354 - Tonebenders Goes to Los Angeles (featuring a mini-interview with Ben Burtt!)

Tonebenders' host, Tim Muirhead, went to LA last month to host the 4th Annual Los Angeles Tonebenders Sound Design Meet-up and attend the C.A.S. Awards and MPSE The Golden Reels. He shares some stories of his adventures in Los Angeles as well as a bunch of backstage interviews he did with the winners at The Golden Reels. As a bonus this episode also includes a short interview with all-time legendary sound person Ben Burtt!!!! ______SPONSOR: The NAB Show is one of the biggest gatherings for professionals working in media, post-production, and broadcast, and it’s happening this Month in Las Vegas. If you’re attending the show, stop by the Sound Ideas at Booth N1413 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with exhibits open April 19th through the 22nd. Sound Ideas has been creating and distributing professional sound effects libraries for decades and NAB is a great chance to meet the team and see what they’ve been working on. Reach out to Sound Ideas to get a free pass to the NAB Show by emailing [email protected] and make sure you visit them at Booth N1413. Make sure you are up to date with everything Tonebenders is doing, from upcoming events to the latest episodes by signing up for the once-a-month Tonebenders email newsletter. https://tonebenderspodcast.com/join-our-email-list/ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/354-tonebenders-goes-to-los-angeles-featuring-a-mini-interview-with-ben-burtt/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Get an educated head start on your Oscar Pool this year! Go on a deep dive into each nominated film in the Best Sound Category at this year's Academy Awards. Featuring interviews with the sound teams behind One Battle After Another, F1: The Movie, Sinners, Sīrat, and Frankenstein. ______SPONSORS: Great sound leads to great storytelling. With Sound Ideas Memberships, you get full online access to the largest professional sound library in the world. Choose the tier that fits your needs, including up to unlimited downloads on the royalty-free use of hundreds of thousands of sounds. From cinematic impacts and detailed ambiences to everyday essentials and specialty effects, it’s all ready to preview and download on demand. Just head to https://sound-ideas.com/pages/memberships to find the Membership that’s right for you. ________ MORPHOSIS is a powerful neural timbre-matching tool designed for audio professionals. It works by applying the tonal qualities of one sound source, onto a second sound in surprisingly effective ways. I think where Tonebenders listeners will be most interested is in what it can do with sound effects and voices. Head to https://www.hal-audio.com/product/morphosis/ now and use the promo code TONEBENDERS25 to get 25 percent off your purchase of Morphosis until March 31st. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/353-2026-oscar-pool-sound-category-round-up/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Supervising Sound Editor Laia Casanovas flew in from Spain to join Tonebenders in front of a packed theatre in Toronto. Laia shows real enthusiasm while talking about her Oscar nominated sound work on Sirāt. She discusses "worldizing" the music featured in the film to match the homemade sound systems depicted on screen, as well as the role wind sounds plays to ramp up tension and how the vehicle's engines presented unexpected audio problems for Laia and her team to solve. Listeners in LA, don't forget to come out to the 4th Annual Tonebenders' Los Angeles Sound Design Meet-up, Presented by The Motion Picture Sound Editors. This Thursday, March 5th 2026, 7pm. We will be at All Season Brewery (800 S La Brea Ave) in Hollywood. I hope to see you there. ______SPONSORS: Great sound leads to great storytelling. With Sound Ideas Memberships, you get full online access to the largest professional sound library in the world. Choose the tier that fits your needs, including up to unlimited downloads on the royalty-free use of hundreds of thousands of sounds. From cinematic impacts and detailed ambiences to everyday essentials and specialty effects, it’s all ready to preview and download on demand. Just head to https://sound-ideas.com/pages/memberships to find the Membership that’s right for you. ________ MORPHOSIS is a powerful neural timbre-matching tool designed for audio professionals. It works by applying the tonal qualities of one sound source, onto a second sound in surprisingly effective ways. I think where Tonebenders listeners will be most interested is in what it can do with sound effects and voices. Head to https://www.hal-audio.com/product/morphosis/ now and use the promo code TONEBENDERS25 to get 25 percent off your purchase of Morphosis until March 31st. Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/352-sirat-live/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

One Battle After Another is the latest film by director Paul Thomas Anderson and it is his first time finishing a project with a full ATMOS Mix. Embracing the idea of "widening the screen with sound" Supervising Sound Editor Christopher Scarabosio, Re-recording Mixer Tony Villaflor and Production Sound Mixer José Antonio García set out to create an energetic and engulfing soundscape for One Battle After Another. In this talk they discuss building the riot scene, the truly unique car chase, the obstacles that the VistaVision camera brought to them and lots more. ______SPONSORS: If you work in sound design, post, or game audio, you already know how much time the right library can save you. For the month of February, get 50% off any Sound Ideas Membership Tier, no matter which level of access you need. That’s half off the entire professionally recorded sound effects catalog, from cinematic and broadcast to hard-to-find specialty sounds. Just head to http://sound-ideas.com/ and use the promo code TONEBENDERS50 at checkout._________ If you are in the LA area don’t miss the 4th Annual Tonebenders Sound Design Meet-up on Thursday, March 5th, 7pm. We will be gathering at All Season Brewery in Hollywood to hang out with the Los Angeles sound community and catch up with old friends while hopefully making new ones. https://tonebenderspodcast.com/tonebenders-sound-design-meet-up/ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/351-one-battle-after-another/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Zootopia 2 had the second biggest box office in 2025. People all over the world flocked to see it and that is not lost on the sound team behind it. In this episode Jeremy Bowker (sound designer & supervising sound editor) and David Fluhr (supervising re-recording mixer) discuss how they tackle a film with this much anticipation behind it, mixing dialog for animation, designing sounds to work with the massive score, their approach to international versions and lots more. ______SPONSORS: If you work in sound design, post, or game audio, you already know how much time the right library can save you. For the month of February, get 50% off any Sound Ideas Membership Tier, no matter which level of access you need. That’s half off the entire professionally recorded sound effects catalog, from cinematic and broadcast to hard-to-find specialty sounds. Just head to http://sound-ideas.com/ and use the promo code TONEBENDERS50 at checkout. ______ If you are interested in field recording, you should know about the O-Mini P48 and the brand new O-Mini PIP miniature omni-directional electret microphones. Each one is hand made by Chris Trevino, a practicing field recordist, and a really engaged member of the sound community. He puts a lot of work into making and testing each mic to ensure they live up to his high standards. They are ultra-sonic capable, which makes manipulating your recordings with them a lot of fun. They are also extremely affordable. At $150us for the P48 & $130 for the PIP, they offer a lot of value for a stereo matched pair. Find out more at https://www.chrisatrevino.com/store _______ Come celebrate the best sounding films, series and games from the last year at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards on Sunday March 8th starting at 3pm. For full details and to find out how to purchase tickets head to https://mpse.org/event-6300024 Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/350-zootopia-2/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

To celebrate Mark Mangini's upcoming Lifetime Achievement Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors, I sat down with him to stroll down memory lane. We dig into all the films that he has been nominated for Golden Reels on over the years. That is a lot of films! 23 nominations in total. In this part 2 of the conversation we go from the late 80s up to modern day, covering films like Aladdin, The Green Mile, Mad Max: Fury Road, Dune and many more. We also talk a bit about some of the upcoming films Mark has been working on recently. Make sure you check out part one as well, just go back one episode in the feed. You can purchase tickets to attend the Golden Reels by going to https://mpse.org/event-6300024. ______SPONSORS: If you work in sound design, post, or game audio, you already know how much time the right library can save you. For the month of February, get 50% off any Sound Ideas Membership Tier, no matter which level of access you need. That’s half off the entire professionally recorded sound effects catalog, from cinematic and broadcast to hard-to-find specialty sounds. Just head to http://sound-ideas.com/ and use the promo code TONEBENDERS50 at checkout. ______ If you are interested in field recording, you should know about the O-Mini P48 and the brand new O-Mini PIP miniature omni-directional electret microphones. Each one is hand made by Chris Trevino, a practicing field recordist, and a really engaged member of the sound community. He puts a lot of work into making and testing each mic to ensure they live up to his high standards. They are ultra-sonic capable, which makes manipulating your recordings with them a lot of fun. They are also extremely affordable. At $150us for the P48 & $130 for the PIP, they offer a lot of value for a stereo matched pair. Find out more at https://www.chrisatrevino.com/store _______ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/349-mark-mangini-pt-2/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Mark Mangini will be receiving the Motion Picture Sound Editors Lifetime Achievement Award at this years's Golden Reel ceremonies. To celebrate this honour, Mark and I sat down in Formosa's Stage 6 for a fascinating talk about all the projects for which he has been nominated at the Golden Reels over the years. In this part 1, Mark discusses his early work starting with all time classics like Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Poltergeist, Gremlins and Star Trek: The Voyage Home. Part 2 will be coming out in a few days where we cover the rest of his career to present day. You can purchase tickets to attend the Golden Reels by going to https://mpse.org/event-6300024 ______SPONSORS: If you work in sound design, post, or game audio, you already know how much time the right library can save you. For the month of February, get 50% off any Sound Ideas Membership Tier, no matter which level of access you need. That’s half off the entire professionally recorded sound effects catalog, from cinematic and broadcast to hard-to-find specialty sounds. Just head to http://sound-ideas.com/ and use the promo code TONEBENDERS50 at checkout. ______ If you are interested in field recording, you should know about the O-Mini P48 and the brand new O-Mini PIP miniature omni-directional electret microphones. Each one is hand made by Chris Trevino, a practicing field recordist, and a really engaged member of the sound community. He puts a lot of work into making and testing each mic to ensure they live up to his high standards. They are ultra-sonic capable, which makes manipulating your recordings with them a lot of fun. They are also extremely affordable. At $150us for the P48 & $130 for the PIP, they offer a lot of value for a stereo matched pair. Find out more at https://www.chrisatrevino.com/store _______ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/348-mark-mangini-pt-1/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

This episode features an interview with Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer Skip Lievsay, from the recent film Marty Supreme. Skip discusses his team's approach to the ping pong sound effects and how to use use background sounds to ground a film in a certain time and place. Skip has worked with both Safdie brothers together on Uncut Gems and then with Benny on his own for Smashing Machine and Josh solo on Marty Supreme. Skip tells me what each experience was like. After I finish talking with Skip Lievsay, this episode concludes with backstage interviews featuring all the winners from the sound categories at the recent Director's Guild of Canada Awards. ______SPONSORS: As the New Year begins, Sound Ideas is offering its largest sale to date. For a limited time, receive 55% off professionally recorded sound effects and music libraries. This New Year promotion applies across their esteemed catalog, making it an ideal moment to expand or update your professional collection with authentic audio and a proven standard of quality. The Sound Ideas New Year Sale is available now for a limited time– so visit https://sound-ideas.com/ now! _______ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/347-marty-supreme/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead

Wicked For Good pushed the Oscar nominated sound team from last years blockbuster, Wicked, to go further into the sonic world of Oz. Continuing the idea that every sound making it into the film had to have an Ozian twist to it. Nancy Nugent Title (Supervising Sound Editor), John Marquis (Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer), Jack Coleman (Supervising Music Editor) and Simon Hayes (Production Sound Mixer) tell us about all the obstacles and challenges they met to complete this massive project. The music and sound effects departments worked really closely together in post, while production sound was constantly thinking about what would be needed by the audio post team. Wicked For Good is the culmination of a massive project where sound was an integral part of the the entire production. ______SPONSORS: As the New Year begins, Sound Ideas is offering its largest sale to date. For a limited time, receive 55% off professionally recorded sound effects and music libraries. This New Year promotion applies across their esteemed catalog, making it an ideal moment to expand or update your professional collection with authentic audio and a proven standard of quality. The Sound Ideas New Year Sale is available now for a limited time– so visit https://sound-ideas.com/ now! _______ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/346-wicked-for-good/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead and edited/mixed by Therese Gylfe & Tove Lidman for TnT Sound Design

This interview was recorded live, in front of a packed house, at the Glen Glenn Film Center in Hollywood California. F1: The Movie presented a multitude of complex challenges for it's sound team, as the race cars have to sound huge and immediate and the music had to be "driving" as well. Then you add in the dialog and crowds and you are dealing with a monstrous brew of editorial and mix obstacles. Joining Tim on stage from F1 are Gary Rizzo (re-recording mixer), Al Nelson (supervising sound editor), Gwen Yates Whittle (supervising sound editor) and Gareth John (production sound mixer). They discuss their experiments with recording the cars, the involvement of Lewis Hamilton, the many levels of futz on the voices during the races and lots more._______SPONSORS: As the New Year begins, Sound Ideas is offering its largest sale to date. For a limited time, receive 55% off professionally recorded sound effects and music libraries. This New Year promotion applies across their esteemed catalog, making it an ideal moment to expand or update your professional collection with authentic audio and a proven standard of quality. The Sound Ideas New Year Sale is available now for a limited time– so visit https://sound-ideas.com/ now! _______ Episode Notes: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/345-f1-the-movie-live/ Podcast Homepage: https://tonebenderspodcast.com This episode is hosted by Timothy Muirhead