Jim Diaz

Senior Sound Designer for Interactive and Linear Media

General duties: Sound Design, Music Editing/Creation/Composition and Audio Post Production. Create and deliver high quality sound effects and music. Engineering, recording and editing primarily in a ProTools environment, but also editing in Sound Forge and Amadeus Pro. Balance time and resource constraints. Coordinate workflow with project teams to specify sound effects needs. Implement audio assets using audio implementation tools (Audiokinetic Wwise, SCREAM, F-Mod Studio) and version tracking software (Perforce, Git, Shotgun). Ensure proper balance among music, dialogue and sound effects. Audio Mix for Broadcast/Streaming Standard when necessary. Coordinate the processing of audio material on projects. Participate in operations as needed (equipment needs, purchase orders and setup, troubleshooting, archiving sound effects, network and database maintenance, engineering recording sessions, etc). Interact with software and hardware vendors. Trade shows. Business travel and heavy overtime when needed.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Over 1 Dozen Million Sale Game Titles worked (at least 1 Million Units Sold)

Over 60 Million Total Game Title units sold valued over $3.5 Billion Dollars in revenue

Top Games:

     Last of Us II (10,000,000 units sold)

        Cinematic Localization Mixing and some Cinematic Sound Design

        Employer: Formosa Interactive, remote Contractor

     Days Gone (9,000,000 units sold)

         Weapons & General Sound Design, Animation Tagging, Cinematic SFX and Mixing

         Employer: Sony PlayStation

     LEGO Star Wars II: The OriginalTrilogy (7,000,000 units sold)

          Audio Lead (team of 9), Sound Design, Voice Direction and Recording, Cinematic SFX and Mix

Employer: LucasArts

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA  2024

GAME AUDIO INSTRUCTOR

Instruction for Sound Design, FMOD Studio, Unreal, Unity, Wwise

Walt Disney Publishing Worldwide, Glendale, CA    2023-2024

SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER

Remote contractor/freelancer.

Spatial Inc, Emeryville, CA   2020 – 2022

SOUND DESIGNER, SENIOR LEVEL

NC Soft, Iron Tiger Studio, San Mateo, CA   2018 – 2019

SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER

Electronic Arts, Redwood City, CA   2017 – 2018

SENIOR AUDIO ARTIST

Sony PlayStation, San Mateo, CA   2015 – 2017

SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER

On site contractor.

Walt Disney Company, Palo Alto, CA/Glendale, CA    2014 – 2015

(Disney Consumer Products, Disney Interactive)

SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER

Remote/On site contractor.

Zynga, San Francisco, CA   2012 – 2014

SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER, MUSIC & VOICE EDITOR, SOUND ENGINEER

On site/Remote contractor.

Jim Diaz Audio, Concord, CA   2011 – Present

OWNER, SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER, COMPOSER

For contract hire

Accomplishments:

Studio opened January 2011

Clients include Sony PlayStation, The Walt Disney Company, Acme Spots/Bruce Hamady Productions (EMC, Kaiser Premanente, Intuit), Zynga, Trion Worlds (Developers of MMOs “Defiance,” “Rift” and “End of Nations”), Electronic Arts/Perceptive Sound, 6 Wave/lolapps, domestic and international recording artists

SEGA Studios, San Francisco, CA   2008 – 2010

(Formerly Secret Level)

SENIOR SOUND DESIGNER, MUSIC & VOICE EDITOR, SOUND ENGINEER

Accomplishments:

Built entire Sega Studios sound library from scratch and instituted use of audio library software Soundminer.

Instituted and contributed to oversight of Isolated Voice Booth, Control Room and 2 Edit Suites construction on site, including evaluation of hardware/software and connectivity needs, installation of all audio equipment.

Cinematics and Game Audio designer for Golden Axe: Beast Rider project.

Led several field-recording excursions.

Senior Sound Designer for Iron Man 2 project.

Underground Development, An Activision Studio, Foster City, CA   2007 – 2008

(Formerly Activision Foster City, Z-Axis)

SENIOR AUDIO DESIGNER, MUSICIAN, MUSIC/VOICE EDITOR, SOUND ENGINEER

Accomplishments:

Recruited aggressively by Activision to work on Drum Hero project.

Performed multiple instruments on sound alike recordings for Drum Hero game prototype, mixed at Skywalker Sound.

Contributed to design of drum controller hardware, retained for use in current Guitar Hero franchise drum controller.

LucasArts, A LucasFilm Ltd. Company, San Francisco, CA   1999 – 2007

AUDIO LEAD, SOUND DESIGNER, SOUND LIBRARIAN, MUSIC/VOICE EDITOR, RECORDING ENGINEER, MUSICIAN

Accomplishments:

One of only two internal hires into LucasArts Sound from QA in company history.

Rebuilt entire LucasArts sound library from scratch and instituted use of new audio library software NetMix, participating in several field-recording sessions.

Created over 50% of audio assets for Armed & Dangerous, first title as Sound Designer.

Contributed to several multi-million unit selling titles including the Star Wars: Battlefront series, LEGO Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (as Audio Lead, managing a team of up to 9), and Star Wars: Episode III.

Musician on Thrillville soundtrack, performed select songs at company events with other LucasArts sound staff and company president Jim Ward.

Contributed to oversight of installation of recording facilities at Letterman Digital Arts Center at the Presidio, San Francisco.

Provided audio support for Art, Animation and Design teams in creating proof of concept and pre-visualization projects for several titles including Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Recording engineer for first facial motion capture sessions at LucasFilm for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

COMPATIBILITY TECHNICIAN, ASSISTANT LEAD TESTER, QA TESTER

Play and test video game software for potential programming bugs. Suggest improvements for gameplay and interface. Test personal computer hardware for compatibility. Build and maintain personal computers. Monitor and maintain a database with other testers and programmers using FileMaker Pro. Create and follow test plans. Write project status and other reports. Assist Lead Testers with duties and team decisions. Act as liaison between Sound and Test departments. Provide information to Product Support. Train new hires. Meet deadlines. Business travel and heavy overtime when needed.

COMPUTER SKILLS

Platforms:

Apple Mac OS X, MS Windows.

Software:

ProTools HD/Ultimate, Logic Pro, Cubase, AmadeusPro, NetMix, SoundMiner, Wavelab, Sound Forge, Propllerheads Reason, Waves Audio Plugins, Native Instruments Komplete, Sony Scream Audio Tool, F-Mod Designer, Audiokinetic Wwise, Perforce, Unreal Engine, Unity Engine, Frostbite Engine, Da Vinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Flash, Avid Media Composer, MS Office, FilemakerPro.