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Hi everyone,

Firstly, what an amazing site! I've only just discovered this place and have spent a good few hours looking on it, an amazing resource for information.

Now, I'm not sure if this ok to do this on here but I couldn't find anywhere that said that it wasn't...

I'm a composer for film and tv and has worked on a number of projects for the bbc, channel 4 and a host of other independent productions, short films, ads etc. I really want to expand my work into sound design, I have crossed into that field as part of my scores before but I haven't taken responsibility for the full sound design of a project before. I have agreed to do some sound design for a small creative company that deals with mostly corporate films and am also arranging some projects through sites like shooting people. I've also invested in a few books such as 'The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound' by David Lewis Yewdal, 'The Sound FX bible' by Ric Viers and David Sonnenschein's 'Sound Design'. I have a pretty up to date studio with Pro Tools 9, Logic Pro, Abelton Live and a massive array of AU's (Waves Suite, Izotope RX 2, Spectrasonics etc) running on an 8 core Mac Pro.

What I'm hoping to find here is a seasoned professional based in London that would be willing to meet up for a chat. I have always found that talking with people that know the job inside outside is the best way to gain insight, which I need as I take my next steps in my career.

If anyone is interested in meeting up please get in touch with me at [email protected] and we'll arrange something.

If you would like to hear some of my compositional work visit www.simonashdown.co.uk

Many thanks, Simon

3 Answers 3

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While it's perfectly understandable to want to network in person and since you asked a legitimate question it's perfectly fine to ask here. At the same time it also sort of defeats the purpose of this place. I'm not saying this to get on your back about it, but more to enlighten you as to what makes this place so great and why. I can't speak for anyone else, but I suppose here's how I see this place.

Part of us contribute because it becomes part of a database of information that any member can access and a lot of us like to share and learn. We're all students here no matter if sometimes we're teachers as well. We can get around to answering questions when (and if) we have a spare minute and sort of contribute to the giant karmic info bank in the sound design matrix. It allows us to sort of have a free, ongoing documented convention or seminar that we can all attend on our own schedules since we all live such crazy lives (granted we have to put in our own time and informational contribution).

Since it's global, you'll find that you can ask a question at 3am wherever you are in the world and likely a couple members are lurking and will help you out (I can only think of a small handful of people I know personally where I can contact them at 3am for audio help). We can all sign up for Linked-In and search for sound designers in our area to network in person. Here it's about building a community of not only just information, but of friends and colleagues.

At the same time, there's a lot of rumor and speculation in our industry (because as I'm sure you know by now, it's not exactly science and not exactly art... but a blend of the two). So having multiple people being able to express multiple opinions/facts in a public forum becomes sort of a failcheck for bad info.

What I'd suggest is sticking around for a while, ask some questions, provide some answers and get to know us all. As you get to know the awesome people here, you're bound to make some new friends in your area and end up meeting up with them. A lot of us are musicians as well, so there's a lot of crossover. And sure, if I lived in London I'd come meet up with you. Maybe one day we'll be traveling to each others areas. Who knows, it may be that one day we'll start having regional meetups every so often (actually, that's a good idea. We should get on that).

Anyways, hope that helps.

Cheers and Welcome!

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  • Thanks Syndicate reading about your experience of the site is very helpful. This does seem like an extraordinarily useful forum and thoughtful answers such as your own seem to be commonplace, what a gift! I still hope to hear from someone in my area though! :)
    – Simon
    Jun 1, 2011 at 14:12
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In addition to SS's answer, I'd say to check out the twitter thread here.

Hey Guys Girls, so who Tweets here?

follow (selectively) the people that look interesting, and reach out to some of those people for IM or phonecalls.

also, if you haven't discovered http://designingsound.org yet, then get on that too.

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  • Thanks Rene, that's a great idea. Yeah, I'm already onto designingsound.org
    – Simon
    Jun 1, 2011 at 14:14
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I'm not in your area, nor have I quite attained your criteria, but in spite of that I'd like to say hello and welcome.

Hello + Welcome + Handshake + Smile

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