Inside Game Audio with GameSoundCon Founder Brian Schmidt

In this episode I sit down with Brian Schmidt, founder and executive director of GameSoundCon. Brian was the architect of the original Xbox and Xbox 360 audio systems and has more than 130 game credits since 1987. We talk about why he started GameSoundCon in 2009 to help film and TV composers make the jump into nonlinear game scoring, and how "music designer" has become a discipline of its own. We also look at what his industry surveys reveal about the growing role of audio outsourcing companies. Of course, we dig into immersive audio as well: why surround and object-based sound work so differently in games than in film, and how Brian's student years at Northwestern put him right next to some of the earliest digital 3D audio research.

A big part of our conversation is about AI. Brian draws a clear line between workflow AI and generative AI. Workflow AI can help tame tens of thousands of dialogue lines and assets. Generative AI raises serious copyright questions and still can't match the emotional depth of a human composer or voice actor. We also talk about what all of this means for students and educators in a very tough job market. Brian explains why mid-core, indie and casino games are often a better place to start a career, and where GameSoundCon is headed next. GameSoundCon 2026 takes place October 20–21 in Burbank, California, and online, so if this conversation makes you curious, there's still time to join.