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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”

SoundGirls Seeking Online Mentors for 2024

Mentoring the Next Generation of Women in Audio.

How it Works:

SoundGirls Members are invited to sign up for online mentoring and be partnered with a mentor for three online sessions. The sessions will focus on a project or goal you are working towards.  Sessions will be conducted through Zoom, Skype, etc.

If you would like to volunteer to be a mentor please apply here

5 takeaways from SXSW Sydney 2023 relevant to the Entertainment Industry

I had the privilege to attend SXSW Sydney in October last year, and here are my top five takeaways that affect the entertainment industry

Tiktok has changed how young people listen to music.

In a panel titled TikTok soundscapes, WPP House gave the participants blindfolds and headphones and played us a series of narrations with soundtracks. That was a good way to demonstrate how music elevates storytelling by augmenting emotional connection. It also shows how pairing songs with narration can completely alter the meaning of the song, bending it to the storytelling. In a way, that’s what the platform does, especially with its audio trends. You know, those bits of audio that consist of a song or voiceover, and that users can add video to. Musician Ashwarya mentioned that if she heard a song first on the platform, she would tend to associate it with the mood of the videos using it, even if that wasn’t the original intent of the songwriter. And everyone who’s been on Tiktok long enough will agree.

Licensing and sync are currently some of the best income streams for working musicians 

Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire, who recently purchased Bandcamp, told us how his platform uses AI to scan audio files and extract data points like bpm and genre to determine who is the best target audience for that track. More than that, they use that data to match these tracks to brands looking to evoke a specific feeling in their customers. With streaming platforms paying pennies and physical media sales dwindling due to the cost of living crisis, it’s smart to explore every revenue stream available. Oh yes, he also reassured us he has no intention to change the experience that Bandcamp offers their users, so indies out there can breathe a sigh of relief.

Science-based marketing gives us the chills

No, literally. Speaker manufacturer Sonos teamed up with Eric J Dubowsky and creative agency Amplify to design a track specifically to elicit physical responses like goosebumps, chills, elevated heart rate, and I get butterflies in my stomach. Campaigns like this aim to grab our attention in an increasingly noisy landscape, using a scientific approach to make them impossible to ignore. And with spatial sound becoming more ubiquitous, their impact is greater. It’s fascinating but also a bit dystopian if you ask me.

Check it out here.

VR and AR are still very niche but growing steadily

There was a special section in the expo for VR exhibitors and there was a lot of competition to get to a headset. People are excited about these technologies and I particularly didn’t test any experience that had immersive sound, which in my view would elevate the experience exponentially. An interesting take on the possibilities of VR was given by artist Lynette Wallworth, who creates interactive experiences in partnership with indigenous communities to translate their worldview to Western minds. She says that the new technologies open space for new ways of working with them, and producing for them. That makes them more flexible to work within different cultures. An Amazonian shaman told her that VR headsets work just like Ayahuasca, changing your perception to deliver a message, and afterward, you come back to your reality.

AI in music is more a partner than a threat

One of the highlights of my SXSW was the panel on AI in Music production, by Justin Shave and Charlton Hill from Uncanny Valley studios in Sydney. Both have been at the edge of the intersection of Music and Technology for decades; and have been involved in projects such as Music of the Sails, a generative piece made for the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House, and developing their own AI Music Engine, Memo. Their argument is that generative AI tools like DDSP, Lyrics generators, Voice replicators, Musicgen, Source separation, and others are to be seen as tools instead of competition. They use synths and Napster as examples of technologies that disrupted the music industry and stirred fears that they would end it, but in the end date didn’t. Playing with any of the above-mentioned, it becomes clear that they are useful resources; but if they might one day replace a skilled human, that day is still far away.

 

Mixing: Band Next

In my last blog, I started talking about how you can approach mixing when you’re just getting started. If you haven’t read it, here’s the cliff notes version: vocals are your first priority. Make sure you get the lines out (especially in tech), no matter how many faders you need up at the beginning. Then you can work towards line-by-line mixing from there.

Once you’re comfortable enough with the vocals and can start paying attention to other things, what’s next? If it’s a musical, the answer’s easy: the music.

The band is more self-sufficient than the vocals. They’ll do some dynamics on their own, so they can take care of themselves to a point while you’re settling in with the vocals. For the things they don’t do on their own, you’ll tend to notice and take care of them naturally. If the music is too loud and it’s hard to hear what the actors are saying, you pull it back. If we’re heading into a song, bring them back up to support the singing. All of that is a good start, but at this point, those moves are reactive as you notice something and adjust to compensate. Once you can give more attention to what’s really happening in the music, you can anticipate and be proactive.

There’s some work you can do even before you get into the theatre. If I’m working on a show that already has a cast album I’ll do what I call a Music Map. I’ll go through each song and write down which section or instrument has the melody or is featured. Even if the recording isn’t the exact version I’m going to do, it gets me in the ballpark. It could be just the sections (brass, strings, percussion, etc), or even a best guess. So what if I mark down that it’s a trumpet that has a solo and it ends up being a French horn? It’s paperwork that’s only for me, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. More than anything it gets me to put a critical ear to the show a few times so I’m more familiar with the music and feel more prepared going into tech.

This was one that I did for Les Mis: it’s a quick jot of “Valjean’s Soliloquy” with the part of the song (usually by the lyric), which section has the focus if I picked out a specific instrument and anything else I noticed like supporting instruments. You can see that it’s a rough sketch, not the end product. There are things like the note of “Keys?” towards the end, which meant I wasn’t sure if it was an acoustic instrument or a keyboard patch. Again, you’ll find out for sure once you get the musicians in the space, but this gives you a reference if you feel like you’re missing something.

Every song has a shape to it. Some get progressively louder, building to a big musical moment at the end, other times it’s a quiet ballad that has some builds but may stay pretty quiet. Others might be a mix or jump from singing into dialogue and back again, going up and down fairly drastically in volume. As the mixer, you help maintain that shape to get the right emotional build. This typically happens in one of two ways: supporting or managing.

When you’re supporting the band your faders move the same way as the dynamics. So you’re riding the fader up with the big crescendo to give the moment a little more punch, or as the music fades you’re bringing it back at the board so they settle where you need it in time to make a pocket for the vocals. This is how you usually treat slow songs (love ballads, dramatic solos) and shows that have a larger, traditional orchestra. Acoustic instruments tend to use more dynamic control, so you’re helping them along.

On the flip side, when you’re managing, that means you’re moving in the opposite direction of what the dynamics are doing. Say there’s a moment where it feels like it should get bigger musically, but logistically what’s happening is only part of the pit was playing at the beginning and when the music feels like it’s going to bump up a notch, the rest of the band comes in. Everything gets louder naturally with the additional musicians, so you don’t need to push to get the dynamic increase you want. You might even have to pull them back to make sure everything doesn’t get too big too early or overpower the singers.

Managing happens more often with electronic instruments, which might not have as much fine control over their dynamics with pedals and presets. In some cases, they don’t have any, like if a keyboard patch is a trigger. That means it doesn’t matter how hard or soft the keyboard player hits the key (velocity), the sound it triggers will always be at the same volume.

Once you have an idea of the musical shape of the show, start noting band moves in your script. These will become a part of your choreography. I’ll use numbers if I know where the band faders usually end up, or markings like crescendo, decrescendo, or circles for quick bumps if the moves are more general.

Along with overall dynamic moments, you’ll also begin to pick out individual solos or features where you may have to give additional support or managing, just on a smaller scale. For example, if a flute and a trumpet each have a moment in a song, they’ll likely have to be treated differently. The flute is naturally quieter, so you’ll likely have to push their mic to get them out over the mix. However, the trumpet may not need any help (or you might have to pull it back) depending on the player’s lung capacity and sense of subtlety.

Try to remember that no rule is absolute. Although trumpet players are very good at being loud, that doesn’t mean you’ll always pull them back. In Mean Girls, there were a couple of moments where the trumpet had a James Bond-style riff and I’d have to push it quite a bit to get them out over the rest of the band. So treat each moment as its own entity. In sound it’s easy to get caught in traps of comfort and appearance: an eq doesn’t look quite right, and you never usually have to push the drums, so why would you need to now? Try to listen first and make adjustments accordingly. Does the eq sound right? Can you not hear cymbals in this section? When in doubt, ask for a second opinion. Sometimes you just need a set of fresh ears when you’ve been listening to the same show for weeks or months.

Once you learn where the band moves are, you can focus on the details. Different songs will want different approaches: sweeping orchestras lend themselves to fluid, continuous movements while quick, pop songs tend to have quicker bumps or more dramatic pulls.

 

Here’s a video of “Why God Why?” from Miss Saigon. It’s mostly one person singing, so the attention is on the band’s moves. My main focus is to make sure the vocals (faders 1-8) are always supported—not overpowered—by the orchestra (11 and 12), but I can still fill in the music around the lyrics so the overall level stays consistent. There are pushes with the orchestra in the emotional builds which are followed by quick pulls to get the band back and make a pocket for the vocals again. Around the 3:35 mark, there’s a pull where I tuck fader 11 back a little bit more than the rest of the band to compensate for a louder key patch: an example of the managing I talked about before in action. Overall, the song starts out quiet and has slow builds, each getting a bit bigger than the one before. There’s a quick pullback when we go into the faster section, the emotional build with Chris and the Vietnamese, and then the big finish at the end with a bump.

Music is an essential part of a musical, but it can do so much to enhance the story on an emotional level. As a mixer, you get the chance to put an extra flourish on some of those moments to drive them home. One of my previous blogs covered some of those times in-depth and how good it feels when everything comes together. Because the next level of working with the band is learning to adjust it live to the actors so you get that emotional impact. When they’re able to go for it, you have more leeway to make the moments bigger, or if they’re under the weather or having an off day, you adapt and pull the music back so they still land in the right place relatively. Like in “Why God,” you can literally hear Chris’s frustration building as the orchestra gets bigger, but how big the orchestra can get depends on how big Chris is going to go.

It’s these details with the music that make a lot of shows more fun to mix. There’s a feeling you get when you hit a bump at just the right moment and just the right level that keeps you coming back to see if you can do it again and again. I’ve been incredibly lucky that I’ve worked with some people who are both amazing musicians and lovely humans, and you always want to let that talent shine. I can’t count the number of times one of them has come up to me, so excited because a friend came to see the show and told them they sounded good. If they know that you’re taking care of them, you build trust, which ultimately leads to a better show for everyone. So take the time and make the effort to learn the music. Some people will actually notice and appreciate it, others will just know that the show hit a little deeper this time. Either way, it can make a world of difference.

Luana Moreno – Live Sound and Recording Engineer

Luana works as a freelance engineer working with venues, rental companies, musicians, and event organizers. She currently is in the process of setting up a small commercial studio. She has been working in audio for over 15 years. Luana is originally from Brazil and now resides in Adelaide, Australia.

Luana fell in love with music when MTV came to Brazil. “I still remember watching Slayer’s “Seasons in the Abyss” and my mind was completely blown away. I bought my first CDs, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Sepultura, and Hole, and became a total aficionado. I bought an electric guitar with the first payment from my first job. I have her to this day.”

Luana was introduced to audio after a recording session with her band and became interested in the recording process. She began to research courses and programs for audio engineering and also met a producer and engineer Paul Anhaia who worked at Midas Studio. She would take a short course on Audio Fundamentals where she learned the basics and then learned on the job from there. All the while Luana attended workshops and training opportunities. In 2013 Luana enrolled at Melbourne Polytechnic and received an Advanced Diploma in Sound Production in 2019.  Luana says this “doesn’t mean that I have stopped learning though, as I am always looking to learn and keep up with the industry innovations”.

Career Start

How did you get your start?

My first job was at a studio/mobile recording facility called Audiomobile. They had two mobile recording units at the time, a bus and a truck. They did a lot of recordings for music DVDs. I would rarely be on-site recording, but in the studio helping them organize the hard drives and doing general maintenance. I would often sit through mixing sessions with the other techs too.

From there I started mixing live sound at nightclubs and other venues and working for rental companies and artists in Brazil. There I also had the opportunity to do location recording and post for film for a considerable time at MeuSucesso.com and to do mixing and mastering for a few bands.  Moving to Australia I was able to get into the Live entertainment quite quickly and have only run out of work during the first six months of Covid.

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

I think Audiomobile had the most impact because that’s where I learned how the industry worked and was able to sit in on sessions with talented and skilled technicians who didn’t mind sharing their process. Mixing in pubs and nightclubs was a great school as well because we would often be quite limited in terms of what the equipment was capable of, and that’s where I learned to work with whatever I had available.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

Shadowing the other techs at Audiomobile was a great opportunity to train my ear and get up to speed with the basics, and at the pubs and rental companies I’ve learned how to set up a system, troubleshoot it, and make things work. It was also where I learned how to mix.

Did you have a mentor or someone that helped you?

Paulo Anhaia, whom I dated at the start of my career, was more of a supporter and role model than a mentor. The techs at Audiomobile who taught me in my early days: Egidio Conde, Fernando Ferrari, Luiz Leme, Eduardo Garcia.

The group of people who helped me for the longest time in my professional life were my colleagues from Mulheres do Audio( Audio Women), a group that started when I created a Facebook group after working at an AES conference as a Product Specialist and being confused for a “booth model” by the male attendees, who’d ask me, surprised: “You’re a Sound Tech? How many more women in sound are out there?”

That question got me thinking and one night I created a Facebook group and invited some of my mates: Adriana Viana, Lilla Stipp, among others. That group started regular gatherings, where I met many other incredible women who have supported me in my journey, such as Florencia Saravia-Akamin, who played that mentorship role being the most experienced of us; Roberta Siviero, who if I recall correctly introduced us to SoundGirls and organized our meeting with Karrie Keyes when she toured Brazil with Pearl Jam; Regiane Alves, Allyne Cassini, among others.  All of these women became a network, exchanging information at the meetings, organizing workshops, and referring each other for jobs.

Moving to Australia I had to start from scratch, so Toni Venditti’s help was instrumental as she offered me insights and contacts. Other people worth mentioning would be my teachers at Melbourne Poly, Shane Simmonds, Tamara Weaver, and David Rodger, and my mates Erica D’Angelo and Candace Parham. All of these people were in one way or another instrumental in opening a door, answering a question, or giving me advice when I needed it. It might sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, but it truly takes a village!

Career Now

What is a typical day like?

I have no such thing. Working for three different companies as an employee and several other clients, some days I’ll start at 5 am and some I’ll finish at 2 am. So I try to organize my calendar in advance.

On days I’m not working out of the home, I will normally take the morning off and get things done in the afternoon or early evening. I also make sure to schedule days off, where I’ll do only leisure things or nothing at all, depending on how I feel.

How do you stay organized and focused?

I do my best! Sometimes I can’t be as organised as I’d like, but I have learned to not beat myself up about it. After all, managing your schedule as a freelancer is a challenge.

Some items that help me be as organized and focused as I can be are:

Besides these, plenty of water, coffee, chewing gum, regularly exercising/ stretching, and taking breaks when I can afford to, are the main strategies that I use. Taking time to plan for the gig whenever possible. But I think the most important thing is to manage your workload the best you can because, without enough rest, all of that is irrelevant.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

The variety. Being a casual/freelancer allows me to work in different places with different people doing varied things. I enjoy wearing several hats, even if it’s challenging at times.

What do you like least?

Heavy lifting, defective gear, and difficult clients.

If you tour what do you like best?

I did tour a bit but it wasn’t for me, so I never really pursued it. I found that it’s quite stressful and you go to great places but don’t get time off to enjoy yourself.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

If I’m tired, reading in bed, playing casual games, and watching sci-fi and horror series. If I’m not too tired playing music, gardening, or going out with my partner, be it a museum, concert, movie, or dinner.

What are your long-term goals?

Grow and diversify my business, by opening my mixing studio to offer music production, mixing, mastering, and sound for film more consistently, and do more event production management. Help musicians and other creatives achieve their vision and release my projects as an artist. Continue to support the next generation of sound engineers and musicians with education and mentoring, through workshops, courses, and being involved in initiatives like Girls Rock Camp and The Tech Sisters.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

I have faced sexism for sure, especially when I was starting out. Bands would arrive at the venue and ask “Are YOU mixing?” and I’d be like “ Well if you don’t want me to you can do it yourself!” and that has always been my stance. Of course, in many situations, nobody says those things to your face, so all you can do is do your best and not worry about it. I think it acts as a filter, a place that won’t hire me because I’m a queer migrant woman is not a place where I want to be.

The other big one is toxic work environments, of which I have tasted many flavors: the ‘we are family”, the abusive manager, and the threatened colleague. It can be hard to spot at first, but once you start seeing the red flags, you can’t unsee them.

How have you dealt with them?

I have learned early on to stand up for myself and to find out whether a gig is worth the trouble or not. But the thing that has made the biggest difference for me was seeking community. Having the support of other women/GNC people who understand your struggles and where you’re coming from. Who can relate and offer advice based on their lived experience. Not to downplay the support of some awesome guys I’ve met, but groups like Mulheres do Audio, and SoundGirls have been instrumental in helping me overcome these issues.

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

Do it! There are more of us than ever and we are stronger together! Connecting with other women and gender-diverse people, SoundGirls is a great place to start. Find your local community and chances are they’ll have your back.

Must have skills?

Broad musical taste, decent hearing, curiosity, interest in lifelong learning, and the ability to learn by yourself, because changes in the industry are constant and often you need the knowledge before you can consult with someone else. I believe that basic musical knowledge is a great advantage for audio technicians. No need to study Schoenberg but knowing rhythmic figures, harmony, and scales can help you a lot, both live and in the studio.

Favorite gear?

For live, any modern digital console with enough graphic eqs is fine. I’m partial to dB Technologies systems as they normally sound quite good just out of the box, and Allen & Heath consoles. The most useful items in my toolkit, besides tape and Sharpie, is undoubtedly my iPad and a router. That was the best investment I made because it helps immensely with line checks, tuning, and naming channels.

In the studio, I love Genelecs, Tannoy, Reaper, and plugins from FabFilter, Plugin Alliance, UAD, and iZotope.

Anything else you want to add?

The entertainment industry is a hard one and many toxic narratives in it need to go! Being proud of doing 80-hour weeks, the boys club, abusive behavior, and the glamorization of booze and drugs as things that are tolerable and even desirable in workplaces are unfortunately still quite common and anyone within it will likely have to deal with these issues from time to time. Still, there is a pushback against these things, especially by younger people, and I’m fully in support. Particularly in regards to long hours, yes sometimes they are inevitable due to specific circumstances, but if they are always the rule, that’s a management issue. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to subject yourself to these things if you want to succeed in this business. There are alternatives and many opportunities to do what you love without sacrificing your mental and physical health. Boundaries are good in any relationship, professional or personal, and those who don’t respect them don’t deserve you!

Mixing: Vocals First

My first blog covered a lot about line-by-line mixing: what it is, how it’s done, and why we do it. One thing I never addressed was how you learn to do it. This video of me mixing Miss Saigon is after years of practice and certainly not what I was doing when I sat in front of my first sound console.

So, time to go back to the beginning! In high school, when our TD put me in front of that board for the first time I knew what the mute buttons did and that was about it. So that’s what I used, muting people when they went offstage and unmuting them when they came back on. I didn’t do much (if anything) with the faders, but you heard all the lines and that was really all they were looking for when we did one show with microphones per year.

As I started doing more shows, I learned what the faders did and could focus more on how everything came together: adjusting levels so dialogue sounded more consistent from person to person and blending vocals better so duets actually sounded like two people in harmony and not one person at full throttle while the other was a whisper.

Then I went to college and was taught that using faders instead of mute buttons made mixing much easier. The concept is still the same, but when you don’t have to take your hands off the faders to hit the mutes, it makes things far more efficient. Wherever you think you are when you’re first learning how to mix, always start with the vocals and do whatever you need to so you don’t miss a line. During tech, the job of designers and directors is to nitpick, find problems, and tweak them before the show gets in front of an audience, so it’s doubly important to make sure they hear every line. First, so they can hear the show and can find what doesn’t work and revamp it. Secondly, if they can hear everything, they won’t nitpick sound. Tech is stressful enough without a design team breathing down your neck asking why lines got dropped. So vocals are your number one. Even if you have all the mics onstage up at the beginning, that gives you a point to work from as you get more familiar with the show.

In July I got thrown into an emergency situation on Peter Pan Goes Wrong where the mixer got Covid and the A2 was away on vacation for the week. A phone call that started my day with, “Can you get on a train now to be at the theatre and watch the mix, just in case.” turned into “Think you can mix the show in an hour?” by the time I walked into the theatre. Since it’s a straight play and a comedy, most of the mix is dialogue and sound effects with a song thrown in to start act two just for fun. But comedy relies heavily on the audience being able to actually hear and understand the setup and punchlines, so that was the priority, with the rest of my focus going toward making sure the sound effects were in the right place.

Through absolute chance, I’d seen the show a couple of weeks prior with a friend, so I at least knew the general plot and characters. Other than that I was sight-reading the script as I mixed the show for the first time in front of a paying audience. This is the point where the ego takes a backseat. I know how to mix line by line and I have over a decade of practice, so there was no doubt that I could do it. However, even a 90% accuracy rating would mean that I’d mess something up on every tenth line, and the audience couldn’t care less if the mix was an ode to line-by-line technique, but they would definitely care that they couldn’t understand the jokes because I was dropping lines.

So I went back to basics, keeping mics up a few lines ahead of where the actors were and following the helpful notes in the A2’s script of when I could take mics out because they were done for a while. It wasn’t perfect, but the crew and management were thrilled that the show had gone well and the audience had no idea that I was flying by the seat of my pants on pure adrenaline.

In that scenario, I made a conscious choice not to mix line by line and there are reasons not to: like me, you might not be familiar with the show and the audience’s experience takes priority over technique. Maybe you’re still learning how to mix in general and worried you’ll miss pick-ups. Or it could be something with the show itself: a sequence that’s too complicated, or people are talking over each other without a good way to pull them out, or quiet scenes where you’ll have an audible change in noise that’s distracting to you and the audience as you bring the faders in and out quickly (thank you HVAC systems). In any case, there should always be a reason you choose not to mix line by line, and that reason should never be that you just don’t want to.

Learning to mix is the best reason to take the time and go slow. First, you start with everyone in a scene up. Once you have a grasp on that, you can start to break it down into manageable chunks that progressively get smaller. Mark when someone doesn’t have lines for a bit: if actors 1, 2, and 5 are the only ones talking for a page or two, you can pull 3, 4, and 6 out until they’re needed. Maybe you start with everyone in a scene up. Once you feel comfortable with that, you move to only have the people you need for a couple of pages, then just one page, then the next four lines, the next three, etc. Eventually, you get used to the flow of bringing faders up and down for one line at a time.

The beginning stages of learning to mix feel backward because, instead of focusing on who you need to have up, you’re looking for people you can pull out of the mix who don’t have lines for a bit. From there, you keep making the chunks of the show smaller and smaller. Once you feel like you’re ready to go line by line, take a look at the script and see what each scene looks like. If there are scenes that only have two or three people, start with those. Larger group scenes have more variables and skipping around on faders and are therefore harder to do. Once you get into it, there are several common mistakes mixers make as they’re learning line by line. The biggest one is that they try to be overly precise about having only ONE mic up at a time. This usually looks like sliding faders past each other so one person is fading out as the other’s line fades in, which means the audience loses the first and last parts of the lines. Or snapping faders up on the first word and slamming them down on the last of a line, again, cutting off the very first and last bits of the words. Treat every line as its own individual entity. I usually bring a mic up on the last word of the previous line and then don’t take it out until the next person starts talking. As I figure out the pacing of the actors, I can get tighter with the pick-ups or learn where I have to throw mics even earlier, say if someone’s going to interrupt mid-line.

When you’re learning to mix, ironically listening is one of the hardest things to do. We get so wrapped up in the mechanics that we don’t even realize we’re cutting off bits of lines in an effort to be as tight and efficient as possible. If you start slow and work your way to line-byline gradually, it helps you develop your ear as well as your motor function so you’re less likely to fall into that trap. Another common pitfall for mixers is the concept of “fader creep” which is when a scene gets progressively louder as it goes on because you keep throwing faders slightly further and further trying to match the previous levels without realizing that everything just keeps getting bigger and bigger. There are still times I’ll put a note in my script of “Watch Fader Creep!” especially if someone is supposed to be loud in a scene, it reminds me to bring things back a bit after that moment is done or when a big musical number has just ended and you’re bringing the level back to dialogue.

When you feel like you’ve got a good grasp on line by line, the next step is testing out your single-handed dexterity. The mix video from Miss Saigon at the beginning of this blog is a rather extreme example. I do almost all of the vocals with my left hand so my right can stay on the orchestra faders (11 and 12), the vocal verb (9), the band verb (10), and take cues (the small button on the right). That ended up being my solution for this sequence where there were a lot of band moves or verb changes that happened at the same time as dialogue. In most cases, both hands will share vocal faders, but sometimes your left will have to do a little more of the heavy lifting so your right can manage the other faders. Mean Girls is a better example of this during New Kid.

Learning to mix is a process that can feel like two steps forward and one step back. When you are ready to step into the next phase of tightening up pickups, you’ll make mistakes. We’ve all been there, many of us with spectacular stories of misfired cues or agonizing moments of silence as we fumbled for the right fader. These are the moments when you start to learn the kind of brutal honesty a mixer has to have with themselves. If you’re trying to move too far too fast, you’ll miss pickups. When that happens, you have to acknowledge it and go back to your comfort zone. When I got thrown into mixing Peter Pan, I took that step back, and it was the best thing to keep the show running and the audience happy. In each show, I worked to get a little better, and that’s how the process happens.

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