Anechoic chambers aren't necessarily "silent," but what other image can you actually use to represent the subject. The nature of silence, like nearly every other aspect of sound, is truly a subjective idea, because true Silence...the complete absence of sound...is impossible to experience unless one has a medical condition which induces it. [If you want to get solipsistic, we … [Read more...]
Tonebenders Soundbytes – Will Files
The Tonebenders Podcast has just released another "Soundbytes" mini-podcast that ties into our "Surround" theme for this month. Give it a listen, and don't forget to subscribe to them on iTunes! … [Read more...]
The World in Three Dimensions…
There was a time when people argued that theatrical (even home) sound has long been three dimensional. Maybe there are still some that make that claim. With the rise of binaural audio, Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D, sound actually is entering the third dimension. This is just a small semantic argument. Surround sound, in its traditional 5.1 and 7.1 formats, wasn't technically three … [Read more...]
Don’t Panic and Carry A Towel: When Things Go Horribly, Horribly Wrong
As April comes to an end and we wrap up our topic for the month, “broken”, I wanted to take a moment and share something that I learned when I was first starting out, and something that I find myself having to remember quite often: how to react when everything starts to break. We depend on a lot of complex technologies in our day-to-day lives, some more intricate and … [Read more...]
Broken
Now that yesterday's global silliness is behind us, it's time to announce April's theme: "broken". What can I say?! We like the open ended topics that provide ample opportunity for interpretation. As sound designers, we rely on manipulation...pushing materials beyond their limits to see what interesting sounds they create under stress, or at that threshold where they go … [Read more...]
How About a Sound Ideaboard/Storyboard?
Guest Contribution by Randy Thom During pre-production on a film it's common practice to gather lots and lots of still photographic images, and video as well, that might relate to the story. The stills are often displayed on walls for everyone preparing the film to see and talk about. It's basically an "idea board." The purpose of gathering these images is to stimulate … [Read more...]
The Voice In…
Michel Chion is a well known voice in film sound theory. A lot of people have heard of, and possibly read, his book Audio Vision. For some reason, The Voice in Cinema is a little less popular. This post isn't really meant to be about Michel Chion or his books though. We're focusing on the idea of "voice" this month, and it's hard to come up with a header image that is relevant. … [Read more...]