Master of sound
It takes a keen sense of hearing to create audio magic, discovers
THE grimy underbelly of a nameless street stands out as a group of heavily armed police officers stealthily run through the dark of the night, weaving through decrepit buildings as they stalk a group of criminals. Shots suddenly ring through the air. And just as quickly, it escalates into a volley of gunfire between the two groups.
Bullets zing everywhere; someone gets shot in the leg; a vehicle screeches through the dimly lit street. The cacophony of sounds is overwhelming. If you’re anything like me during a movie, you’d be at the edge of your seat, clutching your bag of popcorn as your heart thunders in sync to the exciting scene that’s being played out in front of you.
Cacophony it may be, but to audio engineer Delvinder Singh, it’s the sounds that get to him all the time.
As we watch a clip from Police Evo 2 — not at the movies, but from the cosy enclave of Maveriq studio in Petaling Jaya — I’m fascinated by what Del (“Call me Del,”, he tells me by way of introduction) does while listening: he’s got his head tilted to one side, with a faraway expression on his face.
And that’s pretty much how he looks at that moment. I can picture the shift between him listening intently to a particular sound, then putting on his headphones and trying to recreate it. That, really, is the ultimate challenge for a sound engineer. “The excitement of capturing something is what keeps us going,” he attests, smiling.
The walls of Maveriq studio are lined with music memorabilia of singers, musicians and bands they’ve worked with.
From Anugerah Industri Music (AIM)— nominated band, Kyoto Protocol, folk pop artist Froya, to Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra principal trombonist and current jazz proponent, Q Sound or better known as Marques Young, they’re all up there, visually appealing against the plain walls.
Meanwhile, the modest bungalow which
Del hard at work with band Kyoto Protocol.
houses the studio is nondescript. There’s no giant billboard indicating its presence in the quiet streets, but don’t let its plainness fool you for a minute.
Touted as one of the leading studios in Southeast Asia, Maveriq provides an entire spectrum of audio-related services, from music production to audio postproduction. Inside this finishing school for some of the biggest movies and albums, Del is contemplating the intricacies of the mastering process.
“There are a lot of balls in the air,” he admits, adding: “On the most basic level, you have to make sure everything is properly levelled, sonically placed, equalised, compressed and, if necessary, edited.”
As part of the team of sound engineers attached to the studio, Del juggles those aural concerns as well as just about any engineer in the business.
He didn’t always want to be a sound engineer. “I liked animation and graphic design,” he confesses candidly with a shrug.
Moving to a technical school in Setapak at the age of 16, Del was influenced by the music that his classmates were into.
“At that time, I grew to love local Britrockchannelling Malaysian group Bittersweet,” he recalls.
While his friends were ardent fans who enjoyed the music, Del found himself reading through the album sleeves and was fascinated with the terms “audio engineer” and “sound engineer”.
“I looked up those terms online and found out what they actually meant,” he says.
After Form 5, he didn’t want to take the well-beaten path into typical job-specific technical training for work in the trades.
“That was NOT what I wanted to do!” he avers with a laugh.
He wanted to follow his dreams and so he started out in graphic and animation for about a year before wanting to get to grips with the workings of a studio.
“I gave that up after realising that audio was my calling after all,” he confesses.
He then enrolled in the School of Audio Engineering in Subang and completed his Diploma before going on to obtain his degree in audio engineering in Perth later.
“I was initially worried after graduating that the job prospects for an audio engineer wouldn’t be so great — especially on this side of the world,” says Del, candidly, adding: “My lecturer had advised us that we should start looking for jobs at the start of the final semester but I didn’t do that.”
Why not, I ask. He shrugs his shoulders and looks sheepish. Millennial, I shake my head, and Del laughs.
He was lucky, he adds, because Maveriq Studios was looking for an intern at around the same time.
“I was an intern for around two years, and they liked me. So I was hired!” he says with a grin.
Did that mean he had to do a lot of grunt work as an intern? “Of course!” he exclaims, before elaborating that it involved a lot of setting up and getting things ready for other people.
Del’s first experience was in live music production. Whether you’re working out in a pub setting or an arena, being a sound engineer involves a lot of living by your wits, he says, explaining: “When something unexpected happens, you’ve got to deal with it as it comes, methodically and calmly. You become more aware of the laws of physics: architecture, the limitations of the venue and not being able to change any of those things. It was quite the experience,” he recalls.
It’s an amazing buzz, he continues, when the lights go down and the music starts because for the next couple of hours, that’s his life.
“Sometimes, you kind of enjoy one or two things going haywire. Well, maybe not enjoy, but it’s a challenge. It’s like doing the crossword — but in front of an audience!” he adds, before sharing that the setting up of live sound was easy for him.
“I learnt that at college, but learning about the software and how it operates was tough. I needed to learn fast!”
He soon discovered that the call of studio work was more inviting.
Movies, shares Del, got him hooked on sound editing and foley work.
Foley (named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley) is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.
These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass.
“My introduction to this aspect of sound engineering was the movie Polis Evo 2 ,”says