Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1353865
44 I M PS E . O R G So, if I was happy with it, the sound of the engine, I could move on to the next thing. I started my business (Fury and Grace) in the '90s, so I recorded all of that stuff on a digital medium of some sort. It was either recorded on a Sony Betacam digital audio recorder or (I had) one of the first DAT recorders. My manual was in Japanese! SSS: Wow! JJ: We got the engine sound right. Sometimes it would be a composite of a big block sound, and then we had this small block Chevy engine because it sounded a little more clicky, so we used that for idles then cross over to the big block sound. We also had to have recordings that afforded us a kind of mic'ing situation where the tail pipes are mic'd and the mid-section usually under the wheel wells were mic'd and the engine was mic'd and then the interior of the car was mic'd because we were working with Atmos, so you could take all of these shapes and move them all over. Ideally, as I tell these guys, I want it accelerating every time you cut to an exterior, accelerate it. It's all of those sorts of details like that. SSS: Little tricks… JJ: Little tricks. I think we nailed the personality of Sparma's car. (Bright green 1970 Chevy Nova) SSS: Were you recording Sparma's car or did you create it out of your FX library? JJ: I actually purchased it. I found it.The production car they had, it was a one-off because that was a Chevy 2 Nova and usually they came with a small block 350 V8, but somebody stuffed a big block engine in it. It was like a unicorn. It got so restrictive (because of COVID) about what we would have to do to record that car, so I went and got my credit card out and found the car I wanted, but not quite, and then took it and manipulated it and the recordings are quite good. SSS: YOU BOUGHT A CHEVY NOVA??? JJ: I bought a Chevy Nova… SSS: Get out… JJ: The library sweetie, the library, not the whole car… (laughs) SSS: Oh, OK. You bought an FX library. JJ: I bought a library and it was out of Sweden I think. It hit two things. I don't think too many people use this library. I didn't recognize it. SSS: That's a good thing! JJ: Yeah, yeah. I know that I'll get some flack for it, and there's great recordings of cars out there. This is mine. I took this. I used this. It fit the bill. At this age, I'm sort of like, I'm not a snob anymore. There's an expression that says, "Talent borrows, genius steals." (laughs) SSS: (laughs) That's brilliant! I feel (L-R) Denzel Washington and John Lee Hancock. Photo: Nicola Goode. © 2021 Warner Bros.