Saturday, September 20, 2008

I am worried, too.

If I see these people, I will send up smoke signals and let you know that they are safe.

The signals will be blue. no, wait, Orange. They will be orange.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Where you people at!?

So we're missing around 8 people in our class. It would be nice to get a majority of the class on here, contributing. 

If you see or talk to these people... tell them to join! If they didn't get an e-mail, tell them to let me know...

1. Lee
2. Christian
3. Denise
4. Omar
5. Valentin
6. Henry
7. Matt
8. Tim

Look forward to hearing from you all...

Have a good one.

[EDIT]

7 people now!

Monday, September 15, 2008

An update on your favorite bald buddy, that good for nothing Sean Vora

Well, I may not be your favorite, but I'm at least hoping top 5. I suppose a bit of an update is in order, seeing how it's nearly been 3 months since we finished school. I'll follow T. Lo's format, so without further ado:

1. [Jobs]
I'm currently interning at WaveGroup Sound, located in Fremont about 7 minutes from my house. As I was mostly unaware of this when I joined, these are the guys that recorded pretty much all the music for the majority of the Guitar Hero games as well as Rock Band.  Other than that, they seem to be the go-to guys for a lot of corporate VO and telephony work, recording a lot of the stuff that gets put into phone listings (addresses, business names, movie times) and customer support. Overall it's pretty cool because they maintain steady telephony work and get to work on the more creative game/post stuff as it comes along.

In terms of the actual work, I basically was doing 10 hour days five days a week for the first month or so, with a pre-planned week off for travel and an eventual shift to 3.5 days a week since there was a second intern there 2 days a week. A lot of the work ended up being semi janitorial in nature, and since it's a small company there really isn't room in the budget for a cleaning crew. I pretty much spent the first 6 weeks cleaning anything and everything. A "deep clean," if you will. There just seemed to be things that hadn't been properly tended to for months to over a year even. Well, it may not have been the dream job in that respect, but the amount I learned while there easily made it all worthwhile. Plus, I can say I've left a lasting impression both on the staff and the building itself, which feels pretty good.

 The company is only 11 people at this point, so sadly there is no chance for a job (at present) following my internship, but I'm hoping to keep on their short-list for the future. I learned about 4 weeks in that there would be no job, but my intern coordinators encouraged looking for jobs and had no issue with me starting to reduce my hours to allow for personal time and job hunting (interns are normally in 2 days a week instead of my initial 5). Taking a day and a half off did make a huge amount of difference since I suddenly wasn't so exhausted and I actually had time for the little things...like finally unpacking my stuff 6 weeks after moving home.

It's hard to tell what will happen here, but I have 2 weeks left including this one, and I can tell I'm going to miss it. On the plus side, I've made a lasting impression on the President and basically everyone there, so I'm thinking at the very least I'll get a good reference or two out of it on top of everything I learned from being there.

2. [Projects]
I'm back to work on my own music again! After a 6 month hiatus, mostly due to my singer vanishing from the face of the earth, so now I'm back to figuring out how to work on some of that material. I've also made a lot of headway on the next "album" I want to finish after that: It's basically a suite of 8-12 songs, all guitar-based and tuned Standard with the low-E dropped down to a B, where each song flows into the next, hopefully creating a sense of a series of fluid movements over a span of an hour.

Other than that I'm somewhat working with an Oakland rapper, both by recording vocals for his new album and possibly mastering a collection of 15 years of his older work. From working with him I realize that it really would not be hard to transition into working with hip-hop more, and I'm always down for collaboration if you guys ever need another engineer, a guitarist, or anything really.

3. [Location]
Fremont, CA. I'm planning to stick around here for at least a few months, maybe the next year even, to see what the bay is like for sound. It almost has more to do with the majority of my friends and family being nearby as well as my external commitments (namely soccer and rock climbing). However, I did have a chance at something in LA last week that made me reconsider it all, so I know I'd be down to move down there even at a moment's notice if it was the right job.

4. [Events/Shows]
Been to some good ones over the past few months, and going to one this Wednesday! These Arms Are Snakes at Bottom of the Hill in SF. Other than that I'll be seeing Portugal. The Man in late November at Slim's, which should be an amazing show. Despite my somewhat outlandish or bizarre music tastes, I have a feeling P. The Man's new album has something pretty much all of you would enjoy somehow. They have a few of their new songs on their myspace.

In terms of events, I'll likely be going to AES and maybe MacWorld in January.

5. [Cool Sites]
This one.

6. [Stuff I Learned So Far]
I have far more intimate knowledge of how Corporate VO works, and have gained tremendous insight into the multi-faceted inner workings of the small company. I'd say the number one skill I've picked up is editing from the VO sessions and learning how the composer edits and builds his music.

7. [Job Hookups?]
Maybe? I feel like I "know a guy" at a few places, and am about to extend my sound tentacles out into the world to see what sticks, but so far, no. On that note, as my internship is about to end in 2 weeks, my tentative plan is to work on my own stuff from home, maybe giving myself until the end of the year (or longer), all the while continuing the job hunt each week. If for whatever reason any of you find yourselves needing help on anything, I am, as always, open to assist and/or collaborate, and in the rare event that you come across anything post/game audio related that you inexplicably don't want, I'm all ears.

That being said, once I get a better idea of what all of YOU want to do and where, I will gladly return the favor.

8. [How Am I?]
Great! I will say that 3 months of this internship have really made a huge difference. While I initially feared the move back home to Fremont would kill my social life, I actually know more people down here than I did up there! Right now I'm in the "no rent zone," so I finally have a chance to just focus on music/sound stuff with little other worries. My suggestion: if living at home even seems remotely feasible, and you've already gained your sense of independence and freedom, then go for it. It's totally worth it.

That aside the non-sound aspects of my life have been rather fulfilling, and in general I feel consistently much happier than I have been in a while. It would be nice to hang with all of you again sometime soon though! Maybe we can arrange quarterly "reunions" to catch up and see how we're progressing in our careers.

On a side note, if there's anything you all have been working for, I'd love to hear it! While it's old, I'll get things started with the rough mixes I posted of my "work in progress" album from back in March:

Consider it a placeholder for the ideas for the time being. Hopefully I'll have more to share and report soon.


Well, that's it on my end. I'm looking forward to catching up with you guys soon and seeing how the past few months have been treating you!

Take care,
Sean

Monday, September 8, 2008

T.Lo Update

Alright, I'll start so hopefully other people join in. Where do I begin?

1. [Jobs] Interning at three places (but on hold, and I'll tell you why further into the post): Chalice Studios, Glenwood Place Studios, and Wyman Records Studio. I also work on the weekends sometimes doing photography for a company. 

2. [Projects] Weird story, read on to know more.

3. [Location] Los Angeles

4. [Events/Shows] I'm missing two concerts I bought tickets for. So incredibly...sad.

5. [Cool sites] My website, heh heh.

6. [Stuff I learned so far] Tons. Can't think of anything in particular right now. These are kind of given, but clients always come first. Whatever they want, get it for them, and when you do, make sure it's right. This business is all about customer [client] service. Oh yeah, in recording and post, you gotta be super quick with Pro Tools. SUPER.

7. [Job hook ups] Possibly with an unpaid internship at one of the studios I intern at...

8. [How am I?] Tired and incredibly lucky.

So on Sunday [yesterday], I was offered to work on a project/record with Jack Douglas. Maresa from the Marketing Dept. at school got us both connected, and he apparently said some good things about me (crazy!). Jack said it would be good experience for me, and that I'd get some money for food [which is more than I'm getting at the other places!], and most importantly, credits on the album. 

Only big issue is that I had to call the three studios to see if I could put the internships on hold. I recently started Chalice so they were a bit iffy on it, and said we'd play it by ear. I really hope they let me come back after two weeks cause that place is nice. Glenwood and Wyman were happy for me and said go for it.

With that said, I'm starting the project tomorrow for two weeks. I visited the studio yesterday and met with him. They're going to tape and Pro Tools. There's an old API board at this studio. I'm pretty excited, and I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Take care,

Tiff


Thursday, September 4, 2008

Welcome

Hi fellow Class 60-ers,

You should've received an e-mail regarding what to post and all. I know we all have busy lives, but if everyone makes an attempt to update once in awhile, it can work. 

Remember to update each other on...

1. Jobs- where you're working, where you have an interview at, gigs, etc.
2. Projects- job or personal, music, post production etc.
3. Location? Moving? Staying?
4. Events? Shows?
5. Cool audio sites, blogs, forums, articles, etc.
6. Audio related stuff you learned/discovered
7. Possible job hook ups
8. Your overall life,well being, etc.


Maybe post once or twice max a week to minimize possible clutter.


Who's going to step up and be the first to post? :) Go Team!