All posts tagged: sounds

The ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Filmmakers Terrified Bystanders With Their Monster Sounds

The ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Filmmakers Terrified Bystanders With Their Monster Sounds

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Actor Seth Green—yes, that one—has seen Godzilla Minus Zero and says it’s awesome. While introducing the New York Comic Con panel for the 39th film in the Godzilla franchise, Green stressed that the filmmakers behind the movie “have created kaiju that feel physically real and, trust me, emotionally terrifying.” While a lot of that terror came from the work of Oscar-winning visual effects artist Tatsuji Nojima, some it came from the shrieking of Godzilla and his three-headed nemesis, King Ghidorah. Those roars were the work of sound designer Natsuko Inoue and her team, who created the monsters’ outsize vocalizations by rolling speakers to the top of an outdoor dam—much to the horror of people nearby. “There were people having a picnic, maybe people just taking a stroll,” Hisafumi Takeuchi, who also worked on sound for the film, said during the panel. “The person walking their dog, though—they had the worst time, because the dog was freaking out and barking back at us.” Since the creatures are imaginary, getting their screams to sound realistic is essential …

Xiu Xiu channels the spectral sounds of “Eraserhead”

Xiu Xiu channels the spectral sounds of “Eraserhead”

Published by Sam Flores

Listening to Xiu Xiu’s “Eraserhead” on a hot and stormy Friday afternoon is an atavistic summoning of the many gifts that David Lynch left us to remember him by. Out July 10 via Polyvinyl (and pointedly absent from Spotify), the band’s latest tribute to the music of Lynch’s most famous work is a follow-up to their release of “Plays the Music of Twin Peaks” in 2016, which was composed under the blessing of Lynch himself. Related David Lynch’s musical collaborations built worlds out of what was heard as much as what was seen Over seven tracks, many of which are lengthy, so as to allow listeners to really sink into and meditate upon the clanks and cluds and hisses of the industrial gloom of the film itself, Xiu Xiu’s “Eraserhead” album ends with the heartbreak it builds towards from the start, with frontman Jamie Stewart putting his signature mournful vocals to best use for his rendition of Peter Ivers and David Lynch’s “In Heaven.” Having recently visited Lynch’s modest grave at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in …

There are two kinds of Dolby Atmos — and only one actually sounds like it should

There are two kinds of Dolby Atmos — and only one actually sounds like it should

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Dolby Atmos elevates the music-listening and movie-watching experiences with object-based masters — these are spatial audio tracks that allow you to hear exactly where a sound is coming from with pinpoint accuracy. It’s an immersive audio format, not an audio codec. The distinction matters. Dolby Atmos is akin to traditional 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound formats, and it can be delivered using a variety of codecs. Some are lossy and efficient, like Dolby Digital Plus, while others are lossless and high-quality, such as Dolby TrueHD. Dolby Atmos is a superb way of making your audial and visual content more engaging, especially if you have specialized speakers, but it’s not always lossless or hi-res. There are at least four audio codecs you might see deliver Dolby Atmos sound, including the two primary ones: Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD. Use the wrong one, and you’ll be missing out on superior quality. There are bitrate limitations of certain Dolby codecs that ensure the Atmos you enjoy on a streaming service won’t match the fidelity of a Blu-ray …

Koyoltzintli’s Clay Instruments Channel Sounds from Distant Pasts

Koyoltzintli’s Clay Instruments Channel Sounds from Distant Pasts

Published by Jenni Sidey

“I feel like I am in constant conversation with the past and we are discussing what we’re going to do with the future,” said Koyoltzintli, surrounded by dozens of flutes, whistles, drums, and other handmade instruments scattered around her studio in upstate New York. She was talking about her connection to the Pacific coast of Ecuador, home to some of the oldest ceramic practices and ceramic instruments in the Americas. But she was adamant about her roots in the present—“as someone who carries a lineage while doing my own thing.”  Koyoltzintli started out working primarily in photography, as a photojournalist in Ecuador with a particular interest in the expansion of Amazonian cities and healers in the Andes Mountains. But while she continues to work with the medium—as well as others, including painting, drawing, and sculpture—she had an epiphany around sound in 2020 that continues to resonate. Unable to travel back to Ecuador from the US—where she had moved to attend the School of Visual Arts in 2001—because of the pandemic, she started going to museums …

Why the dawn chorus sounds different from place to place

Why the dawn chorus sounds different from place to place

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Each May, nature lovers get out of bed early to experience the seasonal wonder of birds singing, as the sun rises above the horizon to take part in International Dawn Chorus Day. In Europe you may hear blackbirds, chiffchaffs and nightingales. In the US, cardinals, chickadees and blue jays. In East Africa, morning thrush, hornbills and wood doves. Each with their own song. There is no single dawn chorus, but the harmonies of hundreds of bird voices at first light change from place to place in a huge wave that surfs around the world as the planet rotates. A dawn chorus is part of a wider soundscape – the interaction between biological sounds from birds and other animals (biophony), natural physical sounds such as wind or water (geophony) and human‑generated sounds like traffic (anthrophony). The dawn chorus is often the most prominent component of the soundscape at sunrise, but it never exists in isolation. Scientists believe that birds structure their early morning singing in a way that prevents overlap and masking of each other’s vocalisations. …

The Guitar Sounds New Again

The Guitar Sounds New Again

Published by Daniella Wilson

Every now and then, music gets a guitar hero—a player who makes the instrument sound like something other than itself. Jeff Beck transformed it into something like the human voice singing; Jimi Hendrix, a psychedelic swirl. Fans are always looking for the next player who will make the same six-string instrument sound new again. And now Mk.gee has hit the scene. A 29-year-old from New Jersey whose real name is Michael Gordon, Mk.gee released his debut album, Two Star & the Dream Police, in 2024. On it, his guitar sounds at various points like an orchestra, a snarling animal, a wildfire, a person shouting, and a radio playing at the bottom of the ocean. Critics declared Mk.gee a guitar hero; he played on a Bon Iver album and worked on two Justin Bieber records. This past weekend, he performed with Bieber at Coachella. Listen long enough, and you’ll realize that Mk.gee’s grungy extraterrestrial sound is everywhere. The quest to achieve the “Mk.gee tone” spawned a series of “How Does He Make His Guitar Sound Like …

Composer of Epochal Electronic Sounds Dies at 94

Composer of Epochal Electronic Sounds Dies at 94

Published by José Betancourt

Éliane Radigue, a composer and electronic-music pioneer whose music paid meditative attention to the subtleties of sound, died on Monday at the age of 94. She was surrounded by family in Paris, according to Blank Forms, an organization that represents her electronic compositions for magnetic tape in partnership with the storied French enterprise Groupe de Recherches Musicales (Ina GRM). Radigue was born in Paris in 1932 and started working in the 1950s with Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, who together developed the avant-garde movement known as musique concrète. Among their contributions was a stated prompt to consider sound as a sort of sculptural object, whether by way of tape that could be cut-up and spliced or other techniques through which musical and non-musical sounds could coalesce. Source link

The last thing we need is more biopics – but Meryl Streep as Joni Mitchell sounds irresistible

The last thing we need is more biopics – but Meryl Streep as Joni Mitchell sounds irresistible

Published by Daniella Wilson

When Walk the Line strode into cinemas in 2005, all dressed in black, it gave final shape to a template that Hollywood has been copying ever since. James Mangold’s Oscar-winning Johnny Cash film – following on the heels of Ray, Taylor Hackford’s similarly awards-garlanded take on Ray Charles a year earlier – established the music biopic blueprint so definitively that the form immediately ossified into cliché. Troubled childhood, early brilliance, meteoric ascent, drugs and adversity, redemptive finale. By the time Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story came along to skewer the whole charade in 2007, the parody practically wrote itself. Fast-forward 20 years, past the vapidly formulaic Bohemian Rhapsody, and we’re still being served the same meal with different garnishes. A Complete Unknown and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere – biopics of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen respectively – both arrived a year apart; Sam Mendes’s Beatles quartet is slated for 2028. We’re at saturation point. So the news about Cameron Crowe’s Joni Mitchell biopic ought to inspire a chorus of groans. Except for one …

Intercession and Governmental Sounds

Intercession and Governmental Sounds

Published by Sam Flores

By Stephen Bennett Intimacy with God brings the true dance of intercession, and the true power and glory that can be released through song and sound’  – Stephen Bennett Her skin was almost liquid milk after many months in the preparation of beauty; heaven was now her scent, a bouquet of endless time. She danced in a slow gesture; at last she was in His chamber. The bride of long patience gazed into the earnest eyes of majesty. He glided around her, effortless, viewing everything with regal intention. Peace embraced the air, love overwhelmed. Moments were hours and the hours were moments until she was still, waiting like a white swan at rest. Slowly she lifted her head; the glistening crown alighted upon her braided locks. Contentment and tranquillity were now her attendants. She stood serene, every pore exuding radiance. She was now distinct – full of eternity, and an heir of promise. He then touched her shoulder. The blade of a new discernment dwelt in the scepter He gave to her. Her hand ran the …