Don't just be a Fly on the Wall by Sophie Sound.
Episode 02 - There are people designing sounds of the world you are in, starting with a Limiter.
Sophie Sound recently learned more about limiter, precisely the Newfangler Elevate. For a long time, fairly to say until now, she had not much of an idea what they are for. Especially in sound design.
Episode 2: Don’t just be a Fly on the Wall.
INT. BAR
Sophie Sound sitting at the bar looking around the room. Staring out of the convex panorama window into Never Stop Never Stopping, drifting away into thoughts.
Sophie in her thoughts:
I need to get in!
In the back of her mind, a sound catches her attention. On the other side of the room, a person is seated at what appears to be a slot machine.
The air fills with familiar sounds she recognizes from the bathroom: light, playful, and golden magic tones, juxtaposed with gritty, realistic, surreal, yet material-based magic. The sounds shift dynamically, becoming much louder and then quieter.
Alien bird calls transform into common animal sounds—squeaking and moaning. The hum of bees and flies morphs unpredictably into sci-fi effects, distorted magical beams, and tonal hums. It’s a chaotic medley—a shift of process chains driven by dynamics, volume changes, distortion, and constant movement. Louder, distorted, quieter, louder again.
PERSON (at the slot machine):
Let me bump this up a little to -3 dB. Hmm, I don’t like it. Maybe a Black Box would work here. Let’s push this into the sub again and bump it with the L2.
Sophie annoyedly turned around looking at the person on the slot machine. Leaving for the toilet. A fly following her, humming loudly.
INT. Bathroom
A remarkably beautiful, decadent, Art Deco wonder of a toilet, with a large, round open ceiling above her head. She closes her eyes, listening to the golden, magical, playful world above. Suddenly, the sounds shift—from pleasant and enchanting to simple, raw, everyday noises. Then, they change again, morphing into aggressive, crackling electrical sounds, as if someone is editing them in real-time.
A sudden buzzing around her head disrupts her thinking. Using her hand to shush the buzzing away, a very stressed out fly, sighing and hectically mumbling, resting on her head. A back and forth begins.
Fly:
I told them the budget is way too small for what the client wants, but they wouldn’t listen to me.
Sophie:
Who is your client? The Wall?
Fly:
Very funny, Sophie Sound. You have no idea...
(In a desperate, tense, almost frazzled singing voice)
Fly:
And I don't have time for thi-hi-s. Gotta run.
Sophie:
How do you know my name?
Fly:
I’m the Fly on the Wall of Never Stop Never Stopping.
Sophie:
Yes! Can you help me to get in?
Fly:
This is not a nightclub with a guestlist. Gotta run, gotta run.
Sophie:
Wait!
Fly:
Try the toilets. They usually scribble their tricks on the walls about how to get in.
Sophie:
Someone writes with a pen on these fancy toilets?
Fly:
Please! If you knew how many lunatic, egocentric geniuses with alcohol problems piss in those toilets... Same old story for years. Later, babes.
Sophie:
I thought it's not a nightclub…
(Sophie Sound walks over to the golden toilets with their marble walls, checking each one carefully.)
Sophie:
There is nothing written…
From the bar sounds a glittery, sweet, magic immersive wind around her head, accompanied by a bird sound, soft as a feather. Sophie sitting on one of the golden toilets lids frustration mixes with hopelessness and exhaustion of too many not sense-making-things happening, closing her eyes again when..a loud electric zap disrupts her. And another electricity sound.
Sophie:
This is already exhausting, why can’t someone just tell me how to get in.
Another huge electric spark followed, stopps in the middle, startling her. Huge electric spark sound coming in again, this time more subtle, more limited and less distorted as before. Cleaner. Like a thunder. Suddenly a bit of rain. All making sense now.
Sophie:
Grrrrr
But the sound combined with the thunder makes the room shake. A coloured tile falling off the wall. Behind it, a Letter. “E”
Repeating her big deep sigh in hope of making another tile fall off, nothing moves. A frustration again.
Sophie:
Arghhh
A piece falling off. Revealing another letter. “L”. Repeating different variations of sighs, one tile by one falling off. She starts laughing about herself in the marble bathroom all by herself, sighing over and over again until the wall reveals the sentence: “Let me bump this up a little”.
Sophie with big eyes, walking quickly back into the bar. Towards the man, sitting on what to appears to be a slot machine.
Sophie:
You’ve got to be kidding.
INT. BAR
The person is still sitting on the slot machine. Sophie Sound walking close just to learn that it is a computer machine. Watching the person designing electricity effects bumping up the sounds, using a limiter, moving the virtual knobs up and down, faster than she can even look. Just hearing the sounds around her getting louder and quieter.
Sophie Sound:
What are you doing? I can hear it all over the place…
Person:
There are people designing the world you are in, you know. I’ve got to test it in different places and spaces before it gets sent out into Never Stop Never Stopping.
Sophie Sound:
The last sound I heard was totally different from the rest. I want to know how it works.
Person:
You can do a lot with limiter.
Sophie Sound:
Only limiter?
Person:
Let’s start with a simple template. On the Master you add a limiter. On the Pre-Master you use another limiter…
After a long while of watching, asking questions Sophie Sound has trouble keeping her eyes open and concentration up.
Person:
Your turn now. Get your iLok. You can’t stay a fly on the wall forever, Sophie Sound. You have to learn for yourself how things work, how they behave and how they function.
Sophie Sound:
Can’t be that difficult..
Hours later…
Sophie: Ah, Fuck.
Thanks to James Denholm (Formosa), I slowly develop a fondness for Plug Ins and a much better understanding of what they are for, how they behave and what they are for. By watching his videos and talking to him about design, with an eye on Limiter and precisely for the Newfangler Elevate, Waves LV2 and MV 2, my toolbox grows. I highly recommend watching his stuff. He is a really good teacher.
Next Episode 03 with a new interview and very special guest bring Sophie Sound, hopefully close to getting into Never Stop Never Stopping. Or at least out of that bar and bathroom.
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