AudioBrew: Creating Custom Music, Sound, and Dialogue

80.lv: Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Where did you study? How did you get into sound design and composing and end up becoming a founder of AudioBrew?

Adam Traister, the Audio Director, Music Producer, and Owner of AudioBrew: AudioBrew is a team of composers, sound designers, and other audio professionals. We produce custom music, sound, and dialogue for film, animation, video games, advertisements, sonic branding, and other forms of visual media!

I personally oversee all of AudioBrew’s work and product development and interface with all our clients and the entire team. At the same time, I am hands-on with the music created at AudioBrew. I mix most of our original scores and work one-on-one with each of our composers to ensure that we create music that is both emotionally rich and commercially viable. I will occasionally step into other roles such as Re-recording Mixer and Dialogue Editor as well.

I have been a musician for most of my life and have always had a passion for the music heard in films and games. I received my Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, dual majoring in Film Scoring and Contemporary Writing & Production and minoring in Video Game Scoring. Throughout my time at Berklee, I developed a new passion for the other facets of audio heard in film and games. I proceeded to complete my Master of Fine Arts degree in Sound Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). During my time as a student at both colleges, I started to take on freelance composing and music production gigs. It was at this point that I started to envision putting together a team that could cover music creation, as well as sound and dialogue. Following my graduation from SCAD, I moved to Los Angeles where I interned for several A-list composers including Bear McCreary God of War, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Henry Jackman Uncharted 4, Captain America: Civil War. Working at these composers’ studios inspired me to finally pursue my dream of creating my own team, which eventually became AudioBrew.

80.lv: Can you describe your experience in recording sound effects, composing, and the equipment you prefer to use?

Adam Traister: The majority of the sound effects created for AudioBrew’s projects are recorded by the members of our sound team, led by our fantastic Lead Sound Designer, Francesco (Kokoy) Amante. We have an array of microphones and sound libraries at our disposal. We like to layer and process (with software effect plug-ins) many of these recordings to create sounds that are unique for each project. Our sound design and sound mixing are primarily done in AVID’s Pro Tools software, though some of our sound designers like using Ableton Live as well.

While I primarily leave AudioBrew’s composing work to our team of composers, I am much more hands-on with our music than with sound. Once a composer’s piece of music is written and orchestrated, I proceed to polish it up - I refine the virtual orchestration by making it sound more dynamic and realistic, and if we are fortunate in having a budget that allows for live musicians, I often record and edit their performances. If we are using modern non-conventional instrumentation in a score, I often put my sound design skills to good use by programing software synths or electronic instruments and creating unique effects within the music. Finally, I mix the entire composition, add any last bits of magic, and prepare each cue to be dubbed against sound and dialogue. Most of our scoring work by the composers and myself is done in Steinberg’s Cubase Pro with a myriad of virtual instrument libraries and other software plug-ins. 

80.lv: You’ve worked on so many projects, do you have one that stands out as the most memorable for you? What do you think is an excellent example of audio in a game?

Adam Traister: Gosh! There are so many, it is hard to say! We are currently working on an animated short film called Run Totti Run by Pixar animator and independent filmmaker, Shad Bradbury. It is a heartfelt animated drama about a boy and his dog, and the bond that they share. I am a major dog lover, and this film’s story hits all the right spots for me emotionally. It has also been a joy to work on the film’s fantastic music by our composer, George Bjorvik! As far as games go, I really enjoyed working on Mya of the Desert by Emergency Entrance Studios. You can find clips of it in the reels on our website! We created music, sound, and dialogue for this game. I am a huge lover of puzzle-oriented adventure titles like this. It reminds me of many games in the Legend of Zelda series. Speaking of which, if I were to choose an excellent example of audio in a game, I could easily pick any of the 3D console titles in the Legend of Zelda franchise, particularly Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, or more recently, Breath of the Wild.

80.lv: What are the main features of AudioBrew? What makes AudioBrew different?

Adam Traister: I believe AudioBrew has a lot of attractive qualities as a company that make us unique. First and foremost, our diversity - our team’s DNA is made up of people from all over the world. We started with three people from three different countries. I am from the United States, specifically, Scottsdale, Arizona, our lead sound designer, Francesco Amante, is from Manila in the Philippines, and our original composer, Esin Aydingoz, is from Istanbul, Turkey. While the team’s growth has predominately been in the United States, we have continued to embrace an all-inclusive and culturally open mentality as a group. Not only does this enrich our work, but it also helps us connect with a larger demographic of clients.

With AudioBrew having a diverse roster, we are also tremendously versatile and offer a myriad of different services. Our four composers, for example, have a range of different specialties that they bring to the table. As a team, we create music in pretty much any genre, from traditional orchestral scores to synth music and other contemporary genres, and everything in-between. World music too! Our sound team is also well-rounded. We cover everything, including sound design, Foley, voice-over production, ADR, editing, stereo and surround mixing, audio implementation for interactive media projects, and more! We have even discussed adding location sound for live-action film projects to our available services in the not-too-distant future.

Last, but certainly not least, we try to make a habit of interfacing with our clients on a more intimate level than bigger teams would. We have developed many close friendships with the people we work with as a result.

80.lv: Who do you collaborate with? Have there been any particularly interesting clients you worked with?

Adam Traister: This is a hard question to answer because we have worked with so many interesting clients on so many wonderful projects. While we are certainly involved in commercial work – we just finished a short commercial documentary for US Bank – most of our clients are independent artists or creative teams in the mediums of games, animation, and film. One team of clients that comes to mind is the Fronteiras Collective, the team behind the short documentary, Os Angelinos, which we finished about a year ago. Their core trio of creatives has a very similar makeup to that of AudioBrew’s original team – three people, each from a different country. Their film was a blast to work on, and the music and sound design, both avant-garde, were unlike anything else that we have ever created. The bond that AudioBrew and the Fronteiras Collective shared resonated through this work, especially considering the film’s focus on immigrants in the United States.

80.lv: Is it crucial to have a high-quality sound in the game? Can game developers just use some standard soundtracks (I mean the soundtracks that were downloaded from SoundCloud for instance or another public website, something that was not composed for the specific game)?

Adam Traister: I believe it is extremely crucial if you want your game to stand out as something unique and engaging. What some game developers and other creators don’t realize is that audio is literally half of someone’s experience with visual media, at least most of the time. Out of the five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch – only sight and hearing are utilized. Okay, maybe you will feel a controller vibrate or something, but that is a very minute sensation when playing a game. The high-quality original audio is very important for making a gaming experience feel authentic and evoking the right emotional response from a player. More so, if the music and sound are engaging, people will be drawn to play a game again and again, just as they would play their favorite song or record/album on repeat. Music in particular as its own form of media is addicting in the same way gaming is. Pairing good original music with a good game is only a recipe for success.

The implementation of the audio assets is also important. Having a team like ours provides game developers with many more options for how immersive music and sound can make your game feel. In many cases, an implementation by experienced audio professionals can be critical in elevating a game from what casual gamers would perceive as amateur to something that feels more professional.

80.lv: Do you have any of your own tricks or techniques for sound design and composing that you could share with us?

Adam Traister: Most of my tips and tricks warrant a good amount of pre-existing knowledge and experience with audio production software, so I will keep my answer a bit more general for readers that are not familiar with these programs.

One reliable trick that is GREAT for getting inside my clients’ heads is asking for a list of adjectives whenever we start working on a project. As I alluded to earlier, music and sound are all about eliciting emotions from an audience. Adjectives are a simple and concise way to inform us of how an audience should feel as they are playing our client’s game or watching their film. Essentially, these adjectives help us create a mood. They can also be used to describe the characteristics of the audio we create – the surface a character is walking on, the ambient sounds of an environment in a game, the sonic qualities of a sound effect that isn’t heard in the real world, such as a monster or robot, or even the desired tonal characteristics of an instrument in the music. These adjectives are invaluable to us when realizing a client’s creative vision.

80.lv: Could you describe a typical career path for someone seeking a sound design position or composer position in the gaming industry and what advice would you give to those who are seeking their first job?

Adam Traister: There really isn’t one set career path for people in my field. People like us often must invent our own paths through the connections and resources at our disposal, while also taking full advantage of all the opportunities, big and small, that come our way. That said, I have seen several people in my field work their way up the hierarchy of the Los Angeles studio system. Aspiring composers usually start as an intern at a studio. If they are lucky and work hard, they might get hired as an assistant or technician. From there, they might get offered the opportunity to write additional music for a composer at the studio. And if they are super fortunate, they might be given their own gig at some point. This path is an option, but not a sure way to success. I have met many talented and hardworking individuals that get stuck writing additional music or assisting someone for years, and for very little pay. Often, they don’t even get screen credit for their work, so it is hard for them to make a serious name for themselves. This is not to say that this path should not be pursued. I’d just recommend to someone to not put all their eggs in one basket. Aspiring composers, sound designers, and the like should take on small gigs of their own, seek out others in their field to collaborate with, form their own team with their contemporaries, promote themselves and their work on social media, and find multiple ways to network in person and virtually. They need to always keep multiple paths open, at least until they fall into a position that they are comfortable and satisfied with. Even then, they should continue to keep an eye out for new opportunities. After all, our industry is very unpredictable. Though, it can also be extremely fun and rewarding!

Visit AudioBrew’s website to hear our work.  You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Adam Traister, Audio Director, Music Producer, and Owner of AudioBrew.