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Working Class Audio #177 with Zack Ohren!!!

ZACK OHREN is an Oakland-based audio engineer & producer whose work includes over a thousand recordings over a two-decade long career.  Alongside his friend and former co-conspirator Aaron Hellam, he ran Castle Ultimate which quickly became synonymous with high-quality, accessible recordings. Since 2013, he’s been mainly working out of Sharkbite Studios.  Zack has been described as “wizard fast” and “brutally honest” – skills that have helped him settle into a niche of heavy, often technically demanding music.  He has worked with artists such as Machine Head, The Ghost Inside, Exmortus, Fallujah, Decrepit Birth, Suffocation, Set Your Goals, As Blood Runs Black, Cattle Decapitation, Entheos, Carnifex, All Shall Perish, Sworn Enemy, and Immolation among others.

Zack joins me to talk about his journey with former studio partner Aaron Hellam and the series of studio locations known as Castle Ultimate that they created, the challenges with studio landlords, neighbors as well as lessons learned and where he’s at today.  Enjoy! – Matt

Photo by Michelle Nisbet

Show notes and links:

• .MOD File Zack mentions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQJatdOKm2o
• Zack on Fcebook: https://www.facebook.com/zack.ohren
• EXMORTUS – FEAST OF FLESH (Produced By Zack Ohren) : https://youtu.be/1XFj6p6PoYo
• Hellam Sound (Studio of Aaron Hellam): http://hellamsound.com/

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Working Class Audio #175 with Adam Muñoz!!!

Adam Muñoz has been an engineer in the Bay Area since 1991. Having joined the Fantasy Studios team as a full-time House Engineer in 2008 Adam has had the opportunity to engineer sessions for many local and national recording artists. Adam has worked with artists like Herbie Hancock, Dave Mathews, Marcus Miller, Snarky Puppy, Jason Moran, Lisa Fisher, Joanna Newsom, Ambrose Akinmusire, Bruce Cockburn, Jerry Granelli, Etienne Charles, Neal Schon, Animals As Leaders, Eric Gales, Tiffany Austin, The Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Bomba Estereo, Brad Mehldau, LaToya London, Carie Rodriguez, Rupa and the April Fishes, Rinde Eckert, Autopsy, Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom, Sean Paul, Lyle Lovett, Matt Nathanson, Six Pence None the Richer, Hank Williams III, Otis Redding and Vince Guaraldi.

Adam’s long-time relationship with Bill Frisell and producer Lee Townsend resulted in the 2015 AND 2016 GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

Adam came to Fantasy after many years as an independent engineer working out of some of the finest studios in the San Francisco and abroad.  As a staff engineer at Different Fur and Brilliant Studios, Adam worked on many notable sessions for artists like Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Sleep, Neurosis, Chris Isaak, Bonnie Raitt, The Cranberries, Paula Cole and on George Winston’s Grammy Award-winning project “Forest.” Adam has been fortunate to have worked along side many super talented producers and engineers including Andy Wallace, Matt Wallace, Howard Johnston, Billy Anderson, Frankie Blue, Karl Derfler, Marc Senasac, John Cuniberti, Judy Clapp, Mike Curb, Steven Haigler, Thom Wilson and more.

Adam’s background also includes ADR/VO, Foley, lock-to-picture sessions and orchestral film scores.

Photo by Monica Jane Frisell 

Adam joins me to talk about his journey starting out as a DJ examining the credits on the back of records to working as a house engineer at the world famous Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. We talk studio leadership, survival, dedication and the increasing difficulty of repeating his journey in todays recording world.  Enjoy! – Matt

Show notes and links:

• Adam’s site: http://www.adammunoz.com/
• Fantasy Studios: http://fantasystudios.com/
• Saul Zaentz Company: http://www.zaentz.com/

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Working Class Audio #173 with Jonathan Wyner!!!

Jonathan Wyner is the Education Director at iZotope in Cambridge, MA, Chief Engineer  at  M Works Mastering, and Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston.  He’s mastered and produced more than 5000 recordings during the last 34 years.  Mastering, recording and mixing since 1983, he established M Works mastering studios in Cambridge, MA in 1991.  Among the artists’ projects he has worked on are:  James Taylor, David Bowie, Aerosmith, Kiri Te Kanawa, Aimee Mann, London Symphony, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen and Nirvana. His project Invention and Alchemy received a Grammy Nomination in 2005. Jonathan has conducted seminars around the world and presented with George Massenburg, Doug Sax and Bob Ludwig among others.  In January 2017 he presented the keynote talk for the NAMM TEC Tracks.  He’s authored a book,  ‘Audio Mastering: Essential Practices’ published by Hale Leonard/Berklee Press. With the iZotope team he authored and developed ‘Pro Audio Essentials’, an online ear training site that garnered a TEC award in early 2017.

Jonathan joins me to chat about the details of mastering and how he got into it, health, teaching, the bacon and chia seed diet , plus a double pun, a brilliant analogy and a few good laughs!   Enjoy! – Matt

Show notes and links:

• M Works Mastering: http://www.m-works.com/
• Jonathan’s book on Mastering: https://goo.gl/85jBFZ
• Deep Work: https://goo.gl/Jx7Vvt
• Cal Newport Blog: https://goo.gl/pX8FV8

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WCA #171 with Lucy J Mitchell

Lucy started out in the industry as a runner at Envy Post Production straight after graduating with a Classical Music degree from the University of Nottingham with no idea of what a .wav was or even what ‘5.1’ meant. After hours of training outside her work hours and during lunch breaks, she quickly progressed to being an audio assistant in the machine room. She became an Audio Assistant Manager, being the go to person for overseeing large projects, representing her team in meetings, and generally making sure everything ran smoothly. During this time, I again was finding time to train in the studios with the tracklayers and mixers, learning my way around not only Protools but the DAWs such as the DigiDesign Icon Desk.

She was promoted to tracklayer after a few years in the machine room where she edited music, dialogues, atmospheres, foley and sound-effects. She was regularly being requested by both the Post Producers and Clients to run voice-over recording sessions. Here She also provided fully mixed Sound Design for TV shows such as Rise of the Machines, D-Day Laid Bare and Strip the City. I was also mixing animations and short films in my spare time (see my work page).In 2013, she was named as one of Broadcast Magazine’s ‘Hot Shots’, an annual feature on rising stars of the industry under 30. This was totally unexpected and it was such an honour to be listed alongside all of those talented people.She left Envy in 2015 and she is currently working as a Freelance Sound Editor across all genres; across all editorial disciplines for Television, Film and Computer Games. These include computer game ‘Guitar Hero Live’, recent hit Channel 4 comedy ‘Derry Girls’ and soon to be released feature comedy ‘You, Me and Him’. 

Since going freelance she recieved her first uk broadcast Dubbing Mixer credit and has been mixing Eastenders and multiple factual television programmes over the last few years. Her career has gone from strength to strength, constantly working with new clients and always learning new skills.

In 2015 she took part in a mid-career-level Mentoring Scheme run by WFTV UK (Women in Film and Television) and she has been part of the BAFTA Crew Programme since 2015. She is also a full member of AMPS (Association of Motion Picture Sound).

She has been interviewed for a number of online publications and has lectured 3rd Year Audio Production students at the University of Lincoln multiple times since 2016, with another booked for next term.  

She has a particular interest in foley, Drama, Film and Animation and hopes to do more of these this year. 

Show notes and links:

• Lucy’s website:  http://www.lucyjsound.com/
• Lucy on IMDB: https://goo.gl/9dJpJa
• Ambisonic resources:  https://goo.gl/zbtknE

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Ryan joins me to talk about the importance of having a great team, networking, thinking long-term, Canadian health care, the benefits of  having a manager, and the importance of having a supportive spouse or partner. Enjoy!

Matt

Show notes and links:

• The 7 Health Benefits Of Walking Just 20 Minutes A Day: https://goo.gl/kd2L7K
• Ryan’s studio: https://www.echoplantsound.com/

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WCA #167 with Billy Decker

Billy Decker was born on August 28th, 1967, and raised in Nebraska.  He got a BS in criminal justice at the University of Nebraska and then went on to be Salutatorian at Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts in 1992. In 1994, Decker moved to Nashville where he’s been working ever since. He’s mixed 14  #1s to date – most recently, Parmalee’s “Carolina”. Billy has mixed for Sam Hunt, Darius Rucker, Chris Young, and Jaime Lynne Spears. Decker also mixed George Jones’s last album before he died. Billy Decker made history in July of 2014 when Sam Hunt became the most added new artist of all time. Decker works in a unique way. “I mix really fast. Most of my mixes are finished in between two and three-and-a-half hours. To be able to do this, I use a lot of templates in Pro Tools. Instead of spending two hours EQing a kick drum, I can do it in 30 seconds, because I’ve set up templates for the album that outline all the basic parameters for each instrument. Then, I can focus on fine-tuning and bringing levels up and down—working on the entire mix, rather than focusing on individual adjustments. It’s a good way to work. It’s real fast, efficient, and, most importantly, it’s fun.”

Show notes and links:

• Billy Decker’s Site: http://www.billydecker.com/
• MTM Wood: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWBTyvNhUXq0ofu6ta1EAaQ
• Prosperworks CRM : https://goo.gl/ca2wyg
• Close.IO CRM: https://close.io/
• Billy on Bobby Owsinski’s Show: http://bobbyoinnercircle.com/tag/billy-decker/
• Billy on The Six Figure Home Studio Podcast: https://www.thesixfigurehomestudio.com/social-skills-helped-billy-decker-dominate-nashville-mixing-scene/
• Audio Movers: