by Christopher Walsh. Choglamsar, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir State, India--A stream runs behind the house I'm staying at in this town outside of Leh, one of the major crossroads of Asia until the 1962 Sino-Indian war. It makes a most soothing sound, like that of those "natural sound" machines, although this one really is natural and wonderful to fall asleep and awaken to.

By Clive Young. Fans weren't the only ones shocked and dismayed by the passing of Michael Jackson on Thursday, June 25; colleagues in the recording and live sound industries were likewise saddened by the news that the pop idol had suffered cardiac arrest at age 50.

Culver City, CA--The final mix for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Sony Pictures' Cary Grant Theatre paired effects re-recording mixer Greg Russell with dialog and music re-recording mixer Gary Summers for the first time. Helping distill the soundtrack for one of the most anticipated movies of the summer were co-supervising sound editors Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl. Regular dialog and anything with a vocal component fell under the purview of supervising dialog editor Mike Hopkins, who worked with Van der Ryn and Aadahl on robot vocalizations that required substantial processing.

Culver City, CA--The final mix for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Sony Pictures' Cary Grant Theatre paired effects re-recording mixer Greg Russell with dialog and music re-recording mixer Gary Summers for the first time. Helping distill the soundtrack for one of the most anticipated movies of the summer were co-supervising sound editors Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl. Regular dialog and anything with a vocal component fell under the purview of supervising dialog editor Mike Hopkins, who worked with Van der Ryn and Aadahl on robot vocalizations that required substantial processing.

By Steve Harvey. Culver City, CA--The final mix for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Sony Pictures' Cary Grant Theatre paired effects re-recording mixer Greg Russell with dialog and music re-recording mixer Gary Summers for the first time. Helping distill the soundtrack for one of the most anticipated movies of the summer were co-supervising sound editors Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl. Regular dialog and anything with a vocal component fell under the purview of supervising dialog editor Mike Hopkins, who worked with Van der Ryn and Aadahl on robot vocalizations that required substantial processing.

By Steve Harvey. Culver City, CA--The final mix for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at Sony Pictures' Cary Grant Theatre paired effects re-recording mixer Greg Russell with dialog and music re-recording mixer Gary Summers for the first time. Helping distill the soundtrack for one of the most anticipated movies of the summer were co-supervising sound editors Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl. Regular dialog and anything with a vocal component fell under the purview of supervising dialog editor Mike Hopkins, who worked with Van der Ryn and Aadahl on robot vocalizations that required substantial processing.

The highly-anticipated sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, opens in theaters this Wednesday, June 24. All this week, the Pro Sound News blog goes 'behind the scenes' with the film's sound crew, starting with today's article. In the ensuing days, you'll find in-depth interviews with audio principals, explaining what it took to add thunder to the cinematic spectacle.

by Seamus Fenton. I have been a monitor engineer for some time now. Though I don't consider myself an "RF guy," monitoring radio frequencies seems to be a part of my job. Over the years, I have tried to absorb as much information as possible, from the various people I have worked with who do know about the black art that is the wobbly world of RF (thank you, Sir Barold).

by Clive Young. It's hard to get people excited about documentaries; say the word and folks start picturing PBS specials on larvae mating habits. The few docs that do get people talking are the ones that take a stand to make their point--just look at the controversial works of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock. To a lesser extent, you can add to that list Brett Gaylor, the writer/director behind Rip: A Remix Manifesto, a new flick that examines U.S. copyright law. While the film hits DVD on June 30th, you can already download it for free at ripremix.com; that alone should tell you where Gaylor stands on copyrights.

By Frank Wells. The hearts of Beatles fans the world over are all a flutter over this recent announcement by Apple/EMI: Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are delighted to announce the release of the original Beatles catalogue, which has been digitally re-mastered for the first time,

By Clive Young. When we think of the recording industry, audiobooks aren't the first format that comes to mind. Nonetheless, plenty of audio pros make their living from them; the question now is, for how long? Audiobook sales are down 20 percent so far this year, and according to the Associated Press, their revenues have dropped 47 percent. Can audiobooks be saved?

By Clive Young. My brother celebrated his birthday the other night by dragging friends and family to Karaoke night at a local bar. One of his pals didn’t join us, however, giving the brilliant excuse that he didn’t want to risk catching Swine Flu from the microphone. We all found this pretty amusing--but when I picked up that grungy SM58 and found plenty of spit on it, I suddenly understood where he was coming from. Not to get too technical here, but one word came to mind: “Eww.”

by Christopher Walsh It’s always nice to come across a collective of like minded musicians and audio pros sometimes they are both and one such is the Harlem Parlour Music Club. A group of approximately 14 musicians, HPMC is recording

by Clive Young. These days, we all hear a lot about recycling and “being green.” At the same time, thanks to the economy, many of us are also focused making the most of what we have. For the pro audio world, that usually means retooling that aging computer in the studio to squeeze a little more useful life out of it, or jerry-rigging the mixer in a ratty club to keep it going for a few more months. There’s an art to eking more out of less, and of course, we do a lot of it in the name of presenting art, too.For some artists, however, recycling and revamping waning audio technologies is more than just about use---it’s the art itself.

by Clive Young. More words have been written about the Beatles than any band; every nook and cranny of John, Paul, George and Ringo's private and professional lives has been explored by writers, but until recently, one area remained surprisingly unexamined: the actual recording of the band's classic albums. That problem is rectified by Recording The Beatles, a spare-no-expense, 500-page, 11 lbs. book, housed in a deluxe re-creation of a vintage tape box.

By Frank Wells. As I write, my home AES section, AES Nashville, has just concluded a successful regional event titled the Nashville Recording Workshop + Expo. Two days immersed in audio education targeted at the home studio owner (be they songwriters, musicians or budding engineers) raised an obvious question: When pro level tools are available to everyone, what is the role of the audio professional?

By Clive Young. The Virgin Megastore Times Square closed its doors for good yesterday.

By Christopher Walsh. Not too long ago, I took the L train into Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood to visit Daptone Records. Home to Sharon Jones, house band the Dap Kings, the Sugarman 3 and several others, Daptone recalls another era in many

By Clive Young. I interviewed Mike D and Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys in 1992 one of my first assignments as a budding young writer. It was a complete disaster. The Boys were promoting what is now considered their

by Clive Young. What was the biggest song in the land during the first week of February? According to Billboard, it was Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," which moved 280,000 digital downloads. It was hardly the top tune, however; that honor went to a spur-of-the-moment creation, "Bale Out," by emerging producer/engineer RevoLucian.