The titling of this post is a direct tribute to my tag team buddies Dan and Carmine from the ol’ DJ days. We were (and still are) and bunch of vinyl junkies. We admittedly had a few CDs of some digitized purchases that we toted around and spun, but primarily we threw down vinyl – for a variety of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »
Lately I’ve been giving a lot of though toward the mind of a sound editor/designer. What goes on inside? How is it that we do what we do, give rise to seemingly limitless and obscure imagination and inspiration? How is it that we feed of the energy of our environment and world and have the acute ability to translate it into an expressive thought through the sonic medium in which the rest of the world can be moved by it? Read the rest of this entry »
So, I fluked. This is Part II of a four part post. Upon considering BGz with more weight, I realized that it should be respected properly by breaking the post into a part about BGz from theory to implementation, the actual end-to-end BGz cutting, and a fourth post devoted to Spotted BGz (the icing-on-the-cake layers of backgrounds that make them sing). Read the rest of this entry »
Greetings all! Judging by the fact that my last post was 96 days ago, I’d say that we’re looking at over 3 months of no activity from me if my math is any good. Read the rest of this entry »
Step outside and have a listen to our world. In today’s fast-paced society, I personally feel this is not done enough, even recreational. What can be even more scary, thrilling, disturbing, and exciting all at the same time is to listen to our world in a place of near-silence. I say ‘near-silence’, because true silence (to us) does not exist. Sound propagation, as we know it, is due to compression and rarefaction of air molecules.
Yesterday evening I ventured to check out Crazy, Stupid, Love. There has been a lot of great reviews of the film, and I am always intrigued by and enjoy these types of films which fit within the same classy niche as Love, Actually, Blue Valentine, and American Beauty – more directly, its the genre which deeply studies the intricacies of the human condition, existentialistic philosophies, and explores all facets relationships. Read the rest of this entry »
The meters are our guiding friend in the mix, always aiding us in ensuring that our creations are within proper quality specifications, and providing us tangible feedback to compliment the intangible acoustical feedback our ears receive – it serves as a comprehensive ‘idiot check’ to what our ears may not be tuned to deal with. With a variety of outboard hardware meters being used on stages, such as the award-winning Dorrough brand, there is never any reason to question the accuracy they reflect and are relied upon for their precision. Read the rest of this entry »
Today I have been inspired to share a little about the ‘dark art’ of dialogue noise suppression. I mean this in the sense that we’re shooting in the dark a lot when it comes to noise – there is no absolute template or ultimate solution to the problem which works every time, and different tools have their own unique merits and shortfalls. I’d like to focus on one largely-overlooked tool, the Waves C4 Multiband Processor, while additionally touching on other tools and techniques which have rarely been uncovered. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes, situations happen at the last minute. This evening would be one of those. In an effort to clear my head of maladies (read: myself), I decided to venture out to the quiet, open beaches of Malibu and enjoy the ebb and flow of the tide – waves are music to my ears, their complexity of character yet simplicity of motion calms me down. Plus I am in the market for some shows and steady sound editorial work, so why not enjoy some of this free time I have been graced with while continuing my search. Read the rest of this entry »
While whittling my way though about 40GB of raw sound effects recordings, I came to realize that I have never spoken very much about what it is I am mastering sound effects for. So, today I felt that it is very appropriate to address The Simultaneous Contrast Sound Effects Library because very little has been revealed about its existence. Read the rest of this entry »