David Johnston

Do you get an EASE Simulation with your church audio quote or just verbal advice on where to place the speakers? At Zacs and Phils®, every design begins with an EASE (Enhanced Acoustic Simulator for Engineers) model , a full 3D acoustic study of your church. Why not rely on demos? Audio demonstrations in unfinished spaces — without flooring, ceiling panels, or final acoustics — can be misleading. Reflections, absorption, and reverberation change drastically once the space is complete. EASE simulation, however, lets us virtually model your finished venue — including its shape, materials, and surfaces — to predict: Coverage patterns SPL uniformity Speech intelligibility (STI) It even helps you choose the right loudspeakers for your space — based on data, not guesswork. Because at Zacs and Phils®, we design with science, not speculation.

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The saying goes "there are no stupid questions" - and I promise you, when it comes to sync licensing, there are truly NO stupid questions. It's a magical world full of opportunity, but it can be murky waters leading to the palace of placements! How do decisions actually get made? What are supervisors really listening for? What does my catalog need to look like? How do fees work? How do I even get my music in front of the right people? I've been in this world long enough to know that these questions don't have obvious answers - and that the confusion is completely valid. So much of sync happens behind closed doors. That's exactly why I'm so excited to be part of this on May 21st, alongside music supervisor Roxy Shah and hosted by Revelator's very own Zac Vibert - where we're going to open those doors up. 📅 May 21st | 2PM PST / 5PM EST 🎙 Sync Licensing Unpacked Link in comments 👇

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UK production companies often tell me AI isn't realistic enough yet. Yet the work I do for the US and Canada is overwhelmingly photoreal. Why the divide? I've had this conversation numerous times with British TV and commercial production companies in the last few weeks, the common refrain being "photoreal generative AI isn't quite there yet; the acting is wooden, uncanny valley, audience turnoff...etc." If they're using it, they're steering towards animation. Yet most of the North American briefs I'm sent head in the opposite direction; photorealistic all the way. So is North America more comfortable with realistic AI, and is the UK playing it more cautious? What about other parts of the world? Anyone else noticed the same divide? #AIFilmmaking #ProductionIndustry

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If you’ve never worked with a voiceover artist before, you might be wondering what exactly they need from you. A script obviously – but if you want a really good outcome (and why wouldn’t you) then there are some other pieces of information you can provide that will help the process go as smoothly as possible. Who is the audience? 👫 Give your voiceover artist as much information as you can about who will be watching/listening to the finished project. Will there be background music? 🎵 Music makes a huge difference to the overall tone of a piece of audio. The voiceover artist needs to know whether they are going to be speaking over an audio bed, and how loud this might be. If at all possible, provide them with a clip of the music as this will help them match the tone and pace of their voice with the music. How will the audio be used? 🔈 If it is to be played in a huge stadium and heard by lots of people, the voiceover artist will deliver the script in a very different way to if the audio is to be listened to by a single person through headphones. Do you have a storyboard or a video? 📹 If you do, share this information as it will help the voiceover artist to really get a feel for your project. Give them some direction ➡️ You will probably have an idea in your head as to how you want the voiceover to sound. Try and give your voice actor some adjectives to describe how you want the delivery to be. Is it upbeat; casual and conversational; serious and sombre? Don’t go too over the top with direction though as that can get confusing for the actor! Are there any tricky words in your script? ❓ If for example you have any foreign words, or chemical or medical terms in your script that your voiceover artist might not have come across before, it’s really helpful if you can provide a pronunciation guide. Do you want to direct the recording session? 👍 Possible options for listening in include Zoom or Skype which are accessible to everyone, as well as audio-only platforms. Where will the audio be used? 🌍 This information will help the voiceover artist price the job correctly. An internal company video that will only be seen by employees will be charged very differently to a TV advert that will be watched by millions of people. Do you need the audio to be edited? ✂️ Let your voice actor know if you have an audio engineer at your end who will be doing all the editing and mastering. If that’s the case then they will send over a raw file (perhaps with mistakes taken out). If not they should be able to undertake basic editing themselves so that you get a clean piece of audio that is ready to use. Pick up the phone! ☎️ These days most voiceover negotiation and booking goes on via email, but it can be easier to just pick up the phone and have a chat to your voiceover artist! That gives you an opportunity to ask if they have everything they need, and them a chance to clarify anything they are not sure about. #VoiceOver #voiceoverartist

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How much time did you lose on your last project to miscommunication between your creative and production teams? Animators and editors speak in software, render times and technical constraints. Producers and creative directors speak in budgets, deadlines and client expectations. When those two sides aren't communicating clearly, the project suffers for it. We've spent a long time working across both. Technical enough to understand what the creative team is working with, production minded enough to know what the brief actually requires. That position means we can translate between the two naturally. No lengthy back and forth, no brief getting lost between departments. The creative team gets clear direction. The production team gets what they asked for, within the budget they have. On most projects, that middle ground is what makes the difference between a smooth delivery and a difficult one. If that sounds familiar, it might be worth a conversation.

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Another great article from Mark Willsher. This line especially resonates with me: "...I want the client to hear the mix and feel a sense of recognition. As though the version they imagined has finally become audible. When that happens, the notes disappear. Not because they’ve been addressed mechanically, but because the intention behind them has been heard."

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Here's a CGI before and after clip from one of my most recent work ; Music video for Odumodublvck ft Victony - Pity this Boy. We spent over two months in post production and it came with a lot of learning curves but the one I would love to share is; "Technology makes almost every idea possible! Leverage it at all stages of production" Would love to hear how you, or your team approache creativity + tech storytelling!

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VOICEOVER SCAM ALERT! A new one is going around from someone claiming to be Lucas Ryder from Data Annotation Tech. Be cautious everyone! This one came with a convincing agreement to be signed claiming it wouldn't be used for AI. However when you check the address on the agreement, it's not the company it claims to be. It also comes from a Gmail address and asks to communicate via Whatsapp and wants to use a strange third party for the payment process which when looking up the address of the third party payment processor is also not the company it claims to be. Remember to do your due diligence and trust your gut if something seems fishy!

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It was lovely to be taking part in a few videos with Kawai Pianos UK giving some details on how the pianos are made and some general piano tips! 🎶🎊🎹❤️ As a pianist, I have played on almost every single piano brand out there. Every acoustic piano is so different and unique, but I have to say I always found Kawai Pianos so expressive, brilliantly crafted and so responsive as an instrument. 🎶 Here is some advice on how to tackle nerves when performing in front of an audience 🎶🎹🎊filmed by Lumira Studio #piano #kawai #pianist #music #musician #performance #kawaipianos #nerves

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Lots of producers and script development people take a weird, potentially hazardous approach to notes. They try to fix individual scenes before they fix the story. Why is this hazardous? Well, mainly because just like in medicine, if you get the diagnosis wrong, the fixes won't work. In fact they might damage the project so fatally it doesn't survive development. A classic example of this would be, a reader says to the writer "Hey, buddy, I see a lot of classic act two problems here. Let's see if we can punch up those scenes." - This sounds reasonable, but unless they take the story back to outline, it's entirely possible they'll miss the real problem... act one. 95% of the time, act two problems have been caused by a failure to set up the characters properly in act one. And in these cases, it's likely that the central characters have no agency and are passive. Act two feels weak and artificial because it's just a series of plot levers designed to mechanically shove the character through the plot point. A problem you'll never solve by fixing scenes. But why is this approach potentially fatal... bad notes lead to writer resentment. When the notes don't fix the problem the writer will blame the notes and the producer will blame the writer. Trust is eroded in both directions. And because it didn't fix the problem there will be more notes and more rewriting. If you go through the cycle of bad notes and bad rewrites long-enough the project will collapse. Both parties blaming the ineptitude of the other. This happens more often than you'd imagine.

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Knowing how to pronounce every word and every name in a script is a vital tool that any and all voiceovers need whenever they voice for a project... HOWEVER, there will be times when a voiceover will need to do a demo just to be sure (case and point in this true story I encountered in one of my sessions). #voiceover #truestory #conmercial #tagalog

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There's a saying: the cobbler's children have no shoes. We make an AI video editor. You'd think our content game would be completely sorted out. The truth? It's embarrassing. It's not. We're so busy delivering videos for clients that we don't get around to making our own. That's the reality of being a founder - you're time-poor, working on a hundred things, and content always falls to the bottom of the pile. So this is us fixing that. First batch of videos where I'm just talking about the stuff we're nerding out about. Tech, AI, the cool stuff we work on every day but somehow forget to share. No polish. No production. Just honest thoughts from someone building in this space. More to come. #StartupLife #ContentCreation #FounderLife

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Since my post on ‘Traveling and being a Voiceover artist’, I’ve had numerous requests for simple solutions. There are heaps of vocal shields available on the market that offer effective performance. However, when traveling, these can be relatively bulky and challenging to pack. This is my home-made vocal shield / voice booth that’s light weight, doesn’t take up too much room in your luggage and is easy to put together. You’ll need some light weight moving blanket, a few lengths of 20 mm PVC pipe about 550 mm long, a PVC 3-way connector, a couple of small blocks and some removable Velcro strips. All available from most Hardware stores. Connect the blocks to one of the PVC pipes and stick a strip to each of the blocks. Next, stick removable Velcro strips to the wall you want to set up your vocal shield. I’ve found it works really well on glass, but everyday walls work just fine.  Then simply press the Velcro strip you’ve connected to the blocks on the PVC pipe to the Velcro on the wall and place the 3-way connector to the top of the PVC pipe. Now attach the two remaining PVC pipes to the connector to create a triangle shape. All you need to do now is drape some moving blanket over the top or you even use a big towel which will do the same job. Simply clamp your microphone in place and ‘voila’ a great little voice booth. The removable Velcro strips can be removed easily without leaving any marks on the wall. If you wanted to use this on a desk, you could add another connector to the bottom and connect 2 more lengths of PVC pipe to create a base. Please let me know if need any more info.  🎙️ My name is Ross Newth. I’m a freelance Voiceover Artist. You can hear more of my voiceover work on my website www.rossnewth.com.au #voiceartist #voiceactor #voice #advertising #corporatevoice #voiceartists #australianvoiceactor #australianvoicetalent #voicetalent #voiceover #narrator #eLearning #voicebooth

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I've spent the last year building something I believe fills a genuine gap in how media pipelines handle compression. The short version: every time an image gets compressed, the pipeline guesses which codec and quality setting to use then finds out if it was right after the fact. Wrong guesses mean wasted bandwidth, silent quality loss, and expensive retries at scale. I built a system that reads the structure of an image before encoding and predicts the outcome. It then tells the pipeline exactly which codec and quality setting to use. One pass. No GPU. No changes to existing infrastructure. Validated on 100,000+ real compression outcomes across four codecs. Working demo available. Research published. Looking for two things: image-heavy pipelines willing to run a pilot, and investors who fund infrastructure. If that's you or someone you know I'd love a conversation.

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Managed to build a Big Muff Pi on a breadboard with my good mate Sam. 3 controls: – Sustain – Tone – Volume This circuit has an input buffer/booster which feeds into two cascaded clipping gain stages. The result is then fed into a passive tone control network, and finally into an output recovery / booster stage. Each stage makes use of transistors to amplify the signal. The next step in development would be to design the first pedal prototype with careful consideration for potentiometer layouts and then transfer this onto a veroboard for testing. Exciting stuff

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Your practice video is probably about the wrong person. Strong visuals, polished voiceover, years established, sectors covered, awards on the shelf. All perfectly reasonable. None of it the thing that actually wins work. Because the person watching isn't thinking about your practice. They're thinking about the constrained site that planning has already pushed back on twice. The board that needs convincing before the budget gets reviewed. The programme that has no room to move. The planning authority that's made everything harder than it needs to be. They're not evaluating your credentials. They're asking themselves one thing: do these people actually get what we're dealing with? And if your video spends its first 30 seconds talking about you, that question stays unanswered. The practices I see cutting through in a crowded market aren't always the ones doing the most impressive work. They're the ones who clearly understand the client's world, the pressures, the constraints, the conversations happening in the boardroom before an architect is even appointed. That understanding, when it comes across in how you present yourselves, does more than any rebrand or new photography. It's a small shift in framing. But it changes everything about how you're perceived. Drop a comment if this resonates. Genuinely curious how others are thinking about this.

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One of the biggest challenges for producers is getting an accurate sound when your studio isn’t acoustically treated. Reflections, standing waves, and room resonances can all mislead your ears. This is where Sonarworks SoundID Reference comes in. By measuring your speakers and compensating for the room’s frequency response, it helps you hear a flatter, more reliable sound—so your mixes translate better across all systems. It’s not a replacement for acoustic treatment, but it’s an amazing tool for producers working in home studios. https://lnkd.in/gfDiAZDr #MusicProduction #Mixing #AudioEngineering #StudioTips

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I wanted to share a different angle to the process of sound designing - how a single basic idea can be fleshed out into a fully developed piece. The core ideas in this project were to match the fast paced cuts with the snappy drums as you can hear in initial ideas 1 & 2. Building on these ideas, I added new elements to fill the spaces from vocal chops, bass hits, synth arps & pads. The end result, a fast paced energetic piece to match the direction of the lovely visuals by the goat Ross Mason Motion Ross Mason Music & Sound design H1 Sound

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