Imaging Ireland, green beer and how you get more effective…

Round 2 with my boy Nick. It has been a while and I am thrilled to reconnect. Nick’s skill set has even evolved since he has been on last time and it is super interesting to see how his approach has changed, what his new role at Spin is and what his son and being a young dad has to do with this. Also learn why leaving at 6pm creates better creative results. Enter Nick!

1. What are your latest findings and new discoveries in Imaging Life?

The biggest thing I’ve implemented in my imaging life in the past 12 months is what I call, “sectional mastering” (I’m sure there’s a proper name for it and I’m sure this isn’t new to a lot of people). Basically I have a chain of busses that are the final place for each section in my session. So for example, a VO master, an FX master, a music master, etc. Then once I play with these, each of them are sent to an overall finalizer where I mix everything together and then finally to the Master. It sounds complicated and probably over the top but it’s made my work flow so much faster and helped me manage levels within my session better as well as giving me better cut through of everything in my sessions.

2. How does being a young dad change your work schedule and work life balance ?

Work/life balance is more important for me, now than ever! I want to spend time with my boy each night so it’s important that I make sure I leave work every day at 6pm no matter what. The way I look at it now is, that work will still be there tomorrow and I’ll probably have a clearer head anyway. I was always that guy staying back late to finish whatever I was working on and I often never wanted to disrupt the flow I was in. What I’ve found however, is the distance or break is often good for me for perspective and creativity. I’ve regularly walked out thinking about a piece I was working on and by the time I come back to it in the morning, I have a refined vision and maybe a better creative direction to take it. Most importantly though, knowing that I have to leave every day at 6pm makes me more motivated during my work day to get stuff done. When there’s no pressure to leave, I find I can procrastinate and I end up getting less done.

3. What has been your latest sources of inspiration?

Soundcloud! Man, I can’t get enough of it! I follow a bunch of imaging pages that repost imaging from around the world. I also follow specific people and companies. I love hearing how other people are tackling the same things I am or what creative angles producers are putting on the same old promos etc. It’s just great to get inspired.

4. Some new imaging pieces, favourite stuff the last months… Let’s hear it and tell us a bit about it?

We’re running our Beat The Bomb campaign across the station this month and I had to make a package with: Teasers, Pre Promos, Promos, Bombs, etc. I love creating cross station promos as I like finding a theme and creating that recall through out the campaign. My aim with this package was to make it as dramatic/theatrical/movie trailer-esk as possible.

Listen here: 

https://soundcloud.com/nick-karkazis-214524563/spin1038-beat-the-bomb-2019-campaign

One of my fave things to do is promos for our breakfast show. I love taking a moment from the show and just bringing it to life through sound design, music and effects. I’m fortunate that our brekky show is two fellas who are just hilarious and know how to have fun OnAir. I try to make that translate into promos each day and across the day to push people to listen.

Taken a listen to some of those promos here:

https://soundcloud.com/nick-karkazis-214524563/spin1038-breakfast-promos-apr-wk-2

5. Your favourite plug ins right now?

I’m a mad man for the Soundtoys bundle. Echoboy is great, I also regularly reach for Pan Man & Tremolator. As well as those, Lo-Fi, Metaflanger & Pitch ‘n’ Time are ones I reach for all the time lately. I also love Vocal Synth 2 for vocal texturing with and without tuning VO’s.

6. What would your dream studio look like?

My opinion on studios has changed so much in the last few years. I’m also the Assistant Program Director of Spin1038 so my role is quite diverse and I need to be approachable by all staff in the station as well as interact with everyone easily. So I don’t sit in a studio anymore. I sit at a pretty dope set up in the office and work on headphones. I have access to a studio if I want to hear things on speakers for mastering etc. Having said that, there are so many amazing looking studios out there. I’m a gadget guy. So the more bits and pieces the better. And cool lights! Haha! I’ve attached a pic of my set up.

7. The best advice you ever gotten professionally?

You don’t have to use every trick in the book on everything you produce. Less is more and clarity of message is king! I knew of this early on but would struggle to implement it as I just loved doing as much as I could.