Two music/audio veterans from the Chicago community, Larry Pecorella and Bob Monachino, have partnered to launch SoundPunks, a shop that will produce music and sound design for Web sites.
Pecorella will serve as composer/producer of the new Chicago venture, while Monachino will act as producer. Pecorella continues on as president/composer/producer at his own Chicago-based commercial music and sound design house, Chameleon Music; and Monachino remains as owner/producer at his Chicago-based Radio Bob, which produces audio for radio spots.
Based out of Chameleon’s offices, SoundPunks will primarily target large corporate Web sites looking to use audio to help create entertaining sites, said Pecorella.
Pecorella and Monachino share a professional relationship dating back eight years, when Monachino worked as a radio creative director/executive radio producer at DDB Chicago. (Pecorella was already at Cham-eleon.) They continued to collaborate on radio campaigns when Monachino left DDB to open Radio Bob in August 1999. Their credits include radio spots for Budweiser, McDonald’s, Discover Card and Wrangler.
The impetus for SoundPunks came last year, when Monachino started receiving calls asking for his suggestions about music and sound for Web projects. "The calls were unsolicited, and that’s when the light bulb went off in my head," explained Monachino. "I thought, ‘Here’s an opportunity for a company specializing in sound for Web sites.’ "
Realizing that music would be the most integral part of such a company, Monachino turned to Pecorella, because, "Larry and I had a good relationship, and we really respect each other."
Because Chameleon and Radio Bob didn’t necessarily have equity in the area of Web music, Pecorella said they opted to form SoundPunks as a separate entity. The new company’s Web site (www.soundpunks. com) was in development for some five months. "The Web site is your calling card—that’s everything you’re about," noted Pecorella, adding that it took a while to devise the right design, music and sound effects for the site.
In addition to Pecorella, SoundPunks is currently working with five computer-savvy freelance writers, who are based in Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Commenting that, with the Net, downloadable music can be created anywhere, Pecorella continued, "We’re trying to make SoundPunks a clearinghouse for pros."
SoundPunks’ technical director, Pete Schmidt, who is also Chameleon’s audio engineer, did extensive research on Web audio technologies in preparation for the new venture. The company has the ability to produce tracks for a variety of formats, including Flash, QuickTime, RealAudio and Beatnik. SoundPunks has already produced the music for the Web sites Chicago Marathon.com and Everest Gum.com.
"What we’re finding is that there are a lot of downloadable music tracks you can use [for the Web]," observed Monachino. "But they’ve all been created, mixed and mastered for other mediums like radio and TV. You can take a piece of stock music and it’ll sound fine, but the delivery of audio on the Internet has so many more options: Every piece of sound can be its own track. When you really get into what audio can do component-wise over the Net … it’s going to take some expertise."
Despite the differences between composing for the Internet versus traditional media, there are some similarities. "With most Web sites, it’s hard to get emotion from just the visual," said Pecorella. "The music helps keep people interested in a site. It helps give a site some emotion … which is no different than in a commercial or in film where the music is telling you how you should feel." SoundPunks is currently seeking a director of sales.
