The Artisans of Sound: Cody Spencer The Artisans of Sound: Cody Spencer...

Sound often lives just beneath the surface of awareness, felt before it is fully noticed. Cody Spencer has shaped his career around bringing it forward as an expressive force. His work turns audio into a primary storyteller, and through an evolving collaboration with L-Acoustics he has become one of Broadway’s leading figures in immersive design.

Early Path and Professional Rise

Cody’s fascination with sound began early. At age 12 he was put in charge of managing audio at his church, discovering how tone and texture shape emotional experience. During high school he ran sound for local gigs, followed musician friends from venue to venue, and completed a two-year theater internship that exposed him to the nuance of live storytelling. At 20 he moved to New York City, where the scale and pace of the industry accelerated his growth.

While working concert sound at Terminal 5, he met Broadway sound designer Brian Ronan, who became a mentor and introduced him to the world of professional theater. Cody assisted Ronan on American Idiot in 2010, which led to roles on productions including Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Mean Girls, The Book of Mormon, and Annie. These years shaped his ability to build sonic environments with emotional intention and technical finesse.

L-Acoustics Collaboration and Broadway Innovation

Cody’s work took a transformative turn as he began collaborating with L-Acoustics. In 2023 he became the first sound designer to implement L-Acoustics LISA immersive spatial audio on Broadway with Here Lies Love. The production treated the entire room as a fluid sonic environment. Sound traveled with performers, responded to movement, and created a sense of presence that shifted with the energy of the show. The design earned Cody a Tony Award nomination and expanded the creative vocabulary of Broadway audio.

His work with L-Acoustics deepened in 2024 with The Outsiders, which became a milestone for both his career and the possibilities of spatial storytelling. Cody approached the production with a focus on physicality and emotional density. L-ISA allowed him to create sonic motion that felt inseparable from the world of the characters. Fights gained weight through spatially traveling impacts. Storms rolled across the theatre with layered field recordings shaped through immersive processing. Quiet conversations felt intimate through precise, location specific placement that pulled audiences into the emotional center of a moment.

Much of the show’s power came from Cody’s commitment to authentic sound capture. He recorded natural elements, resonant spaces, and environmental textures that reflected the rawness of the story. These sources, transformed through L-ISA, created an atmosphere that felt grounded in lived experience. The result was a sound design celebrated for its immediacy and emotional clarity. Cody received the Tony Award for Best Sound Design for his work on the production.

A Creative Approach

Cody continues to rely on original field recordings rather than stock libraries, collecting sounds that carry personal and emotional specificity. His archive ranges from the cry of his newborn niece to the metallic hum of isolated tunnels, wind patterns across open fields, and countless subtle textures discovered during handheld recording sessions. These recordings form the vocabulary of his designs and shape the emotional resonance of his productions. He is currently developing several new theatrical projects that are integrating immersive sound from the earliest stages. He is consulting with creative teams who are exploring how L-Acoustics technology can enhance direction, choreography, and scenic concepts before rehearsals even begin. Beyond Broadway, he is working on hybrid performance pieces, installation driven audio environments, and collaborations with artists experimenting with narrative sound outside traditional theater frameworks.

A Living Philosophy of Sound

For Cody, sound is a living organism that shifts with character, movement, and emotion. His continuing partnership with L-Acoustics reflects a shared belief in the expressive potential of immersive audio. Whether he is shaping the rush of an approaching train or the fragile quiet of an intimate confession, Spencer builds sonic environments that envelop audiences in a world where every shift, gesture, and breath becomes part of the storytelling, expanding what theatre can communicate through sound.

Photos by Kevin Condon photography