Everyone has watched a social reel, scenes from a movie, or a commercial with the sound off. From short ad spots to feature-length films, audio plays an integral role in video content. When it's missing, it's easy to take notice.

Whether playing out the emotional beat of a scene between two characters with quiet textures, putting a car commercial into sixth gear with revving sound effects, or adding realism that can't be achieved through video, sound designers are tasked with ensuring that every on-screen visual is paired with the most effective audio for the moment.

For Eric Crepeau, lead sound designer at Lockt, his creative world revolves around audio frequencies. With over 10 years experience recording, layering, placing, and fine-tuning sounds for video & cinema, Crepeau has influenced the work for Sun Day Red, Coca-Cola, Arc'teryx, Disney, Google, EA, Nike, Oakley, Ford, just to name a few.

From a young age, Crepeau has been captivated by fantasy storytelling and larger-than-life tales that need more than visuals to drive their impact home. From Star Wars to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, this conversation dives deep into the world of sound design and how the visceral impact of sound plays one of the most important roles in video post production. Keep reading to hear Crepeau’s insights about the media industry, spanning his days as a freelance Foley artist to designing audio for large-budget projects with Lockt. Press play to hear Crepeau’s work for yourself.

What drew you into sound design and working with Lockt? 

I was a definitely a “Star Wars kid” that always grew up dreaming of those big stories. I went to film school at Chapman... and around that time, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World came out, which was a huge audio inspiration for me. Julian Slater is the lead sound designer on that movie, and he's just a hero of mine. After school, I delivered pizzas in Los Angeles, then found an internship doing Foley on low budget movies and trailers. Eventually, I was connected to the team at Lockt, started as a freelancer, they liked my work, and I was hired on full-time.

How would you define the difference between a sound designer & audio engineer?

In my experience, an audio engineer is more of an umbrella term—like an engineer running the board while you record voiceover, per se. Sound designer usually refers to the person who's cutting the sound effects into the commercial or video, and deciding what the “sound” of the commercial is going to be creatively outside of the music.

What’s so vital about pairing video with audio?

It's that visceral, instantaneous connection that audio can produce for an audience. Human beings process audio faster than we process video. You can pull at somebody's emotions in a more direct way than you can with visuals. If you have incredible visuals telling their own story and creating their own emotions, you have a lot of power supplementing those with audio, how you can tap into an audience's feelings underneath it.

Can sound designers become recognized for a specific niche?

Absolutely, that happens. There's a well-known commercial sound designer named Charles Deenen, who founded Source Sound, and the whole thing started with him making the most badass-sounding car commercials. He has some easily recognizable Pennzoil car commercials from back in the day. He's a real gear-head, so he combined real-world recordings with crazy synthetic sound design. Everybody has been trying to copy those commercials for years. Sound designers can definitely build their reputation in that way.

How often are you leaning on your experience as a Foley artist? 

It depends on the project. For example, Lockt is probably best-known for hard-hitting sports commercials; in those instances I find myself doing very little Foley, everything has to be so pumped up that using cleanly recorded library sounds tends to be better. But we also do lots of documentaries—and those are a great place for recording Foley.

How do you feel about analog vs. digital sound creation?

I grew up in an entirely digital world, so I have no experience doing analog sound design. Recently, though, I went and saw The Bikeriders, and I was really struck by how analog that movie sounded. It was made in Pro Tools and with computers, but it had a grounded, naturalistic sound. I've been trying to find excuses to bring that  analog vibe to some of the stuff I've been doing recently—dirty it up a little bit, make it sound not so clean and precise.

From your seat, what sets Lockt apart from other post houses?

We just have a very signature, intense, in-your-face style, particularly for sports content. That all started with our founder and lead director, Nick Martini. The directors and editors at Lockt also consider sound design during production. Content is crafted with sound design in-mind, and they leave pockets so it's part of the storytelling.

What’s your normal cadence when collaborating with others on a project?

Typically, I'll start once it's pretty close to when the project is locked—ha, no pun intended. [Laughs] I'll provide feedback; then, we’ll do a kickoff call with the director, any lead creatives, agency reps, stuff like that, just to make sure that we're all on the same page. After that, I’ll get mix preps and I start going to town on it.

What details are you looking for when providing those edits?

Especially for short-form commercials, I'm focused on the overall spot, trying to identify those peaks and valleys, and how can we get everything to build toward one climactic moment. I'm always trying to pick out things like: What is the story we’re telling about this brand? What does it need to feel like? How can that be told with audio? Like, Does this chip crunchneed to sound super delicious? Is this car supposed to sound comfortable, rugged, aggressive? There’s so many ways we can approach it, so I'm the one trying to answer those questions.

Do you ever work remotely? How does that affect your process?

I’m mostly in the office, but our other sound designer is more hybrid. When I’m at home, I’m working from a Windows machine; at the office, I’m running a Mac. When the audio team uses Suite, the three of us can go back and forth between home and office, and everything is updated no matter where we are. It’s cool to use cloud storage instead of the constant juggling, trying to figure out who has the latest versions of files.

Suite has been really helpful to because we can create one source of truth that updates live.

How does your role vary depending on the type of project?

I've actually been thinking about this a lot recently, especially as we've been doing more feature-film and documentary work. They are very different approaches. In a feature film, you have a longer time to sit in a scene, so your goal is to make it feel like you're in a real place by adding space and subtle details. That’s so different than a commercial. When you have a music track pumping, those details don’t matter.

What's a common misconception people have about sound design?

The obvious one, the one I mention to my family and friends every time I show them something to watch… is that literally every sound has been considered and added in post production. Every single sound has been chosen to try to tell the story. There's so much thoughtfulness that goes into the post production process that likely what you're hearing is a completely fabricated environment.

What’s one technique you use frequently in your work? How do you keep things fresh?

In commercials, it can almost be a crutch to place some crazy, suck-back riser type sound. That leads you to the next part of the commercial, so it feels like it's never stopping and you're always leading towards something. That’s just so you can pull the audience along to the end. On a project with a music presence, that’s a technique I find myself using a lot, just rise across the whole thing to a big hit and start your rise to the next big hit. It's fun to break that convention, but it’s a successful way to keep the audience engaged.

What’s one of the biggest challenges you face as a sound designer?

For me, it’s about how to bring something creative and fresh without a blowing up our schedule or freaking out the client. When I have the opportunity to try something fresh, I’ll take it. But there’s a line between the art and the commerce of it, like getting the job within client expectations, all while still trying to have fun with it.

As a sound designer, what projects are the most exciting to you?

I love hard-hitting sound design. I just love getting a rip-roaring, stylized project.

What tools, applications, or plug-ins do you use in your work?

I come from a purely filmmaking background and I work in Pro Tools. I have a sound library that I manage through Soundly, that’s the main asset hub. We use the iZotope plugins a lot for dialogue cleanup; I love the Waves and Kiloheart suite of plugins for compression; OTT, which makes things sound huge, fast; and then just lots of distortion using built-in Pro Tools plugins.

How has the role of audio in video evolved over time?

It’s been a continual process of becoming more detailed. If you watch an older film, it’s stunning how simple they were from an audio perspective. lf we were to take those sound effects and put them on a Pro Tools timeline, we would all be shocked by how few sound effects there actually are in the movie. That’s nothing compared to the hundreds of tracks—the big bonanzas—that any movie, even independent films, have today. When l watch those old movies, I just think about all the missed opportunities to do something cool with the technology we have today; but there’s something equally special about the restraint, the simplicity that was still effective.

How will AI change the industry? What importance do you place on the human touch?

Ultimately, I see AI as a tool that humans will use to create things. Sure, we’ll get entirely AI-generated videos, ads, and social content—but I have a hard time believing that, if you watch the Super Bowl in 2045, all the ads will have been created by a human prompting a bot. The AI pitches that bug me are the ones where people are taking away the artistry. The use-cases that are most interesting, however, are the ones that supplement your workflow, allowing you to create new things that you didn't think you could create before. Like, noise reduction. Machine learning has been hugely beneficial to noise reduction, for dialogue, even stem separation for music. Now, I’m able to pull music away from dialogue and tweak individual notes in ways that, five years ago, I would have told you was impossible.

What’s a piece of advice that really stuck with you?

Find one thing to put your stamp on—and do that a little bit differently from everyone else.

What would you say to someone who wants to step into a profession in sound design?

Try to meet as many people as you can; people to collaborate with, people you admire, people who will push to do do better work. Even if it’s just friends whose opinions you respect and can push you creatively, get connected!

Let's end on a fun one. If you could be a fly on the wall during audio editing for a movie, what would it be?

It goes back to what I said earlier with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The sound design in that movie is so weird, and there are so many little audio jokes sprinkled into the background. I would love to hear them talking about all the little hidden details, and how they landed on including so many of those wild ideas.

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