Soundworks Collection

They had their first date in a Berkeley, Calif., hi-fi store in 1967, the Summer of Love, to listen to the newly released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Speakers for Steve Miller at Monterey Pop followed. Then the Dead, Metallica, Celine, Ed Sheeran and so many others. Now 50 years later, John and Helen Meyer, co-founders of Meyer Sound, are embarking on a yearlong, worldwide tribute to music, love and sound, visiting customers and celebrating a history of quality audio. Mix editor Tom Kenny interviews the Meyers from the Don Pearson Theater in the company’s Berkeley headquarters.

Composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of S U R V I V E are returning to pen the new score for Stranger Things Season 2. We chatted about how they got the gig, what gear they utilized to create their synth driven score and what changes they are making for the new season. This thrilling Netflix-original drama stars award-winning actress Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, who lives in a small Indiana town in 1983 -- inspired by a time when tales of science fiction captivated audiences. When Joyce's 12-year-old son, Will, goes missing, she launches a terrifying investigation into his disappearance with local authorities. As they search for answers, they unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries involving secret government experiments, unnerving supernatural forces, and a very unusual little girl. This podcast is brought to you in part by RØDE Microphones presenting My RØDE Reel, the world’s largest short film competition. Now with over $500,000 in prizes to be won. Visit www.myrodereel.com now to get your free sta

We recently chatted with re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor and sound designer Christopher Boyes about his work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Johnny Depp returns to the big screen as the iconic, swashbuckling anti-hero Jack Sparrow in the all-new Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, a rip-roaring adventure that finds down-on-his-luck Captain Jack feeling the winds of ill-fortune blowing strongly his way when deadly ghost sailors, led by the terrifying Captain Salazar, escape from the Devil's Triangle bent on killing every pirate at sea notably Jack. This podcast is brought to you in part by RØDE Microphones presenting My RØDE Reel, the world’s largest short film competition. Now with over $500,000 in prizes to be won. Visit www.myrodereel.com now to get your free starter pack!

We recently chatted with re-recording mixer Jon Taylor and Frank A. Montaño about their work on The Fate of the Fast and the Furious directed by Gary Gray. With Dom and Letty married, Brian and Mia retired and the rest of the crew exonerated, the globe-trotting team has found some semblance of a normal life. They soon face an unexpected challenge when a mysterious woman named Cipher forces Dom to betray them all. Now, they must unite to bring home the man who made them a family and stop Cipher from unleashing chaos. This podcast is brought to you in part by RØDE Microphones presenting My RØDE Reel, the world’s largest short film competition. Now with over $500,000 in prizes to be won. Visit www.myrodereel.com now to get your free starter pack!

This week we talk with Paul Isaacs, Director, Product Management & Design at Sound Devices about their new MixPre Series. Sound Devices introduces its new line of high-performance, ultra-compact audio recorders with USB audio streaming – MixPre-3 & MixPre-6. Sound Devices is thrilled to announce the launch of its groundbreaking new product line, the MixPre Series of audio recorders with integrated USB audio interface. The lightweight, high-resolution MixPre-3 & MixPre-6 audio recorders with USB audio streaming offer world-class sound quality combined with extreme durability – perfect for musicians, sound designers, podcasters, videographers, YouTubers and field recordists. This podcast is brought to you in part by RØDE Microphones presenting My RØDE Reel, the world’s largest short film competition. Now with over $500,000 in prizes to be won. Visit myrodereel.com now to get your free starter pack!

In this episode we spoke with co-supervising sound editors Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers about their recent work on The Ghost in the Shell directed by Rupert Sanders. In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that her life was stolen instead of saved. Now, she will stop at nothing to recover her past while punishing those who did this to her. This episode is sponsored by RØDE Microphones, presenting My RØDE Reel, the world’s largest short film competition. Now with over $500,000 in prizes to be won. Visit www.myrodereel.com now to get your free starter pack!

We recently chatted with Supervising Sound Editor Joe Dzuban about his work on the Power Rangers movie reboot directed by Dean Israelite. Five ordinary teens must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove - and the world - is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat. Chosen by destiny, our heroes quickly discover they are the only ones who can save the planet. But to do so, they will have to overcome their real-life issues and before it's too late, band together as the Power Rangers. This podcast is brought to you in part by RØDE Microphones – providing premium audio products at an accessible price, enabling people around the world to achieve their creative goals. With mics for studio, video-recording and podcasting; you’re bound to find the mic you need. To find out more visit www.rode.com

We chatted with sound recordist Ann Kroeber about her latest sound effects library release, Cinematic Winds, recently released by Pro Sound Effects. This sound library features 98 wind recordings with diverse, compelling moods: from eerie, lonely winds; to whirling, buffeting storm winds; to resonant interior winds in stairwells, tents, and pipes; to winds of nature over sand, snow, and water, through trees, mountains, and canyons. These artful sound effects will instantly bring powerful presence or subconscious emotional depth to your productions. Well known for their collaboration with David Lynch, Ann Kroeber and Alan Splet’s unique sound effects and design work can be heard in dozens of films spanning multiple decades from countless renowned directors including Peter Weir, Philip Kaufman, and Carroll Ballard. Kroeber and Splet are truly sonic pioneers.

We chat with the sound team of Kong: Skull Island and discuss their collaboration with Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts featuring re-recording mixer and sound designer Pete Horner, co-supervising sound editor Al Nelson and co-supervising sound editor Steve Slanec. A secret government organization mounts an expedition to Skull Island, an uncharted territory in the Pacific. Led by an explorer (John Goodman) and a lieutenant colonel (Samuel L. Jackson), the group recruit a disillusioned soldier (Tom Hiddleston) and a photojournalist (Brie Larson) to investigate the island's peculiar seismic activity. But once there, they discover that Skull Island is home to a gigantic ape called King Kong, and find themselves caught up in an ongoing war between the beast and the area's indigenous predators. Jordan Vogt-Roberts directed this reboot of the classic monster franchise.

We recently chatted with Composer Jon Ekstrand who is a long time collaborator with Director Daniel Espinosa about his work on the sci-fi thriller film LIFE. This marks his sixth project with Espinosa, having previously composed music for his films Babylonsjukan, Outside Love, Snabba Cash, and Child 44, and the Danish short film The Boxer, which was his first work as a composer. Life stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya, and Hiroyuki Sanada and it revolves around the six-member crew of the International Space Station as they come into contact with the very first evidence of biological life on Mars: a small, single-celled organism. As they begin to research the specimen, however, this “life” proves far more dangerous than they could have ever imagined. Life was written by Deadpool’s Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese and produced by Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg along with Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn.

This week we talk with Scoring Mixer Frank Wolf who worked on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast directed by Bill Condon. Frank has a long working history collaborating with Composer Alan Menken and we discuss what it was like to record and mix many of the beloved songs from this 1991 Disney Classic. We also discuss the process of recording several of the new songs featured an all star cast including Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Ewan Mcgregor, Ian McKelland and Emma Thomson.

Composer Takeshi Furukawa had the incredible task of creating the musical score for The Last Guardian, which is best described as a traditional orchestral fantasy score. The Last Guardian, from Shadow of the Colossus designer Fumito Ueda, centers on a boy and his friendship with Trico, a giant creature who looks like a hybrid of a bird and a cat. Furukawa was first approached for the project five years ago — but the game was delayed to be reengineered for PlayStation 4. Two years later, he resumed his efforts and went on to compose and conduct a score that was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Trinity Boys Choir, and London Voices at Air Studios.

It should come as no surprise that a movie that explores the loneliness that Batman must feel in the bat-cave after leaving his adoring public behind — even one involving LEGOs — has a fairly dark orchestral score thanks to composer Lorne Balfe, who argues that The LEGO Batman Movie has just as much emotional depth as any live-action Dark Knight tale. Balfe, who was part of the musical department for The Dark Knight series of films, shared some of his thoughts on writing for this animated incarnation of the hero’s story. Composer Lorne Balfe [TERMINATOR GENISYS, CHURCHILL, THE STORY OF GOD WITH MORGAN FREEMAN] is a Grammy Award-winning, EMMY and BAFTA nominated film composer from Inverness, Scotland. His filmography boasts an incredible breadth and depth of titles, ranging from major studio to independent films, tentpole video game franchises, beloved animated feature films, critically acclaimed television series, and documentary features.

In Part 1 of this episode, Steve Morrow (Best Sound Mixing) describes his work as the production sound mixer on this contemporary movie musical filmed largely on location in Los Angeles, and the challenges of capturing the live on-set signing of stars Ryan Gossling and Emma Stone. In Part 2, Ai-Ling Lee (nominated for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing) and Mildred Iatrou (Best Sound Editing) discuss weaving the sung performances into a magical musical design soundscape.

Sylvain Bellemare (Best Sound Editing) and Barnard Gariépy Strobl (Best Sound Mixing) discuss the unique challenges of building the soundscapes of the alien heptapods and managing their multi-national crew working in Paris, Montréal, Los Angeles, and New Zealand. Adhering to director Denis Villeneueve’s mandate to keep everything real and organic, the sound artists describe using no electronics in generating the film’s sounds, and how the sound design interweaves seamlessly with the haunting score by Jóhan Jóhannsson.

Renée Tondelli (Best Sound Editing) joins us for an in-depth exploration of the sound design of Peter Berg’s film, for which she is nominated with Wylie Stateman. From the challenges of learning to speak “oilese,” the specialized language of the oil exploration world, to the problems of capturing usable production audio at the film’s noisy locations, Renée discusses how the sound for this action-packed film, mixed by Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill, came together.

Kevin O’Connell (Best Sound Mixing), celebrating his 21st Academy Award nomination, joins first-time nominees Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright (double nominees for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing) in conversation about their work on Mel Gibson’s film. The artists talk about using sound design and music to sculpt the three different battle sequences which comprise the film’s second half, the challenges of using period accurate weaponry, and how the sound of breathing can take you inside the main character’s experience.

Two-time Academy Award winner Alan Murray (Best Sound Editing) joins us to discuss his 37th film in collaboration with director Clint Eastwood, for which he has received his ninth Oscar nomination. From his first conversation with Captain Chesley Sullenberger to an eventful sound recording trip on an empty A320 in flight, Alan recounts the lengths to which his team went to make sure they kept realism in the sound track of the famous “Miracle on the Hudson.”

Greg Russell (17 Oscar nominations), Gary Summers (11 Oscar nominations and 4 wins), and Jeffrey Haboush (4 Oscar nominations) talk about their work, nominated for Best Sound Mixing, on Michael Bay’s film. The artists describe their long collaboration with Bay, and their work on this film to keep the tension high through the film’s chaotic scenes of battle.

This week we talk with Production Sound Mixer Steve Morrow about his work on Director Damien Chazelle's new film, La La Land. From an early age, production sound mixer Steven A. Morrow, CAS knew that his passion for movies would lead to a career in the entertainment industry. What began as a teenage hobby making films has since turned into a full-time career recording sound for a wide range of prominent films and television series, including the critically acclaimed musical comedy La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. This podcast episode is sponsored by Sound Devices. For nearly two decades, the Sound Devices team has remained true to the spirit of creative innovations and its original goal of providing top-notch, superb quality products that help sound professionals capture the clearest, most enjoyable media in the world. To find out more visit www.sounddevices.com