Friday 19th June 2026, saw ASSG members join with SMPTE members at RMS Sydney for a special presentation of the sound design and mix of Mortal Kombat II. 

Re-recording mixers Robert Mackenzie and Phil Heywood took us through a selection of scenes from the film in the newly built RMS mix room. The main mix room has been IMAX certified which allowed the crew to mix the IMAX version in Sydney.  

For this presentation, scenes were played in IMAX monitoring through the Dolby ATMOS renderer. They explained the difference between the monitoring setups, how the IMAX “voice of God” speaker worked and how the IMAX LFE subwoofer is derived from the mix in a bass management style (though they are sworn to secrecy on the frequency crossovers). 

Rob and Phil were able to break down the sound for each scene that was played. Those in attendance were impressed by the immense action sequences and being able to hear the separated elements, even down to the individual sound FX as object tracks in isolation. Discussion turned to how decisions were made in the mix, the year long, on and off editing process and how well the music for the film was recorded at Trackdown in Sydney and mixed by Kristy Whalley and Peter Corbin from Such Sweet Thunder.

Supervising Dialogue & ADR Editor Leah Katz and Dialogue Editor Marisa Marsionis explained the creative elements of the dialogue track, which included a tonne of character voice manipulation. One of the examples was having to merge an actor’s voices with dog barks and whimpers to make them more animalistic. FX Editors Jared Dwyer and Andrew Miller talked about the challenging reconform process of always chasing the cut. Other crew members in attendance were RMS team leader Monica Anderson. 

All members of the MKII Sound crew were very generous in sharing their experience and knowledge with the ASSG and SMPTE members. This promoted great discussion about the film and film sound in general.  

Thanks to MC ASSG President Nigel Christensen and Chair of SMPTE Oceania Evdoxia Brownlow for bringing the two organisations together.