Visualizing sound waves and making sense of them is an intricate task. That’s why we’re proud to call the professional Audio Engineers at Studio 637 our own. Their skill has grown from countless hours of experience with bringing audio projects to life.
I sat down with our Audio Engineers, Alex Lockwood and Joe Kattampallil, to get some insight into their process of recording and get some of their tips for capturing the highest quality recording possible.
What part of the process do you enjoy most?
Alex: “Recording: I enjoy taking someone’s ideas and making them into something tangible. The cool part is you can’t see audio, you can just feel it. “
If it sounds good, it is good. – Joe Barron
“You don’t know how good you can make something until you get there. There’s something cool about how there’s not a correct answer or limit for how good something can be until you get there. You don’t know what the destination is until you reach it, and there’s something cool about that.”
You can see things about the audio that normal people can’t see. It’s an unseen art.
How did you get so good at being an audio engineer?
Alex: “Experience. “
“My reason for all the experience is the passion I have for it. There’s something about taking someone’s ideas and making them real and making them sound better. You’re taking variations of barometric pressure and turning them into physical things. That’s crazy.”
Joe: “Be the musician’s friend. Most of the connections I’ve made are because I was right there when I needed to be. I got a job 3 months ago because a performer broke a string and I was right next to the stage with a new string and string winder. It’s not about doing the best job, its about knowing the musicians and their gear. “
What keeps you going?
Joe: “Passion.”
“Running sound keeps me connected to music. I’m good at it. Im happy I can do a good job with the thing that I love. I love problem solving and puzzles.”
What is your musical background?
Alex: “I’ve been in bands my whole life and taken guitar lessons since I was 5, so I’ve always been musically inclined. My roommate in college was in the Recording Arts program at Loyola Marymount University. I was making electronic music tracks and my roommate would make them better.”
“I wanted to know more about what my roommate was doing, so after getting my degree in Natural Science, I went to recording school at SAE in Hollywood (School of Audio Engineering). In 2014 I graduated and started working at Studio 637. I’ve been here ever since.”
Joe: “I started playing keys in the church choir. It was just me, so I could build the choir whatever way I wanted. By the time I was 16 or 17 I knew I had a talent in church choir, but I knew that I wasn’t good enough for performance. I could still handle the mixing board, so it was a way that I could still be connected to the action.”
“I worked at an IT company for a year in India, hated it, then got accepted to The Musician’s Institute in 2016. My mom didn’t want me to go to the United States, but one day my dad bought a plane ticket behind her back, I told her “I’m going for a movie” and I hopped on a plane. I came from a small town in India straight into Hollywood.”
“I found the studio through Saint Rocke after I responded to a Craigslist ad for lighting director and did live streams with Studio 637. We worked together on and off for different projects.”
What does a successful audio session look like for you?
Alex: “I am a firm believer in recording well from the source (instead of making a bad quality recording sound better later on). That includes talented musicians, nice sounding instruments, in a nice sounding room, with nice cables, a nice pre-amp, a nice compressor, etc. Nice things all the way down the line. When it gets to the computer you’re just amplifying how it already sounds.”
What kinds of audio recordings have you done?
- Audiobooks
- Concerts and Festivals
- Live Auditorium Recordings
- Choirs
- Live Sound
- Voiceovers you may hear on TV
- Single Instruments
- Full Bands
- String Instruments: Full Size Harp, Violin, Viola
- Percussionist on a bucket shakere
- Dog barking
Our audio engineers are available now to help you turn your ideas in to reality. Check out our instagram to see what projects they’ve worked on.
Check out our audio department to read more!
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