Table of Contents

SEASON 1 — FOUNDATIONS OF DECISION

(6 Episodes — Canonical)

Episode 1

Decision-First Engineering: Why Better Records Start Before the Gear

Episode 2

Choosing Before You Listen: Why Direction Beats Discovery
Focus:

  • Deciding intent before touching faders

  • Why “let’s see what happens” kills identity

Carry-Forward Principle:

Direction creates sound. Exploration dilutes it.

Episode 3

When Good Enough Is Actually Correct
Focus:

  • Ending moves

  • Diminishing returns

  • Professional stopping points

Carry-Forward Principle:

Completion is a skill, not a personality trait.

Episode 4

Why Unlimited Options Create Forgettable Records
Focus:

  • Option paralysis

  • Why nothing stands out anymore

  • How limitation creates recall

Carry-Forward Principle:

Memorability requires commitment.

Episode 5

The First Decision Is the Most Important One
Focus:

  • Early tracking choices

  • Why the mix can’t save undecided recording

  • Directional momentum

Carry-Forward Principle:

Early decisions shape all later outcomes.

Episode 6

Owning the Sound You Chose
Focus:

  • Responsibility

  • Confidence under scrutiny

  • Defending decisions professionally

Carry-Forward Principle:

Professionals don’t explain choices. They stand behind them.

SEASON 2 - Advanced · Hybrid · AI Decisions (8 Episodes)

Season 2 is intentionally longer and heavier than Season 1.

Season 2: Advanced / Hybrid / AI Decisions
examines how engineers retain authority, identity, and judgment
in studios where speed, automation, and intelligence are no longer optional.

This season is not anti-AI.
It is anti-abdication.

EPISODE 1

The New Hybrid Studio Is a Decision Problem, Not a Technology Problem

Core Question:
Why do hybrid studios fail even when the gear is perfect?

Focus:

  • Analog + digital + AI as competing decision layers

  • Why most hybrid studios collapse into indecision

  • Governance vs capability

Carry-Forward Principle:

More systems demand fewer decisions—not more.

EPISODE 2

What Should Never Be Left to AI

Core Question:
Where does automation quietly erase authorship?

Focus:

  • Decisions AI should never make:

    • Emotional intent

    • Risk tolerance

    • Structural hierarchy

  • Why “AI-assisted” often becomes “AI-directed”

Carry-Forward Principle:

Delegate labor, not judgment.

EPISODE 3

Why Speed Is the New Distraction

Core Question:
When did faster stop meaning better?

Focus:

  • AI speed vs decision erosion

  • Why instant results kill reflection

  • The illusion of productivity

Carry-Forward Principle:

Speed without intent is just noise arriving sooner.

EPISODE 4

Hybrid Studios Fail at the Handoff

Core Question:
Why do sessions fall apart between tracking, editing, and mixing?

Focus:

  • Analog → digital → AI handoff failures

  • Decision decay across stages

  • Why consistency matters more than tone

Carry-Forward Principle:

Decisions must survive transitions—or they don’t count.

EPISODE 5

When Recall Becomes a Crutch

Core Question:
How did perfect recall weaken commitment?

Focus:

  • The psychological cost of infinite undo

  • Why recall encourages postponement

  • Artificial irreversibility as a professional tool

Carry-Forward Principle:

Recall should serve decisions, not replace them.

EPISODE 6

Designing a Studio That Forces Better Decisions

Core Question:
Can workflow architecture improve judgment?

Focus:

  • Intentional friction

  • Tool availability as behavior control

  • Studio design as cognitive design

Carry-Forward Principle:

Your studio trains you—whether you mean it to or not.

EPISODE 7

The Engineer’s Role in an AI-Saturated Industry

Core Question:
What does “engineer” even mean now?

Focus:

  • Shift from operator → decision authority

  • Why taste, timing, and restraint survive automation

  • Professional identity in the AI era

Carry-Forward Principle:

When tools get smarter, humans must get clearer.

EPISODE 8 (Season Capstone)

Authorship in the Age of Automation

Core Question:
Who is the record actually by?

Focus:

  • Ownership when machines contribute

  • Credit, responsibility, and authorship

  • Why records still need a final human voice

Carry-Forward Principle:

Automation can assist creation—but it cannot claim authorship

SEASON 3 - Teaching, Legacy, and the Transfer of Judgment (8 Episodes)

Each episode answers a legacy-level question.

EPISODE 1

Why Most Expertise Can’t Be Taught

Core Question:
Why does experience refuse to transfer cleanly?

Focus:

  • Tacit knowledge vs explicit instruction

  • Why tutorials fail at the professional level

  • The difference between knowing and deciding

Carry-Forward Principle:

Skills can be taught. Judgment must be conditioned.

EPISODE 2

Teaching Decisions Without Teaching Rules

Core Question:
How do you teach judgment without creating dependency?

Focus:

  • Frameworks vs prescriptions

  • Why rules collapse in real sessions

  • Teaching decision criteria, not answers

Carry-Forward Principle:

Good teaching removes answers, not adds them.

EPISODE 3

Mentorship Is Environmental, Not Instructional

Core Question:
Why proximity matters more than explanation.

Focus:

  • Observation vs verbal teaching

  • Why apprentices learn timing, not technique

  • Designing learning environments that encode judgment

Carry-Forward Principle:

Judgment is absorbed, not explained.

EPISODE 4

How Standards Survive People

Core Question:
How do you maintain quality when the original decision-maker is gone?

Focus:

  • Institutional standards vs personal taste

  • Decision criteria as cultural artifacts

  • Why vague standards always decay

Carry-Forward Principle:

Standards must be explicit to outlive individuals.

EPISODE 5

The Difference Between Taste and Authority

Core Question:
When does preference become leadership?

Focus:

  • Taste as personal signal

  • Authority as responsibility for outcomes

  • Why leaders must decide even when uncertain

Carry-Forward Principle:

Taste informs decisions. Authority owns them.

EPISODE 6

Training Engineers Who Will Eventually Disagree With You

Core Question:
What does successful teaching actually look like?

Focus:

  • Why cloning students is failure

  • Designing for divergence without collapse

  • Teaching principles that survive reinterpretation

Carry-Forward Principle:

The goal is continuity, not imitation.

EPISODE 7

When to Let Judgment Go

Core Question:
How do leaders step back without losing standards?

Focus:

  • Delegation vs abdication

  • Graduated authority transfer

  • Recognizing readiness without ego

Carry-Forward Principle:

Legacy requires release.

EPISODE 8 (CAPSTONE)

Legacy Is a System, Not a Reputation

Core Question:
What actually remains after you stop deciding?

Focus:

  • Why reputation fades but systems persist

  • Encoding judgment into frameworks, culture, and language

  • FX Studio 2 as a living system, not a personality

Carry-Forward Principle:

If judgment isn’t encoded, it disappears.

Part 2: The Curriculum, “Workflow, Judgement and Professional Authority

The table of contents is made publicly viewable to offer non-members a transparent view of the scope and structure of the FX Studio 2 Research Library. The remaining content is password protected. If this content is of interest, membership provides full access.