Just watched it last night on my terrible ATH headphones in a streaming stereo mix. But my thoughts:

The growly, synthetic vocal elements of the baseline terminators struck me as over the top in a few early scenes, like when it was clawing after him after the helicopter crash. I felt like I wanted something lighter, shriller, more agile and sharp than a warbly Skrillex-type monster. I think I see what Chris is saying there - those voices are just so attention-grabbing (not necessarily a bad thing) that I immediately started trying to dissect it and wondered what was used to make it, not what was making or saying "Shit, it's a Terminator!" By the end of the film when all the extra 'weight' was coming into the mix with score, explosions, etc. though, those voices started to feel quite nice.

Excellent use of distortion throughout. So much! The mix was clear and shifted focus really well, I first noticed it in the opening scene where helicopters/jets I really enjoyed the couple of quiet moments we got (when Connor came out of the underground facility where they first discovered the T-800 research, the shot of Marcus swimming after the road scene/transport capture).

I randomly remember loving the musical wooden plank Marcus tosses on the fire when he sets up camp in the wastes. Great torrential rain there, too, fit the picture perfectly.

Sound design for the Marcus/Skynet sequence was nice and glitchy and crazy and I liked that the end tail of it was just a tiny phoneme out of Marcus instead of a random beep or tchik.

And I loved the mech foley on his fingers when he clasps around the girl's towards the end. Anyone know was used for that? It was so nice and delicate, but fit these horrific metal fingers perfectly just the same.

Can't really complain other than the occasional extreme loudness of the stereo mix. Vehicles, weapons and explosions were sick and - most importantly - nothing sounded canned. I've been working on cutting sound sounds in a similar aesthetic for a trailer redesign over the last month or so and can really appreciate how hard the team must've worked to avoid being another movie with "that explosion" or "those bullet ricochets."

Just watched it last night on my terrible ATH headphones in a streaming stereo mix. But my thoughts:

The growly, synthetic vocal elements of the baseline terminators struck me as over the top in a few early scenes, like when it was clawing after him after the helicopter crash. I felt like I wanted something lighter, shriller, more agile and sharp than a warbly Skrillex-type monster. I think I see what Chris is saying there - those voices are just so attention-grabbing (not necessarily a bad thing) that I immediately started trying to dissect it and wondered what was used to make it, not what was making or saying "Shit, it's a Terminator!" By the end of the film when all the extra 'weight' was coming into the mix with score, explosions, etc. though, those voices started to feel quite nice.

Excellent use of distortion throughout. So much! The mix was clear and shifted focus really well, I first noticed it in the opening scene where helicopters/jets were flying by and bombing everything. I enjoyed the couple of quiet moments we got (when Connor came out of the underground facility where they first discovered the T-800 research, the shot of Marcus swimming after the road scene/transport capture).

I randomly remember loving the musical wooden plank Marcus tosses on the fire when he sets up camp in the wastes. Great torrential rain there, too, fit the picture perfectly.

Sound design for the Marcus/Skynet sequence was nice and glitchy and crazy and I liked that the end tail of it was just a tiny phoneme out of Marcus instead of a random beep or tchik. Kinda emphasized the human element. (Maybe? Reading into this like a high school English teacher?)

And I loved the mech foley on his fingers when he clasps around the girl's towards the end. Anyone know was used for that? It was so nice and delicate, but fit these horrific metal fingers perfectly just the same.

Can't really complain other than the occasional extreme loudness of the stereo mix. Vehicles, weapons and explosions were sick and - most importantly - nothing sounded canned. I've been working on cutting sound sounds in a similar aesthetic for a trailer redesign over the last month or so and can really appreciate how hard the team must've worked to avoid being another movie with "that explosion" or "those bullet ricochets."