Audio Engineer Looking to Teach Free Classes on Audio Sciences to Modders and Game Devs

[09jlardinois]

Hey guys,

My name is John. I'm a passionate gamer, programmer, and modder (game side and dev side), but I truly specialize in all things audio engineering and production. My degree is in audio sciences and engineering, but I was an engineer for five years before I ever attended university for audio sciences. I have tons of paid experience under my belt, and plenty of school and practice experience, and many happy clients.

 

I really want to contribute to the modding and game development community, and I have noticed for many years, a great deficit in audio processing skills and compositional know-how for audio programmers. I'd like to change this by offering free classes to teach game developers the industry-standard, record-making strategies for compelling audio in video games.

I strongly want these classes to be 100% free, ad-free, subscription-free, hassle-free, data-collection-free, and BS-free.

But I need your help... I'm just not sure how to begin teaching classes online. I have experience in education, but I have never taught an online class, and don't know where to begin. I'd like to start by making my services open mostly to Nexus members and fans of Skyrim and Fallout. I was wondering if we could all brainstorm ways for me to get my knowledge out to you guys as soon as possible. I'd appreciate any ideas you guys have and help you can provide.

Please note that video tutorials are not possible at this time (I have looked into it extensively), due to issues with sound drivers. To summarize, some drivers on old devices cannot unlock from the host application in Windows 10 due to their age, so recording video is not possible while the audio software is running.

I probably won't do video tutorials anyway - I want to actually teach classes, real classes, with homework and lab work and grades and exams. I want students to interact with the industry through hands-on projects, so I can help each student develop their skills on a case-by-case basis. I want to have an "open office" policy where students can come to me with audio questions at any time, and I can either answer them myself through a queue, or have a teaching assistant or outside engineer answer them for me.

I'd like to help modders and developers acquire a higher standard of audio so that all of our gaming senses can be enticed - so that what we hear with our ears during a game is as compelling, moving, and jaw-dropping as what we see with our eyes and feel through controls.

Let's work together to find ways to make this work, Thank you,
-John

[Vikhenzo]

The first thought that crosses my mind would be something like Discord, where you can have voice chats with anyone, for free. The most feasible medium to get ideas through the internet though would be video, you said you can't record and have the audio drivers working at the same time? That's a shame because I don't see people getting a "hand-on" experience through just voice... maybe Google hangouts where you can have video chat?

[montky]

Howdy john,

that is mighty awesome of you!

|that'd be like having Ben Burt stop by nexus and say 'would you guys like to learn some sound?"|

 

is this opportunity still on the back burner?

 

where do folks register interest?

via PM or on this thread?

 

is there a 'reading list'/'outline' and mandatory setup gear-wise? ie - must have access to

Audacity, a sound-input source (say, a keyboard or something) etc?

how maths-savvy do folks have to be hehe. (fairly I'm imagining)

what kind of code understanding would help?

 

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in terms of workshopping etc

there are a few platforms that can work;

vimeo, dailymotion, YT and google-hangouts, or minds.com.

they're similar to TEDx "universalUni" in terms of outline and learning-outcomes.

 

it is also possible to, AOL/late 90s style,

have a set time at GMT x,y,z,

to meet on a forum say, a Nexus Chat Room or on your own site etc,

and to meet up for an hour or two etc.

A lot of comics, new media and similar open universaluni courses happen informally that way.

 

I'm thinking what you're envisaging would work EXCELLENTLY with a youtuber

by the name of (if you haven't come across them in your travels already that is)

8 bit guy, or 8 bit keys.

8 bit keys goes into the exacting detail of how game audio was recorded in the day, with the tools and effects from that time period.

especially, the history of 'chip-tunes' and early keyboards or recording devices.

it is a very interesting collection and holistic approach to game-history, as good or better than some other courses out there...

Scott Manley also has unlisted vids which reflect on audio in games.

P Collins also does livestream 'how-to' on YT and workshopping from time to time hehe.

that said, those are very broad sources that don't go into a lot of detail on each area,

and half the fun of classes is meeting other folks too hehe.

 

in terms of epistemology and pedagogy -

J Ramos, H DeGaris and B Goertzel have a few different approaches to

online E-courses of different kinds on a whole range of subjects.

they're all different styles and cover a lot of different topics.

Kaku-web is also a different forum and mode too,

as is Inayatullah-net and

ThisWeekInTech boards - the people and threads on there huh?!

 

what kind of tasks do you think are involved?

say for example,

cleaning up live-recordings from a venue?

aural watermarking

equalization and balancing for different outputs - a stadium, a headphone, a mobile device, dolby home theatre...

how things like comparisonic sound matching or text-to-speech work?

reducing noise/compression algorithms to prevent Cymbals or other instruments being distorted? (SC4 filter, Reverb)

procedural audio cues in games - music that mandelbrots itself/combinatorial music (P Moriarty and EJC/OEIS generated music) - this is great accompaniment for fractal zooms and so on.

 

do folks choose a few projects, and then workshop those?

 

----

anywho,

I hope there's a few ideas in amongst that lot that are helpful,

and I definitely look forward to hearing more about this opportunity (if you'll pardon the pun).