For nearly two years, Darrin has been the sole audio engineer for a local radio show in his home town. The show, Minding My Business, is a show all about helping entrepreneurs succeed in the business of running a business. As Darrin listened to many of the business leaders who came on the show, eventually meeting them in person, and connecting with them through social media, he began to realize that many of the leaders were coaches, and speakers with powerful, life-changing messages. Many of them had taken to social media to share their message with the world. However, in many cases, Darrin noticed the missing ingredient that could truly unlock the potential of their messages and bring them the revenue they needed to keep changing lives. While their messages were on point, they needed to take their quality to a higher level! The videos they shot had poor audio, lighting, backgrounds, or all of the above. The audio on their CDs, podcasts, and other projects didn't have that professional "polish" or "sheen" to it. Darrin heard and saw a need. Darrin began sharing tips with these leaders to help them improve their production quality, even attending conferences, and turning his hotel rooms into makeshift "studios" to record audio professionally for them so they could hear the difference. This effort only had a limited reach and impact though, and Darrin realized this. So he began shooting videos of his own to explain ways the leaders could improve their production quality. These videos covered various topics, mainly having to do with audio. However, through continued conversations and recording sessions with these leaders, Darrin saw an even bigger need. A step-by-step guide to help these coaches take their production quality to the next level! So in order to help more people at once, he drew on his 15+ years experience in the Audio/Visual production world to catalog best practices, tricks & tips, and recommendations on affordable gear into one publication - his first - Set The Tone!
Darrin Thompson is the owner/operator of Clef Tone Grooves (www.ClefToneGrooves.com). He started his company in June 2016 initially licensing his music from his website to artists. Over time, he started licensing his music to more and more life coaches and speakers as he's gotten to meet and work with them. Darrin got his start in audio nearly 20 years ago when he realized he had too many instruments to play and not enough hands. He would riff on his sax, his bass, and his keyboard - coming up with lines on each of them that he knew, if he could just hear them all together, they would compliment each other beautifully. Eventually, he would add guitar to that mix. With no one else around to play those other instruments with him, he got to work learning how to record audio on his computer so he could lay the riffs down, track by track. Those tracks turned into songs, and the rest is history! Over the years, he has grown his audio knowledge and skill level through mentors and self-directed learning to routinely produce professional grade audio recordings. Most recently in 2017 Darrin got the opportunity to be an audio engineer in the media department of a fortune 50 company. 10 years prior to this opportunity, Darrin landed a job as a production assistant in that same department where he's soaked up a ton of video production experience learning skills like set design, lighting, grip work, camera work, and many other aspects of Audio/Visual production - from gear to techniques! This is why he's able to speak to so much more than just audio, even though that's where his passion and main skillset lies. Outside of the daily grind, and writing this book, Darrin has also released an EP of original music with his "partner in rhyme", Justin Grant, under the artist name of D&J. He's also released an album of his older music under that same artist name. He's done all of the mixing and mastering, and played most of the instruments on each track. The most popular songs by far from these projects are Mexicali Queen, and Set Me Free. Darrin has also built a video series on youtube and Facebook called "Get Better Audio At Home" specifically aimed at helping coaches and speakers learn the skills, and gear necessary to improve their audio visual production quality.
