Barbie film sound design Asbjoern Andersen


The big blockbuster battle this summer has been dubbed 'Barbenheimer,' with Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer drawing audiences to the theaters in droves. Here, we go behind the sound of Barbie with re-recording mixer/sound designer/supervising sound editor Ai-Ling Lee and sound designer/supervising sound editor Dan Kenyon. They discuss their approach to designing a fantastically fun and plasticy world for Barbieland/Kendom, creating an emotionally complex real-world, working sound effects against original music tracks, and so much more!
Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Please share:


Barbie | Main Trailer


Barbie | Main Trailer

Director Greta Gerwig’s latest film Barbie – in theaters now – delivers both humor and heart in a way that embraces the fantastic and plastic world of Barbie and the complex, messy world of reality.

4x-Oscar-nominated and CAS Award-winning re-recording mixer/sound designer/supervising sound editor Ai-Ling Lee and Emmy-winning sound designer/supervising sound editor Dan Kenyon were tasked with designing a fun and fake-sounding world for Barbieland/Kendom, using sounds that aren’t ‘real’ but rather imitated reality using vocal sounds, toys, and musical instruments.

Barbie features several original music tracks that make the film feel like a musical at times, which isn’t new ground for Lee, who earned a CAS Award and two Oscar noms for her sound work on Damien Chazelle’s La La Land in 2017. As the Barbie music tracks came in late in the post-sound process, Lee and Kenyon reworked their effects, choosing sounds that complemented and punctuated the music tracks.

Here, they talk about recording sounds for Barbieland/Kendom, designing sounds against the music, creating a whimsical beach battle for the Kens, cutting dialogue for Gloria’s meaningful monologue, and so much more!

Barbie_sound-11

On the dub stage with the sound team, music editors, producer, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, and picture editor Nick Houy

What went into the sounds of Barbieland when the Barbies are in charge?

Ai-Ling Lee (AL): In my early conversations with Greta [Gerwig], we were exploring what we might hear in Barbieland because the Barbie universe is completely an interior world — the houses have no walls, nothing is alive, not even birds. But everything needs to feel pleasant and inviting.

Greta also wanted the movie to feel like a 1950s musical. Everything needed to sound authentically artificial. And we imagined it as though the background atmos are being piped in through speakers.

The sounds in Barbieland are perfect and controlled. It can be cheesy and tacky, but overall it needs to be delightful and otherworldly — we want people to love it. Some of the sound inspirations came from old Disney animations, like the bluebird calls from Snow White, or magic wand sounds that are warm and friendly. There are a lot of bells, chimes, and harps.

Barbie_sound-02

Sound supervisor/re-recording mixer Ai-Ling Lee recording bird whistle sounds

Nothing is real; even the bird calls in Barbieland aren’t real. They were recorded from those bird-shaped water whistles. To imitate the bluebird calls from Snow White, I recorded my husband whistling and we edited and pitched them.

Since everything is plastic and pleasant in Barbieland, we had to use alternate sounds for things like the jackhammer at the Barbie construction site, a fun, plastic cartoon car crash without metal or glass, an ambulance transforming on the beach that sounds like a human-sized plastic wind up toy with beds unfolding that sounds like a musical box, etc.

Overall for the objects that the Barbies use, Greta wanted it to feel like sounds in a commercial, something the audience would want to have it. For instance, when Barbie opens the fridge, to make it seem refreshing, we added a female exhale, like “ahh.” A sound you’d make after drinking a refreshing cola.

The movie’s tone allowed us to add some campy sounds (classic, stereotypical sounds that we’d normally try to stay away from). For instance, we used the stereotypical dolphin chatter sound effect during the World Travel sequence, the classic red tail hawk call in the desert, and, of course, the Monty Python homage of coconut shell horse gallops when the Kens returns to Barbieland after the beach fight.

As for Tanner the dog, we tried a futzed recording of a girl play-barking, as though she’s playing with the toy. In the end, we decided to go with a deadpan man saying “bark, woof” because that was funnier. That turned out to be our 1st picture assistant, Nick Ramirez.

Barbie_sound-03

Supervising Sound Editor: Dan Kenyon

Vocal-performed sounds were used throughout Barbieland as we wanted to give it a playfulness like a human playing with Barbie dolls and making those sounds. For example, some of the fight sounds for “Allan versus the construction worker Kens” were layered with beatbox vocal sounds. And there were vocal sounds imitating airy swishes for when Ken was flying through the air (after he runs into the wave), and a vocal imitating plane fly-bys.

Dan Kenyon (DK): The vocal sounds were in the boat engine during the World Travel montage too; it’s made with cartoon-like vocals – like bubbly lip flap sounds. We’d sprinkle vocal sounds in wherever we could.

AL: Another thing Greta and I talked about was since there’s no water in Barbieland, would we even hear water? We tried adding water sounds but it just didn’t work. It felt weird. So, when the Barbies drink or spit, or when Ken crashes into a Malibu Beach surf, there are no sounds of water. When Margot takes a shower and goes down the pool slide, we used rainsticks to mimic artificial pleasant water sounds.

Sound Designer: Tobias Poppe

Sound Designer: Tobias Poppe

DK: We tried to stay away from literal sounds – like big, heavy jet engines – because everything is light and happy in Barbieland. For the plane, for instance, we used layers of wind and vocals and a little bit of harmonica and chimes as sweeteners. We actually got specific direction not to use any real plane sounds, so the challenge was to find elements that were fun and playful and Barbie-esque but still sounded like a plane.

For the cars in Barbieland, because they don’t have gas engines, sound designer Tobias Poppe recorded an RC car and we played with the pitch of that. The foley team at One Step Up recorded some great tire sounds for us. The cars in the film are essentially toys, but they are also life-size so they needed to sound that way.

AL: When the Barbie car starts, we layered in the sound of a disk sander (a mechanical tool), which has an electric wind-up sound when it starts up. That would then tie in with the RC car.

DK: Another important element for the sound of Barbieland was the loop group and background walla. It was mostly (if not 100%) women, laughing and talking. It had a cheerful and playful vibe.

We also sifted through 200 different ‘Hi Barbie!’ takes from loop group to use in the movie.

We had three days of group with 40 actors, so we were able to have a different cast for Mattel/real world versus Barbieland versus Kendom. Group-wise, each of those sounded unique.

We had collaborations between loop group and effects walla, and did a combination of group and effects for the Barbieland “dance cheers,” “fight reactions” for Allan’s fight, and the Kens beach fight.

We also sifted through 200 different “Hi Barbie!” takes from loop group to use in the movie.

AL: Brian Bowles, our dialogue/ADR supervisor, tackled the group part of it. And we did the effects background walla part of it.

 

Barbie_sound-04

How does that compare to the sound of Kendom?

DK: One difference was that, when the Kens take over, the walla has a “frat party” kind of vibe. There’s cheering and yelling and more obnoxious laughter than when the Barbies are in charge. In Kendom, the walla becomes a lot more masculine and a little bit messier.

AL: For example, the Kens’ plane has a more fighter jet type of sound. For that, we processed spinner firework sounds and pitched those down.

We also snuck in horse neighs coming out of TV sets and some off-screen sheep sounds. Those showed up during the Kens beach fight, too.

As a call back to Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, a boxing bell was added when Gosling throws the mink to Kingsley Ben-Adir.

The goat/sheep sounds happened by coincidence. During one of our review sessions, one of the effects walla sounded like a goat when playing in the mix. Greta heard it and asked, “Wait, is that a goat in the scene?” It made her smile, so we added more goat/sheep sounds.

For Kendom, basically anything macho was game. As a call back to Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, a boxing bell was added when Gosling throws the mink to Kingsley Ben-Adir. We added fighter jet sounds for the slo-mo Kens playing beach volleyball ala Top Gun.

DK: When the Kens take over, they have all these fun games like ping pong, foosball, and pool – all these “dude” activities. There’s a part where Ken (Ryan Gosling) takes a beer out of the mini fridge and pops the bottle open, and we repurposed some of these sounds offscreen in other areas to give the impression that the Ken’s are always partying and having a good time.

AL: In Barbieland/Kendom, everything is plastic and so those bottle opens are plasticy. When Ken opens the door to his Humvee, we added a plastic crank stutter sound to make it sound like a plastic human-sized toy.

DK: And he has that fun, super long plastic squeak when he slides down the Humvee.

AL: That always gets a laugh.

 

Barbie_sound-06

What went into the sound of The Kens beach fight? How were you able to have fun with sound for that scene?

AL: In the script, Greta and Noah Baumbach (co-writer) described that fight as Saving Private Ryan but with toys. They use frisbees, toy arrows, tennis rackets, and inflatables instead of real weapons.

So I guess the objective was if we just play the track without music, it would be like the Saving Private Ryan Omaha Beach Landing scene but filled with silly sounds and wimpy male fight walla, like high-pitched screaming and whining – whatever helped to amp up the humor and ridiculousness that we are seeing.

it would be like the Saving Private Ryan Omaha Beach Landing scene but filled with silly sounds and wimpy male fight walla, like high-pitched screaming and whining

For the arrows, we blew into a PVC pipe which created plastic tonal whoosh sounds. We used a lot of plungers, huge plastic bin drops for the big plastic “boing” sounds, squeaky dog toys, and of course, horses and sheep.

One of the fun parts was when Ken (Ryan Gosling) and Ken (Simu Liu) started using superpowers. For those, sound designer Nia Hansen did some passes. Up to that point, everything in Barbieland is artificial but mostly not synthy-designy. So for this moment, it was fun to go with a little more super-hero vibe. And then to give it that Barbie touch, we added some magical wand glisses on top of it.

This beach fight had so many planes of action going on. We started by covering almost everything on-screen but Kevin O’Connell (dialogue/music re-recording mixer) and I realized that by doing so, you can’t follow the action anymore. Also, the main driver of the scene is the awesome music. We started to pare it down and just focus on the principal characters’ actions, plus the occasional close-up objects that fly by.

 


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Four Elements – Elemental Magic Play Track 3050 sounds included, 251 mins total $112.49
    FOUR ELEMENTS - Rock The Speakerbox Professional SFX

    Master the Art of Bending the Elemental Forces

     

    Unleash the raw power of fire, water, earth, and air with this comprehensive 9 GB sound library featuring 3050 high-quality sound effects across 630 files. Whether you’re designing cinematic soundscapes or enhancing video games Four Elements delivers the tools you need to harness the energy of the natural world.

    Construction Kit – 2443 Sounds

    A treasure trove of raw, organic, and processed sounds including seamless loops divided into Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Explosion categories. Customize every detail with an extensive selection of sound components.

    • Organic Fire: Campfire sizzles, torch whooshes, and flame bursts.
    • Processed Fire: Distorted impacts and unique crackles.
    • Organic Earth: Rock crashes, gravel scrapes, and heavy stone hits.
    • Processed Earth: Stylized rumbles and granular textures.
    • Organic Water: Ocean waves, hydrophone bubbles, and fluid splashes.
    • Processed Water: Underwater whooshes and stylized liquid smashes.
    • Organic Air: Bamboo swishes, cloth movements, and pressure bursts.
    • Processed Air: Filtered gusts and dynamic noise sweeps.
    • Explosion: Firework detonations, Butane bursts, and cinematic impacts.

    Building Blocks – 416 Sounds

    Game-ready sound layers featuring Impacts, Whooshes, and Textures as seamless loops. Elevate transitions and enhance atmospheres with loops and pre-designed sound layers.

    • Fire: Explosive bursts, blazing infernos, and warm embers.
    • Earth: Ground-shaking impacts, crumbling terrain, and heavy collisions.
    • Water: Cascading waves, serene rivers, and underwater ambiences.
    • Air: Whispering breezes, stormy turbulence, and slicing gusts.

    Design Kit – 192 Sounds

    A collection of ready-to-use sound effects divided into Attack, Bend, and Explosion categories for quick integration into your projects. Perfect for high-energy scenes and immersive storytelling.

    • Fire: Crackling flames, fiery bursts, and roaring infernos.
    • Earth: Crushing impacts, shifting ground, and massive land eruptions.
    • Water: Splashes, fluid manipulations, and crashing tidal waves.
    • Air: Slicing winds, swirling currents, and thunderous gusts.

     

    Four Elements gives you complete creative control, blending organic recordings with processed sound layers to meet the demands of any project. Master the forces of nature with Four Elements. Let your creativity ignite.

     

    Keywords:

    Elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Wave, Water, Liquid, Rock, Cast, Stone, Pebble, Torch, Gas, Flame, Campfire, Sizzle, Burst, Scrape, Whoosh, Impact, Texture, Attack, Bend, Bending, Explosion, Processed, Surge, Quake, Hit, Flow, Burn, Ignite, Drop, Smack, Destruction, Rumble, Hiss, Blow, Wind, Cloth, Movement, Underwater, Bubble, Ocean, River, Lake, Firework, Firecracker, Bang, Blast, Detonation, Magic, Fantasy, Forces, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Fire Air, Fire Effect, Fire Whoosh, Water Whoosh, Seamless Loop, Loop, Fire Cast, Water Cast, Earth Cast, Air Cast

    25 %
    OFF
  • Mechanical Sound Effects MicroMech Play Track 1800+ sounds included, 72 mins total $40

     MicroMech is an expressive collection of tiny, non-motorized mechanisms.

    Recorded by Nathan Moody in great ultrasonic detail, this collection of quiet and delicate sounds can become robotic limbs or fingers, weapon mechanisms, gun reloads, crafting or equipping sounds in a game, high-tech gadgets, superhero armor, clockwork steampunk artifacts, door latches, or any other metallic articulations you can think of.

    It pairs perfectly with Studio Obsidian’s Analogue Ordnance library for high-tech weaponry mechanism sounds.

    An hour of clicks, rattles, ratchets, trills, clacks, and slides will fill your sonic projects with mechanical filigree and mechanized finesse. Props include antique and vintage cameras, can openers, dictaphones, high-end fidget toys, and much more. Each recording in MicroMech has many performance variations, making them perfect for game audio projects.

    All sounds were recorded dry with a hypercardioid microphone and an ultrasonic-capable omni microphone into Millennia preamps, blended together for a punchy, full-range tone while preserving ultrasonic content.

    Get big sounds from small sources with MicroMech!

  • Ice Sound Effects Frozen Core Vol. 1 – Forge Play Track 1939 sounds included $50

    A sound library forged with creativity at its core.

    Designed to give you the essential tools to craft unique, ice-themed audio, this toolkit goes beyond just frozen environments. It includes a mix of authentic ice sounds alongside complementary elements, all focused on the central theme of ice. Whether you’re working on icy landscapes, frost weapons, or other frozen elements, this library provides you with the freedom to build your own custom soundscapes.

    Key Features

    • Source Sounds: The Source category offers raw, unprocessed ice-themed recordings, but with an important twist. While it includes a variety of authentic ice sounds, such as cracking, breaking, and ambient frost noises, it also features additional supportive sounds that enhance the creative potential. These include environmental noises and other elements that are thematically aligned with ice, giving you the flexibility to combine and experiment with different textures. The Source sounds provide the foundation, allowing you to shape and mold your own unique audio designs.
    • Processed Sounds: The Processed category elevates the Source sounds to a more stylized level. These are enhanced versions of the original recordings and are more complex and dramatic than their natural counterparts. This step adds greater depth, texture, and creative flair to the sounds, providing you with a wider range of expressive possibilities. It’s perfect for creating more intense, stylized sounds while still allowing for further refinement to fit your specific needs.
    • Why “Forge”?: The name Forge reflects the creative process at the heart of this library. Just as a blacksmith shapes raw materials into something new and powerful, the Source sounds serve as the unshaped elements, waiting to be crafted into whatever you envision. The Processed sounds are a further evolution of those elements, transforming them into something more refined and complex. Together, they provide a versatile toolkit that supports your creativity, making it easy to bring your frozen world to life.

    Frozen Core Vol. 1 – Forge is all about giving you the freedom to build, experiment, and create with sounds that fit your unique vision of ice and frost. With this library, you have the perfect foundation for your projects, while the Source and Processed categories offer the flexibility to take your designs as far as your creativity will go.

    50 %
    OFF
  • Foley Sound Effects Rummage Play Track 733+ sounds included $12.80

    Rummage is a collaborative sound library from SoundBits and Glitchedtones with a focus on unsystematic searches through everyday items.
    Created especially for projects calling for careful, hasty or frantic rummaging, these 733 files offer up plenty of variation to cover a wide range of scenarios. Featuring searches through paper, pockets, trash, wallets, retro media, wood, tools, bags, wardrobes, metal and lots more… your movie scene, game environment or even music production in need of some Rummage, is covered, or more appropriately, uncovered!”.

    60 %
    OFF

Latest releases:

  • Car Sound Effects Golden State Mustang Play Track 130 sounds included, 28 mins total $44.71

    This sound library is a collection of various actions with game audio in mind from a Ford Mustang 2021 Ecoboost convertible, recorded in parts of rural California in November 2024.

    The Mustang features a 2.3L Inline-4 (I4) turbocharged engine, which was quite the character captured with a lot of emphasis in the multichannel recording session.

    For help to record this beauty I enlisted the aid of my friend Diego Hodge who helped with both his arsenal of microphone options, rigging up the ‘Stang, and planning for the session. You can learn more about Diego’s work here: https://diegohodgeaudio.com/

    The library contains captures of idling, all the way up to 5000 RPM and beyond. Both single rev cycles as well as laying on the pedal for a consistent, sustained loop was a key part of our capture log. We even tried some sporadic flares of the engine in the style of Fast and the Furious, so your scene/game can be complete with that classic aggressive turbo-charged muscle sound to signal to the competition that you mean business.

    For the rest of the session, we captured some burnouts, some close-miked details of the tire on dirt roads, the classic passbys at various speeds, as well as the typical foley and actions associated with vehicles: doors, windshield wipers, buttons, etc. The microphones used: Clippy EM272M and Primo EM258 capsules from Micbooster for the car interior, a pair of Tascam TM-78 condenser mics in the engine bay, a pair of ND468 dynamic mics on the exhaust, and the Rode NTG5 shotgun mic.

    The content is offered in 96 kHz 24 bit for the engine recordings and 192 kHz 24 bit for the actions performed inside the vehicle. Polywavs are naturally provided for the multichannel mic arrays. This library is fully UCS compatible and Soundminer-friendly with richly embedded metadata. It contains 25 WAV files in total with a runtime of close to 28 mins of audio.

    Thank you for listening. I sincerely hope you enjoy my work and have lots of fun making new creations for the world to hear! Also be sure to post or send me what you’re working on with the assets. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

  • Drones & Mood Sound Effects Electromagnetic Drones Play Track 171+ sounds included, 108 mins total $49

    Electromagnetic Drones is a collection of 171 recordings that capture the invisible electromagnetic landscape produced by electronic devices. Using the Soma Ether, a specialized wide-band receiver, we captured hums, pulses, and static produced by phones, microwaves, fridges, TVs, computers, Wi-Fi routers, and more. Unlike traditional radios that filter out interference, Ether acts as an “anti-radio,” capturing a broad spectrum of electromagnetic activity from hertz to gigahertz, revealing the sonic textures generated by electronic equipment.

    The library features both raw recordings directly from the Soma Ether device, as well as designed sounds, giving you a versatile range of textures to work with. These recordings were transformed into deep, evolving drones, ranging from gritty industrial hums and eerie, synth-like tones to rhythmic machine pulses and dissonant, unsettling tones.

    Captured at 192kHz, these sounds maintain exceptional clarity, allowing for extreme pitch manipulation and creative sound processing. With its dark, atmospheric qualities, Electromagnetic Drones is well-suited for horror, suspense, drama, sci-fi, and experimental sound design in film, television, and video games. Whether you need haunting ambiences, dystopian textures, or immersive low-frequency drones, this collection provides a rich sonic palette drawn from sounds of the electromagnetic world.

  • Explosion Sound Effects Massive Fireworks Play Track 815 sounds included, 350 mins total $29.99

    Massive Fireworks – 815 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Massive Fireworks comes in at over 5 hours and 50 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Massive Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

    Don’t need a Massive amount of Fireworks sound effects? We offer ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

    Visit Us At: www.MassiveSoundFX.com

    40 %
    OFF
  • Forged in Fury Vol. 1: Modular Sounds for Epic Combat

    Break down, customize, and master every detail of your combat effects with Forged in Fury Vol. 1, a collection of 394 brutal sounds in 192kHz/24. Includes katana, heavy axe, metal claws, and layer-by-layer edited vocals for total control.

    🔪 Katana (193 sounds):
    Double whooshes, precise slashes, impacts, blood splatters.
    Mix layers of edge and secondary effects (e.g. combine a quick whoosh with a feminine scream).

    🪓 Heavy Axe (96 sounds):
    Powerful whooshes, crushing blows, equip sounds, blood effects.
    Combine the roar of metal with the sounds of breaking bones.

    🔗 Metal Claws (37 sounds):
    Mechanical opening/closing, scratching, cutting whoosh.
    Ideal for fast movements and surprise attacks.

    🗣️ Male & Female Voices (68 Sounds):
    War cries, moans of pain, grunts of effort.
    Use them alone or synced with weapon effects.

    ✨ Key Feature:
    Each sound includes its own editable layers (e.g. whoosh + impact + blood). Do you want a bloodless ax swing? only the whoosh of a katana?, only blood? Modify it instantly.

    🎚️ Studio Quality:
    Recorded in 192kHz/24-32 bits, delivered in 192kHz/24 bits. Perfect for toning down, adding distortion or manipulating without losing clarity.

    More about the pack
    – Intuitive file naming
    – All you’ll ever need regarding katana, heavy ax and claw [Use them again & again]
    – Use the sound effects over and over, in any of your projects or productions, forever without any additional fees or royalties. Use the SFX in your game, in your trailer, in a Kickstarter campaign, wherever you need to, as much as you want to.
    – Totally mono compatibility
    – All sounds have several variations.
    – Use your imagination and feel free to use any sound for a other than the one described, remember that the world of sound is totally subjective.

    24 %
    OFF
  • Explosion Sound Effects Mini Fireworks Play Track 40 sounds included, 24 mins total $6.99

    Mini Fireworks – 40 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Mini Fireworks comes in at over 24 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Mini Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

    Looking for a Massive amount of Fireworks sound effects? We offer ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

    Visit Us At: www.MassiveSoundFX.com

    30 %
    OFF
Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


Barbie_sound-07

There was a trip from Barbieland to the real world – the World Travel montage. Can you talk about that journey sound-wise?

AL: The World Travel montage happens numerous times in the film, and each time it’s a bit different depending on the amount of dialog and music. The first time they travel, the main part of the joke is the song from Tame Impala called “Journey To The Real World” which is commenting on what they’re doing. So we had to be very specific with the sound effects, having short distinct sounds for each vehicle at the start of each transition point, such as a double car revving “vroom vroom” sound, classic dolphin clicks for the boat section, a VW bus honk for the camper van, classic sonar beeps for the rocket ship, and sleigh bells for the snowmobile.

One of the challenges for the sound design in Barbie was working around the clever and funny dialog and music while embellishing and giving sonic character to the different worlds.

The World Travel montage happens numerous times in the film, and each time it’s a bit different depending on the amount of dialog and music.

DK: That was an overall challenge for the movie. We and our effects editors created different versions and elements for the World Travel montages, and for other scenes as well, like when the ambulance opens up on the beach in the first part of the film. That was fun. We got to explore a lot and use different combinations of people’s work to see what worked best. We really had to find the right sounds that worked with music. It was tough but I think we ended up with a really great result.

AL: In terms of music, there were a lot of explorations and changes on that until about a month or so before the start of pre-dubs. The film ended up very much like a musical with all the songs that are unique to each scene. Depending on the new music or songs, we had to quickly think off the cuff and figure out how our sounds would play against the new tempo and key. We had to be very specific with our sound effects choices and background choices so that we didn’t start muddying things up.

Gloria (played by America Ferrera) gives this amazing speech about how difficult it is to be a woman. Can you talk about what went into that monologue?

AL: Glad you like it! It’s such a powerful performance and emotionally written. It took intricate dialogue editing from Brian Bowles and dialogue mixing from Kevin O’Connell. It was built with six takes from three mic setups. Brian mentioned that the night before filming, America had some thoughts about the monologue and made some tweaks together with Greta.

DK: Greta and the picture editor Nick Houy were very protective with Gloria’s speech, so even in the first temp we added in a bit more foley than we normally would, to fill it out and keep the scene going and not take the audience out of the moment. We needed to make it feel pristine and focused on the dialogue but not unnaturally quiet. They were really careful about that whole sequence.

 

Barbie_sound-09

There’s a scene where Barbie and Ruth are talking together in this ethereal realm, and Barbie is learning what it’s like to be human and feel real emotions. What went into the sound of that scene?

AL: That scene feels a bit like heaven. For the atmos, to give it a subtle hint of re-birth like a baby in a mother’s womb, we processed various water and wave sounds. It was a stretch, so we hoped it worked.

The scene goes into Barbie experiencing what being human is, and the Billie Eilish song “What Was I Made For?” comes in. We recorded closeup breathing from Margot Robbie (as Barbie) just so we can focus more on her – her breathing and subtle heartbeats.

Greta wanted Barbieland to be this artificial and perfect world…and the real world to be gritty and messy yet it’s still good and beautiful.

One of the early conversations with Greta is that she wanted Barbieland to be this artificial and perfect world where everything is pleasant and the real world to be gritty and messy yet it’s still good and beautiful. The real world would have more layers of happiness and sadness but it needed to feel like a place that you also want to be. We tried to take a bit of that idea in this montage sequence, adding in real-world sounds. The flashback-like video clips in this montage are from crew members, so we used some of the audio from those videos besides augmenting it with other happy/sad life sounds.

DK: There were a lot of versions of that and it was cool to see it evolve. At first, it was a sound effects-heavy sequence, but as the picture edits kept evolving, the Billie Eilish song came in and that changed everything. It’s such a great song and it made the whole sequence way more emotional. It came out so well. I think that’s one of my favorite songs in the movie.

AL: The song turned out to be very effective, and they used variations of it for all the other “shining” moments in the movie.

DK: It was an amazing choice.

 

Barbie_sound-10

What has been unique about your experience of working on the Barbie movie? Or, what do you hope that the audience takes away from this film in terms of sound?

DK: I hope that we have contributed some fun, interesting textures that support the story and the different environments that we see. There are things in Barbieland that we’ve seen in real life – like the Barbie car and the Dream House – but we got to create this overall vibe for Barbieland and then subtly change it from Barbieland into Kendom when the Kens takeover. I think those subtle details go a long way in setting the tone when the Barbies or Kens are in charge. I hope that people enjoy experiencing Barbieland and Kendom.

AL: This was a unique experience. Throughout the post-sound process, I never got tired of the humor and humanness of the story, laughing and quoting lines from the film. All the music tracks are such earworms but in a good way; it makes me happy. With each viewing, I saw something new. I hope the audience feels that way about the Barbie film, and that the sound subconsciously helps take them on that journey.

 

A big thanks to Ai-Ling Lee and Dan Kenyon for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Barbie and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Four Elements – Elemental Magic Play Track 3050 sounds included, 251 mins total $112.49
    FOUR ELEMENTS - Rock The Speakerbox Professional SFX

    Master the Art of Bending the Elemental Forces

     

    Unleash the raw power of fire, water, earth, and air with this comprehensive 9 GB sound library featuring 3050 high-quality sound effects across 630 files. Whether you’re designing cinematic soundscapes or enhancing video games Four Elements delivers the tools you need to harness the energy of the natural world.

    Construction Kit – 2443 Sounds

    A treasure trove of raw, organic, and processed sounds including seamless loops divided into Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Explosion categories. Customize every detail with an extensive selection of sound components.

    • Organic Fire: Campfire sizzles, torch whooshes, and flame bursts.
    • Processed Fire: Distorted impacts and unique crackles.
    • Organic Earth: Rock crashes, gravel scrapes, and heavy stone hits.
    • Processed Earth: Stylized rumbles and granular textures.
    • Organic Water: Ocean waves, hydrophone bubbles, and fluid splashes.
    • Processed Water: Underwater whooshes and stylized liquid smashes.
    • Organic Air: Bamboo swishes, cloth movements, and pressure bursts.
    • Processed Air: Filtered gusts and dynamic noise sweeps.
    • Explosion: Firework detonations, Butane bursts, and cinematic impacts.

    Building Blocks – 416 Sounds

    Game-ready sound layers featuring Impacts, Whooshes, and Textures as seamless loops. Elevate transitions and enhance atmospheres with loops and pre-designed sound layers.

    • Fire: Explosive bursts, blazing infernos, and warm embers.
    • Earth: Ground-shaking impacts, crumbling terrain, and heavy collisions.
    • Water: Cascading waves, serene rivers, and underwater ambiences.
    • Air: Whispering breezes, stormy turbulence, and slicing gusts.

    Design Kit – 192 Sounds

    A collection of ready-to-use sound effects divided into Attack, Bend, and Explosion categories for quick integration into your projects. Perfect for high-energy scenes and immersive storytelling.

    • Fire: Crackling flames, fiery bursts, and roaring infernos.
    • Earth: Crushing impacts, shifting ground, and massive land eruptions.
    • Water: Splashes, fluid manipulations, and crashing tidal waves.
    • Air: Slicing winds, swirling currents, and thunderous gusts.

     

    Four Elements gives you complete creative control, blending organic recordings with processed sound layers to meet the demands of any project. Master the forces of nature with Four Elements. Let your creativity ignite.

     

    Keywords:

    Elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Wave, Water, Liquid, Rock, Cast, Stone, Pebble, Torch, Gas, Flame, Campfire, Sizzle, Burst, Scrape, Whoosh, Impact, Texture, Attack, Bend, Bending, Explosion, Processed, Surge, Quake, Hit, Flow, Burn, Ignite, Drop, Smack, Destruction, Rumble, Hiss, Blow, Wind, Cloth, Movement, Underwater, Bubble, Ocean, River, Lake, Firework, Firecracker, Bang, Blast, Detonation, Magic, Fantasy, Forces, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Fire Air, Fire Effect, Fire Whoosh, Water Whoosh, Seamless Loop, Loop, Fire Cast, Water Cast, Earth Cast, Air Cast

    25 %
    OFF
  • Bicycle Sound Effects Skid and Drift Play Track 755 sounds included, 78 mins total $56

    Are you looking for skid sounds for your next action movie? Well, this sound library is made for you.

    “Skid and Drift” is the result of 4 years of recording work. It is a complete collection of skids from various vehicles, recorded from multiple perspectives, on all types of surfaces, and in high quality (dirt, dry and wet concrete, gravel, etc.).
    You will find skids from race cars recorded during the French National Drift Championship, skids from go-karts, motocross bikes, bicycles, skateboards, ice skates, rollerblades, as well as foot skids.
    These sounds were recorded in both stereo (XY and ORTF position) and mono, depending on the case, using the following microphones: Schoeps CCM4, Neumann U87, DPA4061, Lom MikroUsi. All sounds are recorded in 24-bit. The sampling frequency is 48kHz for scuffing footsteps sounds, and 96kHz and 192kHz for other recordings.

    The metadata is precise and complete. All sounds are in UCS format.

    20 %
    OFF
  • Mechanical Sound Effects MicroMech Play Track 1800+ sounds included, 72 mins total $40

     MicroMech is an expressive collection of tiny, non-motorized mechanisms.

    Recorded by Nathan Moody in great ultrasonic detail, this collection of quiet and delicate sounds can become robotic limbs or fingers, weapon mechanisms, gun reloads, crafting or equipping sounds in a game, high-tech gadgets, superhero armor, clockwork steampunk artifacts, door latches, or any other metallic articulations you can think of.

    It pairs perfectly with Studio Obsidian’s Analogue Ordnance library for high-tech weaponry mechanism sounds.

    An hour of clicks, rattles, ratchets, trills, clacks, and slides will fill your sonic projects with mechanical filigree and mechanized finesse. Props include antique and vintage cameras, can openers, dictaphones, high-end fidget toys, and much more. Each recording in MicroMech has many performance variations, making them perfect for game audio projects.

    All sounds were recorded dry with a hypercardioid microphone and an ultrasonic-capable omni microphone into Millennia preamps, blended together for a punchy, full-range tone while preserving ultrasonic content.

    Get big sounds from small sources with MicroMech!

Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Car Sound Effects Golden State Mustang Play Track 130 sounds included, 28 mins total $44.71

    This sound library is a collection of various actions with game audio in mind from a Ford Mustang 2021 Ecoboost convertible, recorded in parts of rural California in November 2024.

    The Mustang features a 2.3L Inline-4 (I4) turbocharged engine, which was quite the character captured with a lot of emphasis in the multichannel recording session.

    For help to record this beauty I enlisted the aid of my friend Diego Hodge who helped with both his arsenal of microphone options, rigging up the ‘Stang, and planning for the session. You can learn more about Diego’s work here: https://diegohodgeaudio.com/

    The library contains captures of idling, all the way up to 5000 RPM and beyond. Both single rev cycles as well as laying on the pedal for a consistent, sustained loop was a key part of our capture log. We even tried some sporadic flares of the engine in the style of Fast and the Furious, so your scene/game can be complete with that classic aggressive turbo-charged muscle sound to signal to the competition that you mean business.

    For the rest of the session, we captured some burnouts, some close-miked details of the tire on dirt roads, the classic passbys at various speeds, as well as the typical foley and actions associated with vehicles: doors, windshield wipers, buttons, etc. The microphones used: Clippy EM272M and Primo EM258 capsules from Micbooster for the car interior, a pair of Tascam TM-78 condenser mics in the engine bay, a pair of ND468 dynamic mics on the exhaust, and the Rode NTG5 shotgun mic.

    The content is offered in 96 kHz 24 bit for the engine recordings and 192 kHz 24 bit for the actions performed inside the vehicle. Polywavs are naturally provided for the multichannel mic arrays. This library is fully UCS compatible and Soundminer-friendly with richly embedded metadata. It contains 25 WAV files in total with a runtime of close to 28 mins of audio.

    Thank you for listening. I sincerely hope you enjoy my work and have lots of fun making new creations for the world to hear! Also be sure to post or send me what you’re working on with the assets. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

  • Drones & Mood Sound Effects Electromagnetic Drones Play Track 171+ sounds included, 108 mins total $49

    Electromagnetic Drones is a collection of 171 recordings that capture the invisible electromagnetic landscape produced by electronic devices. Using the Soma Ether, a specialized wide-band receiver, we captured hums, pulses, and static produced by phones, microwaves, fridges, TVs, computers, Wi-Fi routers, and more. Unlike traditional radios that filter out interference, Ether acts as an “anti-radio,” capturing a broad spectrum of electromagnetic activity from hertz to gigahertz, revealing the sonic textures generated by electronic equipment.

    The library features both raw recordings directly from the Soma Ether device, as well as designed sounds, giving you a versatile range of textures to work with. These recordings were transformed into deep, evolving drones, ranging from gritty industrial hums and eerie, synth-like tones to rhythmic machine pulses and dissonant, unsettling tones.

    Captured at 192kHz, these sounds maintain exceptional clarity, allowing for extreme pitch manipulation and creative sound processing. With its dark, atmospheric qualities, Electromagnetic Drones is well-suited for horror, suspense, drama, sci-fi, and experimental sound design in film, television, and video games. Whether you need haunting ambiences, dystopian textures, or immersive low-frequency drones, this collection provides a rich sonic palette drawn from sounds of the electromagnetic world.

  • Explosion Sound Effects Massive Fireworks Play Track 815 sounds included, 350 mins total $29.99

    Massive Fireworks – 815 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Massive Fireworks comes in at over 5 hours and 50 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Massive Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

    Don’t need a Massive amount of Fireworks sound effects? We offer ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

    Visit Us At: www.MassiveSoundFX.com

    40 %
    OFF
  • Forged in Fury Vol. 1: Modular Sounds for Epic Combat

    Break down, customize, and master every detail of your combat effects with Forged in Fury Vol. 1, a collection of 394 brutal sounds in 192kHz/24. Includes katana, heavy axe, metal claws, and layer-by-layer edited vocals for total control.

    🔪 Katana (193 sounds):
    Double whooshes, precise slashes, impacts, blood splatters.
    Mix layers of edge and secondary effects (e.g. combine a quick whoosh with a feminine scream).

    🪓 Heavy Axe (96 sounds):
    Powerful whooshes, crushing blows, equip sounds, blood effects.
    Combine the roar of metal with the sounds of breaking bones.

    🔗 Metal Claws (37 sounds):
    Mechanical opening/closing, scratching, cutting whoosh.
    Ideal for fast movements and surprise attacks.

    🗣️ Male & Female Voices (68 Sounds):
    War cries, moans of pain, grunts of effort.
    Use them alone or synced with weapon effects.

    ✨ Key Feature:
    Each sound includes its own editable layers (e.g. whoosh + impact + blood). Do you want a bloodless ax swing? only the whoosh of a katana?, only blood? Modify it instantly.

    🎚️ Studio Quality:
    Recorded in 192kHz/24-32 bits, delivered in 192kHz/24 bits. Perfect for toning down, adding distortion or manipulating without losing clarity.

    More about the pack
    – Intuitive file naming
    – All you’ll ever need regarding katana, heavy ax and claw [Use them again & again]
    – Use the sound effects over and over, in any of your projects or productions, forever without any additional fees or royalties. Use the SFX in your game, in your trailer, in a Kickstarter campaign, wherever you need to, as much as you want to.
    – Totally mono compatibility
    – All sounds have several variations.
    – Use your imagination and feel free to use any sound for a other than the one described, remember that the world of sound is totally subjective.

    24 %
    OFF
  • Explosion Sound Effects Mini Fireworks Play Track 40 sounds included, 24 mins total $6.99

    Mini Fireworks – 40 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Mini Fireworks comes in at over 24 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Mini Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

    Looking for a Massive amount of Fireworks sound effects? We offer ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

    Visit Us At: www.MassiveSoundFX.com

    30 %
    OFF

   

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags are not allowed.