In collaboration with Faboem, we had the pleasure to work on the Sound Design for the Amazon Prime original: ‘Dutch Wheels’. In this six-part series, you’ll dive into the world of car customization company ‘Absolute Motors’, making expensive cars even more impressive.
Our job was to make the audio recordings sound even more impressive by layering them with all kinds of sound effects such as whooshes, impacts, fly-by’s, car skids, and everything you would typically expect from a blockbuster movie production.
The Challenge
The challenge for this project, however, was finding sounds that blended with the original car sounds seamlessly. Combining the sound of a Suzuki Alto with a McLaren obviously wasn’t going to work. We’ve spent lots of time matching the original car sounds, editing, stretching and manipulating audio down to the smallest details. We even added rumbling synthesizers and rockets to make the cars roar larger than life.
Immersion
In addition to the car sound design, lots of effort went into finding the right ambience sound for each shot. This series takes place in different parts of the world, ranging from the busy streets of Rotterdam to the harbors of Monaco, the deserts of Abu Dhabi, and the Beaches of Mexico. Creating sonic landscapes helps to immerse the viewer, which pulls them into the story.
Foley
Adding Foley sounds like the handling of tools in a workshop, the opening, and closing of car doors and the vapor dripping from the exhaust pipes are extremely valuable to make everything sound the way it should. These are sounds you may not even notice, but you will definitely notice them when they are missing.
Most used Sound Effect
The sound we’ve used the most is probably wind. A high-speed car pass-by? Add some wind, and it immediately sounds a lot faster. A drone shot high-up in the air? Adding wind will make it a whole lot more dramatic.
There even was one episode where Rico Verhoeven, a Dutch world champion Kick Boxing, was being chased by soldiers. Rico was wearing a vest that made a sound when he was ‘shot’ with laser guided weapons used in a military training environment. The weapons didn’t make any sound in real life, but we weren’t settling for that, of course. So with the help of Soundly, a great library filled with all sorts of firearms and some creative layering, we created a total war scene that adds lots of cinematic drama to the scene.
In short, we’ve had a lot of fun with this project, but it was definitely a huge team effort. With the amazing mixing skills of Faboem and the help of additional sound designers, the final product came out perfectly. Dutch Wheels is now Live on Amazon Prime, so make sure to check it out!
