During our second session we took part in a Foley workshop. We were split into a large group of foley artists and a smaller group of studio engineers (my group). We were tasked with creating; fire sounds, general bar atmosphere and the sound of a zombie’s head being crushed.  

To record we had a fairly wide selection of microphones, around 5 in total. These microphones were patched into a Neve 1703OPX preamp strip and then recorded into Ableton Live. The studio control room used is equipt for a surround sound set up however, we just configured a standard stereo out on the monitors. In Ableton, we were able to pan each channel as desired, so we were able to get an accurate idea of what we were recording.  

To create the bar atmosphere, we had the foley artists walk around the live room and chat with each other. In terms of equipment, we used a stereo pair of Nuemann KM 184s as a left and right, and then a Nuemann u87 as a central mic. By using a 3 microphone set up it allows for a far more immersive sound, as you can hear the punters of the bar walking around you.  

The fire sounds were slightly more complicated. Half the foley artists were given big cloths, almost like cotton dust sheets a painter and decorator would use. The sheets were waved around like flags to drive up the sound of wind into the microphones. The wind sound actually emulated the sound of lapping flames. Then around 3 foley artists had some straw, plastic sheets and paper which they then crumpled and rustled while the sheets were waved. The plastic, straw and paper make the sound of crackling kindling and the pops that we usually associate with fire. Again, we used the stereo 184s and a directional mic (I believe a Shure 58) to pick up detail on the crackling sounds.  

The most surreal experience was definitely the zombie head smashing sound. To mimic a zombies head we used a watermellon, and in place of a boot, a hammer. We displayed a scene from a zombie film onto the monitor screen in the live room, and one of the foley artists took a hammer to the watermelon as the on screen character stomped on the zombies head. We used a Sennhiser ME66 shotgun microphone close up to the watermelon to get an upclose and detailed recording.