Audio Introduction: Cyborg Cal

An immersive, experiential, creative expression of my audio production skills; an introduction to me.

Headphones recommended. Or crank it up.

I Edit, Mix, and Score this podcast.
I helped to produce its launch, consulted on equipment and recording, coached and continue to coach the host and any guests, and composed, recorded, and produced the original theme music and any scoring throughout each episode.
Differentiated with Ben Silverman is a podcast from Verity, a company that provides integrated solutions for financial asset managers. Hosted by Ben Silverman.

I produced this podcast from the ground up for The Krinsky Company and continue to produce it today.

Recording, engineering, editing, mixing, mastering, original theme song composition and production, all scoring.

Below you’ll find a trailer, theme song, an excerpt, and a score transition/bed.

Believe it or not, this podcast is recorded remotely. :) It can be done! It can still sound good!

Download my PDF resume, here.

More Production Clips

A 2020 Original Podcast

All production, recording, editing, mixing, mastering, writing, etcetera.

All music and scoring is original.

Episode 3 - Practical Blasphemy

Episode 3 of my podcast, irRegular People, is an interview with LJT, author of the fictionalized memoir Practical Blasphemy. L suffers from BiPolar2 with psychosis. The book is about her suicidal act and subsequent treatment at a psych ward.

I interviewed L for three and half hours. It was an erratic conversation; but by keeping meticulous notes, I was able to continue to lead us back to the subject matter I knew I wanted to hear, while letting her go off on very fruitful tangents. I believe this technique lets the interviewee get more comfortable, which leads to more open discussion.

I managed to cut this long and erratic interview down into a powerful 1 hour and 13 minute episode. I developed some new techniques while working on this piece, such as a system of color-coding audio regions by subject matter. In this way, I was able to visually see the content I had to work with and re-organize the conversation into a more cohesive piece. Often you have to build your own story arc out of the material you have. This new technique truly helped.

As usual, the episode is scored with my own original music. A new technique with music was used here, as well. After I edited the dialogue into the flow that I wanted, I took some piano themes I was working on and used them to heighten certain moments in our talk. I do this a lot with my work. However, with this episode, I played the music live, to the conversation. It was almost like scoring a film. I let the words guide me, and played the piano in conversation with L’s words.

I’m very proud of this episode, both for my production and scoring work and for the open and honest dialogue we achieved on a very difficult subject. Suicide is hard to talk about - and it takes sensitivity, honesty, respect, research, and empathy to produce a piece about it.

Episode 5 - Robert and Rudolph

Despite popular belief, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer is not some ancient fairy tale passed down along with Santa Claus. The story was written by Robert L. May in 1939. At the time, Robert was a copywriter at Montgomery Ward in Chicago.

To tell this story, I interviewed two of the author’s children, Martha and Chris. Both interviews were conducted over the phone, but separately.

For this one, I was on a tight deadline. I needed to get this episode out before Christmas, but was unable to speak with either guest until the week of the holiday. I cut this piece in less than 48-hours, including writing and recording a 9-minute orchestral piece to accompany the dialogue.

Sometimes you need to make quick decisions and trust your gut. I’m proud of the quality of work done in a short amount of time and my ability to take two separate interviews and make them feel connected - almost as if done together at one time, in the same room.

Episode 4 - No Laughing Matter

I believe that more people should trust the experts. Much of the population is eager to believe lies spread on social media and elsewhere. Our inability to use the same set of facts has been a major concern of mine for awhile now; and now we’re seeing the dire consequences.

Still, I know that some people need to hear from their neighbor to truly feel a connection to an issue. Frustrated with the amount of people - liberal, conservative, young, old - that were not taking Covid-19 seriously, I decided to interview a friend of mine who had contracted and survived the virus.

The goal of this episode was to remind listeners how easily one mistake could result in Covid disaster, that all it takes is one slip-up. I wanted to dramatize it a bit and tell the story of someone who had been very careful, but let their guard down one time. I used sound-design to heighten the drama, while still letting the guest shine.

Another way to increase drama and further highlight the guest is to use internal edits. In my work, I often cut out rambling, stumbles, “ums” and “uhs.” This can help to keep an audio piece moving, tight, and effective. I don’t cut out every stumble, mind you; conversation must also feel natural and organic. It’s a delicate give-and-take and I pride myself on my ability to know when it’s best to leave the dialogue “as is” and when to enhance it by cutting. The editor has the ability to make the conversationalists sound better or worse; I believe in the former.

In the end, however, everything is done for the listener. So my choices are always made with that in mind: how does this effect the listening experience?

This episode was fun to produce and, I believe, effective.

The Bite Size Podcast is a scripted, “psycho-educaitonal mini-podcast series” which aims to educate hospitality workers about mental health issues. It comes from the Chicago non-profit Support Staff.

I was hired on to create the original theme song and to edit and produce the episodes. Each episode is fully scored with original music. Most of this is done remotely: They send me the narration recordings, I shine them up, edit them, and then score and mix the episode. The voices on the first two episodes were all recorded on iPhones. By Episode 3 - “Stress Pt. 1”, the readers were able to record on the microphones I had recommended they purchase. For the Spanish-version of the episode, I had the narrator record in my home studio.

2020. Phone calls. Long walks and long talks.

Sometimes, when creating a piece, I like to simply jump and see what happens. I called three people: my sister, my mother, and my friend Wilam. My sister is a fellow voiceover artist so she has a nice microphone and closet-turned-booth at her home. I was happy to create something with one guest on mic. Creating podcasts throughout the pandemic meant all guest interviews have been conducted remotely over Skype, Zoom or Phone. I now use Riverside.fm exclusively for remote recordings and try to get my guests microphones.

I asked each of them one question: “how has the last year changed you?” But before asking that question, we just talked, like we always do.

Consequently, what you’ll hear in the piece is more than answers to that question; it’s a little peek into the lives and minds of three different people. It’s incredible what can be communicated by the human voice, even when we don’t know we’re doing it.

What I realized while making this is how much phone calls like these meant to me during the worst of the pandemic. We all have our lifelines, our anchors, our buoys. And it’s sort of ironic: I’ve spoken with my loved ones more over the last year than when we were able to see each other in person. A disaster that keeps us apart can also bring us closer together. Here’s to the phone call.

Music Production

All original music written, produced, mixed, and mastered by Calvin Marty

Track Listing:

1. Commissioned Podcast Theme Song: “Bite Size”

2. Instagram Fluffy Morning Song: “Little Light” | Piano and Vocals recorded live, in-studio

3. Commissioned Podcast Theme Song: “Please Hustle Responsibly Podcast”

4. “Rhodes Working”

5. Original Podcast scoring for “Bite Size”

6. Christmas Orchestral - Used for Podcast Score: “irRegular People” Podcast

7. Christmas Orchestral - Used for Podcast Score: “irRegular People” Podcast

8. Unreleased Synth-Pop: “Like Sunlight”

9. Unreleased Electronica