Evan Desjardins

Dialogue by Artun Miskciyan

I had a good time recording this original piano composition by my friend Artun Miskciyan at his family home in Etobicoke. Artun will be performing this piece and others from his repertoire as part of the free concert series at the COC next Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Artun has experimented a lot on his own with recording his Steinway and knows exactly the sound he’s going for. I relished the opportunity to experiment with some techniques … Read the rest “Dialogue by Artun Miskciyan”

Demo of Audio Log File Generator

An update to my previous post on using Python to batch analyze audio files.

I’ve added a featured that checks for the presence of ‘audiobook.xml’ in the parent to the current working directory. If found, the script parses out the book author, title and ISBN for inclusion in a document header.

I’m happy with the output and formatting of the document. If you print as PDF using the macOS print dialog you get a … Read the rest “Demo of Audio Log File Generator”

Doing Things the Easy Way (…the hard way) (Analyzing WAV files using Python, Power Menu and AppleScript)

Preamble

I’m really bad at programming but I won’t let that stop me. Today’s half-baked script is a “shortcut” for generating an Audio File Log, a data read-out requested by an audiobook client. It’s meant to accompany deliverables and tally up running times for billing. I made a game with QBASIC in high school so how hard can this be? I know just enough Python and shell commands to get myself into … Read the rest “Doing Things the Easy Way (…the hard way) (Analyzing WAV files using Python, Power Menu and AppleScript)”

Better Video Game Voice Editing: Tools I Use

This will be first in a series of articles intended to describe an approach to video game voice edits. This summer a colleague and I needed to exchange knowledge about our respective processes so that we could cover one another during holidays—he being the one doing the bulk of the recording and me the primary editor. This prompted me to take a closer look at my habits and routines so that our work could remain … Read the rest “Better Video Game Voice Editing: Tools I Use”

New Release: Warframe: The Duviri Paradox

Release day is here so I can announce my involvement in this major overhaul of the highly successful Warframe game world by Canadian game studio Digital Extremes. Working with the fine folks at Syndicate Creative, I’ve been editing voice assets for the better part of a year. Performers, directors, writers and producers joined us in studio and patched in from across Europe and North America. We became a central hub, virtually and IRLRead the rest “New Release: Warframe: The Duviri Paradox”

Batch Audio Conversion for IVR (Interactive Voice Response) – WMA, WAV 8bit u-Law

Recently I recorded and edited some voice cues for a savings bank’s phone support centre. I’ve done this before but this was the first time I’d been asked to convert output for playback on the end-client’s IVR system.

Apparently there are a couple common standard formats in use depending on which IVR tech is deployed. Windows Media Audio (*.wma) is one and the other is PCM .wav but using a particular encoding scheme … Read the rest “Batch Audio Conversion for IVR (Interactive Voice Response) – WMA, WAV 8bit u-Law”

Warframe – Angels of the Zariman

In collaboration with the fine people at Syndicate Creative, I did a bunch of voice editing for this upcoming expansion to the Warframe game world.

Since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, the voice acting world has gone all-in on remote contribution. The role of the recording studio is in flux. Especially when it comes to non-union projects, performers are more likely than ever to be working from a home studio, patched in over … Read the rest “Warframe – Angels of the Zariman”

The Christie Pits Riot – The Hogtown Experience

The Christie Pits Riot is a combined audio drama and historical walking tour set in 1930s Toronto, exploring an infamous race riot and the mark it left on the city’s Jewish families. It was written and created by Sam Rosenthal and Drew Carnwath, inspired by Sam’s own family’s history in Toronto. I recorded all of the voice performances, did the dialog/voice edit and passed it along to John Ebata in Halifax who added music and … Read the rest “The Christie Pits Riot – The Hogtown Experience”