Quick update from me before I leave on my next trip. I spent the second half of March in the United States, attending GDC and meeting numerous awesome people. I also managed to squeeze in a few days of recording in New York as detailed in my last blog post.

The main reason to go on this trip was attending Game Developers Conference, a yearly event taking place in San Francisco that attracts tens of thousands of professionals working in game development. I'd been meaning to attend GDC for many years, but never managed to make it happen. This time I got my tickets, booked my flights and arranged my accommodation way in advance so I wouldn't miss it.

The first week consisted of fighting serious jetlag, attending game audio talks, going to game audio parties and meeting wonderful people at GDC in SF. Although my D100 only got minimal use, field recording was a huge topic. I had the immense pleasure to meet a bunch of sound recordists (Andy Martin, Chris Trevino, Thomas Rex Beverly, the fine folks at Pole, Axel and David at Boom, Frank Bry, Chuck Russom, to name a few) and a lot of sound designers/composers/voice actors working in games.

Every morning there was an audio standup meeting at Sightglass Coffee on 7th Street. This is where my jetlag came in handy, as otherwise I would have probably slept in after full days and late nights. I have to specifically mention Damian Kastbauer and Anton Woldhek for organizing these meetings and for making it a very open and inclusive environment.

Besides attending the conference and meeting people, I also managed to explore San Francisco and its outskirts. I was surprised at how loud trains were compared to the ones in Europe, and I managed to record one. I even got to walk the Golden Gate bridge and to do a trail in Muir Woods in the company of Chris Trevino and Adriane Kuzminski. Overall it was a chaotic, exhausting but extremely enjoyable week.

Once the week was over I got onto a plane and flew to Dallas. Here I spent most of my time at Peoplefun, a game development studio I've been working with for about 5 years. Meeting everyone I'd been working with for so long and being there at the office was a very pleasant experience.

On top of this I got to hang out with another game developer I'd been working with and I also dropped by Rene Coronado's Dallas Audio Post. Overall I really enjoyed my stay in Dallas even if the weather was hot and muggy. Special thanks to Leon who was kind enough to host me and to show me the best places to eat and listen to live music downtown.

In a couple of days I'll be on the road again, so I'm busy making deciding what to take and packing gear. You can expect more written, audio and hopefully video content soon. Until then make sure you check out my latest free sounds and paid libraries!