Hi, I’m Derek Brin. I’m the Music Composer and Sound Designer for Protectress VR. I thought I'd give some insight to how the soundscape came together.

Protectress VR pushes your sense of eco-responsibility and how we move forward in a time of global deforestation so a connection to the trees is important.

We wanted the sound design and music to be immersive and connected with the trees because the trees and their wisdom drive the experience. So we created a soundscape that blends traditional African rhythms and indigenous instruments with ambisonic recordings from the African jungle and the forests of Western Canada.

Most of the music was composed in studio before I reached out to Ghanian percussion player Kobe Aquaa-Harrison to add the special ear candy. We intentionally chose instruments made of wood or elements of trees. All percussion was recorded with ambisonic microphones to give a spatial feel and the ability to process and move instruments around a 360 space for the final binaural mixes.

Protectress uses spatial audio to surround the user and pull them into the game so they can connect emotionally.

We used Source Connect to do the voiceover recording sessions with Arzu, Mountain Spirit from Belize as the wise elder, Artemis’ voice was recorded by Cortni Jordan from Atlanta, the lumberjack Marlon Brin from St Thomas, US Virgin Islands and the teenage narrator Lyah is from here in Toronto.

Please enjoy some behind the scenes footage of how and where we recorded.