Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Maize! I'm a Melbourne based composer, sound designer, and audio programmer. My focus is in 3D spatialised audio, and dynamic music, using cutting edge techniques.
Lately I've been really in love with being the middle person, when it comes to implementing a composer's audio. Developers often fall in love with someone's music, but that someone might not have ever worked on a game! So, I've been the one that helps the composer understand the dynamics of games, and together we design systems to help bring the FULL POWERS of music and games together. I do continue to do lots of composition and audio too!
I've recently been appointed to the Widget board of directors, representing the field of audio in videogames, and also drawing on my non-binary community.
I've also been making an educational gardening game, about seasons and produce in Victoria. It's been combining my passions for tech, teaching, facilitating, and food.
What hardware do you use?
Oooooof. Compared to devs, musicians don't have it easy. We use a LOT.
My latest piece of kit is my Shamisen. I also use lots of little instruments, but my main instrument is the guitar. I also use a lil Zoom H4n.
My laptop is an MSI Stealth Pro, 15", with a GeForce 1070. I recently got a Samsung Odyssey, which I'll be using as my main VR setup from now on. It's suuuper great. I used to use the Vive, but this is so much more portable, and quick to set up!
My main headphones now are the Bose QC 25's. They're SUPER good on the plane, but even great at when I have to work at the office.
I work from home most of the time, and there I have my Yamaha HS50's. I have five of them, and the 10w sub as well. But I don't work in surround sound any more, so I mostly only use a stereo setup, and I put the extra speakers by the projector to watch epic nature documentaries with.
I use a little Focusrite 2i2 as my audio interface. I also have a MOTU 8/8 around, but I only use that for live art stuff and surround sound that I used to do. It annoys me so much that I had to buy a new 2/2 interface, because my old one was totally fine, they just stopped making drivers Windows 10, and I had to change this piece of code every time Windows updated, which is like, every day.
I also have a few MIDI controllers. I've always been really focused on being very portable, so my favourite setup is to have my Roli Seaboard Block, and my Launchpad Mini, with my laptop. But I'm pretty good at not using any instruments and just composing from laptop.
And what software?
Ableton, Izotope RX, Reaper, Unity, Wwise (in that order.) Oh and Excel, and Google Docs. Spreadsheets run my life.
What would be your dream setup?
My dream setup is a totally AR office, so that I can sit under a tree and type onto the grass. It's getting there. Cortana is getting really great at text dictation.
I really want to live in a tree house, with super fast internet, and drones delivering my groceries. I'd live quite a hermit peaceful life.
I'd also like to move to Mars. For similar isolation reasons really! I absolutely adore the times I've done longer artist residencies in countries where I don't speak the language, and had time to make art.