Power Behind The Audio with Dories Sta. Cruz

Being a full-time mom doesn’t limit Dories from being one of the best audio engineers in the Philippine music industry. For Dories, passion plays a big role in her life; whether it’s taking care of her family or refining the audio in nationally aired advertisements, Dories never falls short in giving her 110%. 

We asked Dories, “In three words, how would you describe your work?” Dories said, “Purple, Passion, and Waves.” Here at loudBox Studios, every audio engineer and music team member has their own dedicated recording studio labeled by a color. You guessed it – Dories’ studio is called purple. From days on end, she would spend her time at the Purple studio creating magical sound waves for groundbreaking advertisements. 

Inside the studio, she makes use of several digital audio workstations. Those being: Protools, Logic Pro, Compression, and her all-time favorite, RX Noise Reduction. Earlier on, she also described her work as “Waves”. When Dories works on audio tracks, it’s not just about the sound but the visuals too. What she hears is also translated into what she sees, and those look like waves – waveforms to be more specific. “I create a soundtrack with 50% Visual 50% Sound. I can identify audio takes just by looking at waveforms.” she said. 

Being well-known in the music industry, Dories has earned the trust of several brands. With the wide array of advertisements she has worked on, her all-time favorite is “Heart - Just A Boy #TouchOfCare” by Vicks Philippines because it deeply relates to her being a mother. 

If there’s any piece of advice Dories could give to aspiring audio engineers, she buckets it into four:  “Right Attitude is Strength”,  “You can Learn Skills”, “Listen, Master and Unlearn”, and “Respect Experts”