Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism class=facebook article-function> Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism&url=http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/10/07/foxs-pitch-series-relies-on-sound-for-realism/ class=twitter article-function> Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism class=linkedin article-function> Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism&body=Read%20the%20article%20at:%0Ahttp://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/10/07/foxs-pitch-series-relies-on-sound-for-realism/ class=email article-function>
Eight years of an African-American president and the imminence of the first woman to occupy that office provides all the plausibility needed for Pitch. The drama, which debuted last month on Fox, follows the travails of Ginny Baker, the first woman - who also happens to be African-American - to play baseball in the major leagues, as a starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres.
Much of the show's action takes place in the Padres' Petco Park, but viewers will find their need to suspend disbelief reduced, thanks to an immersive and highly authentic soundtrack. Produced by Burbank, CA-based Smart Post Sound, it combines sound effects captured at the park with copious use of sound-effects libraries and custom Foley sounds, seasoned with plenty of judicious processing.
Pitch scripted series is produced with support from Fox Sports, as well as Major League Baseball.
The sound effects come from every imaginable source, says Ron Webber, sound supervisor on Pitch and a co-founder of Smart Post Sound. He adds that the experience took him beyond the typical television episodic series: As a lifetime fan of Major League Baseball, the chance to work on a project like this was a dream.
Sound Effects
Basic sound effects, like bat cracks and the thump of a screwball hitting a catcher's mitt, were created using the post facility's own extensive effects library (some of which came from the effects used on Roger Maris biopic 61, for which the company also did post). Those were combined with some original effects captured at Petco Park and elsewhere. But their authenticity is largely derived from the reverbs and other ambience effects that provide additional sonic context.
The processing is important because the ambience of the park is crucial, but we can't use a lot of the ambient audio from the field because we don't have the rights to the music used in the game, such as walk-on songs and what the organist plays, he explains. So we analyzed and re-created that ambience with algorithms.
It goes deeper than that, however. Sound effects are often mixed in with music and dialog, so they have to be equalized to maintain their impact even as they are combined with the other audio elements. That also goes for the secondary effects, such as the swish of a bat that misses a pitch or the movement of a uniform jersey as the pitcher lets one fly. And those change with the camera perspectives and angles, says Webber. The sound effects, he adds, are as much nuance as they are obvious: the mitt-thump intensity of a young Ginny being taught to pitch by her coach father is different from the deeper thud of Padre pitcher Ginny's screwball (the pitch her father taught her to help her compete with the more powerful fastballs of male players).
There are a lot of layers to [the sound effects], he says, but it's all about pushing the storyline forward and conveying the emotions.
The Crowd Roars
The show is on the Fox network and gets some support from its sibling sports network, including in-show appearances by Joe Buck and other Fox Sports announcers, as well as commercial-break and bumper music tracks to match the Fox Sports logos on screen, part of a package of diegetic audio that enhances the show's realism. But the network also supplies some of the crowd sound effects heard on the show.
Webber and his crew - Co-Sound Supervisor Randy Thomas, SFX editors Erich Gann and Christopher Gomez, dialog/ADR editors Steve Grubbs and Veronica Zabrocki, Foley artists Bill Bell and Tim Chilton, rerecording mixers Dean Okrand and Brian Harmon, production-sound recordist James Thornton - tweak these further, including using some library sounds that Webber recorded in a stadium at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Foley artists also beef them up with walla tracks, with some of the performers recording vendor calls of Beer here! and Hot dogs! Getcher red-hots!, which are sprinkled in during the mix.
Foley also provides effects like the sound of cleats walking from the field into the tunnel from the dugout to the locker room, as the camera follows a conversation between two characters. Webber says he's very careful to make the transition from the wide-open white-noise-like ambient buzz of the field surrounded by a full stadium to the darker, more intimately reverberant atmosphere of the tunnel feel smooth and real, but, he adds, the sound crew has to be vigilant about the smallest details.
We've gotten notes from MLB that they would never hear plastic cleats on a concrete floor - only metal cleats, says Webber. (The show is made with MLB's support.) They know what everything about baseball is supposed to sound like.
The show's audio is done in 5.1 surround sound - Webber says it helps set up things like the direction a hit ball will take. The postproduction is done on Avid Pro Tools 10 and 11 systems and with Avid Icon or S8 consoles. iZotope RX noise-reduction software has also become an essential tool for creating the final dialog tracks, specifically in areas that require noise reduction.
Webber notes that the show's audio has to conform to loudness standards, meeting the -24-lkfs target metric for broadcast television. But the show's need to replicate an actual MLB environment, with screaming fans and volume surges
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
02/12/2025
Case Study: How Mid-Atlantic Sports Network Moved to All-IP Distribution in 60 D...
02/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Lee Corso, Coach, Commentator, FirebrandBy Ken Kerschbaumer
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | S...
02/12/2025
SVG All-Stars: Dan Nabors, Senior Director, Remote Engineering, TNT SportsThe veteran tech leader is helping guide Warner Bros. Discovery's at-home' re...
02/12/2025
National Lacrosse League Opens Season With New Cloud-Based Official Replay-Revie...
02/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: The Cinematic Look in Live Production - Bridging Aesthetic...
02/12/2025
SVG India Announces Advisory Board; JioStar's Prashant Khanna Named ChairmanBy Ken Kerschbaumer
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 11:15 am
Print This Story |...
02/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: New AI Production Tools Workshop' Features ESPN, F...
02/12/2025
Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival....
02/12/2025
The lightweight and highly portable CORVUS-RAVEN, recently demonstrated at the V...
02/12/2025
The lightweight, rugged Panther 2 tri-band VSAT delivers high-speed data communications for Internet, VPN connectivity and video transmission over commercial an...
02/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
02/12/2025
NGID volunteers in the United States
NGID volunteers in Mexico
NGID volunteers in India
NGID volunteers in Spain
NGID volunteers in Australia
NGID voluntee...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...
02/12/2025
SAN DIEGO Sony Electronics today introduced the Alpha 7 V (ILCE-7M5), the fifth generation of its Alpha 7 full-frame mirrorless lineup, powered by the newly dev...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on Nexstar Media Group's proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna and se...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The National Association of Broadcasters has added a trio of media executives, Veronica Rodriguez, Matt Schnaars and Jeff Warshaw, to its board of di...
02/12/2025
MILAN, Italy Brightcove has released seven new features designed to expand global reach, improve audience engagement, enhance live-streaming quality and streaml...
02/12/2025
BCNEXXT, the developers of the advanced playout platform Vipe, today announced a new Service Provider Partner agreement with NPC Media, the Australian managed p...
02/12/2025
DPA Microphones today announces the immediate availability of its new N-Series Digital Wireless Microphone System for customers throughout the U.S. In addition ...
02/12/2025
Hiltron Communications reports a well attended and successful Space Tech Expo exhibition, held at the Messe Bremen from Tuesday November 18 through Thursday Nov...
02/12/2025
The beginning of September saw Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust, in association with Channel 9 and Triple M, kick off the 2025 Brisbane Festival in spec...
02/12/2025
SGM Lighting is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with ACT Entertainment, under which ACT will serve as the exclusive distributor for SGM's ne...
02/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that Telia, the second largest telecom operator in Norway, is modernizing its broadband network with the company's i...
02/12/2025
European cloud data protection specialist Keepit is expanding its sales network in the DACH region and has gained TIM AG, one of the leading value-added distrib...
02/12/2025
Featured products at ISE 2026
This year s ISE 2026 theme "Push Beyond" reflects Calrec s direction of travel. The company is dedicated to supporting the AV an...
02/12/2025
Czech Television, the national public broadcaster, has deployed one of the largest LiveU live production projects in the region for live sports and news coverag...
02/12/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, has announced the release of v8.2 software for its ZEN and ZEN-W Series, bringing advanced cinematic camera se...
02/12/2025
Global provider of video streaming software and services, Accedo, and OTT platform provider, Magine Pro, have signed a binding agreement to carve out and merge ...
02/12/2025
With proven success in broadcast, OTT, and content supply chains, K.S Avinash set to scale Skandha's service-first approach across APAC
Skandha Media Servi...
02/12/2025
AJA Video Systems has joined the RAVENNA community, a network of partners devoted to advancing the RAVENNA standard for distributing real-time audio over intern...
02/12/2025
HUNT VALLEY, Md. Sinclair and its wholly-owned subsidiary One Media Technologies have released a new report focused on how ATSC 3.0, the IP-based NextGen TV sta...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has issued a reminder that stations in DMAs 111 through 120 must implement its audio descrip...
02/12/2025
WASHINGTON Members of the Advanced Television Systems Committee have elected four industry veterans to three-year terms on the organization's board of direc...
02/12/2025
A new survey from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan highlights how important social media is for younger consumers, with Gen Z spending 5.1 hours a day on so...
02/12/2025
Faculty Notes: Fall/Winter 2025 Recent accomplishments, releases, and events by Berklee faculty.
December 1, 2025
By
Editorial Staff
The cast of Kind of M...
02/12/2025
Ring In The Holidays With Our Biggest Sale Ever On Ivory II Pianos!From now until December 31st, you can save 50% or more on every Ivory II piano and collection...
02/12/2025
Back to All News
Made in America: How Stranger Things' Electrified the US Economy
Entertainment
02 December 2025
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to cl...
02/12/2025
Back to All News
Culinary Class Wars' Season 2 Trailer Teases New Rules, R...
02/12/2025
--
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Telecommunication Unio...
02/12/2025
Harmonic's cOS Platform Will Redefine Subscribers' Quality of Experience, Lowering Churn SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 2, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today...
02/12/2025
At AWS re:Invent, NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services expanded their strategic collab...
02/12/2025
S an Nollaig
Hollywood blockbusters The Banshees of Inisherin, Barbie and Oppenheimer make their Irish TV debut
Tune into the classics such as Love Actual...
02/12/2025
Showcasing fresh Irish storytelling and emerging talent Storyland 2025 signals a fantastic time for Irish drama
RT and F s ireann/Screen Ireland are proud to...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism class=facebook article-function> Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism&url=http://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/10/07/foxs-pitch-series-relies-on-sound-for-realism/ class=twitter article-function> Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism class=linkedin article-function> Pitch%20Series%20Relies%20on%20Sound%20for%20Realism&body=Read%20the%20article%20at:%0Ahttp://www.sportsvideo.org/2016/10/07/foxs-pitch-series-relies-on-sound-for-realism/ class=email article-function>
