Tonebenders Podcast

In this episode Patrick Spence-Thomas does a reading of Dylan Thomas' classic "A Child's Christmas in Wales". Patrick sadly passed away in 2008 after an iconic career as a re-recording mixer and a location sound recordist. The first half of this episode is a quick run down on who Patrick was and some of the work he did, including being both the mixer and narrator for Death Bed: The Bed That Eats!...

In 2025 Johnnie Burn has been busy. As supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer on some of the most talked about films of the year, he has jumped between working on the emotional roller coaster Hamnet, the incredibly tense Bugonia and the terrifying 28 Years Later. Three very different films that are all lead by director's with very specific visions. Johnnie takes us on a spoiler free journ...

It seems like Guillermo del Toro's whole career has been leading up to Frankenstein. Part of that progression has been building a great trust with the sound team he has been collaborating with for over a decade. Supervising sound editors Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira, Re-recording Mixer Brad Zoern and foley artist Goro Koyama join me for this episode to discuss working on their biggest del T...

Gisle Tveito has been dreaming up the sounds in director Joachim Trier's films since 2006 and the two have collaborated again on the wonderful new film Sentimental Value. Gisle joins me to talk about the challenges of working on the sound for quiet, internal films. Including building an emotional map of the entire movie to determine where the sonic focus changes occur. He also discusses how he att...

At this years Toronto International Film Festival I got to interview a bunch of sound people in town to support films screening at TIFF. This episode collects 3 of those interviews, covering some of the international films that I saw during the festival. First up I talk with Oscar winning sound supervisor, Sylvain Bellmare, about the Quebecois film Mille secrets mille dangers (Lovely Day). Then Th...

Sinners was a massive critical and box office hit earlier this year. The sound work was a major reason audiences flocked to see it. Part Vampire/Horror, part period gangster and part full blown musical, Sinners is not a film that needed a standard approach to it's sound design and mix. Re-recording mixer Brandon Proctor, Supervising Sound Editor Benny Burtt, Supervising Dialogue & ADR Editor David...

Listeners of Tonebenders sent in their favourite stories of their adventures recording sounds out in the world. This is part one, of two, featuring these amazing soundscapes from all over the world. Recordings were sent in of sounds from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Australia, England, Palau, Laos, Poland, Botswana, Germany, Albania, Switzerland, Canada and The USA. So get ready for a sonic trip around the wo...

Viktor is an impressive documentary that relies on sound to tell it’s story. The film’s protagonist is a deaf photographer living in Ukraine, documenting the Russian invasion of of his country after he finds out he is not allowed to sign up as a soldier. Using innovative sound design to immerse the audience in Viktor’s POV (or more accurately POH, point of hearing), the film focuses on his frustra...

In Part 2 of this in-depth interview with James Mather we talk more about his work as Supervising Sound Editor on the final 4 Harry Potter films (Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hollows Pt 1&2). James digs into the sound of the horcrux and how the overall sound design was able to become more complex/scary as the main characters grew up. There is also an added bonus of a mini inter...

The sound design in the Harry Potter series completely changed the way audiences expect magic to sound on screen. Those magical sounds also had to evolve as the series went on, to match the skills developed by the main characters. James Mather was the Supervising Sound Editor on the final 4 films in the series (Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hollows Pt 1&2) and in this episode he...

Last year I got to go to the Sonic Days Conference in Denmark, to do a bunch of interviews with the various people doing presentations about their sound work. With the schedule and presenters for the 2025 edition of the conference now announced, these interviews can give you an idea of what to expect. First up is Shelley Roden, foley artist from Skywalker Sound. Next, game Sound Designer, Katrine...

Directors Domee Shi & Madeline Sharafian, join the show to talk about their approach to collaborating with the audio post team on the newest Pixar film, Elio. Re-recording Mixer Bonnie Wild & Supervising Sound Editor/Sound Designer Jeremy Bowker are also on board to share how they built the soundscape of the "Communiverse", a friendly and warm version of outer space. Together the directors and sou...

Dick Maitland has worked on the sound for over 4,700 episodes of Sesame Street, starting with the show back in 1969. 50 years into the show's run, Steve "Major" Giammaria joined the show as re-recording mixer, and had to quickly get up to speed on all the iconic sounds found on Sesame Street. Together they walk us through the sonic history of one of the most important television programs of all ti...

Michael Babcock (re-recording mixer/sound designer/supervising sound editor) talks about the challenges of the sound work for KPop Demon Hunters. The animated film has quickly become a world wide sensation and Netflix's most watched title ever (523.6 million viewer hours)! Michael calls the project the most challenging film he has ever worked on. Coming up with sound design that compliments the ma...

Director Zach Cregger's latest film, Weapons, has been both a critical and a box office success. One of the film's biggest strengths is it's distinctive sound work, created by Luciano Vignola (Supervising Sound Editor & Re-Recording MIxer), Filipe Messeder (Sound Designer & Re-Recording Mixer) and Jake O’Brien (Dialogue Editor). They discuss what makes a jump scare work, the importance of ambience...

This episode is a re-podcast of a live panel from last year's Sonic Days Conference, in Denmark. The panelists explore the creative process behind game audio development, diving into strategies for fostering innovation, overcoming creative blocks, and enhancing collaboration in the industry. The panel is made up of: Richard Lapington, Audio Director, Remedy Entertainment Katrine Amsler, Sound Desi...

Black Mirror has consistently been a ground breaking series over the show's decade plus run. It has set a high standard within the sound community as well. The recent release of Season 7, keeps that sonic bar extremely high, especially on the Emmy nominated episode "USS Callister: Into Infinity". Supervising Sound Editor Tom Jenkins, Music Editor Poppy Kavanagh & Re-Recording Mixer James Ridgway t...

The Righteous Gemstones is a big broad comedy about excess, except for the first episode of season 4, which takes place nearly 200 years before the main series. With the American Civil as the backdrop, this story is gritty and dirty, a complete departure from the bulk of the series. Pee-wee as Himself is a disarming documentary playing with what is true and what is Hollywood gamesmanship. Featurin...

How is it possible that it took until the 322nd episode of Tonebenders for a discussion about the sound design of the Star Trek franchise?! This episode, featuring two guests that have collectively worked on over a 150 episodes within the Star Trek universe, will finally give us a chance to dig deep into the iconic sounds of Star Trek. James Lucero (Supervising Sound Editor), from Star Trek Lower...

The audio post teams from both The Penguin and Season 2 of The Last Of Us, sit down together to hash out the work they did on their respective series. Workflows are discussed and compared, favourite sound moments are shared and many other challenges, that must be overcome in these types of prestige series, are opened up. From The Last Of Us, Michael Benavente (Supervising Sound Editor) & Samuel Ej...

Adolescence is a limited series on Netflix consisting of 4 episodes, each made up of a single continuous hour long take. This "one-er" format presented tremendous challenges to the sound team, both on set and in post production. Intense planning was needed in order to capture everything in production, and constant panning was needed in the mix to keep the sound locked to the shifting camera moveme...

This episode has been a long time coming. I have been trying to figure out how to tackle a discussion about A.I. and it’s influence on how sound editors will all be able to do our work in the future. So when the MPSE put out a press release about A.I. created work and it’s eligibility at their Golden Reel Awards, I saw it as a chance to broach the subject. David Barber, MPSE President, and Brent F...

Recorded in the legendary Formosa Trident Studios, this talk features someone on the sound team from every James Bond film released since 1973?!!!! Michael Fentum ( Sound Editor on No Time To Die), Karen Baker Landers (Supervising Sound Editor on Skyfall & Spectre), Mike Prestwood Smith (Re-recording Mixer on Casino Royal & Quantum of Solace) and Graham Hartstone (Re-Recording Mixer on Moonraker,...

Fresh off of receiving 2 Emmy nominations, for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, the audio team from The Bear sits down to talk about their work on the latest season of the acclaimed series. Re-Recording Mixer & Supervising Sound Editor Steve "Major" Giammaria, Dialog Editor Evan Benjamin and Production Sound Mixer Scott Smith, break down the many challenges this series presents, both on set and in...

Tonebenders' host, Tim Muirhead, tells tales of some of his favourite field recording (mis)adventures and invites all the podcasts' listeners to send in their own stories of capturing interesting sounds in the wild. Tim shares stories of recording in unusual places, when strangers find microphones left to record on their own, his favourite sound he has ever recorded and lots more. To get full deta...