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A Look Back On 2021

Picture by Tim Nielsen from our Gear Obsession Roundtable episode.

Pretty much the best thing that can be said about 2021 is that it was, maybe, a bit better than the tire-fire that was 2020?  In spite of this, for The Tonebenders Sound Design Podcast, it was a really fun year.  We were able to release some of our all-time favourite episodes, and we had great talks with a wide range of audio professionals. We also launched our first crowd sourced sound library! If you have not yet made plans to take part, all the info is here in the blog post from December 14th.

It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to look back at the end of each year and celebrate the ‘most listened to’ episodes of the past 12 months. This is of course an unfair metric for episodes that come out late in the calendar year, but based on the feedback we got from listeners, this year’s rankings feel pretty accurate.

First things first: we send out a massive thank-you to all of the 68 (!) guests we had on Tonebenders in 2021. We deeply appreciate that they offered their time to talk shop with us and share their knowledge with our listeners.

And speaking or our listeners…  a huge thanks to all of you! 2021 was our biggest year yet for listens. This is something really special to us. Not a lot of other shows can say that they’re still gaining steam going into their tenth year of podcasting!  (That’s right, we quietly celebrated our ninth anniversary this past September. So 2022 will mark the ‘Big One-Oh’ for us!)

OK, without further delay, here are the Top Five Most Listened To Tonebenders Episodes of 2021!

169 – Building a Backyard Studio Roundtable

This episode was Number One by a large margin. Probably because it came along at just the right time. Lots of people are working from home these days, and the dream of building a backyard or garden studio is on the minds of many.  Our guests Lucy Mitchell and Al Sirkett had great advice.

177 – The Sound of Dune

How can you go wrong when you put Dave Whitehead and Mark Mangini together?!  Add in Theo Green, and this episode was destined to be a juggernaut. So many great stories and ideas are tossed around in this talk.  It’s one of our all-time favourites!

171 – Billie Eilish The World’s A Little Blurry

It seems like anything with Billie Eilish’s name attached to it soars these days. The sound team behind this great music doc had lots of interesting challenges to overcome. We also hear from director RJ Cutler, who offers thoughts on his approach to documentary sound. A great combination of insights. 

168 – WandaVision

Marvel continued its domination of all media, absolutely crushing it with their first streaming series, WandaVision.  The sound team was a major factor in the show’s success. And four women sound leads on this show is a milestone we are happy to note.

Strangely, we have a 3 way tie for 5th place?!

166 The Killing of Two Lovers

This is the little film that could! Made on a very small budget, the director leaned on sound to fill in lots of story points that were never on screen… and the sound team delivered!  This is a film everyone should make an effort to see and — more importantly — hear.

157 – Recording Wolves With Melissa Pons

This is a great interview about recording wolves while living in a wildlife sanctuary in Portugal.  The sounds Melissa captured are haunting and beautiful. 

167 – Putting Tropes To Rest

This was a fun episode! Teresa, René, Tim, and guest Mark Mangini combed through some of the biggest cinematic audio tropes and debated what makes them work, and in many cases, not work.  This episode has more laughs per minute than any other Tonebenders episode. 

We had so many great talks this year that it feels weird not to mention more of them. We put out a bunch of round table talks on subjects like Sound Design for Boxing and MMAUnderwater Sound DesignRecording Sound in DesertsSound Design for Series Animation (which even had a part II), Running Sound Effect Crowd Sources and Dealing with Gear Obsession.  Round tables are our favourite format and we hope to do lots more in the future.  If you have an idea for a round table conversation, please let us know!

We also added a new correspondent — Mark Kilborn! He helped us do more in 2021 to cover the Game Audio world, getting great interviews with the people behind the sound of Returnal and Forza Horizon 5. Mark is a major addition to the team and we are so proud to have him on our crew.

You may have noticed we have ported over 120 of our episodes to YouTube. If you like consuming podcasts on YouTube instead of more traditional pod-catchers, here is a playlist you can subscribe to and get every episode as it is added.

In the latter part of this year we also started including full transcripts to most episodes. These can be found on each episode’s homepage here on this site. We hope this new feature helps people enjoy our talks in new ways.

In 2021 we were able to put checkmarks next to some names on our “Dream Guests” list, including Sergio DiazRen KlyceMac SmithBonnie Wild & Dave Acord, Chris ScarabosioNicolas Becker and Craig Henighan! (There are a few more from the wish list that will be showing up early 2022!)

If you are new to our podcast, please take the time to take a look back through our feed. Most of our episodes are evergreen and will be worth a listen months or even years down the road.

Thanks for joining us over the last 12 months. We are having a blast putting these episodes together. Seeing those listens tally up and knowing that you’re out there makes it feel worthwhile. 

One thing we ask of you is to simply pass the word along. Whether it’s with your work colleagues or classmates, if you like an episode, take a moment to share a link with them. Word of mouth, Tweets and shared posts really help bring new listeners to the podcast.

Let’s head into 2022 with our heads up and our microphones out! 

Finally, stay tuned! We are starting the new year with a bang. The guests in our upcoming episodes are amazing and you won’t want to miss them!

*Featured Picture at top of page courtesy of Thomas Rex Beverly, from our Recording in the Desert Roundtable

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