#95: My guest today is Tim Larkin, who's based out of Spokane Washington.

Tim has been playing trumpet and piano since a young age, and has performed with artists like James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Sheila E, and many others. Tim has also worked in game audio for over 30 years, including 21 years at Valve Software working on titles like Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Half Life 2: Episode One and Two, Portal 1 and 2, Artifact, Dota 2, Riven, and Myst V, and many others.

In this interview, we dive into how Tim got his first game audio job from calling the company Broderbund in the phonebook yellow pages, how he transitioned from being a gigging trumpet player into a video game composer and sound designer, how up and coming composers/sound designers can stand out in a wildly competitive field, the release of his recent jazz album Setting Standards, and so much more.

Find Tim Here:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0PwyYNaSPbVH2toKPEOpNM

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larkin.tim/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-larkin-696961/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tlarkin1/

#96: Today's guest is Presley Hynes who is a sound designer based out of Edmonton, Canada.

Presley is currently senior sound designer at Gearbox, and has worked on projects like Borderlands 4, God of War: Ragnarok, Anthem, and many others.

In this interview we talk about how Presley started as a classical piano player, moved on to become a percussion player, worked in live sound, and then eventually ended up studying game audio, how she learned the skills needed to "make it" in the field, what she recommends up and coming sound designers do to stand out, and so much more.

Find Presley Here:

Website: https://www.phrequencies.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/presleyh/

#94: My guest today is Chris Bolte, who is a technical sound designer and audio implementer based out of Massachusetts.

Chris has built a wide-ranging library of sound effects used by creatives all over the world, co-wrote the book Elevate Your Audio Production with REAPER, and is most known for his work on the hit game Ghost of Yotei, where he implemented and designed sound across tens of thousands of assets at Sucker Punch Productions.

In this interview, Chris talks about how he pivoted out of a music career in 2022 and decided to go all in on game audio, how he learned his game audio skills so quickly with zero prior experience, how he landed the job at Sucker Punch working on Ghost of Yotei, and so much more.

Find Chris here:

Website: https://bolttracks.com/

Portfolio: https://christopherbolte.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherbolte/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/christopherbolte

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bolttracks.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bolt.wav/

Get info on The Game Industry Professional, my flagship course that teaches you how to make a great living in game audio here: bit.ly/gameindustrypro