Michael Babcock (re-recording mixer/sound designer/supervising sound editor) talks about the challenges of the sound work for KPop Demon Hunters. The animated film has quickly become a world wide sensation and Netflix's most watched title ever (523.6 million viewer hours)! Michael calls the project the most challenging film he has ever worked on. Coming up with sound design that compliments the massive music tracks that have to be the main feature put his skills to the test. This episode is a re-podcast of an episode from The Creative Leaders Podcast, hosted by Stepnen Scott. https://open.spotify.com/show/4nAAx7xPdTW0rxoOxgvygH

Listeners in the Mexico City area, mark you calendars for the Tonebenders Event there on Oct 21st. Full details coming soon!

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time. Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/327-kpop-demon-hunters/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/

This episode is hosted by Stephen Scott

Director Zach Cregger's latest film, Weapons, has been both a critical and a box office success. One of the film's biggest strengths is it's distinctive sound work, created by Luciano Vignola (Supervising Sound Editor & Re-Recording MIxer), Filipe Messeder (Sound Designer & Re-Recording Mixer) and Jake O’Brien (Dialogue Editor). They discuss what makes a jump scare work, the importance of ambiences and foley in the psychology of horror, getting a director to engage on the mix stage & lots more.

A big announcement off the top as Tonebenders is going to Mexico City on Oct 21st!

SPONSOR: After over a year of dedicated work, the entire Sound Ideas sound effects collection, over 500,000 individual files, has been upgraded to the Universal Category System’s, filename and metadata standards. With this enhancement, sounds are now more organized, searchable, and ready for seamless integration into your workflow. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/Page/ucs-data-upgrade to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/326-weapons/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

This episode is a re-podcast of a live panel from last year's Sonic Days Conference, in Denmark. The panelists explore the creative process behind game audio development, diving into strategies for fostering innovation, overcoming creative blocks, and enhancing collaboration in the industry.

The panel is made up of:

Richard Lapington, Audio Director, Remedy Entertainment

Katrine Amsler, Sound Designer, IO Interactive

Simon Stevnhoved, Senior Sound Designer, Massive Entertainment

Mikkel Anttila, Freelance Sound Designer

Moderated by Niels Böttcher, Sound Designer

Mark your calendars for Sonic Days 2025, and join Tonebenders' host Tim Muirhead, in Kolding Denmark on November 19th and 20th. Full details will be coming out soon......

SPONSOR: After over a year of dedicated work, the entire Sound Ideas sound effects collection, over 500,000 individual files, has been upgraded to the Universal Category System’s, filename and metadata standards. With this enhancement, sounds are now more organized, searchable, and ready for seamless integration into your workflow. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/325-cultivating-creative-flow-in-game-audio-development-sonic-days-conference/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Black Mirror has consistently been a ground breaking series over the show's decade plus run. It has set a high standard within the sound community as well. The recent release of Season 7, keeps that sonic bar extremely high, especially on the Emmy nominated episode "USS Callister: Into Infinity". Supervising Sound Editor Tom Jenkins, Music Editor Poppy Kavanagh & Re-Recording Mixer James Ridgway tell us about the challenges of working on a science-fiction anthology series where every episode is completely different, the importance of having Poppy work with the music across the entire series 7, and what they learned designing the sound for an epic space battle.

Listeners in London England, come on out on August 24th at 7pm to the Crown and Two Chairmen to the second Tonebenders London Sound Design Meet-up, presented by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-sound-design-meet-up/

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time. Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/324-black-mirror/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

The Righteous Gemstones is a big broad comedy about excess, except for the first episode of season 4, which takes place nearly 200 years before the main series. With the American Civil as the backdrop, this story is gritty and dirty, a complete departure from the bulk of the series. Pee-wee as Himself is a disarming documentary playing with what is true and what is Hollywood gamesmanship. Featuring an uncompromising interview with Paul Reubens as he wrestles with where Pee-Wee starts and Reubens ends. A common thread between these two projects is pristine sound work that leads the charge. The Emmy nominated Supervising sound editors/re-recording mixers for both Righteous Gemstones (Nicholas Renbeck) and Pee-wee as Himself (Daniel Timmons) join Tonebenders for a fascinating talk, as they compare and contrast working on these two very different projects.

Listeners in London England, come on out on August 24th at 7pm to the Crown and Two Chairmen to the second Tonebenders London Sound Design Meet-up, presented by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-sound-design-meet-up/

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time. Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/323-the-righteous-gemstones-pee-wee-as-himself/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

How is it possible that it took until the 322nd episode of Tonebenders for a discussion about the sound design of the Star Trek franchise?! This episode, featuring two guests that have collectively worked on over a 150 episodes within the Star Trek universe, will finally give us a chance to dig deep into the iconic sounds of Star Trek. James Lucero (Supervising Sound Editor), from Star Trek Lower Decks, and Michael Schapiro (Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer) from Star Trek: Section 31, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Short Treks are absolute experts on what this sci-fi giant sounds like. Both have also been nominated for Emmys this year as well!

Listeners in London England, come on out on August 24th at 7pm to the Crown and Two Chairmen to the second Tonebenders London Sound Design Meet-up, presented by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Also you have until August 15th to get your Listener Field Recording Stories. Full details on how to submit are at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/field-recording-story-submissions/

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time. Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/322-the-sound-of-star-trek-roundtable/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

The audio post teams from both The Penguin and Season 2 of The Last Of Us, sit down together to hash out the work they did on their respective series. Workflows are discussed and compared, favourite sound moments are shared and many other challenges, that must be overcome in these types of prestige series, are opened up. From The Last Of Us, Michael Benavente (Supervising Sound Editor) & Samuel Ejnes (Re-Recording Mixer) join Rich Bologna (Supervising Sound Editor) & Andy Kris (Re-Recording Mixer) from The Penguin, for this illuminating conversation. Also Congrats to all four for their recent Emmy Nominations!

Listeners in London England, come on out on August 24th at 7pm to the Crown and Two Chairmen to the second Tonebenders London Sound Design Meet-up, presented by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Also you have until August 15th to get your Listener Field Recording Stories. Full details on how to submit are at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/field-recording-story-submissions/

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas’ highly anticipated Mid-Year Sale has been extended for a limited time. Unlock 50% off, on thousands of premium recordings, from epic cinematic sounds to authentic ambiences, ideal for any creative project. This applies to all Sound Ideas proprietary libraries. With over 45 years of experience, Sound Ideas delivers audio trusted by professionals worldwide. Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/321-the-sound-of-the-last-of-us-amp-the-penguin/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Adolescence is a limited series on Netflix consisting of 4 episodes, each made up of a single continuous hour long take. This "one-er" format presented tremendous challenges to the sound team, both on set and in post production. Intense planning was needed in order to capture everything in production, and constant panning was needed in the mix to keep the sound locked to the shifting camera movement. Production sound mixers Rob Entwistle & Kiff McManus tell us about the organized chaos during filming, while supervising sound editor, James Drake, and re-recording mixer, Jules Woods, discuss the intricate detail they dove into to create the immersive feel of the final mix.

Listeners in London England, come on out on August 24th at 7pm to the Crown and Two Chairmen to the second Tonebenders London Sound Design Meet-up, presented by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Also you have until August 15th to get your Listener Field Recording Stories. Full details on how to submit are at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/field-recording-story-submissions/

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas is Introducing the newest instalment to The Hollywood Edge’s legendary sound effect collection: Premiere Edition - Volume 12! Build a rich audio-sphere to enhance all your productions, with this impressive assortment of sound genres: ranging from Machinery, to Nature, to Science Fiction. Access over 3000 sounds, available in four resolutions and with descriptive metadata in UCS formatting.

Head over to www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/320-adolescence/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

This episode has been a long time coming. I have been trying to figure out how to tackle a discussion about A.I. and it’s influence on how sound editors will all be able to do our work in the future. So when the MPSE put out a press release about A.I. created work and it’s eligibility at their Golden Reel Awards, I saw it as a chance to broach the subject. David Barber, MPSE President, and Brent Findley are both on the A.I. committee with the guild and have spent countless hours thinking about how A.I. is going to effect sound editors.

Listeners in London England, come on out on August 24th at 7pm to the Crown and Two Chairmen to the second Tonebenders London Sound Design Meet-up, presented by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Also you have until August 15th to get your Listener Field Recording Stories. Full details on how to submit are at https://tonebenderspodcast.com/field-recording-story-submissions/

SPONSOR: Sound Ideas is Introducing the newest instalment to The Hollywood Edge’s legendary sound effect collection: Premiere Edition - Volume 12! Build a rich audio-sphere to enhance all your productions, with this impressive assortment of sound genres: ranging from Machinery, to Nature, to Science Fiction. Access over 3000 sounds, available in four resolutions and with descriptive metadata in UCS formatting.

Head over to https://www.sound-ideas.com/ to learn more.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/318-how-will-a-i-affect-sound-designers/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Recorded in the legendary Formosa Trident Studios, this talk features someone on the sound team from every James Bond film released since 1973?!!!! Michael Fentum ( Sound Editor on No Time To Die), Karen Baker Landers (Supervising Sound Editor on Skyfall & Spectre), Mike Prestwood Smith (Re-recording Mixer on Casino Royal & Quantum of Solace) and Graham Hartstone (Re-Recording Mixer on Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To A Kill, The Living Daylights, License to Kill, Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and more), talk about their initial thoughts when they found out they would be working on the Bond franchise, the scenes they are most proud of and lots more. Big “thanks” to the Motion Picture Sound Editors, for sponsoring this series of episodes featuring the interviews I did while in England.  To learn more about the Motion Picture Sound Editors, you can go to https://mpse.org/.  They are doing great work to support and advocate for sound editors around the world.

SPONSOR: The Cargo Cult’s Matchbox 2 is a change management tool that is invaluable when doing comforms. It reveals the differences, reports on the damage, and then re-times your sound mix, saving you incalculable amounts of time. To Learn all about the new features in Matchbox 2, head over to www.https://www.thecargocult.nz/ , to learn more about Matchbox 2 and pulldown the free 15 day trial. Matchbox 2 is exactly what you have been waiting for. Spend your time being creative and let Matchbox handle the conforming.

Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/318-mpse-presents-the-sound-legacy-of-james-bond/

Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com

This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead