Let's Talk...Audio

Hello World! Welcome back to Let's Talk...Audio. Remember to join us on Discord!

This interview was recorded online with Riverside.fm, and it starts after Akash asks Tangela how she got into podcasting. Akash Thakkar is a sound designer based in Seattle, WA. He talks about how he segued into gaming audio from initially going to college at the Berklee College of Music to be a touring drummer. While in college he also put a lot of effort into learning "charisma" as he had been extremely socially awkward.

He graduated in 2012 and moved to Seattle. He found audio work very quickly after moving there. He's worked on a number of games including Destiny, Heat Signature, Hyper Light Drifter and most recently the new DLC for Outer Wilds.

He's also just recently launched his own podcast. Akash talks a bit about false starts as practice.

Tangela realized Akash is her first guest who has a podcast (however her previous guest Cinnamon Denise subsequently launched her podcast The Music Executive).

They talk about how releasing content like podcasts and YouTube and blogs and such are a source of networking.

Tangela recommends The Go-Giver by Bob Burg.

Akash realized during college how important a great teacher is (shoutout to Michael Sweet and Jeff Faust at Berklee) for learning new things. Coupled with the Buddhist concept Mudita, the joy of seeing someone else succeed, this is the impetus behind his content he has produced over the years. "I want other people to make me irrelevant because they're doing so well."

They also talk about sources of bad advice and how/why that happens. But as for good advice, most of the time a person simply needs to do the thing and do it as simply, as babiest, smallest thing imaginable.

"It's the equivalent of doing one pushup, not a hundred"

Also, most of the time, you don't need to buy anything beyond the simple stuff. Doing the simple stuff, starting, is better than most of the people who say they "want" to do the thing.

Moving on to Impostor Syndrome! Akash thinks it can't be gotten rid of, because doing new things makes us impostors.

"If we aren't feeling impostor syndrome, we aren't being creative, period"

Next up, talking about how to interrupt those internal negative self-talk thoughts.

Akash is an avid reader. Books were one of the avenues he used to learn to get over his shyness during college. Self education is underrated!

"The best professionals know when to drop the ball"

Perfection happens with iteration, not with the first take. This section is about getting things done so that perfection can happen later.

Can a CRM save Tangela from retyping the same email ten times?

"What's the correct speed to drive?"

This analogy is...

Hello World! Destiny was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and teaches Tangela how to pronounce the name of the city like an insider.

They talk about age and technology, and how the generation gap is increasingly fine grained in comparison to the tech innovation curve over the last couple decades.

Destiny and Tangela discuss finance, budgeting, the starving artist mentality and the learning curves they have each experienced in this area.

Book Recommendations by Michele Cagan: 

Investing 101 

Stock Market 101 

Personal Finance 101 

They discuss financial literacy in minority communities and how that relates to the creative community.

How did Destiny get into the world of audio? She played trombone in school, studied Arts Administration in undergrad, and studied abroad in Spain for grad school. There she chose to focus on audio technology. The final months of her program were accomplished online during the 2020 lockdowns.

How is Destiny continuing to grow in her craft?

Webinars and books on audio have been great resources for Destiny. Two books she recommends are:

Introduction to Live Sound Reinforcement by Teddy Boyce

All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald S Passman

Tangela also recommends:

Live Sound Reinforcement by Scott Hunter Stark

The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook by Bill Gibson

Destiny describes her initial misgivings about trying to read a manual. Tangela's advice: "Gurl, it's like readin' the Bible ... you think people sittin' around readin' Deuteronomy like that?! NO!! ..."

Next they discuss festivals and other live shows. One of Destiny's favorite shows she's been to was George Clinton.

Destiny shares her experience being nearly the only woman of color studying audio in her college program. She says it's been empowering to see and talk to other women in audio.

They both are very interested in exploring the idea of summer camps or other kinds of education programs for middle and high school aged kids, to illustrate the breadth of kinds of career around music and audio technology.

Destiny contributed to a music project with an artist named Widdo. Destiny contributed some backing vocals and writing to this song.

Tangela mentions the band The Postal Service

Destiny's audio setup:

PreSonus Eris E3.5 monitors

Tascam TM-80

Focusrite interface

Tangela used to use the PreSonus Audiobox; now she's got a Motu M2, Rode PodMic, and the KRK monitors.

"Working with the resources you have access to is the biggest thing."

Destiny's advice to the

Hello World! Anita Yung is a Canadian Sound Designer based in Toronto and Vancouver. With a passion for animation, Anita is originally a voice actor by trade. After working on the anime series, Black Jack (2017 reboot), and NHK’s WakuWaku Be Ponkickies, Anita would officially transition to audio post-production. Anita now works on post-audio and sound design for film/TV productions, animation and video games. Drawing from her time as talent and production crew, Anita uses her past experiences as the grounding base of all her audio storytelling works.

She can be found at www.anitayung.ca

IG @ anitayung.productions

linkedin.com/in/anitayung/

twitter @anitayung

The episode starts with a shameless plug for Tangela's merch store. She chose a wonderful company in the UK named Teemill.com ; You can find links to it at beatsinabottle.com!

Next up is mouth noises, Izotope plugins, and "on sale" as a marketing tactic. Also, the pros and cons of ProTools v other DAWs. We mention www.reaper.fm

What happens when you google your interview guest, a la the other "Anita Yungs" on the interwebz. Also, Tangela vs the pokemon. What's in a name?

Anita's source of good equipment (a rental store that closed their Toronto location in 2020). Followed by Anita's gear set up she works with at home. a pencil mic by Sennheiser (en-us.sennheiser.com/microphones), Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (focusrite.com/en/usb-audio-interface/scarlett/scarlett-2i2), Dynaudio monitors (www.dynaudio.com)

Tangela's gear KRK 5's in White (www.krkmusic.com/Studio-Monitors/White-Noise). The importance of a good looking desk and monitors that look good with it. IKEA product in America v Canada, colors available. Green Desk!

Aspiring vs professional, and impostor syndrome. Confidence vs arrogance in job interviews. How does that translate to the live sound scene?

We talk about concerts, mosh pits, an outdoor wintertime EDM festival in Montreal, and polar bear swims.

Anita's history of living in Winnipeg and Vancouver before moving to Toronto.

Anita used to be a voice actress before getting into audio. Tangela asks "How dat work?"

Anita got a degree in Communications. She became fascinated with audio engineering while working in voice acting for animated series. She went back to school for post-production.

Tangela and Anita talk a bit about the experience of being in college as an older than the 18-21 year old crowd.

Anita's favorite project was concurrent with her thesis. During the thesis, she put together a pilot episode for a new animated series and pitched it to some people. She is waiting to hear back on that and has an NDA for it. So no more details.

Anita really enjoys doing foley as much as possible for her projects, avoiding libraries.

Tangela references the previous episode with Alena Lecorchick. The subject of foley art reminds Tangela of the artists Amon Tobin (www.amontobin.com)

Anita credits her synth teacher in college with helping her fully understand a lot of fundamentals, such as eq and compression.

Tangela talks about how

Jam is a studio owner, tracking and mixing engineer and music producer in Durham NC. She opened Denk Studios in 2019 to create an inclusive space for all musicians regardless of race, gender, gender identity, age and sexual orientation. Jam has a passion for music and strives to be a driving force for creating change in the music industry

"I am working on two exciting albums currently for artists angelfuni and the blue horse project." - Jam, around the time this episode was recorded, via squadcast.fm, on April 8, 2021.

Jam and Tangela start talking about moving, stuff, filling space, and Jam's studio space in Durham, North Carolina. The studio is a former, concrete garage. It was built out on budget, with found and used materials. The vocal booth is pink with Christmas lights!

Did Taylor Swift's Folklore really deserve an award? Also, these award shows and their transparency ... or lack thereof. Is Billy Eilish truly DIY/indy? Is the time of the major labels almost up?

Artists sometimes spend more money than they need to, and end up behind, not owning their career. On the other hand, they could save the money, work with independent studios and engineers who can do a good job doing the things the artist doesn't want to do themselves (like mixing). Also there are lots of cool, cheap, sometimes free ways to learn audio work: ProduceLikeaPro.com, OmniSoundProject.com, etc. You definitely don't have to go to Full Sail and blow that kind of cash. But hands-on, mentorship learning is the best. "Invest in a human!" But don't go into debt guys. And get listening buddies to trade critiques with!

Jam was accepted into Berkeley College of Music back in 2001, right after high school. She didn't do it because of the financial question. After seeing a promotional video from them about their drummers, she's glad she developed her own sound.

Jam later went to school for marketing. But let's do more of an intro now, lol. Or not. Jam and Tangela run in similar circles on the interwebz. Between Cinnamon's Music Executive podcast (http://www.cinnamondenise.com/podcast), Omni, and SoundGirls.org, they've both been aware of each other for a while.

Being an extrovert pre-'Rona with introvert home life. Tangela shares some of her experience with COVID. Jam shares her experience with H1N1 during the swine flu outbreaks.

Returning to Jam's story about pursuing marketing. She was a hotel manager for 10 years, and a high-end grocery store manager for 6 years. While in hotels she decided to go to school to learn something different. The new qualification precipitated a shift over to management in grocery stores. Tangela learns that up north there's a grocer's union. Jam got laid off in October 2020 and has shifted to full-time studio work as a result.

Tangela muses a bit about the mindset of "do I need college for that?" whenever considering a career change. Jam shares the customer service perspective she learned from being in hotels, and how that's benefited her work as an audio engineer. They riff on customer service for a bit. Tangela reminds the audience that there's a balance to be found between giving good customer service and standing up for yourself to not be a doormat.

Tangela is a giant fan of the Six Figure Home Studio podcast (https://www.thesixfigurehomestudio.com/podcast/) and its hosts Brian Hood and Chris Graham. Jam is using Brian's new website builder EasyFunnels.io ; Tangela enjoy's Brian's Filepass app as well.

Tangela talks about podcast formats, length, audience experience. Jam enjoys this podcast and breaks up the episode to fit her day.

Jam has a Facebook group and between it and her studio she's very interested in supporting women and the...

Hello World! Piper Payne is a world class mastering engineer currently based in Nashville, TN, with Infrasonic Sound (https://www.infrasonicsound.com/piper). This interview was recorded over https://squadcast.fm/ on December 1st, 2020.

How did Piper become a mastering engineer? She first got into audio some 15 years ago with an interest in mixing classical music. Piper likes to say "Mastering is genre-agnostic." Piper is currently in the process of opening a vinyl pressing plant. This opening five minute introduction was awesome and next we try to unpack it.

When Piper first started thinking about college she thought she would be a veterinarian, but then switched to electrical engineering by the time she entered. She ended up switching to a performing arts and technology program. Piper went to Norway for graduate studies.

Since college is not required for most audio industry careers, was college a worthwhile investment? Piper muses on the discipline of long-term accomplishment and the networking aspects of college. Math, physics of sound, and acoustics are pertinent areas of study worth investing in, with or without a degree at the end.

Next we discuss the benefits of getting some schooling abroad. Piper recommends Bob Katz' *Mastering Audio the Art and Science*, (here's a review of it https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/bob-katz-mastering-audio) which she studied both in undergrad and in Norway. Her stay in Norway was the knife's edge of a leg up that got her an assistant's position with *the Bob Katz*, in Florida.

After talking some more about pros and cons of studying abroad, Tangela inadvertently suggests a memoir title to Piper: "What's up with you and vinyl?".

In the process of answering that question, a previous interview with Piper (here: https://www.workingclassaudio.com/wca-045-with-piper-payne/) is referenced.

Mastering is about making audio ready for a variety of formats of consumption (streaming, CD's, vinyl, motion-picture soundtrack, etc.) and Piper feels that learning to cut lacquer on a lathe is an ideal manifestation of the mastering profession.

As a result of pursuing this knowledge, she developed a reputation as a mastering engineer that could best ready an artist's audio for the vinyl product.

Through her work with a variety of artists who sought to publish on vinyl, she found that the industry has woefully inadequate quality assurance and customer service. Piper debriefs a couple of different screw ups on the part of different vinyl plants. "... pressing a record out of mp3s ... that's ... bullshit! ..."

She also discusses how her first attempt to open a plant (in Oakland) failed for different reasons. Piper has since developed some quality control technology for record pressing, and is working to get a plant opened with some new partnership.

Piper's motivations behind getting into the manufacturing of vinyl come in two categories: 1) she believes there's a lot of room for quality improvement in the industry, and 2) royalties on hard, manufactured products are structured more in the artists' favor, and vinyl is one of the only ways an artist can recoup the costs of creating an album.

And by the way, record collections make moving expensive XD, especially when it's an entire wall of 3000 records.

What vinyl record has Tangela been listening to? Mean Girls the Musical which you can see detail for here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6m7n9JuAOMcy8X3ntO0Ktf

What's her favorite musical? Hamilton of course! https://open.spotify.com/artist/3UUJfRbrA2nTbcg4i0MOwu

What's Piper's favorite musical? My Fair Lady the Julie Andrews version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Fair_Lady

Tangela also loves tap-dancing in musicals.

One of Piper's favorite albums is Reptilians by STRFKR https://open.spotify.com/album/5pfqk4oFycMVynOD8S2Cqs

RX8 and the history of audio repair...

Hello World! Christa Giammattei is a post-production engineer in North Carolina. Christa also has an apparel store (https://command-s-apparel.com/) and runs a blog (https://command-s-apparel.com/blogs/command-s-stories-through-sound). Her post-production work includes (but is not limited to) dialogue editing, sound design, and mixing for broadcast, web, and film. She has worked on pieces for HBO, National Geographic and PBS. A list of highlights from her work can be fund on her website www.cgiammatteisound.com/. Christa also has an album on Spotify found here open.spotify.com/album/1rDTVWPTbQMl1ihsFMRO4U.

For Christa, music was her gateway into the world of audio. She was a classical percussionist for 13 years. We talked about the convoluted paths so many of us take to audio engineering. We also talked about perseverance, the impossible art of the segue, and the self-conscious act of researching your guests with Instagram and whatever else.

Also, Christa, like many people, thinks Izotope's RX (https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html) is the best tool ever! "I feel like it's magic." She says she's successfully used it to filter out sirens and helicopters from the audio she's worked on.

She also likes using plugins from Wavs and Plugin Alliance such as the Maag Audio EQ4 (https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/maag_eq4.html).

Tangela shares with Christa her journey from live sound to podcasting, and how that has been her introduction to the wide world of plugins and DAWs.

Next we talk about spending money on investments, the buyers' remorse that comes with that, and specifically the experience of buying a Mac.

From there we resume talking about Christa's journey into audio, and how she found freelance post-production.

We also talk about impostor syndrome, and experience with things like being featured on panel discussions for college students.

Unfortunately we experienced some noise interruption. There was some landscaping maintenance occurring at Christa's apartment complex. It provided some laughs to us as well as the opportunity to discuss the joys of home recording! Part of that discussion featured sound treatment, and peoples' varied ideas about DIY sound treatment. Christa particularly recommends Auralex (https://auralex.com/).

We returned to talking about Christa's blog, Command + S: Stories Through Sound. You can read her interview with Tangela here (https://command-s-apparel.com/blogs/command-s-stories-through-sound/stories-through-sound-tangela).

Christa shares with us that her motivation behind starting the blog was very similar to Tangela's motivation behind starting this podcast: the desire to highlight women and minorities in the audio industry.

We spent some time discussing Christa's interview with Madeline Brumback found here (

Hello World! In this episode we visit with Willa Snow (https://www.willasnow.com/; IG @w.snow.audio), an Austin based sound engineer who does consulting, front-of-house, production management, . She is also the head of the Austin chapter of SoundGirls.org (https://soundgirls.org/willasnow/).

We start off the interview discussing the finance, accounting, and bookkeeping know-how necessaries for gig life. We mention Rock n Roll Rentals in Austin, TX (https://rocknrollrentals.com), and the Rode PodMic (https://www.rode.com/microphones/podmic). Willa does production management for three ATX area bands: Corbella (https://www.corbellabandofficial.com/), Dossey (http://dosseymusic.com/), and Ley Line (https://www.leylinesound.com/). In addition she wears a number of other hats, "diversify your portfolio!" She uses Google calendar for gig life, and emphasizes that Google calendar really needs to offer more colors!

Next up we discuss how studio time while at university was very much Willa's gateway drug to the world of audio. We discuss how Willa came to Austin, and how in the beginning of her audio career, she actually kinda hated live sound. But she learned it anyway, and largely through networking, and on-the-job training.

Conspirare (https://conspirare.org/) brought Willa on one of her very first tours to work. Willa had a couple of tour jobs lined up for 2020, but alas, that pesky pandemic...

Next we talked about hard work, and the fear of failing or looking bad. The humility to fail for the sake of learning and growth, is highlighted as a key mindset for the audio industry. We touch on the principle of "read the whole menu!" before getting back to the point of "it's ok to be terrible in the beginning!" Willa used to give herself "anti-pep pep talks" as a way to give herself permission to fail.

We talk about the wonderful Dani Parks (https://rhythmgalaxy.com/dani-1) from The Belmont (https://www.thebelmontaustin.com/) who was on Let's Talk ... Audio previously (https://www.beatsinabottle.com/letstalkaudio). The Belmont is a wonderful venue to work with and they understand how important great organization is! Tangela shares how it is she met Dani Parks. There had been an event lined up with The Belmont of SXSW 2020 that Dani, Tangela, and Willa were all supposed to work together. In recalling how Willa had initially found out she would be working with them, "yay more estrogen! But I love my brothers in audio too!" However, being the only woman in the room gets a little old after a while. We discuss the disappointment we had at the SXSW cancellation.

Willa strongly recommends listening to Primo the Alien (https://primothealien.com/). During the time of the SXSW cancellation and the start of Austin's lockdown, Willa, Primo, and some others started to organize a live stream gig. They had an anchor lady from KVUE (

Hello World! This episode of the Let's Talk ... Audio podcast was recorded just before Austin, TX's first Corona Shutdown in Spring 2020. Alena Lecorchick is a foley artist, sound designer, and sound editor for the Sound Team of Rooster Teeth's Animation Department since 2016. Previously, she graduated from University of North Texas in Denton, north of the DFW metroplex. Alena interned and then freelanced for the Dallas Audio Post. She later freelanced for the educational game company Istation, before coming to Austin.

We met because she was on a panel at an Audio Engineering Society event in Austin. Beginning this conversation, we visit a bit about Texas weather and Austin driving culture. To get into the meat of the interview, I ask her what the nuances are among the jobs of foley, sound design, editing, and mixing, in the context of film. Next she takes us through what workflow is like for a Rooster Teeth show such as Camp Camp or RWBY. 

We also discussed the SXSW cancellation before moving on to the subject of job hunting. She shares some of her experience looking at sound engineer applicant resumes at Rooster Teeth. We also discuss reels, cover letters, and redesigns.

Alena shares with us how she has studied genre with regards to sound design. For instance she used My Little Pony and Ed, Edd, and Eddy for reference when she was working on RWBY Chibis for Rooster Teeth. Alena adds that Invader Zim is a great study to think about building uncomfortable moods. She also shares with us some of the genius of Better Call Saul.

Before leaving us, Alena gives an example of one of her favorite foley accomplishments for the final episodes of RWBY.

Alena's IMDB is here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4552923/ and she can be found on Twitter @AlenaLecorchick

Reminder: LTA has a Discord server!

As usual you can find Tangela on her website where you can sign up for the Newsletter!

Hello World! Welcome back to the Let's Talk ... Audio podcast! This episode is Part 2 of my conversation with Dani Parks. It starts off more conversational, jumping around topics such as: microaggressions and effective communication, statistics and nuance, Candace Owens, the J Cole and Noname controversy, etc. We come back around to the topic of live sound addressing advice for newbies, with an aside on line-mixing for theatre.

Again, Dani is a hip hop producer and Front-of-House sound lady at the Belmont in Austin, TX. She also made the opening beat for this show! You can find her on Instagram @yellowdani24, and also https://soundcloud.com/dprhythmgalaxy

Reminder: LTA has a Discord server!

As usual you can find Tangela on her website where you can sign up for the Newsletter!

Hello World! This episode of Let's Talk ... Audio features part one of an interview recorded in July. Our guest is Dani Parks, a hip hop producer and Front-of-House sound lady at the Belmont in Austin, TX. In this part of the interview we touched on a range of subjects, including some live sound equipment, the antiquities of flip-phone texting, and the woes of modern American shopping.

We also addressed the question, What happens when you have no backup plan and the audio industry's had its feet pulled out from under it!?!

You can find Dani on Instagram @yellowdani24, and also https://soundcloud.com/dprhythmgalaxy

Reminder: LTA has a Discord server!

As usual you can find Tangela on her website where you can sign up for the Newsletter!