ZEN AND THE ART OF AUDIO EDITING

and how quickly it all can disappear

By Nick Dunkerley, Founder

Living in any city means being surrounded by a constant buzz of distractions. Cars honk, sirens wail, people chatter, and somewhere, a stranger yells from a rooftop as planes roar overhead.
Neon signs flash, posters fight for your attention, traffic lights flick from red to green, and the subway sends a gust of wind brushing your legs.
Cats meow, doors slam, children laugh, and somewhere, the fridge hums to life. Phones ring, emails ping, notifications pop up, and social media relentlessly screams for your attention.

Now, imagine you're focused on something important.
Not just skimming an email or passively watching a video—but really dialed in. Fully engaged in something that matters.
Your mind is clear, your task laid out before you, and the outside world fades into a gentle hum.
You’re in the zone. It’s just you and your work. Perfectly in sync. You are one with it.

“Clang – clink.”

A plate lands on the counter. The coffee machine grinds to life. Someone asks the price of bread.
It doesn’t take much, but suddenly, you’re yanked out of your flow. You’re no longer in sync—your mind scatters in every direction.
How long will it take you to regain that focus?
Twenty minutes. It’s been tested—twenty minutes!
So, in the best-case scenario, you’ll be back to your important work in the time it takes to write a blog post, take a brisk walk, or play with the kids. Twenty minutes is valuable—you can do a lot in that time.
But now, you’re trying to claw your way back into focus. Trying to re-enter the zone. Trying to really concentrate.

“What’s the price of bread?”

And since you’re distracted anyway, you figure you might as well grab that coffee and a doughnut.

Distractions, though, aren’t just external. Your phone buzzes with new messages, emails, and updates. Every single alert pulls your attention away.
And every time, it takes that much longer to get back to where you were.

To truly focus, you need fewer distractions.

Steve Jobs and Apple understood this better than most.
Their products weren’t just functional—they were intuitive, accessible, and designed to keep distractions at bay.
The iPhone didn’t need a manual; it explained itself. Studies show children as young as one can figure out how to swipe and tap.
Good design does that—removes complexity. Look at Dyson vacuums: they’re engineered so well that cleaning feels almost effortless. Or the Swiss Army knife: just the essential tools, no clutter. Simple. Effective.

And that brings us to you—the audio storyteller.

Your job matters. You take complex ideas and emotions, and distill them into something meaningful for your listeners.
But the tools you use might not always be helping you. In fact, they might be holding you back. The truth is, most software used for producing audio wasn’t designed for your specific needs.
They were built for other things. For music production—with hundreds of instrument inputs, auxiliary sends, and endless effects. Or for movie production, with countless tracks layered with dialogue, sound effects, and music.
For the engineers working on these projects, the complexity is empowering—an extension of their creativity. The countless features are part of the process, seamlessly connected to their brain’s wiring.

But for you, the storyteller? The software becomes just another distraction.
It’s always asking questions.

“Do you want a stereo or mono track?” - “44.1kHz or 48kHz?” - “Restart to install updates?”

And then there are the unspoken, nagging questions:

“What should the music levels be?” - “How’s the narration sounding?” - “Is this broadcast quality?”

All the while, you’re scratching your head, muttering,

“I don’t know!”

You’re hot, frustrated, and on the verge of tears. And it’s not helping your story at all.
The more energy your tools demand from you, the less energy you have left for what really matters—the story itself.
So, you adapt the story to your limited understanding of the tools. You go for the easiest option, the one that demands the least from you. You gravitate toward simplicity, but not by choice—out of necessity.

For the sake of creating the best stories, it’s crucial to minimize the distractions around you.
Put on those noise-canceling headphones. Block out the world. Silence your notifications.
Do everything you can to protect your focus, so you don’t need another twenty minutes to get back into your creative flow.

In the end, that’s going to benefit both you and your listeners.

As a side note, people often ask, “What makes Hindenburg stand out from other DAWs?”
And the answer is simple: it doesn’t distract you.