Mark Bartels is a senior sound designer and engineer at Bruton Stroube Outpost. Bruton Stroube is a St. Louis-based studio that has been producing national work for over 40 years. Outpost is its post arm, offering editing, motion graphics, color grading, VFX and sound design.

Bartels is a musician at heart who also happens to have a degree in music business. He started as an aspiring jingle writer in Chicago, working his way from intern to tenure at the Chicago Recording Company, where he honed his skills and love for sound design and established a foothold in Hollywood doing ADR work for the feature film industry. Ultimately, he found his way to St. Louis and to Bruton Stroube Outpost. He works out of a fully outfitted Atmos room.

Texas Pete

Let’s find out more… 

Talk about your role as a sound designer. What does that entail?
Almost anything related to audio post. It’s a very collaborative discipline that I find very rewarding. I get to execute many facets in the process of an audio track mix, all while working closely with editors, directors and creatives to help bring the audio track to life.

The main list of things I do day to day entails conducting voiceover record sessions; editing and mixing VO/music/sound effects; cleaning up (i.e., removing noise from) on-camera dialogue; creating a final mix for documentaries, features and commercials — now in Dolby Atmos; writing music for projects (when budgets and time allow); and creating unique SFX libraries.

What is your favorite part of sound design?
My favorite part of my job is editing/mixing all of the elements (music/sound effects/VO/dialogue). I get excited on each new project because what I get from the editors here is always gold in terms of a sound design foundation. For me, the fun comes in when I get to edit and mix what they provide — it’s like sculpting the emotional bed to the piece. I like to approach it like each part (music, VO, SFX, etc.) can be the hero, but at different points throughout. One example is dialing in the pacing of the VO in relation to a big music hit, only to leave a moment of air for the SFX to “say something.” It’s about finding the balance in the audio edit and mix and knowing it’s right when you feel the emotional impact… that’s what I love. When I listen to it over and over and still feel that emotional impact, then I know it’s right. That’s what I strive for in everything I work on.

Sonic

Editing/writing/embellishing music. It’s the language I know best, and it is the most natural for me to work in. Sometimes that’s the most challenging and exhausting too, in terms of solution-finding. But it’s my favorite.

Do you have a least favorite?
Troubleshooting software and hardware idiosyncrasies — and getting frustrated when bugs creep up and things don’t make sense. That drains me mentally.

Are you a musician as well?
I am a pianist/keyboardist and a much lesser guitarist. Graduating college, I wanted to be an ensemble jazz player, but I quickly figured out that it takes extreme dedication to practice (which I love), but there’s little to no pay in the long run. Plus, I’m not a “performer” by nature. So because there’s no money in being a jazz player and I don’t like to perform, I knew I had to incorporate music into my career some other way.

How did your job evolve, if at all, during COVID?
Prior to COVID, I used to work a lot more directly with clients… like clients would be in the room for VO record sessions and mix sessions. When the pandemic hit, we had to find solutions for doing these workflows remotely while providing the same level of service. So instead of clients coming in to listen to a mix on nice studio monitors or in direct VO record/edit sessions, we found effective ways of performing the same level of service on Zoom.

In addition, instead of VO talent coming into the studio (or going to a professional studio for a Source-Connect remote session), the VO talent ended up investing in their own microphone and home studio setups. So almost exclusively these days, we are recording talent from their own home studios. And many times, I will mix a piece unsupervised and then post it for clients to review on their own systems.

National

That said, I think clients still prefer coming into supervised VO records, reviews and mix sessions in person if their schedules allow for it. These days, with COVID changing so much of the professional workflows in general, scheduling that time is much more difficult, so it’s easier to do a Zoom or review a mix remotely.

If you didn’t have this job, what would you be doing instead?
Teaching third grade. I love the study of learning and development, especially hard skills. I love kids’ curiosity at this age. And I’m a pretty patient person, so I can deal with kids — at least up to this grade level (laughs). 

How early on did you know this would be your path?
When I was in high school, I remember my mom saying, “You love music, and you love computers. Is there something that you could do that combines both?” That stuck with me.

Also, around that same time, while playing in rock bands was cool, I always knew that I wanted a more supporting role in making music. I had identified audio engineering/producing as a desirable career path at that point, although through the rest of high school and college, I maintained my focus on music and really became consumed in playing/performing.

Salesforce

If you had asked me in college, I would have told you I wanted to be a gigging jazz musician. Anyway, post college, I landed an internship at a big studio in Chicago. My goal was to pursue music production of some sort. I was at Chicago Recording Company, and they had both music studios and post studios. Both of these departments serviced much of the ad work in Chicago (as well as record label work).

At some point, post sort of fell into my lap. After a six-month stint as an intern, I worked my way into an assistant role with a senior sound designer. It was perfect timing — he needed an assistant, and I needed a job! It was very much an apprenticeship-style gig; you had to be on your game all the time and figure stuff out because no one was going to teach you. It was very old-school.

That said, as challenging as it was, it was the best education I could’ve asked for when I look back. Learning to teach myself was the best applicable skill I think any sound designer can learn. Whether they are technical, aesthetic or client-interfacing skillsets, I find that I am always learning new things, and a healthy career in this field depends on that.

What are some recent projects?
I sound designed and mixed a documentary for NHRA, which was pretty rad! And I started a narrative feature that is being mixed in Dolby Atmos, which I’m super-excited about. More to come on that…

Name three pieces (or more) of technology you can’t live without.
My faders: For me, mixing is like playing an instrument. Emotion comes from how you play that instrument, and pushing the faders around is working emotion into the mix.

Texas Pete

My piano/keyboard: Obviously, as a musician, I much prefer striking the keys on a keyboard — even for sound effects!

My room: A solid-sounding room is more important than studio monitors, in my opinion. If you have awesome-sounding monitors in a subpar mix room, it’s never going to sound great. If you have a nice mix room (I think of it as an instrument) and adequate-sounding monitors, you have a much greater chance of getting a great-sounding mix.

How do you de-stress from it all?
I have some go-to methods. One is playing music (piano or guitar) or anything that requires a practice discipline. I love to practice — breaking things down, acquiring skills I don’t have. On the physical end, yardwork (he laughs). It’s my outdoor gym and a home chore. My efficient nature tells me I’m getting outdoor exercise and getting shit done. I find it therapeutic, oddly.