Welcome to the Digital Playroom!
This site is about professional audio for broadcast, film, and multimedia. If you expected something else because of the domain name, too bad.
Site is maintained by Jay Rose: Clio and Emmy winning sound designer, industry journalist, Cinema Audio Society member, and former officer of the Audio Engineering Society. Here's why he bothers.
About the Digital Playroom
A professional audio post production facility in Boston
Capabilities info, photos, client list, streaming audio and video samples
Books about
sound for film and video
Sample content, critical and reader reviews, and links to discount sales for these two best-selling book/CD combos
Free video seminar on sound for film and video
Short, wise-guy answer: I have no competition.
Real answer: Payback time. I've had some great mentors along the way, and want to pass their gifts along. Laurence Holcolmb, former head of continuity at NBC and professor at Emerson College, taught me how every word -- and by extension, every tiny sound -- counts. Tony Schwartz, who practically invented the field of broadcast sound design, gave me tips and encouragement when I was starting out. Wavy Gravy -- you've got to know who he is -- taught me it's okay to be dangerous if you know who you are. And legendary Boston ad men John Dowd Jr and Ray Welch taught me how important it is to make a game out of your work... but don't trust anyone else to count the cards.
Besides, I'm not worried about competition. It forces me to keep trying new things.
Jay's books Producing Great Sound for Film and Video and Audio Postproduction for Film and Video are available at local book and computer stores, and doing great at the online book dealers.
Jay's most recent lecture was a two-hour presentation on technique differences between film and video sound, for the Boston Section of the Audio Engineering Society, February 2011. You can watch the whole thing — or as much as you can stand — here. There's a cartoon at the end.
Other moderately interesting lectures and seminars of Jay's were at multiple MacWorld expos, the December 2008 Meeting of the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group, The Camera Company's New England Expos in Boston, DV Expos in Los Angeles and New York, a keynote at the 2003 International Coinference on Auditory Display (repeated at a meeting of the Audio Engineering Society, Boston section, October 2003.
You can also hear him on DigitalProductionBuZZ episode of 7/19/05, the DV Guys radio show, episode of 11/7/02, on
MacShowLive, programs of 2/7, 3/11, and 8/8/01; and in podcasts (8/05 and 9/05) at Filmmakers Pod.
Articles about Jay from Imagine2000 News Magazine ; Journal of the Cinema Audio Society Fall 2003;
2005 Icon Film and Production Magazine article featuring Jay's use of surround; 2007 interview in Radio and Production Magazine. Really old back-cover ad about Jay from New England Ad Week
Jay is not related to Kay Rose, legendary film sound editor and recipient of a Career Achievement Award from MPSE. She's way ahead of him in every category except alphabetical.
With chapters so you don't have to watch all of it.
Courtesy Audio Engineering Society
The Audiobahn
Public database of ISDN dialup audio sites: Contact info for more than 700 North American voice-over actors, radio stations, and studios that have volunteered to be available for ad-hoc transfers. Lastest edition: Winter 2012.Tutorials and articles about audio
How-to's, charts, databases, index to Jay's columns in Digital Video; plus repair info on Burwen audio processors Funny stuff
Original articles and sound files about our field The AES Boston Section
Samples of various audio compression techniques
• Dr Barry Blesser's June '00 Speech about changing technologies
• Jay Rose's Feb '11 Presentation on film v video sound
• Boston section website (bostonaes.org)
Somebody asked me why I'm giving away the store. Why do I devote a web site, books, and online columns to teaching others how to use techniques that took me years to develop? Aren't I worried about competition?
He's a member of the Cinema Audio Society, past section officer of the Audio Engineering Society, programmed the broadcast presets in Eventide's Broadcast and Post Production effects, programmed modules and written users' manuals and brochures for the Orban DSE 7000FX and Audicy digital audio workstations. He's also written major documentation for Telos ZephyrExpress portable digital audio mixer/codec/ISDN TA, Telos Audioactive Production Studio MPEG encoding software, 25-Seven's full line of on-air broadcast time maniuplators, BE's AudioVAULT broadcast automation systems, Countryman professional microphones,
Digigram's Aztec Radiomedia line of sophisticated broadcast measurement equipment.
Photo: Jay creating sound for A&E, CBS, PBS, MGM, or other clients with classy initials. His hair is grayer now, and he uses a more modern DAW with dual LCD displays.
Jay Rose, CAS, is contributing editor and columnist for Digital Video Magazine, co-author of Everything You Wanted to Know about the Mac, contributor to Maclopedia, and writes short articles for IBM Marketplace, Videography and others.