This article was taken from the May 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Andy Thom's office at Skywalker Ranch sits tucked into the Northern California gully where some of cinema's most iconic sound effects were created, from the whip cracks of Raiders of the Lost Ark to the explosions in The Empire Strikes Back. That rich sonic history permeates the sound designer's workspace. Among the digital tools are analogue curiosities such as archaic microphones and reel-to-reel tape decks; the walls are lined with framed posters from the more than 100 films he's worked on. His studio is a testament to the vital role sound plays in our favourite movies.
OscarsAlongside industry icons such as Ben Burtt and Walter Murch, Thom fought to give sound design the same priority as visual design in cinema. So far he's won two Oscars, one for 1983's The**Right Stuff, and the other for 2004's The Incredibles.
**Apocalypse Now (Japanese poster)**Thom's first job in film was working as a sound effects recordist on Apocalypse Now. This Japanese version of the poster was designed by the late Eiko Ishioka, who won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design on Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Avid Pro Tools and SoundminerLike most audio pros, Thom runs Pro Tools. He uses a search engine called Soundminer to sift through Skywalker’s massive sound library: it contains 11,000 different wind effects alone.
Meyer speakersSkywalker Sound upgraded its audio systems in 2014. It replaced most of the speakers in editing bays and in the Stag Theater, its private screening room, with cabinets from Berkeley-based Meyer Sound. Thom has a 7.1 setup in his office. One of Meyer Sound's first products was the 650 subwoofer created for the 70mm version of Apocalypse Now.
Portable tape recordersSmall reel-to-reel units such as these were the go-to rigs for movie and television production for nearly four decades. Earlier recorders had to be hauled around on trucks, but portable battery-powered models gave directors access to locations they'd never had before.
Shure Brothers single-button carbon micBefore he was a sound designer, Thom worked in radio and music recording, hence his love of old-timey mics. Spring-mounted carbon mics were popular for radio broadcasting in the 20s. The springs keep the carbon granules inside the transmitter from touching the diaphragm during operation.
RCA Type 77-DX micThe RCA Type 77 was the benchmark of mic design from the mid-50s to the late 60s. Thom purchased this one for 1983's The Right Stuff, the film that earned him his first Oscar. He recently used it to track dialogue for Fox's forthcoming The Peanuts Movie. "We wanted to be faithful to the old ribbon-microphone sound of the old Peanuts recording."
Nagra III recorderThom considers analogue recorders such as the Nagra to be ideal for capturing explosions, since the tape compresses peak frequencies and creates a sound more "pleasant to the ear" than digital distortion.
Schoeps stereo microphone setupUsed for outdoor recording, this rig has two mics in a midside stereo arrangement: one mic picks up sounds coming from straight ahead; the other, a bidirectional unit, picks up sounds from the sides. Combine the two signals in the right way and you get a reproduction of the stereo field, Thom explains. "It's kind of cool."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
