MBP #185 Nicholas Yochum

Today we're joined by Nicholas Yochum, an LA based sound designer currently working at Blizzard on Overwatch, where he focuses on synthesized sounds to help create effects with a more clean, stylized aesthetic. He's on the heroes team and is currently working on new heroes for the game.

Nicholas and I actually go way back to like 2012 in Boston, so it's cool to finally catch up. We get into how he got into the industry — starting out at a third party audio company called Hexany, which he describes as kind of like sound design boot camp, and eventually landing a senior sound designer role at Blizzard, which even he still seems a little surprised about.

We talk about what stylized sound design actually means — why game audio has been pulling more and more from the electronic music world, and how listening to stuff like Noisia is basically research at this point. We also get into the difference between working at a third party studio versus being embedded on a game team, and why that sense of ownership and connection to the work ended up mattering a lot to him.

Hope you enjoy it. Please welcome Nicholas Yochum.

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