Haziq Bin Ahmad Farid is a Malaysian mix engineer, audio editor, and sound designer who specializes in music and podcasts. His expertise has uplifted albums like Music for Pixie Grit Circus by Ellen Warkentine and he is the audio editor and sound designer for the ongoing web series Color of My Voice. In the podcast realm, Haziq is currently the Mix Engineer on 99% Invisible and the Editor and Sound Designer for Immigrantly, a podcast which explores immigrant life in America through first-person accounts.
We spoke with Haziq about his serendipitous start into the world of audio post production, his very practical advice for those looking to get their start in post production, and some of his biggest takeaways and on-the-job lessons.
You work as a mix engineer, audio editor, and sound designer for podcasts and music. How did you get your start in the world of audio post production?
It’s interesting because initially I saw myself as a session guitarist but after developing a severe case of tendonitis in my fingers I was forced to put down the guitar for about a month. Unable to play, I started helping my friends mix in the studio, and it was there I came to appreciate the depth and beauty of post production. I fell completely in love with it and have not looked back ever since.
What were your biggest learning opportunities in the field of audio post production?
When I was based in New York, I interned with Notes for Notes – an organization that provides youth with free access to music instruments, instruction and music studios. Alternating between their studios in the Bronx and Brooklyn, I got to experience working in a way that was very unconventional.
Most of the youth that came had really tough lives, and many had little to no experience in music but just being in the studio was a form of therapy for them. As the audio engineer, you had to find creative ways to help them find their creative voice. It reaffirmed the importance of creative collaboration, adaptability and most importantly the impact music has on our lives. It’s not just about making something artistic – it’s also about being open in expressing our feelings and sharing our stories.
Did your learning opportunities come through training, on-the-job work, or a mix of both?
It’s definitely a mix of both. Training and school provide you with a deep understanding of the theoretical side of audio post production but on-the-job teaches you to apply that knowledge in a practical and often faced paced setting.
What is your go-to software for your work? What do you like about it?
My main workhorse is ProTools. It’s the industry standard for post production, and there’s a good reason for that too. It’s reliable, ever-evolving and comes complete with whatever tools you need to achieve your creative vision. For beginners it may seem like there’s a steep learning curve but there are many helpful resources. I really love the amount of useful shortcuts in particular, it allows you to work with speed and efficiency – qualities that I believe are crucial as an audio engineer.
I’d like to give a shout out to the YouTube channel www.Wayne.wav. Wavy Wayne’s videos have definitely helped me further understand and appreciate ProTools.
For those looking to get into the world of audio post production, where do they start?
Start by getting yourself a good pair of headphones and a DAW. Then take time to understand your gear inside and out by either reading up on it or watching tutorials on YouTube. Do as much as you can to understand fundamentally how everything works.
To me this is key because once you enter school or have the opportunity to shadow engineers, you can go past all the basic questions like What is an EQ? or What does a compressor do? and explore the creative side of post production. Every engineer essentially uses the same tools but what sets them apart is their style of mixing, editing, or sound design. Being able to jump straight into that will allow you to grow and develop your own creative style that much faster.
What is the most challenging aspect of working in audio post production?
You want to make sure you do justice to the projects you’re working on because in the creative industry every project is a love letter to the world from writers, producers and directors. It’s a process I truly enjoy because it often requires you to think out of the box, and experiment with different ways to mix or sound design.
For example, on a podcast episode that I worked on, I had to recreate a hectic home kitchen during Thanksgiving. Because there’s no visual component, you want the listener to be able to close their eyes and imagine the scene, so you act like an orchestra conductor cueing certain sounds one after the other while other components are happening in the background, and it all crescendos to the all familiar smoke detector going off. It was a short scene but one I had immense fun doing.
What is a piece of on-the-job advice you received that changed how you approach your work?
Alvin Wee gave me this advice, “Don’t just look at your mix from an X and Y axis. There is a third – the Z axis.” When considering music or sound, this refers to how each track interacts with the others. Is it a track actively demanding attention or is it progressing at a more relaxed pace? This concept emphasizes an additional layer of depth: understanding the unique role of each track in the mix and determining precisely where it should reside. Even if you have 100 tracks in a single session, each track has a purpose.
What types of projects are you gravitated to working on?
I’m drawn to stories that leave an impression on you; once it ends, you ponder and reflect. For example, in my work with Immigrantly, every week we delve into narratives about immigrant life in America – chronicling the hurdles each guest overcomes and the various meanings behind the American Dream. Each story is unique, yet somehow there’s a unifying thread that evokes a sense of connection, prompting us to introspect and reexamine our own lives and values.
Do you have any creatives in the sound industry you greatly admire? Why?
There truly are many that I admire but the two that come to mind are Alvin Wee and Eduardo Perez. Alvin Wee's a mix engineer that I’ve been in touch with most recently. I admire how he approaches his mixes for film music. Notably, I admire his ability to deeply understand the director’s creative vision, and his speed and depth of knowledge of his tools to achieve that vision. Not only is he among the best at what he does, as a person, he’s warm, welcoming, and very unselfish with his knowledge.
Eduardo Perez is the managing engineer at SXM Podcasts, and among the shows under his belt is one of my personal favorites, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. Comments that I often find on the show’s YouTube channel is how in moments of overlapping dialogues you can still clearly hear and understand Conan, Sona, Matt, and their guest clearly. It's not often you find people taking time to write comments like that, and the fact that they do speaks to his caliber as an audio engineer. I would love to have the opportunity to work with him someday.
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Find out more about Haziq Bin Ahmad Farid on IMDb.
