Fish(er) Tales

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! These posts will give you a better idea about what this site is about. Start here, then go here, and here, and then here.When I was a kid I often dreamed of running my own business. My fantasies included having an office from which I could work on cool projects with interesting people and change the world. Dream and...

It’s taken a some extra time, but finally I am proud to announce the release of my latest book: SOUNDTRACK SUCCESS : A Digital Storyteller’s Guide to Audio Post-Production. This book is a soup-to-nuts, non-software-specific guide to the entire realm of audio post-production. Soundtrack Success will show you how to use dialogue, voiceover, walla, backgrounds, sound effects, Foley, and music,...

The Taoists say that “life is the gift.” No matter what is happening in your life right now, you should express gratitude and enjoy it. Meeting the challenges of daily life is what living is all about. If you start to drift away from your central purpose, take a minute to look around at all that you have. I’m not talking about material goods or bank balances. I’m talking about...

In the fine book, Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar James Bach discusses how self-education can lead to success. I found it quite inspiring and enlightening to read about his story, and apply it to my own pursuit of knowledge. Here are a few takeaways: “My plan is easy to summarize: get out and try stuff.” You need to learn more in order to create more. I’ve been spreading this notion...

To support the release of my latest book Soundtrack Success - A Digital Storyteller’s Guide to Audio Post-Production, I thought it’d be fun to have a contest. The winner (chosen at random) gets a FREE, autographed copy of the book. What’s the catch? Think of your favorite movie, TV show, documentary, or commercial where the use of sound was exceptional. Let’s avoid musical examples...

Do you need sound effects for your next project? Of course you can buy a lot of them. But where’s the fun in that? Instead consider making your own sounds. Footsteps, doors, prop handling, and other such obvious sounds are easy to create in the studio. But what if you need unique or esoteric sounds? The fine folks at Epic Sound maintain a handy-dandy, free, A-Z guide to sound effects (SFX) creation....

Film and video soundtracks can be very sophisticated with dozens of tracks. It’s essential to organize all these various elements. Since dialogue, music, and (sound) effects are the three primary elements to a soundtrack, setup three main busses for your DM&E. Route these three busses to the master volume for the final mix. This setup allows you to produce both a stereo a master file and...

Go into a Kindergarten classroom and ask the students to raise their hands if they think they are an artist. Probably every hand will go up. Ask them if they can draw. More hands. Ask if they can sing? Ditto. Ask if they can dance. Ditto ditto. Now go into a high school classroom and ask the same questions. You’ll be lucky if one student raises her hand to any of these questions. What happened?...