Spatial Sound Engineer
Interview with Spatial Sound engineer Andrew Rahman
1: what do you love about the job
Andrew: I think that Spatial Audio and immersive audio in general is truly the next evolution in audio and personally I find that aspect a lot of fun. After several years mastering my craft in stereo, Spatial Audio opens up a whole new dimension (literally) to the music.
2: how did you get started ie how did you find your first clients
Andrew: I got started by making an independently funded research project on capturing ambisonic impulse responses while studying at Berkeley. Beyond this, I was a bit on the cutting edge of the field so one thing simply lead to another. Starting a non-profit Verein in Berlin helped establish myself as an expert and drew people from all over to my work, which also helped massively.
3: what did you need to have (equipment, studio, software) to complete the work of the first clients
Andrew: At first we just had knowledge, a laptop, headphones and ingenuity. Now we have a fully immersive 8.1.5 studio, with rendering server and d&b DS100 processing engine, which obviously makes the work much easier and more expressive.
4: how do you search for new clients, how do you get in contact
Andrew: As I am not a freelancer, I work for d&b audiotechnik, I am not the one looking for clients. Rather, I am collaborating on projects with clients of d&b. Projects for the Verein come in via members of the Verein or spontaneous contacts.
5: do you feel there is a lot of demand building for DolbyAtmos mixing now that Apple and Sonos committed to it
Andrew: Yes, Atmos has the most demand relative to the various other options, but this is only for recorded music. Beyond this, there are also live sound applications which require different tools and therefore have different algorithms and products, creating demand for those other products.
6: what is the main demand currently for spatial audio, music or film. Which do you do more often
Andrew: As I work for d&b audiotechnik, we do not have many film clients, almost exclusively live sound clients, which means the works I am mixing are nearly 100% for music.
7: do you think it is worth it to set up your own DolbyAtmos studio?
Andrew: If you have enough clients that the demand is there, certainly, otherwise you can collaborate on public resources, like my non-profit Verein-Spatial Media Lab e.V.-or team up with others who already have a studio, as nearly all studios in the world and under-utilized at night.
8: How important for your client work is it that this studio would have official certification by Dolby
Andrew: We don’t have one and never have because d&b does not work with Dolby recorded materials and Spatial Media Lab is a non-profit public resource, not a commercial studio.
9: is it usual to work for free at the beginning of your career, and if yes when do you make the transition to be a professional (meaning: paid) spatial sound engineer
Andrew: No one should ever work for free, even in this awful late-stage capitalist climate we are currently in.
10: Who are the 'big players' in this profession and what sets them apart from the rest? Who is a "big player" in Berlin
Andrew: Depends how you’re looking at it:
Recorded music and film - Dolby, ambisonics (free/opensource)
Live sound - d&b audiotechnik, L’acoustics, Meyer, TiMax
Games - ambisonics (free/open source and already integrated into the game engine)
DAW - Pro Tools, Nuendo, Reaper
Tools/effects - sound particles, eventide, Flux (spat revolution)
11: how do you gain updated technical experience in the field (colabs, trade shows, "shadowing" of experts in an internship)
Andrew: You could do an internship or work study for sure, which I think would probably be the best way, or via a university with research and expertise in this field. Otherwise, there are so few people doing this kind of work you can just put yourself out there and see what happens.
12: do you feel the market is saturated with spatial sound engineers or do you think there is always room for one more
Andrew: It is absolutely not saturated at all. There’s a lot of folks that still don’t really “believe” in it.
13: what is the impact of AI on the field? As a useful tool? As a threat to your job
Andrew: It’s just starting to appear ever so slightly and at this point, which the amount of technical information required to do this job, it simply cannot impact it and likely won’t impact for quite a while. The work that is being done that could impact it is happening in research programs and PhD’s studies right now and won’t appear for another 3-5 years, then still need to be productive which could take another 3-5 as well.