This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Greg Mackender. Greg is the associate professor of sound at the University of Missouri – Kansas City where he teaches Hard Disk Recording and Sound Scoring. Professor Mackender has a long history of music, audio exploration, and being at the breaking edge of audio innovation where he was one of the early implementors of digital audio. 
 
Notes

* Greg works primarily in theatre as a Sound Designer
* Started out with a love for science that turned into a love for audio
* Early implementor of digital audio
* You don’t always need college or a training program to learn audio.
* It’s often better to buy the right gear initially to create better work.
* Maintain a creative dojo where you hone your craft.
* Sometimes you need to step away from your craft in order to rejuvenate your creativity
* You’re only as good as the weakest link in your signal chain.
* The readiness is all. Be ready.

Resources

* 
Greg’s recommended book: Genesis Of A Music: An Account Of A Creative Work, Its Roots, And Its Fulfillments by Harry Partch

* 
Shure SM63, Shure PG56, Shure SM57, Shure SM58

* 
AKG C414

* 
Universal Audio Apollo

* 
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

* 
Lewitt LCT 940


 
Thanks again to everyone for checking out the podcast. Every listen gets us closer to the next interview. If you’d like to support the SDA Podcast even more, write us a review at iTunes. Reviews drive everything for us on that space, and we read every single one. Thanks again guys.
Keep on learning!
Michael Heuer
Sound Design Academy

SDA 003: It’s the Journey Not the Destination with Greg Mackender

Michael Heuer from Sound Design Academy shares all of his best sound design, and audio editing techniques, gear tips, and awesome audio hacks so you can stomp the audio industry and be at the forefront of audio quality with your voiceovers, podcasts, and audio career. Learn how you can consistently deliver amazing audio that truly shines so that you can stress less, grab the gig, and sound like a pro in no time! If you’re searching for a way to break into the industry, hear how the pros do it, and how you can do it too during your spare time, commute, or whenever you’ve got your the urge, Michael Heuer makes it happen every week. Each session introduces you to somebody who’s out there making it happen, sharing their epic fails, epiphanies, great successes, and so much more. Every session ends with a jam session where each guest shares awesome resources and words of wisdom for you!

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This episode I’m chatting’ it up with Bioware’s Matt Besler! Matt has a had a varied career in film, television, and gaming with such titles as the Mass Effect Trilogy as well as Dragon Age: Origins, 2, and inquisition along with Mass Effect Andromeda which will be dropping the Winter of 2016. Matt has specifically been an audio lead on Dragon Age: Awakening and Origins DLC. 

Show Notes:
 

Where are you from originally? — this also leads into Matt’s career path (1:31)
Matt started at Bioware when he was 31 (18:57)
What style of music was your band? (25:46)
What was it like working on your first game? (29:28)
How did your dialogue get mastered for Mass Effect? (32:46)
Out of all the games you’ve worked on has there been a favorite? (38:10)
Story about Frank (41:43)
Craziest recording session (44:55)
Do you have a favorite mic? (54:33)
What mic is Bioware using on dialogue? (56:53)


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Any questions, comments, or concerns? Shoot me a message at michael@sounddesignacademy.com. 
I always love hearing from you!

SDA 015: Matt Besler – Bioware’s Blowin’ Stuff Up!

This week’s episode is with Frank Petreikis who is currently the audio lead on Rise of the Tomb Raider. Frank’s also worked on The Punisher, Saint’s Row 1 and 2, Red Faction Armageddon, Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC, Mass Effect 3, and Dragon Age Inquisition. Frank’s background is seriously one of the most interesting I’ve come across, but that’s all in the interview. 
Show Notes
 

Frank went to school for Elementary Education (2:04)
How Frank got into Sound Design (2:38)
The transition away from Volition (8:37)
Frank’s 2 1/2 years at Bioware (11:47)
The transition to Tomb Raider (16:26)
How Crystal breaks up their game development schedule (23:28)
What was it like when you made that first move out to Edmonton? (25:40)
The volume at with Mike Kent mixes (28:42)
What did you work on specifically at Bioware? (30:30)
How are V/O files organized? (33:25)
Why did you originally go into education? (37:12)
Has the draught been an issue in your part of California? (40:50)
Does something like a draught have an effect on the industry? (41:48)
Do you have a favorite plugin or instrument for sound design? (51:27)
Do you have a favorite microphone? (57:38)
What’s your favorite kick drum mic? (1:00:14)

Links
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Steel Panda Sound Design
Frank Petreikis
 
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SDA 014: Frank Petreikis – Canada to the Rise of the Tomb Raider

Today, I’m speaking with a sound designer who’s doing things a bit differently. His name’s Austin Shannon. Typically we imagine going into a studio, and doing our long days work, but Austin does his work remotely. And I think that… is rad. 
Austin has worked on such titles as Justice Lead Doom, Starhawk, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Omega Quintet, There Came an Echo, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and most recently King’s Quest.
Show Notes:
 

Austin works remotely thanks to dialogue editing gigs (3:09)
Isolation can lead to increased productivity (5:02)
What’s your favorite anime? (5:12)
Where are you originally from? (5:55)
What did you do in your Sony internship? (6:39)
Seeing them wrapping up games, what was that like? (8:03)
Tell us about working on King’s Quest (9:19)
How did you get into audio? (9:44)
Regrets selling his drum set (10:38)
Got an internship at Tree Sound Studio (12:04)
The move from east coast to west coast (14:47)
How did you find the LA hustle? (15:02)
Worked for Obsidian Entertainment (16:17)
What was your transition like going into freelance? (16:39)
What was it like working on Stick of Truth? (18:20)
Did you guys end up going beyond a stereo mix? (19:18)
What engine was the game made in? (20:39)
Did you have a title you liked working on the most? (21:46)
Are you working on anything outside of King’s Quest currently (24:27)
Getting work through Reddit (26:13)
Do you have a game that inspired you to do audio? (27:21)
Austin recently got into modular synths (28:11)
 What’s your favorite microphone? (32:56)
Is a high frequency range mic the secret to a good monster pitch down? (33:35)
Do you have a  book that you’d recommend? (34:08)
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten? (35:00)

Check out some of Austin’s work at http://austinshannon.com/ 
Be sure to connect with on Twitter @austin_shannon, and look him up on linkedin. If you haven’t reviewed our dandy little program be sure to over at the iTunes, and you can always connect with us on Twitter. Be sure to check out past shows, and if you’re feeling saucy… subscribe! 

SDA 013: Austin Shannon – Stick of Truth to Freelance Freedom

This week I had the massive honor of speaking with 343 industries Sound Designer and Audio Lead Kyle Fraser. Kyle has some incredibly high standards for his work, and an especially keen ear for what he’s going after along with an unquenchable thirst for continuing to improve his craft and deliver an even more epic final product. Halo 4 garnered a ton of audio awards when it released in 2012 including but not limited to IGN’s Best Audio All Platforms, Best Audio Viewer’s Choice, and Game Audio Network Guilds Sound Design of the Year. 
Show Notes
 

Kyle graduated from Vancouver Film School (1:42)
Originally from Lansing, MI (2:00)
Went to the Art Institute in Seattle when he was 19 (2:27)
How does it work going to school out of the country? (2:44)
How did you like the Vancouver Film School experience (3:34)
When did you first start getting interested in audio? (5:53)
Kyle was more into athletics as a kid. Sound came later (7:30)
Kyle’s biggest takeaway from that sports background (7:53)
How Kyle got to where he’s at (8:19)
Did you work on Fable II? (9:58)
From there where did you make the transition of to the company you’re with now? (10:41)
Did 343 start out on Halo 4 (12:22)
What was it like jumping into the Halo universe with such an established following behind it? (13:09)
What do you do when you only get 12 mb of memory for audio? (16:48)
What was your favorite element of working on Halo 4 (19:06)
Kyle’s a fan of the studio DICE’s work (28:15)
http://www.dice.se/about/
Sometimes it’s the journey to building a better company that is the real fun and reward (28:58)
The Loudness Wars (30:29)
Halo 4 did get a ton of audio awards (32:28)
Do you guys ever stick easter eggs into the audio? (33:59)
Michael doesn’t own an Xbox One… (35:36) 
Do you have a favorite game outside of the one’s you’ve worked on? (36:35)
How much of playing a game at work is leisure vs. intense listening and developing? (37:39)
Audio can get you involved with so many other forms of education and industry (41:08)
Do you guys get into the logical design of your weapons or how something might mechanically work? (41:57)
When 343 took on Halo 4 was the goal to gut it and revamp from scratch? (43:05)
Organization and archiving are sincerely important aspects of sound design (43:30)
What’s your DAW? (44:43)
When your games need things like forest ambiences, do you just head out into the trees? — they went to Iceland (47:36)
Geek out about Chris Watson (47:52)
How was Iceland?! (48:37)
Field recording gunshot tails (52:20)
How did you set up your recording situation with WB? (54:13)
Outsourcing foley to John Roesch (54:38)
The perks of being in sound (55:33)
How’s it feeling getting to the final deadlines of Halo 5? (56:16)
Halo Multiplayer (56:52)
Where did all the talking go? (57:34)
What’s your favorite microphone? Guys, his answer is the most detailed ever. It’s awesome. (1:00:00)
Do you have a book that you’d recommend? (1:03:56)
Best piece of advice. (1:10:37)

Thanks again for listening, be sure to subscribe and leave a review if you like you’re he...

SDA 012: Kyle Fraser – 343 Industries & Halo 5

Today I am chattin’ it up with the amazingly talented Jared Emerson-Johnson. Jared has composed music for a ton of awesome titles including Jurassic Park the Game, Back to the Future the Game, Telltale’s The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead Season Two, Game of Thrones, plus Tales from the Borderlands!!! Jared also worked on many of the Sam and Max games. Another really cool aspect of Jared’s work is that he not only composes but has worked as a designer on many of these titles plus, Lego Stars Wars II: The Original Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, Knights of the Old Republic and Psychonauts. Guys… he worked on Psychonauts! 
Show Notes:
 

Jared grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area (02:10)
Did you always have games as target job area? (02:33)
Jared’s gambit of game designer from designer, to vocal lead, to composer (03:25)
Works for Bay Area Sound (04:02)
Sound Design in many ways can relate to Musique Concrete (04:50)
If only we got Pro Tools rigs at age 6 (06:03)
How did you get your first gaming gig? (06:51)
The cold call approach (10:16)
Jared’s work on Knights of the Old Republic (12:27)
Psychonauts (13:35)
Games becoming classics and staying fun permanently (14:48)
Why The Walking Dead works graphically (16:26)
Stepping up voice acting in games (18:02)
What’s you favorite synthesizer? (19:50)
Tales from the Borderlands (19:56)
Variety of styles to Jared’s music (22:08)
When did you transition over to Telltale? (23:37)
Telltale’s emphasis on story (25:43)
What’s your favorite Nintendo game? (27:07)
Why are many modern games so easy!? (28:20)
How’s it been working on Tales from the Borderlands? (29:24)
As a composer, are you more empathetic when you write? Does it take a toll? (30:32)
What instruments do you all play? (31:34)
Have you had a low point in any of the games you’ve worked on? (33:05)
Tricks of the trade in music production (36:27)
Building material when producing an episodic project (37:29)
What if AAA (yea… I said double… oops) titles like Halo were released episodically? (38:31)
The information collected in the games with your choices can influence the season. (39:54)
Have you had a favorite title that you’ve worked on? (43:22)
Did you have a moment when you knew this was what you wanted to do? (46:26)
What’s your favorite microphone? (49:25)
What book would you recommend? (50:37)
What was the best piece of advice you were ever given? (52:04)

Links
Jared’s Website
Jared’s IMDB
Telltale Games
 
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Tales from the Borderlands


SDA 003: It’s the Journey Not the Destination with Greg Mackender

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