Sound Design for Storytelling with Robin Gulcher

“I think that making images come to life with sound helps the audience with the story and with the emotion of the story. It puts them in the right place. They know what it is they’re supposed to pay attention to. We talked earlier in our first meeting about this line-of-sight editing, that is, a video editing thing that they do to get the audience’s eyes to move to what’s important on screen. And we can do the same thing with audio. We can tell them, ‘OK, this is important over here.’ And whether or not they saw it, now they know it, if that makes sense.” – Robin Gulcher

This week’s guest provides sound design, mixing, and recording services for Advertising Agencies, Film/Video production companies, Publishing Companies, Independent Filmmakers, and Corporate clients, and he’s been the production sound mixer for countless commercial and film shoots over the years. Through his work at audibleRicochet, he’s rescued imperfect recordings, crafted immersive soundscapes, and helped brands and filmmakers bring clarity and emotion to their projects. And as an adjunct instructor in the Cinematic Arts Department at the Columbus College of Art and Design, he continues to further his craft, as well as the future of the filmmakers and animators he teaches.

His name is Robin Gulcher, and in this episode, he shares how sound can transform the ordinary into something memorable – and why what we hear often matters more than what we see.

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(00:00) – Navigating the AI Landscape

Our conversation starts as Robin shares his experiences with AI sound and voices, including the surprising impact it made after one recent session. “It was a long, educational VO thing,” he tells us, “The client asked for this particular voice,… they directed it, and the voice talent sent the in