I had the immense fortune to be asked to speak at a couple of featured events this past March.
The first was at B.I.G’s Black in Gaming Fest and the second was GDC. I, shouldered by the immensely talented audio creatives
ZWbuckley (https://linktr.ee/zw.buckley),
Laryssa Okada(http://www.laryssaokada.com) and
Katherine Tole (https://katherinetole.com)
spoke on my experiences as a remote worker and the ways I integrate (or attempt to) safe practices into my everyday life to ensure this career can be viable.
I wanted this panel (and to be fair, all of my talks and speaking endeavors) to be open and free to the public, and had aspirations of at least making my take on the topics (utilizing my own slides and cards) accessible. I am proud to have found that GDC made our talk free and viewable to the public!
The beautiful thing about the panel and roundtable is that they fed into each other. The panel enabled us to broach the topic and share our experiences while the roundtable allowed a plethora of folks with time in the industry to speak on similar and tangential topics from their perspective, rather than be beholden to, essentially, another lecture-styled setting.
That being said, even between the panel, roundtable and brief discussions outside the event rooms, many burning questions were left unanswered, a few of which that were brought up in the GDC audio discord chat.
I wanted to put those questions, and the answers I provided (along with some additional caveats), here. Hopefully they will be of use!
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There were a few topics we didn't get to in the roundtable on working from home. I'll try and remember as many as I can, and if anybody wants to talk about it or ask questions/add new topics, we can keep the information exchange going!
- Best practices for treating a small space/home studio
- Promoting discoverability, especially working through the social media dumpster fire/collapse
- Handling a full/part time job and freelance audio work at the same time
- Putting boundaries on availability and managing work/life balance
> Best practices for treating a small space/home studio
Not AS Pricey But Effective
DIY Audio Panels
There are tons of resources on Youtube for DIY panels!
Cost Efficient
audio drapes / moving blankets:
I've seen folks using it with tight mixes and recordings. Folks I know who have used them/are using them:
Jeff Ball: https://twitter.com/jeffthatnoise/status/1722408161301393782/photo/1
Here are a couple of videos on the subject:
Video 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6uR_R2knQc
Video 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmT4VPNKcLM
Dynamic mics (advice of Joshua Taipale https://www.atelierjoshua.co/)
If your space (and your ability to alter it) is limited, in terms of recording instruments, your best bet would be to buy a dynamic mic (good ol’ shure SM57 for example) and then invest in a good set of…
Headphones + Headphone mixing software
Definitely reach out into the community for headphone recommendations. I use a set of semi-openback AKGs for ear fatigue and was recommend Sonarworks Reference System (which I believe is now just Sonarwork ID) to calibrate my laptop with my headphones to improve mixing quality.
> Promoting discoverability, especially working through the social media dumpster fire/collapse
I chatted with ZW after the roundtable and he made a really great point about how to utilize social media. The goal is to funnel traffic back to a main space, be it a webpage, reelcrafter, etc. So, one way to do things is:
1. Tune into your network (other composers) and see where things are leaning. Right now, people are saying LinkedIn, but folks have seen success in other spaces.
2. Find something authentic to share and try posting it in various spaces.
3. Make sure your posts act as a conduit for engagement to your main page.
4. Try a newsletter - something you control that isn't at the whim of social media and it's shiftiness.
> Handling a full/part time job and freelance audio work at the same time
This is what works for me.
1. Scheduling, scheduling, scheduling. I have a set amount of hours that I work. Due to now having a part-time job, I work on weekends (it stinks, I know) but I try to be lenient about how much I work on the days I go to my other job. You gotta do whatcha gotta do to pay the bills.
2. Set, and maintain, cut off times. Don’t let your work consume you.
3. Make sure to always block off time for rest, be it a little each day and/or days on the weekend.a
> Putting boundaries on availability and managing work/life balance
(i.e, scheduling so you can be unavailable after work hours, not working weekends/night/etc.)
If you want specifics on someone's schedule, I'll share mine:
Start work at 7:00 (give or take)
work for 4 hours [11 am]
eat lunch (40 minutes) [11:40]
go for a walk (1 hour) [12:40pm]
practice instruments for an hour (30 minutes a piece) [1:40pm]
go to the gym (I give myself 2 hours) [3:40pm]
work the last 4 hours. [7:40pm]
I also assign my work hours. Current example:
1 hour - warm-up
2 hours - project B
2 hours - project A (adjustments)
2 hours - Project C
1 hour - personal project
Another thing I do is take notes on my next steps, be it at the beginning of the day (excuse to go for a morning walk) or at the end of the current work day, so that I know *exactly* what I need to do the following day. It helps me to not waste time.
In terms of not working weekends/making yourself unavailable, I think this all comes down to setting boundaries. If you don't want to work on the weekends, or you want to stop working at a particular time, make sure you uphold that ideal and let it be known to the folks you work with. For example, I could have a strict, NO WORK after 8pm rule. I kind of have one for the weekend: if I can't find time throughout the day, then work HAS to be done by 12pm.
You could have auto-messaging set up in your email that shoots out messages to clients that state you’re no longer in office but you’ll reply to their inquiry at X time the following day.
My scheduling is also a bit loose. My overall belief is, I have X hours to finish my work, and I tend to get tired by Y, so I need to finish my work before then. So far it has been working, give or take a few bumps due to life shifts.
Lastly, and to be frank, most importantly, be patient with yourself. Boundary setting, especially when livelihood (i.e. money and careers) is involved, is hard for many people to do. There’s a good chance you’ll stumble quite a bit before you figure out what you need and are comfortable enough to push back to ensure you get it. It’s a learning process!
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