@coolcataudio
Sound + music for media. Sound edit/ design, audio restoration, VO, custom music, ADR + final mix for arts and commerce. Mix engineering + mastering for music artists. Posts by (bald) studio head Mike Hallenbeck. coolcataudio.com
animated/ directed by Sishir Bommakanti (captured here in a dual selfie with yours truly) and scored, sound designed and mixed by my studio Cool Cat Audio. Kudos to Jules for putting together such a lovely program!
Heart full of films after a sold-out screening of experimental work curated by Cellular Cinema, including the Hellavision Web 5000 intro... <more>
For real this time, Sishir Bommakanti’s intro to the Hellavision “Web 5000.0” animation anthology, featuring voiceover engineering, original music, sound design, and mix by Cool Cat Audio, appears as part of Cellular Cinema at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, rescheduled for Sunday March 8th at 7 PM!
More info on the screening in comments. I’ll also link to a call from the Museum for stories and art.
Following a chronological pilgrimage through the homes where Prince lived—from birth to death—the filmmaker searches for traces of the artist in the places he has left behind, drawing on 9 years of documentation in Minnesota.”
Balazs, director of The People's Museum for Prince, calls the film “an intimate meditation on grief, love, and transformation in the wake of Prince's death.
Excited to share that the short documentary “Dearly Beloved” by Australian filmmaker E.C. Balazs, featuring audio post production by Cool Cat Audio, will screen at Atlanta Documentary Film Festival on March 22nd at 5 pm.
Today I got on a Google meet with someone, and we were having audio problems (I couldn't hear her), and the solution was for her to move her laptop to another room. Pretty sure she was using WiFi. This makes no sense to me as an audio fix. Anyone know what I'm missing?
Read The Wire’s review within the accompanying images, and pick up a copy of the book at museumofportablesound.com!
by penning a brief guide to “Modern Microphone Basics”. This is somewhat analogous to having played bass on one song of an album, and seeing the album reviewed in Rolling Stone soon thereafter… pretty exciting. <more>
Super psyched that the UK’s Wire magazine, a preeminent publication in the realm of experimental sonics, recently reviewed John Kannenberg’s “A Brief History of Sound Recording”-- presented by Dr. Kannenberg’s Museum of Portable Sound, and in which I played a teeny role... <more>
Dan Gaarder, the AM Rocker himself, stopped by my studio Cool Cat Audio at 10 am last week to lay down some 12-string acoustic guitar on the country Christmas song I wrote for 10 Items or Fewer. If we’re lucky, he’ll be singing lead on it as well!
Is there something about being a K-pop demon hunter that's superior to being, say, just a regular demon hunter? The K-pop ones do seem to be more in demand, I have to say.
The word is that we’ll be hearing more from these sessions in the future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I’m sure you’ll agree that Jaron Childs is one of the good ones.
Jaron wanted a warts-and-all export of the track, without any de-clicking or removal of thumps, bumps, etc– just loud and full enough to stand on its own among other commercial releases.
As with the rest of the recordings, the track’s lo-fi rawness allows me to imagine Neil Young hiring Daniel Johnston to produce “Harvest Moon” on a boom box in 1983.
The first release from this collection is a Bandcamp single called “I Saw Jack at the Pulpit”, a reimagining of Will Oldham’s “(I Was Drunk At The) Pulpit” with new lyrics.
In July 2025, Jaron recorded a song a day on his phone as part of an online creative accountability group. He decided to release a group of the songs, and tapped Cool Cat Audio for a finishing pass on the recordings, to bring everything even and let it all sit together right.
It’s been a pleasure to master this release by Tomahawk, WI-based Jaron Childs. Hear it here: jaronchilds.bandcamp.com/track/i-saw-...
Grateful that a musical composition of mine recently received a placement on CBS Sports’ World Series of Poker. It’s my hope that the cue accompanied at least one touchdown made by the players. Let’s go Lynx!
the film will screen at Napa’s Yountville International Short Film Festival on Saturday night, January 31st and in Oregon’s Willamette Valley at on Sunday afternoon, March 1st at McMinville Short Film Fest. Enjoy! <end>
Both showings, I’m told, will take place in wine country. Described as “a little dick-pic rom-com dose of laughs, female POV, non-toxic masculinity, and sweetness”... <more>
Some more festival screenings of “The Pic”, a comedy short written, directed by, and starring Frances Chewning and featuring #sounddesign and mix by yours truly at Cool Cat Audio. <more>
Some images from recent tracking on Rhiannon’s next Mama Faerie project, which she photographed from inside the booth at Cool Cat Audio. <more>
Programming will also feature work by Andy Graydon, plus that of a bunch of people I don’t know, but who I look forward to meeting (or just witnessing their work if they’re not there). At least 1 piece will (as far as I can tell) feature live choreography.
There’ll be a filmmaker Q&A too. Enjoy!
Rising from slumber like Cthulu + curated by Kevin Obsatz, Cellular Cinema describes itself as “an artist-run #experimentalfilm showcase for films u might not find in traditional theaters... we are home to any moving image art that is strange, risky, or difficult to categorize.”
The Hellavision Television Web 5000.0 intro, directed by Sishir Bommakanti and featuring sound design and original music by yours truly, continues its theatrical rampage this week at Cellular Cinema, Thursday Jan 8th, 7 pm at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater. <more>
Such odd synchronicity that the button beeps on my microwave (electronically generated) are exactly one octave above the (mechanical) drone of the machine as it... microwaves. That couldn't be on purpose, could it? I doubt it.
