🤔 Hans Zimmer, Zelda, and Dallas Taylor walk into a bar

Dallas Taylor is the host and creator of Twenty Thousand Hertz, a lovingly crafted podcast revealing the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds. Dallas is also the Creative Director of Defacto Sound, where he has led thousands of high-profile sound design projects—from blockbuster trailers and advertising campaigns, to major television series and Sundance award-winning films. Additionally, Dallas is a TED mainstage speaker, a regular contributor to major publications, and a respected thought leader on the narrative power of sound.

One question we hear a lot as children is, “What's your favorite color?” But what about your favorite sound?

My favorite sound is the sound of the people I love. I love hearing my kids, the way that they speak in the world, the way they laugh, conversations with family and friends. I believe the best music genre that exists is the music that's being created by the people you care about.

You don't have to be an audiophile to become more conscious about your hearing and curate your sonic world or think more deeply about it—and become more human in the process.

I want Twenty Thousand Hertz to be accessible to everyone. When a podcast throws in a gratuitous “f” word, you’re immediately gatekeeping a lot of people.

My favorite compliment I get, and it always warms me deeply, is when people tell me they listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz with their kids. It's important for me that parents and children can connect over something they both enjoy. And so, I'm really trying to focus on bringing people together through their sense of hearing, and trying to remove any gatekeeping I can possibly think of.

My favorite sound on Twenty Thousand Hertz is the sound of other people reporting. When I hear my show through the voice of someone else’s lens, it’s just pure joy. If I'm looking at what the show looks like down the road, I think it’ll be more of an amalgamation of multiple people sharing different perspectives, and different voices. That's my dream.

We try to hit a sonic change every 20-30 seconds in the show. A sonic change could be my voice with no music to a music start, to another voice, to a music stop, to a sound effect, to another voice that then goes to another guest, or another reporter then back to me. Part of it is our short attention spans, but on a personal level, my brain likes to be constantly tickled with a new sound. It keeps me focused. So if I drift for a couple seconds, I get right back into the story because something new sonically changes.

Those sonic changes are created in the script. Because none of this happens magically in sound design. Sound is something that has to be written to be well incorporated. (continued below)