Sound Effects

[Deranged Nasat]

Just out of idle curiosity, how many of us include sound effects when we're reading? I myself tend to play the novels as "films" in my head, to help me immerse in them; this involves noise as well as visuals, especially for the more distinctive sounds (transporter, warp core, doors, etc.). I've also gotten good at reading dialogue from familiar characters in the actors' voices.

I bring this up, because in the last Trek book I read, Cold Equations: The Body Electric, I found myself amused when

Spoiler: The Body Electric

every time the Machine appeared, I automatically gave it the dramatic scare chords that accompanied V'Ger in The Motion Picture.

So, what sounds accompany the novels for you? When the Breen talk, do you hear the garbled static? Do the Tholians chirp and click shrilly as the translator gives us the English? Do nice big noisy explosions go off in your head when things go boom, as things tend to do in sci-fi adventures?

 

[Christopher]

I generally do the full cinematic treatment in my head, including sounds and music. When reading Silent Weapons, I imagined the Breen dialogue as subtitles over the static sound.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Funnily enough, music is the one thing I don't include.

As for the Breen, I hear the familiar garbling noises and "play" the dialogue over it, as though I'm hearing both the original speech and the translation. I guess I don't use subtitles for the same reason I don't use music - it would ruin the twisted sense of verisimilitude.

 

[David Mack]

I bring this up, because in the last Trek book I read, Cold Equations: The Body Electric, I found myself amused when

Spoiler: The Body Electric

every time the Machine appeared, I automatically gave it the dramatic scare chords that accompanied V'Ger in The Motion Picture.

That's hilarious to me, because that's one of the soundtracks I had on repeat-play while I was writing that novel.

 

[JD]

I tend to do the whole "movie in mind thing" with sound effects and the actors, but I never really imagined a musical score. As for the Breen, in the Struggle Within it talks about their speech being translated by a device, so in those scenes I imagined it coming through in a voice like you get when you do text to speech on a computer or other device.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

Oh, I have such a blast with soundtracks and sound effects when I read Star Trek novels!!

For music, I try to listen to music from every composer (Goldsmith, Horner, Giacchinno etc).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3XY5s-BiPE

I like 2:10, for example, when DS9...you know...goes away at the end of Plagues Of Night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeLqsvFO31o

The explosion sound effect at 0:30 works well for that same scenario in Raise The Dawn! Anymore, and I'll post.

 

[SicOne]

That's an interesting point. I know some of the authors have mentioned certain soundtracks or composers they listen to as they write, whether in general or while writing specific scenes, but I would be interested in knowing what specific tracks in some of those soundtracks inspired them in specific scenes.

 

[WarsTrek1993]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEkOT3IngMQ

0:37 is what I imagine a Breen engine activating would sound like. (The electronic, uprising hum, not the yelling Russian).

 

[CaptPapa]

This thread cracks me up!!!
I have to admit doing voice characterizations and I have a weakness for explosions - they just cry out for reader interaction, as it were. But I was afraid I was all alone in the world doing that. I'll have to try some of the other sound effects though - outta be fun.

Next I'll have to admit rocking about in my chair when the ship is in trouble while I'm watching TOS. Last night was a bit of exercise while The Corbomite Maneuver was showing.

 

[Defcon]

That's an interesting point. I know some of the authors have mentioned certain soundtracks or composers they listen to as they write, whether in general or while writing specific scenes, but I would be interested in knowing what specific tracks in some of those soundtracks inspired them in specific scenes.

I guess the closest to that is David Mack's The Music of Star Trek Vanguard.

 

[Spocky8492]

I play the novels visually in my head, with the actor when the character exists in TV series, but I don't include sound effect. But that can be fun, I'll try
And being a fan of soundtracks in general and Star Trek soundtracks in particular, when I read at home, I sometimes read a Star Trek novel with a Star Trek soundtrack in the background.

 

[Lonemagpie]

The whole thing- music, sound effects, voice casting...

And when writing too!

 

[F. King Daniel]

I don't imagine soundtracks, but I usually do imagine the scenes, sounds and voices.

I also imagine TNG LCARS with a lot more animation than was practical during the 90's. Just to annoy the telepathic purists who might be listening in.

 

[Christopher]

When I re-read Alan Dean Foster's TAS adaptations, I imagine them in my head in cel-animated form, though I try to upgrade its quality to the level of work Filmation did in later shows like Flash Gordon. And I imagine the familiar TAS music in my head, though sometimes I supplement with music from later Filmation shows.

I think there was at least one case where I decided to envision an original novel in TAS style in my head. I think it was Bantam's Trek to Madworld.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That's interesting. I envisioned the Logs as live action, specifically to "see" how they would play out as actual TOS episodes, and because I'd already seen them as animation.