This blog mostly talks about various tools and how to use them, as well as the occasional “how do I make this” post. Not once have I mentioned how I got into this career, or how you can, so I figure I’ll use this month’s post to do that! Next month will likely be about phase and how you can use it in sound design, but it’s been a hell of a month so let’s do something simple 🙂
I started doing audio stuff when I was 12 or so. My dad was in a band and worked at a recording studio when he was younger, so he taught me the basic stuff like recording and mixing as well as how to play guitar. Specifically, he had me sit down with his old Hohner acoustic for a month and practise each day before he’d let me get my own guitar, as a test to see how serious I was. Turns out very, as I went on to perform in 2 touring bands and played a few random gigs, plus recorded about 2 albums (GLHF finding them, they’re somewhere on Bandcamp probably) . I also trained under a Juilliard graduate for classical guitar and bass, and went to a summer class at Berklee for theory. I picked up other instruments as well, like guqin, taishogoto, saxophone, koto, various winds, violin, double bass, accordion… probably other stuff I’ve since forgotten, but all self taught.
Synthesis is also entirely self taught, stemming from making weird noises with guitar pedals. I very distinctly remember when it clicked: I was in my bedroom with my BC Rich Warlock (bronze edition, but also my first) guitar, Line6 amp, and an array of old cheap pedals, experimenting. I learned my Ibanez CF7 could make noise on its own and liked the weird things I could do by turning knobs n stuff. I don’t recall how but I made the transition to a software synthesizer, Gunnar Ekornas’ MiniMogueVA (which was new at the time, I actually recall picking up an update for it later on if that shows around when I did this), and struggled for about an hour to make it do anything until I figured out midi and what some knobs do. Eventually I tried to make synth music with cataclysmically abhorrent results, then learned of the freedom provided by sound design. No notes, rhythms, chords, any of that. Just… sounds. So I just started making weird sounds.
It fairly quickly got to the point where synthesis is so easy to me I can just think or hear a sound and know how to, at least roughly, synthesize it. I joke that I have a synthesizer in my head and all I need to do is put what it tells me into a real synth to make noise. At this point I’m practically a walking encyclopaedia of synthesis!
Aaanyway, enough about voices in my head telling me what to do. My first actual gig as a sound designer (and musician because I did both for a while) was from my sister. She was a game developer working on a few mobile games and an RPG, and I was called in to make assets for those (some of which I think are still available on the Apple App Store though I don’t recall their names). Through her I was able to get in with the IGDA, both as a member and working their booth at E3. I networked a fair bit, met some cool people, and worked on several more games over the next few years. Now, the last game I worked on was like… 2016?
But I had good reason for switching away from games. A while before that time, I worked at a pizza joint as a delivery driver (which… ended up on a very weird path that I might talk about someday if this blog gets any more personal). A co-worker at the time was an aspiring film producer, so I worked on small projects for him, including two music videos and a “visual novel” before being referred to his friends doing larger projects. This got me working on things like social justice reform content, more short films, YouTube content like vlogs and how-to videos, and really just a variety of stuff, which eventually led to me going to indie film festivals including Sundance. I met more and more film people and did more and more referral work until I eventually got a contract job at Sony!
Now, when I say Sony I don’t mean Marvel movies. I worked in third party post production, effectively doing sound design for indie films that Sony was buying or marketing from indie producers. It was an awesome gig though. I did learn I don’t like working with composers but otherwise it was a bunch of cool people doing cool stuff with small projects most people wouldn’t have heard of. Part of why I got the job was because during the interview the guy (who would be my boss) was fascinated by my workflow. No reel, no resume, just get put in contact, talk, show what I do. Office politics were sucky but apparently that’s normal in actual offices. Part of why I’m back to freelance now.
Before I went back to freelance, though, I was offered a job at Lionsgate! One of the producers I worked with directly at Sony ended up there and was trying to pull others up with him. Not one to say no to an opp like that, I interviewed and was accepted. Finally, working on major films people might actually watch!
…Yeah that didn’t last long, about as long as the Sony gig, and honestly I haaaaaaated it. I worked in office then remote at Sony because COVID was (and still is) a thing, but Lionsgate was fully remote despite still having to work with a team. I used to run a finance agency doing everything from insurance to securities, and that was a walk in the park compared to the endless, pointless meetings lasting long into the evening, and being pulled away from my work constantly that I experienced at Lionsgate. Shouldn’t air your dirty laundry in public, but it’s not like I intend to go back to that kinda workplace anyway. May as well be honest.
So anyway, I quit that and now I work from my condo in NYC doing whatever random odd jobs people ask of me. Right now, as I write this, I’m working on two feature length films, four sample packs, a commercial, a web series, and I have my own stuff including a book, sound design masterclass, and hardware synth stuff, as noted in my last post. I’m surrounded by synthesizers, sit in a comfy chair in front of a workstation/gaming PC I built, and more importantly I work when I want to (more or less, life gets in the way rather often), and I generally avoid every single meeting people try to drag me into. Turns out they mostly can be an email. Or a chat. Or just never happen at all…
So, to summarise: to get my job, first make weird noises with electronics, then get dedicated electronics for weird noises, then network network network, and maybe someone will reach out and ask yo to work with them. And you may find you hate it but build up enough rapport online and within your network to keep working freelance. Yaaaaaaaaaay!
Taika Sound Design 