S3E09: THX Talk with Jason Fiber and Kasson Crooker!

Feb 27

A few weeks back we had the great pleasure of talking with the dynamic duo of THX: CEO Jason Fiber and Director of Product Development Kasson Crooker.

Jason Fiber has worn many hats, done many things in the alternative and underground music scene, and now heads up one of the biggest names in audio visual technology.

The insanely dynamic and prolific Kasson Crooker is an electronic music artist, video game music composer, video game developer, sound designer, and music producer, with many games and music releases to his credit.

In this episode, we talk THX Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos, and immersive audio with Jason and Kasson. We discuss the state of the art and future of these technologies. We talk with Kasson about production and his myriad works. We talk to Jason about his path through the music scene and industry in Los Angeles up to his current role, and trade some stories along the way.

We had a great time with these two, and hope you enjoy it!

Notable information and links from the conversation:

Rolling Stone Article quoting Jason on finding motivation after experiencing burnout:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/panels/find-motivation-burnout-1234701002/

Kasson Crooker on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasson_Crooker

Kasson's Symbion project:
https://symbionproject.bandcamp.com/

Kasson on the streams:
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kasson-crooker/1482309576

https://open.spotify.com/artist/015da0eyJJKRY609nLG1LN?si=4H_uBICxRxCFqHPyk3l79w

Early Yamaha 4-operator chip:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Tenori-on

HRTFs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Anu Kirk

Anu Kirk cannot escape music, no matter how hard he tries.

Starting with drums and oboe, he succumbed to the siren song of rock n'roll, guitar, and synthesizer during his teenage years.

He attended Dartmouth College, studying music under Jon Appleton and Christian Wolff and graduated with a degree in economics.

Nearly a decade in Los Angeles came next: performing in bands, producing, engineering, recording, scoring for film and television,and designing professional audio products. One (Spatializer Retro) was awarded Musician Magazine's "Editor's Pick" and another (Spatializer PT3D) was nominated for Mix Magazine's TEC award.

Anu has been involved with the Internet music business since its inception. He was one of the primary architects of Rhapsody, the world's first music subscription service. He also designed and built music services at Liquid Digital Media (formerly Liquid Audio) for Wal-Mart.

He was responsible for the development of MOG's award-winning mobile apps, and contributed significantly to the product design and strategy that led to a successful acquisition by Beats and subsequently, Apple.

As Director of Music Services for Sony PlayStation, he managed PlayStation Music Unlimited before helping the company pivot to a Spotify-based music platform.

Most recently, he served as Director and General Manager for Virtual Reality Platforms at PlayStation, helping to launch PlayStation VR, the world's most successful virtual reality headset.

He has also designed marketplaces for virtual goods, worked on video games, and integrated digital media platforms into virtual worlds.

One of the first to participate in the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP) when it started in the early 1980s, Anu returned to as an instructor in the early 2000s. His popular class “A History of 20th Century Music” (now known as "Bach to Rock") was later adapted to an educational CD-ROM, "Switched-On Sound".

He wrote “The Definitive Guide to Evolver”, a manual for the Dave Smith Instruments Evolver synthesizer, considered essential reading by its users.

Anu joined noted Internet electronic music collective Chill in 1998. Anu held the number one position in experimental music on MP3.com for 6 months.

Anu continues to write, record, perform and release music.

https://www.anukirk.com