I recently wrote the forward for an eBook that Nathan Lively has published called Sound Design Live: Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer. It’s a great read and I’ll include the forward below.
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Audio engineering technology has changed, but the work is still all about connections. Not through CobraNet®, Dante or AVB but rather the personal connections of telephones, email, social media and old-fashioned face to face. Connecting to creative artists, crew, managers, producers and audiences. If you are already in this field you are somewhere in this interconnected network. If you are wanting to get involved, welcome to the ultimate work in progress. This book is all about connections and why they are the most important, valuable and motivating forces in the industry. Nathan Lively plays the role of network hub and monitors traffic in this book to give you a glimpse into the absolutely real experience of our peers and mentors in this trade. The voices in this book have vastly different viewpoints, passions, and experience. Artists who use technology for self-expression, technologists who thrive on being a conduit for artists to reach their audience, and folks who have worn many different hats. If Nathan had brought them all together in one room to discuss audio, there would be at least as many passionate disagreements as points of concordance. Two points they would all agree on are the importance of having a passion for this field of work and attention to networking and relationships. So much of this field is serial monogamy, and therefore we must be careful to maintain good relationships, not burn bridges and keep that little black book up to date with all the folks you might want to see in the future. This book examines the relationship issues that are so important for getting into, and staying in, this business.
Nathan’s choice of speakers and topics provides a mix of information and experiences that I have not seen collected in one place. The viewpoints are refreshingly honest and free of the laundry lists of gear that characterize 90% of words written about this field. These are not all superstar designers with mega-million dollar projects. Dive bars, home studios, educators, starving artists and manufacturers are here as well. The contributors are very real people in whom it is impossible not to see a part of yourself, just as much as it impossible to not find a viewpoint that you had never considered or understood before.
Nathan’s “Sound Design Live podcasts” have brought these people’s voices to the internet and will continue to do so in the future. Here and now is a collection of assembled wisdom and experience that I believe will open your mind to the many ways you can expand your role in the audio professional network.
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