The Sound of Godzilla

The latest episode in the SoundWorks Collection video series looks at the sound of Godzilla.

Host Michael Coleman talks with Supervising Sound Editor, Sound Designer Erik Aadahl and Supervising Sound Editor Ethan Van der Ryn about the sound of Director Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla.

This 45-minute conversation covers the creative and technical process that the sound team of E2 used to create the sound of the king of all monsters, Godzilla.

6 thoughts on “The Sound of Godzilla

  1. 4’15 – ‘The ingredients of Godzilla’s roar will remain secret”

    Not if I can help it…the original roar from the Japanese originals (miles better than the one shown and heard) was done by dipping a rubber glove in rosin (the stuff you apply on violin bridges), then rubbing it against the strings of an upright bass. The tape machine on which the results were recorded was then slowed down/sped up to taste.

    In 7’30, you can see them trying to do the same with a goddamn running shoe.
    Spare me the BS, Hollywood, please!

    1. Is it BS? If you’d been working on a film for three years as they say they had, I’m sure you’d end up doing some pretty crazy things to get interesting sounds eventually. A running shoe sole is also rubber so it’s not that different to a rubber glove.
      I would like to hear someone recreate the sound with a rosin soaked glove out of curiosity but to be honest, when they used the original Gojira roar sound in Shin Godzilla, it sounded a bit mono and unimpressive in comparison to the rest of the carnage so I’m not surprised they had to re-record it for 2014.

  2. Toho is very strict about the sounds. I put together a lot of the sounds for a popular Godzilla videogame, and it was a real challenge. We got a lot of source from them, but I didn’t always have the right sounds for the right monsters. Sometimes I’d try to sneak a sound over from one monster to another. They’d usually catch it and make us take it out. They were a little bit more tolerant of edits to the sounds to add variety.

Leave a Reply to rafael guinle Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *