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Gender in the Workplace

 

 

A Nonbinary Individual’s Foray into Corporate A.V.

Part 3: Religious Intersectionality

 

Since writing my last blog post, a lot has changed. Namely, I no longer work at the A.V. company that I mentioned before. To be frank, the misgendering and discriminatory practices became too much to handle, and I needed a way out.

Before I left, there were unfortunately a few more instances of transphobia, and worryingly, antisemitism that I faced.

Our A.V. team would always work with other teams to make the corporate world function. A.V. would set up and coordinate projectors, laptops, internet (whether WiFi or Ethernet,), sound boards, microphones, lights, you name it. We were on the tech side of the event sphere. The banquet team would prepare and serve food, the sales team would budget and interact with the clients, and the arrangements team would set up chairs, tables, and stages for each event. My main problems always seemed to arise from arrangements.

The arrangements team was all-male. I find this worthy of note for a variety of reasons, but primarily that it had created a work environment that lacked any diverse perspective, and as such, created a “locker room” environment (borrowing words from Justice Kavanaugh here.) This meant, in their case, that there was no wariness of verbiage among them, and they felt free to say whatever was on their minds without fear of repercussion. In one particular instance, I found myself in the Great American Hall with the arrangements team and one of my A.V. coworkers. We were folding drapes, and as the arrangements staffer rolled in a table, he was loudly complaining about millennial women. Of course, I turned an ear in. The Great American Hall is a very large space, which is worthy of note because even as he walked past me, he was talking to his coworkers across the space. Once again, I felt very ignored. This would have been fine had he been discussing work, or shared stories with his coworkers, or even movies or music. However, when he’s loudly talking about women’s rights (yes, specifically that we belong in the kitchen making him dinner! So original,) I find myself unable to keep quiet.

In response to his complaint, I uttered a quick “Oh, I just love working in a hostile sexist workplace, don’t you?” to my male A.V. coworker. He looked at me with wide and concerned eyes. A hush fell over the entire hall, and I felt my perceived female invisibility vanish in an instant. Eyes were on me as I continued working like nothing had happened. Later that hour, as I had moved on to another task, I heard one of the arrangements team start to make a joke about how Starbucks is only for women. He then paused, looked directly at me, and then said “Well. Let’s just say, my wife likes it more than us guys, huh?” I rolled my eyes and continued my task, thinking to myself that the group of them probably won’t even remember this conversation. But I will. I have to. If we could so easily forget discrimination, perhaps life would be easier, but as it is, I will never forget how it feels to be mocked and talked down to.

Another member of the arrangements staff found it funny to torment me at length. Somehow, he found out my dead name and thought it was really funny to constantly refer to me as that at work. I tried to tell him this upset me, and that I didn’t find it funny. When I expressed that, another arrangements employee approached me, saying that his coworker was only making fun of me because I reacted, and that I should be less hurt! I balked at those words. I distinctly remember looking into his eyes, and saying “But I am hurt.” Clearly, this didn’t matter, as the toment didn’t stop.

Since leaving the A.V. company, I began work at a small theatre, Civic, located in the West End of Allentown. I wish I could say the misgendering instantly ceased, but even with short hair and a gender neutral presentation, I am still often referred to with she/her pronouns. What brings me comfort, though, is that the strangely passive-aggressive comments and debaters trying to engage me have all but completely ended. In theatre, someone might mess up your pronouns, but most seem to believe and understand you when you say you’re not cis. I am no longer responsible for explaining my reasoning for being, and that is such a relaxor.

On one of my last days at the A.V. company, I was not only asked to explain my gender but also my religion. I don’t find myself talking about my Jewish identity much. I wear a Star of David pendant most days and occasionally will wear my Star of David earrings. I will request off for major holidays, but other than that, I tend not to discuss it. Throughout my time working there, I was met with different levels of acceptance from my coworkers, and I learned that sometimes even the most vocal supporters are the ones with something to hide.

The older gentleman I mentioned last month, with the staunch antimask and climate denial beliefs, was quite the offender of that. As Chanukkah approached, he purchased a small LED menorah to keep in the office, and would have me light it each morning (I worked from 6 AM to 4 PM usually.) He seemed to take great pride in that. But on one of the last days of the holiday, the governor of PA, Josh Shapiro, was holding a Zoom meeting in one of our meeting rooms. I wanted to wish him a chag hanukkah sameach, or a Happy Chanukah. I mentioned to my coworker how important to me it was that we had a Jewish political leader, as we’ve never had a president who is anything but Christian. After that chat, he pulled me aside privately, and told me that “my people are plenty well-represented in government.” Oh. I left this conversation shocked– did he just imply to me that he thought Jews ran the world?

I was still working at this workplace during the Oct. 7 events that preceded Netanyahu’s siege of the Gaza Strip. Four separate coworkers tried to debate me about this, as well, like it was something that I had a personal stake in. I tried my best to explain that I’m against murder and war in any way and that by being an American Jew my experience and opinions were likely vastly different than a Jew living in Israel. But I kept being talked over. I left that conversation less shocked. Clearly, they didn’t actually want my opinion, but rather my ear and my time. They wanted my validation of their beliefs, with me simply being a token Jew, and a token female Jew at that– meant to sit quietly and agree. Fantastic.

The most egregious case of antisemitism came from a coworker named John. I feel less afraid to name him specifically, as he was well-known throughout the workplace for being a poor worker and an entitled, arrogant person. No conversation with him would last five minutes without him mentioning that he’d been in the industry thirty-five years (a number he kept inflating, as if we wouldn’t notice,) or that he knew better than his coworkers, despite his constant errors that would delay the team on a near-daily basis. As such, nobody wanted to work with John. Since I was young and quite a pushover, I was often assigned to work alongside him.

John would often try to teach me as if I were a young protegee and he was a grandmaster. The largest flaw in this was that he’d try to teach me the same few things over and over again, seemingly forgetting what he’d taught me before. Much like with my unwillingness to correct people on my pronouns, I found myself unwilling to correct this, either, and just go along with learning what he’d shown me before.

On my very last shift with John, he pulled the card he’d seemingly been waiting to pull: he asked me why I didn’t take work off for the Sabbath.

In today’s gig economy, it’s very hard to become an established professional. I want to be a sound engineer, so I will have to work Friday night performances. It may be a bit of a sore spot for me, yes, but I’m more than happy attending my Rabbi in Selinsgrove’s online services on Saturday mornings. To grow my career in this field, that is a necessary sacrifice. John wasn’t content with this answer.

Somehow, he began on a tangent about how he believed Jews were very controlling. I was very stricken to hear this. That is a common antisemitic talking point, and I didn’t want to stand for that. Of course, I didn’t. I tried to defend myself, but he kept talking over me. It was another weird circumstance where I wasn’t being talked to, but rather talked at– he didn’t care what input I had, only what he had to say. Whether he was holding on to this protegee notion or simply seeing me as “only a woman” (re: lesser and subservient,) I wasn’t sure. But I did leave that conversation seething at the hypocrisy. He’d just told me a good deal about his form of Christianity, and I couldn’t help but think: isn’t this a double standard? You call Jews controlling, but will happily turn a blind eye to Evangelical suffering in small communities, brought on by a controlling leader where no child is allowed to be different or they will be sent to hell? It is just all so convenient. If you shame the target (in this case, Jews,) for something your own religion struggles with, it will shift the focus and conversation away from your own issues, and perpetrate a stereotype that’s been in effect for decades. It’s the same scapegoat blame that has followed the Jewish people for generations.

Before I end this blog post, I want to take a moment to derail my own conversation. I want to say, unequivocally, that I stand with Palestine. It took some processing immediately following the music festival attack, but whatever supposed retribution Netanyahu has taken is so beyond the scope of that one day. Over 30,000 people have been killed by the IDF, and that number is only increasing daily. Gazans have been told to flee to the South, where they were then bombed. They were told to flee to Rafah, which was then bombed. Some of the poorest people in the world are being herded like cattle, where a mass extinction event is unfolding. What is occurring is not a take-down of a terror organization, as many U.S. Citizens would like to paint the issue. Civilians are starving to death in the largest numbers since the Holocaust, and to see my people perpetuate that cycle is so maddening and heartbreaking that I cannot truly put it into words.

I may have faced heightened antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, but it is nothing compared to the militaristic US-sponsored hell that Israel is invoking on Palestinian civilians currently. If you have taken the time to read this far in my humble blog, I ask, from the bottom of my heart, to donate where you can. There isn’t much one person can do, as I’m woefully aware, but as a union of individuals, we can change the world.

I am linking multiple GoFundMe pages from disenfranchised Palestinians. Please, if you have the means, donate what you can.

Christina Masha Milinusic – Sound Engineer and Audio Educator

Christina Masha Milinusic is a seasoned professional with 20 years of experience in Live Sound, Recording, Location Sound Recording, and Audio Education. As the owner of Unity Sound, Christina has contributed her expertise to various institutions, including the City of Calgary, the Calgary Stampede, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, Mount Royal University, The Grand Theatre, and Stage West. Currently a member of IATSE #212, Christina is also a Sessional Instructor in Digital Audio Arts at the University of Lethbridge, specializing in technical ear training.

As a teenager, I organized and mixed all-ages shows with “Just a Bunch of Kids,” a non-profit formed by a group of alternative-minded youths passionate about music. Despite being a homeschooled ballerina from the suburbs, I felt a magnetic connection to the established punk/no-wave/indie scene at the Multicultural Centre in Calgary’s East Village.

In my early 20s, I was offered the install and house tech position at the Broken City Social Club in downtown Calgary (now Modern Love), where I had the privilege of mixing some truly incredible bands. This period marked a turning point as doing sound was a job that provided me with the means to move out and support myself.

Entering my 30s, I was employed full-time as an Electronics Technician for the Calgary Stampede. Here, I earned respect as an audio professional and was recognized as a capable member of the events team. This position brought an awareness that I have forged a successful career and have unique skills that contribute to the field of audio and sound community.

Career Start

How did you get interested in audio?

My journey was sparked by my lifelong fascination with the theremin—an entirely non-mechanical electronic instrument that is played by manipulating the electromagnetic field it generates, much like a radio using a heterodyned circuit. Imagine dancing or, more commonly, as most theremin players stand very still, moving your hands very precisely in the air to produce music. Being an integral part of an electronic circuit while playing is a fabulously connective experience that ignited my interest early on.

My fascination with the science and art of sound extends beyond my instrument of choice. I continually deepen my knowledge through a combination of in-person and online training courses. I’ve attended classes with Meyer Sound and Robert Scovill at the Banff Centre, participated in the AES Immersive Audio Academy, Jon Halliwell’s Audio System Engineering class, and most recently completed PK Sound Dynamics Training where I learned about robotic line arrays.

Did music and audio interest you while you were growing up?

Yes, as a child my siblings and I put on plays and dance recitals in our basement. I was always listening and dancing to 33 and 45-rpm records on our little Strawberry Shortcake record player. We all played piano, but my brother was an exceptional talent. When he entered grade eight of the Royal Conservatory curricula, our family bought a baby grand piano for him. I still can recall an internalized reverberation of the sound; I would sit underneath the piano listening to him practice and feeling the soundboard resonating… perhaps getting up to watch the strings vibrate and hammers move. As a teenager, my older sister (who went on to host a radio show in Sackville, New Brunswick during her university years) and her cultured, cool friends (who are also still some of our best friends), introduced me to a lot of great music like Guided by Voices and Sonic Youth… my list of favorite music is long and groovy.

Did you attend a University/College/Trade School?

Yes, I studied Liberal Arts, Cultural Studies, and Psychology for my undergraduate degree at York University, St. Mary’s University, and the University of Calgary, earning an Honors Bachelor of Arts in 2015. I recently completed my Master’s degree with a focus on Digital Audio Arts at the University of Lethbridge, graduating this past October.

How did your early internships or jobs help build a foundation for where you are now?

I had an invective experience as an unpaid intern at an analog recording studio in my late 20s and early 30s. I became good at soldering, recording session preparation, and strike, as well as tea-making. It was a rare opportunity to listen to some gorgeous analog gear that shaped and altered my way of listening forever. I discovered a deeper layer of existence that supported the sounds I heard in venues, and found an awareness of the electronic components hidden under the surface of equipment.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

During another internship at an audiology clinic, I learned about human hearing and the importance of protecting our (and our audiences’) ears. While navigating this clinical environment, I discovered that my aptitude for, and interest in, cleaning out earwax was negligible. Additionally, my unique hearing preferences became apparent—I require more precise equalization parameters than most hearing aids offer, with a minimum requirement of 1/3 octave bands.

Did you have a mentor or someone that helped you?

I am blessed to have a distinguished and diverse group of friends and colleagues in my life, from whom I continually learn. Two individuals, Fred Boehli in technical services and Ronan McGurk, a systems technician, stand out as particularly supportive sound professionals who have been working with me for decades. A wonderful byproduct of working across various companies over the years has been the opportunity to absorb the different workflows utilized for both live events and recordings. For instance, the way I structure input and output routing on a console varies significantly depending on whether I am at FOH mixing a live broadcast with multiple media and record feeds, or am the monitor technician for bands.

Career Now

What is a typical day like? 

My schedule fluctuates. Today I have a noon-hour concert, a short shift, but many of my days are very long, 10-14 hours. Weekends may find me working from 6:00 pm to 2:00 am, followed by early starts at 6:00 am on certain weekdays. On days when I am not on a live event or recording, I am in my home studio preparing lectures for my technical ear training class which involves making presentations, grading, designing laboratory activities, as well as organizing resources to empower my students in their career endeavors.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?  

The equipment, the spaces, and the camaraderie with people I work for and with.

What do you like least? 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the same three elements. While I have a preference for mixing on real consoles with physical knobs and faders, there are situations where using an iPad/tablet with its skeuomorphisms is the optimal choice. Years ago, I encountered a few colleagues who were hesitant to communicate and share gig-related information with me, which created challenges, particularly when assumptions were made—that behavior ranks high on my ‘least liked’ list. Additionally, discovering broken or unreliable gear that lacks proper labeling and is subsequently put back into ‘service’ is particularly displeasing.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

I am getting better at making a deliberate effort to rest and rejuvenate on days off. I find joy in creating art, heading to the mountains with my partner and our pup, attending shows, catching up on sleep, cooking, reading, or playing the theremin along to my favorite songs.

What are your short-term goals?

Now that I’ve graduated, my short-term goal is to work full-time with a fantastic team dedicated to delivering exceptional performances and sonic experiences. I believe in my capability to work in various settings, whether in live environments, recording studios, or on set. My preference is to consistently work with professional consoles and PA systems, allowing me to quicken my response time and develop a more meticulous workflow.

What are your long-term goals?

My long-term goals are ambitious. I aspire to become a go-to mixer for the bands I admire and work as a member of the audio teams for prominent Calgary venues like the Saddledome, Jubilee, and Jack Singer Concert Hall.

On a more artistic note, I envision controlling spatial audio systems using my theremin, leveraging new and developing technologies. As a service-minded sound professional, I want to contribute meaningfully to the audio community, producing engaging recordings and sound art that showcase collaborative efforts. Another aim is to become ‘Dr. Sound’ through a potential Ph.D., exploring how sound, a profoundly physical energy, may shape human perception.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

I hold myself to very high standards, grappling with self-deprecation, lack of confidence, and periods of intense depression. While facing numerous challenges, some shared by fellow sound professionals, I recognize that my self-treatment has been the most significant obstacle.

How have you dealt with them? 

I maintain a mindful practice where I actively correct negative self-talk and consistently remind myself to extend the same kindness and encouragement to myself as I do to others.

Advice you have for other women and young women who wish to enter the field? 

Go for it! You have the potential to be brilliant and successful in this field.

Just start where you are and keep learning, maintaining gratitude and humility throughout your journey.

I am immensely grateful to SoundGirls for its existence, connecting me with inspiring women who triumph over challenges and stand as crucial role models. Being part of this community is a true honor, and I am exceedingly humbled by the experience.

Small Venue Survival Guide Part 2

The sound check and gig – and what is in my bag

Welcome to part 2 of my small venue survival guide, or all the little things I wish someone had told me when I set out on this journey. The tips in this guide should hopefully help you own the small venue gig, rather than the small venue gig owning you.

YOU CAN READ PART ONE HERE

If you have followed the steps described in part 1, then you should by now have a desk and sound system that kind of works, or at least you have figured out what works and what doesn’t and have prepared a few workarounds. You have set up several mics and have sorted out feedback. There are some basic effects dialled into your desk and you have a vague idea about what number of musicians to expect on stage and with what kind of instruments. Now the bands have arrived and it’s time to sound check.

First, introduce yourself: “Hello I’m So And So and I’m doing your sound tonight”. It makes everything a bit less impersonal and helps everyone understand that yes, you are the sound engineer, not the wardrobe or the bar person or something. Get the performers’ names and write them down somewhere, that’s a nice touch. At this point, I take a moment to go over the tech specs with the band. Again. Because the riders will be wrong. Also, bands and touring engineers often seem to be in a hurry at this point. I try to avoid that and like to take the time to go over things – properly. How then do you do that? My trick is…..coffee. Or tea. It helps to keep the people in one place. Make a cup of something hot and offer it to whoever wants one, especially whoever you need to talk to.

Then, take out your input list that you’ve printed out in part 1, lay it out, and go over it point by point and channel by channel. Taking the time to go over this properly somehow helps to set a different pace for the rest of the night compared to rushing through things. That time you checked how many channels you have on your desk that work, where the dodgy ones are, and where you can’t fit your active DIs?

Now is when this comes in handy. Band shows up with a 48 channel count but you only have 18 and a half that are usable? Time to discuss whether that snare needs two mics or if everyone needs two wedges, etc. Go over it and make sure it all fits and what should be adapted. Once established keep your input list on you all the time. Take a photo of it (you’ll immediately lose it somewhere). And have some spare ones.

Once your final number of inputs and sends is decided on, proceed to mic’ing up the rest of the instruments. If you’ve come prepared as per Small Venue Guide 1, you already have some mics out, with their stands and working cables ready. Sometimes in a very small venue mic’ing up will be just kick, vocals, and whatever is electronic. Figure out what approach your venue size calls for and what the sound system can deliver. If you’ve got limited power, put the least amount of inputs through it and try to keep backline noise down. The more power you have, and the larger the place, the more you’ll be able to run through the PA. Label any cable that may be unplugged and swapped around for something else at any point in the evening. It saves you a lot of headaches.

In small venues with no clear headliner, I sometimes sound check in order of appearance. Especially if the bands share backline. Make do with whatever band members are there and just check more instruments as people arrive. I can often get away with sound-checking only one band. Also, in that case, and if bands are similar, I find it counterproductive to create a scene for each band, as often the mix gets better during the first gig and I don’t want to return to a scene of how things were left just after sound check. In that case, I work “the analog way”. I make sure everything is on the surface in one single scene, even if that means some faders are muted and unused. The one downside of this is that guitar amps may get turned up or down by different bands, which can mean you’ll have to do gain adjustments which will have some impact, see below, on monitors.

I tend to try to start sound-check with vocals and keep vocal mics open during soundcheck. Since in small venues, everything is so close together, vocal mics will pick up everything else on stage, from guitars to cymbals. Kick drum can be feeding back through a vocal mic that was not hi-passed high enough. There is plenty of reverb on the drums just from what is picked up by the vocal mics.

Getting the vocals above the band racket is usually the biggest issue in small venues. Your gig volume is determined by the loudest instrument on stage, which usually is the drums. Or, well, guitars. But guitars can be turned down – although that sometimes involves extended negotiation…. or threats. Regarding this, however, there is a good trick which is to point their cabinet right at the guitarist and raise it from the floor. I also try to send some of the guitars to monitors so that they can keep amp levels a bit lower. But, with drums, you can’t do that. (I have a trick up my sleeve and it is called… Cympads. Now these little things have saved more little venue gigs than I can think of. And sometimes even bigger ones. I can’t think of enough occasions where there would have been no chance whatsoever for anyone to hear even a hint of the vocals if it wasn’t for….Cympads. They are little rubber things that dampen and shorten the ring of cymbals so that drummers can bash away at their heart’s desire and ….magic happens … you can still hear vocals.)

In a small venue, you will also invariably be doing monitors from FOH. Here the trick is clear communication. I often tell performers how I’d like them to tell me what they want. Typically, that would be “point at what you want, and then show me whether you want it up or down”. It is also a good idea to give them a bit of monitors of what you think they’ll need before you ask each musician what they want. At the minimum, for vocalists, it will be some of themselves. Guitars often want to hear other guitars and the bassist and drummer like to be able to hear each other.

When you do monitors from FOH  one important aspect to remember is that everything you’ll do to your gains will affect what is being sent to individual monitors as well. One trick that some do is to copy some channels and make them dedicated monitor channels, with their settings. Which is sometimes good, sometimes a faff. If you don’t do that then you need to remember that every time you put your gain up volume will go up in the monitor too. And when you put your gain down, the opposite will happen. With that in mind, one thing I insist on is for keyboard players – or anything electronic – to have their master volume at least ¾ if not all the way up. I’ve had the unpleasant experience of finding out what happens if some keyboard has their master volume setting inadvertently changed from very low to very high between sound check and gig. Unfortunately, on that particular occasion, the keyboard player was also the lead vocalist and not someone buried in the mix, and … well….essentially the whole gig was about them. And chaos ensued. Trying to figure out on the fly how to compensate for the difference to the original gain setting so that it fits both your FOH mix again and what you were sending to mons while the whole band gesticulates at you and 300 heads look the wrong way… it’s not a good feeling. Tell keyboard players to have their master volume up at least three-quarters.

And finally, don’t forget that a full room will sound very different from the empty room you did your sound check. This has good aspects to it as feedback will be a lot more forgiving. On the other hand, some stuff may sound different. As your gig starts, walk around a bit to get an idea of how it sounds in other places, and …..enjoy your gig. You’re the pilot and your journey into sound is slowly taking off!

In part 3 we will talk about what’s in my bag, and all the little titbits that will keep things running smoothly, get you out of trouble, and make you the hero of the day, from Torx screwdrivers to drum keys via slow blow fuses…

Next: Small venue survival guide – Part 3: What’s in my bag

Gertie Steinacker started in live sound, after working in production for several festivals, about 15 years ago in Switzerland, attending a 2-year course and then working in local venues. Later on, music production became the priority but a few years ago she got sucked back into being behind a mixer again. Her time is now split between live sound, translation work, trying to finish a Ph.D., and music production.

You can currently find her at FOH or on monitors in various venues around London and Sheffield such as the 100 Club and the Foundry as well as working with several independent and underground promoters.

Deep Fakes, Weapon Printing, and Virtual Reality

“The sky is like a bad dream and the earth is in cahoots.” The Drones

 

I’m not talking about sound or music today because I’m scared. Here are three anxieties I want to share with you:

In 2020, Taiwanese YouTuber Chu Yu-Chen ran an extraordinary Telegram group. The group was called “Taiwan Internet Celebrities”. To join, you only had to pay an entrance fee of between 100NT and 400NT (around 10 USD). It was a boys club, rich with bad taste misogynistic Trump-flavored language, and an eerie, implicit pact of silence. Now and then, a voting poll would be issued: “Which celebrities’ porn video you want to see next?”. After the voting, Chu would get to work and deep fake the celebrities’ faces into a porn video. It took him and his business partner around a day to render realistic enough content, but they would keep the gears running non-stop with both celebrity and non-celebrity videos that you could commission for an extra fee. All of this happened without the victims’ knowledge and consent, of course, and it was a matter of time before these videos were leaked outside of the Telegram group and the victims saw them. Chu Yu-Chen was sued for it in April 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison in 2023 for the nonconsensual creation of deep fake porn videos of 119 victims. Some of the victims were celebrities, others were women targeted by their exes for revenge porn and some were unsuspecting women preyed upon by obsessed acquaintances.

In 2024, OpenAI unveiled Sora and its incredible capabilities to create hyper-realistic 1-minute long videos from a text prompt with a render time of about an hour.

In May 2013, the first 3d printed handgun was fired in a shooting range in Austin, Texas. It was called Liberator and was capable of firing 8-10 rounds before breaking, but most builds exploded into pieces on the first shot. The distribution of its 3d models challenged gun control laws around the globe; if you had a 3d printer, you could print the undetectable and deadly Liberator. Since then, stricter regulation has been passed in several countries and states, but the gun printing community has only grown stronger. In 2020, the FGC-9 was released. Its initials stand for “Fuck Gun Control”. It’s an open-source, 3d printable, semi-automatic 9mm carbine developed by Deterrence Dispensed, whose alleged sympathy for the United States far-right movements like the Boogaloo Boys is hinted by the naming of some of their weapon designs (like the Yankee Boogle, an AR-15 mod that makes the all-time favorite weapon for mass shooters a fully automatic rifle). In the words of the FGC-9 creator, Jacob Duygu: “You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you’re capable of great violence. If you’re not capable of violence you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless”.

Back in the mid-90s you only saw executives and CEOs using mobile phones on the street, and as kids we would shout “Buy! Buy! Sell!” in Catalan, trying to make fun of the likely high-rise office investor and its gimmicky gadget. Fast-forward a few years and we were all sending SMS to each other. Today’s sci-fi shout-funny-things-to-whoever-wears-it tool is either the Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest Pro. Videos making fun of people wearing these headsets in public are trending on TikTok and Instagram. Fast-forward a few years from now and we’ll surely Black Mirror our way into Virtual Reality. It could be argued that we’re already there, with more and more cases of harassment and assaults being reported in virtual chat rooms and games, the most notable and infuriating being the alleged gang rape of a minor in January 2024.

The world is fast turning into a sci-fi bad dream, full of technological wonders beyond our 90s kid imagination that come with an overlooked dark side. One could argue that, for example, gun printing tools give communities a fighting chance against oppression, like Myanmar’s rebels against the 2021 military coup d’état and current Junta. But whenever I’m tempted to condone a tool created by an alleged incel like Duygu, praise Meta’s virtual landscapes, or celebrate yet another AI mastering tool… I don’t know, I get an itch a sudden need to go to a nearby forest, sit on a rock, listen to the birds, and read Audre Lorde.

Judit K. (Barcelona, 1984) is a restless musician in constant transformation with a passion for glitchy, noisy, loud and almost annoying sounds. She’s been playing keyboards with Obsidian Kingdom from 2016 to 2021 and now is the girl behind the synths in Lys Morke. She’s also a solo artist working on her second album SAFO.EXE, a reinterpretation of Safo’s poetry from the end of the world. She combines her passion for music with feminist and lgtbiq+ activism. You can find her sharing musical and political content (and selfies, bc why not) on instagram: @_juditk

In the Zone

Mental health has become a significant topic of discussion among peers in the years following the pandemic. As we gear up for new shows and tours, we must continue these conversations. It matters for getting us through long tours, and for navigating our time off the road as well. Aside from these obvious benefits, taking care of myself and developing professional routines helps me with my creative endeavors as an engineer, and ensuring I’m in prime condition gives me notable advantages to help deliver a quality show every night. I’m going to take time in this next article to highlight some actionable steps I take to feel like I’m able to achieve focus and be in the zone during a show.

Just like an athlete has to visualize their success and optimize themselves for a big game, we should also take into consideration routines and activities that help us achieve peak performance. The goal is to not necessarily think about the music, but rather to feel it and jive with it, so what steps can we take to help us achieve this?

Routines

Developing personal practices to improve your physical and mental well-being can help maximize the outcome of the show.

You can start exploring what works for you by talking with your friends and family on the road and back home, and by visiting the plethora of wellness resources available to us in these communities.  It takes time to develop this skill, especially if you’re not already pre-dispositioned for the lifestyle or if you struggle with mental health.

Personal care is important. Figure out sleep routines, food, and proper care for your feet. You don’t want to feel physically or mentally unwell when they call “Go for show.” Take care of your coworkers, also. You all operate as a unit, after all.

Technical Considerations

Prep and rehearsal time should be used wisely to help you optimize your day. I work closely with the audio provider and audio team to make sure we have all the necessary tools to have the rig well-suited to what I need, accommodating for potential lack of space in some venues and maximizing efficiency. I find it best to prep my control package myself so I know each detail is at its full potential and I can roll into show day and set up with little hesitation. My workbox is sorted and my cases are well labeled. My world is also set up comfortably in a way that allows me to have access to necessary personnel during the show.

I’ve spent considerable time making sure I take time to elevate my system tuning skills and understand the jargon fluently. I include as many tools in my FOH package as possible so I can quickly tune a system; wireless units such as Lectrosonics have been immensely beneficial in letting me tune quickly in theaters and arenas alike. I’ve developed a target curve that’s appropriate for the show I mix and for my ear, and have an expectation for an SPL target every day. We’ll explore this in depth later in a future article.

Mixing can be similar to a performance. If you’re a musician, you understand how critical it is to internalize the details. If you’re in the creative hot seat, you need to know the music inside and out so you can relax and enjoy yourself, and start thinking about the music rather than the sound. We have a unique role and it’s vital for us to help deliver a seamless, distraction-free show. Learning how to master the catalog is different for everyone; I’ll also dive into this in greater detail later.

The Bigger Picture

Making sure you’ve taken steps to minimize errors is crucial. Personally, my least favorite shows are usually subjective and stem from a lack of comfort. The show always goes on, but the nightly responsibility is to always try and exceed my expectations and help deliver a stellar show as often as possible. Being timid or apprehensive during the show reflects in the mix when you miss solos or fader pushes, or are slow to resolve issues. Proper personal and technical preparation before the show can address many of these challenges.

Gender in the Workplace Part 2

A Nonbinary Individual’s Foray into Corporate A.V.

I think my boss gave up on trying to remember my pronouns.

It started about two weeks in. During the hiring and application process, as well as preliminary training, I could tell he was trying. But after seeing how my other coworkers could skirt past it, I suppose he figured he could, too.

I don’t mean any harm to any of my coworkers, I would like to point out. The two 62-year-old guys’ guys can’t be held to the same standard as I could hold a Gen-Z’er with similar political ideologies to me. I don’t hold it against them, as I’m simply chronicling my experience in this line of work. But, and I mean this from the heart, I don’t want to work somewhere where I’m not seen as myself.

My entire A.V. team consists of men, with one exception. Since my transfem coworker quit, there’s only myself and one woman who bucks the trend. She’s a 26-year-old with a music degree and left-leaning views and sees herself as on the older end of Gen-Z. As you can imagine, she’s been my light in the dark during the harder days. She’s fairly consistent with getting my pronouns correct, as well, which is encouraging, especially seeing that I don’t think anyone else has tried.

I have a pin on my messenger bag that reads, in all capital letters, “MY PRONOUNS ARE THEM/THEY.” I’m not entirely sure why the order is them/they instead of they/them, but it’s an important object to me either way. I bought it at Lancaster Pride, back in 2017. I was just figuring myself out at the time. I waited until my friends were out of sight, and then purchased it with cash while nobody was looking. There was a sense of shame about it that I don’t feel anymore. But anyway, I bring this bag with me to work every day. And, believe it or not, this has caused some issues.

I’ve had three different coworkers try to “debate” me about my gender identity like each man somehow knew better than I did.

Those conversations were weird, to say the least, and deeply uncomfortable. The first of which was with an anti-mask climate change denier, so you can imagine how that went. His father and grandfather before him were upper-class white rural farmers. There was a disconnect in the way we were raised, and I think that that makes conversation with him trying at times. Mainly because he’s a man who doesn’t listen to science, not unless it supports his already deeply ingrained beliefs. In all his wisdom, he told me there are only two sexes, like this was somehow news to me. It was as if he genuinely believed I’d gone through over twenty years of life without knowing about chromosomes, and that they were the only basis of gender identity. I mentioned intersex individuals, and then he proceeded to ask me if I was one. Since I am not, he told me that I must be a woman.

The second conversation was with an intelligent guy from Baltimore, about in the same age range as the first fellow I mentioned. We were sitting in a Vietnam War memorial service and luncheon, held in the event center we work at. He and I were stationed at a tech table off to the side. I always really respected this coworker, as he’d had the most experience in the A.V. business. We were talking about history, and eventually, that conversation evolved into talking about the history of race and gender in the Vietnam War era. He is a black man, and he was specifically talking about the terminology used at the time. He mentioned that African American wasn’t a term they used at the time, and he expressed his distaste for it, seeing as he’d never even been to Africa. He was simply American, and he was black. The intersection where those two adjectives met is how he described himself– an intersectional identity.

He then brought up how the way he wore his hair, at the time, drastically changed others’ perception of him. On this topic, I mentioned that I felt the same. People didn’t readily assume I was nonbinary until I cut my hair. I enjoyed wearing my hair in long blonde curls, but it was easier to be nonbinary with short hair. People were able to clock me as queer, and it made the constant coming out a lot easier for me. That’s one thing to note about nonbinary identities– there’s a constant need to come out to be recognized. Hence the pins: it’s a way to be seen and respected without having to constantly address my identity. It’s a good thing, too, because that gets old quickly. My coworker then mentioned the pin on my bag and asked me what being nonbinary meant to me. I was taken a little aback by this, but given the deep nature of our conversation, I answered.

“To me, gender is a protest,” I said, trying to boil down years of study, a complex understanding of gender constructs, and Western societal tradition into one simple sentence. “I was told that, due to something about my body that I can’t change, I had to fit into a certain mold. I had to only spend time with girls, I had to worry about hiding my acne with makeup constantly, and I had to dress a certain way that identified me as a member of a certain sex. Girls were taught in school that they must hide their shoulders, lest they cause a man to stumble. Girls were told they should stay in the kitchen and live to serve men. It’s been less than a century since women were granted the ability to work, and even now wages don’t line up. We are all people, all the same, and I reject the idea that our anatomy somehow makes us inherently different. I believe, deep down, that we’re all the same species, and that our genders aren’t as important in our lives as society has taught us to believe.”

He then changed the topic to religion, and how his religion separated men and women. I felt my eyes gloss over as I listened to the same argument I’d heard a million times, that somehow, the creator made women the submissive, subservient sex. And you know what? I just don’t think that’s true. But agree to disagree, right? It was hurtful, but I wasn’t going to refute his opinion on the “debate” of my identity. He has worked here for over a decade. I’m not going to lose my job over this.

Y’know, this sort of thing doesn’t happen when I’m working in theatre. Before this A.V. gig, I was working at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival as a sound engineer, just outside of Allentown, PA. It was such an eye-opening experience as to what the workplace could be. We were on a tight schedule, but my coworkers and I were always on the same page. I was left in charge of things once I felt comfortable, and there were always other LGBTQ+ individuals not too far away. I felt like a respected and responsible member of the team. It’s weird how something like respect can significantly alter the work environment. Here, in the A.V. position I hold now, I don’t feel as confident or self-assured. When working with coworkers here, I am talked over and talked down to, as if I don’t understand the things I studied at a collegiate level. I am very infrequently scheduled onboard op positions, despite that being my strength, as there’s always a guy “manning” the board. Even though my female coworker is in a managerial role, she’s still treated as if she were at the bottom of the totem pole.

So, I beg the question, is sexism the root of transphobia? In my experience, well. It’s starting to seem so.

Gender in the Workplace – Part 1

A Nonbinary Individual’s Foray into Corporate A.V.

Being nonbinary in central Pennsylvania provides a unique set of challenges, to say the least. I’m very proud of my identity as an enby, and have been out for over half a decade. That doesn’t necessarily mean that things have been easy, though.

I graduated college in Selinsgrove, PA last year, and it was very fascinating the difference in treatment I received across different departments. I was a very dedicated and busy student. I worked four jobs at one point in my college career, mostly in the realm of sound. I was known as “The Sound Guy” around the school. When I was working sound for the theatre, respect for my gender identity was a no-brainer. I remember introducing myself to a professor as the sound guy, and immediately he asked me my pronouns. Everyone was accepting, and in fact, all four of the other sound engineers in the program identified as nonbinary as well—go figure! It was always easy to be myself, and the professors were always respectful of their students in this manner. Music, however, was a different story.

I went to a classical music college, and the vast majority of my education followed the history and musical literature of old, Christian, and largely successful white men. (Shoutout to Hildegard von Bingam and Clara Schubert for bucking the trend, but they were the exception, not the rule.) I feel like this male-centric mindset really purveyed into the minds of faculty and students, even if it was subliminal. This old-school classical mentality meant that there were very few professors who really cared to respect my pronouns, no matter how many times I gently corrected them, or signed an email with (they/them) under my name. It didn’t change. To them, if I looked like a woman, I was one.

I remember when I first started at my job in Hershey. Much like my college experience, I was living in central PA and was still trying to find a workplace that was accepting of my gender identity. When I began, HR and management were very open to using my pronouns correctly, at least during the hiring process. That being said, I’m not a person who’s completely committed to correcting every misgendering slip I hear. I’m aware of the negative stereotyping surrounding that, and I’d like to avoid it at all costs, thanks. Yes, I’ll take the time to inform those whom I care about and to gently remind those whom I see on a regular basis. However, when it comes to other departments or guests, I’m not going to make a scene. (Heaven forbid someone makes an “I identify as an attack helicopter” joke, or a “Did you just assume my gender?!” joke. I don’t think I could take that lightly.) When I began my work there, however, I realized quickly that my A.V. colleagues could not care less how I identified. The hiring and onboarding training, preaching LGBTQIA+ and diversity acceptance, had seemingly been a guise to protect the company from potential lawsuits, rather than an actual company policy.

I wasn’t the only trans person in the workplace. A coworker of mine was (read: was, as she has since quit) a proudly-out transgender woman. She wore makeup, was on HRT, had long nails, and spoke in a high-pitched voice. By all accounts, she was recognizable as a woman, as far as the Western gender binary and all of its stereotypes decreed. As soon as I interacted with her, I knew she was a woman.

Maybe I was the only one who thought that way, because every member of the fifteen-person team (except myself and the one cis woman on staff,) referred to her as a man, and consistently with he/him pronouns. This caught me off guard.

Within the trans community, there is a wide berth of experiences to be had. There are those of us who are within the binary and choose to transition. Some of us don’t abide by the binary and transition, too. There are people with different means of gender identity and expression, different backstories, and different upbringings. We vary in economic class, race, and age. There is no right or wrong way to be trans, but rather a variety of experiences and hardships we face. This being said, if my cis male coworkers couldn’t understand a binary trans person’s experience enough to respect her identity, how on earth could they even begin to grasp mine?

An Essential Reading List for Classical Music Recording

 

Classical music recording is quite a niche area of the audio recording world that can take time and experience to build skills in. Fortunately, there are some excellent books out there by audio engineers who have been perfecting their craft for years, to aid and inspire us in our ongoing learning journeys and the quest for capturing compelling classical recordings. Several of these have become go-to references for many classical audio engineers.

Classical Recording in the Decca Tradition

By Caroline Haigh, John Dunkerley and Mark Rogers

Written by three highly experienced tonmeisters who have worked for Decca and Abbey Road Studios, this comprehensive guide offers detailed explanations of recording techniques (such as the Decca tree) and useful diagrams and photos. It covers all kinds of formats from solo instruments to large ensembles, orchestras and operas.

Recording Orchestra and Other Classical Music Ensembles

By Richard King

Another comprehensive exploration of recording techniques, written by a Grammy award-winning recording engineer and professor. It also has useful sections on the role of the producer, productions with video, and multi-channel recording as well as “Quick Start Guides” labeled by ensemble type.

New Stereo Soundbook

By Ron Streicher and F. Alton Everest

A guide that delves into stereo perception and recording, exploring what it is, how it works, and how to use microphones to achieve stereo effects – knowledge that is central to classical music recording. It includes a glossary of terms, basic principles of stereo microphone techniques, binaural techniques, multiple-mic recording, the early history of stereo techniques, and how to optimise listening environments.

Recording Music on Location: Capturing the Live Performance

By Bruce Bartlett and Jenny Bartlett

Classical recording more often than not involves recording on location in different venues, and this book provides lots of information on recording outside of the studio, including a section on classical music. Other useful chapters include gear and pre-production, and in-depth explanations of stereo and surround recording techniques.

Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture

By Leo Beranek

Called the “definitive work on the architectural acoustic design of classical music spaces”, this book is an illustrated guide to 100 concert halls and opera houses throughout the world. It explores how architectural features affect acoustical aspects such as reverberation time and frequencies, and how this relates to classical music of different periods. It also features comments from conductors and musicians on how acoustics affect their performances.

SoundGirls Living History Project – Jamie Angus-Whiteoak Interviewed by Leslie Gaston

 

 

Jamie Angus-Whiteoak Is Emeritus Professor of Audio Technology at Salford University. Her interest in audio was crystallized at age 11 when she visited the WOR studios in NYC on a school trip in 1967. After this, she was hooked, and spent much of her free time studying audio, radio, synthesizers, and loudspeakers, and even managed to build some! She has worked in both industry and academia in diverse fields from integrated optics and acoustics to analogue and digital signal processing. Her expertise ranges from valve (tube) circuits to the applications of esoteric number theory in signal processing. She has pioneered degree-level courses in both music technology and electronic engineering in the UK. She is the inventor of; modulated, wideband, and absorbing diffusers, direct processing of Super Audio CD signals, and one of the first 4-channel digital tape recorders. She has done work on signal processing, analogue circuits, and numerous other audio technology topics. She has been active in the AES for 30 years and has been the paper’s co-chair for previous conventions as well as a judge for the student project and Matlab competitions.

She has been awarded an AES fellowship, the IOA Peter Barnet Memorial Award, and the AES Silver Medal Award, for her contributions to audio and acoustics.

AES Awards In 2004, James Angus was presented with the AES Fellowship Award for achievements in research and education in electroacoustics, particularly for pioneering work on sigma-delta modulation.

In 2019, Jamie A. S. Angus-Whiteoak was presented with the AES Silver Medal Award for a lifetime of important contributions to audio engineering and instruction. Non-AES Awards & Award Nominations Peter Barnett Memorial Award in Electroacoustics from Institute of Acoustics Education Background 1973-1974 University Of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada 1974-1977 University of Kent Canterbury, England, BSc 1st Class hons in Electronics 1977-1980 University of Kent Canterbury, England, PhD in Electronics, Thesis, “On the design and implementation of a general purpose digital signal processor”

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