Posted: April 29th, 2023 | Author:Nathan | Filed under:news
It’s 2023, and I’ve not posted here in four years. Let’s talk about what’s been happening, why I’m restarting this blog – my first post was July 4th, 2009! – and what’s next.
Game Audio and Sound Design
On the sound design side, I’m focusing on interactive audio, primarily working through Skywalker Sound. Through SkySound, Team Audio, and my own freelance work, I’ve designed and implemented audio for The Callisto Protocol, Pentiment, SCP: Fragmented Minds, and more (and much more coming soon) in the last two years. It’s a logical next step after having created sound for interactive installations, consumer electronics prototypes, and other non-game software since 2005. And I’m having a blast.
This is my sixth year of being a professional mastering engineer at my own studio, Obsidian Sound. To balancing this work with all the game audio projects I’m doing, Obsidian Sound in increasingly focused on mastering for professional composers in games and film. I’ve mastered over 500 projects at this stage…it continues to be a blast and I learn something new on every project.
Music
My own musical practice continues to be a vital means of self-expression for me. A compulsion, at times. As of this blog post, I have released 26 EPs and full-length albums since 2015, most of which are available at nathanmoody.bandcamp.com. I continue my exploration of both organic and electronic sounds and a variety of composition methods, and there’s no sign of this slowing down. Some exciting new releases are coming up soon.
Restarting This Blog
My audio practice has changed so much that it’s time to start re-documenting my experiences, ideas, thoughts, and philosophies in a longer form than current forms of social media will allow. Blogs aren’t as popular as they once were, but screw it. I’m a creature of habit. And it’s my sandbox; no service can dictate how or when I share content here, and I vehemently feel that it should always be free of change.
What’s Next
It’s my hope to continue to post articles, ideas, and thoughts that showcase the truest breadth of my interests, and which underscore my philosophy that the borders between audio disciplines are far more porous than most are led to believe. Art, music, equipment, field recording, sound design, experiments that both succeed and fail…this will continue to be a space not to showcase myself as any sort of expert. As always, I am just documenting my journey, with its missteps and its wins.
If this post reaches anyone, I hope you’ll rejoin me on my lifelong quest to explore the realm of sound in all of its forms.
Since my last blog post, something fairly unusual happened: I became a full-time audio professional.
I’m a freelancer now, and since 2017, I’ve decided to follow my passion – sound – to the best of my ability. Here’s what happened.
First, I fell into becoming a mastering engineer, and opened my own practice called Obsidian Sound. Having leapt back into music in 2014, I’ve realized that this discipline suited me well: fast project turnover, tough critical thinking, attention to detail, and being able to help guide musicians’ craft and creative development in a post-label era. I’m closing in on my 100th mastering project soon, and I’ve loved every second of it.
Second, I’ve started releasing my own sound libraries. With the help of A Sound Effect, I’ve created two such libraries that blend my loves of music and pure sound, which still convey a lot of the dark themes I express in my albums, but oriented towards use in film and games.
Third, I’ve been doing sound design and audio editing for podcasts and video. There’s a whole new part of this site dedicated to that work. Heck, I’m even learning Wwise.
Fourth and finally, I continue to release 3-4 full length albums a year. I’ve played live in the SF Bay Area, Salt Lake City, and across Germany. I also have been commissioned to write a video game theme as well as a documentary score. The former will be announced in a month, and the latter will probably still be years in the making. More on both as I’m able to disclose details.
This site has been online for ten years, and I’ll do my best to update it as these varied explorations of audio develop. It’s not yet lucrative, but I’ve not been this creatively fulfilled in a long time. I must thank everyone who has supported this ongoing journey into the world of sound over the years, including the kind words, the tough criticisms, the countless conversations, inspirations, and transfers of knowledge.
If your interest in sound and audio is as broad as mine, then let’s keep this train moving. (And, realizing that this is a complete career reboot, reach out if you need my services on any of your projects.) Onward!
The second in a trilogy of albums, Nathan Moody’s Drifter LP is now available as a digital download (Bandcamp, iTunes, and Amazon) and a limited edition of 100 signed and numbered compact discs.
Drifter is a more ethereal journey than his last album, Dissolver, with fewer beats but Moody’s signature balance between sound design and music. This makes it even more cinematic in mood. Its compositions are looser, often based on improvisations with field recordings, synthesizers, and guitar.
Following 2015’s full-length album, Dissolver, I’m happy to announce the release of Dissolved, an EP with remixes by musicians from around the world. The US is represented by A Box in the Sea (WA), The Sight Below (NY), and r beny (CA); other contributors include The Heartwood Institute (aka Jonathan Sharp, UK), Hainbach (DE), and Fake Empire (NZ). The remixers’ techniques were as varied as their locations, from DAW-based arrangements to use of vintage hardware to recordings using dictaphones. The pieces exhibit a similar range of moods and styles as the original Dissolver LP, from lilting to tense, ambient to percussive, experimental to melodic.
Posted: October 29th, 2015 | Author:Nathan | Filed under:music, news
Just a quick announcement that my latest album, Dissolver, is now available as a limited-edition CD, hand-signed, hand-numbered, with an exclusive limited edition sticker. This run of 100 won’t last long, and when it’s gone, that’s it.
Paul Virostek of Creative Field Recording, focuses more on approach and technique than equipment, which I think is entirely appropriate. It’s all too easy to get caught in the vortex of gear over doing creative and innovative things with it.
However, it’s always interesting to know what people do use, and why, and what informed their decisions in doing so. To that end, Paul is in the midst of “A Month of Field Recording,†and yours truly was the latest to be profiled, among such field recordist luminaries as Frank Bry, Watson Wu, and many others.
I’m deeply humbled to have been asked to contribute to this series, and thank Paul for the opportunity. What’s more, I also need to thank the online recordist and sound design community, without whom I’d basically know nothing.  More than half of those being profiled by Paul this month are people who have exhibited nothing but excitement and patience in fielding my questions to them about gear, practice, and theory.
I’m thrilled to announce that the first album I’ve released under my own name, Dissolver, has been released. It is available now as a digital download on Bandcamp (with PDF booklet with additional artwork and liner notes, exclusively available on Bandcamp). You can also buy it as a digital album on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.
Posted: August 31st, 2015 | Author:Nathan | Filed under:music, news
Today, I’ve got two exciting announcements to share!
First, there is a new subdomain and site that tracks my musical output: music.noisejockey.net. This blog will remain focused on sound design, audio technique, and field recording, whether the final output or usage is musical or not.
I’ll be the field recordist for the second Aeolian Day, put on by Thingamajigs, at Jack London Square, Oakland, California! The event is Sunday, May 31, 11am-4pm, and coincides with the weekly farmer’s market there. You can help the local art scene – which has been locally challenged by gentrification and rising Bay Area rents – and fill your face with awesome Bay Area eats!
Come check out a whole day of wind-driven art, and the sounds that they make! And if you see the guy with the boom pole, please do say hi…just, please, not while I’m rolling… :-D
Thingamajigs will be doing fun stuff with the audio and video, too, so keep an eye on their website for more!
This blog is nearly six years old, and it’s time for a facelift!
You might notice that there is a new logo in the header of the website, and a few new fonts. Thanks to the design machinations of GergWerk, Noise Jockey now has a new visual identity and design system. Many thanks to Gerg and his hard werk…especially given that his client, your humble author, is a picky designer himself.
Expect a few visual tweaks over the next few weeks as the new identity works its way more fully into the website and other channels, like my Twitter and Soundcloud accounts.
In honor of the first visual change here since launch, I figured I’d post a little ditty that referred back to my first post, back in 2009: A short piece done on the Casio Magic Sound Dial SA-40 toy keyboard. It was multi-tracked, miked with Ye Olde Shure SM57, and run through a Red Panda Particle pedal as well as a few plug-in effects.
