Sound engineer and audio lecturer, James Chang from SAE Adelaide shared his top tips for working in the creative industry and his predictions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) being the future of audio.

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea in your creative work practice.

As a teenager, I played and listened to a lot of punk and grunge music. At that time, I considered myself an enemy of pop music.

During the early stages of my professional career as a sound engineer, I carried this bias against pop music. It was only later on when I really started to objectively dissect all types of music that I gained a real appreciation of pop, both technically and creatively. This change of mindset opened the door for me to expand my repertoire as an engineer and music producer.

Top 3 attributes for creative industry professionals.

• Collaboration – Willingness to collaborate.
• Openness – to learning new things.
• Drive – to always improve.

Name an emerging use of technology in the creative industries and why it’s a game-changer.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a real game changer in the audio industry. We have already started to see the use of AI in areas such as noise reduction, pitch correction and mastering. As time moves on, I think we will see AI used more in the audio industry, making it easier for artists to turn their creative ideas into a reality.

Who inspires you?

Sylvia Massy is a music producer and sound engineer from the United States.

She has worked with many great artists including Tool, System of a Down and Cog.

I found Massy’s adventurous approach to recording to be extremely refreshing and often reminds me to try and make the recording process as memorable and fun as possible.

Anything else?

A career in the creative industries is extremely rewarding knowing that what you are doing is contributing to the current culture of the globe, and enriching the lives of the people who engage with your work.