13 new podcast episodes worth hearing: Take a deep dive into ambiences, learn about persuasive commercial audio, explore the sound and music of Cypher 007, Twisted Metal, Star Trek, and more!

Looking for something great to listen to?

We’ve found some excellent podcast episodes about sound for you – in this roundup:

These podcasts are all members of the Audio Podcast Alliance.
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Production Sound Mixer Paddy Hanlon CAS takes in the career of Production Sound Mixer Mark Weingarten. An Oscar win this year along with a CAS award Mark talks of his long path in the industry starting in New York and leading him to be one of the most celebrated Production Sound Mixers in Hollywood. Maverick, Interstellar and Dunkirk to mention some of the blockbusters but also classic cult pieces like Best in Show and Red Rock West. Recorded locally in New York and LA.

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Let’s talk about the criminally under-discussed topic of cutting ambiences for film and series. This important craft, often feels like it has become an after thought in post audio workflows. Our guests are here to praise the role backgrounds play in making movies feel and sound real. Tim Nielsen, Kayla Stewart, Mitchell Lestner and Michael O’Connor tell us why they love cutting BGs and share a lot of the lessons they have learned through years of experience with the craft.

Come on out to our Sound Design Meet-Up in NYC on Oct 26th, 7pm, at The Crompton Ale House in Chelsea. Make sure you say “hi” to Tim and Teresa while you are there.

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In this episode of the Immersive Audio Podcast, Oliver Kadel is joined by the academic and researcher at Imperial College – Lorenzo Picinali from London, United Kingdom.

Lorenzo Picinali is a Reader at Imperial College London, leading the Audio Experience Design team. His research focuses on spatial acoustics and immersive audio, looking at perceptual and computational matters, as well as real-life applications. In the past years Lorenzo worked on projects related to spatial hearing and rendering, hearing aids technologies, and acoustic virtual and augmented reality. He has also been active in the field of eco-acoustic monitoring, designing autonomous recorders and using audio to better understand humans’ impact on remote ecosystems.

Lorenzo talks about the breadth of research initiatives in spatial audio under his leadership of the Audio Experience Design group and we discuss the recently published SONICOM HRTF Dataset developed to improve personalised listening experience.

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Martyn Harries talks with James Parnell, Supervising Sound Editor and Re-recording Mixer about his work bringing Twisted Metal, an exciting, action packed, award winning playstation game adaptation to our screens, his career in both London and LA and much, much more.

Our very own Rob Walker gets a mention and James has advice for those starting out in the industry.

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I’m excited to introduce you to Christopher Bolte, a talented sound designer, mixing & mastering engineer and field recordist. Hailing from Germany and now based in Boston, he’s shaping music, creating innovative tools and crafting captivating soundscapes for games and film. To add to the excitement, he’s just returned from an exhilarating field recording expedition in Zimbabwe!

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Composer Steve Pardo got to write music for one of the most musically famous franchises of all time in Cypher 007, the newest game from James Bond. And it’s great! I love how the soundtrack fits seamlessly into the fabric of the stealthy Apple Arcade game.

Steve and I talk about how neat that is, how great John Barry’s original music is and a lot more in this week’s chat.

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Michael Reed, based out of Orlando, Florida, does production sound, post audio mixing and live sound. He’s worked on projects like Burt Reynolds: The Last Interview, Screwball(2018) and Movie Money Confidential. Michael uses the Sound Devices MixPre-10T, Audio Limited A10 wireless, a Lectrosonics DSR4 wireless receiver, DBSM and DBSMD transmitters and Sanken COS11-d lavs. He also uses Sennheiser G4s for camera hops, Comtek IFBs, Sennheiser 416 and Audio Technica 4053b shotgun mics, as well as Denecke JB-1 timecode sync boxes.

Each episode we talk with location sound mixers, boom ops and other industry pros about the various aspects of recording sound on-location for feature and independent films, TV commercials, interviews, anytime where dialog from actors is recorded. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just starting out, this podcast is packed with great stories and lessons about recording on-location.

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Today’s guest is Christian Büttner A.K.A. TheFatRat, who is a producer, DJ, and musician based mainly out of Germany. Chris has millions of listeners from all over the world, and has accumulated billions of plays so far. He did this without a major record label, all while giving his music away for free.

In this episode, we talk about how he started in the world of classical music and transitioned into electronic music much later. We also go into how he taught himself electric music production skills, why he releases basically all of his music for free and lets people use his music, why he steers artists away from signing with major labels, and much more.

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Los Angeles; Sr. Managing Director, Producers & Engineers Wing and Recording Technology, Recording Academy. A former recording engineer, Maureen has worked on GRAMMY winning recordings for artists including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Santana—as well as well as on numerous other projects, including two Billboard Number One Dance songs.

She has a degree in Broadcast Communication Arts from California State University, San Francisco, and has taught seminars on the theory and practice of recording for companies including ABC and CBS Television. She has also worked in both artist and studio management, was the longtime Los Angeles editor for Mix magazine, and has published three books related to recording. Her most recent, co-written with its subject, is Al Schmitt on the Record: The Magic Behind the Music, chronicling the life and career of the most awarded recording engineer in history.

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During the past 30-plus years, Gary Rydstrom, Mark Mangini and Wylie Stateman—as much as any three people in audio—have helped to create, shape and define the sense of what a modern film sounds like. Each entered the industry from a different background, each came of age working for independents, and each achieved remarkable success, both personally and professionally. In this special Keynote Conversation, Rydstrom, Mangini and Stateman sit down with Mix Editor Tom Kenny to discuss everything from the nature of sound and sound perception, to sound technology and the sound business. They’ll talk about the intermingling, and many times interchangeable, roles of sound editor, sound designer and re-recording mixer. They’ll talk about sound and music, sound moments and when it’s best to be silent. But most importantly, they’ll talk about the timeless role of "sound as storyteller."

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‘Cataclysm’ – Mattia Cellotto’s newest sound effects library, only available at asoundeffect.com/cataclysm – features wild recordings of destruction, as well as extreme synthesized and designed elements. And here, he shares his 3-year process making the library – from field recording adventures in marble caves to mountain peaks, and beyond. Hear how he captured such pristine yet destructive sounds, his approach to using plugins and processing, and many other aspects of his creative process.

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Before making it to air, Star Trek had not one, but two pilots scored by Alexander Courage. Once the first season finally went into production, it took five composers to pull it off. This episode explores the musical, financial and creative realities of 1960s television music production, as we discuss the scores for these two pilots, and the creation of some of the show’s musical sound effects. We are also introduced to season one’s other four composers.

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Since the earliest days of commercial radio, companies have been using sound to worm their way into our brains. And over the decades, they’ve come up with all kinds of sonic tactics to make us want, crave and remember their products. In this episode, we take a whirlwind tour through the sounds of persuasion. This story was adapted from Under the Influence with Terry O’Reilly.

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These podcasts are all part of the Audio Podcast Alliance, featuring a hand-picked selection of the very best podcasts about sound. Check out the full list of members below, and click a on podcast name to go directly to their latest episode:

Hear more audio-related podcasts here