What practical steps can people take to expand their audio horizons?
The practical options for expanding your audio skillset are more varied and easily available than ever before. I never attended school for anything audio related. My majors were in Philosophy and English (hence the need to find a profession where people actually make a living). I developed my skills over a 10 year period through trial and error and with the help of affordable music software, knowledgeable people on forums, books, video tutorials, etc.
I’m not at all precious about this stuff: The reality of sound design is that you get good at it by messing around with sound, hopefully doing something right along the way and learning from your mistakes. Most of the best sounds come from accidents. I’ve recently read some interviews with sound designers who talk about spending weeks agonizing over each sliver of their creations, and I just can’t relate to that at all. These guys are really good at what they do and I mean no disrespect.
I just think it’s more fun to be like a hyper-active child in a room full of toys, tossing stuff together and figuring out why it does or does not sound cool. Simply practicing your craft is the most practical step imaginable!
Do you offer any training products?
Over the last year and a half I started a business at www.nickstutorials.com. I create video tutorials that deal with musical sound design. The videos deal with each of the most popular instruments in the Suite version of Ableton Live, although I’ll be expanding to instruments like NI Absynth and CamelAudio’s Alchemy.
The basic goal of my site is to provide the guidance I wish I would have had access to when I started learning the ins and outs of synthesis and sampling. The tutorials move from basic to advanced material pretty fluidly, so I’m proud of how comprehensive they are. I should also point out that signing up for my mailing list will get you a free hour’s worth of tutorials from my full packages, so I encourage your readers to sign up if they’re at all interested!
I’ve also recently joined up with Bjorn and Andreas from the Covert Operators. The CovOps site is now my primary vehicle for releasing commercial patches for Ableton Live instruments, and we have been working for some time on a huge project that will hopefully be unveiled in a few months.
Thanks for the opportunity to talk about sound design!
I can teach you compression. It’s all right hither: www.UnderstandingCompression.com
Joe Gilder is a Nashville-based engineer, musician, and producer who also provides training and advice at the Home Studio Corner.Note that Joe also offers highly effective training courses, including Understanding Compression and Understanding EQ.