library on Vimeo.

Making of – Metal Impacts

Axel — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:28:26 +0000

I know, long time ago since my last post. I was pretty busy working on a new sound effects library. Anyway, I made a tutorial video for the upcoming BOOM library. It is called “Cinematic Metal” and there will be two releases. One is the “Cinematic Metal – Impacts”, a library featuring high definition 96kHz, 24-Bit impact sounds to use in trailers, multimedia products, logo design ect. Besides that, the “Cinematic Metal – Construction Kit” will be shipped on two DVDs, including all the source material the Cinematic Metal – Impacts were made of. Again in 96kHz, 24-Bit. More than 4500 sounds will give you the possibilities, to create what ever metal impact (and other impacts) you ever wanted to design. Anyway, the following tutorial describes how to work with the Construction Kit using Soundminer and ProTools :

Cinematic Metal – Construction Kit Tutorial from BOOM Library on Vimeo.

CineToms 2

Axel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:47:47 +0000

A couple of days ago Mike Barry, Co-Founder of Cinesamples, asked me if I would have some ideas to create some produced, custom tom sounds for a new library. It was really fun working on that. Using real tom samples provided by Cinesamples, I did everything to excite them. Mostly things I would do with gun sounds, explosions, swords and so on. Check it out here:
CineToms 2 product page

There is also a youtube video showing the different new sets for the Cinetoms 2. Have a look at it here:

Boom!

Axel — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:17:13 +0000

something is happening. Stay tuned!
Involved: David Philipp and Michael Schwendler

Update: some movement on this. Check out www.boomlibrary.com

Creature Sound

Axel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:21:27 +0000

I received such a huge feedback about the lion recordings I did for ArcaniA that I thought I would give some more details. This post is about how I create sound effects for monsters.
First steps of course are to analyze what kind of monster I have to design sounds for. Let’s say I have to create a sound for a large fire demon, something like Runes of Magic’s Demon Lord. The size and character of the creature influences my first attempts to get great basic sounds to start the design. Also I am always looking for special, characteristic sounds, that I can use repeatedly through all kinds of different sounds. Let’s say in this example I use a low, threatening gargling sound to give the fire creature its characteristic sound. I would go into our recording booth and record, in high quality 192 kHz, 24-bit mono, a belching sound with my own voice, sounding like this:

After recording my voice, I edit it and remove noises and other unwanted audio using an audio restoration tool. Then the cleaned basic material will be processed in different manners. Mostly they will be pitched and equalized, but sometimes I use distortion or other effects, too. I also add some special reverb rooms at this point to change my body into something else. In this case I used Altiverb and its included impulse response of a Djembe to get a warmer and fuller character than my body provides.

That done, my voice sounds a little bit more characteristic for a fire demon:

OK, I got my basic sound, now I do the same with other sounds I need. I also recorded a deep, long and breathy inhaling sound and some screams. Edited in similar ways as described above, the end result looks like this in ProTools:

I especially distorted and added enhancer effects to the inhaling sound.
I used just a few layers for this creature, as this is an example. Sometimes I use even less, but mostly I got more layers to design a organic but monstrous sound. That’s all there is to it. Listen to the short final sound.

Sound Design for “Sound Ideas”

Axel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:38:17 +0000

Besides doing sound effects and designs for online libraries like www.soundrangers.com I recently did a couple of sound effects for the well known sfx library “Sound Ideas”.
“Practically every feature film made in Hollywood uses sound effects from the Sound Ideas Library, and practically every sound designer who has won an award in the last few years has used sound effects from Sound Ideas. The exciting soundtracks that we’ve all become accustomed to are made possible in large part due to the availability of such high quality sound effects.” – one of the testimonials to be found on the Sound Ideas website.
Included in some of Sound Idea’s future release, my sound effects probably will be used in a couple of major international movie productions and games during the next years though.

1974 Chevrolet Camera

Axel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:20:58 +0000

I was very satisfied with the Porsche Carrera recordings I did a couple of weeks ago. However, setting up mics on a car is quite time intensive, and since I am planning a huge car recording session next year I would love to be quicker in setting everything up. So this time I choose a dynometer to record a 1974 Chevrolet Camaro. This recording took place at Rothe Motorsport, a company that specializes in pimping cars. They had for example a VW Gold there with 650 hp going up to 100km/h in less than 3 seconds.
Anyway, they have an awesome dynometer set up in their garage, which I was able to book. The car we recorded went up to 150 mph using something around 270 hp. I wanted to set up two mics in the engine compartment and one for each of the two exhausts, but it turned out that it sounded better using three mics for the exhausts, two close miked and one about 1.5 m away. We used one mic to record inside of the engine compartment, that was enough. The dynometer was able to set a fixed rpm, which is very important later for creating looping sounds back in the studio. Recording at 96kHz to fit current standards, there are about 3 GB of sound files on my hard disc.
We had bad luck with the weather. Since it was raining and the tires were very big, we decided not to record drive-bys. It was too bad, but drive-bys with wet street sound on the recording is not usable.
Once it is edited and implemented in fMod, the car’s sounds will be used in an open world game – but I have to wait to announce the name of the game until next year.
In the meantime, have a look at some pictures of the recording and listen to a short clip of the recording here:

Gothic IV – ArcaniA Sound Effects

Axel — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:21:27 +0000

One project I am currently working on is ArcaniA – A Gothic Tale (aka Gothic IV). We are trying to hold on to the Gothic series’ style of audio, but are improving the audio experience with excessive and intensive sound design. All of the weapon and fighting sounds are recorded from scratch. Using daggers, different swords (Albion swords are sounding awesome), real axes, massive metal pieces (like parts of rails) and so on, we got tons of new material to work with. We recorded all the monsters’ basic sounds as well. As you can see in my “sound design” category, we went out to record some animals for ArcaniA’s monster sounds, as well as human voices. Once we are finished, you will never recognize that the monster sounds came originally from human beings. Using FMod again to implement the sounds into the game, we try to push the atmosphere of the game as far as we can.
Watch a part of the monster recordings here: Wild Cats Recording
Arcania’s official homepage: arcania-game.com