the music of sound

Richard Taylor, Co-Founder of WETA Workshop and WETA Digital recently won the World Class NZ Award! He gave a rousing speech, which is worth a listen, as it puts into perspective how hard he works at developing & promoting the formidable talent at WETA. He also mentions the four specific character traits he believes are crucial for people to be successful & while his experience is primarily in the film industry I believe what he says is universal….
Congrats Richard!

This is crossing 2 themes for me: I’m a fan of The Wire. ‘Good TV’ is almost an oxymoron, but The Wire achieves it (as does Breaking Bad). For my $0.05 its also no coincidence both series have very good soundtracks; if the producers & directors care about story & casting & plot development & character arcs as much as they obviously do, then they should also care about the contribution music, dialogue, sound & the mix have to make. And they do. Respect to everyone involved in those series.
When I started working in sound post one of my mantras was ‘never work on anything with a laugh track’ – I never rationalised why but it was a base instinct. I don’t fear comedy, but I knew I never ever wanted to have to edit laugh tracks. And thankfully I never have… And this clips shows why… Is a laugh track EVER needed? I mean, if its a live comedic performance & the audience response is recorded & mixed in, then sure – thats like an applause track or maybe cheering etc for sports… but hell for me would be taking a lame comedy & being told to ‘laugh it up’ – god/jah/buddha forbid!!

I was first introduced to Max Richter’s music when I was working on 30 Days of Night & one of his compositions was used as temp score… & I have since bought all his albums.. this interview is a short excerpt from what looks to be a fascinating triple-DVD of interviews on ‘Contemporary Music Production’ – check the DVD out here

heres the trailer for the DVD:

I think this video could have been titled: ‘OCD & the law of diminishing returns’ but what’s really the biggest anomaly is that none of the rooms these guys have their super-fantastic stereo system set up in appear to have had any acoustic treatment! Hmmmmm…..

Aside from admiring the dexterity involved in playing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor with your feet, my next thought was I would love to see them play some Philip Glass; just as some of his music is incredibly hypnotic I can only imagine the movements required in playing it via the same means as above would also be…. Ditto for Cages 4′33″?

via kottke via boingboing

hee hee “eating all our sand” – WTF??

I love how these fluffy windjammers from Rycote start to anthropomorphisize these handheld audio recorders – that one on the right just needs some eyebrows!

I must order one for my Zoom H2, there is nothing more frustrating than having an otherwise good recording ruined by wind buffets & the light foam protectors they come with are only really any use in the lightest breeze – even the subway trains wooshing past would buffet my poor little H2 when I was in Tokyo… Order them here or via your local Rycote dealer

If this truck pulled up beside you at the lights with its subwoofer booming you really might have something to complain about!