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Cedar House Productions Co-Owner – Suzie Brutke-Smurdon

By: Toni Venditti

EPSON MFP imageSuzie Brutke-Smurdon has always loved music and knew she wanted to be involved in the music industry, but being a musician and performing in front of a crowd was not for her. Instead, she started looking at audio engineering with a plan of going into music production.  She is now the Co-Owner of Cedar House Audio Productions in Seattle.

Suzie found a short course that was being offered at a local recording studio back home in Oregon.  It was just an overview of what it’s like to work in a studio, but it interested her enough to continue her studies. She then enrolled in Full Sail and studied recording engineering and loved her time there.  She talked about the great teachers and how she met a lot of amazing people at the school.  One of the biggest things she learned was that school is great for the basics, and it gets you prepared to work in a studio, but once you get to a real studio, there is still a lot to be learned.  Each studio is different and has their own way of doing things.  She believes basic signal flow is critical and is surprised at how many engineers these days don’t understand it.

She has been an audio engineer and sound designer for over 20 years. Once she finished school, she took an internship at a recording studio in Seattle. She did well and was hired full-time to work in the dub room doing duplication work. From there, she worked her way up to Production Assistant and finally Sound Designer. She had started out with a plan of going into music production, however with the changes in the music industry at that time, she ended up focusing more on post-production.

Suzie describes sound design in her line of work as all about creating a whole and complete “picture” by using different sound sources.  It’s not just making sound effects; it’s a matter of putting all of it, sound effects, music, dialog, and ambiences, together and making it sound great. Suzie spent over eight years at that studio before moving on to do freelance work and eventually ending up where she is now, co-owner of Cedar House Audio Productions, a company that specializes in spoken word audio.

Cedar House Audio was originally started by talented actress and Audio Book narrator Kate Fleming; Suzie worked as her Technical Director, and Lyssa Browne was Production Manager.  In December of 2006, Kate was killed tragically when a flash flood trapped her inside her basement studio.  After some soul-searching and speaking with Kate’s family to get their blessing, Lyssa and Suzie decided to continue in Kate’s honor and the new Cedar House Audio Productions was born.

StudioExplaining the differences between recording the spoken word and how it differs from recording music, Suzie says with audio book recording, the biggest difference is that all you have is the voice.  Most of the productions they do are voice only, with the occasional musical transition.  This means the recording has to be as clean as possible so that there are no distractions to take away from the listener’s experience.  The vocal booths are extremely dead at Cedar House Audio Productions.  They should be as quiet as possible with no reflections.  They monitor on headphones instead of speakers so that each little movement, mouth click or stomach gurgle can be heard.  The studio mainly uses Neumann mics and Pro Tools for all projects.

Over the years, Suzie has worked on radio and TV commercials for various clients.  She has also done sound design for video games, TV shows, films, travel tours, and podcasts. She was a dialogue editor on several independent films and has also recorded voice-overs for video games, DVD commentaries, e-learning projects, and audio books, as well as dialogue replacement for TV shows and films.  Suzie also sound designed for Disney theme parks. Being completely different skill sets demonstrates Suzie’s versatility, as most of the work she has done for Disney involved post-production of videos shown in the ride queues.  One of her favorites was for the old Rocket Rods ride. The video was shown in the nine-screen CircleVision 360 Theater. Her job for these projects was to build the sounds for the videos before being sent to a mix engineer.

Her work on video games includes the individual sounds for each element before they are implemented into the game’s sound engine and mixed.  When Suzie is creating sounds for a game, she is provided with video captures of certain elements or creatures. Then she’ll interpret what they should sound like.  Sometimes she will get builds of the game to enable her to see the elements in context, and then she will create sounds to match. Suzie explains that video game cinematics are more comparable to doing post for video, where you’re building a whole soundscape and not just the individual elements.

SuzieBrutke-SmurdonSuzie loves creating things that will be around for people to hear for many years to come and loves the sense of fulfillment when a big project is finished.  The Book of Stars was one of the several notable projects and was the first indie film where Suzie worked as the dialogue editor. This film helped her to realize how much she liked working on films and longer form projects.  The Bill Nye the Science Guy TV show was another favorite, and always a lot of fun.  Voodoo Vince was the first video game that Suzie got to do actual sound design for – and not just voice recording. She has also really enjoyed recording a lot of amazing people over the years and hearing some great stories

Suzie’s life lessons are that if there is something you want, go for it; you should never be discouraged by being a woman in a male-dominated field.  There is always new or improved gear and tech coming out so never stop learning. She says having the ability to troubleshoot when things go wrong is always an important skill to have, as well as being able to stay calm under pressure. 

Suzie thinks that one of the most important things, especially when you are just starting out, is to make sure you don’t have a bad attitude.  There’s most likely going to be some grunt work, and you’re going to have to fetch coffee, get lunches, or whatever, so it should be done without an attitude. Be proactive.  If there is something that needs to be done, take the initiative instead of waiting around till someone asks you to do it and always be open to learning.  You can pick up a lot of tips and tricks from other engineers or sound designers.

Independent Contracts – The Business Skills You Need

As a sound technician (sound engineer, mixer, editor), there’s generally two types of gigs:

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Navigating a New Building – Planning the Build.

Over the last four years, I have been a part of the planning and designing committee for a new student union. Over this journey, I have learned many things when it comes to building a new structure and that the process can be very complicated and messy. If you ever get the opportunity to be a part of the planning process for a new venue, do it.  It will be an experience you may hate at times, but it is rewarding.  It has been a great learning experience. (more…)

The Life Long Learner

Personal growth and professional growth work hand in hand for me. The more I expand my mindset, the greater the possibilities. Julia Child said it best “You’ll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.” So why should we stop learning, right?

I started my journey in media at a young age within a place of worship. Audio has always been my focus point. But I noticed as an in-house engineer once communication was set and audio was brought up to a standard of excellence there was still more work to be done. Which led me to expand my reach as a freelance technician.

Once I set up a multimedia platform for one worship center I continued to research equipment that could take the worshiping experience to the next level. From audio consoles to projectors, from lights to CD duplication. From live broadcasting to DVD production, they all played a significant role in creating this great experience. The leaders loved the thought of having all these outlets to help spread the gospel. Not only did it help the leaders and the congregation. It helped me gain experience, which births excellent technicians.

After working in places of worship for over eight years and graduating from a Media Tech Institute with a diploma in audio engineering and multimedia. I choose to see what other routes I could go with this passion and experience. I then found the wonderful world of AV (Audio and Visuals). A place where being proficient in all areas of event technology is golden. I had been in AV for years and didn’t even know it. I just specialized in worship centers; now I’m branching out even more. Seeing what all the world has to offer a young audio engineer willing to learn and grow.

Being an audio engineer can take you in many different directions, but no matter which route you take, the more you know, the more you grow. You can start as a monitor engineer and then move to mixing at FOH. You can be a boom microphone operator and develop into recording and mixing Foley. I started in AV as a stagehand just doing load in and load-outs. You never know, continue to keep an open mind. Never stop learning. The possibilities are endless, so is the amount of growth within the industry. Once you feel you know everything there is to know, you put a cap on yourself and opportunities. Don’t be a know it all, be willing to learn it all.

The Art of Being an Evil Genius

There’s this moment that occasionally occurs when I’m working on a project in the studio. I like to call it “The Evil Genius Moment.” (more…)

The Encounter: A Sound Design Review

 

Part 1: The system and the show

A man is whispering into my left ear. I turn my head to face him but the guy on my left smiles and shakes his head. It’s not him: my first experience of live binaural sound has confused my ears. On stage, sound designer Pete Malkin is talking into the left ear microphone of a binaural head and consequently, into the left ear of my headphones and the headphones of other members of the Association of Sound Designers. I’m at the Barbican Theatre in London to learn about the concepts and execution behind the sound design for Complicite’s The Encounter. (more…)

Norah Seed – Finding your Dream Job

By Toni Venditti

Norah Seed is an audio engineer who has worked in Live Sound for over 25 years. She has worked in theatre, television, and AV. She currently heads the audio department for the Shell Theatre in Alberta, Canada.

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EAW ADAPTive™ Systems Training

By Amy Truong

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A few days ago, I attended the EAW ADAPTive™ Systems Level 1 Training Program held in Primm, NV. It was two consecutive days and lasted approximately 8 hours each day (with lunch provided). This was my first time attending a non-console based training class.

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A Month in the Life of a London SoundGirl

Let me first say, London rush hour is awful and I do whatever I can to avoid it. Sometimes I cannot, early morning production meetings and tech rehearsals have me squeezing onto a London tube with a rucksack that has a laptop and my hard drive. Not Fun.  This last month I have found myself doing a lot of rush hour commuting.

First, I was working on two musicals, both were small-scale productions and they were running at the same theatre, but on alternating nights. Keeping track of both was a skill in itself.  There were scary schedules issued with no time allotted to work on sound, that had to be dealt with. After pointing this out, we were able to get a few solid hours to set up the system, which had been rigged the week before.  We set amp levels, and eq’d and time-aligned the system. Then I started plotting the SFX. I discovered there would be no full runs of the show until I was in tech for the other show. I knew what the SFX would be and had met with the director, but would not be able to see the context of the cues until we were in tech. It did make for a couple of weeks of really long days with a commute of over an hour each way.

I went to visit Motown the Musical, it was fitting up in the west end.  I knew most of the sound staff as I had worked with them on Rock of Ages and other shows over the years. I needed to talk to the UK designer about a show he had asked me to be his associate on. The West End Musical – Theatre scene can be a bit like a Victorian Lady Socialite. In that, you visit other shows, go and say hello during the production and tech. weeks. You poke around the sound system, ask questions and exchange gossip. It’s a good way to remind people that you exist and it’s an excellent opportunity to learn about a sound system that you haven’t had a hand in putting together.

I submitted my tax return, something that would be easier to do if I’ve been organised through the year. Last year I promised myself to take my receipts out of my pockets and my wallet at the end of every day and sort them. Maybe I’ll do it at the end of every week.

Chasing invoices is something I don’t enjoy doing and I’ve had to do that twice this month. One was a genuine mistake but the other was with a company that was refusing to pay me until I proved that I have self-employed status. I sent more information than I have ever done before to this company and still nothing. Thank goodness I’m still a member of a union. I had been considering not renewing my membership of BECTU. You get a good deal on public liability insurance from BECTU but I had recently joined the Association of Sound Designers  who also offer insurance. But I’ve never had anyone refuse to pay me before and after many emails and phones calls it became apparent that having the weight of a union behind me was a useful thing. They managed to resolve the issue quickly with no more input from me.
I went to visit a theatre I may do a show with later in the year. It’s the Rose Playhouse in Southwark and it’s in the basement of an office block. The Rose is the first Tudor theatre built on Bankside and they are raising money to preserve the theatre. The sound equipment is limited and we will supplement it a bit. But it is Shakespeare and it will be atmospheric.

I occasionally mentor students at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I had been brought in to look after the operator for the musical they are running.  The students are in their third year and are of a high standard. They were doing Sweet Charity with loads of radio mics and a full band.

This is an example of a typical and varied month for me. A bit of tech, specing equipment, keeping on top of the business end and production meetings, Mostly I love it but not that commute.

 

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