Recently shortlisted for a Develop Award for its audio work on Forza Horizon 2 for Xbox One, Sounding Sweet is an independent recording and audio production company based outside Stratford upon Avon in the UK. As a specialist in the games genre, postproduction sound engineer and studio co-owner, Ed Walker can often be found recording supercars.
With Grid, DiRT and F1 also on his CV, Walker has recently begun using an Audient ASP880 mic premplifier. ‘It’s only in recent years that we have had the ability to play back truly cinematic high-fidelity sound in games,’ Walker says. ‘The future of game audio is incredibly exciting…
‘Things are changing so fast –we’re running hundreds and hundreds of channels in real time, and it needs to sound as good as a film. Yes, we draw from the creative and technological advances in TV and film, but we’re also doing really very ground-breaking and exciting things with games.’
‘It’s difficult to explain,’ he says of the eight-channel ASP880. ‘It’s a high-end mic preamp which sounds really musical somehow, while being incredibly accurate. It doesn’t sound clinical.
‘I don’t do that much music,’ he continues. ‘Most of my work is audio postproduction for computer games, film and TV – including ads. I tend to use the Audient mic preamps for ADR and Foley. The AS880s are perfect for this type of recording as the signal often needs to be really clean.’
Sounding Sweet operates a 7.1 surround-sound dubbing suite with two voiceover booths, which double as Foley studios and music recording spaces when necessary. The studio’s location (just five minutes away from the Royal Shakespeare Company) also brings work. As well as high-profile actors, such as Patrick Stewart and David Tennant, RSC directors have been in the voiceover booth, commentating on BluRay DVD releases. ‘They can come here and work at an industry standard level without having to head all the way down to London,’ Walker explains.
Walker has used the Audient preamps to record various actors for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s recent CD and BluRay releases, and in addition to this, the studios’ film and television credits include Postman Pat: The Movie, American Dad and Family Guy.
Despite all the secrecy surrounding new games developments, he can disclose what he would tell a young Ed Walker starting out in the business: ‘Don’t cut corners when it comes to gear and your production values. I strongly believe in getting the best possible signal chain. If you’ve got somebody important in the v/o booth, or you’re trying to capture some Foley to picture, or record a guitarist for a band, you get one shot at it. Use the wrong mic, the wrong mic pre or if there’s a problem anywhere in the signal chain, then you’ve lost that opportunity.
‘I’ve dabbled with various bits of equipment in the past, and I shouldn’t have messed about. Go for the jugular: get a couple of Neumanns and do the right thing from the start.’
