Audio Branding

“I don’t think AI quite has us figured out yet because, as human beings, we’ll listen to sad songs to feel better. I don’t think it understands that. That’s true, it’s contrary… Yeah, I mean, I think that AI has its place. I’m not all against it, just as a matter of course, I just think that it shouldn’t replace our creativity. That’s what makes us human, and I don’...

“That’s one of the biggest things that scares me the most about composing with AI. It’s that, whatever AI model you’re on, how was it trained, and was that material copyrighted? And was there any kind of permission for that to happen? And you, as the end user, don’t know.” – Laney McCormick

This episode features a pair of guests who are passionate about helping creatives elevate their storie...

“We did a sort of special launch episode with the King, um, who’s so knowledgeable, so passionate, you know. I don’t know whether he’d just read up about it, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like it really tapped into something that he wants to talk about and knows how to talk about. Um, so yeah, a dream guest, frankly, in so many ways. Um, and Kate’s a great interviewer, and there are anoth...

“So the answer to why is that podcasts, whether they’re audio only or, nowadays, the vast majority are including video as well, provide a depth and a nuance and a detail of conversation that is almost impossible to get anywhere else. So, you know, we live in an age where people are scanning TikTok and brands are trying to catch your attention for three seconds. And they feel like that’s a triumph. If you’ve ...

“Scientifically, it’s because that voice is vibration. So when it’s vibration, it needs a medium to be heard. Like, if we are in outer space, we hear nothing because there’s no medium to convey the sound. And then once we’re back on Earth, we have media. And when we are listening to ourselves, the sound is vibrating in the head. So, the medium, the media, they are liquid, they are solid, the bones, so ...

“I think one thing we mentioned just now, which is equanimity, that, of course, for them, they didn’t realize the word. It was also something, the word that I’ve learned over the pandemic, so I think that’s one thing where that equanimity, how you can stay grounded and centered, even if you are going through chaos, even if there is chaos in your head. So how you can stand grounded, and you can sound calm whe...

“I guess that’s encouraging, and it’s scary at the same time, because, you know, there are a lot of people in the industry that depend on the creativity that they’ve worked years and years and years to kind of master and to get to this point. And then all of a sudden, someone says, I don’t want to pay this person. Let’s just have AI do it. And, you know, it does a comparable job, if not better. S...

“Sound is a really important part of how I make movies because I always tell people that if the sound is good and the picture is bad, then you’ll stick around to see what happens. However, if the sound is terrible and the picture is great, you’re out of there in like ten minutes. So sound is something that I always cherish. And I think that the right filmmaker who appreciates sound can really take advantage of wha...

“When I do see really powerful sonic branding, it’s impressive. It stands out, you know? There was one I looked at, it was a luxury airline, or it was a luxury-like experience, I want to say. They sold, like, really specific vacations to remote parts of the world that were really luxury experiences and really interesting, and they had a really cohesive sonic branding that wasn’t music. It was just an intentional s...

“Our brain really prioritizes vocal signals. They’re super important to the brain because human communication is a really big priority for us as a species. It’s a deep signal in our brain, right? And so, we were seeing a stronger reaction to the screams than to the music, and that sort of makes sense. There were more intricacies to that, but I can’t really remember the exact brain areas and all that. But it ...

“I grew up near the west coast here in Denmark, so yeah, the sea has always been there. And Aarhus is also a harbor city, so definitely there’s something relaxing about going down to the water and hearing the whistling. We implemented that in Necesse, actually. We have a water fountain that’s spatial, so that when you get near to it, you hear it rustling. You can sit by it and actually get the feeling that you&rsq...

“When I started on the project of Necesse, we had maybe thirty sound effects. I’ve made around 400, 350 sound effects, so it’s become much more immersive. You can hear animals when you wander around in the different environments. And just the feedback you get by playing the game, it’s quite nice compared to before, which were much more… maybe empty is the right word.” – Rune Eskildsen

This ...

“I think that sound drives the emotion of a scene, right? As much as dialogue, right? Sound and music, score in particular… I just think it helps to create emotion in a scene or augments the performances. Because you gotta have great performances, but great performance coupled with, you know, great sound design or a great score, it just makes you feel, it does something, it makes you tingle. It does something to you th...

This episode’s guest is an award–winning supervising sound designer whose groundbreaking work has shaped the sound of some of television and film’s most iconic projects, including Netflix’s hit series Forever and Kevin Hart’s animated comedy Lil Kev. Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, he rose through the ranks of Hollywood post-production, breaking barriers as one of the few Black sound desi...

“The reason why brands and companies should be thinking about audio is because all of their consumers are, whether they know it or not. I mean, to your point about people knowing when something doesn’t feel right but not necessarily knowing why, a lot of times it’s audio. Especially now too, with so much AI slop and the level of inauthenticity that is being broadcasted, a really great song jingle, like a really we...

“To your point, like it can make or break campaigns, can make or break TV and film. I mean, you know, there’s mumblegate that’s happening, like with all the streamers where I can’t understand half the things that are being spoken... And in the interview, he was like, ‘Well, it’s just not important to me.’ I’m like, what?” – David Gielan

This week’s guest is a six-time...

“Live is always going to be great. Human connection is the only thing that will differentiate AI from people and from artists. And that is, I think, going to be the key lever that artists have left. So in the same way as you might go and buy a handmade coffee cup for $20 from an artisan stall when you can buy one for a dollar in Walmart, music will still hold great value.” – David Courtier-Dutton

This episode is th...

“When you hand it to the composer in sonic branding, at that point, it becomes an art, because the job of the composer, of course, is to translate those desired emotions into music. And it’s not [the] music that the composer feels, it is what it makes the audience feel when they hear it, and that is almost pure art. We have done some science around it, and we know what might help in terms of instrumentation and timbre a...

One topic that comes up quite often on Audio Branding is audio technology, and how far it’s come over just the last few years. Whether it’s choosing the right sound equipment, deciding if you should record with noise cancellation turned on (and just for the record, you shouldn’t), or taking advantage of advanced recording options like 3-D audio and Dolby Atmos, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to soun...