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Audio Recording Engineer Position at SDI Media

Daniel J. (Danny) Stimac

daniel@bnprods.com

310.430.2226

I'm passionate about sound, recording, audio, music, and mixing, which makes me a perfect fit for SDI Media!

 

I'm excited about the Audio Recording Engineer position, and look forward to how it could utilize different aspects of my career path and my passion for sound.

Audio Engineer

I began dabbling in audio engineering for the first time when I was 12, helping to set up our church sound system. By age 13, my mentor let me experience what it was like to move the faders, and the rest is history. I recorded my first drum kit in 1995 and haven't stopped since, engineering studio projects from indie artists to major films. I gained experience in engineering, micing, designing and building studio acoustics, and signal processing. I've recorded narrators and voiceovers/ADR for a number of film productions and advertising campaigns.

Through this work I became proficient with Manley preamps, Focusrite, Apogee, a variety of mics (tube, multi-pattern, dynamic, condenser, etc.), a number of mixing consoles, Logic, Pro Tools and more.

Micing/recording Tribal Roots' drums 02
Micing/recording Tribal Roots' drums 03
Micing/recording Tribal Roots' drums 05

Recording sessions for Tribal Roots "Blue Myth"

Dos - Tribal Roots
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Run On - Tribal Roots
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Ish - Tribal Roots
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Micing/recordig woodwinds for A Date With Miss Fortune score 01

Engineering woodwind overdubs in my home studio for my score for "A Date With Miss Fortune"

Violated by Pottery Barn - Daniel J. Stimac
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Turning into One of Them - Daniel J. Stimac
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Self-engineered

Co-engineered with René de Vries

Audio Editor

I’ve been editing audio since my first studio job in Amsterdam (2003 - 2006), where I edited drums to fix timing issues and manipulated audio to create new arrangements. This was taken to a new level in my job with film score mixer Al Clay (Westside Pacific Studios, 2010-2012). My work ranged from cleaning up string takes and fixing timing issues from AIR Lyndhurst or Abbey Road recording sessions, conforming cues to latest picture, and making creative edits on the fly to accommodate changes in direction.

Through this work I gained advanced proficiency in Logic and Pro Tools and experience in Live and Reason. (I also mixed all tracks below.)

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A Logic session where I've edited the drums extensively

ProTools Editing Shot 01

A ProTools Session from Underworld 4...beginning to clean up audio

NFL - Making History - Daniel J. Stimac
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Track from the Logic session above

Running From The Truth - Daniel J. Stimac
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Example of drum programming / audio manipulation

Rixos Hotel Promo - Daniel J. Stimac & Alper Berksu
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Example of drum programming / arranging

Audio Mixer

I have over 20 years experience in mixing audio...10 years in my home church, 3 summers for a youth conference in England, 2 years in clubs, cafes, and a studio in Amsterdam, 2 years mixing in a studio and doing live sound for hotels in Turkey, 3 Goodbye Elliott tours in California and Texas (in venues such as The Roxy, The Knitting Factory, Key Club, The Troubadour, and others), and 8 years of mixing multiple projects in my studio. I also gained 2 years of audio mixing experience under Al Clay at Westside Pacific Studios on projects such as Total Recall (2012), X-Men: First Class, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. I also completely mixed music and audio for the feature film SPIT: The Story of a Caveman and a Chicken.

Through this I gained mixing proficiency with Logic and Protools, utilizing plugins such as Waves, SSL, and Sony Oxford. I also gained experience with a variety of consoles, including Digidesign, Euphonix, AVID, Yamaha, TASCAM, Midas, Crest Audio and more (for mixing both live sound and studio recording). 

Composed, produced and mixed score and soundtrack

Examples of mixing my own compositions

Mixed complete feature film, including dialogue, sfx, foley and score

Danny mixing at the Roxy

Mixing live sound at the Roxy, Sunset Strip

Mixing at The Knitting Factory Hollywood

Mixing live sound at The Knitting Factory, Hollywood

Field Recordist

My favorite field recording experience was recording chickens for the feature film SPIT: The Story of a Caveman and a Chicken. We needed a wide range of chicken sounds to express the emotions of the titular chicken. I’ve always loved recording sounds that I hear while I’m out and about to turn into instruments or foley.

I've recorded with a range of devices: Zoom, TASCAM, Sony, Roland, Fostex, a laptop and portable interface, etc.

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Chicken ADR - Daniel J. Stimac
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Preset & Kit Designer

I created 2 sampler instruments in EXS24 from drum kits that I recorded (examples below). I also designed a number of sci-fi synth instruments in Kontakt Player for a composer.

G.E. Drum Kit Sample - Daniel J. Stimac
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Goodbye Elliott drum kit

Kurtar Beni - Hakan Girit
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Paradise Studios, Turkey drum kit

Kaçamak Gece - Hakan Girit
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Paradise Studios, Turkey drum kit

Nerelerdeydin - Hakan Girit
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Paradise Studios, Turkey drum kit

Recording Musician

I’m from Hawaii, so ukulele has always been my main instrument. I've been publicly performing since I was a kid and continued to play for private events in L.A. I also play acoustic and electric guitar, and have played electric bass professionally as a touring musician in Turkey. I also sang lead and background vocals on my album and on tour with Turkish artist Hakan Girit. I'm also an amateur pianist and pick up any instrument I can get my hands on - strings, winds, brass, percussion. I always record myself on the songs and scores that I write or arrange.

Midnight Snack - Daniel J. Stimac
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Ukulele, mandolin, guitars, melodica

Burnout - Daniel J. Stimac
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Slide, acoustic, and electric guitars, bass, lead and background vocals

Neo Neo - Daniel J. Stimac
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Guitars, bass, lead and background vocals

Guaranteed Fresh - Daniel J. Stimac
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Melodica, guitars, ukulele, mandolin

Danny recordig guitar at Dufry Studios in 2006
Recordig in old factory in England
Danny on toy glock at Dufry
Instrument lineup for DWMF 02
Danny on drums in old factory in England

Recording in various studios and rooms over the years

Sound Designer

A sampling of my sound design experiences include:

  • Recording Amsterdam city noise/sound

  • Recording tools and items being dropped and hit in a tool shop, as well as a very cool sounding arc welder

  • Recording boxes of nails and screws being thrown/dropped on the ground (one of my favorite samples I recorded, which I’ve used to create beats in songs or as sfx in other projects)

  • Sound design for SPIT: The Story of a Caveman and a Chicken

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Recording city noise in Amsterdam

City Noise - Amsterdam - Daniel J. Stimac
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A Few Tool Room Samples - Daniel J. Stimac
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Life in the City - Daniel J. Stimac
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Some tool room samples used in a song of mine

Producer / Audio Content Creator

I began producing music in the late 90s and I still produce music regularly today. Please take a look at the links below for examples of my production work (as well as engineering and mixing):

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And A Couple More Things...

 

I was born and raised in Kona, Hawaii and lived there till I moved to Amsterdam at age 23. I've played music all my life, beginning on ukulele at age 4. I began to help set up the sound system at church when I was 12, and by age 15 I was co-head of the sound department.

 

Amsterdam was where I really began to learn the art of engineering and producing records. I also produced and recorded a few albums in Bodrum, Turkey, where I lived for a year and a half. I came to Los Angeles to further pursue music, particularly film music. I'm particularly a fan of John Williams' scores and Steven Spielberg's films.

I've dabbled in audio equipment repairs, mostly fixing cables or snakes or building new snakes, as well as doing some studio wiring. I've also done some minor Mac repairs and upgrades.

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A damaged snake which I rewired/soldiered

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A snake I built to run through the wall of Dufry Studios, Amsterdam

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Swapping a bad power supply on a Mac at Westside Pacific Studios in Pacific Palisades

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The Westside Pacific Studios setup was temporarily moved to Remote Control Productions in Santa Monica while Al Clay mixed and produced the score to X-Men: First Class. Once the project was finished, it was my task to rebuild his studio and get it up and running again at Westside Pacific.

Thank you for your consideration!

daniel@bnprods.com

310.430.2226

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