Subharmonic Posted July 8, 2014 Posted July 8, 2014 Hello people of FDR,My name is Rob, I am born and raised in the beautiful and sunny Florida. I am the son of two extremely eccentric parents. I am fortunate enough to be the second generation of 'cycle of violence' breakers. This has caused an extreme backlash from the State in my lifetime, and boy, does the State have a great immune system to logic, reason, empathy, and universal truths. Currently, I work from home as an Audio Engineer, mixing and mastering records from clients worldwide. Metal and rock music primarily comes my way, but I feel at home with just about any style.I would like to thank Stefan Molyneux and all of the researchers at Freedomain Radio for supplying comprehensive reason and philosophy on such a grand scale. I am offering my services as an audio engineer to FDR as a current form of donation. If any audio needs restoration, cleanup, or enhancement, I am more than willing to donate my time quickly and efficiently.Thank you,-Rob
luxfelix Posted July 17, 2014 Posted July 17, 2014 Hello Rob, I am also from Florida and work with audio from home! I remember hearing from a couple of the FDR videos that service donation inquiries are welcome at: [email protected] (contact Michael). From my experience, no other artistic medium encourages empathy quite like audio. Have you found this to be true in your experience as well?
Subharmonic Posted July 17, 2014 Author Posted July 17, 2014 Hello Rob, I am also from Florida and work with audio from home! I remember hearing from a couple of the FDR videos that service donation inquiries are welcome at: [email protected] (contact Michael). From my experience, no other artistic medium encourages empathy quite like audio. Have you found this to be true in your experience as well? Thank you very much for forwarding this email address.You may be on to something with that. Although, all service based professions require a massive amount of empathy in order to operate properly and in a sustainable way. Until now, I have never equated our work with empathy, but the observation is extremely accurate. Many artists view their songs, and performance as their own child. As an engineer, you are being trusted to enhance their child and troubleshoot their emotional investment. Without empathy, this is asking for failure. For instance, a drummer who spends decades to develop their technique on groove and dynamics, without empathy, "fixing" their performance with grid alignment and sample replacement might not be the best idea. Do you work from home based on choice, or are there external factors? Personally, I found the overhead to be way lower, so I may offer the struggling artist a much more affordable rate.
luxfelix Posted July 17, 2014 Posted July 17, 2014 My pleasure Rob. I can relate to you there with service and respecting artistic integrity. The short answer is yes, and for similar economic reasons (since graduating). The long answer is that I'm saving up and applying to various game development companies before moving out. I've also considered moving to another country with less living expenses since I'm able to work remotely (if I receive no offers by next year). How/when did you know you wanted to master records?
Subharmonic Posted July 21, 2014 Author Posted July 21, 2014 My pleasure Rob. I can relate to you there with service and respecting artistic integrity. The short answer is yes, and for similar economic reasons (since graduating). The long answer is that I'm saving up and applying to various game development companies before moving out. I've also considered moving to another country with less living expenses since I'm able to work remotely (if I receive no offers by next year). How/when did you know you wanted to master records? Which school did you graduate from? I went to Full Sail University and graduated in August 07. I also have an interest in game sound if the stars align and my number one calling fails (music). Which game companies interest you? I have been shopping my Plan B and C the last couple of years. Blizzard, Carbine, Bethesda are top on my list right now. I love those sword wielding, fire slinging, demon killing types of games, haha, LARP but less cool.I knew I wanted to mix/master records the first time I recorded my own band at 15 years old. I loved the balance between technicality and creativity. It has been a hell of a journey the past 10 years. I pretty much took every job I could get to get in to the audio field. Guitar teching, stage teching, stage managing, FOH engineer, tracking engineer, pro tools editing, mixing engineer, mastering engineer, anything I could get my hands on really. How about yourself?
luxfelix Posted July 24, 2014 Posted July 24, 2014 I graduated from SCAD. Companies like TGC, Valve, Supergiant, Paradox, Insomniac, and Blizzard interest me the most. A lot of the game companies I've researched outsource their audio work, so I've applied to audio post-houses as well. Ah, yes! There is a balance between technique and creativity (left and right brain). There's this sense that when I talk to folks from more math/science/programming disciplines they view audio work as being very creative, and when I talk to visual artists they view audio work as being very technical and complicated (with so many faders and encoders on the console for example), but I have enough experience to hold a conversation with both sides; consequently, I'm also one of those people on a project that is aware of what other departments are doing on a more intimate level. I started in audio during school about four years ago, though I've worked in different artistic fields for much longer. You mentioned Blizzard and sword-wielding; I'm guessing you've played Diablo and/or Warcraft? Maybe even D&D?
Subharmonic Posted August 1, 2014 Author Posted August 1, 2014 Ah, yes! There is a balance between technique and creativity (left and right brain). There's this sense that when I talk to folks from more math/science/programming disciplines they view audio work as being very creative, and when I talk to visual artists they view audio work as being very technical and complicated (with so many faders and encoders on the console for example), but I have enough experience to hold a conversation with both sides; consequently, I'm also one of those people on a project that is aware of what other departments are doing on a more intimate level. I have a similar parallel. Audio Engineering certainly broadens your ability to communicate with many different minds, kind of the opposite of philosophy. Haha! It's super important to understand the basics of every process of your field. I would be a far worse mixing engineer if I did not have experience in tracking, or mastering. Imagine not being able to tell which un-labelled track is which, or sending a super hot mix to the mastering engineer and having to rework your automation. A lack of empathy is disastrous to your own self. You mentioned Blizzard and sword-wielding; I'm guessing you've played Diablo and/or Warcraft? Maybe even D&D? Certainly, Diablo 1-3, Everquest, WoW. I have been playing MMORPGs and action RPGs since about 2000. When I started my own business, I haven't been playing much at all since my fate is in my own hands . When I was working for other people, I desperately needed mental stimulation, and video games were my outlet. I would even argue that these games have been a benefit to my self worth.
luxfelix Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Indeed. I've heard that to be a master, you must master the basics, and that one of the secrets to good sound work is good organization skills (both for yourself and the mastering engineer from your example). There are studies out there that would support your point about games benefiting your self worth. Gamification also comes to mind.
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