I sound designed and mixed this Devil May Cry 5 television spot for frequent collaborator Mike Diva. It was a quick turnaround, a ton of fun, and I’m happy with how it turned out. Check it!
I have fond memories of watching the trailers for the original Devil May Cry before it was released in 2001, so my love of the franchise literally goes back to its very beginning. So it was a blast to step in and participate in the marketing for the newest title in the series, almost twenty years later!
I had great support from the production team at Lord Danger and from Capcom, and had access to the in-game sound effects files for the weapons and creatures featured in the spot. While these were a great starting point, game effects often don’t translate particularly well to video media, due to differences in mix, dynamics, and overall dramatic requirements, and that ended up being the case with this commercial. Thus, nearly all of the effects in the final spot was comprised of material I cut from other sources, with the intent of honoring the core spirit of the game effects. The one exception is the gunfire for Dante’s twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory, which is the authentic in-game effect, albeit with added high-end transients and low-end impact. I took the hard-hitting music into consideration, and borrowed a page from Blade Runner 2049’s pistol, using an electronic kick drum for my low-end addition, which worked great in-context with the music.
There’s one cue in the ad that catches my ear as a bit of a “notable stock effect,” and while it’s a sound I’m often reluctant to use myself for that exact reason, it was a dominant layer in the actual game sound effect file. As most game effects are in mono, I pulled the “original” stereo version of said effect to give the cue stereo width in the final version, in subtle bit of “I know where that came from” reverse engineering. I’d be curious if anyone else noticed the same effect I’m thinking of!
Whooshes were a little tricky to pull off, as anything airy or cloth-like quickly vanished into the music track, or just read as unpleasant noise. As a result, most of the whooshes are processed animal roars with pitch bend processing, creating enough of a tonal element that it’s noticeable in the final product.
This was a fun, crazy project to do! Hope you enjoy it!
In a bit of a coincidence, I also happen to be good friends with one of the composers on the game itself, Casey Edwards. We’ll record stuff for fun from time to time, and he pulled a sample of me screaming from one of those sessions to use as a transition effect in the song above. So in an unexpected turn of events, I ended up working on the marketing for the game, as well as having a (tiny tiny tiny) piece in the actual title itself! The scream is used throughout a bit back in the mix, but there’s a pretty clear one at 2:16 for your ear to find.