Tom Disher a Composer, Sound Designer and Audio Post Engineer
An Emmy (John Wooden: Victory, Values and Peace of Mind, 2001) 5 Addies, a degree in piano performance and 4 years of post grad composition, orchestration and electronic music studies are balanced with 5 long years in the “school of hard knocks” on the road with a variety of performers.
Tom is passionate about bringing your story to life through music and sound. Whether it’s intense and powerful, simple and heartfelt, or quirky and unexpected, Tom knows how to elicit the perfect sound- both hands-on, and conducting an ever widening stable of world class musicians and sound designers.
Decades of experience mixing and editing means you get a nuanced soundtrack that delivers your story with style. Son of an aero-space engineer, technical details have an organic fluency that translate into artistic excellence.
— Tell us briefly how you got into this field. How did you start making music for movies?
-I got a degree in classical piano, then went to “the school of hard knocks “on the rock’n’roll road to hell (laughs). Then I went back to Graduate school for composition, where I was a graduate assistant in charge of the electronic music studio at Hartt college. A couple of years later, I walked into an audio post-studio and never left, but the guy who ran it did! So, that was 1993 when I got my first film to score.
— You are an Emmy Award winner. How did it happen, and for what composing work did you get it?
— I got an Emmy in 2001 for “John Wooden: Victory, Values, and Peace of Mind” – music composition, Northern California. Paul Zahnley CAS, our lead engineer, also won 2 Emmys for his mixes: “Coastal Clash” and “Sin Fire and Gold” 2002, 2003 Sound Northern California. We got a bunch of Addies as well and numerous other awards.
— What are the most famous cartoons and movies you’ve made in terms of sound?
-We did ADE (that’s dialogue dubbing) for Robert Redford in his film “The company you keep “. He was amazing to work and hang out with over dinner. We also did ADR for the matchmaker character in the most recent Mulan. ADR for the villain in “13 reasons”, “Hawaii five-0”, “Deadly Cheers”, too many to remember. We mixed over 50 episodes of “Aerial America”. We recorded dialogue for “Hamilton” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” theatrical productions. The list is long, but we have smaller roles in big films and more significant roles in smaller ones.
— How many musical instruments can you play?
-A piano is my main instrument. I have over 60 different flutes: the C concert, bass alto, and piccolo, a complete range of Dizi (Chinese flutes with a buzzing membrane), the Xiao, the Peruvian flute, and Japanese Shakuhachi, which are end-blown, Native American flutes, Irish fifes, tin whistles, pan pipes, a full range of Indian Bansuri — lots more.
I have a Celtic harp and a Guzheng (Chinese Zither), tons of drums and percussion from around the world, a full collection of harmonicas, a melodica.
I took guitar lessons, but I’m not a real guitarist. I play some parts myself, but when it comes to complex pieces, I hire people who have dedicated their lives to that. Same with strings and bass. I own a cello, violin viola, French horn, and trumpet, but I only play them myself for unique parts. Otherwise, I hire a conservatory-trained virtuoso! I have an understanding of the instruments because I have practiced with them, which helps me write for musicians.
I also sing and use my voice to make sound effects. I make instruments from odd materials. My favorites are made from kelp – the seaweed. They play like a horn from a sad and lonely corner of the ocean, or like an angry storm, or like a didgeridoo, of which I also own and play.
I just rented a clarinet and oboe and bought some Chinese reed instruments, but I wouldn’t play them for anything yet, ex you ruin a party!
— What has Disher Sound been working on recently?
-We are just finishing a feature animation called “Run Tiger Run” by Soular Animation in Shenzhen, China. I composed 65 minutes of music for the orchestra plus Chinese traditional instruments. We had seven sound designers/editors on our team, including those who worked on Star Wars and Marvel films. Our Re-recording engineer Paul Zahnley CAS did the mix in 7.1 surround in our Dolby Atmos compliant mixing stage. It was amazingly fun – the film is stunningly beautiful, the story both funny and intense, and it’s extremely well crafted.
—A Chinese film – so it was in Mandarin?
-Yes, and we are also mixing the Cantonese version. The voices were recorded in Beijing by some truly excellent actors. We don’t speak the language, but we have handled close to a thousand non-English projects: films, documentaries, commercials – interactive media in various capacities. Obviously, the dialogue needs to be approved by a supervisor, but hearing the sound of the voice, finding the most beneficial processes to bring out the personality, and smoothing out any harshness is a skill set we have been perfecting since 1993.
— Will they translate “Run Tiger Run” to English and other languages? What is the process like?
-It depends on the success of the movie! We’ve dealt with the dubbing process in both directions. The really fun one was Yuri Volodarski’s animated feature, “Animal Wars”. It’s a hilarious film, and the animation is absolutely lovely – hand-drawn full motion. It’s classic top-shelf artwork. The story is really great, full of slapstick and exciting action, and originally done in Russian. So, of course, the task for the translation is both: to fit the meaning, the mouth movement, and make it funny in the new language. After an initial translation pass, it boiled down to Yuri and his team in the studio working with the talents, who are all great comic improvisers: trying out different approaches to the various lines and seeing what was “funny in English”! We were laughing like crazy: having a great time and keeping very precise notes of lots of alternative approaches to the same moment. Then, a quick edit of several takes to make the select “punching in “a better ending to the joke, and quickly on to the next. Sometimes in the post-recording review, we would pull out a different take for comparison, and Yuri would decide which was better. Hence, note-taking is extremely important. We also added sound effects and had the pleasure of mixing the excellent score into the film. I wish I could tell you the composer’s name. He did fabulous work.
— Yuri Volodarski is quite prolific. Did you work on anything else with him?
-He did a whole bunch of TV series: “The Most Shocking Videos”,” Wild & Crazy”, and “Outrageous & Hilarious” were three that we had the pleasure of recording, editing, and mixing the translated versions in English. We also were his “go-to” listening environment to analyze the test pressings for his music productions. Some highlights that stand out are his “Yuri Volodarsky & Friends” pieces of vinyl: “Revelation” and “Without A Word”. He also had us analyze the print of “RTFACT: Life is Good”.
— Excellent. Did you say thousands of foreign language projects? That seems like a lot…
-Okay, I said close to a thousand! Over 600 of them were Wells Fargo Bank commercials. We did maybe another 100 for various other clients for DAE Agency. We did translation recordings for the Japanese government, 40,000 lines for AI in a set of 8 different projects. I guess that was English, so, maybe, that doesn’t count. They chose our studio C after auditioning sound samples from all over California because we had the lowest noise specs and best acoustic quality. We did 52 songs for a Taiwanese Church in 3 languages. Does that count for 156? We’ve done Indian, Nepalese, Vietnamese, and Burmese movies. Also, we’ve done documentary series in Africa, South America, and one set in the Philippines. We did a series of 51 short animations for Ants Animation in China.
We also did their “Tofu” 80-minute feature animation. This one and a number of others included my music and our team’s sound design and mix – but the dialogue is always the key thing. What is crucial here is to provide seamless integration of multiple languages within strict time constraints. When we were doing Safeway/Ralphs supermarket commercials ads for a couple of years, we had to fit the Spanish voice-over into the same space as the English or get the German translation to fit in a non-profit fundraising video. The delicate balance of getting a perfect performance and editing multiple languages to fit the same picture in a way that the supervisor really likes is the result of years of experience and genuine teamwork.
— Any other thoughts?
-We’re so grateful to all our clients for collaborating with us on such an incredible array of projects and amazing people. The joy of working together, learning new things every day, and seeing the world through someone’s eyes who has put their life on the line to bring forth their creative vision is a constant source of inspiration.
— What movies do you like? What are your favorites?
-There are so many! An old favorite is “Casablanca”. I just saw “Dune”. Classics: “Blade Runner”, “Indiana Jones”, “Gladiator”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Django in Chains”, “Good Fellas”, “Godfather”, “Boogey Nights”, “The Aviator”,” Once upon a time in Hollywood…”, “2001 a Space Odyssey”, “There Will be Blood”. So many more. I’m sure I’m leaving out many great ones.
— A few words about your philosophy of life?
-Love what you do, do what you love. Always keep an open mind to learn, expand your horizons, and find joy in unexpected places. “The way that can be named is not the way” – Lao Tzu. It implies to me that a dogmatic approach to life only leads to a false perception of the world: rather that one should keep trying to understand the true nature of things while knowing we can never fully comprehend.
— Describe yourself in just one word
-Passionate.
-Lilia, thank you for taking the time to visit and allowing us to share our story.