ExpoSoundcheck – SoundGirls
The iconic scene of a woman bringing a chair in the middle of a concert to watch and learn the conducting of an orchestra by a famous male conductor, and then being expelled from the place, showed me how bravely this woman tried to pursue her dream. This scene could be from a movie today, but it happened almost 100 years ago, in 1926, in New York, and the woman portrayed was Antonia Brico in her biographical film “The Conductor” (2018), which I highly recommend.
Antonia Brico was one of the world’s first female conductors, and throughout her career, she faced significant discrimination and obstacles because of her gender. Born in the Netherlands in 1902, she immigrated to California with her foster parents in 1908, where she showed an early talent for music and began studying piano at an early age.
One of her greatest contributions to the fight for gender equality was the founding of the Women’s Symphony Orchestra in New York in 1934 to demonstrate that women could play in any category. The orchestra’s success attracted the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States at the time.
Antonia Brico at Alte Philharmonie in Berlin, 1930
She conducted several prestigious orchestras in the United States and Europe, but despite all her efforts and recognition by other means, she was never the principal conductor of any of them, one of the greatest disappointments of her life.
Decades after Brico’s breakthrough in gender equality, women are still underrepresented in conducting and composing roles and often face barriers and discrimination in their careers.
In recent years, organizations and initiatives have been established to support and promote female conductors, such as the Women’s Philharmonic. Women still make up less than 10% of conductors worldwide. One such renowned conductor is Marin Alsop, who in 2013 became the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms in the United Kingdom. It was after attending one of the famous Leonard Bernstein concerts, Young People’s Concerts, with her father, that she began to develop her interest in conducting. Alsop has spoken about the challenges she has faced as a female conductor, including the need to prove herself more than her male counterparts. In 2021 her story was told in a documentary also called “The Conductor” (2021).
Marin Alsop at São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra in Brazil, 2017
The legacies of Antonia Brico and Marin Alsop, along with other pioneering women in classical music, serve as a source of inspiration and motivation for those who seek to break down barriers and promote greater diversity and inclusion in the music industry.
Through their talent, dedication, and perseverance, non-male conductors are changing the face of classical music and paving the way for future generations of anyone following their dreams.
So, if you want to make a difference in the music or audio industry, remember to get your chair and find your place in the crowd so you can be heard.
With love,
Lydia Guía
Daychia is an Audio Engineer mixing Front of-House & Monitors for various artists and television networks including ABC DISNEY, NBC UNIVERSAL, and VIACOM. She has been working in audio since 1995. She works as a freelance sound engineer in both live and recording arts. At ABC Tamron Hall Talk Show she is the current FOH engineer and Floor Audio Lead and at NBC she works on the Late Night show mixing Monitors, or the Amber Ruffin Show Mixing FOH/ Monitors.
Daychia discovered audio after graduating from high school and was looking for a career path in the music business as a rapper. Her mom wouldn’t let Daychia pay the local studio unless she learned to operate the equipment first, so she would enroll in school for audio engineering (Audio Recording Technology Institute in Hauppauge, LI New York) and learned this was a viable career path. “Eventually I didn’t care too much about rapping anymore, I was head into the books and learning audio, studying frequencies to train my ear so I could ring out a stage like I saw other engineers doing when I interned at the Apollo Theater.”
How did you get your start?
I ate, slept, and drank audio for the entire year I was in Audio classes… I studied frequencies in my sleep literally, I let a frequency CD play overnight so I would naturally hear an fz and know what it is on stage ringing. I worked hard and broke a sweat every gig as a good friend and mentor from Apollo named Ollie Cotton told me was my key to success in this business… he was right because every time I worked someone I didn’t know was watching, and later hired me.
I got my start from the internship at Apollo Theatre, working on Showtime at the Apollo and every Weds night for Amateur Night. I did that for a few years, then I kept sending my resume out to TV stations and eventually one day I got the call to work at CBS for the Ananda Lewis Talk Show.
At the time it was just starting off, and she apparently wanted to hire a woman audio engineer. So they went calling around NY city to find women audio engineers who actually had some experience. I happened to be working Amateur Night at the Apollo the night they called Mike Jenkins head of Audio at the time at Apollo, and he was standing right next to me when they asked him Do you know of any experienced sound woman in the city? LOL…He looked over at me with the phone on his shoulder and said “Actually Im standing next to one right now “I went in the next day for an interview and that was the start of my television audio life.
What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?
I learned everything from soldering cable, fixing speakers in the middle of a Naughty By Nature Tour, to Mixing Loud Vocals for Rappers with NO FEEDBACK… and I am still always learning til this day, more and more techniques to give my artists what they want to hear in their sound.
What is a typical day like?
Well, that’s interesting I don’t really have a typical day. I don’t think I really know what that is… but I can tell you this much. If I’m in town ( New York) it’s mostly because I work at Tamron Hall three days a week, on those days, I get up at 3 am. Meditate, do Yoga sometimes, get dressed, and head out by 5 am to be on set and working ready for Tech check and rehearsals by 7 am.
We do a live on-air show at 10 am, so from 7 am till about 9 am I am tech checking, then fixing up my music playlist for the day to fit the show content. Then we let in the audience, and I pump up the music for the Comedian and host to get the crown jumping with, Tamron comes out live on air from 10 am to 11 am on ABC. We break for lunch and come back to do a 2nd show that is taped.
I get off and try to beat the NY afternoon traffic back home to Westchester NY. Then when I get home, I usually have work to do for my Artists’ upcoming shows, prepping show files, or updating riders. I could be organizing the engineers I have in my recording studio with clients coming into the studio. I may be doing ALL of the above until I crash out to sleep.
Now if I am on the road doing a one-off show it’s pretty much the same routine, except I just show up for soundcheck, go back to my hotel room and work on other projects, come back do the show and then crash out to bed, hopefully not an early lobby call the next day.
If I am on tour, Kinda the same deal.
How do you stay organized and focused?
Prayer, Yoga, and Meditation daily.
What do you enjoy the most about your job?
I love knowing how it all works… especially when I’m the one who made the input list or had some sort of hand in planning it all out technically on paper, then watching it all come together at the Venue. With crew members, I probably never met before. I also really love it when I get to mix the music of artists I love and used to grow up singing in my shower. Never would have dreamed in a million years in my showers I would be mixing their music. I love mixing what I used to hear and wondered how they made it sound that way. Now I get to mix it and make it sound like the record that I know and love all too well.
What do you like least?
Sometimes when you think you have found a sort of music family, and you get so close to artists and band members, then all of a sudden new management comes in and just fires everyone and brings in their own people. Just like that, your off looking for another gig/family.
If you tour what do you like best?
Traveling and seeing how other engineers do things around the world. and mixing the music for any audience, even if they don’t even speak English, to hear them singing the songs is amazing.
What do you like least?
Not having family with me to share it with. Especially U.S. Holidays that aren’t celebrated elsewhere.
What is your favorite day off activity?
I actually want to change this now at this time in my life, up til now, I have always pretty much worked on my days off. Working on my studio business, website, etc … but I never really have days off. I have come to realize now I need to take some.
What are your long-term goals?
To develop my business MixWellWorld.com to be big like Clair Brothers Audio. So I can provide careers for upcoming engineers and techs… and I can retire knowing I did that.
What obstacles or barriers have you faced?
In the beginning, I struggled with certain concepts in pro audio, like for example, INSERT POINTS, I couldn’t understand how two signals could be carried up 1 Insert cable that way…. It was mind-boggling for quite some time. I used to draw it out a million times so I could see it in my mind’s eye to grasp the concept. I want to say I realized back then, it was a hard concept for me to grasp at first because girls for the most part aren’t raised with electronics, or encouraged to take things electrically apart and put them back together. This is something boys are more encouraged towards, so I had to really awaken that part of my brain. Which is why I slept with the frequencies at night to train my brain to them.
Then during one of my first big gigs my biggest obstacle used to be Mixing Loud Vocals in a wedge mix without feedback. I learned from working with Chaka Khan and especially from her Singer Audrey Wheeler Downing, she made me get good at it! It was the hardest thing but now I can do it in my sleep.
My next barrier has been learning about business management, financing of the equipment, and how to generate and create sales campaigns.
How have you dealt with them?
Taking classes whenever possible either in person or online for business development and ALWAYS audio courses. I still sign up for Digico classes, and Yamaha classes anytime I can make it work in my schedule.
Advice you have for women who wish to enter the field?
I would tell them the same thing I was told “ Always break a sweat “ Work hard, Be honest, if you don’t know how to do something, pray, find the book, and study it… ASK QUESTIONS… you can get it.. and once you get it, find what works for you to get the job done.
Must have skills?
Know your Frequencies. Have a good understanding of signal flow. Listen to the artist and listen to the record… make it sound like the record.
Favorite gear?
DIGICO but Avid S6L is starting to slide up my favorites list these days too.
We often are asked the question “What’s a normal day in your life in this industry?” Well, that’s a difficult question to answer because every day is so vastly different, and hardly anything goes as initially planned. As an example of this, I’ve taken the opportunity to write about my recent trip to France for work and the five days spanning that trip. Everything from getting up and going to the airport for the travel day, to a rather unexpectedly long day, and everything in between. It should be stated that I wrote about this trip specifically because it gives insight into how the industry, in general, can be, as well as what it is like being new to an established crew and the only woman on that crew.
The alarm goes off but you’re already up and getting dressed. You could barely sleep the night before because you know how travel days are and what is to be expected: Everything will go wrong. Teeth brushed and you double-checked everything to make sure nothing is left behind (something is always left behind). The bag that you’ve already packed the night before is grabbed right before you head off. The cab meets you on the street and drives you the 25 minutes that it takes to get to the airport. Normally this would have taken longer, but there’s no traffic at this time in the morning. Thank the driver as the door closes, rush through security checks at a snail’s pace, check your watch to see if you have time to grab a coffee or something on your way to the gate (you don’t), do the awkward half-run/half-speed-walk straight to your gate, board the plane, get the announcement that the plane will be delayed in taking off by at least an hour and no one is allowed to leave the plane. It’s not even 7 am yet. You finally arrive an hour and a half later than you needed to be. Go through the security checks again and find your ride. Try to memorise all the names of the performers and their specialties that your new colleague is throwing at you, drive an hour and a half to the studio where the orchestra recorded what they’ll be performing this weekend, and spend about three hours in the studio listening and re-listening over and over again. Back in the car to drive another hour down the road to the warehouse where the orchestra has mock setups so everything can be perfectly presented on an actual stage. After a quick tour of the place, you spend the rest of your day going through the setup and asking questions (always ask copious amounts of questions). Dinner out is a quick pizza with the guys on the tech crew. Back to the warehouse around midnight and finally to bed where you see the guys were kind enough to make it for you with bunny sheets and a pillow. Thanks, guys.
Up at 7 AM. Shower in a bathroom full of men giving you a hard time because you’re the only girl, but eventually they leave and you finally have some privacy.
Breakfast is whatever you can scrounge and a cup of tea. Time for setup and powering everything on for the 9 AM first sound check and rehearsal at 11 AM. Your lunch break rolls around 1 o’clock and it’s family style. Everyone sits around the large table and luckily there’s wine (viva la France!). Back to another rehearsal at 2 o’clock sharp. Dinner is suggested around 8 that night after we’re practically at each other’s throats and had enough. We go out for dinner and more banter at 9 PM. The usual debrief over food helps ease everyone’s minds and stomachs. It is back to the bunker beds close to midnight.
You’re up at 6:30 this time to get some alone time in the shower. One of the guys comes in at 7 on the dot but you are already dressed and about to head out of the bathroom. You’ve found some bread and cheese for breakfast and sit at the communal table to go over yesterday’s notes. It’s raining outside. There is so much to prepare for the show tomorrow to make sure everything goes smoothly and tensions are a little high between techies and performers. Everyone got up and joined the table by 8 AM and the first sound check was at 9 with the first rehearsal at 10 this morning. You’re going to try recording today’s rehearsal.
Mother Nature has other plans for your day…
At exactly 11:30, the power goes out due to the storm and you haven’t hit the save button in the last hour… FUCK! Your coworker thinks that because of the cover of the dark, this is a great time to slap your ass, and you repay him with a harder slap across his face. By 12:30, everyone (mainly the boss) has finally agreed that the power isn’t coming back on anytime soon. The remaining people come in from their extended smoke break and lunch is served around 1 in the afternoon. Power still isn’t restored after everyone is done with lunch, so the tech crew decides now is a great time for another extended smoke break and to show you the town in the pouring rain. At least there’s a castle nearby.
You get a call around 3:30-4 that power was restored so you head back and see how bad the damage was. You spend the rest of the rehearsal doing damage control before the first truck needs to be loaded. Shut down and final loading of the second truck before everyone goes out for dinner that night around 9. The usual debrief over food and drinks. Back at the warehouse and the performers leave on the tour bus at midnight sharp. You head up to bed and pass out immediately.
The screaming alarm goes off at 5 am. In the shower, dressed and tea in hand by 5:45. You go to the communal table where a new friend is waiting for you. At some point, the guys bought you a small stuffed animal. Final check to make sure you are not forgetting anything in the bunker room. You and the rest of the tech crew are in the van and leave at 6:30. The Head of Audio plays the show over Bluetooth so you and he can go over notes and highlights of the show. An hour and a half up the road to the venue the show is at today. Arrive at the concert hall at 8. Breakfast is provided by your hosting venue: muffins, coffee, tea, etc. Set up and the push for getting gear from the truck begins at 8:30. Someone’s foot gets run over by a flight case at 8:35. Lighting, video, and sound attempt to work together as best as possible. Risers are raised, then lights are flown, and then hard patching begins. But you notice the audio snake isn’t long enough for the venue. Why did no one check this? You compromise and have the FOH mixing console in a slightly awkward area and decide to mix the show from the tablet. Everyone has worked up an appetite and lunch is served around 1, a type of gumbo-style dish with stewed beef, rice, potatoes, and wine. It helps you prepare for the first sound check at 2. The dancers and performers finally decide to join the fun and come to rehearsal after making it just in time for the lunch break. The show somehow starts magically on time and it goes really well. Then, it happens. The audience won’t stop demanding an encore, and the company boss gives in (at the protest of the entire crew) and runs the whole show again, with intermission. The second unexpected show ends at 2 am and you still have to load out. The dancers and performers disappear sometime around 3:30ish in the morning (no one saw them after they took a second smoke break), and it’s just the tech crew left to break down the set and load trucks. You finally finish the load out at 6:30 in the morning. You have a plane to catch in four hours, and the airport is an hour’s drive away. Do you opt for a little sleep, or act like a zombie for the rest of your extended day?
You opted to stay awake and one of the guys agreed to give you a ride to the airport since it’s on his way back home. You’re in the car and on the way to the airport at 7 am. After traffic and getting petrol, you arrive a little later than intended but still with plenty of time to get through security and the boarding process. You rush through security checks at a snail’s pace, check your watch to see if you have time to grab a coffee or something on your way to the gate (you don’t), do the awkward half-run/half-speed-walk straight to your gate, board the plane, get the announcement that the plane will be delayed upon arrival due to weather in the local area and that no one will be allowed to leave the plane. The travel day begins, and the circle of techies touring life continues…
This is a blog I should have written years ago. But better late than never, right? So 20(!) blogs in we’re finally getting to some theatre basics: who’s who in the world of theatre audio. I’ve touched on some of the jobs in other blogs, but today we’re going to hit all of them. After all, you can’t be what you don’t know, so let’s make sure you know what your options are!
The designer is in charge of the big picture: creating a design concept, communicating with directors and designers, and delegating to their team. What their exact duties are in relation to their team will differ from team to team depending on the skill sets of each person. Some designers are composers (those tend to do a lot of plays since the music for a musical is done by someone else) or are more focused on the design aspect of creating soundscapes or effects. Others are more involved with the technical side of things: the gear, the system, etc. Either way, designers will specify the gear they want to use (console, speakers, mics, processing, etc) and collaborate with the director and other designers on the artistic scope and special needs of the show.
The strengths of a designer help determine who they look for while creating their team. Most designers end up working with associates or assistants that have complementary skills. If they’re more creative, they might work with someone who can provide insight into what gear can accomplish what they want to do. If they’re more technical, they might want someone good with coaching a mixer or creating sound effects.
The associate acts as the designer when the designer isn’t around. They have worked with the designer before (usually on multiple projects), know how to set things up to their liking, and the designer trusts them to take care of projects on their own. They might have started as an assistant or a mixer with that same designer and they work closely with the Production Audio to get the sound system put together and installed.
Sometimes a designer has multiple associates. When we teched the Les Miserables tour, the designer, Mick Potter, had three tours teching at the same time: Les Miserables, School of Rock, and Love Never Dies. Each tour had an associate to get the sound system loaded in and tech the show. Mick split his time between the three shows, trusting his associates to get everything ready and roughed in, scheduling his time so he could be at each show for their mission-critical moments like Quiet Time (when the sound system gets tuned) and Cast on Stage (the first day the cast is onstage in mics for tech). The associates could go to him with questions when he wasn’t there, and he didn’t have to actually be in three places at once, even though it very much seemed like he was for that month. As you can see, with multiple projects going at the same time, having an associate that they can trust is absolutely essential for a designer.
The assistant’s job is very similar to the associate. However, while an associate can act in the designer’s stead, the assistant typically has to get permission before making changes. The division of labor depends a lot on the dynamic and skill sets of the team, especially if there’s both an associate and an assistant on the show.
This is a job I talked about in detail in another blog when I was in Production for a tour. Production is in charge of taking the system specified by the Designer and turning it into a reality, accounting for every connection, cable, piece of gear, nut and bolt, and loading it (or installing it in Broadway’s case) into the theatre.
The advance position is found on larger tours that need extra people to load in, but not during the show run. An advance crew usually has at least an Advance Carpenter, Electrician, and Audio, but may also have a person for rigging, automation, or other specialties. They get to a venue before the show-to-show crew (the ones that run the show) and start loading in. When I was on the most recent Phantom of the Opera tour, our advance crew started in the theatre on Monday while we were loading out and traveling to that city and we’d join them and continue loading in Tuesday and Wednesday, then they’d leave on Thursday. On tours like Aladdin, the advance load in lasted several days before the show-to-show crew arrived, which isn’t surprising when you consider they had a magic carpet to set up!
This is what most of my blogs focus on, especially the first one, but in brief, the mixer’s job is to run the show, blending vocal and instrumental mics to execute the Designer’s concept for how the show should sound. They are the head of the sound department which involves contacting the shop if there is a problem with gear, making sure the department (deck and local audio as well) have everything and all the information they need, and on tour talking to future venues and developing a plan for load in.
The A2 is responsible for running the deck track (mic swaps, handoffs, etc), maintaining microphones, and troubleshooting mid-show, and they will mix the show on a regular basis to act as a cover for the A1. (In NYC, sometimes there is a “non-mixing” A2, which means there is another person, not in the building on a day-to-day basis, who’s trained on the mix.)
Depending on the needs of the show, other positions may come up. Sometimes there are so many sound effects that the mixer can’t run them and accurately mix the show at the same time, so an Operator position is created for someone who is designated to run effects for the show. Or there might be lots of live instruments played onstage so an Instrument Tech is added to the show and may fall under the sound department.
That may not seem like a lot of people at a glance, but it can make for a lot of moving parts, and knowing who to communicate with for a given problem is key. So, who do you talk to when you have a question? During prep in the shop or tech in the theatre, it’s easy to get anyone’s attention because you’re all in the same room. Once the show is up and running and Design and Production have left the building, who’s your go-to now?
On tour my main point of contact is the associate; they’re usually accessible to double-check on things or so you can pick their brain. They end up being a natural choice because you end up spending the majority of your time in tech with them anyway.
For the first few moves on tour, I’d have the Associate check the preliminary speaker prediction I did, then review any adjustments I made once we were in the theatre. Once they felt comfortable that I knew what the Designer was looking for and could make informed choices on my own, they would check in less and less, unless I asked for input on something specific. They also got copied on the advance email I sent to my A2 before we loaded into a new city which had the plan for the venue, any special thing we might have to take care of, or if it would be a normal day.
They are also the contact for any comments or concerns that pop up in addition to the questions. Some examples are if there are audience complaints and you need some help figuring out which adjustment to make, or if the actors or management have requested something that will change the design of the show. One common request I’ve run into is actors asking for vocals to be put in the onstage speakers. This is usually something that is decided either in or well before tech and isn’t in the mixer’s purview to change. That gets sent to the associate either as a “can we change this?” or “please respond so someone higher than me on the food chain has reiterated that we can’t, and we can end this conversation.”
If the Associate needs to involve the Designer, they will. Other than that, the Designer might stop by on occasion, maybe every 6 months to a year, to check in on the show (in which case I’ll also include them on my advance emails for that load-in). Other than that, they may not have much to do with the day-to-day of the show.
If I have system or gear-specific questions, I’ll usually ask the production audio, since they’re the ones that built the system and spend a lot of their time around the gear. On tour, they might not have much to do with the show once it’s up and running, but in NYC you might contact both the associate and the production audio with questions. They might also be involved in finding people to sub on the mix or the deck track and figuring out training schedules.
One thing to mention is pay. Ideally, associates and production are paid what’s called “weekly” which is a weekly fee, past whatever salary or flat fee they got for production and tech. This is paying for their continued time and assistance to keep the show running and answer questions. However this isn’t always the case, so that’s something to keep in mind. If my associate is being paid weekly, but production isn’t, I might send my question to the associate first to see if they can answer it before asking production to spend time on something they aren’t getting paid for. Oftentimes, they are happy to help regardless because they want you to be successful and their name is still on the show, but some people may be protective of their time if they aren’t being directly compensated for it.
If I need to address something that involves the actors, but isn’t related to music, I’ll talk to the PSM (Production Stage Manager). They are the glue between all departments, managing the company’s schedules, communication, and on top of that running a show. Notes usually go through Stage Management so they know what’s going on and what to watch out for. From sound, our notes are usually simple: it could be that an actor’s mic placement was out of place, the A2 has adjusted it, but then the actor put on incorrectly the next show. Or someone has changed a line or blocking that affects how or when I take a cue. This communication goes both ways: they’ll let me know if someone’s sick and might need a little help in their big moments, or if there’s trouble hearing something musically onstage and can I see if there’s anything I can do at the board to help?
Anything music-related will go to the MD (Music Director, who usually conducts the show). They’re your link to the musicians as well as the actors. If an instrument consistently sticks out where it’s not supposed to, or you need an actor to give you a little more in a quiet bit of a song, you can go to the MD with notes and they will be able to pass it along or work with the actor on the note if it’s a reoccurring technical problem in their singing.
Someone in the pit, besides the MD, will be designated as a Keyboard Tech. They are there to help if there’s a problem with the software controlling the patches for the keyboards. For sound, as long as we’re patched in correctly, we’ve technically done our job. We’ll never be asked to tune the timpani or restring a violin. However, keyboards are an exception where the instrument and the gear are so intertwined that we might be asked to help the Tech troubleshoot, even if it isn’t directly our responsibility. On the other hand, when we’re checking out the system during the preshow and test the keyboards, we would call the Music Tech to help if there’s a problem that a re-boot or some simple troubleshooting doesn’t fix.
For other issues, usually departmental or personnel, you go to the Head Carpenter or the Steward. The Head Carpenter is the head of the crew, submits payroll, sends out schedules, coordinates and oversees local and show labor on load in and out on a tour, etc. They are the ones you go to with logistical questions that involve special situations or the local crew, setting up work calls, or helping if there’s an issue among crew members. The Steward is there to answer questions about the contract and help if there ever seems to be an overstep or inconsistency.
Returning back to the sound team to wrap it up: interdepartmental communication is some of the most important. The A1 is the head of the department, so gets official communications like performance reports and is likely to be the first point of contact for notes. If the information is necessary or even just helpful, the A2 should know about it. The A2, on the other hand, gets most of the informal communication. They’re backstage, so they’re the ones within earshot if someone needs to pass along a quick note if Wardrobe has heard that one of the actors will be calling out for the evening show, or if there was a last-minute change in the schedule and the official email hasn’t gone out yet. Communication is always a two-way street, and an open policy keeps both parties well-informed and valued.
Sound is one of the few departments that touches every single other during the show run. Between com/video, mics, and music, we cover it all. Which means there can be a lot going on at any given point. Hopefully, these guidelines will help if you’re ever unsure who to talk to!
This month’s blog post is going to be on a quite specific topic but has information that can apply to many varying situations.
I mentioned in my previous post that I was being flown out to interview for a job! I have since undergone this interview and I am basically going to give a play-by-play of what this 36-hour interview looked like. I will again not be naming the specifics of the location or the name of the employer but I will give as much detail as I can.
The job is for a sound designer and audio engineer in academics. I would be sound designing several shows as well as teaching students about sound design and audio engineering.
To start I had a phone interview for this position and instantly I was very interested. They explained to me the parameters of the position and we talked about my experience. I was then informed that I would be contacted with the next steps. Within a day I was contacted saying they wanted to fly me out to the school to do an in-person interview!
I was insanely nervous! I thought who would want to fly someone like me out to a different state for a job interview? It was crazy to me! Luckily, I have a best friend who told me, “why wouldn’t they want to fly you out for the job?! You are incredible and a good fit!” This gave me the confidence I needed to get on a plane to a new place!
They booked a flight and I packed and got ready to go! I went shopping of course! My mom told me it was important I dress nicely even on the plane because someone from the school was picking me up from the airport. I got three outfits that made me feel confident and professional.
When I landed, I was picked up, and driven to the school. I had butterflies. I knew this was a place I really wanted to work and I didn’t want to mess this up. The person who picked me up from the airport talked to me about the town a little bit! They offered to drive me around the town before dropping me off at the hotel! I also asked them some questions about their own experiences in the town and the students at the school! If you are interviewing for a school I highly recommend asking those kinds of questions to the people you interact with that aren’t responsible for hiring you. This is because if they want you for the position they could hide some aspects of what life is like in the town. However, the people that you meet outside of the hiring committee have no reason to lie to you! I did the same thing with the woman who worked at the front desk of my hotel! I asked her if she had met students from the school and just how life was there because I wasn’t very familiar with the area! She was able to give me some really great unfiltered information about the town that I wouldn’t have received otherwise! Therefore, if you are considering moving to a new place for a job I definitely suggest this!
After I got to my hotel, the man that initially interviewed me, picked me up to take me to dinner. I had dinner with him and three other members of their theatre department faculty. I immediately felt so comfortable with all of them and felt that I was really able to be myself while still being professional. They talked to me about their program and asked me some more general questions that didn’t necessarily pertain to the job, they were just trying to get to know me! It was a nice introduction to the program and the people I could potentially be working with.
The next day was a day packed full of interviews! I was interviewed by several different people some from the theatre department and others on the administrative level and I can honestly say everyone were so genuine and incredible.
My biggest tip for these day-long interviews is to pack snacks and bring a reusable water bottle. This is how I survived. And most importantly gum or mints! I kind of felt like I was saying the same thing in every interview but I had to remember that I was talking to a new person every hour so I had to deliver the same information multiple times!
I met the rest of the theatre department as well over lunch and they were all so kind! I could genuinely see myself working alongside these people and I found that extremely exciting and it only put more pressure on myself to do well during this in-person visit.
Overall, the interviews all went well! They all felt more like a conversation than them just throwing questions at me which made the day way easier to take on.
The day ended with me going to see one of their department performances! I was so thankful that I was able to watch one of their shows and meet some of the students! It was an incredible production and just made me want to work there more!
This experience was like no other. I am so thankful for it. My biggest advice for undergoing a multi-day interview similar to this one would be as follows:
In conclusion, I was so stressed about this interview for so many reasons, but a big factor was the industry has turned away from in-person interviews since COVID so I wasn’t sure how I would perform in an interview in person! But you will be fine! If I can do it, you can do it! Just remember to breathe and smile through the nerves! Oh, and have a best friend who tells you that you are worthy of the opportunity even when you don’t feel like you are!
I recently released my latest single “Anchored” on SoundCloud and wanted to share with you a production tip for this song that I learned online. I found a really interesting YouTube video about creating moments and transitions in production via ear candy techniques, and I decided to implement some in my latest songs. I’d also like to note that I found this video from a Facebook group called TeamVibez, founded by one of my amazing Berklee professors, Rachel Alina, and run by my good friend and brilliant colleague, Skyler Bennett. This group is an inclusive discussion space for all things audio, production, and mixing!
Something that I think was missing from my productions was thoughtful transitions that served a purpose for the story behind the song and didn’t distract the listener. I wanted to implement some of these “ear candy” moments in my latest release because there is a lot of space between the lyrics and a lot of visual concepts in the song that can be utilized in sound design. For example, throughout the pre-chorus and bridge of the song you can hear a tuned and distorted radar sound as though someone is looking for me underwater. Listen at 2:27 to hear that effect.
The moment I want to showcase is at the beginning of my song and can be heard at 0:11. The song is about trying to get someone off my mind who I can’t let go of, and in this transition, I emphasize the lyric “up to the island like a dream.” In the original recording, I don’t repeat the lyric “like a dream,” but I realized a good way to fill in some of the spaces in this song was to pick out some lyrics that are important to the story and create a sort of “call-and-response” effect with them. To connect the first part of the verse with the second, I centered the sound design around the “like a dream” response followed by the same vocal pitched down.
In the image above you can see the sound design build I made. I organized this as though it was a sound effects build in a post-production project like I learned while working at Boom Box Post. For the most part, the tracks are organized in the order they appear, with like sounds being grouped together. The important points made in the Youtube video I watched were to make sure to include both high and low frequencies in an ear-candy moment and to focus on dynamics with level, filtering frequencies, rhythmic movement, and symbolic sound design (for this song that was the radar sound).
I interpreted this by initiating the moment with a boomy 808 and distorted saw bass hit, which leads into the call-and-response vocal. In the first part of this transition, the 808 and bass fill out the low end, but the filtering in the bass contrasts the limited range of the 808 and starts to introduce more frequency range into this section. The follow-up vocal brings in a softer sound and introduces a motivic rhythm that the pitched vocal and bell sound copies. The bell sound occurs twice to reiterate the vocal with brighter frequencies and leads perfectly into the first hit of the next verse. The last part of this transition is a reversed crash symbol leading into an electronic woodblock sound that I use in the chorus of the song, and is supported by another distorted bass hit. I combined this with a small vocal part that I reversed and modified with reverb to create an echoey, anticipatory effect for the next part of the song. I love doing this trick because I often have so many vocals to choose from and can really play around with which time-based plug-in I want to use to get the right effect.
Overall, I was really happy with how this transition came together, and hope it gives you some ideas for your next production. I also proved to myself that I can learn something on my own from Youtube, which is sometimes a daunting task, even when there is so much information out there. In achieving this, I really tried to stay authentic to the song’s message and started getting a sense of how more intricate productions might sound as I develop these skills.
As I mentioned in my first article, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a composer and music producer. Starting from scratch in music production can be overwhelming, with endless acronyms, tools, software, plugins, virtual instruments, audio concepts, technical issues everywhere, everything is new, and everything is daunting. But despite all difficulties, I feel it’s worth it because I love what I do.
For example, I started learning online and looking for information about which DAW (Digital Audio Station) to choose and how to use it. I made my first musical experiments with a few virtual instrument libraries that I had at that moment. I had a lot of technical issues with audio for recording and mixing it as I didn’t have a specific audio interface at the time. But it was in one of those experiments that Miracle was born.
I always wondered about composing for films, for years I thought it was something very difficult and out of my reach, but shortly after I started my journey into music production, I found a mini course about scoring for short movies. Would I be capable to do that? It was the kind of question that I was asking myself. I decided to take the chance to make my first scoring. Sometimes we are surprised by our own unknown abilities. I discovered that I was able to make it. During the composition process, for each scene I had to compose, it was as if the music came naturally out of my head. There were two opposing moods in the movie and, I could feel each scene and transfer it to the music. Finally, the soundtrack for Dear Darkening Ground was created, and I was very proud of my first scoring.
As I loved this experience, I decided to continue on this path composing one score at a time. When I was looking for the next one, I found a short movie that I immediately felt connected to, it was a short movie used for a previous scoring contest and this video was longer than my first one, another little incremental challenge. “Memento mori” or “remember you are going to die” was the catchy monologue line said in this short movie called The Lost Piano, the music should match each scene and I composed the soundtrack on the piano with my heart.
Break time in my studio along with my little cockatiel
The First Competition
Then I searched for a music composition contest. I was very surprised by the number of competitions I stumbled upon, my first reaction was “Great, I want to enter all of them as they have different styles, etc”, but I knew that I needed to pick the ones I liked the most and make one at a time; that could help me to build my portfolio over time.
I found my first competition a few days before the deadline, I had to score for Elevator Alone a hilarious animated short movie promoted by Animegaron, the International Animation Film Music Competition of the Megaron Concert Hall in Athens, Greece. It was the first competition I took part in, in December of last year.
It was a defying task because the comedy genre is one of the most difficult ones. I had to make the general soundtrack, but I also added some sound effects, I also made specific music for each character, this is called “leitmotif” in scoring. Throughout the composition process, the truth is that I had a lot of fun creating it and more than that, I got attached to the four characters in the end.
Last month, they announced the finalists and winners in a beautiful streaming ceremony directly from Athens, it was like watching the “Oscars” and when I heard my name in the finalists, I felt like I was floating on air full of happiness. I received the “Second Distinction”, the 5th place, it was a great achievement for me in such a short period of time. A few days later another unexpected thing happened, I received a direct call from Greece where I talked to the artistic director, and he congratulated me on my work and said that the aim of the competition was also to help new composers. Talking to him was an incredible feeling of being recognized as an emerging composer.
One thing to note is that many competitions out there require you to put your name in the video. Fortunately, the Greek competition had a blind judgment, giving a fair chance for everyone no matter who it was. I’m grateful to Animegaron for setting a strong example and for giving us the opportunity to enter the professional world.
After my first competition, I have been participating in many other contests in different styles and challenges including creating music for drama, comedy, hip-hop, epic, action music, etc. Every genre has its own world inside it to learn.
If you are thinking about starting this journey in film scoring, I encourage you to take the first step, there is a lot of information on the internet to learn, and courses to make and we can support each other, you can count on me.
In those contests that I kept challenging myself, isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, there were several times when I felt stuck, as I was not moving forward.
Composers and producers spend many hours in front of the screen, like me, we must give ourselves short breaks, and if one day the creativity stops flowing, just go for a walk, do some sport, call a friend, play your favorite instrument, sing, be with your pet… because when you come back to the task, you will find yourself refreshed, I do that, and it works for me and I hope it can help you.
One of the things that I realized in this process is that instead of thinking that “it is difficult” or “it is so hard”, “that we are not capable”, or that “we are not going to make it”, we must take action and start creating because something beautiful created by you will come out of it.
Past, present, and future
When you look back at your past, you will see how far you have come; you will be in a different place than you are now if you continue to push yourself in the learning process. Your future self will be proud of your growth.
I want to start this by stating three things:
The following piece is in two parts:
The work relationships, and lack of, and friendships can feel left out in our ever-so-busy lives. The rules of engagement are an all too familiar hazardous road that is complicated to navigate. Hopefully, this roadmap helps and can be taken light-heartedly as it is meant.
Everyone knows it’s a bad, even terrible, idea to date someone you work with (if you don’t believe me, there are plenty of television shows about it). This is one of the golden rules of working in this industry: it’s always a bad idea to mix play with pro. Even during shorter contracts where you might be there for just a few months, or just one weekend, and it’s justifiable that you might never see the person again. However, as women in this industry, the majority of the time when we try to be friendly to our male colleagues it often comes across as flirting. Then when we explain we were simply being friendly, things tend to get a bit messy. This is not unlike any other work environment except ours, our male colleagues can taint our reputations and easily get us barred from working with them or anyone they know or in the general area again. There are men literally everywhere in this industry as womxn only make up roughly 5% of it. Even during the minor miracle of times when our male colleagues don’t assume we’re flirting, we are constantly talked down to, discouraged, dismissed, and deterred. How do we engage in this professional environment with these situations stacked against us?
Rule 1: When you go out from work together, it’s not just the two of you.
I like to call this the kindergarten rule, this means if you invite one person on the team for drinks then you invite as much of the team as possible. This is so you don’t get caught up in someone’s rumour mill of “they were on a date” or “they’re sneaking around.” You may not like everyone on your team, but it’s highly unlikely that everyone you invite for a drink will say yes.
Rule 2: Join in on the banter.
Everyone you work with is going to give you hell of some kind. So give it right back to them. This banter isn’t necessarily specifically toward you. It could be just general goofing off between coworkers and we all need to laugh at ourselves occasionally.
Rule 3: Stick up for yourself.
It’s one thing to banter, but it’s entirely different when you are outright disrespected. Disrespect can also come in many forms. Those with more experience generally know how to guide those with less experience. Leaning over our shoulders telling us how to do the job that we were hired for is not teaching, it shows that we are not trusted to do our job and it is a form of disrespect.
Rule 4: Ask luxurious amounts of questions.
Yes, this will most likely get on your colleagues’ nerves eventually because you’re asking so many things. However, we don’t learn new skills without asking these questions. If we don’t ask, we are often not given the same treatment either. While many of my male colleagues were outright given training for specific skills, I had to ask (multiple times at that).
Rule 5: Teaching isn’t touching.
This is one I have seen with nearly every female’s experience in trying to learn new skills. Teaching someone how to solder shouldn’t involve them sitting on your lap. Teaching someone how to programme a show shouldn’t involve putting hands over the top of theirs. Teaching someone about a studio set-up shouldn’t involve them texting you late at night saying they are in the studio alone saying and thinking about you. And don’t ever let “Well, that’s not what they meant” or “They were just being friendly and working in a small space” be gotten away with. If it felt wrong, it was.
Rule 6: You’re not a relationship therapist.
Typically in a more office or corporate setting, somehow women become the experts on other women and what they want. There have been too many times someone’s wife/girlfriend/whoever came into the production office (or tent for those times during festivals) and accused me of telling their partner to do or say something that I didn’t. I later found out it was one of their guy friends but the men told their partner that it was me.
Rule 7: Make a good reputation for yourself.
A reputation is better than gold and worse than death in this industry. A reputation is what everyone will judge you on and expect from you, especially if you’ve never worked with a certain person or crew before. Whether we like it or not, women represent other women in the industry. We are judged as women for our work, and what we do is how it will come across as how every woman does things. Be fast at learning, and even faster on your feet with a problem. Be early, even earlier than your boss. If you’re the first one there, they have to deal with you. When you know you’re right, be heard and be confident about it.
Rule 8: Don’t mince words.
Men customarily are straightforward. Stating exactly what you mean, what you want, and need will go a long way. They’ll get it. You don’t need to explain or go into depth about it, just state it as a matter of fact. This includes your interest, or lack of it, towards them.
Rule 9: Decide your own professional boundaries.
I reached out to a friend, a fellow female audio engineer, who is currently dating someone she works with regularly. She has been dating them for roughly six years and has worked with them multiple times over those years. Her partner’s a lighting technician, and they often found themselves working together before becoming serious in their relationship. She told me it did take them several projects together to find what really worked for them in their relationship while maintaining that professional boundary in the workplace, but it is indeed possible.
Rule 10: Be yourself.
I can not stress this rule enough. To make it in this industry, it is generally demanded of everyone to be tough because it’s a cut-throat environment. I won’t lie, this industry is tough. This industry is cut-throat. What is tougher is walking into work and acting like someone that isn’t yourself. When I was talking to my friend about her partner, it came up that she recently worked with another female audio engineer. She said she caught herself noticing the other female’s makeup. She caught herself almost judging this other female and how she did her job simply because she appeared “more feminine.” It’s those moments where we have to catch ourselves because really, who cares? It doesn’t affect how you do your job.
Our male colleagues are not the only ones whom I have found require a map to engage with them while working in this industry. Over and over, we forget our friends who are on the road or while we’re on the road. It’s not that you don’t miss them, the schedules are just too hectic. You don’t get the typical Friday night through Sunday to make time for each other and hang out. Your days or nights off become Monday and Tuesday. Remember growing up and you hating Monday, now you look forward to it simply so you have a day to sleep in. This is why this industry is so commonly called the “anti-social club” because it truly is for those who don’t plan on socialising within normal hours. Our friends outside of this industry don’t want to go out on either of those days because they’re likely to have work, and we can’t go out with them on their nights off because we have work. So they try to compromise and they make the effort to come to see us at work at one of our shows on their night off, but we still don’t have time to hang out immediately before or after the show because that’s soundcheck time and everything else magical that happens behind the scenes. This often leads to friendships fading or ending.
Again, these rules are in no particular order.
Rule 1: When you do go out from work together, put work aside.
My friends don’t always understand why I don’t want to hang out with them at festivals (the ones I’m not working), or at live band nights. Honestly, it’s difficult to get away from work in those places. I instantly notice things that my friends naturally don’t, and my mind gets stuck back in work mode. Lately, it’s worked when my friends outside of the industry meet me in neutral spaces like a coffee shop or getting a bite at a restaurant.
Rule 2: Don’t expect every detail of each other’s lives since you last saw them.
When working on the road it can be difficult to remember exactly the last time you saw one of your friends, especially if they’re also on the road at the moment. With the hectic schedules, it’s simply tough to remember anything other than the next assignment that needs to be done. When you do get to finally see your friends again, try not to expect a play-by-play of exactly everything that happened since the last time. Honestly, most people will give the big events that had an impact and leave out the details. We will also get things wrong because of so much time away and apart. That’s okay!
Rule 3: Try to remember important days.
Remembering days that are important to your friends can sometimes be challenging, and is even more so with the constantly changing schedules of the job. Try setting reminders and putting things in your calendar so you don’t forget things like birthdays.
Rule 4: Talk as often as you can.
Let’s face it, this is a pretty cool career even if some of your friends have no idea what you really do, they know it’s cool. You may not be able to talk shop with all of your friends, but you’ll still get to tell them about the awesome night you had mixing a show. The friends you can talk shop with, you can always bounce ideas off each other. Sometimes when we’re stuck on something, we forget that some of the best resources we have are our friends in this industry.
Rule 5: Take a break from the anti-social club.
It’s okay to take a night off during the weekend once in a while. This is when the majority of your friends will be able to actually spend time with you. This is why we have subs for when we’re on our tour. Take a break, and remember what the world is like on the weekend when you’re not working. Enjoy your friends’ company.
Rule 6: Respect their time.
It might not be a late travel day for them, but they might still be busy. In this industry, it can be easy to roll your eyes and think “You don’t know what busy looks like” because we’re regularly busy. If your friends say they’re just too busy or something came up, chances are that either it’s important or that they’re too tired to hang out. Each of those is fine, and it needs to be respected either way. It’s true that you may not get to see your friends all too often, but you will see them again. Perhaps not today when they’re busy, but maybe they’ll be free for something later while you’re still in town or maybe they’ll take a vacation and come see you on the road somewhere down the lineup.
Rule 7: Treat your friends in the industry as more than just marketing.
A friend in this industry can do wonders for anyone. That doesn’t mean it’s the only way to get anywhere. Your friends in this industry don’t want to feel like they are just tools for you to get ahead in your career. Friends in this line of work can either open new doors for you or slam them shut and lock them before you ever get the chance to ask. It’s good to show support and congratulate them not just because you think it will get you ahead someday. There are so many ways to support each other in this profession like following each other on social media and collaborating with one another.
Rule 8: Lifelong friends need to stay lifelong.
One of the worst goodbyes I have had to do was going on the road for the first time. Of course, it’s exciting but also terrifying leaving something that you have gotten comfortable with and somewhere you know everyone. Leaving my best friend to go out on the road to pursue my career while he finished school was heartbreaking. We both promised to stay friends and talk every day as you do when you’re young and naive and don’t know how busy life can get. We haven’t always kept the promise of talking every day, but we’re getting back to that and he’s still my lifelong best friend. Those don’t come around every corner and it’s good to reminisce about things only lifelong friends would know about.
Rule 9: No one is always easy to get along with, and you’re no exception.
Canceled travel plans for the weekend, again. A last-minute phone call from the studio about a client even though you’re already out for the evening, again. Your boss telling you that they need you to cover until four in the morning on Friday even though you’ve already asked for that night off two weeks ago, again. It’s one thing after another at the start of your career, and sometimes it feels like it doesn’t go away. Our friends, especially at the start of our careers, put up with a lot from us too, and deserve to be recognised for that. How many times have we canceled, or gotten pulled away from a beer with the gang because of work? Yet they’ve stuck by us while we’ve advanced our careers because we were putting in our dues. That’s not an easy thing to always get past.
Rule 10: Let them be themselves.
In this work, sometimes we get to work alongside some A-List clients. Setting up panels for Comic-Con, mixing a live concert, or running playback sound for a film festival. We can become accustomed to this environment, but our friends outside of this industry (and even some inside) don’t. What we tend to forget is that we all have that one person/show/film that we would do anything just to get a glimpse of. When your friend is standing next to you shaking you uncontrollably so your arm resembles jello because you got to introduce them to their favourite person/show on the planet, to you it’s annoying and embarrassing. To them, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Just let them be themselves and try to enjoy the excitement on their face while they’re starstruck.