Meet Nico Staub | Supervising Sound Mixer and Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nico Staub and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nico, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
It’s funny. The way some people see life or their career as a game of Chess or Go, I tend to look at it as a game of Backgammon, where strategy can only get you so far until the fate of the dice has anything to say about it. In order to do risky moves it’s important to consider the odds of success along with the price of failure, and what either of those might mean to us. Risky moves should come with a plan, but also with an expectation for the unexpected and a readiness to turn around any disadvantage. Human nature will always be a variable, and everyone is capable of “not seeing the right move at the right time”. Lastly I remind my self It’s just a “game” and although wining can be fun, we do most of our growth through hard lessons and our will to succeed. With this, I believe the concept of risk becomes secondary and every outcome can be a reward.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What i’ve always loved about Celeste Audio is that it serves as an umbrella for all the sound related endeavors I’m so passionate about. From location sound recording, to post production mixing, to musical production and supervision.

It’s not uncommon to hear “you just gotta pick something and stick to it!” or “if you’re the guy that does everything, then you can’t do anything”. Celeste Audio proves that this is not only a fallacy but outright untrue. More so, all the aspects of sound in any medium are connected to each other and all have equal stake in the outcome of the project. Having a deep understanding of each of these aspects and how they compliment the audio/visual experience is crucial to how my business is run.

Being “the guy that did everything”, I was able to secure many projects that jump started my business in the early years, around the 2008 writers strike; when clients of the time didn’t have much budget, were seeking affordable solutions and didn’t want to go through the usual hoops of having to contact a different person for every step of the process. Aside from being able to do the job right the first time; Skeleton crews were valued and loyalty was remembered. On top of that, wearing different hats was often another reason to get a call back or recommendation for another project.

Parallel to this, I’ve had to learn one of the hardest and most valuable lessons. “Value your time, or no one else will”.

It seemed reasonable, when I was young, to take all the work I could handle. Even at the cost of my own sleep schedule, diet, relationships, and/or mental sanity. My quest for experience and eagerness to work was so ambitious that I found my self wearing my self thin, and would eventually find out not only I was not being compensated appropriately for my time and expertise, but the main motivation for some of my clients back then was “call Nico, he works really good and really cheap”. After almost losing my hearing in a production in 2013, where the 1st AD silently ordered the pyrotechnics crew to detonate the rest of the explosives mid take as a comedic blooper, I finally began to make a stand for my self, my time and everything I bring to the table in every project. I’ve learnt there’s a lot of fires out there that are not worth burning for; putting our foot down for self worth and for what we believe is the righteous path has it’s own compensation.

Celeste Audio works good and fast. We may not always be cheap, but we’re always fair.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I believe some of the best things LA has to offer are entertainment, food and location.

No trip to LA is complete without getting street tacos; watching a live show at the Greek; shopping at Amoeba Records, Surfing in Venice; eating a Randy’s Donut, camping in the desert, beach, mountains (or all 3); hiking Runyon Canyon; disappointing your self at how ugly and dirty Hollywood is; and getting more tacos.

If you’re into clubbing, cars, casually meeting celebrities, partying and eccentric pleasantries, I hear this city is for you. I just can’t point you in the right direction.

Shout out to Tacos El Chido

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Oh geez… If I had to do a shoutout to everyone I believed deserved it, I’d be writing an essay!

My mother is an artist. Her artistic integrity and sensitivity alongside my father’s tenacious approach to entrepreneurship are probably the most influential to my development. Huge shout out to them for their unconditional support, guidance and mostly patience. If I could, I’d build a monument in their honor.

When I moved to Los Angeles from Argentina at the age of 20, thinking I would just be the guy that recorded bands, 2 people were responsible for what would be one of the biggest turns in my life:

Orlando, a former teacher and mentor who introduced me to the world of Location Sound, and left me alone for 9 days with an unknown crew in an unknown city near the California/Mexico border with a bunch of gear I’d never even seen before, to roll sound on for a short film. Thus giving me my first experience in what is now one of my main fields. After this, he asked me if I’d ever thought about trying out Post Production Mixing, to which I enthusiastically exclaimed “of course!” and he cunningly replied “Great! Now you can learn to fix all the mistakes you made at the shoot!”… Thus giving me my first glimpse into Post and the tedious world of Audio Restoration. I’m still applying his lessons.

Pablo, a talented TV producer and production company owner, was the first employer to ever believe in me professionally. At the time my brother was an editor for his company, and the first time I went to visit him at his office for lunch, his boss walks into the editing bay, barefoot, sits on the floor and says “Hi, I’m Pablo, you’re T’s brother? He tells me you do sound. Can you come in tomorrow?”. My first commercial mix and sound design ever was for a Star Trek flying RC Starship Enterprise! So much of the work I do 13 years later is consequential of that fortuitous day and Pablo’s encouraging predisposition and mentorship.

Bonus shout out to Brand for showing me that insanely technical work and super cool projects can co-exist, and with the right frame of mind, every job can be super cool as long as we value and respect our selves in the process.

My all-star assistants who now have better jobs than I could offer them and still chose to work with me: Laird, Vince, and Joe. Thick and thin. Their years of service, expertise, and showing up are worth more than I could ever pay them.

Shoutouts to the people who didn’t believe in me. It only made me stronger and more resilient.

Shout out to 20 year old me. It worked out, dude… and it wasn’t boring.

Website: celeste-audio.com

Instagram: @nicostaub