Gamemusicjobs

Description

John Tennant
j0hnt3nnant@gmail.com

778-835-9987

Brief
Audio Director, Technical Sound Designer, and Music Producer for video games. Specializing in pre-production, production, and finalling for all aspects of triple-A video games. Extensive experience with Unreal Engine 4, Audiokinetic Wwise, and FMOD; implementation pipeline development, end-to-end speech system design and production (including localization planning), interactive music system design and implementation.

Education
Bachelor of Arts: Major in English and a Minor in Philosophy; electives in Electroacoustic Music and Max/ MSP Programming,
 Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. (1995-2001)

Work History

Lead Audio Designer/Music Composer: Unannounced Project
Blackbird Interactive, Vancouver, BC, September 2018 – June 2020

Sound Design, Music Production, Post-Production, Pipeline Design, Implementation, Design Documentation, Successful Presentation and Pitch of Audio Aesthetic and Production Plan to Publisher and Creative Partners.

Lead Technical Sound Designer: Gears of War 4/Gears of War 5
The Coalition, Vancouver, BC, Jan. 2013 – August 2018

Unreal 4 Technical Audio Tools Blueprint Creation and Maintenance (Function Libraries), Project Triton Pre-computed Wave Acoustics Implementation Design, ‘Windflare’ Sound Design and Scripting, Python Scripting, Dolby Atmos and Dolby 7.1 Adaptive 3D audio systems design and integration into Wwise, Linear Sound design, Technical Implementation, Concept Prototyping, Design Pitching… etc.

Senior Audio Specialist: Unannounced Projects
Microsoft, Vancouver, BC, Nov. 2011 – Dec. 2012

Wwise systems integration into Unreal 3 and UE4, Sound design, Technical Implementation, Concept Prototyping, Team Presentations

Dialogue Specialist: Kinect Sports 2
Big Park, Vancouver, BC, June 2011 – Aug. 2011

Speech System Design using Wwise, Speech Implementation, Localization Implementation

Dialogue Specialist: Space Marine
Relic Entertainment, Vancouver, BC, Nov. 2010 – Dec. 2010

Speech Implementation using Wwise, Speech System Design

Audio Director: Kinect Adventures/Unannounced Projects
Smoking Gun Interactive, Vancouver, BC, March 2009 – Oct. 2010

Pre-Production, Sound design, Speech System Design, Music Direction, Music Implementation, Speech Implementation, Sound Implementation, VO Session planning, VO session direction.

Audio Director/Senior Audio Specialist: Unannounced/Cancelled Project
Pandemic Studios (Electronic Arts), Brisbane, Australia, June 2008 – Oct. 2008

Pre-production, staff planning, budgeting. Sound design, systems design, tools design, and pipeline design. Drafting technical design documents for programmers, game designers, and future audio team staff. Managing junior staff. Speech AI system design.

Audio Lead: Unannounced/Cancelled Project
Relic Entertainment, Vancouver, BC, Sept. 2007 – May 2008

Pre-production, staff planning, budgeting. Sound design, systems design, tools design, and pipeline design. Drafting technical design documents for programmers, game designers, and future audio team staff. Proving concepts in Max/ MSP.

Audio Lead: Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Relic Entertainment, Vancouver, BC, Sept. 2006 – Sept. 2007

Managing a team of 4 sound designers and 2 programmers, travelling to Berlin/Halifax/Los Angeles for speech record sessions, adaptive audio systems design and implementation, and tools design for the sequel to the highest-rated RTS of all time.

Senior Adaptive Music/Audio Implementation Specialist: Company of Heroes
Relic Entertainment, Vancouver, BC, Feb. 2006 – Sept. 2006

Music implementation, sound implementation, speech design and implementation, and sound design for the groundbreaking RTS: Company of Heroes. This game won 5 ‘best sound’ awards in 2006.

Remote Work Experience

Mars 2030: Technical Audio Designer
Source Sound, Los Angeles, CA, 2017

Unreal Engine 4 Blueprint Development, Function Libraries, General Audio Programming Tasks.

Mahjong Escape: Music Composition, Sound Design
Playtime Media, Vancouver, BC Dec. 2005 – Feb. 2006

Composition of 6 original soundtrack pieces, as well as a full complement of sound effects for an online PC casual game.

Marvel Nemesis: Music Interactivity Programming, Remixing, Editing, Engineering
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC June – July 2005

Designed and implemented an interactivity strategy for 12 complex orchestral pieces using Pathfinder and Logic.

SSX4: Sound Design
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC July 2005

Designed 12 unique multilayered textures and sounds to be integrated into the already existing sounds of SSX4.

Def Jam: Fight for NY: Music Interactivity Programming, Remixing, Editing, Engineering
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC Sept. 2003 – May 2004

Remixed, edited, and programmed 35 commercial hip-hop tracks into the game using Pathfinder and Logic. I used the instrumental and vocal stems of the tracks provided by the record label to create four levels of interchangeable musical intensity to correspond to game play variations. Consistently generating creative and musical remixes under very tight deadlines was a highlight of this project. This game scored the highest soundtrack reviews for any Electronic Arts game in 2004.

NHL 2005: Speech Editing/Cleaning
Electronic Arts/Black Box, Vancouver, BC Dec. 2003 – Feb. 2004

Regioned and named both stitched and non-stitched scripts including ‘seamless’ stitch editing (see NBA Live below) that was implemented for the first time in this release of EA’s NHL series.

James Bond – Everything or Nothing: Speech Cleaning, Leveling and Limiting
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC Aug. 2003 – Sept. 2003

Cleaned, leveled, and limited speech for the English, French, and Japanese versions of this release. Exceeding EA’s exceptionally high standards for this game was an enjoyable challenge I had not encountered in other games.

NHL 2004: Speech Mastering/Leveling/Re-sculpting
Electronic Arts/Black Box, Vancouver, BC July 2003

Levelled, EQed, compressed and limited all commentary for the game. The primary challenge was to balance speech that was recorded for previous versions of the NHL series by different engineers spanning several years with different microphones, pre-amps, and compressors. I used a combination of Waves C4, L1, Q4, and PSP Vintage Warmer to correct this problem.

NBA Live: Advanced Speech Stitching/Editing/Cleaning
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC April 2003 – Aug. 2003

Pioneered a means of seamlessly stitching commentary to deliver a more engaging and realistic gaming experience. Challenges included advanced administration skills, precise audio editing, and 100% accuracy under tight deadlines.

NHL 2004: Speech Editing/Cleaning
Electronic Arts/Black Box, Vancouver, BC Feb. 2003 – May 2003

Regioned and named both stitched and non-stitched scripts with short turn-around times over the course of several months.

Def Jam: Vendetta: Music Engineering and Programming
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC Oct. 2002 –Jan. 2003

Reverse engineered the base elements of 15 Def Jam Records tracks to enable remixing for the game using Logic. Programmed the music into the game engine while maintaining the lowest possible file sizes and ensured seamless looping using Pathfinder. Time-stretched scratches and fills were added to best fit the mood of each of the tracks so that these could be used as one-time, game-play triggered musical events to make the music more interactive.

Music Performance and Production
Since 2001, I’ve been performing live electronic music shows throughout Western Canada. I’ve signed vinyl EP release deals with Vancouver’s Village Sound, New York’s Rhythmic Recordings, and the Paris label Telegraph. Under my project “Knautic” I’ve released four EPs with East Van Digital and done one self-released EP.

Additional Skills
Max/MSP (MIDI/Audio object-oriented programming), Logic Studio, Wavlab 6, (many other audio-related apps), Ableton Live, 12 years of music theory training, Excel, Word, FileMaker Pro, excellent written and oral communication skills.

Interests
Rock Climbing, Running, Ski-Mountaineering, Traveling, Wing Chun Kung Fu