SOUND DESIGN SPECIAL: LIQUIFIED MARZIPAN

NOTE: Doublings and stutters are cut to make this transcript easier to read.

PIP

Hello, well we're gearing up for the Season Two launch next week. Season Two will consist of nine regular episodes, and eight minisodes. The minisodes extend each episode and will be released on the same day as the regular episodes exclusively for Patreon supporters. As a fully independent production, we rely on our patrons to keep the cocoa flowing and every contribution, even just a few dollars, really, really helps. To become a patron go to patreon.com/amelia podcast that's patreon.com/ameliapodcast. In the meantime, we thought we'd open up the Amelia office doors and give you a little tour behind the scenes. You've already got to know Øystein and myself as well as Julia who plays Alvina and Alan, who plays the Interviewer, in our behind the scenes special, but you haven't yet been introduced to the fifth member of the Amelia gang. You've heard his work in every episode, but you haven't yet heard his voice. So today, we'd like to introduce you to our composer and sound designer Fredrik Baden.

ANSWERPHONE

Congratulations. You've reached the Amelia project. This phone call isn't happening. If you're not serious about this, hang up.

Now.

If you continue, there's no way back.

Good choice. A new life awaits. You'll hear back from us within the hour. If you don't hear back, please consider the whole thing a hoax. Leave your message after the beep.

(BEEP.)

FREDDY

Help! Season two launches next week and I'm not ready. My computer crashed. And I- I didn't make a backup and the producers are complete maniacs, I need to disappear now. Quick. Help me!

(MUSIC. VERY DRAMATIC AND GRAND)

PIP

What do you think, Øystein?

ØYSTEIN

It is not what I'd imagined.

PIP

It's kind of very grand. It's epic. It's kind of like it sets the audience up for something- It's almost like Lord of the Rings or-

ØYSTEIN

Yeah, lord of the rings meets Sherlock, something like that

PIP

I love the beat-beat-beat-beat, you know I love that build. But the theme itself. We need something that's a bit kind of stranger and smaller and quirkier.

ØYSTEIN

Hm.

(MUSIC - AMELIA OUTRO THEME)

PIP

It's a little bit Harry Potter.

ØYSTEIN

(LAUGHS) Yeah. It's still way too epic. It doesn't set the right tone. I liked the melody though.

PIP

Yeah, the melody is really nice. It could almost work like the end of an episode like you know what we're just about to go into the disappearance. But it's too sweeping. And serious.

(MUSIC - THE AMELIA INTRO THEME)

PIP

I like it!

ØYSTEIN

This!

PIP

I like it.

ØYSTEIN

This is something!

(INTRO MUSIC CONTINUES)

(SCENE BREAK. ACTUAL BONUS EPISODE)

PIP

Øystein?

ØYSTEIN

Pip. Yes

PIP

Hello

FREDDY

Hey guys!

PIP

FREDDY!

ØYSTEIN

Hello

FREDDY

Hi guys!

OYSTEIN

Alright, I can hear you!

PIP

Uhm, yes. So, last time we did one of these behind the scenes specials, we were in the studio together in Vienna enjoying Cocoa and Norwegian Chocolate.

ØYSTEIN

Oh the Norwegian Chocolate…

PIP (CON’T)

Which was very lovely. This time, unfortunately, we are separated by many miles. We're all in different countries. And we're doing this over Skype which is actually our normal way of working. Since-

FREDDY

Yeah

PIP (CON’T)

-since we are all in different places. So yeah, I'm in Paris. Freddie. You are-

FREDDY

I'm still in Oslo, Norway.

ØYSTEIN

I'm also in Oslo, but I'm not in the same place as Freddy.

PIP

Oh, I thought you were in Sweden right now.

ØYSTEIN

No, no, I'm in Norway.

PIP

Okay, cool. So no Norwegian chocolate and oh, I don't know you might have Norwegian chocolate?

ØYSTEIN

I should have had some, shouldn't I? That's the fail on my part. The only thing I have here is a glass of water.

PIP

Oh dear. What about Freddy, do you have any Norwegian chocolate?

FREDDY

Yeah, no, I'm sitting with a kind of cocoa. It's powdered cocoa. It's called (NORWEGIAN). Directly translated, it's 'straight into the cup'. It's not, it's not that good. But it's cocoa so...

PIP

Well, I'm drinking cocoa. I'm too, I mean, whenever I do Amelia stuff, I have to drink cocoa to get into the zone. So I'm drinking a German cocoa. It's called Niederegger Marzipan Trinkschokolade. Did you manage to decipher that?

ØYSTEIN

Yeah. You just said Marzipan? There is Marzipan in your hot chocolate.

PIP

There's marzipan in my hot chocolate. It's a marzipan hot chocolate.

ØYSTEIN

How does that even work? How do you liquefy marzipan? I don't understand.

FREDDY

(LAUGHTER)

PIP

If you're feeling jealous right now, you should. It's very good.

FREDDY

Liquified marzipan, that sounds like a great band name.

OYSTEIN

(LAUGHING) Yeah

PIP

Yeah, cool. Anyway, so, hopefully this time, there will be slightly less slurping and chewing noises than last time. We did get a little bit of flack about that. (OYSTEIN LAUGHS) Not least from you, Freddy.

FREDDY

Yeah, I (LAUGHTER) can't remember how much time I used on actually removing mouth noises but I think you were the worst, Pip. Honestly.

PIP

(LAUGHS) Well, I mean, Øystein had brought this big bar of Norwegian chocolate when there's Norwegian chocolate there's no stopping me. And I think before I answered any question, I just shoved a big batch of norwegian chocolate in my mouth. So…

FREDDY

While talking-

PIP

Yes.

FREDDY (CON’T)

-nonetheless.

PIP

Anyway, we've only been talking for a few minutes and we're already wildly digressing.

FREDDY

Yeah

PIP

So the reason that we’re doing this today is that we wanted to give you our dear listeners a little insight into the creation of the music and the sound design for the Amelia project because last time we did a behind the scenes, Freddy, unfortunately wasn't there. So we've been wanting to do something like this for a long time. And today we finally found a moment to get together and do this. So what- what should we talk about first?

ØYSTEIN

Maybe we should start- I think we should start at the beginning, which is the theme tune actually, because that's how our collaboration really kicked off. You and I met up in a pub in Oslo and Pip wasn't there.

FREDDY

Yeah, actually that is the same pub that I met my girlfriend the very first time.

ØYSTEIN

So all the good things in the world happened to you in that pub-

FREDDY

I have a very special bond with Captain mustard Colonel Mustard in Oslo. So yeah, that was a really great meeting.

PIP

And in fact, I've just opened the document of the very first script and yah, like the very first script and what we wrote in terms of the theme.

ØYSTEIN

Oh, yeah, yeah. Read that out!

PIP

Yeah, so we wrote: “we hear a crackle of tape run on for a bit longer. Then a shrill BEEP. The Amelia theme starts - echoey chords playing over a faint drone underpinned by a rhythmic beat”

FREDDY

Yeah.

PIP

Yeah that's pretty vague.

(LAUGHTER)

So, yeah....

FREDDY

Yeah, actually because you wrote “beep”, and then I read your scripts of course and then in the second episode, I think it's Zale Indigo Raven heart. Yeah, you Yeah, there's a seamless transition into the countdown clock, counting down to his ... uh… demise. His launch, uh, cannon launch. And I had this idea about just well, what if we, what if I just have the beep going in seconds, and then that becomes part of the theme and then it also sets up for a really good suspense and it goes transitions- and transitions beautifully into the clock and the countdown clock…

(WHILE HE TALKS, THE INTRO STARTS UP IN THE BACKGROUND)

JULIA - INTRO (OVERLAPPING)

Philip Thorne and Oinstein brager, with music and sound design by Frederick Barden. Episode Two: Zale Indigo Raven heart

PIP

I think the very first sound you hear in an audio drama is really important, like just the very first sound has to be something kind of representative or strange or funny or whatever you're trying to say. And so and so I love that kind of Beat-Beat being the very first thing

FREDDY

When you know, when you push play on Amelia episode because that click or that shrill beep sound is very distinct, I think. So, with the theme. It starts with the voice message-

(IN THE BACKGROUND, THE ANSWERPHONE MESSAGE IS PLAYED)

-and it's read by Julia Morozova which we all of course love and have dear in our hearts in the background. I wanted to actually when you sent me the script, you already had the wonderful, wonderful icon and or the Amelia project label. And around the icon is a Morse code. And I wanted to - I love Easter eggs. It's the best thing I know, it's my favorite dish. So I took the Morse code and I put it in just as just a simple sine tone synth and maybe into eighths and fourth notes and it's in the background there just just so that you could hear it but maybe you don't hear it on the first time you listen to it because you're focusing on her voice and then you "Oh, there's some there's something going on in the background", which is I love the layers. It's really fun.

PIP

So that's morse code and is it actually spelling something ?

FREDDY

It's spelling of course out "the Amelia project".

(MUSIC)

Let's start with the jumps over that there's some percussion

(SPARKLING MUSIC)

sets that are giving some details and sweeteners with loads of loads of gunk-casa, cymbals and swells - so together it sounds very big like this

(MUSIC, NOT THE FULL THEME BUT SLOWLY MORE AND MORE ADDS TO IT)

FREDDY (CON’T)

I really like having dramatic violins in the back, to counteract the kind of quirky umpa sound so these are some really biting violins and together with that, we have some keyboards to to add to the to the weirdness there is in the background a little piccolo flute, in the background b-part. Little fun-fact.

ØYSTEIN

I love the piccolo flute

PIP

Øystein and I are big fans of the piccolo flute. We heard the first sketch of it that had the piccolo flute. We were both like yay!!

FREDDY

And to round it out and to get to some real bottom end we have the bass section whereas a normal upright bass and synth bass as well which is just oscillating on the fourths. So for this tune, it's not that simple, but it's simple enough for me to be able to use it into different genres. And I really enjoy like, develop a vehicle that is able to go to different places. For example - death metal -

(DEATH METAL VERSION OF THE THEME PLAYS)

I really like this version of the theme. That got me back to my double paddle, like, rocking behind the drum kit.

PIP

So Freddy, there's also another episode in Season One, where you've done something particular with a theme so this is the Steve episode where there's a character who they turn up to their own funeral at the end of the episode and in the background, we can hear the organ player…

FREDDY (OVER THE SOFT PLAYING MUSIC)

So this is kind of a Baroque-fugue-ish melody line just going over while they are talking in the forefront. This is going on in the background. But I wanted to take the opportunity to do something fun so I made this baseline that you hear in the Organ counterpoint. If I speed this up a lot like this, (MUSIC GOES FASTER) and you can kind of hear that this is actually in the theme melody being played in the bass notes on top, and then of course, it goes into the normal tempo, or, the normal-tempoed version of the theme, in-organ version, afterwards. In all of the themes throughout season one, all of them end on the fifth. So if I play, what is called a tonic, total harmonic cadence it is it's the first and it's the fourth and it's the fifth and then you obviously want to go back home to the first-

(KEYBOARD)

ØYSTEIN

Right

FREDDY (CON’T)

-but if you keep the base kind of feels like you're not really fulfilling the cadence. It doesn't feel like you're home yet. So, again, with the suspense and with keeping everybody on their toes throughout all of these themes.

(END MUSIC)

None of them are really ending. None of them are really ending. I wanted to make kind of a point out of that by making the only theme song that ends with a full cadence is the last episode of the season. The season finale is the only episode that ends in the actual full cadence. I kind of thought that was a little poetic (CHUCKLES) easter egg.

PIP

So in addition to the music, Freddy's also our sound designer, so Øystein and I do the dialogue in it. We select the performances we want, we put it all together and then we send it to Freddie and Freddie places the voices into an environment. So Freddy - Do you want to just talk us through how you created that environment? Well, the the office for the Amelia project,

FREDDY

I was eager to make the office alive and to kind of establish the ground rules for the office and for the hallway and for how the office sounds and stuff like that. So if we, if we can just jump into the office, do you want to go into the office?

PIP

Yes. Give us a tour.

(SOUNDS ARE NOW FAR AWAY - FROM THE HALLWAY)

FREDDY

Yeah, so we are now Okay, so we go into the corridor now. And it's - you have to, you have to yell if you're going to be able to hear into the office where we usually are. And it sounds very reverberant and it doesn't sound very intelligible. But enough. So yeah, and then if we knock, it sounds like this.

(KNOCKING)

And then we just go

(THE SOUND CHANGES, CLOSER)

-into the office or you haven't been there beforehand.

PIP

It's even messier in here than I wrote it.

FREDDY

Take a tour. You could see that it is from the door about three to four or five steps over to where you're supposed to be sitting as a client. (STEPS, THEN THE CREAK OF A CHAIR) So it's a normal chair with four legs, it's made of wood and it creaks a bit. And then if I go to the interviewer's chair, it's kind of an office chair with some wheels on (HE TURNS THE WHEELS, OFFICE CHAIR SOUND) and I can go back and open the window for example and you hear all the noise from outside the window. (OUTSIDE SOUNDS) Yeah. So we've established the blueprints, I think, in our Google Drive together. I tried to do that as detailed as possible, as early as possible. So that there wouldn't be any discrepancies over time. You said that you want this is going to go for a long haul and I wanted to go with it and kind of establish the ground rules and of course there's been some adjustments but I hope that the discrepancies and the notable differences are so small that it's not going to be that notable. Hopefully.

PIP

Is that - by the way - is that the intercom on the desk just that the Intercom?

FREDDY

Oh, yeah, this old thing?

PIP

Yeah, can I press it? Am I allowed to press it?

FREDDY

Yeah, absolutely.

PIP

Okay. (CLICK OF THE INTERCOM) Salvatore, Salvatore, can I have some more Niederegger Trinkschokolade? Let's see if that works.

(PLOP. BACK TO NORMAL SOUNDS)

Another challenge was when we had the episode about the artificial intelligence Siri.

FREDDY

Yes, theory was I loved Siiiri. Not only the way it was taking this sounds design wise but the element of artificial intelligence in the future is what it holds. Nowadays, you have Google assistants making the hairdressing calls for you

(ØYSTEIN CHUCKLES)

-and the person on the other side of the line doesn't know it's a machine. So that's how far we come. But for the Amelia Project, we wanted it to be not that realistic and more robotic and more synthetic. So I took all the melody and the singing in every syllable. I took that out of her performance, and she already kind of made it like this so that every syllable has a tone. And I just I, I sort of quantize that in the door. You can kind of hear what it sounds like without-

SIIIRI (SOUNDING MORE HUMAN)

It has been two years, seven weeks and 14 seconds since my first circuits were activated.

FREDDY

And with-

SIIIRI (SOUNDING THE WAY SHE DOES IN THE SHOW)

It has been two years, seven weeks and 14 seconds since my first circuits were activated.(SIIIRI KEEPS TALKING IN THE BACKGROUND)

FREDDY

I moved some notes around to make it kind of glitchy so that she doesn't sound human.

ØYSTEIN

That's really cool. It's incredible how it's really a joint effort to create Siiiri’s voice, of course first, it's Elizabeth's performance, of course, and then I did the dialog edit and I did several things in the dialer, get it right. It took forever. I edited out every single breath because robots don't breathe. So there- every single time she took a breath, breathed in or out. I've cut that out of her speech, which means that all the words can also be smushed together because then there's suddenly just holes in the sentences and then I also took some of the words and phrases that repeat. I actually- even though she read them many times I cut out I chose one of them. And I use that then several times.

FREDDY

Yeah that’s next level.

OYSTEIN (CON’T)

That word I use the same bit of recording even though it- Yeah, so there was a it was that was the most time consuming episode I’ve have had to digilate it on and then on top of that you come in and work your magic to create this voice.

PIP

So I remember getting the first sketch for Siiiri with the voice which was great. And then and then we got a second sketch from you, which included hydraulics.

FREDDY

Yeah that was a workout. There seems to be- Well, either I was bad at googling or searching and finding the right words for the sample that I was trying to get. The hydraulics didn't give much results. For what I wanted. It was either just huge industrial sized hydraulic machines or it was all the wrong stuff. And then I was completely exasperated. I just wanted to take a break and lean back so I lowered my office chair.

(HYDRAULIC SOUND)

And while lowering my office chair, I got the perfect sample. It was just extraordinary. So I had to hold the microphone in my hand. And I also had to hold the other handle on the actual chair and doing some incredible leg exercises by going up and down with my legs while sitting in it because you can't push it. It needs weight for you to go up and down. But I think I got some good samples out of it. And I think everybody came alive.

SIIIRI (HYDRAULIC SOUNDS AS SHE MOVES)

I put on my cap. I learn to rap. I'm sicker, sicker. sicker, sicker Siiiri.

ØYSTEIN

But there's not like not all of the challenges we've given you in the first season. Where that fun I know there's one you really don't want to go through again.

FREDDY

Oh man, yeah, selecting vomiting samples for the hell the hell episode oh...

SPEAKER

Your ice creams, gentlemen, enjoy…

(VOMITING SOUNDS)

PIP

We've had to promise Freddie not to include any more vomiting in season two. Well, by the time we get to season three, maybe we can negotiate to have a few more vomits in there but like season two is a- season two is a vomit-free-zone. There's no I'm talking of season two. Can you do you want to give our listeners since we're launching Season Two next week-

ØYSTEIN

Whoo!

PIP (CON’T)

Do you want to give listeners a little preview of what- What was the most challenging thing for season two? Obviously you don't be too explicit, but maybe you can give them a little hint.

FREDDY

Oh, uhm... I can tease that there will be up to several body-of-water-movements in season two. And I don't have- I don't have a boat. I can't go into the middle of something… Some fjord and record. So if you want water sounds with zero reverb, it's very difficult. That's another thing about reverb. It's really the sound designer's enemy. It's the Nemesis because it's always in the way. It's always an hassling you guys always brothers the track is to reverby be you have to get another one. So, being-

ØYSTEIN

Reverb the only thing we struggle to make disappear

FREDDY

Yeah - that's a good one (CHUCKLES)

PIP

(...) Because you add the rooms reverb on later.

FREDDY (SOUNDING FAR AND THEN CLOSE)

Yes exactly - like we heard in the office just now. It's - if I move this mic away now and you just hear if I sound like this, and then I put this track into another room track. It just sounds double roomie and it doesn't sound like it doesn't sound like you're in the same room as I am because I'm in a completely different ambience. So for the to be able from for me to be able to have all these different elements as a baseball bat and roller skates and water and sound of someone puking and your voice all of them have to be without the reverb for me to be able to put it into the same reverb, you know.

PIP

So hopefully we'll do this again at the end of season two, and then we can talk about excite- I think there'll be a lot to talk about for season two.

ØYSTEIN

Oh yeah, there's some stuff.

FREDDY

There's some stuff

PIP

I know that you're not quite finished yet with Season Two. So we should probably yeah, we should probably let you go. And so make sure that you're ready for next week.

FREDDY

Yeah, I have some water stuff to go through.

ØYSTEIN

But before that maybe you could, since we don't have champagne. Maybe you could give us some champagne.

FREDDY

Yeah, haven't right here. Do you want some?

ØYSTEIN

Oh, yes, please.

FREDDY

Just let me shake it. And here we go!

PIP

Hey. Okay, well let's toast to the launch of Season Two. Next week!

FREDDY

To Season Two!

ØYSTEIN

Chin-chin!

(FUNKY MUSIC)

PIP

This episode featured Frederick Baden, Øystein Brager and Philip Thorne. It was edited by Philip with music and sounds by Freddy. See you back next week for the first episode of season two. And if you’re in London, you can join Øystein and myself at the jumped hair pub for… not a cocoa, but a beer.