Audiotuts+ Regular Contributor

Budget: Don't Know

We’re looking for a few contributors who have an excellent command of the English language, an in-depth knowledge of audio and music, and a desire to pass on that knowledge to our readers. Audiotuts+ is an online publication, but the compensation is well above what other sites are looking to pay at US$150 per tutorial.

As a staff contributor, you’ll be working on a regular basis (between one and two tutorials per month, frequency to be decided on a per-person basis), but as a contractor. If you live in Australia, you’ll need an ABN for your invoices, but applications are open to anyone in the world so long as you can access PayPal.


What areas do we want you to cover?

• Production — we’re looking for writers to cover production processes and techniques using Logic Pro 8, Cubase, Reason and Fruity Loops Studio. Pro Tools may be a possibility, but will need to be written in a way that makes sense for Logic users as well.
• Engineering — we’re looking for someone to write a monthly tutorial on engineering; getting the right sound in the studio using microphones and rack equipment, as well as engineering a sound with plug-ins.
• Electronics and DIY — we’re looking for someone to write a monthly tutorial on a DIY project related to audio and music. You can get into tutorials about anything from hacking your kid’s toys to make a fun synthesizer to modifying your amplifier. If you know how to solder and make cool and quirky (and useful!) audio-relevant stuff, this could be the job for you.
  

What skills are we looking for?

• Perfect English: we mean grammar, spelling, voice and style. If your work needs heavy editing, you’d be best off skipping this job. If your writing voice is dry and academic, you’re not a good fit for the fun and playful TUTS style.
• Extensive knowledge of audio: you should have a firm grip on the principles of audio engineering and production. You should be able to tell us how sound works (hint: it has to do with air pressure), exactly how every parameter on a compressor works, and so on. If you’re still learning the audio ropes, you’re not a good fit for the job — though you may make a good reader!
• You know, or you’re willing to learn in a hurry, basic HTML (and I mean really basic HTML, but you’ll need to know it), image editing and manipulation (also very basic; all you need to know is how to crop and resize an image and save it as a Web-optimized image), and how to convert audio to MP3 for our in-text examples (if you’re applying for an audio tutorial gig, this should be a given).
  

What will you need?

• A PayPal address — we pay via PayPal. If you haven’t got a PayPal account, get one now, as you’ll need to have the verification process complete to receive your payments.
• A computer and a steady Internet connection — this job is entirely digital. You’ll need a steady Internet connection and a computer to stay in communication with the team and submit tutorials.
• A camera — unless you’re writing software tutorials that only require screenshots, you’ll need a camera that is capable of taking high-quality photographs for each tutorial. That means mic setups if you’re doing a tutorial on setting up microphones to record a drum kit, or the contents of your workbench if you’re doing DIY. In other words: no phone camera shots!

Please include in your application your name, contact information, links to previous relevant work (audio tutorials in particular would be great), and give us an idea of the sort of tutorials you'd like to write including a few sample headlines.