Ryan Jones

My job as Monitor Engineer for the CMT Awards Artist Rehearsals was to be in charge of all audio and backline. The rehearsal was held for every artist performing at the 2016 CMT Awards which included the biggest stars in country music and pop. I was to setup stage plots and instruments for every artist coming to rehearse. With little time between turnovers, I was programming wireless and customizing mixes for each specific artist. It was important to keep the artist working in a timely order to stay on schedule for the day.

The Mission Mars game at The Escape Game was created in a way that made players feel as if they had just crashed landed on a planet and had to repair the ship to get back home. As Sound Designer I created an environment that climaxed as the ship began to shake and fall violently onto an unknown planet. Because of the crash, a majority of the ship is in broken pieces. The sound design fell silent and eerie with nothing but electrical pops and sounds of machinery malfunctioning. As the game progresses, the ship becomes repaired, restoring life back into the sound design and creating an environment that resembled what was the inside of a spaceship traveling through space.

As Score Mixer for the Nashville Studio at The Escape Game, my responsibility was to make players feel as if they were in the room with a professional recording session happening. I built a 60-minute soundtrack that sounded like a song was being created from the ground up. The mix had to sound organic and respond to the sound design of musicians fiddling on instruments and producers instructing the talent on how to play.

The Nashville Studio game at The Escape Game was a room made to look like a recording studio. As Sound Designer the environment was made to sound like exactly that. While you play the game, you get to listen to a real-life recording session made to sound as if it were happening in the same room. There were sounds of musicians, producers, and tape machines continuously in the background. The game started out with "Take 1" of the song until the last take when you finally hear the full song completed, with layers of different instruments and musicians.

As Sound Mixer for the Gold Rush game at The Escape Game Nashville I was to create and mix three separate hour-long scores to add emotion and intensity to the game. Each of the three rooms that were part of the game had their own dedicated score or "theme." As you moved from one room to the next, the themes became more upbeat and intense to let you know that your time was running out.

As Sound Designer for the Gold Rush game at The Escape Game Nashville I was to create three separate hour-long soundscapes to help further immerse players in the artificial environments that surrounds them. The sceneries included an outdoor Alaska scene, a log cabin, and a coal mine complete with sounds of miners and carts racing overhead. The sound effects and impact of each had to be timed perfectly to work with the pace of the game.

As Backline Tech, my responsibility was to supply each artist with instruments to play during their set at the CMA Fest. The instruments and amps needed to be positioned properly to fit the backdrop of the performance. Instruments needed to be tested, working, and ready to be played. Backline was to be labeled and organized properly for smooth turn-overs and documentation.