Catching Up

Hi there, it's been a while. I've been a bit busy with work and many own projects, but I'll try to post more often. 

So, a bit of news and stuff I've been gathering lately:

Last August an album recorded at Skywalker Sound' Scoring Stage was released. Thinking About Bix by Dick Hyman.
A HDCD recorded by Keith O. "Prof" Johnson using custom-made mikes and equipment. I've listened to some of it at Amazon, and it sounds delightful. Musical-wise it's the kind of jazz I sometimes need.

Matthew Wood and David Acord, the gentlemen responsible for the mix of Star Wars: Clone Wars, were recently interviewed at CW31. Pretty great to see sound designers and re-recording mixers on tv!

Now to Ben Burtt being interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor about sound design as an art form.

Sennheiser/Neumann's Mike Pappas gave a recording seminar recently at the Scoring Stage. You can read all about it HERE.

The debut album of Court Mast, called Sausalito Summer, was also recorded at Skywalker Sound, and released on July 29. You can read about it HERE and preview it/download it HERE.

TimesOnline visited what they call "Star Wars HQ", which is actually Industrial, Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. About our beloved place they say:
"Over the hills and far away... well, about a 45 minute drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, way up into Marin County, Lucas' reknowned Skywalker Sound is housed in the grounds of Skywalker Ranch. It's a beautiful spot. Made all the nicer by enjoying a glass of the locally produced organic wine. Okay, maybe two glasses. Fine, I'll have the bottle. The plantation-style building overlooks Ewok Lake (no, really) and there are AT-ATs patrolling the area. Ok, maybe no AT-AT's but there are other, more subtle security measures. Where are all the cameras? Well maybe they're hidden in some of the fake boulders placed at strategic points around the grounds. But those rocks look real! Yes, well the guy does have the best special effects team in the world at his disposal."

HDFilmtools had a very HD interview with Matthew Wood. Mostly about the job of a Supervising Sound Editor. You can also see the ProTools ICON console. Very neat. Watch it/download it HERE.

The last thing for today (there is more, but I'll post it later) is another album recorded at Skysound, which will be released tomorrow.

Speak Low by Boz Scaggs. More good jazz, awesomely recorded (I assume, since I haven't heard it yet). "The sense of intimacy you get there is quite remarkable," Scaggs says. "You think you can get closer to the music in a smaller room, but that's not always true. At Skywalker, the vastness brought us all together.... The quiets in that room are much quieter, and all of the dynamics are really vivid. It's a great room to sing in."
You can purchase it HERE.

That's all for today folks, I'll be coming back soon (I hope) with more things Skywalker Sound

Scoring Stage On The Cover

This month's cover of Mix Magazine has Skywalker Sound' Scoring Stage all over it (those beautiful diffusers aren't hard to recognize).
I would like to start by pointing out that the Skywalker Sound HQ is actually called Technical Building and not "Technology Building" as it is in the article). Other than that minor detail, it is an interesting read. Of course it features the amazing Leslie Ann Jones, head of the Scoring Stage and overall genius.
This article informed me about a couple of things I didn't knew:

* They switched digital recording from Euphonix R1 to ProTools HD
* They are recording a considerable number of videogame scores.
* They are having a BIT of a hard time filling the studio (at least compared to .... say... Abbey Road)

"Over lunch on the back porch of the ranch's white-clapboard Victorian mansion-style Main House, the studio's director of scoring and music recording (not to mention record producer and Grammy-winning engineer), Leslie Ann Jones, notes that it is exactly that sort of diversification that has kept her studio busy: film and game scores, major- and indie-label work, classical and rock music, local and national talent."

Read it all HERE!

All Things Ben Burtt on Wall-E

The recently released Pixar's Wall-E has caused a unique phenomenon. I don't know of other occasion in which a sound designer was interviewed as much as Ben Burtt was regarding Wall-E.

Here are all the interviews I collected:
* CanMag
* Movies Online
* SFGate
* Los Angeles Times
* Syracuse.com

And now the multimedia interviews. First a podcast from Studio 360 which is one of the best interviews with Ben:

A Space Journey In Sound:

And a /Film 4-minute Wall-E making of Featurette which has a segment on sound.

I saw Wall-E today and the sound design is the best by far of any movie I have seen this year. Also the story is quite awesome, heartfelt and smart.

On the sound design aspect, I love how Ben Burtt used a wacom tablet to change pitch on sounds in a very creative way.

Chris Boyes on Iron Man

Ok, so I had no feedback but I think that's mainly due to the fact that I haven't promoted the blog in the slightest.

Let's just jump to the content of the blog right away.
Recently the Iron Man film was released, in a very successful fashion. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to.
Not only because of all the nice things I've been hearing about it, but also because the nice people at Skywalker Sound handled the sound post-production of the movie.
Chris Boyes (of King Kong, The Lord of The Rings) was in charge of the sound design and mixing of Iron Man.
Mix Magazine sat with him and recorded a nice interview about his job on this film.
Unfortunately he was in a protools room, instead of a lovely mixing room in front a huge console. But I think that is due to the fact that since Episode 3, Skywalker Sound changed it's way of working to have a more Protools-driven and basic set-up all the way to the end (they mainly use the big consoles at the final mix stage).
I've heard they even have an Icon, although I haven't seen any picture of it at Skysound yet.

Anyway, despite this tiny detail of wanting to see their great equipment, it is a very nice interview. Chris Boyes is a very good sound designer, so check it out.