Ask an Engineer with Rob Byers and Michael Raphael

Rob loves working in audio! His varied career has had him in opera halls, leading live international broadcasts from foreign soil, working in the studio with amazing artists from Lizzo to Yo-Yo Ma, and mixing beloved podcasts like Criminal, Fiasco, and This is Love. Rob trained audio producers across the country with NPR Training and writes educational guides for producers of all experience levels, including The Ear Training Guide for Audio Producers, The Audio Producer’s Guide to Loudness, and The Producer’s Handbook to Mixing Audio Stories. Rob is the Director of Broadcast and Media Production at American Public Media and his work there contributed to a Peabody and a Pulitzer. He is one-third of the audio storytelling post-production and consultation group Final Final v2, which has one of the best names in the business. His Twitter handle is: @robbyers1

Michael Raphael Michael worked on the production teams for The New Yorker Radio Hour, Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, Marketplace, Weekend America, and Radiolab. His work can be heard on Caliphate and Voyages: Listen to the World from the New York Times, Performance Today, Fiasco, and This is Love, among others. He is an expert field recordist whose company, Rabbit Ears Audio, provides authentic sounds to the film and video game industries. If you need the sound of an Mi-24 Hind helicopter from the Soviet Union or an Olivetti Lettera 22 Royal Standard Model 10 typewriter, he can help you. He is one-third of the audio storytelling post-production and consultation group Final Final v2. His Twitter handle is: @sepulchra