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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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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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! 

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...

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

 

If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review!

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Sound Design Academy on iTunes

 

Tales from the Borderlands

This week I had the absolute honour of talking with field recordist, musician, and audio ace Chris Watson. For those unfamiliar with Chris, he is considered one of the top field recordists in the world. He’s worked on Frozen Planet, The Life of Birds, Big Cat Diary, Life in the Undergrowth, Nature, Autumnwatch, and many more. If you want a bigger impression of this amazing artists work check out his website at www.chriswatson.net and you’ll get an even better picture. Needless to say, he’s had and is still pursuing a stunning career that many of us only dream of!

Show Notes

 

Talk about Lindisfarne (1:30)

The Lindisfarne tidal causeway (3:54)

An idea of just how dangerous this causeway is (4:31)

Chris grew up in Sheffield, England (6:29)

Moved to New Castle upon Tyne to work in television at 29 (6:45)

How Chris got into recording (7:03)

Chris’s entrance into music (8:03)

Composing with Tape Recorders by Terrance Dwyer was a big influence on Chris (8:39) 

Inspired by the work of Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, and Karlheinz Stockhausen  (9:47)

Chris’s involvement with Geosonics by Soniccouture (10:47)

Chris’s work recording aquatic insects, and getting those perspectives (13:35)

We know so little about the ocean (14:50)

Chris’s work with Chris Clark at Cornell (15:26)

Mary Anne Masterson Recording Gnarwhals (17:14)

Chris recorded humpback whales last year as well (18:53)

Chris’s goal to record the song of the Blue Whale (19:44)

Capturing Coyote Calls in the dead of winter (20:56)

The rarity of spaces without ample noise pollution (22:08)

Working on series with David Attenborough and being able to visit both the North and South Pole in the same year (23:54)

The South Pole (24:36)

The North Pole (26:14)

Standing at the North Pole with a GPS unit, and what Chris felt (27:32)

What it’s like being one of a hand full of people to ever record in the poles (29:29)

Recording the North Pole (30:03)

The psychological attachment we have to hydrophonic sounds (33:05)

Do you ever get so focused on a recording that despite being in danger, you keep recording? The most dangerous animal Chris has ever recorded, and his most dangerous encounter. (35:37)

Have you ever had times where you had to sit in a swamp for days on end? (40:22)

It’s better to leave a microphone in a location and get away from it (41:19)

The work of Bernie Kraus (42:06)

The philosophy of field recording (43:08)

Chris’s work with video games (44:55)

Chris’s feelings toward foley vs. a naturalistic approach (47:32)

Chris prefers to work in radio because it tends to be more accurate and the sound quality is better (48:53)

Chris’s work in Indie Films (49:09)

Chris’s involvement with the film Light Years with Ester May Campbell (49:51)

Working with Norwegian director Duane Hopkins on the film Bypass (51:38)

Epic close miked insects (52:10)

Patrick Mcginley of Framework FM (54:33)

Favorite Microphone (55:31)

Best Piece of Advice (56:18)

A book Chris recommends (58:37)

Mikes mentioned:

Today I’m interviewing Drew Medina from Headtrip Games. Little about Drew, and this is from his website, but Drew has been a game artist for 14 years, developing console games at Atari, Pacific Coast Power and Light, Shiny Entertainment,  EA, Angel Studios, Crystal Dynamics, MadDoc software, Rockstar New England, and now of course Headtrip Games.

Game Credits:

– Gauntlet Legends (Arcade) 

– Jet Moto 3 (Playstation 1)

– Road Rash 64 (N64)

– Smugglers  Run (Playstation 2)

– Test Drive Offroad: Wide Open (Playstation 2)

– Enter The Matrix (Playstation 2,GC…)

– Need for speed Underground (GC) 

– Path of Neo (Playstation 2)

– Tomb Raider Legend (Xbox360,PC)

– Bully Scholarship Edition (Xbox360,PC)

– Turok  (Xbox360, PS3)

– Red Dead Redemption (Xbox360, PS3)

– Max Payne 3 (Xbox360, PS3,PC)

– Grand Theft Auto 5 (Xbox360, PS3)

Show Notes

 

Show Notes

Gauntlet Legeneds (2:44)

The Death of Arcade Games (5:19)

Michael Rags on the Youth of America (6:04)

Talk about Drew’s childhood in Jersey (6:48)

Drew mentions the film Kids (7:43)

Talk on Drew’s taking piano in middle school because he got kicked out of computer class (8:02)

Drew spent a lot of time as kid, coding (10:50)

Some thoughts on Minecraft (12:55)

Mario Maker (14:06)

Drew’s Video Game Schooling (14:53)

3D Animation led to Drew getting his first gig (15:47)

Brief discussion on Stick of Truth (18:04)

Io Moon is being made in Unity 5 (18:57)

Drew’s feelings on Unity 5 (19:32)

Talk on animation (20:47)

Check out Armikrog

Drew is doing everything himself on Io Moon (22:35)

Using playmaker for code

Headtrip is a year old (23:58)

Co-founder is Ricci Franklin (24:21)

Thoughts on the indie game revolution (25:33)

Drew’s development schedule, and quite frankly one of the best things I’ve heard someone say in a long while (26:06)

Implementing Garry Schyman’s music (28:07)

Some VR Philosophical implications — we’re gettin’ deep team (31:33)

Tiltbrush for the Vive (33:50)

The potential for training professionals and rehabilitating people within VR (36:53)

This week I sat down with Sound Designer Derrick Espino. Derrick is not only an amazing human being, but has also worked on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War III, Twisted Metal, Soul Sacrifice, God of War: Ascension, The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, and so many more. You can check out all of his titles here. It’s really incredible stuff.

Session Notes:

Originally from Modesto, CA

Moved to LA

Currently livin’ the dream in Tokyo

Working with an international team has its challenges

It pays to radiate positivity and people dig enthusiasm

Japanese banks close at 3 pm. 

Family has a musical background. Derrick grew up around music.

When Derrick was 6-7 he discovered he could use his mom’s portable tape recorder to capture sounds

Beatles fan at an early age

Wanted to play guitar and that really set the stage

Had a 4-track in High School

Started out wanting to be an illustrator

When Derrick decided to do sound he went to the Expression Center for New Media in Emeryville California

Worked with Ann Kroeber when in school. She ended up liking his stuff, and Derrick became her intern.

Used a Nagra back in 2001, but generally used DAT

Edited Sound on American Gun

From there worked at Earwax with Jeff Darby

Moved to LA started working at Sound Dogs and  met Andrew Bracken

Was offered a game audio gig, and turned it down. Was offered the job again five months later, and passed it along to Jeff.

The same group had a ton of extra work and needed a contractor. That’s when Derrick joined and met all the folks at Sony.

They then offered him a job, and Derrick turned it down again.

Later they had some more freelance work, and Derrick took that.

Got into a tight spot financially, and a friend ended up calling and offered another game contractor job. This led to Derrick getting the job he had turned down 3 times. This was the game changer.

You can make through even the darkest times.

You can’t appreciate the good moments if you’ve never survived the bad ones.

Everything can change on a dime. Good fortune can go away just as easily as it comes, and vice versa.

We’re trying to educate folks on audio, so that life can be better for all audio people.

EPIC DISCUSSON OF THE LAST OF US

Derrick’s High School Band: Rhythmic Sushi

A big sound design inspiration: Eddie VanHalen 

Discussion on sound philosophy

Michael poo poo’s the orc calls in the Battle of Helm’s Deep

Derrick recommends Steal Like an Artist

Discussion of the Wilhelm Scream and it’s permeance in games and film

Always serve the story first and foremost.

A discussion of the Beatles and isolated tracks.

If you’re going to do Sound Design, you’re going to tell stories to other people.

Today I’m sitting down with Joel Green. Joel is a professional sound designer, helping to generate amazing audio for game titles such as Need for Speed: Undercover, Mass Effect 2 and 3, Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, and is currently the Producer / Audio Director at Cloudhead Games working on the VR title The Gallery: Six Elements.

Show Notes

 

Graduated from Vancouver Film School

Worked on Need for Speed: Undercover

Worked under Charles Deenen 

From there got hired onto Bioware’s team to work on Mass Effect and Dragon Age titles

Took time off to learn C# and Unity

Found position at Cloudhead Studios on Vancouver Island

Rural Living + High Technology

We don’t need to live in cities to work on games.

Be willing to start with big ideas and expectations that get whittled down to the core idea of what something is.

If you shoot for the stars — even if you fail — you’ll at least be in outer space.

Bioware’s employees have an extensive collection of larping gear, weaponry, and armor.

Mass Effect 2 was a highlight experience in Joel’s career

Seeing a game come to fruition is incredibly rewarding

Virtual Reality is so new that every step into the technology is defining the medium

Everything being done in VR is breaking new ground

Audio in VR has a number of new considerations to take in such as Binaural listening

We have a huge discussion on Binaural recording 

The Dark Crystal was freakin’ terrifying

Implementing orchestral music is a challenge in VR 

Getting the player to look where you want them to is a challenge within VR — you have to figure out how to draw attention naturally

VR won’t only change the gaming world. It’s going to be a global shift in how we communicate

VR has the ability to create incredibly great things and incredibly dark things

Story Studio

The conversation takes a philosophical turn discussing the implications of Virtual Reality and its future impact on the world

Short Answer

Favorite Mic

Sennheiser MKH 80-50 

Favorite Game You Haven’t Worked On

Super Mario World or Super Mario 64

What Book Would You Recommend

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

Best Piece of Advice

“You can’t wait for your ducks to all be in a row because they’re never all gonna’ be in a row… There’s times when you have to plan, and then there’s time when you just have to do it, and deal with what comes up.”

The Gallery: Six Elements

Story Studio

Henry’s Premiere from Story Studio on Vimeo.

 

Thanks again to everybody for the massive support you’ve been giving. Be sure to

Today’s guest is Garry Schyman. Garry has composed for many mediums, but as of late has had an epic streak of video games. To name a few: Destroy All Humans! , Bioshock, Resistance: Retribution, Dante’s Inferno, Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea, and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Garry has also received a staggering amount of awards for his work, but I’m only gonna toss out a few:

The Bafta Awards 2014 Winner for Best original Music

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences – DICE Awards 2014 Winner for Outstanding Achievement in original music composition with Bioshock Infinite

Musican and Sound Awards 2014 winner for Best Original Composition: Gaming

New York Video Game Critics Circle Awards 2014 winner for Best Music in a game: Bioshock Infinite

Spike TV Video Games Awards 2007 Winner for Best Original Score – with Bioshock

2008 GANG Awards for Music of the Year: Bioshock

2007 G4 Television Award for Soundtrack of the Year: Bioshock

so, so, so many more

Show Highlights

 

Garry was born in Chicago, but grew up in California

Studied Music Composition at USC

Started working for Mike Post and Pete Carpenter

Worked as a ghost on Magnum P.I., Greatest American Hero, and others.

Scored movies in the 90’s

In 2004 Garry’s agent sent his resume to THQ and it was sitting on a fax machine. An executive saw it, recognized his name, and booked him for Destroy All Humans!

Fun Fact: John Williams scored Gilligan’s Island — who knew!?

Once upon a time Garry scored infomercials

Just finished an awesome project called iO Moon

Garry first learned to play the piano

Big fan of Mahler

Garry teaches at USC in the Scoring for Motion Picture and Television Program

Every composer should know how to operate both in-the-box and in a recording session

Garry has always been a contracted composer, not an in-house composer

Garry writes music in Digital Performer

Scoring the original Bioshock was a massive pull right away as was Dante’s Inferno

Nathan Grigg cowrote a lot of the music for Shadow of Mordor

It helps to remember when composing that “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Applying limitations to your workflow can generate some amazing creative results.

The originally score of Bioshock was never sold. It was given away.

Go above and beyond with your composition. It often pays to compose extra pieces that may fit in elsewhere.

Deadlines can be a very strong source of inspiration.