Movie Music & Heavy Metal
May 20, 2025. I went to the first Japan performance of Hans Zimmer, a film composer I respect and the person who is the reason I chose Cubase, held at Pia Arena MM in Yokohama. It was the best and most impressive show I have seen in recent years. I have written a review of this on my personal Instagram in two parts, just like the show, so please read it if you are interested.
What I want to talk about on this page is the potential of what is called film sound. I have long loved film music and its sound, and I have been exploring that world. I enjoy my days watching and listening to movies and live videos by turning up the volume on the 5.1ch system in my home studio and using sound systems like DTS and Dolby Atmos. The sound card I used to use had a THX booster installed, founded by George Lucas, and I even incorporated it into my mastering (it has since been released as a plugin under a different brand, so I hope to get it at some point). I still remember the excitement of the first time I listened to music on a DTS system as if it were yesterday. The Queen Greatest Hits DVD included that DTS surround mix, and the sound far surpassed the quality of a CD; the resolution was such that it created the illusion that the band was playing right in front of me. Even with the same "Bohemian Rhapsody," the first time I heard it on a cassette tape, it ignited my heart; the remaster I heard on CD defined the direction I was heading; and when I heard it in DTS 5.1ch Surround, it felt like a massive explosion had occurred right in front of me. Because the sound was separated into five speakers and one woofer, I could hear sounds I had never heard before (and now there is even 7.1ch). Although it has since closed down and been replaced by an IMAX, there was a movie theater in Chofu that I could reach by riding my cross bike if I felt like it, and it had a DTS system. I went there to study the differences in sound.
Recently, there are many Dolby Atmos-compatible cinemas in Tokyo, and I enjoy the differences between various theaters, from Yurakucho, which has Dolby Cinema, to Hibiya, Nihonbashi, and Shinjuku, which are Dolby Atmos-compatible. From this experience, I hope to distribute our own works in surround mix or Dolby Atmos someday. These new sound systems born from film sound have had a huge influence on how I listen to and create my own music. Director Mamoru Oshii, famous for "Ghost in the Shell," is said to be so particular about sound that he says, "Half of a movie is sound." I think that is exactly right. Queen's Brian May also said, "Sound is the key," in the audio commentary for "A Night at the Opera." Heavy guitars must be heavier, and funky guitars must have groove.
In recent years, digital guitar amps with high reproduction accuracy have appeared from various brands, but in the early 2000s, they could not match the real amps played in the studio. Even if they felt like the real thing, their texture and low end were thin. So, I used the THX sound card I mentioned earlier to boost them, using that famous low end that plays in the THX opening credits—the ultra-low frequencies I learned from Hans Zimmer—to compensate for what was missing. Oh, which side of the Force was I using? The dark side, of course! (laughs)
When Dolby Atmos appeared, a new world opened up. The same goes for Sony's 360 Reality Audio; it became possible to experience a surround system like 5.1ch through headphones. Not everyone has 5.1ch speakers at home. Thanks to the arrival of Dolby Atmos, an era has come where everyone can experience that surround-mixed music within that space (because everyone has earphones or headphones). For that reason, I bought Dolby Atmos-compatible ones in addition to the old analog earphones I had been using all along. The only reason I, a person who still believes in the physical thrill of buying directly at a record shop rather than with the push of a button, use a subscription service is "to study Dolby Atmos." TuneCore, where we currently release our works, does not yet support the Dolby Atmos format, but I predict that it will in the near future. When that time comes, I want to release our works in Dolby Atmos as well (I updated to the latest version of Cubase last year, so I can now do Dolby Atmos mixes).
In terms of the creative side of sound, plugins specializing in film sound like Spitfire Audio have been released in recent years. Among them is a plugin called LABS that is provided for free, and it greatly awakened my creativity. Just by playing a single note, I could make a whole song. It was so wonderful that I didn't even tell my close friends about it for the first few years. It is used in more than half of the works I have released so far. The piano is not just a piano, and the orchestra also has cinematic saturation applied to it. I had been searching for that kind of sound for a long time.
When I watched the show of Hans Zimmer, whom I respect, from near the right side of the stage, I realized it once again. The fusion of film music and heavy metal—this is the sound I want to explore from now on. The week after I write this page, the Hans Zimmer movie, which has already been released overseas, will finally be released here in Japan for a limited one-week run. Of course, I will go see it on the first day. In Dolby Atmos. I want to re-experience what I experienced with my own eyes, ears, and body in May.
The timeline goes back to the beginning of 2025, four months before this May when I am writing this page, so let's turn the clock back to then. I made the decision to produce a "soundtrack for a movie that has not yet been born into this world."
YEG