Audio for Visual Media News

Working as an audio engineer can be an extremely rewarding career as you work with a team to launch an entire gaming experience for others to appreciate. However, you’ll need to start learning and keep growing throughout your career to succeed. Continue reading to learn what it takes to start your audio engineering career.

Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry with a competitive yet fulfilling landscape. Learn what it takes to work as an audio engineer or sound designer in the gaming industry.

Breaking into the video game industry can be hard, especially in a position as specific as Sound Engineer. Jobs in the gaming industry are not as plentiful as other fields and they also tend to be more precarious, as more companies hire freelancers for individual projects than full-time salaried employees. If you are willing to [...]

Tips on how to breach the industry Like many trades, audio engineer can take you down many different roads. The role of an audio engineer can be found in so many areas centered around media and the arts. In many ways it mirrors acting: there are roles on TV, in film, on stage, for commercials [...]

If you spent your entire childhood living and breathing video games, then it only makes perfect sense that you would opt for a career in video game production. Not many people realize the amount of work that goes into creating one video game. From animators to illustrators, and voice-over actors to sound designers, there [...]

Shortly after graduating OIART in 2015, Devin Hoare secured a position at IMAX Corporate Headquarters in their Soundtracks Mastering Department. As part of the soundtrack mastering team, Devin is responsible for qualifying all audio content that will play back in IMAX theatres around the world. This includes Hollywood features and trailers as well as [...]

Dmitri has been freelancing since graduation in 2008 and loves the freedom of self-employment "It's exciting not knowing what you're going to work on next". He enjoys being involved a wide variety of projects and getting to be creative in so many different styles of music. He is continually adding to an already [...]

Since graduating from OIART in 2015, Ryan has been working in Toronto as a Production Sound Mixer, Boom Operator, and Sound Assistant. Some of the first jobs that he had were through The Farmhouse Creative Labs, owned and operated by fellow OIART alumni, John Diemer. He began with working on ongoing web content [...]

Carlo Scrignaro is a Sound Designer/Editor/Mixer and an all-around Audio Engineer based in Toronto, Ontario, who started his career as a musician recording his own drum cover videos that he posted on YouTube. From there, he wanted to learn more about the art of sound recording, so in September of 2015, he enrolled [...]

Tyler Chute is a freelance mix engineer/producer, as well as a sales rep for Trew Audio in Toronto, ON. Before graduating OIART in 2014, Tyler came straight from high school with the intention of learning more about recording and creating music. After graduating, Tyler became an audio engineer at a local studio called [...]

Chris Masson is the Head of Media Management & a Junior Engineer at Grayson Matthews Inc, a creative production agency specializing in music and sound across diverse media platforms, from film, television & advertising, to virtual and augmented reality experiences. Upon graduating from OIART, Chris worked at Infinite Skills, a computer software IT [...]

Sohan flew in from Mumbai, India to attend OIART in 2013. After graduating from OIART in 2014, Sohan moved to Toronto to work at a music recording studio (Find A Way). Here, he was an assistant engineer. He helped set up, assist and tear down recording sessions and also carried out live band [...]

Joel North (’10) is the owner/operator at East Coast Radio Creative, as full-service audio production and voice over house specializing in podcast editing, audio cleanup and voice over work for a multitude of different projects. After graduating from OIART, Joel worked in AV, live sound, and then began a 5-year stint in radio [...]

After graduating from OIART in 2012, Stephen Mullett knew he wanted to be a dialogue and sound editor/designer. To further refine the skills and knowledge he gained at OIART, he freelanced as a dialogue and sound editor back in his home province of Newfoundland. Very soon he relocated to Toronto to pursue his [...]

Wayne Warren (’96) is the Post Production Supervisor, Music Editor and Music Supervisor for Netflix/Discovery’s drama series “Frontier” starring Jason Momoa. (Justice League, Aquaman, Game of Thrones). Born in St. John’s, NL, Wayne graduated the Memorial University School of Music with a Bachelor of Music Degree in 1995. He then moved to London, [...]

After graduating OIART (class of 1996), Marc took the focus off of the career hunt, and spent about 6 months working odd jobs, and travelling. With that out of his system, Marc spent a year interning at various audio/video production companies: Rogers TV, Cherry Beach Sound, and Metalworks to name a few. That [...]

Since graduating from OIART in 2015, Michelle Hwu has been actively working in audio post-production. She began interning at Tattersall Sound & Picture, where she had the opportunity to work and train as a Sound Assistant on various projects such as Larry Weinstein’s The Devil’s Horn and Below Her Mouth, a film which [...]

Recording Engineer/Mixer/Music Producer and Videographer John “Wheels” Hurlbut has been a recording engineer and mixer for music, film and TV for almost 30 years since graduating from OIART’s audio production school in 1987. John started his career at Toronto’s legendary Manta Sound and he also did a stint at Oceanway Studios in LA. [...]

Mary Lee (’10) began her career in audio for visual media immediately after graduating from OIART’s audio and music production program. Spending five years at Wanted! Sound and Picture, she ascended to the roles of recording engineer and sound editor before moving to to SuperSonics Post Production a year and a half ago. [...]

8Location recordist Pablo Villegas graduated from OIART’s audio production school in 2005, pictured here a couple years back shooting a documentary about an Ayahuasca retreat in Colombia. He said, “It's hard to believe that it's been over 11 years since I finished the course!” Pablo has travelled the world recording sound for film [...]

Ben Spiller ('12) in an audio editor, recordist and sound designer for television, film and video games at Wanted! Sound and Picture in Toronto. His work includes recording and mixing the Wanted! Live series of music videos, and he was recently a Dialogue Editor on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate video game. Since graduating [...]

David Ciccarelli ('00, left) co-founded Voices.com in 2004 and is truly one of OIART's great business success stories. Starting with a small recording studio in downtown London, he and wife Stephanie (pictured) were quick to recognize the potential of the internet for creative collaboration. Together they founded Voices.com as a way to virtually connect voice talent with [...]

Stacey Dodds ('96, right) is Chief Engineer, Broadcast Sound Services for Technicolor's Audio Post division in Burbank CA. They work on numerous popular TV series such as Family Guy, Castle, The Vampire Diaries, American Horror Story, The Cleveland Show and Hawaii Five-O, plus major hits of the past decade including Glee, Desperate Housewives, [...]

Wayne Lemmer graduated from OIART’s audio production school in 2003 and soon afterwards the Ilderton native moved to Hollywood. There, he landed a job with 20th Century Fox, one of the top film studios in the world. Wayne’s Sound Design credits have included Kung Fu Panda, Transformers, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Black Swan. Now [...]

A Sound Editor and Mixer for pictures, Brian Eimer won his fourth Motion Picture Sound Editors' guild Golden Reel Award in 2016 for “Best Sound Editing: Special Venue” for the IMAX film, “Journey to Space,” narrated by Star Trek; The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart. A graduate of OIART’s recording production program in 1989, [...]

Steve Scott graduated from OIART's audio recording technology program in 1993 and is now a Location Sound engineer and studio owner/engineer for post-audio and film. Starting his career at Mix Audio studios as owner/engineer, he began to go out on location around the USA/Canada filming feature films, shorts, documentaries, corporate, web series, sports, [...]

Travis Didluck ('09) and Jeff Hartling ('09) are sound designers for the London Ontario based video game developer Digital Extremes (DE). Digital Extremes has again been named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers for 2016, and was ranked 29/50 on Deloitte's Fast 50 Technology companies for Canada. Travis and Jeff have designed sounds [...]

Sound Designer, Foley Artist, Composer and Sound Editor Jakob Thiesen graduated from OIART's audio and music production program in '98. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2016 for Outstanding Sound Editing for the show Annedroids, which was also nominated for multiple Canadian Screen Awards this year. You can hear his work [...]

Paul Williamson (86) is a lead sound re-recording mixer, handling the dialogue and music on television and film projects. He has been mixing at Technicolor Toronto (formerly PFA Film and Video) for over 22 years. Recent projects include An American Dream: The Education of William Bowman a feature film by Ken Finkleman, television [...]

After graduating from OIART in 2011, Gabriel Hauser landed a job at Digital Extremes, one of the longest running video game companies in the business. There he worked on a few seminal titles including Star Trek: The Video Game (PC/PS3/XBOX 360) and Warframe (PC/PS4/XBOX ONE).  Gabriel now works at Uken Games, a Toronto [...]

David Drage ('00) is the Senior ReRecording Engineer at Supersonics post production in Toronto. David has been a sound mixer, editor and recordist since graduating from OIART's audio and music production program in 2000. He won a Canadian Screen Award for FILM: ACHIEVEMENT IN OVERALL SOUND for the film "The Mortal Instruments: City [...]

John Diemer '10, founder and owner of The Farmhouse Creative Labs in Toronto is a Sound Recordist, Editor and Mixer. The Farmhouse services a variety of clients such as UBER, one of the fastest growing companies in the world, as well as Hudson’s Bay and Indigo. John recently received a 2016 Canadian Screen [...]

Danielle McBride ('96) is the Supervising Sound Editor and Dialogue Editor for the long-running TV Series Degrassi and the new YTV show, Open Heart, which was recently nominated for its first Canadian Screen Award. Perennial favourite Degrassi is nominated for four Canadian Screen Awards this year, and has garnered Emmy nominations in the [...]

Bryan Rennie ('00) is the Audio Lead for the Company of Heroes franchise at Relic Entertainment. After graduating OIART's music and audio production school, Bryan worked at Electronic Arts (EA Games) where he served in a number of roles in titles such as Need For Speed, Bond, NHL and Skate. Whether it's recording [...]

Andrew MacRae (’02) has had a varied career in audio. It started out with live production and freelancing at various studios around New Brunswick, then finally settling down in Fredericton at Outreach Productions (OP), a full service media facility specializing in video production and audio post. Starting out as an audio mixer, he [...]

Shawn French ('06) made a bold career move when he returned to school as a 27 year old, leaving home in New Brunswick to attend OIART's sound production course in London Ontario. Fortunately, the choice paid off. Since graduation, Shawn has worked on "a little bit of everything" related to TV and Film [...]

Roger Leavens ('98) founded and owns Boombox Sound in downtown Toronto. Roger has been an entrepreneur, engineer, musician, studio builder, voice director and record producer since his time in the music and sound production course at OIART. At Boombox, where the centerpiece is a hybrid digital/analog SSL Duality console, he and his team [...]

Chris Teixeira ('11) is a Sound Designer and Music Composer for Big Viking Games in London. Chris grew up listening to a lot of music. "I always loved the music and sound effects in video games. I never could have imagined I could take what I was passionate about and turn that into [...]

Sound Recordist Rob Nokes ('90) has performed many roles in a long and varied career. He is currently the Supervising Sound Editor for the popular Fox TV series "Bones," a position he also held on the series "Backstrom," and hit movies such as Disney's "Planes" and "Miracle." Sounds he has captured have been [...]

Ross Hudgins ('98) is an engineer at Twisted Pair Productions in Regina, Saskatchewan. At this full service media production facility, Ross gets involved in projects from the very beginning; casting voiceover talent, recording and editing voiceovers, music and sound effects, then final mixes for broadcast and online media.  His provides the conduit between [...]

Marla Kishimoto ('09) has been working in Toronto as a sound editor and mixer for Studio 18 with Mark Krupka ('86) and Ben Doner ('09) for the last two years. She's worked on numerous reality and lifestyle television shows, the highlight being The Amazing Race Canada, which she considers both the most fun [...]

Congratulations to sound editor Brennan Mercer Directors' Guild of Canada sound awards this past Saturday: BEST SOUND EDITING – TELEVISION MOVIE/MINI (grad '11) who, along with the team at Tattersall Sound and Picture, picked up two -SERIES The Book of Negroes, Episode 1 BEST SOUND EDITING – TELEVISION SERIES Vikings, The Choice He [...]

Grad Art Mullin ('01) is a Producer, Sound Designer and Mixer at RMW Music in Toronto, We asked Art a few simple questions about his career in Audio since OIART. He sent us some great stuff so this is a little more in depth than usual! OI meets ART if you will. OI: [...]

Adam Tsui ('08, right), pictured here with OIART Industry Liaison Robert Breen, was recently hired as a sound designer at Goodgame Studios in Germany. Before leaving Canada this week, Adam came to the school to talk about the world of Video Game Sound Design. After graduation, Adam moved to Los Angeles to work [...]

Last week, Freelance Post Audio Specialist Damian Kearns ('94) visited to speak with the students about entering the freelance post production market; how to get the job, what to do when you're in the job, how to market yourself in the modern world of social media and developing yourself as a brand. Damian's [...]

Mark Krupka ('86) is one of the top location audio engineers in the business, routinely tackling the most challenging recording environments that exist. His specialty is the fast and unpredictable world of reality television. A veteran of the CBS hit show Survivor, Mark has just returned from the latest installment in Cambodia. He [...]

Paula Dineen ('06) is the Audio Technical Supervisor at Accessible Media Inc, a not-for-profit multimedia organization serving more than five million Canadians who are blind, partially sighted, deaf, hard of hearing, mobility or print restricted. Paula is another fine example of one of the variety of careers where OIART grads find success. We'll [...]

Jennifer Lewis ('85) recently visited the school to speak to our students on the art of Video Game Audio. She currently holds the position of Creative Director at Maple Syrup Sound in Vancouver, B.C. She previously worked as Director of Sound for Relic Games - on games such as Warhammer and Company of [...]