‘music is organized sound’ - edgard varese
with a childhood that centered around two things - his father’s custom home stereo system and the family computer - it was never any doubt that dustin camilleri, the talented young sound designer and engineer, was destined for this.
“i’ll never forget the first time my dad showed me how to work his stereo. he had an awesome old tube amp, a 31 band graphic EQ, a turntable, a dual-deck cassette player and a reel-to-reel. i really enjoyed that eq,” dustin jokes, “you haven’t truly experienced sergeant peppers lonely hearts club band until you’ve listened to it through a hundred oddball eq curves.”
after ‘growing up’ and obtaining a bachelors degree in speech/business communication from the university of illinois at urbana-champaign, dustin decided to pursue his inner calling full time, and went back to school for a degree in recording arts. graduating in the top 3% of his class, he then moved to los angeles to start his career.
within a few months he’d end up as a composer’s assistant at machine head, one of the west coasts most renowned audio post production studios. he moved up the ranks quickly, and under the tutelage of multi-award winning sound designer and machine head founder stephen dewey, by the end of his first year, dustin had graduated to become a full-time staff sound designer. “machine head was an incredible place and i learned more than i ever thought possible. stephen was a tremendous mentor, and being able to work alongside one of the best, most respected artists in the industry was an absolute honor.” and the work spoke for itself - from video games like Atari/Shiny’s ‘The Matrix - Path of Neo’ to big-budget feature films like Millennium’s ‘Edison’ to commercial advertisements for high-profile clients like Sony, Microsoft and General Motors - the output was of the highest order, and dustin’s work on nike - ’skateboys’ would earn him an aicp award for ‘best spec spot’ and a spot in the permanent collection of the museum of modern art.
in 2008, dustin moved to chicago to work with high voltage software, an independent software developer, as an audio specialist. there he acted as lead sound designer for two major console titles and helped hvs kickstart their wiiware division.
2009 sees the formation of dustin’s own sound design, music and mix outfit called pulsetrain - located in the heart of chicago, illinois. “i want to change the model by which this business is done.” dustin says. “too many places have too much overhead and not enough good work - they focus on the aesthetics of their facility or the fanciness of their parties rather than what matters - the art they’re trying to create. i have a great studio and the experience necessary to put it to proper use - what more do you need?”
nothing.. absolutely nothing. and so far, clients seem to agree. dustin’s unique approach to audio design - a perfect amalgamation of his lengthy experience with technology and unending passion for sonic manipulation - has already put pulsetrain on the map. with multiple projects completed in the short few months he’s been in business - a short film, a feature film and a cinematic sound design package (and he plans to have a feature length documentary finished before the end of the year), pulsetrain looks to become one of the elite audio facilities of the next decade.
they say you can judge a lot about the future by studying the past. well, if that’s true, then dustin’s future is certainly one to take note of.