119TH AES Booth #318
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Veteran sound designer uses Eventide Ultra-Harmonizer to enhance the independent film Two Weeks by creating an integral room soundscape, generated entirely of Eventide's legendary effects.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, October 7, 2005 - Emmy Award winning sound designer Jay Rose has mastered the art of crafting unique sound effects and textured soundscapes out of thin air. After recently upgrading his Eventide Orville to an H8000A Ultra-Harmonizer effects processor, Rose has taken his capabilities to new levels as featured in the new independent feature Two Weeks.
Two Weeks, a comedy/drama staring two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field (Mrs. Doubtfire, Forrest Gump, Steel Magnolias) and Ben Chaplin (Murder by Numbers, The Truth About Cats and Dogs), tells the story of four adult siblings coming to terms with their mother's final weeks at her bedside. Writer/Director Steve Stockman called upon Rose to use sound in unusual ways. For example, Rose created a sound atmosphere for Field's hospice room that evokes an almost soulful sound for the medical devices. Rose started with nothing but a microphone and the H8000A and created a rich tapestry of sounds that progress over the course of the film, providing a sonic plotline.
"From the onset of the production, I was asked to give the film an evolving sound atmosphere that conveyed the story's development through audio," said Rose. "With the H8000A, I was able to generate distinct sounds that both match the on-camera props and create a kind of hyper-reality. Throughout the course of the film, the sounds blend together forming a choir of machines that cue viewers to the film's progression and the characters' states of mind."
The H8000A features 1,588 preset algorithms and a library of 230 effects blocks crafted over three decades, giving users a virtually infinite number of configurations and combinations. Presets are easily sorted by the improved search engine functionality. Users can create their own algorithms using the freeware graphic editor/development tools for OS X or the PC.
Always the multitasker, Rose developed a program in VSIG™, Eventide's PC development tool, that allowed him to use his H8000A as a surround controller. With the H8000A's expanded I/O, the VSIG program let him solo each speaker from the front panel of the H8000A, making the combined mix richer and saving him the expense of a separate surround controller.
"I am an old-fashioned sound designer when it comes to building a studio," said Rose. "I grew up with a room of racks full of outboard equipment. If you were going to design your own sound, you had to know how to use that equipment in unusual ways. It was not just a bunch of plug-ins. The H8000A takes the form of a traditional box processor, but incorporates every function imaginable and processing power to back it up. The end result is a roomful of effects equipment in a single unit."
Rose may subscribe to the old-fashioned philosophy but his resume is anything but. A Cinema Audio Society member and former officer of the Audio Engineering Society, Rose has spent the past 33 years working in many facets of the professional audio industry. Rose's long line of credits include feature and broadcast sound design, industry journalist, author, and equipment programmer. His diverse and extensive career has given him the ability to view the industry as it has dramatically evolved over the past three decades.
According to Rose, creating entertainment content is both an art and a science that must always stay true to its purpose. "But never forget, we got into audio because it's fun," said Rose. "And one source of the fun is having great tools to work with."
Founded in 1971 in New York City, Eventide is a leading developer and manufacturer of digital audio processing products for recording, broadcast, and live performance. Headquartered in Little Ferry, NJ, Eventide invented the H949, the first Harmonizer® effects processor in 1975, and introduced the H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer effects processor in 1988. Visit Eventide on the Web at www.eventide.com.
Eventide and Harmonizer are registered trademarks; VSIG and Orville are trademarks of Eventide Inc.