Mix Notes: Dumb Farts, Alien Crickets & Junkyard Instruments

Summary

Twenty Thousand Hertz - Episode: Mix Notes: Dumb Farts, Alien Crickets & Junkyard Instruments Release Date: May 14, 2025
Host: Dallas Taylor

Twenty Thousand Hertz, hosted by Dallas Taylor, delves into the captivating stories behind some of the world's most iconic and fascinating sounds. In the episode titled "Mix Notes: Dumb Farts, Alien Crickets & Junkyard Instruments," Dallas explores a variety of unique sound design stories shared by industry experts. This detailed summary captures the essence of these discussions, highlights key insights, and includes notable quotes with timestamps for reference.

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1. Capturing the Sound of the Spruce Goose Hangar

Speaker: Jesse Herrera
Timestamp: [03:08] – [08:03]

Jesse Herrera, a sound designer and mix engineer, shares his intriguing experience capturing the acoustic essence of the historic Spruce Goose hangar in Playa Vista, Los Angeles. The Spruce Goose, officially known as the Howard Hughes H-4 Hercules, is famed as the largest wooden airplane ever built.

Key Points:

• Impulse Response Recording: Jesse explains the technical process of capturing the hangar's unique acoustics using Neumann U87AI microphones arranged in a Figure 8 pattern to create a Hamasaki square setup.
  “An impulse response is like a snapshot of the way a space responds to sound. It's what allows a digital reverb to emulate a real physical space.” ([05:03])

• Challenges and Techniques: He describes the logistical challenges of setting up equipment in the massive wooden structure and the innovative use of balloons to capture reverberations in adjoining spaces.

• Preserving Acoustic History: Jesse emphasizes the importance of preserving the sonic characteristics of such historic spaces for future creators.
  “I think the magic of sound in a film or in a song or whatever is it points to how you feel in a space.” ([07:07])

2. Sound Design in Battlestar Galactica

Speaker: Daniel Coleman
Timestamp: [08:06] – [11:22]

Daniel Coleman, a supervising sound editor and sound designer at NBCUniversal, recounts his work on the acclaimed TV series Battlestar Galactica. He highlights a pivotal moment in the show where sound design played a critical role in revealing a character's true identity.

Key Points:

• Creating Emotional Impact: Daniel describes a scene where the sound design was pivotal in conveying the revelation that a main character, Anders, is a Cylon.
  “The scan happens, then the music happens when the Cylon ship takes off and goes in the other direction. And it was such the perfect moment.” ([10:58])

• Collaboration with Composers: He discusses the delicate balance between sound effects and music, and how removing the music at a crucial moment enhanced the emotional gravity of the scene.

• Advice to Composers: Reflecting on an interview with Gustavo Santaolalla, Daniel shares wisdom on scoring, emphasizing the importance of timing and the emotional aftermath rather than the immediate action.

3. The World's Biggest Bowel Movement Sound Effects

Speaker: Daniel Coleman
Timestamp: [19:29] – [24:03]

In a humorous segment, Daniel Coleman shares an unusual story about creating exaggerated fart sounds for the movie Dumb and Dumber. He recounts his interaction with the late Tom Clack, a prolific sound recordist, and the creative process behind crafting believable yet comical sound effects.

Key Points:

• Foley Sound Design: Daniel explains the art of foley in sound design, particularly how certain sounds are staged and manipulated to achieve the desired effect on screen.
  “Anytime you're recording sound effects, there's a suspension of disbelief that has to happen.” ([21:39])

• Creative Techniques: He touches on the methods used to create over-the-top sound effects, such as layering and using unconventional objects to simulate bodily sounds.

4. The Music of Destruction in 'The Fan'

Speakers: Nathaniel Smith & Daniel Coleman
Timestamp: [22:33] – [25:07]

Nathaniel Smith, a music mixer with extensive experience working alongside Hans Zimmer, discusses his collaboration on the film The Fan. He details the innovative approach to integrating junkyard instrument sounds into the film's score.

Key Points:

• Junkyard Instruments: Nathaniel describes how music editor Mark Streitenfeld sourced materials from a car junkyard, using car parts to create heavily distorted sounds that were then processed through guitar amps for added texture.
  “We create all these just, like, crazy, huge, massive sounds.” ([22:46])

• Subtle Integration: Contrary to initial expectations, these sounds were used subtly to represent the internal turmoil of the main character, portrayed by Robert De Niro.
  “It turned out that what he did with those sounds was he played them so quietly so that they became the noise inside of Robert De Niro's head.” ([23:59])

• Long-Term Collaboration: Nathaniel expresses gratitude for his long-standing collaboration with Hans Zimmer, highlighting the mentorship and artistic growth it provided.
  “Half of my major memories in my adult Life have to do with him having that relationship for so long so successfully.” ([24:16])

5. Remote Control Terrors and Sound in Storytelling

Speaker: Jeremy Siegel
Timestamp: [25:07] – [31:20]

Jeremy Siegel, director of strategic partnerships at Pro Sound Effects, shares his journey in sound design and the significance of sound in storytelling. He recounts his early experiences at Remote Control Productions, Hans Zimmer's film score company, and his current project on an independent horror film.

Key Points:

• First Impressions at Remote Control Productions: Jeremy narrates an anecdote about mistaking Robert Rodriguez for a visitor, underscoring the high-security environment and the pressure to perform flawlessly.
  “I was like, oh, super. Good job. Well done, Sin sir.” ([27:22])

• Sound Design Techniques: For his horror film, Jeremy describes a technique where high-resolution jungle sounds are slowed down and reversed to create an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere.
  “...when you slow it down, a lot of that high end information falls into the human hearing range... it's still very otherworldly and a little wobbly.” ([28:16])

• Philosophy on Sound: He emphasizes the importance of sound in making stories believable and emotionally resonant, while maintaining humility about its impact compared to global issues.
  “When you have great sound... it allows the audience to say, yes, this is real. And then they accept the picture that they're given.” ([29:29])

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Conclusion

In this episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz, Dallas Taylor showcases the intricate and creative processes behind sound design in various media. From capturing the unique acoustics of historical spaces to crafting exaggerated sound effects and integrating unconventional instruments into film scores, the stories shared by Jesse Herrera, Daniel Coleman, Nathaniel Smith, and Jeremy Siegel offer a deep dive into the art and science of sound. These discussions not only highlight the technical expertise required but also the emotional and storytelling power that sound possesses in engaging audiences.

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Notable Quotes:

• “An impulse response is like a snapshot of the way a space responds to sound.” – Jesse Herrera ([05:03])
• “The magic of sound in a film... points to how you feel in a space.” – Jesse Herrera ([07:07])
• “When you have great sound... it allows the audience to say, yes, this is real.” – Jeremy Siegel ([29:29])

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For more insights and to listen to the full episode, visit Twenty Thousand Hertz.

Transcript

[Dallas Taylor]

I've been keeping a huge secret from you, something I've been working toward for many, many years. And now I can finally tell you. Starting this summer on June 25th, 20,000 Hz is expanding into video. The podcast isn't changing. The stories you love will still be right here. Highly crafted and beautiful. But now I'll be telling all of the stories I've been waiting to tell. That really needed that visual element. And honestly, this is no exaggeration. This new video series is a behind the scenes look at the world's most iconic and fascinating sounds like no one on earth has ever seen before. To be the first to see it, subscribe to my YouTube channel. My handle is Dallas Taylor MP3. You can also go to the Show Notes right now, click the link and subscribe while you're listening. This is the most ambitious and exciting project I've ever done in my entire career and starting June 25, you'll see exactly why. So take a moment right now to click the link in the Show Notes and subscribe on YouTube. This episode is sponsored by Sonos. In every part of my life, I'm obsessed with great sound and for the past decade I've been building out my ultimate listening environment with Sonos. I personally have multiple Sonos arc and beam soundbars paired with subwoofers as well as Sonos speakers, portable speakers and accessories in every corner of my home. I also love their Sonos Ace headphones. The clarity is unreal and their noise cancellation makes listening to music and podcasts totally immersive. They're also incredibly comfortable and the charge lasts for up to 30 hours. Sonos makes it easy to elevate every listening experience with speakers and headphones that seamlessly connect to your favorite sounds. To hear the Difference yourself, visit sonos.com to learn more about Sonos sound systems and the incredible Sonos Ace headphones. Again, visit sonos.com youm're listening to 20,000HZ. I'm Dallas Taylor. Last fall I went to a really cool sound conference put on by Mix magazine called Sound for Film and tv. It's held every year on the Sony Pictures lot in Los Angeles. This lot is legendary and goes all the way back to the wizard of Oz. This particular guest gathering is filled with some of the most respected names in the movie sound business as well as up and coming talent. And amongst all of those sound designers, editors and mixers, I knew there would be some good sound stories. So I packed my gear and headed out to Sony. Once I got there, producer Nicholas Harder. And I set up a recording booth in the producers room of one of Sony's legendary mix stages. We invited people to drop by and tell us their favorite stories. Here are the six stories that jumped out. Enjoy the Spruce Goose juice.

[Jesse Herrera]

My name is Jesse Herrera. I am a sound designer and mix engineer for TV and film and ads. And occasionally I get to do a fun recording project. This is sort of earlier in my career I was living and working in Los Angeles in Playa Vista. There's a famous airplane that came out of that area called the Spruce Goose. That's like the nickname for it. It's the biggest airplane in the world and it's made out of wood composite. And that was like a World War II project.

[Daniel Coleman]

The Howard Hughes flying boat has a wingspread of 320ft. And that gives you some idea of its size. It's a 200 ton machine laid out something like a ship inside with two decks and accommodation for 700 people.

[Jesse Herrera]

It never actually saw service, but it was built in Playa Vista in a building that is now inhabited by Google. So right before Google moved in, I got the opportunity to see that building as it was when it was being used to build airplanes. It had just been vacant for a long, long, long time. The entire structure is wood and it's massive. I mean, it's an ungodly amount of space. It's just so huge. Hello. For an entire structure like that to be wood, it had a really interesting acoustic. So I got ahold of four Neumann U87AI microphones, put them in Figure 8 pattern, and set up what's called a Hamasaki square. So it's a pretty large square of microphones. They're spaced like over 10ft apart. So I set this up, I set up my recorder to capture what are called impulse responses.

[Dallas Taylor]

An impulse response is like a snapshot of the way a space responds to sound. It's what allows a digital reverb to emulate a real physical space.

[Jesse Herrera]

And the way you capture that impulse response is by running a sweep from the lowest point of human hearing to the highest. I had built a 500 foot XLR cable and I walked 500ft down and set up a speaker and plugged that in and then walked 500ft all the way back to my recorder and hit play on that speaker and recorded this incredible sweep in that, like main hangar space where the Spruce Goose was built. The sound of it is incredible. It's a really interesting reverb. In addition to that one, I also captured a lot of other Reverbs, not all of them were from that same space. There were, like, adjoining spaces to that main area for the sound source. In those, instead of carrying around my speaker, I used balloons. So I filled up balloons and popped them at different locations.

[Dallas Taylor]

Jesse's recordings were used to create a reverb profile, so. So that any creator can access the sound of this historic empty hangar.

[Jesse Herrera]

If anybody has used altaverb or a convolution reverb plugin, what's happening is they are emulating a real space from surround recordings. And so it's nice that now that I have these sweeps, anyone that has altaverb can just drop them in and access that.

[Dallas Taylor]

Wow. I think about capturing these types of spaces visually. But why do you feel it's important to capture these spaces sonically?

[Jesse Herrera]

I think the magic of sound in a film or in a song or whatever is it points to how you feel in a space. When you add sound to a film, you steer the audience to feel something. And so when I walk into a space like that, the first time I walked into that building, it was almost like I was in a vacuum. It was just so big that nothing was reflected back that quickly. But then when you made a really loud noise, it kind of woke up. The walls woke up, and it started speaking back. It feels like a preservation of how a space felt.

[Dallas Taylor]

Story two Cut the cue.

[Steve Buscino]

My name is Daniel Coleman. I'm a supervising sound editor and sound designer at NBCUniversal. Way back when, I was the supervising sound editor and sound designer on Battlestar Galactica.

[Dallas Taylor]

Battlestar Galactica was one of my favorite TV shows. And in it, humanity is at war with a race of robots called Cylons, who often disguise themselves as humans. One of the main human characters is named Anders, who flies a spaceship called a Viper.

[Steve Buscino]

And there is an episode in the last season where we're in the middle of a big space battle and. And one of the Cylon ships comes up right in front of Anders Viper and scans his eyes. And it's the moment where we realize as the audience, that he's one of the Cylons. And then instead of firing, the Cylon ship goes away. And I had this great sound for that scanning moment. But Bear McCreary's beautiful music was just training through all of this. We were still both fairly young in our careers at this time as a much more experienced sound designer. If I think the music needs to come out, I'll say something. Back then, it was like, music is king. I'm blasphemous. By even suggesting this, especially Bear wasn't on the stage. So Mike Baber, the music editor, was there. And I just went to Mike and said, can you please just try this? Give me a second and a half where you just hit a beat, strong drop out, everything come back in just two beats later, shoot Anders. And it completely goes away. The scan happens, then the music happens when the Cylon ship takes off and goes in the other direction. And it was such the perfect moment. And I got to hear this in a huge theater. I think we played it back at the Cinerama Dome. And hearing the entire audience gasp at that moment was like, I know. I nailed that by taking the music out. I've had this conversation with a few composers where in order to sell their score to the studio, because of course, they don't have final sound in there. They've just got the temp stuff that they feel like they need to cover everything in order to get the studio to feel like there's enough action and emotion in there. And it's very much a challenge because then when we put in the sound effects, it just becomes a mush.

[Dallas Taylor]

Daniel remembered an interview he heard with Oscar winning composer Gustavo Santo Ella.

[Steve Buscino]

He was talking specifically about not scoring the action, not scoring the drama, scoring the aftermath. And that. That's where the interesting thing is, is after the crux of the scene, that's where you come in with music, which I thought was a beautiful idea, because then there's the tension.

[Jeremy Siegel]

Release.

[Dallas Taylor]

Pass it on.

[Alan Myerson]

I'm Steve Buscino. I'm a RE recording mixer and a supervising sound editor.

[Dallas Taylor]

What do you think about environments? When I hear something done by someone not as experienced, if I hear like a reel or something, backgrounds tend to sound like variations of noise. So it'll be like, yeah, right, right, air. So what makes great environments?

[Alan Myerson]

So it's fine to have a stereo sound straight up, front, left and right. And that does give you a sense of width. But I tend to get more of a realistic and a more satisfying sense of depth when I have a lot of different background sounds that I can place in their own very specific spot. So a stereo background sound, whether it be air or birds or leaves swaying, sometimes I'll just take one channel of that and put it over here and take something else and put it over on the other side or behind me, because that's kind of what I hear outside. I feel like I'm hearing the wind go through that flagpole or I'm hearing the cars over on that street, because that street's Busier than that street. I often feel more immersed in the sounds when everything is a little more discreet. I'm a relatively new parent. I have a three year old girl and a one year old boy. So something that I've learned to do over the course of my career is listen to my environment. And one thing I did with my daughter, which I just started doing a few days ago with my son, is pointing out things in our environment. So I took my son in my arms and walked to our driveway and I would just point things out to him like, hey, sky, look, big airplane or small airplane. And just doing that with helicopters, with birds and making chirping sounds. Or at night with my daughter, I used to point out the crickets. One thing I used to do with her when we would go in a concrete parking garage is I started to teach her about echo and reverb and that kind of stuff. So I would say something really loud like, hey. And I would say, do you hear that? You hear how after I stop, you still hear the sounds? And now when we're in a parking garage, she'll say, dad, do you think I could hear my echo? And I'm like, yeah, give it a shot. And she'll scream, say, hey. And she's like, I heard it, I heard it. I'm learning how to be a parent. So I am just trying to find the things that I can pass on. When I'm outside, I'm listening like, what kind of whoosh do those cars make from two blocks away? What does that sound like to me for my own knowledge and my own craft? And just saying that kind of stuff out loud has been a really cool sonic connection to my kids.

[Dallas Taylor]

After the break, really dumb fart sounds, the music of broken cars, and a faux pas with a very famous director. If you ask 10 experts what the future holds for businesses, you'll probably get 10 completely different answers. It's a bull market. It's a bear market. Rates going up, rates going down, inflation rising or cooling off. As a business owner myself, I know it can make your head spin. But until someone invents a crystal ball, your best bet to future proof your business is with NetSuite. It's the number one cloud ERP, which stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. In a nutshell, it brings accounting, inventory, payroll, project management, and more all into one fluid platform. When everything is unified, you'll have one source of truth, and that gives you the clarity and control to make fast, confident decisions. And when you're closing the books in days instead of weeks, you'll spend less time looking back and more time focused on the opportunities ahead. Speaking of opportunity, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com 20k. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com20k that's netsuite.com 20k so last week's mystery sound ended up being a little too tough. It's one of those rare instances where not one person guessed it right. That's the first recording of a shark sound, which was captured by researchers earlier this year. They were conducting an experiment on rig sharks when they noticed that the creatures would sometimes make this clicking sound with their teeth. Up until now, it was widely assumed that sharks were silent creatures, and here's this episode's mystery Sound. If you know that sound, tell us at the web address mystery.20.org anyone who guesses it right will be entered to win a super soft 20,000Hz T shirt hiring can often feel like shouting into a void. You post on multiple job sites, then just wait and hope that the right person finds your post. If this sounds familiar, then you need Indeed, the world's number one job site. With Indeed's Sponsored Jobs feature, your listing jumps to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you'll reach the right people faster. And according to Indeed's data, sponsored jobs get 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs do. There are no monthly fees and no long term contracts. You only pay for results. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring Right now with Indeed, 20,000 Hertz listeners will get a $75 job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.comHertz just go to Indeed.comHertz right now and support show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.comHertz terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Starting any business is an intimidating process. You might have a great idea, but when you go to execute it, you start to second guess yourself. What if I can't design a website? How do I write compelling product descriptions? How do I bring attention to my brand? Fortunately, Shopify has you covered with all of these and more. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US. For your website, you can choose from beautiful, ready to go templates that match your brand. They have AI tools for everyday tasks like writing, enticing copy, enhancing product images and generating discount codes. And they'll help you find customers with easy to run email and social media campaigns. Turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com 20k. That's shopify.com 20k shopify.com 20story4 the dumbest.

[Daniel Coleman]

Farts so I am Jeremy Siegel and I'm the director of strategic partnerships at Pro Sound Effects.

[Dallas Taylor]

A quick warning. This story contains a lot of fart sounds. So if that kind of thing isn't for you, then skip ahead by about three minutes.

[Daniel Coleman]

When I was a Wii intern, back when lots of albums of sound effects would be recorded on cd, this guy, Tom Clack, who's he's passed away a few years ago, he was a great and very prolific sound recordist, field recordist, very kooky guy. And he had an album, if you will, on CD called the World's Biggest Bowel Movement, Bar None. It was one long file, probably 12 minutes long, and the job was to load it up onto a computer, cut it up into some tracks, add metadata, et cetera, basically digitize it. I was listening and it sounds like somebody's like literally pouring cement into a swimming pool. It's like so, so over the top, but really, really funny stuff. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon cutting up these sound. Where this got really funny and interesting is I end up talking to Tom Clack on the phone and I mention like, oh, hey, it's nice to meet you. I just worked on this project. What can you tell me about the world's biggest bowel movement, bar none. He's like, oh, that one. And he tells me, have you ever seen the movie Dumb and Dumber?

[Jesse Herrera]

You know why I like you, Harry?

[Jeremy Siegel]

Cause you're a regular guy. Yep. That's why I want you to stay regular.

[Daniel Coleman]

He's like, well, the scene where Jeff Daniels emphatically and uncontrollably has to relieve himself because he's been drugged by his good buddy 1/2 teaspoon for fast, effective relief. He said those recordings were used to create that sound of Jeff Daniels absolutely losing it in the bathroom.

[Dallas Taylor]

What?

[Daniel Coleman]

Anytime you're recording sound effects, there's a suspension of disbelief that has to happen. And that's part of the art of sound design. You know, portraying something on screen like a bowel movement, but you might not actually be recording the sound of somebody's bowels moving, if you will. So they were staged kind of like Foley type recordings. Do you have any sense for how.

[Dallas Taylor]

They made those sounds? That's producer Nicholas Harder. Who was with me at the mix.

[Daniel Coleman]

Event you mentioned, like, wet cement into a swimming pool. But do you have any idea? I don't. I mean, you know, objects of small to medium size being dumped into.

[Dallas Taylor]

Water.

[Daniel Coleman]

And maybe mud and stuff like that.

[Jesse Herrera]

Right.

[Daniel Coleman]

That's the fun of listening to it as an album of wondering, like, well, how. How is this actually happening? Because I know this is not a.

[Dallas Taylor]

Story. 5 the music of destruction I'm Alan Myerson.

[Nathaniel Smith]

I am a music mixer who specializes in film scores, video games, and music for media. I've been working with Hans for a while and still work with him.

[Daniel Coleman]

That's Hans Zimmer.

[Nathaniel Smith]

Yeah. And we were doing this movie, the Fan.

[Dallas Taylor]

I've been watching you ever since you hit that Grand Islam in the seventh.

[Daniel Coleman]

Against South Bay in the 82 city championships.

[Dallas Taylor]

You remember that? That's when I first saw you as somebody, really.

[Nathaniel Smith]

And this is long before the days of just easy sampling and stuff like that. So for Hans, he wanted to have a lot of, like, heavily metal distortion sounds. So the music editor, Mark Streitenfeld, went to a car junkyard and got a bunch of pieces of car. And, well, I knew it was going to be some sort of sound design, but he told me to. I want you to really crunch it up and make it nasty and everything. So we're hitting it with different things and being big sweeps on the grill heads and everything. And I'm sticking them through guitar amps because that was how you distorted things in those days. So we create all these just, like, crazy, huge, massive sounds. And I'm like, I can't imagine what Hans is going to do with this. And I couldn't wait to hear it.

[Dallas Taylor]

In the movie, Robert De Niro plays an unhinged baseball fan who becomes increasingly violent.

[Nathaniel Smith]

It turned out that what he did with those sounds was he played them so quietly so that they became the noise inside of Robert De Niro's head. Take it, take it, take it, take it.

[Dallas Taylor]

It's for you.

[Nathaniel Smith]

It's a temporary restraining order.

[Daniel Coleman]

What?

[Nathaniel Smith]

You have been served. Hey, listen, Mac, now you need your bed. It was just a brilliant way to use it. That's when I knew that this is my guy.

[Dallas Taylor]

Have you worked with Hans on some other projects?

[Nathaniel Smith]

Oh, I've done the majority of his movies for the last 30 years. So I did all the Pirates movies, all the Tony Scott and Ridley Scott movies, Gladiator, Crimson Tide and the Rock. Did seven Chris Nolan movies with him. More recently, I did Dunes. Half of my major memories in my adult Life have to do with him having that relationship for so long so successfully? I have a lot of gratitude for it because most people don't get that opportunity.

[Jeremy Siegel]

Remote Control Terrors I'm Nathaniel Smith. I'm a freelance independent sound designer, mixer, audio artist, creator, producer, sound guy. When I landed in LA with dreams of being a composer, I was fortunate enough to get my first gig working for one of Hans guys out of Remote Control.

[Dallas Taylor]

Remote Control Productions is Hans Zimmer's film score company. It's based out of a giant campus in Santa Monica, California.

[Jeremy Siegel]

Especially when it's your first place, it's an intimidating, overwhelming and somewhat terrifying environment when you first walk in.

[Dallas Taylor]

Why would that be an intimidating place?

[Jeremy Siegel]

There are very high expectations. There's a line of people out the door and around the block waiting for your job, waiting for that internship. They're just waiting for you to make a mistake. And everybody was very aware of that fact. And then also at the time, Hans was very security oriented. He had, I had been told, had death threats and there had been security concerns. And so security was super tight getting in and coming out of the main building one day I was just. I was a second assistant working on a show and. And we were receiving a hard drive, and the courier came and dropped off the hard drive. So I went out the front door to receive the hard drive and I took the hard drive, said, thank you very much. He turns around to leave, and as he's walking away, a gentleman in a jeans jacket and with like, torn jeans and a graphic T shirt, he comes walking up and he starts walking through the door. And because it had been so drilled into me that we are security minded, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, wait. I can't just let you in. You have to sign in here at the talk to them. So then I turn and I walk away, very proud of myself. And I'm walking down the hallway, and from right behind me, I hear Robert Rodriguez is here for Hans Zimmer.

[Dallas Taylor]

As in Robert Rodriguez, the director of From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Sin City, and many others.

[Jeremy Siegel]

And I was like, oh, super. Good job. Well done, Sin sir.

[Dallas Taylor]

Oh, gosh.

[Jeremy Siegel]

I just don't recognize people. My draw into this industry was never about celebrite. It's always been very much about the art side and the emotional side and the storytelling side. I got to work across the hall from Alan Meyerson.

[Dallas Taylor]

That's Alan Meyerson from the Last Story.

[Jeremy Siegel]

So I got to learn a lot just through osmosis of the philosophy of the art Art making. But I'm working on an independent feature film. It's a super low budget horror thing. Maybe 10 minutes of the film is almost completely devoid of dialogue. It's all audio based, it's all audio storytelling. And so I needed to create this eerie atmosphere, but I wanted it to also be organic. It's disquieting, but it also needs to be familiar, like you need to recognize it as nature sounds. So I took some jungle sounds that were recorded at 192 dots per second, just a higher resolution audio. But most of that resolution is in the upper ranges of our frequency. So it's beyond the human hearing. But when you take that 192 recording of a jungle and you slow it down, a lot of that high end information falls into the human hearing range. You start to hear the upper frequencies of, let's say, crickets or frogs. That is lost because it's beyond our hearing. At normal speed, they are clearly organic sounds. But because it's so slow and because it's reversed and it's been treated in this way, it's still very otherworldly and a little wobbly.

[Dallas Taylor]

All right, one last question. Why does sound matter?

[Jeremy Siegel]

So we're telling stories. Whether it's marketing or it's a movie, or if it's a TV show, it's a human story. Your audience, they're always going to feel your work and they're judging it based on, do I believe it or do I not believe it? When you have great sound, when it's clear, when it's well balanced, when it's well created, it allows the audience to say, yes, this is real. And then they accept the picture that they're given. We have an audience that is really emotionally attached to a lot of the stuff that we do, and they find a lot of emotional catharsis through our artwork. And I see a lot of value in that. But then again, just to couch this, this is my job. This is what I do for a living.

[Daniel Coleman]

So of course, I think it's so.

[Jeremy Siegel]

Important, you know, so I try to remember that we're not solving childhood leukemia here. We're, you know, selling hamburgers and telling stories about aliens. So as important as it is, if we were all erased from the planet tomorrow, no great problems would go unsolved. You know, like climate change and world hunger would continue on without any of our audio participation. So I always try to keep a little bit humble. And I think, honestly, it goes back to that gratitude because it's like, we get to do this for a living. What a dream. But also, yes, the stakes are pretty low. If I really mess up, I might lose some money and that hurts. But like, nobody's dying on the operating table in my studio.

[Dallas Taylor]

20,000 Hz is produced by my sound agency, Defacto Sound. To hear more, follow Defacto Sound on instagram or visit defactosound.com this episode was written and produced by Nicholas Harder and Casey Emerling with help from Grace East. It was sound designed and mixed by.

[Jesse Herrera]

Brandon Pratt with original music by Wesley Slover.

[Dallas Taylor]

Thanks to everyone who stopped in and shared a story with us. And a special thanks to Tom Kenny, the conference organizer, for inviting me to collect these stories. Finally, you can find a link to Jesse's Spruce Goose reverb in the show Notes of this episode, which you can download and use in your own projects. If you'd like to support our show and keep a spotlight on these amazing sound stories, the best way to do that is by joining our premium feedback 20,000Hz plus. With it you'll get our entire catalog, past, present and future, completely ad free. But you'll still get the show announcements and the mystery sound. It helps us a ton. You can sign [e-mail]/ or by tapping subscribe in Apple Podcasts. I'm Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening. One more thing, a quick reminder that you can support 20,000Hz by supporting our sponsors. Even by simply visiting our unique URLs. You'll show these brands that we have an engaged audience that they should care about. And if any of these services sound valuable to you, then take advantage of these offers with our URLs and offer codes. It's a win for you, a win for them, and a win for us. With that in mind, future proof your business with [e-mail] 20k. Find the right candidates fast with Indeed at Indeed.com Hertz make your business idea a reality with Shopify at shopify.com 20k and visit sonos.com to learn more about Sonos sound systems and the incredible Sonos Ace headphones. Finally, while you have a second, go to my YouTube channel Dallas Taylor MP3 and subscribe right now. You don't want to miss what I'm about to launch. All of these links are in the show description. Thanks.

[Tom Kenny]

What is it about the supernatural that's captivated us for generations? Is it the mysterious allure of the unknown, the heart pounding thrill of an unexplainable sighting, or the creeping fear that a life changing encounter could happen to you. Sightings is the new series that puts you at the center of the world's strangest unexplained events. From Roswell to Amityville to Loch Ness and beyond. Each episode combines a never before heard story of an infamous supernatural encounter with mind bending investigations that will leave you questioning what's real and what's impossible. Enter the unexplained with Sightings. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.