Now, you have the opportunity to do your own questions to Jamey Scott. Please read the exclusive interview first. Maybe you can find your answer there.
There are several ways to make your questions:
- Leave a comment on this post
- Use the contact form
- Write to designingsound [at] gmail [dot] com
The deadline for questions is November 24th and the answers will be published on the final post of the special. Jamey will choose and answer any questions that he want. Note that all questions will be considered, but not all will have to be answered.
You said you enjoy building scenes from scratch. Where do you like to start? Background to foreground? Foreground to background?
How heavily baffled is your ADR recording room? Is the ideal space for ADR a completely dead room, or do you like having reflections in it for options?
Which type of mouse do you use? Are you a trackball or classic mouse user? How do you mix string swells and emotional music where you “feel” your way through the faders with a mouse?
What’s your favorite compressor/EQ in Pro Tools for dialogue mixing?
What is your favorite noise reduction plug-in or hardware for reducing background noise for dialogue tracks?
Do you have a track limit for the amount of sounds you combine for a sound design element?
What sort of word clock or synchronization do you use with your Pro Tools I/Os?
What sort of outboard gear do you own and use often, if any?
Do you use any type of mastering or “sweetening” on your film or video game mixes?
Do you cross-check your mixes on any other types of systems or alternate sets of speakers in your mix room?
What do you use to monitor iPhone games you sound design? Do you have a way of loading the sounds onto the phone and playing them back as if you’re playing the game?
Even when you are designing and mixing a film or video game by yourself, do you still pre-dub or do you mix in a session with all of the elements so it’s easy to go back and forth from the units as opposed to going back and having to open pre-mix sessions to change something?
How do you archive your projects once you’re done? What type of long-term backup media are you using for your projects? Do you back up your projects as you’re working on them and what type of storage do you have?
What program or software do you use to handle picture and timing changes?
Wow, I thought I had a lot of questions but Ryan totally beat me to it, lol. I have a couple I’d like to ask you.
I asked Aaron Marks this one when he was interviewed here, but I’d like your opinion as well. Do you find that the video game industry is moving toward specialization, i.e. hiring certain people only for GUI sfx and other people only for weapon sfx, etc. or do you find the industry prefers the “one-stop shop” for sound effects, hiring one person/team for the whole package?
Related to the question above but do you see that changing in the future, 1, 5, 10 years down the road?
Also, I notice recently there’s been quite a rise of small-scale SFX libraries popping up, a number of which are highlighted here on Designing Sound. Do you find these being used more and more, or are the large cover-all libraries still the standard? Similarly, what sort of percentage of SFX do you create for an average game? Is it more or less than in film?
Lastly, do you have any creative ideas for how to get into the industry when you don’t live in any of the “big” cities a la LA, Seattle, NYC? For example, I live in Minneapolis and will have to remain here for a few more years and I’d really like to start establishing myself but don’t have anywhere near the opportunities, at least in the video game industry. Are there any good ways to get a hold of small games developers, like a “gamasutra” of little guys?
Thank you very much for taking the time both to interview and to answer!
Hey Jamey
First thing. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us.
Second, I’m interested in knowing more about the way you use QuicKeys in your daily work ( I’m also a big fan of this program)
Thanks in advance!
Michel
As a Sound Designer do you also have to work with software such as Fmod to organise and code your audio or is that done by someone else?
A lot of games now use the real-time processing of audio do you try and record everything as dry as possible?
Thanks
Adrian
Let’s say you get a new video game to work on, what kind of visual do you receive? Screenshots, unrendered or rendered cinematics, a pre-built alpha version of the game? Do you automatically have to send your files to the programmer or you have a sandbox to test them quickly in an environment that is interactive? Great articles. Thanks a lot.