MY STUDENT TRAINEESHIP IN LARI: Nadežda Fratrić

Nadežda Fratrić
University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Dramatic Arts

Erasmus+ Mobility for Traineeship at:

SAM World Studio, Lari

From April 20th to June 20th, 2026, I had the privilege of completing my sound engineering internship at SAM World Studio in Italy. This opportunity allowed me to gain valuable insight into immersive audio formats, sound recording and editing for an international production, and mixing in the Dolby Atmos format. During the internship, I worked on a variety of audio projects, as well as recording numerous bands and orchestral musicians. I also had the opportunity to meet professionals from different areas of the creative industry and live alongside other interns from Italy, experiencing new ways of working, thinking, and collaborating within a different culture.

The main project followed a structured production schedule and consisted of several stages. Our first task was to organize and prepare the recording of Foley sound effects and ambient impulse responses based on the project’s script. The second stage involved recording sound effects in locations that matched the environments depicted in the project, as well as capturing impulse responses for each recording location. Our third responsibility was to label, organize, and transfer all recorded material across multiple workstations. Since every team member worked on the same project using different computers, it was essential to keep all systems synchronized and up to date whenever new recordings were made.

The next phase involved editing and placing the recorded material according to the script. Every recording had to be carefully reviewed, cleaned when necessary using various audio restoration plugins, and prepared for the final mix. After the editing stage, we created a premix by manually balancing the levels of all audio clips to ensure a smoother and more efficient final mixing process. The final stage of production consisted of combining all editing sessions into a single mixing project, which was ultimately mixed in the Dolby Atmos format.

In addition to the main project, we participated in several recording sessions with music bands. These sessions involved microphone placement for a wide variety of instruments, communicating with musicians, and recording the sessions in Pro Tools. This experience expanded my practical knowledge of microphone techniques for many instruments, including several I had not previously recorded. It also strengthened my proficiency in Pro Tools and increased my experience working with analogue equipment such as microphone preamps, compressors, and equalizers.

This mobility experience significantly contributed to my professional development. It allowed me to strengthen my technical skills across multiple DAWs, improve my microphone placement techniques, enhance my editing and mixing abilities, and further develop my critical listening and audio evaluation skills. Equally valuable was the opportunity to collaborate and live with people from different parts of the world. Learning how others approach work, creativity, and everyday life was one of the most rewarding aspects of the entire experience. Spending two months in another country enabled me to build meaningful relationships with people from different cultural backgrounds while inspiring me to approach my own work from new perspectives. Meeting artists and professionals working in sound design, music production, film directing, cinematography, and video editing further broadened my creative horizons.

I am truly grateful to have had this opportunity immediately after graduating and before entering the professional workforce. It allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of real-world production workflows while experiencing how audio production is organized in another country. The knowledge and experience I gained will undoubtedly help me improve my own professional practice and contribute to higher standards of audio production in my future work.