A monthly podcast covering game audio development for indie games.
The podcast Beards, Cats and Indie Game Audio is created by Matthew Marteinsson. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
My last interview from GameSoundCon 2024.
I was able to sit down with Maximilien Simard-Poirier (sound designer, guitar nerd, professional French Canadian)
who organizes the Interactive Audio Montreal meetups and chat about running a meetup for 7 years.
https://www.interactiveaudiomontreal.com/
https://youtube.com/@interactiveaudiomontreal?si=hQhWzMP2Jres-2xL
This month I've got a great conversation I had with Lewis Thompson and Greg Lester from Airwiggles while we were at GameSoundCon 2024. We talked about some different sound design tips and tricks and Airwiggles and drinking water (for some reason).
This month my guest is Bonnie Bogovich (vocal artist, audio designer, and chicken and human choir arranger). We sat down at GameSoundCon in Oct 2024 and talked about dialogue and sounds and educational games amongst other things.
Hey everyone. Beards, Cats, And Indie Game Audio is back. It's been a long break but I'm back with a new episode. Come have a listen while I catch up with our surprise guest.
(It's Gord, Gord is the surprise guest)
Matthew
Hi everyone,
It's been a real long time since. But it's official, that was just a really long break and the podcast is returning in 2025. I'll be flying solo as the host (I'm sure Gord will turn up every once and awhile) and I've already got a couple interviews recorded waiting to be edited. Regular monthly episodes should start dropping mid Jan 2025.
Thanks for listening and I'm very excited to be back doing this again.
Matthew
With this episode we welcome our new co-host, Rachel Sim. Rachel will be filling in at times so Gord can take a break. This time around we talk about how Rachel came into the industry, mentorships, community support and as always answer some questions.
Back at the podcast for 2019. We had a bit of a break to deal with life and all it can bring out side game audio. We catch up and talk about what we've been up to, games we're working on, conferences we went to, Gord having a kid and then answer some questions.
And here it is, the last episode of 2018. This time we talk our way through a bunch of random stuff. Upgrading cheap mics, Gord giving away something, and his trip to Thinkercon. Teaching people what you do, black friday sales, getting the most out of a vacation and how we learn perfect pitch. As well as one user question.
Another multi-subject podcast, we dig into the past month of our lives. Gord took a whirlwind trip to Paris to exhibit Wandersong at Indiecade Europe, while Matt went to GameSoundCon to give a talk on the Mark of the Ninja Remaser and take part in a panel on advising composers interested in getting into sound design. We discuss losing gigs that were totally-in-the-bag, working while a bit rusty, taking things one at a time during stressful period. Oh and Korean food & architecture.
This time around we actually talk about cats. As well as general life, studio expansion, answer some questions and dig into Gord's recenct blog post on being an ethical employer.
You can find that blog post on the Audiokinetic site at https://blog.audiokinetic.com/dream-job-ethical-employment-in-game-audio/
Episode 51 and we dig into a bit of mid to later career growth and motivation. And general how to keep up motivation as well. And of course we dive into some questions from everyone.
Also happy again to have Pro Sound Effects advertising with us again. We get into another great Ann Kroeber and Alan Splet library called Cinematic Winds that they provided to us for this ad. As part of this, PSE has been awesome enough to give us a discount code for all our listeners. If you use the code BEARDS you'll get 15% off both the Industrial Sounds With Soul or the new Stallion libraries. You can see this and all their other libraries at www.prosoundeffects.com and follow them on twitter at @prosoundeffects
So recently Gord started the hashtag #gameaudiotips on twitter. He started posting a good tip every day. I thought it was great so I jumped in on it as well. And then some others joined in too. This episode we go over some of the ones we thought have been great so far. And then we answer some questions too.
Again we're happy to have Pro Sound Effects advertising with us again. This time we go over Stallion, another library from Ann Kroeber and Alan Splet. Again, this is a good one. As part of this, PSE has been awesome enough to give us a discount code for all our listeners. If you use the code BEARDS you'll get 15% off both the Industrial Sounds With Soul or the new Stallion libraries. You can see this and all their other libraries at www.prosoundeffects.com and follow them on twitter at @prosoundeffects
This year at GDC we got another interview recorded. We sat down with Carley Nyte and chatted about a bunch of stuff. You can find her on twitter at @carlyenyte and hear her work in the next project from Camouflaj.
As well this episode we're very happy to have Pro Sound Effects advertising wtih us. We give a little run down on what we think about the Industrial Sounds With Soul library from Ann Kroeber and Alan Splet. Spoiler, we like it. As part of this, PSE has been awesome enough to give us a discount code for all our listeners. If you use the code BEARDS you'll get 15% off both the Industrial Sounds With Soul or the new Stallion libraries. You can see this and all their other libraries at www.prosoundeffects.com and follow them on twitter at @prosoundeffects
This was a big episode for us. With some help from some friends we hosted a night of live podcast recording while we were at GDC 2018. It was an amazing time. DB Cooper was our amazing guest who chatted with us about doing voice acting in games. Monument.house was kind enough to lend us their space. And Kim from gretta.com was who made that happen and was kind of her big idea in the first place. Thanks for everyone that came out. And if you didn't or couldn't, here's the recording!
Here again for episode 47. We talk about getting people on board with audio and how to communicate around that. And how to analyze reference sounds and music to give clients what they're looking for. And we answer some questions.
If you're going to GDC and see this before then, we're doing a live recording of our next episode and hang out.
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/beards-cats-and-indie-game-audio-podcast-live-tickets-43213861824
We run through a few things this time around. We talk about conferences and figuring out if they're worth it. Inspired by some Twitter posts by @jaymfernandes. We run down some stuff we learned at Audio Bash. We talk about some big time failures we've had lately. Answer some questions. And talk about cars for a bit.
As well from our announcments, Gord's soundtrack to Full Metal Furies is out. You can pick it up here. https://ashellinthepit.bandcamp.com/album/full-metal-furies
And Matthew is looking for speakers for CarouselCon 2018. It's free and takes place during lunch time at GDC. More info here. http://wootwootsound.com/carouselcon-2018/
A day late but we're still calling this the last of 2017 episodes. We talked about some random small topics this time and fielded some questions.
This month we decieded to cover some basics. We go over a bunch of terms and ideas that make up game audio and how we do things. This is mostly ment for developers and beginners. And to hopefully generate questions and more ideas for us to cover. If you're thinking of doing your own audio but have no idea where to start, or how to talk to an audio person, this could be a good place to start.
Calling this one part 1 cause we want to hear from our listeners on what we missed, what you disagree with or need to correct. Let us know and we'll build up part 2.
As well we talk about a quick bit about Mattia Cellotto's new dry ice library. More info available here - https://www.asoundeffect.com/sound-library/ultrasonic-dry-ice/
First time we've recorded at the new Klei office. We talk a bunch about dealing with social media interactions as a freelancer in audio. And answer a few questions.
Back from missing a months episode. Last month I got real sick. Something I'm still dealing with. This episode we talk about that and what it's shown us about our situation in game audio and some of the filters or lenses our advice comes through. And how those sorts of lenses/filters are on all the advice you're being given out there. And we cover some questions as always.
Back again and just the two of us talking again. This time we're on the road again in the car and talking about crunch, game jams and answering some questions.
As we'll we've got our first sponser. We talk a bit about Mattia Cellotto's Polarity library. Check out that and his other libraries at his website http://www.mattiacellotto.com/libraries/
Well it's the last of our GDC interviews. For this last one we sat down with Ben Crossbones (@BenCrossbones). I must say this one gets a bit salty. :) We talked about Ben starting out, some tips for networking and mentors and mentorships. Including the new and great Audio Mentoring Project (http://audiomentoring.com)
Our second interview from GDC 2017 and actually the first one we did. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Rich Vreeland also known as Disasterpeace. We talked about a bunch of the projects he's done including Mini Metro and Hyper Light Drifter and some of the differences between Hollywood and games.
Great place to find out more about Rich is his website http://disasterpeace.com/
The first of our 2017 GDC interviews. The second we recorded but the first we're putting out.
We had a really great conversation with voice acctress Fryda Wolff. You might know her lately from a little game called Mass Effect: Andromeda. She's done some sweet indie stuff like Octodad: Dadliest Catch as well. We talk about all kinds of things, like breaking in, how much screaming you can do and squeaky cheese.
You can find her website here, which has lots of great stuff to read if you're interested in getting into VO: https://frydawolff.com/
We talk about stuff this time. What stuff? Good question. We talked about practice and learning new things and effective practice. And we talked about focus. And answered some questions.
At GGJ Vancouver we had the chance to talk to a room of audio people and give some advice on things. We spent this podcast talking about what Gord went over which was about dealing with different conflicts and negotiations as an audio person from different perspectives. Being a client. Being a contrator. Being a business owner.
And of course we answer some questions.
As well I'm running CarouselCon this year while at GDC. Looking for people to talk at that. http://wootwootsound.com/?page_id=158
The last episode of 2016 and we've got Leonard Paul as our guest. We sat down at Gord's and talked about a bunch of stuff that Leonard has done and his school. As well we talk a bit about Sound Particles and vinyl soundtrack releases. And of course we answer some questions.
As well Leonard sent us a bunch of links on how to contact him and his projects:
School: http://School.VideoGameAudio.comAnd we're back again. We answer some questions and talk about doing personal projects and it's importance. As well as some tips for analyzing mixes on other games and why that's a good thing to do.
We both have music released this month that we talk about some and here's some links to that.
Gord's Viking Squad OST - https://ashellinthepit.bandcamp.com/album/viking-squad-original-soundtrack Also available on streaming services and youtube.
Matthew's dark ambient EP - https://mattesque.bandcamp.com/album/nov-xx164t8-ep Should also be available on other sales/streaming platforms soon.
On a sad note Saki Kaskas passed away this month and I wouldn't be doing game audio if he hadn't taken a chance on my. He did some great work in games, made some great music and was just generally a great guy. He will be missed. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/285871/Obituary_Need_for_Speed_and_Sleeping_Dogs_composer_Saki_Kaskas.php
Here we are at episdoe 17 and Michael Dobson joins us to talk about voiceover in games. Not much to say other then that. It's all voice with an amazing guy to have a conversation with.
That time again for the episode we record while in the car driving to the Digipen Audio Symposium. We talk about what we've been up to lately, answer some questions and talk about what we heard at the Audio Symposium. And pimp our games that are coming out this week.
Here we are with episode 15. We're both finishing off games so we decieded to talk about that. And prepro at the same time. And then answered a few questions.
This month we managed to sit down with Austin Wintory while we were all at GDC and chat for awhile. From a seat on the floor at the back of Moscone we talk about game music, GDC, cats, beards and some other game audio related stuff. Unfortunately due to time we had to cut our Seinfeld/Firefly/ST:NTG conversation.
Show notes.
00:00:00 Austin Wintory Introduction
Austin Websitehttp://austinwintory.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_WintoryGDC Website http://www.gdconf.com
00:02:33 IGF Awards http://www.igf.com/02finalists.htmlInvisble Inc http://www.invisibleincgame.com/
Phonopath http://www.phonopath.com/
Banner Saga http://stoicstudio.com/
Journey http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/
00:05:05 Stoic’s origin story
00:08:40 Voiceover in Banner Saga and considerations for including voiceover in a game
00:10:30 Creating a sense of urgency for yourself and your music
00:11:35 Experiencing people’s personal reactions to your work
Leisure Suit Larry https://www.replaygamesinc.com/index/getgame?gameId=13
Rouge Legacy http://www.roguelegacy.com/
flOw http://thatgamecompany.com/games/flow/
00:15:00 Technical and creative process for composing
00:17:00 Feedback on your work from your collaborators and how to take in feedback
00:24:20 The challenges about talking about audio
00:31:15 Working on Banner Saga
00:35:00 Music in Watch Dogs http://watchdogs.ubi.com
00:35:52 What makes the best music for a video game
00:38:05 Working on Journey
00:45:25 Working on LEADtoFIRE
http://www.pocketwatchgames.com/games.html#leadtofire
00:47:45 Austin’s process when starting working on a new project
00:49:20 The creative process when composing and designing sound
Show notes by Kate Kelly from San Francisco, California kabakel.com.
Here we are again. This time around we chat about some new gear we each got and give a little advice if you're going to go buy some yourself. We talk about working a convention with your developers. And answer a bunch of good questions you sent us.
Show notes.
Gear: 00:00:00
MiniBrute. http://www.arturia.com/products/hardwaresynths/minibrute
Telefunkin M82 http://www.telefunken-
elektroakustik.com/products/mics/show_product.php?item=38
Shure SM7B http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/sm/sm7bvocal-microphone
Sony PCMD50 http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cataudio/resource.latest.bbsccmsassets-cataudiolatestpcmd50.shtml
Working a Conference: 00:05:50
The List https://www.patreon.com/creation?hid=855193&rf=177452
Matthew’s postconference interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVxfgI5BVJE
Q&A
1. 00:24:40 Chris Trevino: What sort of documentation do you use to keep track of versions/edits of material while you're in development? Everything down from your DAW session naming schemes, excel spreadsheets, and sound file names. What bread crumbs do you leave yourself to get back to your source files and keep on top of version control?
2. 00:29:45 Todd Enyeart: What are your cats favorite treats?
3. 00:30:35 Jack Menhorn: Pro Tools 12 thoughts? Chris Trevino: And could you touch base on Pro Tools First? http://www.avid.com/US/products/protoolssoftware
http://apps.avid.com/ProToolsFirst/
4. 00:34:42 Shane Gravestock: How do you approach the direction and esthetics of sound design on a project you have complete creative freedom on?
5. 00:41:22 Steve Stems: I like hearing about any plugins you guys keep going back to, like Decapitator from Sound Toys. http://www.soundtoys.com/
https://www.soundtoys.com/product/decapitator
http://www.soundtoys.com/product/echoboy
http://www.soundtoys.com/product/radiator
http://www.waves.com/
http://www.waves.com/plugins/hdelayhybriddelay#delayonbasssynthsinelectronicmusic
http://www.waves.com/plugins/heqhybridequalizer#heqhybridequalizer
http://www.waves.com/plugins/c4multibandcompressor#vocalmultibandcompression-withC4
http://www.waves.com/plugins/scheps73#scheps73eqoverview
http://www.waves.com/bundles/apicollection
http://www.fabfilter.com/products/saturnmultibanddistortionsaturationplugin
Flamingo! trailer http://radiostatic.co/flamingo/
6. 00:43:35 Alex Yllarramendy: Something about you or your YVR SD community about localization and deliveries to other markets?
http://www.meetup.com/VancouverSoundDesigners/
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/seattlegameaudiomarchmeetupthursday326157pm-
tickets15951544499
7. 00:47:47 Christian Linder: Not directly audio related, but do you think Windows 10 will offer new possibilities for indie devs to develop for PC and Xbox?
http://windows.microsoft.com/enus/windows10/about
8. 00:48:43 Luca Fusi: Templates. Do you use them? How many/for what? What’s in them? Alternately, your favorite endofchain mastering and sweetener effects?
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mixingmastering/ozone/
http://www.waves.com/plugins/l1ultramaximizer#introductiontothel1andl2ultramaximizers
http://www.waves.com/plugins/renaissancecompressor#mixingvocalswithplugins
http://mcdsp.com/plugins/futzbox/ Futzbox
Show notes by Kate Kelly from San Francisco, California kabakel.com.
This episode we talk about making sample libraries, field recording ethics, tiny year in review and questions from Twitter.
Thanks to everyone who's been listening all year. We can't wait to see what the next year of BCAIGA brings us.
This time around we sit down with Réal Cardinal who has done a lot of AAA work with Bioware and has recently moved over to the indie world. We talk about all kinds of stuff including some questions from twitter.
This time around we talk about some random things that have been rattling around. A little ranting about stupid questions, mastering audio, copy protection, free NASA sounds and a reader question
This time around we answer some questions, Gord has some announcments and interviews Jacob McMurray from the Experience Music Project.
I'll fill in some links of things we talked about soon.
First SFX from our recording at the fair
https://soundcloud.com/ashellinthepit/sets/sfx
This time around we recorded from PAX Prime and talked to Jack Menhorn. We talk about where Jack has come from and what he's up to these days. And cover what our favourite game audio is and what kind of projects we'd all like to work on. And all sound a bit rough after showing games for 2 days.
Back again for another month. This time with some technical problems but we push on and get another one done.
This time we talk about working for free, building audio communities, some games we've been playing, building things, Designing Sound's monthly theme and answer some questions.
And here's some links for what we talked about:
”don’t work for free” - http://www.audibleworlds.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=179
Podcast round up - http://designingsound.org/2014/05/sound-design-podcast-roundup-2014/
Full Indie Summit - http://www.fullindiesummit.com/
Here we are back for episode 6. This time we talk about losing data and backup solutions, tips for devs and sound designers when it comes to making trailers for your game, using SVN, sound replacements for demos and answer some twitter questions.
And here's some links for things we talk about:
Page on video files and codecs - http://www.playdotsound.com/portfolio-item/video-for-game-audio-capturing-and-converting-video-files-for-use-within-your-daw/
Tortoise SVN - http://tortoisesvn.net/
Sample Manager - http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/samplemanager/
Name Mangler - http://manytricks.com/namemangler/
A bit late but here it is, our 5 episode. This time around we drive down to the DigiPen Audio Symposium and record in the car on the way there and back. And between that we talk with Daniel Raimo about the differences between AAA and indie game audio. Mixed in there we talk about what we heard at the symposium, some games we've been playing, some new plugins we've bought and a few sound design tips.
Here we are at episode 4 of our podcast. This time around we talk a bit about some middleware, have some interviews developers from the PAX East Ingie Mega Booth, discuss making a game fit a small download size, have a book based sound design tip and answer some quetions from listeners.
Here's all the devs we talk with at PAX East
Gaijin Games - http://gaijingames.com/
Nine Dots Studio - http://ninedotsstudio.com/
82 Apps - http://www.82apps.com/
Iridium Studios - http://www.playiridium.com/
Deconstructeam - http://www.deconstructeam.com/en
Lumenox - http://lumenox.is/
Mi-Clos Studio - http://www.miclos.com/
Firefly Studios - http://www.fireflyworlds.com/
Proletariat - http://proletariat.com/
Owlchemy Labs - http://owlchemylabs.com/
The Tap Lab - http://thetaplab.com/
Disco Pixel - http://discopixel.com/
Switchblad Monkeys - http://secretponchos.com/company
We also talked about -
Fmod - http://www.fmod.org/
Fabric - http://www.tazman-audio.co.uk/
Wwise - https://www.audiokinetic.com/products/wwise/
The Sound of Star Wars book - http://amzn.to/1rCGx5t
Our 3rd episode. This time we cover what we did at GDC, the latest news on middle ware pricing, some listener questions and a quick sound design tip.
Some links for what we talked about:
Fmod - http://www.fmod.org/
Wwise - https://www.audiokinetic.com/products/wwise/
Fabric - http://www.tazman-audio.co.uk/?page_id=73
Wilhelm library - jefaertsblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/crowdsourced-wilhelm-sound-library/
Back for our second episode and first guest. This month we throw out everything we thought we would talk about and sit down with Chanel Summers and talk about artistic game audio.
Hosted by Matthew Marteinsson and Gordon McGladdery
With special guest Chanel Summers
Matthew Marteinsson - @mattesque
Gordon McGladdery - @AShellinthePit
Chanel Summers - @Syndicate17
Some links we talked about:
Musictech interview with Chanel - http://www.musictech.net/2013/11/chanel-summers-interview/
Leviathan project - http://5dinstitute.org/videos/leviathan-at-intel-ces-2014-keynote
Chanel at SXSW - http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22383
The first in a new podcast about game audio. Mostly we focus on indie games as that's the arena we work in. This month we introduce ourselves, talk a little about middleware with Unity and games that are up for best audio in the IGF awards.
Hosted by Matthew Marteinsson and Gordon McGladdery
Matthew Marteinsson - @mattesque
Gordon McGladdery - @AShellinthePit
Some links for things we talked about:
Awesome train recording https://soundcloud.com/aj88keys/train-passing-by
Audio toolkit http://unity.clockstone.com/assetStore-audioToolkit.html
Fabric http://www.tazman-audio.co.uk/
IGF Awards Finalists http://igf.com/2014/01/2014_independen.html
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.