Animal Sound Design and Recording Month is coming to a close so we thought it would be neat to do a roundup of just a few of the indie SFX libraries out there that have great animal recordings. (Disclaimer: I sourced suggestions from the Twitter community and my own experience so this list is not intended be comprehensive, simply a few strong suggestions. If you feel there … [Read more...]
The Carpetbagger Blog Talks to Steve Boeddeker and Randy Thom
The Carpetbagger, a New York Times blog dedicated to the film awards season we are now in the flush of, has spoken to Steve Boeddeker and Randy Thom at Skywalker Sound. “Before there was a here here, I was here,” said Randy Thom, the director of sound design at Skywalker Sound, part of George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch complex outside of San Francisco. “It used to be called … [Read more...]
Whoosh Review
In the last year, we’ve all been happy to see the slow emergence of software tools designed explicitly for sound design. The fine folks over at Tonsturm are the latest to release one such tool under the moniker Melted Sounds. Whoosh is a Reaktor based plug-in for designing, as implied by its name, complex and varied motion elements and pass-bys. The basic idea behind the tool … [Read more...]
LA Underground – An Interview with Charles Maynes
I recently had a chance to sit down with sound designer and sound FX recordist Charles Maynes and chat about his new “LA Underground” sound library, available from Rabbit Ears Audio. Inspired by the gritty and seedy Los Angeles shown in countless films, “LA Underground” is a 10 GB collection of ambiences from all over the city, from the industrial centers near the LA River to … [Read more...]
Journalism Beyond Words: Dirty Wars
As the documentary format moves further into the 21st century, audio is playing an ever increasing role in helping directors communicate their thoughts and ideas to the viewer. In a recent article posted to doxmagazine.com, Peter Albrechtsen goes in depth with Christopher Barnett, the sound designer for this year's MPSE documentary sound design award winning film, Dirty Wars. … [Read more...]
Viviana Caro: A Career Working With Animal Sounds
Guest Contribution by Leonard Paul You've worked a lot with animals as a sound engineer, could you give a brief history of how your initial interest in audio restoration of bird sounds has led to being the recordist for the Colombian Mountain Grackle in the mountains of Colombia? My interest on animal sounds started when I worked on my audio engineering undergrad thesis. I … [Read more...]
(Mis)adventures in Cat Recording
About three years ago, on a whim, I adopted a 6 month old kitten. I had dealt with cats before at friends’ and family’s houses, but had never owned one, and Luna (short for “Lunatic”) was full of surprises. After her initial "moving in” period, in which she hid under the bed for nearly a week, I discovered that Luna was an exceedingly outspoken individual that needed to make … [Read more...]