The gents with impressive facial hair over at the Beards, Cats and Indie Game Audio Podcast have glommed onto this month's theme of "Listening". You can check out the full episode here. Thanks go out to Matthew Marteinsson (@mattesque) and Gordon McGladdery (@AShellInThePit) for contributing to this month's discussion! … [Read more...]
All Ears!
We have two words that are most commonly used to discuss how we interact with sound: hearing, and listening. Hearing is a passive act. Pressure waves move our eardrums, the motion is converted to an electrical signal, and our brain tells us that there is a sonic phenomenon in the space around us...perhaps it even provides us with identifying information. It's what comes … [Read more...]
All those things that get us around…
I held off on the announce post for a few days, because we had a few articles that spilled over from last month's theme. Now that we're caught up, it's time to dive into this month's theme...Vehicles! Do we really need more of an introduction than that? My guess is no. And sure, there's a rail car at a drag race in the image above, but we're not single-minded. There are … [Read more...]
Listen Up, Tony (Awards)!: Petitioning for Reinstatement
First, some confessions: I am a sound designer, I have never worked on a Broadway production, and therefore, never expected to win a Tony Award (let alone be a part of a discussion of this nature). I may not be an “insider” of the theatre world, but the decision earlier this month to stop presenting Tony Awards for sound design (of a play and also of a musical) deems a … [Read more...]
On the Tony Awards
Guest Contribution from Randy Thom It was announced that the people who run the Tony Awards have decided to cut two of their awards categories….the two sound design categories. This is a sad piece of news for all of us in sound. It's yet another slap in the face for an important art form that struggles for recognition. The people who run awards shows feel constant … [Read more...]
A Moment (Month) of Silence
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...]
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...]