interview

Sound Design Inspiration #24


Interview

Great interview with Dubbing Mixer, ADR Recordist, Sound Editor, Emma Butt, diving into some of the nuances of working in the film/tv sound industry, some of the differences in genres, and diversity in sound departments.

https://sound.krotosaudio.com/emma-butt-sound-interview/


Composer Insights

For those interested in the inside scoop of the Film composition world, I recently found Anne-Katherin Dern’s youtube channel, with lots of super interesting behind the scenes chats around her working process and the industry, check her out and subscribe!

http://www.annedern-filmcomposer.com/youtube/


Theatre

New Diorama Theatre have announced an intervention. There will be no shows this season in order to pause the continuous nature of having to programme new shows. This means they’re able to offer space, time, resources and money to creators with ideas which would otherwise not get a chance to be properly experimented with and developed. This includes ideas from anyone, not just writers and directors.

Coming out of the pandemic, trying to get shows up and running again, whilst planning and preparing what comes after that and the constant push to produce in shorter periods with less resources is a struggle which resonates across a lot of the creatives I know and work with in the industry. Since then there has been constant chatter about changing the way we create to allow for a process which is less conducive of burnout, and certain companies and theatres have made great leaps towards that, but it is certainly not industry wide. The decision by the New Diorama Theatre to not run any shows this season, is a chance for theatre creatives to re-consider the way theatre is created and hopefully come back with a much better sense of what needs to change to make it a healthier environment, and a more creatively fulfilling one.

Sound Design Inspiration #20

PODCASTS & VIDEO INTERVIEWS

As we all descended into isolation part of my daily routine starts with a walk and so podcasts inevitably have become invaluable! So I just wanted to share a few I’ve found interesting/inspiring/useful

Firstly the Soundworks Collection podcasts for anyone who hasn’t come across them before, not only do they create Podcasts with insights into industry practices, specific sound/music challenges and processes of films, tv shows, games and advertisements, but also create incredible video interviews with some of the leading pros in the industry. Here’s a couple of podcasts worth diving into:

The Sound of Uncut Gems

Next is Score: The Podcast, which has just begun its 3rd season interviewing Danny Elfman. Robert Kraft and Kenny Holmes host interviews with some of the top film/tv Composers and come across some fantastic routes into the industry, processes of working on all sorts of types of projects and more. Definitely worth having a listen, here’s a couple I’ve had a play through:

Pinar Toprak

Sound Design Inspiration #19

MUSIC

The Wonderful folks at ThickSkin (an amazing Theatre company based in Manchester who I have lots of love for) have been busy curating this awesome monthly playlist and included my track Inelec. Check out the playlist, and subscribe for updates and lots more inspiring tracks.


FILM

I spotted this trailer for ‘Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound’ it’s a film all about Cinematic Sound production, design, mixing etc, what’s not to love about that! It also seems it’s available online as a digitial download or DVD/BluRay. Will be checking it out soon!


INTERVIEW

Always love Daniel Pemberton’s scores and here he speaks about his work on ‘Bird of Prey

https://www.awardscircuit.com/interview-birds-of-prey-composer-daniel-pemberton-talks-harley-quinn-and-more/


Sound Design Inspiration #16

INTERVIEW

I’ve not got around to watching Chernobyl yet, but the soundtrack has had such a huge amount of praise, I cant wait to hear/see it. Here’s an interview I came across with the wonderful Hildur Guðnadóttir talking about her work on the score.

https://grapevine.is/icelandic-culture/movies-theatre/2019/06/07/sickening-silence-hildur-gudnadottirs-chernobyl-soundscape-brings-radioactivity-to-life/


TOOLS

Brian Eno re-tweeted this online ‘Ambient Sound and background noise generator’ called Zen Cast. It’s a really simple way of showing how to create a soundscape using layers of raw material. It’s actually very similar to the way I would set Ableton up for multiple tracks of atmos, then play with the faders depending on what I wanted to tell.

http://www.zen-cast.com/


MASTERING

I’ve been researching into Mastering for online streaming platforms recently whilst working on my side project which will see me releasing a bunch of tracks over the next 6 months to Itunes, Spotify etc, and this article was pretty useful in understanding what Spotify does to a track that has been mastered over a certain LUFS level, essentially promoting the use of dynamics in music rather than just making everything as loud as possible.

https://artists.spotify.com/faq/mastering-and-loudness#my-track-doesn't-sound-as-loud-as-other-tracks-on-spotify-why


PLUGIN

Along the Mastering theme, I came across this metering plugin called LEVELS by ‘Mastering the mix’ which seems like an excellent way to ensure your LUFS readings aren’t too loud.

https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/levels


iLok TIP

My iLok 2 decided to flash it’s blue light when I plugged it in a few nights ago. Turns out that’s it dying on you. I do pay for Zero Downtime which effectivley should mean I’d be without my licences for no time at all, but a handy tip i found online was to put the iLok in the freezer for 5 minutes and try again… I was skeptial… but seriously it worked! At least for long enough to get a new iLok and swap the licences over. Happy days.

DSC00513-2.jpg


Sound Design Inspiration #13

PODCAST

Here’s a podcast with Steven Price, Oscar winning Composer talking a about his work on the Our Planet series of films, a little on Gravity and working with Edgar Wright.


SOUND EFFECTS

Some interesting new sounds from Hiss and Roar, continuing to bring new sounds to the table in imaginative ways!


INTERVIEW

Came across this insightful article from the Wall Street Journal, an interview with Qianbaihui Yang, a Sound Editor at Skywalker Sound. Interesting to hear about her journey through the different roles of Film Sound and the exciting world of recordings, creating and editing Sound for film. Check it out here

Photo: Cayce Clifford for The Wall Street Journal

Photo: Cayce Clifford for The Wall Street Journal

Sound Design Inspiration #11

COMPOSER

Sherri Chung is a Composer based in LA, Soundiron have done a pretty in depth interview with her about the process she goes through on a project and her career trajectory to date.


SOUND DESIGN

The School of Sound is an annual, multi day event with lots of industry leading speakers in the world of Sound Design and Music. Generally focused on Film and TV. They’ve started uploading talks by speakers from the last 11 years worth of events and this is the first 9 speakers. Just starting to listen through them and it’s an incredible resource!

http://www.schoolofsound.co.uk/sos/audio-and-video-archives/


VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS

I’ve tried to steer clear of buying new samples recently and try and use what I have. I went through a stage of purchasing, but not listening properly to what I’d bought. Having said that this new piano from Native Instruments based around Nils Frahm’s sound, does sound lovely and certainly looks well sampled!


INTERVIEW

I’ve not seen the film yet, but here is a very in depth interview with the sound team behind Alita: Battle Angel.

https://bit.ly/2CJYk8a

Sound Design Inspiration #6

INTERVIEW

Mary Anne Hobbs interviewed Ryuichi Sakamoto on BBC Radio 6. Talking about how he began his life in Music and his process. "Spontinety is my faith"...


APPLE

Apple have released an updated Macbook Pro which is able to house 32gb RAM and up to 4tb SSD drive... it comes at a steep price though!

The more samples I've been using recently, the more RAM I've been needing. I'm hoping that one day it will be the portable version of a nMac Pro I've been waiting for, but for now its a movement in the right direction

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/12/apple-launches-2018-macbook-pro-lineup/


SOUND DESIGN

One of the shows I Sound Designed which transfered over the NY to St Ann's Warehouse is now available to watch online as part of Donmar Warehouse's initiative to get these shows out to a wider audience. This was the third piece in a Trilogy of Shakespeare plays led by an all female cast of women around the concept of a female prison. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0696f99/the-tempest


INTERVIEW

Jason Graves, the award-winning composer of the Dead Space soundtracks showing his studio and some interesting instruments he's used to create the unique sound of Dead Space...

 

 

Sound Design Inspiration #3

PODCAST

Twenty Thousand Hertz released a super interesting podcast a couple of weeks ago featuring the Data Driven DJ. They talk to Brant Guichard, a man who has heard "The Music" during his seizures since he was a young boy. Taking his EEG readings during a seizure and splicing up a mixture of Imogen Heap'sHide and Seek’, philharmonic samples and experimental percussion. The Data Driven DJ (Brian Foo) created this beautiful piece by using the readings representing the seizure to control the dynamics and intensity (That's a huge over simplification) of the layers...


INTERVIEW

Native instruments posted an interview with Ben Frost talking about the methods he used for this new album The Centre Cannot Hold.
 


NOISE

After living in NY for the last two months, I returned home to a strong awakening of how loud it was there. Not just the hustle and bustle of people, but vehicles, sirens, advertising... it reminded me of this article which describes the high dB levels we encounter on the London Underground system... In essence, get yourself noise cancelling headphones or ear protection for the commute!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42791299


Audio Media International 2017 Interview

Adam Savage. Editor of Audio Media International Magazine wrote to ask a few questions on my work on The Encounter with Gareth Fry, as well as about the challenges we faced on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and asked me to talk a little about the industry as a whole. I felt privileged to be included in the May/June 2017 edition of Audio Media International. Thanks to Adam for getting in touch!

Here's the link to the online version of the interview:

http://www.audiomediainternational.com/interview/interview-pete-malkin/06534