Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Dumas.
Alyssa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started my journey in audio back in college where I achieved a Bachelor of Music in Sound Recording Technology from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell in 2014. I learned about ADR engineering in college and knew that was my career goal. My first job out of college was at a small studio in Boston called AudioLink that produced voiceover for e-Learning, K-12 Educational material, and medical narration. There I learned about editing the voice and how to direct and produce great narration. Around that time, I also started my business called Alyssa Dumas. Alyssa Dumas Recording started as a mobile recording studio, recording stereo recordings for students and professionals in the classical music industry. It has now grown to include all my freelance work.
In 2018, my husband got an opportunity to study at SMU and we moved down to Dallas! When I started looking for jobs, I knew that FUNimation was located here and kept that in the back of my mind as a foreseeable achievement. I started working my connections and I found the awesome group of people at Sound Cadence Studios. I started working as an ADR engineer there which was a dream come true. One of the engineers at Sound Cadence also worked for FUNimation, and one day I got a text saying they were hiring night time engineers! I interviewed for the position and I got the job.
Since then, I’m now the Chief Engineer at Sound Cadence Studios, and I’m working hard as an evening engineering at FUNimation. I’ve also started mixing the dubs we work on at Sound Cadence, and that has truly been a fantastic way to stretch my creative muscles in the studio.
Has it been a smooth road?
I have definitely not been a smooth road. After college, AudioLink hired me as a freelance engineer and we had a good number of projects going. Then out of the blue, one of our large projects fell through. We then had barely enough sessions to justify having me there as well as the owner. I moved to the “oh-crap-I-gotta-pay-my-bills” route and started working at a local restaurant. I kept working at AudioLink one day a week, and eventually business picked back up and I was able to be hired full time. I then worked there for about 4.5 years full time. Then, the move to Texas was a large speed bump in my career… that eventually worked out.
I went from a job in Boston that I was comfortably living off of to no job whatsoever when we arrived in Dallas. I had a couple 9-5 audio jobs lined up, but all of them fell through by the time that we actually moved. I had to adapt and get back into that mindset of just needing to pay the bills. I started working at a restaurant in Dallas while looking for other opportunities.
The job that actually got me out of the restaurant business this time was as an Assistant Audio Producer at Lexia Learning and I’m actually still working there today. It’s what I consider my “day job” to help pay the bills while my husband is in school. I had connections at Lexia from when I worked at AudioLink; Lexia is actually a client of AudioLink’s, so I still work with my old co-workers but in a different capacity now. It’s not as glamorous as the ADR engineering, but it helped me get through that tough transition when we moved to Dallas and onto some dream jobs!
Please tell us about your business.
Alyssa Dumas Recording is built from knowing that everyone can make recordings at home, but why should that be the audio quality that we’re okay with. Students could record their pre-screening auditions from their phone, but you’re not going to hear all the overtones and beautiful qualities of that person’s voice with just a phone recording. When you’re trying to get into a school or win a competition, you’ve gotta stand out from the pack and having professional yet affordable recordings can set you apart from the rest.
My business is in all thing’s high quality audio, but I specialize in the voice. From recording opera, to mixing and mastering anime dubs, anything to do with the voice has become my specialty. I can edit together lots of takes for a video game and make it sound seamless, or mix a full-length overdubbed movie with detailed, high quality sound in mind. I’d say keeping quality at the forefront while not charging people a crazy amount of money is what I’m most proud of. I’ve heard of so many people paying so much money for something that is just “meh.” I never want anyone to say that any of my work is “meh.”
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Coming from Boston, Dallas is great simply because there’s way less snow! haha. But in all seriousness, I love Dallas because there’s so much diversity here and different people coming together and sharing their different viewpoints to make awesome art and music and food. I’ve met and interacted with so many genuinely nice people here who want to take care of their people and have a great sense of community.
The thing I least like about Dallas is that everyone drives everywhere!! When we first moved here, we lived by the DART commuter train. Coming from Boston, everyone took the train and it was always late or had trains out of commission which screwed up the schedule, but everyone still took it. No one takes the train and every time I’ve taken it it’s been on time and clean and an enjoyable ride! I think I’m probably also biased because I love trains, but if more people utilized the DART, we’d make a better impact on the environment as a city.
Contact Info:
- Website: alyssadumasrecording.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/alyssadumas_
- Twitter: twitter.com/alyssadumas
- Other: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-dumas
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