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Sound Editing & Design for Picture
Music for Picture
Recorded Music
Live Music

Sound Editing & Design for Picture

Important note about downloading video samples: All video is in Quicktime 7 streaming format at 800kbps. Quicktime 7 seems to have issues with popping and clicking on some computers. Needless to say, these problems are not part of the original soundtrack. If these problems occur, please wait for full download before hitting the Play button.

Duel [0:46 complete, streaming QT 7 file, 4.8 mb]
3D Animation short, 2006
Producer: Digitrove
JB: sound design, mix
The challenge with 3D animation is in managing concepts that exist more in potentiality than actuality. Animation is not shot then edited, it is conceived, rendered and compiled. As such I initially began designing sound based on ideas: the director’s communicated “vision,” a few still pieces of artwork, and my own interpretation of where I felt the imagery was going. The main narrative intent with the soundtrack was to enhance the empathetic shift that occurs regarding the two characters. First, we are lured into identifying with the girl and see the man as an imposing threat and brutal killer. We quickly come to find, however, that the girl is the real evil and the man is the hero figure. To this end, I used dry, natural, diegetic sounds to introduce the girl, and dramatic, nondiegetic intensification sounds to introduce the man. After the head hits stone, silence marks the reversal of character: When the girl opens her mouth, hell is unleashed through the soundtrack and we see that the man had reasons for his actions. This soundtrack was made from three principal sources: drastically resampled and filtered SFX library sounds, recorded voices either left dry or heavily treated (depending on characterization), and synthesizer-based intensification sounds. Mixed originally in 5.1, this web version has been encoded to 2.0. Please note: This is probably not something to share with the kiddies.

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Secrets Unscripted [3:03 complete, streaming QT 7 file, 18.7 mb]
Documentary Trailer, 2006
Producer: Digitrove
JB: audio post, music composition
This is a simple documentary trailer. The producer's primary need was music. She had a temporary theme as a placeholder and asked for something of a similar feel. I used the same tempo and tried to stay true to the same mood, but the new composition is completely original in melody, rhythm and overall structure. This was my first attempt at using Pro Tools 7's new instrument tracks feature. It's a much more intuitive way of working with software synths than the old MIDI/Aux channel method, and this all came together very quickly. Audio post chores involved typical dialogue cleanup, editing, mixing, and some creative level adjustments and panning for the end sequence.

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Arcs of Texture [2:10 edit, streaming QT 7 file, 13.9 mb]
Experimental short film, 2005
Director: Kenneth Paul Rosenthal
Music: Jon Brenner
JB: ambient sound recording/design/collage
After working on Ken's experimental short Flow, he approached me again to help him on his new piece. The soundtrack at that time consisted entirely of original music. He screened it for me and asked my opinion. I suggested that a natural ambient soundtrack in the first half would establish a dynamic complement to help energize the second half. He said that this was also his feeling. So he gave me some direction on particular sounds he'd like to hear and I took a DAT recorder and an AKG condenser mic into the BART and MUNI underground. After digitizing the field recordings, I cobbled together three or four themes and used those as starting points. I wanted to suggest movement through a counterpoint of sound and image elements. One example of this is where you hear the sounds of foot travel (an escalator) over shots of mass transit (the train). I sweetened the ambient sound very slightly through the addition of a filter-modulated synth bed I developed in Native Instruments' Reaktor software to give a hint of otherworldliness to some of the more abstract imagery. Overall, this is an intentionally quiet approach to sound design. My intent was to create a sense of hushed atmosphere through shifting, low-volume presence, and to also interweave subjective and objective conditions through sound depending on the shot types.

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DVD intro [0:08 complete, streaming QT 7 file, 388 kb]
Animated logo, 2005
Producer: Digitrove
JB: sound design
An example of a simple DVD intro logo. The animation team gave me a Quicktime video and I had a finished and approved soundtrack for them 2 hours later. The floating "O" is obviously the main "character" (no pun intended) so it needed a leitmotif. I strip-silenced a helicopter sound to pull out just the attack characteristics of the blades, time-compressed (shortened) the sounds, and applied real-time pitch changes to indicate movement on- and off-screen. Car acceleration and doppler pitch shifting were added to sweeten the overall effect. Music is a combination of an arpeggio patch from a Roland Fantom and a BPM-matched Apple Soundtrack Pro drum loop.

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Flow [2:04 edit, streaming QT 7 file, 12.9 mb]
Experimental short film, 2004
Director: Kenneth Paul Rosenthal
JB: sound recording, design & mix
Flow was completely empty of sound when I met Ken through my independent study with Pat Jackson. Given the subject matter and the poetic way it was delivered, I wanted something fluid but in a very nonliteral way. The main character’s condition is primarily symbolic, so I felt it needed a signature ambience to suggest that. I hit on the idea of using cymbals to evoke the atmosphere of the ocean. Ken and I entered a Foley studio together and did everything we could imagine to about 5 or 6 different cymbals — dropping sand on them, rolling with mallets, hitting the edges with various pieces of metal, sweeping them with a broom, etc. Ken brought in an amazing, indescribable "instrument" consisting of a bicycle wheel spinning on a bucket, which is how I developed the rhythmic loop toward the end. We also dropped objects into a water basin, and used our hands to Foley the footsteps in sand. The post-production phase was probably the most stream-of-consciousness design process I've done to this point. I worked very quickly and allowed "purposeful accidents" to emerge. By this, I mean that I knew what I wanted to do for each scene emotionally and narratively, but I wanted to bring it out with as little conscious thought as possible. The subconscious often takes over in situations such as these, leading into unexpected directions. All sounds in Flow were recorded exclusively for this film. Not a single stock sample or library effect was used. Please note: soundtrack is bandpassed for film layback.

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The Job Title Theme [0:33 complete, streaming QT 7 file, 3.5 mb]
TV theme song, 2006
Producer: Digitrove
JB: music composition
Theme music for television show The Job. This was developed using a combination of Apple Loops (tambourine, guitar, some samples) and originally recorded material (bass line, synth parts, drum loops, other samples). While it can't be considered "composition," it does all make for very fast work when you only have a few hours to get it done.

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ID 04.01.04 [1:04 complete, streaming QT 7 file, 6.3 mb]
Experimental short video (graduate class assignment) 2004
JB: director, sound, music, picture editing
This derived from a one-minute "self-identity" assignment for a graduate-level experimental production course. We were given a particular frame cycle—5 frames, 15 frames, 10 frames, 5 frames—to be repeated throughout the piece. I used this restriction both aesthetically and narratively. The aesthetic question was what to rhythmically with a 35-frame cycle. I decided to start with the music and create a BMP value for the musical score and also create a polyrhythm between edit cycle (picture) and time cycle (sound). Since the montage functioned in 35 frames and video operates at 30-frames per second, the lowest common denominator where the two meet up is 210 frames (6 cycles x 35 frames; 7 seconds x 30 frames). So at every seven seconds (and six cycles), a polyrhythm between picture and sound is resolved and rejoined. Once I had the polyrhythm, I determined that four measures of music over the course of seven seconds equals 137 BPM. My live performance was tracked at this value, enabling editing that maintained sync with the rhythm of the original performance. Regarding the narrative, I wanted to establish a theme of movement through life: physically through time and place, experientially through past and present events, and internally in the way my opinion of self has evolved. I chose to express this movement visually through three ideas: memory, identity, and creative action. Because I was also studying the idea of subjectivity in film theory, I decided to incorporate B-roll footage of me directing the process—looking into the camera, talking to the crew, and creating the project itself. My identity in that moment was, after all, that of a grad student directing others in a class assignment.

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In Opposition [5:36 complete, streaming QT 7 file, 34.8 mb]
Experimental short video (graduate class assignment), 2004
Producers: Brett Sylvester, Barbara Teixeira, Adam Vadnais, JB
Director: Adam Vadnias
JB: co-producer, sound design, co-videography
This was a final project for a graduate-level experimental production course. The director and I were also taking a differrent grad course on sound aesthetics in which we were studying Lacan's "mirror phase" of identity as applied to sound. We wanted to apply this to a production setting, so the soundtrack had to somehow evoke subject formation. On the one hand, there is the objective world of a fencer preparing for a bout and on the other, the subjective dream-world of him battling his inner self. I took a monophonic, raw approach to the beginning and end sequences, and for the dream sequence, designed a sonic subconscious. Here I juxtaposed objective, diegetic sounds of fencing with subjective sounds of his internal condition. The music is a recording of me playing harmonics on an acoustic guitar, which were edited and massively treated.

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Strings & Wings [1:21 edit, streaming QT 7 file, 8.4 mb]
Television feature, 2005
Producer: Ralitsa Stoeva
JB: sound supervisor, VO recording, co-mixer, lighting, co-videography

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Starting Over [0:59 edit, mpeg4, 2.2 mb]
Television feature, 2005
Producer: Marissa Bushby
JB: post-production sound editing, VO recording, mix, music

 

Music for Picture

Here are a few snippets of music I developed for the TV show The Job. This is more music editing than music composition. All were developed using Apple Soundtrack Pro loops as starting points, which were massively manipulated and treated. In most cases, I'd augment them by recording my own synth lines and/or bass patterns and maybe an original loop here and there. You'll find no works of genius here, but in the fast-paced world of TV post-production, it did the job (no pun intended... really).

track 1-- track 2 -- track 3
track 4 -- track 5 -- track 6
track 7 -- track 8 -- track 9

Recorded Music:

"I Am No One" [192 kbps mp3]
Estonia (unreleased)
Written by: Batcho, Given, Manjarrez, Teng
Performed by: Batcho, Given, Query, Teng
Engineered by: JB & John Given
JB: drums, rhythm & synth programming, noises

"The Happy Song" [192 kbps mp3]
Estonia (unreleased)
Written by: Batcho, Given, Manjarrez, Teng
Performed by: Batcho, Given, Query, Teng
Engineered by: JB & John Given
JB: drums

"Subway" [192 kbps mp3]
Estonia (unreleased)
Written by: Batcho, Given, Manjarrez, Teng
Performed by: Batcho, Given, Query, Teng
Engineered by: JB & John Given
JB: drums, percussion

"Urbanismo" [192 kbps mp3]
Estonia (unreleased)
Written by: Batcho, Given, Manjarrez, Teng
Performed by: Batcho, Given, Manjarrez, Teng
Engineered by: JB & John Given
JB: rhythm programming

"Yesterdays" [1:15 edit, 192 kbps mp3]
Brent Malin
Album: Long Long Way © 2007 Brent Malin
Producer: Brent Malin
JB: drums

"Long Long Way" [1:10 edit, 192 kbps mp3]
Brent Malin
Album: Long Long Way © 2007 Brent Malin
Producer: Brent Malin
JB: drums

"Harbor" [0:56 edit, mp3, 874 kb]
Vienna Teng
Album: Warm Strangers © 2004 Virt Records
Written by Viena Teng
Producer: David Henry
JB: assistant engineer, drums, percussion

"My Medea" [1:22 edit, mp3, 1.2 mb]
Vienna Teng
Album: Warm Strangers © 2004 Virt Records
Written by Vienna Teng
Producer: David Henry
JB: assistant engineer, drums, percussion, rhythm programming

"Drought" [0:51 edit, mp3, 800 kb]
Vienna Teng
Album: Waking Hour © 2002 Virt Records
Written by Vienna Teng
Producer: Eric Miller
JB: drums

 

Live Music

Original Music:

"100" [0:29 edit, mp3, 452 kb]
Shana Morrison (© 2002)
Live at the Freight & Salvage. Berkeley, CA
JB: drums, sound mix

"Naked in the Jungle" [0:38 edit, mp3, 596 kb]
Shana Morrison (© 2002)
Live at the Freight & Salvage. Berkeley, CA
JB: drums, sound mix

Covers:

Smurfy Brown 1
Band: Smurfy Brown
Live at Boswells. Campbell, CA
JB: drums, recording, mix

Smurfy Brown 2
Band: Smurfy Brown
Live at Boswells. Campbell, CA
JB: drums, recording, mix

Smurfy Brown 3
Band: Smurfy Brown
Live at Boswells. Campbell, CA
JB: drums, recording, mix

Smurfy Brown 4
Band: Smurfy Brown
Live at Boswells. Campbell, CA
JB: drums, recording, mix

 

© 2004/2005/2006/2007 Jim Batcho, unless specified otherwise.