How to succeed in Audio Branding, Music Editing, and sound for VR/AR/MR – with Steve Keller, Steven Saltzman, Helena McGill & Anna Woźniewicz:

In these 3 new interviews, you'll hear what it takes to get started and succeed in audio branding from Steve Keller, music editing from Steven Saltzman, and sound for VR/AR/MR from Helena McGill & Anna Woźniewicz:

• Explore more than 40 additional resources on how to succeed in sound here

Audio Branding – insights from Steve Keller:

 
• What working in audio branding entails:
On the one hand, audio branding is simply the use of music and/or sound to communicate brand attributes, meaning, and purpose in a way that enhances brand recall and linkage. This can certainly be accomplished through the simple pairing of an audio stimulus with other brand identifiers. It’s a tactical use of sound to drive recognition.

On the other hand, audio branding is also the use of sound to align brand intent with consumer perception in a way that produces measurable results. Framed this way, audio branding is a strategic process that goes beyond a tactical execution. It’s a design approach that helps brands make better choices about the sounds they associate with their brand.

I’m more interested in the later approach. I’m fond of saying, “Audio branding doesn’t start with your ears. It starts with what’s between them.” I want to explore the intersection of behavioral economics, consumer insights, psychoacoustics and psychophysics.

Audio branding doesn’t start with your ears. It starts with what’s between them

I want to understand how music and sound shape our perception and behavior, and how a strategic approach to audio in a brand context can produce a tangible return on investment.

 
• What it takes in terms of skills and gear:
Audio branding is, in practice, a type of alchemy: a blend of science and art. To be an audio alchemist, you need an understanding of consumer psychology, statistics, testing methodologies, behavioral economics, design thinking, music science, and psychophysics. It also helps to have experience with composition, sound design, audio production, music rights (particularly copyrights), and leading creative teams.

Finally, as you’re often collaborating with brand marketing and advertising teams, it’s important to understand how these businesses approach strategy and creativity.

Obviously, it’s difficult to find all these things in one individual, which is why it’s important to surround yourself with a team that can offer a degree of specialty in all these areas. Learn what you do best and then seek out others to compliment your abilities.

When it comes to the “art,” you obviously need the capability to create the audio assets. Audio software to record and edit is important, as well as a good microphone and signal processing gear (like preamps and compressors). Most composers or sound designers have these tools at their disposal.

At the end of the day, when it comes to great audio branding, great production isn’t a differentiator. That’s simply a given. The audio branding agencies and consultancies that set themselves apart do it through their approach to design, research, and producing a measurable ROI for their clients.

 
• How to learn it:
Picking up on the previous question about the gear needed for audio branding, I’d suggest that your most valuable piece of “gear” is your brain. Before you can start to connect the sonic dots, you have to find them. We know that sound doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Neither does audio branding. Read everything you can, reach out to other audio branding practitioners and learn from therm. Look for case studies and academic research that can inform your decision-making process. Join a professional organization where you can trade insights and stories. Consider expanding your knowledge across other disciplines.

 
• How to find work:
Audio branding has matured quite a bit in the last 15 – 20 years. There are some very good audio agencies now around the world. Reach out to them about potential job opportunities or, if you’re a student, internships.

If you’re a composer/designer interested in the field, put together a reel and target companies in the audio branding space. Make sure your reel showcases your ability to think about music and sound from a design perspective.

Make sure your reel showcases your ability to think about music and sound from a design perspective

If you’re a strategist or a researcher, see if there are agencies or consultancies that are interested in developing audio branding services.

Of course, you can also try to create your own company. With the rise of voice interactivity, there’s a renewed interest in audio branding. The good news: this interest is opening up more conversations with brands about the strategic use of sound and music in branding and marketing. The bad news: there’s more competition in the field.

 
• Essential advice for working and making it in audio branding:
I think it helps to have a certain amount of patience and perseverance. Look for the parts of our discipline that need to be challenged. How can you add to the body of knowledge? What new research methodologies or tools could be developed?

 
• Further reading and resources:
If you’re building a library, here are a few titles from my shelf that I think should be on yours:

• Allan, David. 2015. This Note’s For You: In Search of Music Marketing Excellence. Business Expert Press.

• Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Anthony G. Greenwald. 2013. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. Delacorte Press.

• Barden, Phil. 2013. Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy. Wiley.

• Beckerman, Joel, and Tyler Gray. 2014. The Sonic Boom: How Sound Transforms the Way We Think, Feel, and Buy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

• Bronner, Kai, and Rainer Hirt. 2009. Audio Branding: Brands, Sounds and Communication. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.

• Chaudhuri, Arjun. 2006. Emotion and Reason in Consumer Behavior. taylor & francis.

• Crook, Tim. 2012. The Sound Handbook. Routledge.

• Franzen, Giep, and Sandra E. Moriarty. 2008. The Science and Art of Branding. Routledge.

• Gabrielsson, Alf, and Roy Bradbury. 2011. Strong Experiences with Music. Oxford University Press.

• Grimshaw, Mark, and Tom Garner. 2015. Sonic Virtuality: Sound as Emergent Perception. Oxford University Press.

• Haas, Roland, and Vera Brandes. 2009. Music that works: Contributions of biology, neurophysiology, psychology, sociology, medicine and musicology. Springer.

• Horowitz, Seth S., and Seth Horowitz. 2012. The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind. Bloomsbury USA.

• Juslin, Patrik N., and John Sloboda. 2011. Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications. Oxford University Press, USA.

• Krishna, Aradhna. 2009. Sensory Marketing: Research on the Sensuality of Products. Routledge.

• Lehmann, Christian. 2014. The Key to Music’s Genetics: Why Music is Part of Being Human. Anthem Press.

• Ltd, APG. 2018. How not to Plan: 66 ways not to cock it up. Troubador Publishing.

• Minsky, Laurence, and Colleen Fahey. 2017. Audio Branding: Using Sound to Build Your Brand. Kogan Page.

• Sacks, Oliver. 2008. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition. Vintage.

• Schnupp, Jan, Israel Nelken, and Andrew King. 2012. Auditory Neuroscience: Making Sense of Sound. The MIT Press.

• Snijders, Weimer. 2018. Eat Your Greens. Matador.

• Sterne, Jonathan. 2012. The Sound Studies Reader. Routledge.

• Tan, Siu-Lan, Annabel J. Cohen, Scott D. Lipscomb, and Roger A. Kendall. 2013. The Psychology of Music in Multimedia. Oxford University Press.

• Taylor, Timothy D. 2012. The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture. University Of Chicago Press.

About Steve Keller:
Steve is Sonic Strategy Director for Pandora Media, where he blends art and science into award-winning audio strategies and creative content for a variety of global agencies and brands.
With a degree in psychology and over 30 years of experience in the music and advertising industries, Steve’s work explores the ways music and sound affect consumer perception and behavior. Recent experiments have examined the relationship between sound and taste, the existence of audio archetypes, and how bias impacts the aesthetic judgements of advertising professionals. Hear more in his TEDx Talk below:

He is the 2017 recipient of the iHeartMedia Scholarship for Leadership in Audio Innovation, and is currently completing an Executive MBA through the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, focused on how brands can more effectively measure and predict returns on audio investments.

www.pandoraforbrands.com/studio-resonate

Music Editing – insights from Steven Saltzman:

 
• What working in music editing for film and television entails:

Our job description encompasses working with the multi-faceted concerns of all music in a TV show or film. While any one project may not require all areas of a music editor’s expertise, our job and involvement can include any one or more of the following:
• Creating music spotting notes; a detailed representation of each score cue and source music in a project. Usually this includes a description of the scene where music will go with a time code start, end and length. This document is a guide for the director, editor, music supervisor and composer going forward through the post production and composition process.

• Creating a temporary music score by digitally editing pre-existing movie music as a primary resource.

• Prepping and managing all the music including the placement and editing of songs and source material for a temporary mix. This will then allow the movie to be played for an audience with music prior to the composer being hired or if the composer has not completed the score.

• Once a composer is hired, the music editor works closely with the composer’s team to help present music demos or mock-ups for the director and / or producers approval.

• Once the score is approved for recording or production, the music editor helps set up the Pro Tools sessions and clicks for the musicians and recording sessions.

• Upon the completion of the score, each cue is properly stemmed upon guidance from the music editor and then they prepare the score and all the songs and source materials for the mix on the dub stage.

• The music editor is on the dub stage as the music representative for both score and songs. The composer does not usually attending the dub mix.

• After the dub and the print master is made, the music editor compiles the preliminary music cue sheet to then be sent to the legal department for preparation as the final cue sheet. This document then gets distributed to all the respecting PROs for royalty income distribution.

• Our work is not just technical as we often travel a thin line helping to manage and ‘protect’ the egos, desires, whims, and creative decision for better or worse, among the many parties in a project. These can include the director, composer, producers, music supervisor, songwriters, picture editor, mixers, assistant picture editors, and anybody else!

 
• What it takes in terms of skills and gear:

Almost exclusively, Pro Tools is the DAW of choice for music production, recording, music editing and mixing. One must be nearly an expert at using and problem solving with Pro Tools.

 
• How to learn it:

Many music editors come to this profession through other related career paths such as composing, being a musician, sound effects editor, picture editor, or mixer, etc.
While I do teach a course in music editing, there are also some universities and post production audio trade schools that have courses on the subject. Usually one learns music editing by following or being mentored by an experienced music editor. There are some unofficial assistant / internship avenues as well.

 
• How to find work:

Working as a music editor is usually a freelance career where we are constantly networking and building contacts to help guide our career moving from one job to the next.
There are however some post production audio facilities that have a small staff of sound editors and mixers where music becomes an element that needs to be managed along with the other sound materials. In these cases, there may be a sound editor that becomes a music editor by the nature of handling the music as well and perhaps the mixing… all done by one or two people.

 
• Essential advice for working and making it in music editing:

I would suggest that one educate themselves with all the details of this work by reading about it, meeting and talking with music editors, and visiting as many mixes and dubs to observe how the variety of sounds get mixed.

Once you feel like this work may be a match for you, your temperament, and skill level, jump in with both feet and don’t give up!

Once you feel like this work may be a match for you, your temperament, and skill level, jump in with both feet and don’t give up!

 
• Further reading and resources:

One of the best avenues is to meet and talk with anybody and everybody in post-production. People usually love to talk about their work and experiences… if they have time to talk. Again, reading about this work and getting out there and finding out what it really is like is critical.
If interested in my book, please follow the link here – and for a 20% discount use this code: FLR40

About Steven Saltzman:

Music editor and composer Steven has over twenty years of music editing experience. He’s earned a Golden Reel Award and four nominations. Recent works include: Mary (2019), Donnybrook (2018), and The Revenant.

Steven recently published a book on music editing called Music Editing for Film and Television, The Art and The Process, and teaches music editing and lectures at various institutions and venues around the world.

He is a new member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serves on the Board of Directors for Entertainment Industry Professionals Mentoring Alliance (EIPMA), a past board member of the Motion Picture Sound Editors, (MPSE) and currently member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, an Associate Member of The Guild Of Music Supervisors and the Society of Composers and Lyricists.

www.saltzmanmusic.com

Sound Design: VR/AR/MR – insights from Helena McGill and Anna Woźniewicz:

 
• What working in VR/AR/MR sound design entails:
Creating a mix for AR/VR starts with the same theoretical concepts and techniques as traditional sound design, but then they’re taken a step further. You still need to understand how sound affects people’s emotions and where to use certain sound effects for maximum emphasis in a story, and be able to execute those concepts technically.
Then, there’s just the added step of either spatializing the mix into a 360-degree space, or bringing your sounds into a game engine, etc. The foundation is the same, but in order to extend the basics to AR/VR projects, you’ll need a knowledge of a lot more plug-ins and software, plus psychoacoustic concepts that are unique to a 360-degree context.

 
• What it takes in terms of skills and gear:
Skills: You need to understand the basics of sound design — editing dialogue, sound effects, backgrounds, plus re-recording mixing and when and where to use which plug-ins. You should also be well-versed in location recording, as it gives you context for the work you’re doing in post. You should also be familiar with game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, plus middleware like wWise and Fmod. Additional spatial SDKs include Google Resonance and the Oculus spatializer. It also helps to have some basic coding knowledge.
Gear: You’ll need a DAW (Pro Tools, Reaper, etc.) to create sound effects for object-based mixes, or to create full ambisonic mixes for 360 video content. A sound library is also helpful, that way you have somewhere to pull sound effects from to mix and match and create your own, unique soundscapes.

 
• How to learn it:
• Get on-set, work on low-budget projects.
• Take unpaid work until you feel confident in your abilities.
• Watch YouTube tutorials.
• Join the FB360 Spatial Workstation Facebook group.
• Practice by doing — play around with different ambisonic microphones, plug-ins, and SDKs.

 
• How to find work:
Short term/contract work is available, but is currently harder to find. Team up with a developer and start playing around with spatial tools; network and connect with XR content creators. There are always projects in need of audio, but the budget is often a limiting factor.
As the industry reorganizes itself as we head into 2020, stay on top of current trends in tech and entertainment; the future of audio is immersive and interactive.

 
• Essential advice for working and making it in VR/AR/MR sound design:
Stay on top of new software and workflows — there are constantly new microphones or ambisonic plug-ins or SDKs being released. Be aware of what’s out there and take time to experiment and get to know the main ones, so that you can recognize each one’s strengths and weaknesses and make sure you’re using the best tools for that specific project.
Reach out to 360 production companies or groups that are just starting to expand into VR content.
Half our job has been educating on not only what spatial audio is, but what it can bring to a production
 
• Further reading and resources:
Designing 3D audio combines a heavy scientific focus with room for creative experimentation. Brush up on basic psychoacoustic concepts: how humans hear and perceive certain auditory events. This has been helpful in designing a mix that influences the listener to engage with the full 360 degree space.
The Spatial Audio Facebook group has also been an invaluable asset; updates to software and proprietary plugins are announced, and the community is very open to new research and real-time troubleshooting.

About Helena McGill and Anna Woźniewicz:
Helena and Anna are the co-founders at Noctvrnal, an audio post production studio based in Los Angeles that specializes in interactive audio for XR, location-based experiences, and installations.
Noctvrnal is bringing immersive sound design to the forefront of virtual and augmented reality by pushing the boundaries of current techniques and harnessing psychoacoustic research to create a powerful listening experience. The team is passionate about creating new worlds through sound, and their work has been featured at MIT, Yale, USC, and VRLA.

www.noctvrnal.com
Noctvrnal_VR on Twitter