Crispin Hands

Current project:
Impossible Creatures (a.k.a. Sigma) from Relic/Microsoft. I am doing all the sound stuff.

Academic Info

College: Capilano College, Vancouver
Degree: Almost got an electrical engineering degree, before moving on to pursue musical studies...

Were there any particular projects or areas of study that you pursued?Did you do any internships?
Does it count as an internship if the company already employs you? I did some unpaid work at nights for the audio department at EA while working as a paid tester during the day.

Career Info

Tell us about your first job in the industry. How did you get the job? What was it like? What were your responsibilities?
My first job was as a QA tester at EA Canada. I heard about it through a friend and attempted to get a position in the audio department. When the department head laughed me out of the building after hearing my demo tape I turned right back around and took the "consolation prize" in QA. This actually turned out to be a good move since EA had a policy of trying to hire from within and I had access to people in the audio department that I wouldn't have had as a "guy off the street".

What jobs have you held in the games industry thus far? Briefly describe the career path you took to get where you are today.
QA Tester, QA Technical Support, QA Assistant Lead, Speech Editor, Sound Designer, Composer.

I was very lucky with my timing and the people I worked with. In QA my qualifications as a techie and the good communications skills I learned at my soul-depleting law-firm job helped me climb the ladder pretty quickly. This lead to more opportunities to connect with the dev teams and people in the audio department and finally got a very low position as a speech editor in the evenings while I worked in QA during the day.

I showed as much interest, respect and willingness to learn and work hard as I could during that time and it paid off. I got a full time position in the audio department within my first year. At this point I was able to learn as I worked with the help of some fantastic mentors. Guys like Alistair Hirst who was the audio lead on several Need for Speed titles at the time and Steve Royea and Traz Damji who I worked with on several NBA Live titles really were pivotal people in my career.

From there I started doing more sound design and finally got to pursue my dream of composing for games. This was largely because I had access to the excellent high-end equipment we had in the department. All my previous music had been done on a 4 track with a Sound Blaster and a couple of crappy synths.

I got to work with some excellent composers and they really helped and inspired me to push myself creatively and technically.

Advice

What fields of study, specific courses, or life experiences would you recommend to students interested in your field?
I would recommend that you tailor your school program to reflect what you intend to pursue but start out with a broad selection of courses so you can get a better picture with each piece of the puzzle. You may think you're interested in one thing only to immerse yourself and find that you're really strong in something else.

Here are some things that all game audio professionals should have a handle on:

• Digital audio - how it works, the ins and outs of A/D and D/A converters, what sounds good, what doesn't and why. How it differs from the analogue domain in several important areas.
• MIDI - learn it, use it, get creative with it...
• PC and Mac hardware, software and OS. You'll eat, breath and sleep this stuff so get to know it.
• Recording engineering and basic acoustics. Signal path, recording techniques and mixing chops.
• As much recording and editing software as you can get your hands on for both Mac and PC.
• Location recording and Foley.
• Psychoacoustics. We build worlds. If you want to make them sound good and/or real you need to understand the basic principles of how we perceive sound.
• Programming - Composers and sound designers who can code are like gold in this industry. If you want to guarantee yourself a position somewhere, learn to code. C and C++ are great to have.
• Synthesizers - architecture, programming and effects. A lot of game audio implementation is done using a similar paradigm to synths and samplers.
  

Is there anything you wish someone had told you before you got into the games industry? Is there anything you would have done differently?
I wish I had had a better understanding of the production values that were expected in audio. I had done some minor film and documentary scoring work but was still laboring under the notion that a game composer could just write the music and that someone else would produce and mix it. I also had fooled myself into thinking that games didn't have the same production values as other major mediums yet. This was in 1995 and it was entirely my fault for not doing my homework on the state of the industry and the company I was starting with. EA Canada had really high standards for sound and it's not surprising that my demo was pretty much laughed at. When I listen to it now I laugh too.

Luckily I eventually got to learn those production values from some very skilled and talented people at EA. However, my journey would have been much quicker and more fruitful sooner had I come on board with some half-decent production chops and a better idea of what genre's were being pursued.

Moral of the story? Play current games! Lots of them! And especially familiarize yourself with the games being done at the studio where you're trying to get a position.

Other than that, I would have tried to strike a better balance between work and personal life sooner on. It's really easy to get heavily immersed in the rush of production and let other things slide. We have to work long hard hours a lot of the time but if you stake your claim to a personal life earlier on then you'll be more likely to put your time to good use.

As games increase in complexity, what are the various kinds of jobs that you foresee development companies needing in the next five years?
I think as far as audio goes we're already seeing many of the production paradigms head toward that of the film and professional recording industries. At this point, we've been putting 5.1 mixes in a lot of games for awhile and most gamers are expecting sound to be a cinematic experience. This is opening the industry up more to high-end professional engineers and composers. It's also beginning to push us to compete with these people.

There may also be a call for larger companies to have a person or department in-house dedicated solely to music licensing and/or supervision - another film industry standard. As the novelty of great visuals plateaus, the need for the rest of the game to push the envelope becomes more obvious. I'd like to see a lot more games with compelling and well-written stories. Dialogue is in nearly every single game out there these days so it's not that crazy to think about having full time professional script writers on board with some developers. Perhaps some already do?

Given the size and complexity of some of the games that can be produced on today's hardware, there may be a call for more people just to manage data for each facet of production. Many animation studios have a person on each team whose sole job is to manage and coordinate the huge number of assets in a production. As our games get bigger and more complex, I could see the need for someone just to manage all the different audio assets and coordinate production. Almost like a DD role for audio only.

Do you have any other advice or recommendations to share with students who are interested in doing what you do?

• If you're a composer then learn to work in many different genres - even one's you don't like. Familiarize yourself with as much music as you can. Some people say it's crucial to be classically trained. While I think it can be very helpful I don't think it's absolutely mandatory. I've heard people with no formal training blow people with years of classical music study out of the water. Don't rest on talent alone though - always seek to learn and improve yourself. People have been speaking and recording the language of music for centuries; put this massive store of knowledge and inspiration to use whenever you can.
• Pursue what you love and don't let yourself make excuses for not getting there. If you want something badly enough you'll get it.
• Get to know about all aspects of game production. This will help you integrate far better with a team and you'll understand the interdependencies that occur with every production.
• If you meet someone who is a potential mentor, show them respect, interest and a willingness to learn and work hard. It's amazing how much this can help you move forward.
• Learn to communicate well. Written and oral communications are the backbone of everything we do in this industry. The better you can do this, the better you'll do all round. Be professional, courteous and calm in all situations (but be human) and have a sense of humor. People respect this and it will greatly improve your chances of getting in.
• If you're submitting a demo, make it a slick presentation but not too busy. Put only your best stuff on the CD and try to make sure you cover as many genres as possible. Make it easy for the person to know how to contact you and make it easy for them to find out more about you. Don't ever say "references or credits available on request". No one will take the time to try and track you down for more info unless they already know they want to hire you. Make sure these things are part of the package and easily accessible.

Good luck!