Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hans Zimmer Interview

Hans Zimmer Interview April 2011 is filled with interesting comments. Only the first 30seconds are not English of part 1. Parts 2 to 4 are just English.

There is a very interesting comment made on his monitoring environment. He doesn't use a sub woofer as it must come across well without one, but loves surround sound. From the recent SOS magazine studio rescue he also explained that he doesn't use a center speaker. Adding that channel is for the mastering and sound stage mixers.

When doing our own mixes, we are most concerned on how it comes across on normal systems. On ear buds, in the car and on small PC speakers. I think it is just another indication that the world of hi-fi is long gone....

But it is at 2:30 in Part 4 that I really like..

"It did have a quality about it, and I don't think it was just luck, you know.
People are talking about the sonic quality of a series III Fairlight while forgetting the output stage of that thing was the same filter , and I "think" the same VCA , as was in a Jupiter 8 or Prophet 5. I mean they ran through those, you know what ever... SSM chips and that was the filter on that thing, ..um… so there wasn't a reason really it should sound THAT much better than something else as everything else was using the same stuff , but I think there was a design aesthetic, and it is the guys building it.
I think the people that built our instruments, I see them as much as artists as I see them as scientists."

.. as I was the guy that designed the audio producing sections of the Fairlight CMI III.