sounddesign
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The 'Inside' soundtrack was created with a human skull
Inside, the mysterious puzzle platformer by Playdead, continues the dark and isolating tone of its predecessor, Limbo. Much of the game's atmosphere can be attributed to the soundtrack, which offers a beautiful, yet haunting frame for the narrative. To nail this sombre mood, composer and sound designer Martin Stig Andersen turned to the human body. He found an old skull (yes, a real skull) and played the game's score through it, like an old school filter. The results were "quite bad," but Anderson persisted -- with a little post-processing, the final tracks were born.
Samsung reveals the design story highlights for the Galaxy S III
Samsung was very keen to let us know that its latest flagship phone was designed for humans. Now, the latest in the revealing series from the firm gives a little more insight into how the team went about that. For example, product designer Hangil Song explains how the rounded edges were inspired by pebbles in a stream, while sound engineer Joongsam Yun describes how they wanted to make the phone sound like a stroll in the forest. So, next time you're barging your way down Mainstreet with four ounces of synthetic material blaring out Carly Rae Jepsen, remember, you're doing it wrong.
Peek inside Samsung's sound lab to see ringtones being born
Samsung's opened up about how the engineers in its sound lab build the default tones for your handset. Tasked with developing a "Sonic Branding," a ringtone that's as iconic and recognizable as Nokia's famous reworking of Gran Vals is to the Finnish handset maker. Research showed that most phones are answered within 10 seconds, so for Over The Horizon, the two-second is repeated and variated several different ways. Designing the soundscape for NatureUX also posed problems of its own. In order to create those aquatic noises, designers stirred a rubber bowl of water and scratched wet plates with toothpicks hundreds of times until the perfect tone was found. What was the leading cause of rejection? The enhanced sounds were a little too similar to that of a flushing toilet. Of course, while handset sound design is the team's most famous effort, it's also tasked with producing the audible signals from everything from Microwaves to Washing Machines -- so perhaps your next load of clean laundry will be heralded with a three-minute guitar solo.
