In this episode, we break down our Audio Network album ‘Off Grid’, a sound-design project built on manipulating percussion and household objects into brooding drones and pulsing instruments!

We walk through the whole process, from album concept and working with world-renowned percussionist Paul Clarvis, to recording kalimbas and hitting ballpoint pens! We discuss how our initial pitch evolved into a contemporary drama brief and how we leaned into creating a unique sonic palette.

We also dive deeper into the tracks ‘Off Grid’ and ‘Dark Trade’, demonstrating how we transformed organic recordings into unrecognisable cinematic textures. It was a lot of fun to take a much more experimental approach with this album than our previous projects!

Check out the full album on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4TB0LqlmsDG1ZT9eODFad6?si=Tsmi-fOFReaWdbsW3DEJoA

Chapters

0:00 Intro
3:33 Our pitch
7:01 Recording with Paul Clarvis
17:19 How we made the track ‘Off Grid’
27:32 How we made the track ‘Dark Trade’

#sounddesign #composer #offgrid #productionmusic #percussionist #manipulatingsound #drones #dronesalbum #audionetwork #syncmusic #albumbreakdown #sounddesigner #musicproduction

Four composers, one big question: what is art?

In this episode, we’re joined by friends and award-winning composers Carlos Villalobos and Jeannie Tanner to try tackle that!

Amidst the rapid rise of AI technologies, we debate the core elements of art from human intent to audience response and interpretation. We explore Tim Minchin’s take on ‘content vs intent’, discuss the growing concern of AI artist profiles deceiving listeners, and decide whether a shoe left in an art gallery can be ‘art’…

We also highlight a resurgence of composers returning to writing at the piano instead of a DAW, creating custom sounds, and playing live! It’s an honest look at the difference between creating art and consuming it, and why the imperfect human process matters more than ever.

#aimusic #ai #composer #aigeneratedmusic #suno #songwriter #productionmusic #syncmusic #aiart #composing #humanmusic #realmusic #synccomposer

In this episode we sit down with the brilliant Andrew Sunnucks. Co-founder of Audio Network, a prolific orchestral producer and a farmer, Andrew has built a career on integrity, real musicians, and having a good time!

From Andrew’s first job as a singing rabbit to working in commercials and eventually co-founding production music catalogue Audio Network, we trace his journey over the years. As one of the biggest employers of musicians, we discuss Audio Network’s commitment to using real musicians . Andrew tells us why he refuses to compromise on live players, despite being more expensive and time consuming, and shares the secrets to creating a community of trust in recording sessions with both players and composers.

Andrew also opens up about the human side of the music industry, discussing imposter syndrome, the importance of humility and his core principle of a “no knobs” policy. Along the way, he shares hilarious stories from his career including a medieval music mishap, legs falling off a grand piano, and a tape machine bursting into flames…

Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:57 Andrew’s musical background
13:09 Founding Audio Network
20:44 Orchestral producing
29:52 Session stories
35:47 A producer’s ear and communicating with players
40:50 41:10 What’s left on Andrew’s bucket list?

#audionetwork #composer #composing #tvmusic #filmmusic #filmcomposer #productionmusic #librarymusic #syncmusic #orchestralproducing #realmusicians #recordingstudio #abbeyroad #schoolfarmstudios