Something that has been bothering me lately is the variable playback loudness in cinemas, with most cinemas playing back well below the Dolby Reference standard level of 7 (or calibrated to 85dB SPL), but seemingly there pretty much being no standard anymore. Unfortunately films being mixed at lower levels, to make for louder mixes, which … Read more Sound Levels in Cinemas
The slashfilm.com website has posted up an article discussing some of the reasons why it has often become more difficult to understand the dialogue in films these days. There are a number of points that cover creative choices such as Christopher Nolan’s approach in various films and mixing with theatrical dynamics that doesn’t necessarily translate … Read more Intelligibility in Films
A couple of months ago The Feed on SBS did a piece about Foley which a couple of people suggested I check out. I finally got around to watching it and it turns out it is a really good profile of Footsteps Foley studio in Canada, where they have a fantastic custom “Foley House” set … Read more Footsteps Foley on The Feed
Music Tech Explained have produced a neat explainer video giving a rundown on Dolby Atmos, and importantly, the current state of affairs with regards to some things to keep in mind about mixing with it and how Apple Music handles it downstream. A great introduction to these aspects in this video:
The AES have released a new/revised recommendation concerning loudness for internet audio streaming and on-demand application. There are no real surprises in there, with a -18 LKFS/LUFS (+/- 2 LU) integrated loudness for assorted content where the dialogue is not directly measurable on its own, which is in line with previous recommendations, as posted about … Read more AES Loudness for Internet Audio
I few months ago I had the pleasure of presenting the inaugural Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group online seminar. I presented about the use of wildlife sound in screen media, and the recording of the Zoom meeting is on YouTube now. Please note that audio quality on Zoom recordings is mono and a bit limited … Read more Wildlife Sound in Screen Media
Essa Hansen, a Sound Designer at Skywalker Sound, has written an article discussing what she has learnt about writing from her sound design work, referencing Walter Murch’s ideas about embodied sound and encoded sound. It is worth a read if you are interested in either sound design or creative writing, and you can read the … Read more Writing and Sound Design
I’ve been a member of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group (AWSRG) since early 2019 and as part of the group’s way of adapting to the current COVID times the AWSRG will be presenting some monthly seminars over Zoom. I have the honour of presenting the first one on 20 October which will be about … Read more AWSRG Online Seminar
For years I have been converting video files into DNxHD where necessary for working in Pro Tools as I have previously written about in my blog. For users of Mac OSX Catalina however processes have needed to change as 32 bit QuickTime movies are no longer supported properly. In theory since Pro Tools 2020.3 you … Read more Converting Video files for Pro Tools
Netflix have some content available online under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. The idea is to share some reference resources for content that uses cutting edge technologies for content creators. Recently they have released the files for Sol Levante, a 4K HDR Atmos anime short, including the ProTools Final Mix Session and Mastered Session. Get … Read more Netflix Open Content