Ethan Obbema is an LA based audio engineer, guitarist, and composer working in professional media production. He has worked on projects in film, TV, advertisements, video games, musicals, and other production audio mediums. He has obtained certifications in various audio editing plugins, hardware, and audio cleaning software as well as expert proficiency in DAWs such as Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, Ableton, Wwise, and Reaper across Mac OS and Windows. His involvement in projects ranges from Thor: Ragnarok, Hotel Transylvania 3, The Willoughbys, to video games such as Ratchet and Clank and VR projects. He has an eclectic background and enjoys on working on various types of projects.
Starting as early as high school, Ethan was a gigging musician and hired arranger for various singer showcase events. Growing initially as a multi-instrumentalist performer studying/playing in corporate bands, he sharpened his skills studying music academically and as a sheet writer. Always being in love with all types of audio, Ethan attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences (CRAS) through their Master Recording program. There, he studied all types of recorded audio and worked on additional projects and certifications constantly.
After completing CRAS, Ethan went on to join the team at Mutato Muzika, a studio headed by the composer Mark Mothersbaugh. Initially as assistant engineer, Ethan quickly moved up to become Head Audio Engineer as well as a composer/arranger. Mutato was the perfect fit as it utilized his skills with synthesizers, performance, creative mixing/editing, managing work statuses on multiple projects concurrently, technical problem solving, and creating quality audio production to fit any need. His technical skills were used in a variety of capacities from sampling live instruments/creating interesting sound design elements, to setting up PC to Mac sample slave machines running various players such as Kontakt, EW Play, and Spectrasonics through Vienna Ensemble and Dante configurations. Becoming a point of contact for many productions, he has worked with teams varying from indie film projects to large scale game companies, learning every step of the way what projects need and how best to communicate with teams and creatives.
Currently, Ethan is focusing on many projects under his own company Sonic Wizard Audio LLC. This has allowed him to develop projects utilizing all of his capacities and increase passion and polish to more productions. As a recording session guitarist, audio engineer, tech, and composer, he believes there is always a creative solution customized to fit every project.
Certifications:
Dolby Atmos
Wwise 101
Melodyne
TC Electronics M3000
TC Electronics System 6000
Waves