I recently had the chance to chat with Jad Abumrad, creator and co-host of WNYC's Radiolab. Each episode of Radiolab explores ideas in science, technology, and the universe at large through a seamless blend of expert interviews, sound design, and music. Together with co-host Robert Krulwich, the show has covered topics such as sleep, colors, cities, and loops, just to name a … [Read more...]
Interview with Wayne Pashley – The Great Gatsby
Guest Contribution by Abigail Sie The Great Gatsby was an unusually long sound post-production process. How long did the sound mix take? Just under three months, it was quite a long haul. A lot of that really was logistics in the way of rethinking, re-conforming the pre-dubs and integrating new material with the edit as the picture changed and was updated throughout the … [Read more...]
From Wax to Bits: Dynamics of the Film Sound Medium
As dynamics month comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to talk about the evolution of film sound mediums and how they impact dynamics. Since the widespread introduction of sync sound to films in the early 20th century, the technologies involved have changed quite dramatically. From experiments with wax cylinders and phonographs to magnetic tape and Dolby Digital, each … [Read more...]
Finding Your Way With High Dynamic Range Audio In Wwise
Guest Contribution by: Louis-Xavier Buffoni – Software engineer at Audiokinetic HDR in a Nutshell HDR (“High Dynamic Range”) audio is a technique which draws its inspiration from the local adaptation method used in HDR imaging, which “attempts to maintain local contrast, while decreasing global contrast.” [1] In audio, this local/global dichotomy applies to time, and contrast … [Read more...]
Music, Sound and the Worlds in Between – A Skip Lievsay Interview (Part 1)
Skip Lievsay needs almost no introduction: He is one of the most distinguished and prolific sound editors in the movie business. His many collaborations with The Coen Brothers, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee and Jonathan Demme, to name just a few, are often considered classics. Lievsay has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two for No Country for Old Men and two for True Grit. … [Read more...]
Panning Reverb Returns
Guest contribution by By Douglas Murray OK, here is the ugly truth for film post, or really any surround sound work… Most reverb plug-ins do not sound natural for applications using greater than 1 or 2 speakers. What you don’t want: a reverb that jumps to completely different speakers from the source. What you do want: a reverb that spreads out from the sound and helps localize … [Read more...]
Psychoacoustics: Faking the Space
When building the space that sounds occupy, it may sometimes seem like overkill to load up those DSP hungry (though wonderful) reverb plug-ins. They can be a pretty big load when it comes to even the mildest amount of spatialization, and it can also be time consuming to configure one to emulate an outdoor space. I thought it would be worth sharing a trick of mine for both … [Read more...]