This issue of This Week in Sound is usually a thank you solely to paid subscribers — a bonus round, supplementing the free issues that feature a broader array of sound studies coverage. Since I missed Tuesday’s issue — due to some escapism in the form of a lot of book-writing — I’m sending this out […]

I  do this manually at the end of each week: collating recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I find knowing I’ll revisit my posts to be a positive and mellowing influence on my social media activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m […]

The British duo Autechre traffic in abstract music that veers between abstract sound design and challenging club music, which is to say they record what is known as IDM, and this past week they did what they seem to do every few years, which is to unleash an ungodly amount of their music out of the blue […]

I’ve been doing a lot of research these past few years into field recordings, those of both the natural environment and the built environment. Bridging, in a manner of speaking, the gap between the two respective realms are the environmental sounds that fill video games, virtual reality, and the like. They are artificially created yet […]

Anti-eroticism. Architectural literacy. Consumerism finger-poking. And zombies, lots of zombies. I wrote about the original Dawn of the Dead (1978), one of my favorite movies of all time, for Hilobrow’s ongoing horror series. The 25-part collection, titled Scream Your Enthusiasm, has some great contributors, including comic book artist and playwright Dean Haspiel, film editor Crockett […]

It can be expensive to install rooftop solar panels, but they do pay for themselves over time. Not only does it save on energy costs, but a new University of Michigan study says the value of rooftop solar panels will continue to increase. It will also be vital as the climate continues to warm, and we will need more energy to keep cool. WEMU's David Fair was joined by U-M Energy Systems Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Craig to learn more about the research.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools' innovative Environmental Education program is 55 years old now and, throughout that time, has connected students to the natural environment. For 38 of those years, Dave Szczygiel has worked as a teacher and, for over two decades, as Environmental Education Consultant in the district. Now, he is retiring. He looks back and looks at what’s to come with WEMU's David Fair.

The popular Potawatomi Trail is about to get an environmental facelift. The hiking and biking trail connects Washtenaw and Livingston Counties and is about to get about $500,000 in upgrades. WEMU's David Fair spoke with Pinckney Recreation Area park manager, Chuck Dennison, to learn what that is going to look like.

The Michigan fuel tax is no longer sufficient to fund needed road repairs and maintenance. As more electric vehicles hit the streets, the tax will raise less money, but the need for road and bridge revenue will only increase. Conversations are underway about alternative possibilities. WEMU's David Fair talks about what that might look like with Denise Donohue, CEO of the County Road Association of Michigan.

Ann Arbor officials says some of the trees in the city are dying, and they attribute it to leaks in the DTE Energy natural gas infrastructure. The utility says it is not the problem. The city is asking DTE to conduct necessary repairs, while the utility argues it would be cost prohibitive to contract an arborist to evaluate potential methane damage to trees. What comes next? WEMU's David Fair discussed it with Ann Arbor Sustainability and Innovations Director, Missy Stults.

It’s that time of year, but each year, it seems to come a little earlier. Toxic algae blooms are starting to cover Lake Erie earlier than usual this summer. This year’s blooms are also expected to be bigger than last summer. WEMU's David Fair takes a look at the impacts of climate change on the blooms in Lake Erie with Dr. Richard Stumpf from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

PFAS contamination has already been a significant concern. Now, there may be reason to add to the worry. A study funded by the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center finds there is an array of PFAS chemical profiles in rainwater falling over Ann Arbor and Southeast Michigan. WEMU's David Fair spoke with the center’s Erica Bloom about the findings and what it means to the environment and public health.

Washtenaw County put three ballot issues before voters in Tuesday's primary elections. All three touch on components of our environment. All three passed by a wide margin. WEMU's David Fair discusses the results and future impacts with Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi.

We all know that air pollution is bad for the environment and our health. A new study out of the University of Michigan now shows that it is contributing to a loss of independence among older adults. The study also shows that the economic impact of that loss comes in at an estimate of over $11 billion. WEMU's David Fair spoke with the lead author of the study, Dr. Sara Adar, about the findings.

America sure loves its electronics! The technologies continue to improve and there can be no question; it has made life more convenient. However, these items contain a number of contaminants and are an environmental hazard. WEMU's David Fair talked with Washtenaw County’s Director of Public Works, Theo Eggermont about increased efforts to recycle used electronics.

You may not have noticed, but the Ann Arbor Climate Corps has been quietly working this year to combat the affects of climate change and help the city achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. The program is designed to increase the Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability’s outreach capacity and help residents take action toward that end. WEMU's David Fair talked it over with Ann Arbor Climate Corps program manager, Maggie Halpern.

The Ann Arbor School District is transitioning away from the use of fossil fuels. The district was the first to sign up for DTE Energy’s MIGreen Power Program to get to 100% use of renewable energy, and the district will add four more all-electric school buses this academic year. WEMU's David Fair spoke with the Ann Arbor Schools' Director of Capital Programs, Jason Bing, about where the district is today and where it’s headed.

The first frost of the season probably isn’t too far away. Properly preparing the agricultural soil for next spring and summer is a matter of timing. Getting the cover crops in place is essential before a hard freeze occurs. The Washtenaw County Conservation District is working to make it convenient and effective for local farmers. Conservation technician Matt Dejonge explained it all in his conversation with WEMU's David Fair.

It's time to talk some trash! The 3rd annual Trash Talk Tour in Washtenaw County is right around the corner. Trash Talk Tour co-organizer and zerowaste.org executive director Samuel McMullen joined WEMU's David Fair with a special brand of "trash talk."

Some of Ann Arbor's streetlights can be distractingly bright. New LED lighting is helping with the city’s A2Zero Climate Action plan, but some worry over increased light pollution. WEMU's David Fair talked with Ann Arbor City Council member Dharma Akmon about how the city can move forward while addressing sustainability and accommodating public concern.

The world population is going up, and human-wildlife overlap is increasing. That can lead to negative outcomes, including spread of disease and species extinction. There can be benefits, too, but it will require some planning. That's the focus of a new study out of the University of Michigan. WEMU's David Fair spoke with Associate Professor in Conservation Science Dr. Neil Carter about the study and what can be done right here in Washtenaw County.

Over the summer, the Huron River Watershed Council conducted an extensive survey of freshwater mussels in the Huron River to determine potential impacts when the Peninsular Paper Dam is removed. It found that removing the Pen Dam could release sediment, potentially smothering downstream mussel populations. Once the dam is removed, though, the river will return to a more natural state, benefiting mussel species over time. WEMU's David Fair looked at the research and its implications with Huron River Watershed Council Ecologist Dr. Paul Steen.

Tree Town is looking to find new and productive ways to avoid wasting wood. The City of Ann Arbor is partnering with the company “Urban Ashes” to repurpose storm-damaged and diseased trees. We often discuss the ecological benefits of planting and maintaining trees but rarely look at the environmental impact wood can have once it’s down. Urban Ashes CEO Paul Hickman joined WEMU's David Fair to look at the partnership, how it will work and the benefits it can provide.

The University of Michigan is forging ahead and working towards being a leader in generative artificial intelligence with its U-M-GPT program. As it does, there are environmental concerns to be addressed. The initiative is part of Michigan’s broader effort to integrate AI into its academic and administrative infrastructure, enhancing learning, teaching, and research. But, AI consumes a great deal of energy. WEMU's David Fair spoke with the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at U-M, Dr. Ravi Pendse, about how U-M is dealing with the environmental ramifications of AI.

Washtenaw County has elected its next Water Resources Commissioner. Evan Pratt decided against running for re-election after serving four terms. Former Saline Mayor and State Representative Gretchen Driskell won the race. She joined WEMU's David Fair to discuss the priorities and challenges of the new job.

This interview was originally conducted for inclusion in our “accessibility” theme. The topic for the month is accessibility. I turned to Nikola Simikic and John Creed in Los Angeles for some perspective on the topic. Nikola is a sound designer and re-recording mixer at Gypsy Sound, and John is a dialogue editor for Gypsy Sound […]

  My last post here was in July. In keeping with the theme, you could say I was hibernating, but that’s not really true. Life, work, projects, recording: all these things fought for my time and unfortunately what suffered was the amount I had left for a volunteer position I loved as a contributing editor […]

This interview was originally conducted for inclusion in our “Sound Art” theme. Jeff Jacoby is a Sound Designer and Sound Artist with over 40 years of experience. With an Emmy to his name plus two other Emmy nominations, 2 Cine´ Golden Eagles, 2 Crystal Radios, 2 Benjamin Franklins, and 5 BEA Best of Competition awards, […]

This interview was originally conducted for inclusion in our “experimentation” theme. Mac Smith is a Sound Designer and Supervising Sound Editor at Skywalker Sound, who has been working on films since 1999. Mac has worked on Toy Story 3, Tron: Legacy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Little Evil, and Transpecos, as well as […]

Aaron Glascock is a supervising sound editor, sound designer, and re-recording mixer with a long list of films behind him. To date he has received the MPSE Golden Reel for his work on War of the Worlds, an Oscar nomination for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), and has received several other nominations. More […]

Korey Pereira: Johnnie, thanks for taking the time to talk to me and the designingsound.org readers about the sound of Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, The Favourite. This is the third of Yorgos’ films you have worked on; how did that relationship begin? Johnnie Burn: Hi Korey! Thanks so much for your time. I’ve got […]

The topic of the month is hibernation.  As the winter weather comes in and things get cold, many animals go to sleep for the winter.  I decided to turn to Tony Orozco for some help. Tony Orozco is a supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer and has worked on shows such as Steven Universe, Adventure […]

This is a guest contribution by Carlos Manrique Clavijo. Carlos Manrique Clavijo is a Colombian/Australian sound editor/sound designer and animation producer based in South Australia. He’s worked on award winning fiction, documentary and predominantly, animation from 2002. With Ana María Méndez, he is the co-founder of animation company, KaruKaru. Carlos has taught film sound design, […]

The year 2018 has been one of many great articles, interviews, and discussions here at Designing Sound and we want to thank all of our readers for their attention, suggestions, contributions, and overwhelming support throughout the year(s). There have been so many great films, shows, games, and events in 2018 that we thought we would share some of […]

Jack and I couldn’t shift the site into archive/hibernation mode without putting together one last post. When we announced the decision, we heard from so many in the community about what the site has meant to you over the years. We hope you’ll forgive a little self-indulgence as we look back on what the site […]

Ive been making music for couple of years now but still cant figure out why my mix doesnt sound professional. Im I doing something wrong? This is the link to my tracks http://www.ourmedia.org/node/300488 Someone please help me out.

The 100% guaranteed way to get your bedroom mixes to sound more professional (and by far the most expensive) is to spend time in a recording studio. Take the raw tracks to something you want to mix, import it into their ProTools setup (or whatever they use) and have a pro engineer (must be a talkative, friendly one, not a grumpy, cynical one) to mix it. ASK A BILLION questions, be a dork and write stuff down if you have to. The worst case scenario is that after 2/3 hours at least you'll know what questions to ask of Google or at the local tech book store. The best case is that your music impresses the engineer and he/she becomes a pseudo mentor for you. Engineering is by far my weakest area (along with playing in tune and in time) so everything that follows is said that caveat: I have found that going cheap on mastering tools (compression, limiters, eq) hurts bedroom mixes a lot. Money I've spent on the top utilities there (I use Waves) dwarfs all my other plugins put together by an order of magnitude. (Reason's mastering suite is pretty good so you may be covered there; although I've applied Waves L2 to mixes done after the 'final' Reason mixdown and there's no question there was a marked improvement in pro-sheen.) I have found tweakheadz site very useful, especially their mixing 101 page. Finally I have been told (and have experienced it myself) that posting often to ccM and asking for real, brutal reviews and feedback has helped a lot of people. I, for one, am very, very embarrassed by several of my uploads from 2 years ago here, while only very embarrassed by more recent ones; all strictly due to people hearing stuff I didn't.

that sounds good. ill look for a studio near my place. at the end you said that the comments from ccmixer is very useful but what shall i do if i want a brutal review of my own original mix? because on ccmixer i can only upload remixes or samples or separate tracks.

being a remix site and short on resources we can't handle original material. so, er, get remixing... ;)

my buddy des has a great blog he runs that can surely help almost anyone here with improving their production. http://www.hometracked.com/ also, his music is worth checking out, just so you can see that he knows what he's talking about. des is a great guy and a really excellent artist. http://www.deshead.com/

U need to have a good pair of monitors, headphones will not do at all! I agree with Fourstones, Waves is a very good suite. I use it within SoundForge and it really does help in cleaning up the frequencies. My mixes really improved when I had monitor speakers included in the set up. Experiment and let me know, I'll give u some quality feedback, no holds, sometimes the truth hurts! LOL! EZ m8 Morr

The best thing I can say is: learn about sound. Learn about frequencies, which ones sound like what and do what to the overall mix. Whether or not to use a low or high pass filter on something. Fiddle with EQs for hours. And more importantly, get criticism. It's the easiest way to learn what sound to look out for, and such. And most importantly of all: Practice. Mix till your ears bleed. (from the time spent listening to the same song, not due to the terrible mix :P) Mixing is one of my strong suits, but most of it is just being able to hear the song, and make the adjustments that I want, to be able to make the necessary changes and just know what needs to be done.

bravo!

That's a very good point- I started with a Mac LC, EZVision and an M1, with the only audio manipulation being Hypercard. I got good at customizing patches and finding seamless loop points manually just to get what I could out of what I had, with mastering being 1/4"-to-RCA from the headphone jack on the M1 to AUX IN on the cassette player, or the same thing with 1/8" adapter for the 'puter sound files. Then I'd record and bounce these cassette tracks to my 4-track, with final routing from 4-track's headphone-out back to the cassette. Ugly stuff, but that's what I had to work with...

This is a very good point. I think that it's easy to keep adding new gear, and thus miss the richness of existing gear and software. I like to work with more limited software sometimes, so that I can feel as if I am exploiting it to its fullness.

Ive been making music for couple of years now but still cant figure out why my mix doesnt sound professional. Im I doing something wrong? This is the link to my tracks http://www.ourmedia.org/node/300488 Someone please help me out. The first thing I noticed was the lack of higher frequencies in your mix... My mixes always end up being bass heavy (because I suck horribly) so I can see we both have the same problem... There's is (however) an over-abundance of frequency-fighting in your track... A lot of distorted things competing for my attention (at least in my ears). Dunno if any of this has been helpful, but we could all learn things...so hopefully you'll have advice for me in the future ;-) Good luck, and we me luck too! -Joel

This is a useful thread. Im just in the middle of mixing a new ccmixter-based song and its just not coming together for me. The tweakheadz and hometracked sites are great. A couple other useful sites: tips and techniques at gearslutz - http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html ; Live tips - http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27120 ; general EQ reference - http://www.idmforums.com/showthread.php?t=11466 Im definitely going to get the mix Im working on up here, I need some blunt advice.

OK, I uploaded Hollywood Picture Book (feat Calendar Girl and Kaer Trouz) and entered a pluggy plug for comments over this weekend.