With origin stories making their round, I figured it’s a good time to publish mine, as well as shout out those who helped along the way.

Internship @ Wave Generation in 2006

Prior to The Secret World, I had the opportunity to work at Wave Generation, an amazing game audio outsourcing company catering to anyone requiring a sound solution. I am so thankful that they took a risk and invested in a young student! What started as an internship in sound design ended with me managing my own project. Dave, Mike and Noémie (owners), allowed me to learn and grow beyond my expectations. I learned so much from Michel (sound designer), Nico (composer) and JC (mixing and recording engineer) in my time at Wave Generation. Although our relationship started off as professional, over the years we have developed a friendship and an appreciation towards each other’s work.

We have been known to still hang out regularly to talk shop and make pretentious remarks about films and games. My first duties during my internship were sound design for ringtones. Wholesalers would place orders via spreadsheets and we’d do our best to make it work. I had the opportunity to edit the original Family Guy tones and even the Death Row Records discography. Of course we had original concepts as well… like farts, lots and lots of farts.

Dyno recording for Army of Two in 2008

Soon after I started working on game audio projects and this involved editing files, helping out with spot fx, composing and implementing. My first taste of implementation came when I was scheduled to work on “High School Musical: Makin’ The Cut” for Nintendo DS using Nitro SDK. Those were great times! I was eager to optimize every sample to make the music shine through those little speakers. Soon after, I began editing dialogue for the original Crysis. From that point on, my primary focus was working on game projects (which was part of the master plan ). I had the opportunity to do sound design on TERA, Army of Two 1 & 2. Voice casting for Far Cry 2, Deus Ex 3, Civilization V. Dialogue post-production on Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 1 & 2 and so many other great games. Throughout my time at Wave Gen, I worked with countless teams that allowed me to build on a standard that I am proud of and continuously improving. Working with studios like Ubisoft Montreal, Eidos and Firaxis had an integral role in my growth as an intern and subsequently as a sound designer. The audio team at Bioware Edmonton taught me so much that I know today, and I can’t forget the dozens of projects Ludia and Behavior sent our way, each one more fun than the last.

After five years of working as an external solution, I decided to cross over. Funcom Games made an offer and I accepted. My mandate was to create and implement creature sounds, environments, and handle dialogue post-production on The Secret World. #TSW is an action-adventure mmorpg by Ragnar Tørnquist where you get to unravel mysteries and kill monsters. Players travel to New-York, New England, Egypt, London, Seoul, Transylvania and tons of unworldly locations. Truly a sound designer dream. Being the first batch of audio members at the Montreal studio, my colleague and I had to learn quickly as the project was in full production. Hitting the ground running is an understatement! Simon Poole, our Audio Director based out of the studio in Oslo, Norway did a fine job directing the project and showing us the ropes. This is also where many of the creative heads are located. We’d always get face-time with the talented and forward-thinking Ragnar, Martin, Joel and Rui who probably know Montreal as well as I do after this project!

With The Secret World launched and a vacation long overdue, I’m excited for what the future holds. A big Wilhelm scream for the audio community, let’s keeping pushing that envelope and see where it takes us. See you in-game.