Sound Designer
Jack Menhorn is Sound Designer for video games. Also Editor in Chief at DesigningSound.org and a panelist on Game Audio Hour
New album in 2025! This is the eighth year of my ORA HEAVY INDUSTRY project. Please take a listen and check out each track for a small text description which helps fill out the history and lore of ORA HEAVY INDUSTRY.
Pile of working PC parts with a BIO visible on monitor.
10 years ago today I put together a PC for the first time. Why is that so special? Because it helped me be the person in the right place at the right time.
On a whim I decided to take advantage of Black Friday deals and build a PC. At the time I was freelance and working on a Mac Pro. I thought to myself: "well I better build a decent PC in case I get a client where I need to use Windows for their tools."
I built myself a "bargain" PC rig out of some aging AMD hardware. And then not a month and a half later I was working on a AAA game using Unreal which required a PC! By the time that gig was finished I was a FTE Senior Sound Designer with a boatload of experience and some lifelong friendships. I may not have even gotten that initial contract gig if I didn't have a machine capable of running UE4.
"Right place, right time" is common when it comes to employment advice in the games industry. What advice I think is required to go with that is: "being prepared for right place, right time".
What does that mean? Preparation: Having the right tools, the proper skills, experience, knowledge, etc so when an opportunity pops up; you are the right person, in that place, right at the time you are needed.
It isn't always that easy I know. Ive also been in the place, at the time, but wasnt viewed as quite "right". Or I wasn't in the right place at the right time. There will always be near misses or "what could have been" that can eat at you if you let it. I try to focus on what I can do to always be prepared, be it in skills, tech, knowledge, what have you.
So what I'm saying I guess is building PCs is rad so use this post to justify the purchase.
Watch out. Im coming for your scripts!
Heres a video I put together showing off my DIY isobox.
-This is version3. I plan on keep iterating as my needs become clearer
-My preference would actually be to have my entire PC in a different room and route cabling/IO into my office. However my home is small and I dont actually have any other place to put the machine!
-This is all very quick and easy to do. Fans, fan controller, duct tape, and a razor knife is all you need for the box (as well as the cooler itself). And the vent hose needs are still just a razor knife, hose, and duct tape.
-I’d love more “permanent” fixtures instead of ducttape but these don’t seem to really exist in the places im looking at. Duct tape in some ways is preferred because affixing a fan to a surface with the tape does not transfer as much vibrations as screws or other options may.
Been a minute.
I’m now Senior Sound Designer at Undead Labs! https://undeadlabs.com/
I bought a condo in Monroe, WA!
