Episode 3 - Tossing it with Josh Nathan

‘We turn pages, they press buttons.’
The role Josh Nathan assumes is to make it that simple.

Josh figured out at university that audio engineering was what he was going to focus his energies on, and has been a keen listener of all manner of recordings since. Beginning with the ‘sound side’ of music, (not surprising given his influential Uncle happened to be the drummer of iconic Kiwi reggae band ‘Herbs,’) he was looking to extend his engineering portfolio, when he saw that BLVNZ (Blind + Low Vision NZ) were advertising for a role.

Josh is a Post-Production Audio Technician - or, simply put, he’s the one who cleans up the audiobooks that have problems in them, throughout the process of digitisation. If everything goes smoothly on the coding end for these conversions, the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) that the members use should be formatted to replicate what the visual reading eye would see. 
He digitises everything from reel to reel machines, splicing through the old tapes in our archives to bring the narrators of the 70s-90s back to life, and make some of those classic titles accessible to members again.
He listens to every book he digitises (exact number unknown, but most likely in the several hundreds realm) making sure to go through and edit overlooked mistakes the engineers of those bygone eras were technologically unable to. 
When asked what a favourite listen has been, he cites The New Zealand Baking Book, because of the colloquialisms and the difference in language and techniques used over the generations. He’s also another fantasy novel fan, enjoying the plot lines and character growth in big and bizarre worlds. 

Josh hails from the staunchly proud Ngaati Porou iwi. His plan or hope for his own audio engineering journey, is to build immersive experiences about the stories of settlers and migrants told in te reo Maori - with English subtitles. He’d like to aurally recreate the indigenous migration journey from Hawaiki to NZ in a virtual reality setting. The ‘back in the day’ voyage on the waka, with options to follow the Southern Cross, Northern Lights or other sky dwelling guides to see how that journey could possibly have been - and allow others into the experience of that journey as well. 

Let’s just say the guy’s a smart cookie. Who also casually dropped the Lit RPG bomb on me.. or literature that’s based on games and narrated or performed by the pros in that field. Soundbooth theatre - most definitely something I need to investigate further..

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