Winning Audio by Madlord Premium Audio Productions

Sound is all around us, a cliché notion but very much true. It captures emotions, it describes what is around us, it inspires, and it sets the tone of a scene. Whether in movies, adverts, games, or within the music itself. Sound is all too commonly heard but little is said of its creation.

We are taking a look at one of the most popular sound technicians in the world, Madlord. They self-describe their production company as creating otherworldly music compositions. They form sound design and create voice-over work and audio post-production. Their talents have been used for advertising, video games, media, and online video slots.

The Lord of Sound

Entertainment without sound is merely moving or still images. Sound is essential across all mediums and this is something Madlord uniquely specialise in. The founder of Madlord and the CEO and Audio Director is Jorge De Lellis, admits in an interview that the company was inspired by madness, excited by its potential role in shaping the human sphere. He goes on to state that every form of artistic creation and invention had been touched by some perceived madness, but that this madness has created wonderful ideas. He also points to Kanye West as a more modern example of this.

In describing the works of Nicolas Tesla and Thomas Edison, you can sense that Jorge admires those that create in seemingly other dimensions to normal human thinking. He regards their work of genius as going beyond mortal comprehension and it is this what is able to change the world.

He concedes that there must be an order to the chaos of thinking like this, stating that a degree of caution must come with certain madness, that it must be controlled, otherwise, it controls you.

This is the finite behaviour of the company, from the madness and managed chaos, this is Madlord, where the sphere of sound itself is under their ruling.

Projects and Portfolios

The Madlord services cover the fields of audio post-production, voice-overs, sound design and music. Their clients are to be found in the industries of advertising, video gaming and within online casinos.

Their largest body of work remains in this field of iGaming and he has to date worked with partners from all over the world, from Canada to Malta and Singapore to Poland. The most prevalent of this work hailing from numerous Polish companies that work for both the gaming sector and online slots. In Poland, gaming developers like CD Projekt, PlayWay, Ten Square Games and 11 bit Studios, together with Polish gaming company Rabcat, are famed for their online slot offerings.

Gaming projects under Rabcat include The Legends of Olympus, Gnome Wood™, Castle Builder™, Dragon’s Myth™, Fantasy Forest™, Frozen Diamonds™, and their breakthrough game, the incredible Forsaken Kingdom™.

Such is the craft of their sound engineering; they have had to turn down many offers due to the fact that Madlord sets the time for when the request will be completed. Jorge, the CEO stating that sound creation for slots is not simply cooked like pizzas. In his interview he says that slot gaming is not all about the money, but believes the experience overall carries the value, stating the graphics have value, the mechanics of how the game plays has value and so to naturally should the sound that comes with it all.

The Falling Tree

We have all heard of the proverb that if a tree falls in a forest with no one around, does the tree make a noise? What starts this process of creation for Madlord? Where is the tree in all this, or are they the entire forest that allows their branches to bend?

When taking on Madlord as a partner, this is what is to be expected.

1: You will first have a brief with Madlord, you will meet the sound team to discuss your project. From this, the story behind the project is shared with objectives and the vision. They will enquire about the status of the production you are currently working on, who the competition is, and lastly, what your brand guidelines are also.

From this brief, the scope of the project is determined. This includes the number of assets, the genre of music required, what SFX are needed, and the length of the audio. Examples will be shared, and the milestone of the projects arranged. A formal proposal will be passed over that meets your objectives and your budget.

2: Next, comes ‘The Plan’. This is the commencement of the project, which is carried out in forensic detail before the chaos of creativity is released. This planning uses the best tools on the planet, like JIRA® and Atlassian Confluence® that combine to control project tracking and working methodology.

Full immersive attention is put into the project to assimilate your brand and at this stage, not one note is composed until the ideas are complete.

3: Once the planning has been completed, the production can commence. Madlord, at this stage, will generate benchmarks of sound, forming a foundation for the project. You will then receive drafts of the sound and music which can be refined to help guide the production in the right direction. If approved, production can take the next stage in producing advanced drafts for all the created sounds on the project. These can be embedded into the project to witness and hear how both mediums combine.

4: With the agreement on sound in place, next, comes the Art of the project. This is where Madlord will now start the Mixing and Mastering. Their mixing methods combine both modern and vintage audio tools. Once complete, the sound is put into your project and once all parties are satisfied, the project is closed.

5: For Madlord, the project is never really over, and this is where their mastery stands out over their own competition. The project is documented, lessons are learned and it is noted how procedures can be improved. Sound databases are updated, there are calculations formed on production ratios to generate stats. From all this, Madlord will know where improvements are needed before the next project.

A Certain Madness

Madlord is beyond your typical production studio. In the audio industry, there are many names you will not have heard of, within this, Madlord is the brand company. They are the rock n’ rollers, so to speak. Doing things differently, their report card reads: ‘Promising pupil but we have some behavioural concerns’.

Whilst all others are mulling over projects in their white collars and ties, Madlord is somewhere in a forest performing some meditative mantra with an 8-track portable recording the wind passing through the trees, to capture that moment of inspiration that fuels their sound, even if no-one else hears it.