Quote: Original post by zircon_st
I was considering it.. but then I remembered how many other composers and sound designers would be going. What's the point?

That's a bit negaitve isn't it? Don't you have confidence in your work?

If I thought like that 3 years ago, I wouldn't be where I am today.

You really do need to go to these things and meet people to get yourself recognized, to make friends. Shooting off the odd demo disk to a developer who doesn't want your demo disc achieves nothing. You'd be surprised how many commercial gigs I've got from other composers that I met at conferences who either did not have expertise in a certain style, or say a platform, or even were just swamped with other projects and needed a friend to help out.

The other point besides meeting people, is learning. The audio tutorials are very useful, there's other topics such as design, how to run an audio business, licensing, contracts, asking questions of people who have written music for the Halos, the LOTRs, the Starwars games.. etc.

You know how they say it's who you know. Well, GDC really gives you the opportunity to increase your who you knows.

I got a gig after the first GDC I went to. I had just been chatting to someone for a while, not even talking about looking for work, after aksing what I did they said, oh, give me your demo reel, my brother is the audio dirctor at such and such. I got a gig just before the next GDC!

Quote: Original post by brun7827
what kind of stuff should we expect from the boot camp?

Mainly basic Game Audio stuff, for composers and sound designers who don't know much about game audio. See quote below.

I've done the audio boot camp twice over the past 2 GDCs, I'm all booted out now.

Quote: This tutorial explains major audio concepts in language suitable for composers, sound designers, programmers, and game designers - in short, an opportunity to learn what concepts like rolloff, ADPCM, and multi-streaming really mean and how they are used in games.

Topics include the audio production pipeline, basic sound terminology, audio resource management techniques and tradeoffs, the use of multichannel surround sound in games, dialog production, non-linear audio, and an introduction to some of the platform-specific audio tools. There are also ample opportunities for open discussion about the current state of game audio and how audio can really add value to the gaming experience by making titles more fun, realistic, and immersive.

Quote: Original post by yjbrown

Quote: Original post by zircon_st
I was considering it.. but then I remembered how many other composers and sound designers would be going. What's the point?

That's a bit negaitve isn't it? Don't you have confidence in your work?

If I thought like that 3 years ago, I wouldn't be where I am today.

You really do need to go to these things and meet people to get yourself recognized, to make friends. Shooting off the odd demo disk to a developer who doesn't want your demo disc achieves nothing. You'd be surprised how many commercial gigs I've got from other composers that I met at conferences who either did not have expertise in a certain style, or say a platform, or even were just swamped with other projects and needed a friend to help out.

The other point besides meeting people, is learning. The audio tutorials are very useful, there's other topics such as design, how to run an audio business, licensing, contracts, asking questions of people who have written music for the Halos, the LOTRs, the Starwars games.. etc.

You know how they say it's who you know. Well, GDC really gives you the opportunity to increase your who you knows.

I got a gig after the first GDC I went to. I had just been chatting to someone for a while, not even talking about looking for work, after aksing what I did they said, oh, give me your demo reel, my brother is the audio dirctor at such and such. I got a gig just before the next GDC!

Quote: Original post by brun7827
what kind of stuff should we expect from the boot camp?

Mainly basic Game Audio stuff, for composers and sound designers who don't know much about game audio. See quote below.

I've done the audio boot camp twice over the past 2 GDCs, I'm all booted out now.

Quote: This tutorial explains major audio concepts in language suitable for composers, sound designers, programmers, and game designers - in short, an opportunity to learn what concepts like rolloff, ADPCM, and multi-streaming really mean and how they are used in games.

Topics include the audio production pipeline, basic sound terminology, audio resource management techniques and tradeoffs, the use of multichannel surround sound in games, dialog production, non-linear audio, and an introduction to some of the platform-specific audio tools. There are also ample opportunities for open discussion about the current state of game audio and how audio can really add value to the gaming experience by making titles more fun, realistic, and immersive.

Oh, I am confident, don't get me wrong there - but I believe in making myself stand out from the crowd. I've pursued avenues of music and education to do that, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job.. but I don't think going to a conference with dozens of people just like me would be the best of ideas. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

On the Northern Sounds forum, someone posted a topic with an MP3 and asked people how to reproduce the synthesized sound/drums. Since that is my area of expertise, I answered the question to the best of my ability, and soon after someone posted saying how impressed they were with my answer and that they'd like to get in touch with me to possibly help them with the electronic end of the film/TV composing that they do. Networking - cool, right? But the only reason that happened is because this was the Northern Sounds forum, where people like me are in the minority. Had that same topic been posted at KVR-VST, there would have been a thousand people that could have answered the question the same way as I did.

Also, it's worth mentioning that I'm only 17 at the moment. I'm fairly inundated with work as it is, with three contracts at the moment, and I've actually had to turn down jobs recently because I simply don't have the time. Not to mention I already spend virtually every waking minute on this stuff anyway - researching music theory, composition, recording, acoustics, sequencing, synthesis, and so forth. Perhaps in a few years when (or if) I've hit some sort of a roadblock, I'll attend something like this to jumpstart my career.. but for now, I think I'm on the right track.

GDC will be around next year, and the next year.. etc.

There's no rush to go right now. If you're too busy as it is to take on more projects, then save your money for next year and think if you want to go then.

True there are 17 or rather 100 other guys like you at GDC, but 17 or 100 of those guys didn't have lunch with Mr X - audio director from Y company. As I said makes a difference how you present yourself and get around. Developers may have a bit of hesitance seeing as you're young - it may not tie across professionally no matter what your capabilities (this is where Forums come in useful, they care about talent, and less about age).

Another note: there are jobs being offered at GDC. Last year Lucasarts Entertainment took on a bunch of sound designers by announcing it after a seminar. It was not advertised.

I know nothing about the GDC, but its sounds intressting.

Where can I get more detailed information about this?