Award-winning Film, TV and Game Composer, Ronit Kirchman, Explores the Universe of Sonic Possibilities with Eventide Plug-Ins

Composer of Emmy and Golden Globe nominated series The Sinner says that SplitEQ, Physion Mk II, ShimmerVerb, MangledVerb open up compositional potential.

From an early age, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Ronit Kirchman, has been writing songs and exploring sounds across multiple genres of music. Now, as an accomplished film and television composer credited with a diversity of work including The Sinner, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, and the forthcoming film Fractal among many more, Kirchman’s wide-ranging talent routinely sees her pushing the boundaries of composition on film, episodic television, video games and more. Whenever she is composing, designing sounds, or mixing, Eventide’s suite of plug-ins are close at hand.

“I have always been excited by things that push the boundaries of structure: avant-garde, experimental jazz, and contemporary classical,” says Kirchman. “And I’ve always been active in a whole range of musical languages, from pop songs to sounds that border on chaos and noise. All of it is part of an expanding universe of sonic possibilities.” Currently, she is using MangledVerb for both subtle and gritty reverb textures. “There is a moderate area of mangling, which can be subtle, a little bit under the radar, but it is definitely impacting how you perceive the sound.”

Story-centered Sound

When composing a film score, no matter what sonic treatment or plug-in Kirchman applies to her soundscapes, it is always in conversation with the story itself: “In scoring, emotional impact means a lot to me,” she says. “While I am fascinated by how sound can manifest in different structures, and how you can organize this over time, it is a hundred times more meaningful when all that technique helps tell a story that people are moved by — that is amazing to me.”

In particular, Kirchman appreciates the episodic form and multi-season productions since they can present a vast emotional canvas. “The cool thing about film and television scoring now is that I feel people are really open. The idea of having a soundscape as part of a score, rather than only as elements brought in by a designer, can be very powerful. Musically, and in terms of technology, there is now a space for all of that.”

“For a composer, the episodic medium presents a kind of a dream situation in terms of developing ideas,” she continues. “If you are working on a TV show and music is a central part of that show, multiple themes can be networked. They start off in a certain place, and then as the story develops, it has a natural evolution. At the same time, a large part of the discovery happens while I am developing the themes and interacting with the actual episodes.”

As both a programmer and an end user, Kirchman says that Eventide plug-ins are not only reliable from an automation perspective, which she says is key, but they also help her access sounds well beyond basic functionality and parameters. “I’ve never had an issue with Eventide plug-ins recalling a preset – and that is everything,” Kirchman says “Having to take 30 minutes trying to reconstruct something can be a huge waste of time. If I can stay ‘in the box’ with my Eventide plug-ins, it means I can instantly recall everything.

“One my favorite things about all the Eventide plug-ins is that their stated mission might be ‘x’ – but all of these plug-ins do a lot more, depending on how you are using the different parameters,” she adds. “Undulator is a great example of this—its functionality is modulated tremolo, which I appreciate, but it can do so much more. A lot of the plug-ins lend themselves to secondary ways of conceptualizing the processing function itself.”

ShimmerVerb: Nuanced and Fluid

In Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, Kirchman says that ShimmerVerb and MangledVerb reverbs were in frequent use. “ShimmerVerb has very flexible pitch behaviors,” she says. “You can go up or down the wave space and create a sequencing kind of effect, upward or downward. The shimmer implementation is beautiful, there are so many layers of control. These tools help me create a kind of evolving background for the rest of the cues and mirror the storytelling. It is very nuanced and fluid.”

SplitEQ and Physion Mk II Differentiate to Elevate

Kirchman has also been enthusiastic about the musical applications of SplitEQ and Physion Mk II. “By differentiating the transient and tonal elements of a sound, SplitEQ and Physion Mk II make it possible to do a lot within one plugin, whether it be for precision in mixing, or opening up the identity of a synth patch or acoustic source. I love how this architecture makes it possible to fine tune the sound as well as completely rethink the role of a particular instrument in an arrangement.”

On April 20, Kichman released the EP of her film score for Fractal, which features a 50-piece orchestra as well as hybrid electronics. “I am really excited about the music because it is expansive, and connects powerful drama with the sci-fi supernatural realm.” She says that lately there has been no shortage of projects in her calendar, and demand for her creative output remains high. “Later this year, there will be more films and series—so it’s been pretty busy.”

For more information on Eventide’s extensive lineup of plug-ins, please visit https://www.eventideaudio.com/plug-ins/