Let’s Talk Post-Production Audio with Christa Giammattei

Hello World! Christa Giammattei is a post-production engineer in North Carolina. Christa also has an apparel store (https://command-s-apparel.com/) and runs a blog (https://command-s-apparel.com/blogs/command-s-stories-through-sound). Her post-production work includes (but is not limited to) dialogue editing, sound design, and mixing for broadcast, web, and film. She has worked on pieces for HBO, National Geographic and PBS. A list of highlights from her work can be fund on her website www.cgiammatteisound.com/. Christa also has an album on Spotify found here open.spotify.com/album/1rDTVWPTbQMl1ihsFMRO4U.

For Christa, music was her gateway into the world of audio. She was a classical percussionist for 13 years. We talked about the convoluted paths so many of us take to audio engineering. We also talked about perseverance, the impossible art of the segue, and the self-conscious act of researching your guests with Instagram and whatever else.

Also, Christa, like many people, thinks Izotope's RX (https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html) is the best tool ever! "I feel like it's magic." She says she's successfully used it to filter out sirens and helicopters from the audio she's worked on.

She also likes using plugins from Wavs and Plugin Alliance such as the Maag Audio EQ4 (https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/maag_eq4.html).

Tangela shares with Christa her journey from live sound to podcasting, and how that has been her introduction to the wide world of plugins and DAWs.

Next we talk about spending money on investments, the buyers' remorse that comes with that, and specifically the experience of buying a Mac.

From there we resume talking about Christa's journey into audio, and how she found freelance post-production.

We also talk about impostor syndrome, and experience with things like being featured on panel discussions for college students.

Unfortunately we experienced some noise interruption. There was some landscaping maintenance occurring at Christa's apartment complex. It provided some laughs to us as well as the opportunity to discuss the joys of home recording! Part of that discussion featured sound treatment, and peoples' varied ideas about DIY sound treatment. Christa particularly recommends Auralex (https://auralex.com/).

We returned to talking about Christa's blog, Command + S: Stories Through Sound. You can read her interview with Tangela here (https://command-s-apparel.com/blogs/command-s-stories-through-sound/stories-through-sound-tangela).

Christa shares with us that her motivation behind starting the blog was very similar to Tangela's motivation behind starting this podcast: the desire to highlight women and minorities in the audio industry.

We spent some time discussing Christa's interview with Madeline Brumback found here (https://command-s-apparel.com/blogs/command-s-stories-through-sound/stories-through-sound-madeline-brumback), and her interesting career as an audio engineer for the U.S. Army.

Tangela asked Christa about the blog's workflow, and is she a natural writer? Christa says she's naturally an introvert, and the writing seems to be an outlet of that.

The next big topic of discussion is on mentors. How did Christa Giammattei get a mentor? Her answer starts with: "This is like the worst answer ... This guy messaged me on LinkedIn..." lol (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christagiammattei)

So we talk about the value of mentroship, and also, that generally speaking people DO like to help! Also, how Christa levelled up her organization skills thanks to her mentor.

Naturally out of that arose discussion around the Free Work Dilemma. How do you balance sticking up for yourself with finding opportunities and connections? It's nuanced for sure! Christa did volunteer one absolute, "Definitely don't work outside your contract."

How Tangela found out she'd spent part of her career in Austin being underpaid. How do you know what to charge in the freelance world? Well guess what?! It's complicated. You have to take into account the scope of the work, the time involved, the client's resources, and even the geographical location of the client in relation to your own!

Of course from there we cover the Why and How of Increasing Your Rates.

Next up, Theatre Sound! and live sound engineering. Christa says for that business, "you have to be tough as nails and just amazing."

We also talk about contracts and Christa shares an anecdote when on really saved her in a situation.

So we revisit the Command + S Apparel store, and how Christa started it in early 2020 because the pandemic gave her new free time. That new free time has also caused Christa to up her game in Social Media. Tangela's learned a lot in that area since launching this podcast.

Tangela shares a theory that social media experts are the sound engineers of the marketing world. Everybody thinks they can do it themselves until they start to try it out, and go "damn, maybe I do need a professional"

So we talk about SEO, Taxes, and how beatsinabottle.com got built out in Wix. Tangela points out that Wordpress allows a lot more customization but how about that learning curve tho! From there we spend a moment thinking about early social media: MySpace, Tumblr, Xanga.

Tangela asked Christa about what kind of improvements in the business she was focusing on for this year.

And then we talk about Christa's experiences being on the receiving end of stereotypes as a woman in audio, and the perception of confidence and arrogance. Her worst experiences were while working retail for a store selling pro audio equipment.

Advice for women: don't get hot headed, be professional.

Advice for men working with women: call out bad behavior.

Finally, Christa likes to help people, feel free to reach out!

Reminder: LTA has a Discord server!

As usual you can find Tangela on her website where you can sign up for the Newsletter!