the method ear.
Steve Dobias
I love helping people and have a passion for audio.
I’ve recorded in some of the finest studios in the country and worked with award winning producers and talent.
What I also experienced was battles of egos. Endless revision. Budget overruns. Producers and engineers who are just punching the clock and making things sound “good” instead of understanding what your project needs.
Studios today don’t work like they used to – allowing people to take months to find the heart and soul of their work without worrying about time.
Budgets aren’t the same as they used to be. Studios are closing left and right. We recognize the needs of the current paradigm but aren’t willing to compromise on the quality of our end result.
Our process is designed to help you find a “soft residency” that accomplishes the goals of the old studio system in the contemporary world. You’ll get all the benefit of surfacing the identity of your work but finishing it efficiently.
We give you an engineer that wants to be patient, and a producer that wants to push boundaries in the search of greatness.
The result: sound that communicates the rawest, most honest, and most transparent expression of what makes us human.
The belief that sound is the least filtered form of communication inspired me to teach myself audio production, starting a lifelong journey of shaping sonics into experience.
As a kid I was entranced when I came across surround sound systems. To be completely enveloped in a sonic world was captivating and moving. Every hit of the sub, every whoosh as something flew by me from the front to the back of the sound field felt like magic. Growing up I was also in the school bands, learning trumpet and how to use the language of music to express profound emotion in abstracted form.
When my family bought a computer from Gateway, I wasted little time using it to get into audio. I picked up a basic stereo audio editor called Cool Edit 96 and started changing recorded audio to sound the way I wanted. That quickly turned into editing music. Then recording myself to make basic songs. Learning Cakewalk to collaborate with bandmates. Going on tour. Interning with Jim Reeves, who worked on records for Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, and John Cale, among many others. Then going back to school to learn the fundamentals of designing audio for interactive media.
In spite of that, I was always torn between my passion for sound and the desire to build a safer, more predictable life working in health care. I have a passion for helping people and worked both in social work and primary care. Every time, though, my connection to the work – and my collaborators – inevitably pulled me back in.
I’ve indexed heavily on discovering the soul of a project before hitting play, streamlining process to remove friction, and focusing on what is emotionally resonant instead of technically interesting.
My goal is to help you craft a project that moves people, inspires them, and find shared purpose and connection. In my opinion, high-quality sound is the best way to do just that.
Our Craft
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Moments of Emotional Truth, Honestly Observed and Documented
based in Evanston, IL. serving the globe.