A List of Recordings that I find useful as a Sound Designer. Your mileage may vary.

These are a few discs that I find useful for conceptulizing early in the design process and for temp cuts for rehearsals. On any given show, especially when I'm away from home, at least one of these is usually in my bag....just in case.

1. 
   FILMWORKS 1986-1990 (aka Volume I) (1997) - John Zorn . A collection of tracks from four small movies Zorn scored - it's a smorgasboard of styles and moods. From Tension/Suspense to Religious Ecstacy, you can probably find something to hold a spot in just about any situation.
   
   
   
2. 
   CITIZEN KANE (1940) and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942) - Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann was the greatest of the great and these two early soundtracks are surprisingly varied in musical range.
   
   
   
3. 
   WHO'S KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE? - Henry Mancini (1978). My good friend Ian discovered that this album, played at 45rpm, is the best comedy music ever written. Never availble on CD to the best of my knowledge, it's better on vinyl anyway, since it's most useful sped up. At normal speed it sounds like a late 70's comedy soundtrack.
   
   
   
4. 
   AMBIENT REALMS - Kit Watkins (1998). Kit is a composer/keyboardist who has been making music since the mid 1970s. This is a collection of sounds he created for his own music and they're meant to be loaded into a keyboard. It's a really great collection of pads and , well, ambient textures and includes some really useful sound effects he recorded, including a musical wine glass, a bunch of bowed bowls and some interesting forest creatures (deer snorts for example). I never leave home without it.