We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Libby Meredith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Libby, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

When people think of sound designers, they often may think of people who work on video games, movies, or tv shows. I have spent my career so far as a sound designer in some areas that may be less thought of: casino gaming, and higher education. My first job as a sound designer was with a small casino game company. Before this I had never really thought about making sounds for casino games as an option, but I was happy to have the work, and quickly found that creating sounds and music for casino games could be really fun. Each game had a different theme, which gave me the opportunity to create many different styles of sound and music. This job was not full time, since this was a small company, they could only afford to use me as a contractor, so after a couple of years I was interested in finding steady work. As sound designers, we know this is not always easy to find, but luckily for me, the university where I lived was looking for an audio professional to be part of a new media team. This media team would be creating content for online classes, and was made up of four specialists: video, audio, animation/illustration, and post production. This job was definitely a change, instead of creating sound and music for games, I was now mainly recording and editing spoken audio, sometimes this was done in the studio, but often it was done at different locations. I also had the responsibility of editing the podcast done by the president of the university. At the time, I did not have much experience with either location sound or podcast editing, but this job really pushed me to learn and expand my skills, which is always a great thing. After a couple of years in higher education, I started to miss creating sounds and music, and went looking for a job that would allow me to do that again. I found another opportunity in casino games, this time with a bigger company that could hire me full time, and this is where I’m currently working. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to have steady work as a sound designer over the past few years, even though it has come from some unexpected places. This is why I think it’s so important that sound designers keep an open mind about work possibilities, and the type of media they could be involved with.

Libby, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up with a musical background, my parents are both singers, and my dad was a music professor and working musician for most of my life. I took piano lessons and played saxophone as a kid, but my main musical pursuit was always singing. I sang a lot in church and in school choirs, and singing has continued to be a part of my life. I’ve been lucky enough to sing with artists such as Josh Groban, and Sarah Brightman, and with the traveling show Video Games Live. Sound design was not really something I knew about or thought about when I was young, but I was always drawn to unique sounds and music, and the amazing worlds they could help create. In college I pursued a degree totally unrelated to music. I enjoyed it, but after I graduated, I felt lost and unsure of what I wanted to do. My dad started talking to me about music technology, and seeing if I had any interest. He eventually started asking me to help him with little projects, and trained me on using relevant software, such as DAWS. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me, and I eventually went on to get a master’s degree in music technology, and began working as a sound designer. I have now worked in a couple different areas of sound design, and feel that these different experiences have really helped me improve my skills. I have experience with podcast editing, voice over performance and recording, creating sound and music for casino games, creating sound and music for commercials, audio recording and post production, and even location sound.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is creating something that resonates with other people. I love when people tell me my music made them nostalgic, or helped them relax, or brought out some kind of emotion in them. It’s really cool to think that you’re kind of transporting people to a different world briefly as they listen to your music. I also love being able to share my voice and ideas with people in a way that I normally wouldn’t.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

During my college years, I was pursuing a degree completely unrelated to music, exercise and sport science, and was interested in becoming a physical or occupational therapist. I enjoyed my classes, but by the time I graduated, I knew I was no longer interested in this career path. I missed creative work, and realized this was something I wanted to pursue. I had come from a musical background, and music had always brought me joy, but I had no interest in being a music teacher, which at the time seemed to me like the only real option for someone wanting to work with music. My dad, knowing I was struggling with finding a new career path, asked me to be part of a couple small projects he was working on at the time. He showed me how to use the required software, and this is what started me down the path of learning music technology, and becoming a sound designer. I’ve definitely had some struggles along the way, but I really feel like I found the right path for me, and I’m so glad I took the chance to pivot in my career.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libby_meredith/
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/libby-meredith-653a3470
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@libbymeredith7014/featured
• Other: SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/Q4dgT