Do audio programmers really exist? What do they do? Can I do those things too?

In this high-level talk, Ethan Fenn will probe the answers to these questions. We'll look at examples of the broad range of problems audio programmers solve. There will also be some practical tips for working with programmers, and some ways to approach learning to code and becoming more well-rounded in the craft of game audio.

Ethan Fenn has been in the game industry since 2004, doing a range of jobs with "programmer" and "audio" in the name. He was an audio programmer at Harmonix in the days of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Rock Band. Afterwards he was part of the initial three-person team at Fire Hose Games, an independent game developer in Cambridge that will be ten years old this summer. At Fire Hose, in addition to wide-ranging general programming responsibilities, he was the audio lead, doing composition and sound design for Fire Hose's games. Ethan's latest venture is the audio software company Polyspectral, which will soon be releasing its first product, a multiband compressor plugin for Wwise.