Hi,

My name Is Peter Michael Sullivan. You can check my credentials here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0838292/

One of my specialties is the recreation of exterior spaces; it is here I can be of use to you.

The (quick as I can make it sensible) back-story. While working on “What Dreams May Come” I had finally “had it” with interior reverbs, for that is all reverbs provide since we all know the primary market is music, not film, but in film sound design, the realm I work in, exteriors are just as if not more common. I tried my damnedest to recreate forest with the Lexicon 480L I had in my room/suite and just couldn’t do it to my satisfaction. I grew up (until 14 yrs old) in the far northern suburbs of St. Paul. I spent much time in the forest there and later in whatever (usually for effects recording) forest or jungle (Khao Yai in Thailand for example) and I know darn well what forest sounds like.

Our conundrum in film-post is that we have umpteen libraries of clean birds, recorded somewhat close. This is a problem, for if one merely applies a low-pass and low level they still poke out in the mix and that’s damned annoying.

So I gave my Lexicon PCM-80 a whirl and I made it work. What made all the difference was that wile the 480 only had 4 delay taps in their reverb, the PCM-80 had 6; all the difference in the world. That and I could cut the high-end down to near 20Hz, for in the real world high-end reflections disappear quickly. This id not only audible, but easily analyzed in, say, Steinberg’s WaveLab or Izotope’s “Insight. I’m currently working under an NDA with Izotope as I came up with the (rough sketch of) algorithm for what we in feature film sound-post have been hungering for for decades. There are many who attempt it, I’ve head/tried them all. They fail.

One day Ed Simeone, then (1998) came by to visit me at work seeing as I was a big Dynaudio user and abuser (PPM-3s back then). I played him a dry-as-toast birdsong first bare, then with my forest preset. He put me under an NDA immediately to develop exteriors for their soon to be TC M3000.

So I made the same analysis of cityscapes (not difficult) as well and made a bunch of presets for TC Electronic, while it was still TC Electronic and not Bheringer in thin disguise pumping out guitar pedals.

In 2002, while I was living in Thailand, TC contacted me again re their upcoming M6000 big honker (with a superb remote) to work on their “Reflector” algorithm. They shipped me as payment in advance, and obviously so I could make these things, A TC M6000 and
5 Dynaudio BM-15As. Quite a nice setup. I went to nearby Cambodia and made many recordings at (around really) Angkor Wat, using large firecrackers (to get the reflections timings clearly) as well as various things done by my assistant with a bullhorn. Their chief engineer came to visit and hear my progress and methodology and he was most pleased. Man those Danish TC engineers… I felt like an idiot they’re so freaking smart. Or were before the evil buy-out.

This is why, to this day, the TC still has stock (amongst others I made) Angkor Wat settings that actually travel ‘around’ and behind the listener. This also makes me the most prolific maker of exterior replication on the planet. This is not a boast but a statement of fact.

Now when I need to make an exterior I simply have to take into account the laws of sound which, as you know, is 100’ per second with successive delays having the high-end rather severely truncated.

“What about convolution?” I hear you think. I wrote a (very nerdy) paper for TC about why I disavow convolution for realism which they had posted on their website for a long time. How can a computer tell the difference between a monkey screech, high-end intense cicadas and so on. No, human cranial software is the way to go. I have many colleagues that use AltiVerb and even the die-hards admit the exteriors stink; and there lacks user control to really make it work.

So, while I’ve never taken Adobe Audition seriously in the past (just being honest) as we work on Pro-Tools and at home I have Nuendo, Cubase (blah blah blah) and most importantly IMHO Reaper. Yep, Reaper. I dig it so much I paid the $225.00 for a commercial license even though I didn’t have to simply because it’s such an insanely powerful tool. Reaper is my remastering DAW of choice. Have you heard their built-in (as in no extra cost) sampler? It kicks Reason and Kontakt to the curb (I own those too) especially when pitching waaaay down low, like 6 octaves, the stereo imaging still holds up thanks to its 4-pol filters. I used to work on a WaveFrame 1000, arguably the best sampler of the day for the Synklavier had some real issues in its D/A filtration. Yes, I’m a sampler snob. BUT, I was trying out Adobe Audition for a few days and was suitably impressed. You guys need, aside from OMF support (we don’t get that from the picture editorial departments anymore really) more importantly AAF support; both import and export.

Furthermore I am most definitely a reverb snob. My current favorite, which I actually paid for, is the FabFilter Pro-R reverb plug in. Clean and pure, and if you want that old round & warm Lexicon 480L sound it’s easy-peasy.

So to sum: I’m offering to make exteriors for Adobe Audition. This will give you a real edge for your customer-base which can’t afford the really high-end stuff. I ask that you provide a minimum of six taps (pre-reverb, or alongside) but twelve or 18 would make for a powerhouse. The reverb algorithm must have user control for rapid and VERY severe hi-damping as well as each tap having its’ own panning, level & lo-pass going all the way down; no stopping around 1kHz or so like some. That doesn’t work. ALL the way down; that’s the ticket.

That’s it. Easy.

Peter Michael Sullivan