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Annlie Huang: Music Editor for Television & Mix Engineer

 

Annlie Huang is a Los Angeles-based music editor for streaming content at Marvel Studios and an independent mix engineer. She began her journey by obtaining a B.F.A. in Performing Arts Technology and a B.S. in Sound Engineering from the University of Michigan, and she has since become a consummate professional with vast experience ranging across the spectrum of film sound production and post-production. Her credits include Mulan, Frozen 2, Avengers: End Game, and most recently Moon Knight and She-Hulk. Even with her film and television work amassing, Annlie still takes on mixing projects for musicians she admires when moved. I first became aware of Annlie’s work and story when she presented at WAMCon LA in 2019 from a soundstage at The Walt Disney Studios, where she worked as a mix tech at the time. Her steady confidence and presence in that space stayed with me. With her newborn baby by her side, Annlie answered the following questions via correspondence just a week ago.

You have previously worked in ADR and re-recording and have most recently served as assistant music editor on many projects, including some of my family’s favorite Marvel shows! How have these past roles prepared you for your current work?

Probably the biggest benefit of having been in different roles is learning the different language & lingo that people use in different departments & crafts (and subsequently understanding what other people know & don’t know). So many of the crafts that go into filmmaking are so highly specialized that effective communication can be a bigger challenge than people realize. Once you’re able to translate between disciplines & departments, you kind of gain a new superpower that opens up a lot of relationships, ideas, and possibilities for better teamwork — and ultimately a cooler product.

Additionally, I think that in any collaborative process or art form, it always helps to know what the views, concerns, and work of other crafts are, and how they fit into the bigger picture. It’s like a sports team: I imagine a center forward might perform better at their role if they’ve tried out playing defense or goalie before and understand what the field looks like from all different positions.

I don’t know of many other art forms that require as much collaboration and as extensive a pipeline of different artisans, technicians & facilitators all coming together than that of film production. Ultimately, all the elements of a movie or TV show have to work together. The sound has to support the picture, the mix has to support the story, the color has to support the mood, etc.  Knowing what goes into other parts of the filmmaking process, and what their challenges, capabilities, limitations, and viewpoints are, makes it possible for me to perform my job in a more supportive & comprehensive way.

To be more specific, for example, it’s extremely helpful to me and my team that I have a deep and detailed understanding of what goes on during the re-recording process since ultimately everything we do in music editing needs to be delivered to the re-recording stage and flows down to them. Of course, you can be a great music editor with very little understanding of what happens after you pass the music off to mixing, but if you know what can be possible in the next step of the process, and how to set up your own work/sessions to make certain ideas possible, it opens up the door for a lot more creative conversation and cool ideas to be entertained.

When you spoke at WAMCon LA in 2019, I was so struck by your story path to a career in audio. I would love to hear a bit about that journey again.

I was classically trained from the age of 3 on violin & piano and performed competitively throughout high school. I didn’t have much of a life outside of school and music performance and by the time I went to college, I had come to really dislike the whole cycle of practice, performing, being judged and critiqued, and the pressure that came with it. So I took a 180º turn and pursued a pre-med track for 2 years before realizing that I still really missed music and being creative. I was lucky that the university I was attending had a Music Technology program, which was still not that common at the time. I thought “This is perfect, I can still work on music but not have to perform!” So I started taking freshman intro classes as a junior, and eventually transferred majors. I realized pretty quickly that I was completely out of my depth when it came to music production since I had had minimal exposure to popular/mainstream music and had no idea how to approach it or talk about it, (for context: I had no idea what the typical instruments of a rock band were or any of the parts of a drum kit. I couldn’t even ID a Beatles song at that point), so I gravitated toward the idea of working on sound for film since it can tend to be much more grounded in everyday life — and, of course, I had watched movies growing up. Unfortunately, my school didn’t have a sound-for-film program or any classes, so by the time I graduated, I still had pretty limited knowledge of how film sound really worked. I moved out to LA and started out in the very typical manner of being an unpaid intern for a small post-production facility (cleaning kitchens, and bathrooms, refilling coffee machines, doing supply runs, answering phones, sorting mail, etc.) before being hired on by them to do a little bit of everything: audio editing, video editing, subtitle timing, DVD authoring QC, ADR loop counts, etc. While working there, I came across a job posting for the international/foreign language department at Disney, which I was eventually offered. While in that department, I worked closely with the head of post-production sound for the studio, who eventually offered to take me on as a trainee in his department, which allowed me a path to join the Motion Picture Editors Guild — the labor union for film post-production — which is how I ended up on the re-recording mixing & ADR stages (still one of my favorite places to be in the world!). Eventually though, due to personal considerations around lifestyle & family planning, I realized that I couldn’t stay on the stage long-term, and looked at moving into audio editing. I settled on music after talking to various amazing colleagues & veterans in both sound (dialogue & sound effects) & music editing, and here I am!

Is there an area of audio you would still love to explore?

I’m currently, I think for the first time in my life, in an area of audio that I think I can stay in for a long time. I love everything about the balance of the role of music editing, and I think it fits my personality and priorities really well. This comes after a LOT of exploration and misfits. As you mentioned above, I’ve tried out a lot of other roles to arrive here: boom op, production sound mixer, ADR, re-recording mixer, dialogue editing, music mix engineer, tracking engineer… Although I have limited to no direct experience in the roles like foley, live sound, or mastering, I know from theory & observation that I’m more than happy leaving those to other experts! I do still absolutely LOVE mixing music & re-recording mixing, but I end up pouring so much heart & passion into those that I like to keep it to select projects that I believe deeply in and am particularly excited about. I guess I should also mention that I’m married to an audio plug-in developer/DSP engineer, so I also get to have a front-row seat in the peanut gallery to the process of creating audio software, which is super fun & interesting!

I guess my one bucket list item in regards to audio right now is to learn to love playing again. I’d love to learn to play a band instrument & just play for fun, which is not something I did before, and I have some unlearning to do, in terms of withholding judgment & just enjoying the process & the music!

What piece of gear or plug-in have you found to be most essential in your work?

This is such a hard question… I have so many pieces of gear & plugins that I love, but I’d have to say I probably place the most value on a good pair or properly set up studio monitors. For mixing, we have the ATC SCM50s, which are an absolute game-changer. I really love critically listening to music & mixes on those (in addition to working on them). For music editing, I’m on a pair of Klein & Hummel O300s (now owned by Neumann), which are super smooth & pleasing. I love working on those since they’re less fatiguing when I’m mostly making content choices and not critical listening/mix decisions for that work.

When you have the time to take on an independent project, what are you most drawn to?

My love & passion for working in music/film is because I think it’s an extremely powerful medium. It has the power to make people feel and experience situations and emotions they otherwise wouldn’t have exposure to or be able to: from fantastical made-up universes that setup the subtext of parallel issues in our own lives, to gripping documentaries that brutally shed light on realities of our world, to feel-good comedies that help people get by from one week to another or bring people closer together. There are certain albums that have gotten me through the highest and lowest times in my life or made me feel deeply connected to someone radically different from me. Storytelling is such an important and essential part of communication and human connection, and I love the form it takes through the craft of music & film. So when it comes to taking on independent projects, I go absolutely bonkers over the artists and works that say something that I think the world should hear — whether the message is beautiful & gentle, loud & brash, heartbreaking, or uplifting. There are so many people with such interesting & unique things to say, that if I can help focus or enhance that message and shepherd it as acutely and potently as possible into the world through great, compelling, sound, that’s what I get really excited about.

Tell us about your audio community.

As I mentioned above, I’m quite lucky to be married to an audio badass. My husband is an all-around guru about most things audio and has encouraged and supported me aggressively as I found my own path. We talk about audio all day, from new gear and what studio upgrades we want, to new & old technologies, listening to old and new music together — both casually & critically — new plug-in features, differences between film audio & the music industry, room acoustics… etc. I rely on him for brutally honest mix feedback, fresh ears on music edit options I put together, and a second opinion on generally everything, while he asks me to beta test their company plug-ins and listen to his mastering revisions. Outside of that, I have a few select veteran colleagues in the film industry that have taught me basically everything I know. I’m forever indebted and grateful to them and they’ve also become dear friends. Lastly, there’s the amazing & wonderful world of women in sound! Through organizations like Omni Sound Project, Women’s Audio Mission, and Soundgirls, I’ve been able to connect with so many amazing and rad individuals who love audio & sound as much as I do! I absolutely love how supportive and positive the entire community is, and I’m proud to be able to say I’m an active member!

I remember a workshop of yours in which you showed back-to-back clips of the brontosaurus scene in Jurassic Park with and without the score. It’s amazing what a difference the music makes! Do you have any other favorite examples of the score making this kind of impact? Something you’ve seen or something you’ve worked on?

Oh, man… I’m woefully indecisive and so, so bad at picking favorites. There are so many film & tv moments that totally just deflate if you take the music out, whether subtle or dramatic… music can really set the tone & emotion, so much, of anything!!!

With all that you have achieved, what dreams remain for you?

Well, I just started my own little family (last week!), which while not an easy task in any context, has its particular challenges in this industry. I’m so lucky that the team that I’m on is very supportive, but I really hope there’s a future where women don’t feel so much like they need to decide between career and family. Aside from that, I just look forward to working with great teams and inspiring individuals on projects that move people!

You can find her on Instagram as @shigwastudio and see her credits listed on IMDB.

Thank you, Annlie!

Kylie Grace Snyder – Forging her Own Path

Kylie Grace Snyder is a reformed singer-turned-audio and media engineer working on staff at the University of Michigan’s Duderstadt Center as Technical Lead for Media & Studio Arts. She loves building complex integrations between analog and digital systems, primarily in studios, and talking about her experiences as a trans woman.

Kylie got her start in audio at age 13 participating in choir and band and by the time she got to college, it was the only path she wished to pursue. She received a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University in Gender Studies, with minors in Digital media and English, and a nearly-complete degree in Music Engineering Technology from Ball State University, and a Master’s Degree in Science in Music Technology from Indiana University. She is also a classically trained vocalist.

Career Start

How did you get your start?

Primarily doing freelance work throughout the midwest. I managed to land a 9-5 not long after graduating college (luck) where I was helping run a major audio website at the time. So thankfully my writing experience came in super handy. After a number of years doing that while freelancing I decided to get my master’s degree, as I was very interested in working at a university (turns out it was for the safety :), and that eventually led me to where I am now.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

To not overreach with perceived knowledge. You’re not going to know everything, but despite how it may feel, you’re not supposed to. Not knowing something is wildly acceptable so long as you ask for help.

Career Now:

What is a typical day like?

These days they’re relatively chaotic, though nothing like my days of running shows, but in general, most days are relative chaos. I spend a handful of hours in various meetings depending on the day (production meetings, admin, IT, etc.) and completing various related tasks (expense reports, demographics data, purchasing, etc.). The best days are those where I’ve been pulled into the studios to help with a challenging issue (PSU blowing up, network abnormality, or even just QC that doesn’t make sense) as I feel most directly connected to the job. In essence,  I do my best to support my team through the various technical challenges they may face.

How do you stay organized and focused?

I promise to let you know when I figure it out 🙂 Realistically, for me, it’s my calendar which I live and die by. Over the years I’ve found that to be the best mechanism for coping with my ADHD as lists, etc. are wildly nebulous and don’t provide the accountability I need. For me, it’s all google calendar.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

Learning new things and solving unusual problems. Once the technology is working I’m wildly disinterested and would prefer to hand the task off to staff. Finding the problem, however, is a supreme joy for me as my brain finds troubleshooting to be an endlessly fun game of logic puzzles.

What do you like least?

Meetings and paperwork. They’re absolutely terrible. However, the studios don’t keep running just through enjoyable gigs, so it’s helpful to remember that even the most mundane administrative task can have a material impact on facility operations.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

Relaxing with loved ones, hiking, and playing video games.

What are your long-term goals?

Oh, that’s a good one… I often toy with the notion of getting a Ph.D. but I also muse a lot about getting an MSW and trying to help people. What I’ll surely wind up doing, as it tends to be my pattern, is keep learning new things and expanding my skill set.

What obstacles or barriers have you faced?

We’ve reached a few challenging questions. My early career was spent as someone who presented as masculine and I didn’t have any issues. I’ve experienced some harassment at work now that I’m out, however, in general, I have a really safe workplace. The real barriers have been global – dealing with bigotry and the politicization of who I am as a human. That really sucks and wears thin some days but I try to be brave.

How have you dealt with them?

The issues I’ve experienced have occurred at 9-5 jobs so I followed the appropriate channels to address them through HR.

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

That’s a really difficult question as I only started transitioning in 2021 which was long after I had an established career. That said, I think the most universal advice I can give is to be authentically yourself. Not everyone is going to like that person, however, nothing good comes from being what another person wants. Also, stand up for yourself and others when things are wrong / feel bad even if it’s scary. Nothing changes if people aren’t told how they’ve misstepped.

Must have skills?

Knowledge of IP networking and the ability to troubleshoot

Favorite gear?

I have a handheld Sencore SP395 and a DSO Shell handheld oscilloscope that are still my first go-to’s for mobile testing. They aren’t terribly exciting but they’ve gotten me out of more jams than I can remember.

 

 

Things I learned During My First Semester of Teaching

This semester I taught my first class. The topic? Theatrical Sound Design. I learned a lot from teaching this class. Some were surprises and others were more reaffirming than new knowledge. As a way to reflect on some of these observations, I would like to share them with my readers.

How each student is different

This might seem like an obvious fact, but it still came with some surprises. At the beginning of the semester I sent out a survey that included the question “how do you like to learn/learn best?” This took some time when researching the varying learning styles. I wanted to include as many varieties as I could find. What I learned about my students is that most of them do not like to learn through a linguistic approach, such as reading. Whereas I do. Most of us shared a desire for a kinaesthetic approach. This pushed me to incorporate as much hands-on learning as I could. I found that tailoring my teaching style to the class made me feel more confident and challenged me as a teacher.

There were also several facts that became even more cemented in my mind. A student’s reception to being taught and absorbing information is a sliding, varying scale. Some students are not receptive to being taught. Trying to teach someone who does not want to be taught is the equivalent of trying to teach a brick wall. This feels like a disappointment to me and difficult to not take personally. If you are anything like me, finding ways to challenge this intrusive thought is important as an educator as well as an individual. Remind yourself of the students who are open to you and want to learn. This doesn’t even have to be exclusive to your students. It could be a friend or peer you are imparting knowledge to.

Remember, each student is going to be different. They bring their own motivations into the classroom.

Teaching taught me how to break bad habits

I am naturally a very empathetic person and it serves me well as an educator. However, I can often have very high expectations. Not just for myself, but for others I work with. This can sound like a decent characteristic to have. Most people desire quality. However, it is very easy for me to project expectations onto people without discussing them. This is where things can get difficult. Teaching new students has taught me how to challenge this bad habit. Most of my students are first-years or students from outside the department, so expectations need to be flexible. The goal is to strengthen the creative mind with a focus on sound design. I have noticed that this flexibility and understanding has allowed me to enjoy my work more.

Teaching this class has given me the opportunity to enjoy what these students bring to the table while also having healthy expectations for them. This is something I need to practice and strengthen for myself when working with peers and colleagues. So not only has this been good for the relationship I have with myself but also when working with others. Any creative mind can think like a sound designer…As I mentioned before, my class is not exclusively for audio students. I have several students from the school of music, Lighting, and Scenic designers, and a whole row of Stage Management students. Every single one of them is capable of being a sound designer and hopefully, this class has proven that to them. Yes, there is a lot of learning beyond this statement that comes with being a sound designer, but
at its core has a sense of creativity and willingness to question possibilities. This idea wasn’t a big surprise to me, but more of a surprise to some of the students. I remind students that stretching the creative process and considering how other design elements work with yours can only strengthen you and your design. And for many individuals that have already been reflected in their work.

How often my students surprise me

And this leads me to how often I am impressed by these hard-working individuals. Reading design statements from Lighting students that consider every emotive shift and how sound can enhance that. Stage Managers detail each sound cue in their cue sheet. Listening to students answer questions and apply their understanding to discussions with their peers. These are moments I appreciate and carry throughout my busy week. They still come as a little surprise and hope that doesn’t go away.

How difficult it is to teach the mechanics and physics of sound

Teaching others felt like an opportunity to relearn and strengthen preexisting knowledge. This is especially true for topics I struggled with during my first year as a sound student. It can be really challenging to teach a topic that you don’t enjoy or don’t feel confident in. However, I looked at this as an opportunity for me. Any videos, articles, and demonstrations I found for lectures were also learning material for myself. I think a lot of people will agree that the physics behind sound is not their first choice when picking a topic to be excited about. What I learned from teaching it myself was that I had a far more successful lecture if it had hands-on elements. This wasn’t a lecture I could rely on to read from slides and have them take notes. What this meant was there was a lot of drawing on whiteboards, recap/what do we know quizzes, and lots of what-if experiments that I demonstrate within a DAW. This included hearing/sine sweep tests, summation, and cancellation of sine waves, the doppler effect, as well as how the Haas effect works. I found that having a recap at the start of each class period really helped me know what I needed to resolidify in my teaching. I also did a brief quiz at the end of each lecture. It wasn’t worth more than 10 points and had a max of five questions. I used these quizzes as a way to evaluate what I am teaching well and what needs to be gone back over. This felt like a great use of quizzes because it wouldn’t ruin the student’s grades if they didn’t do well. It was easy points for them and a great way for me to check my teaching as an educator.

Always wait a slightly uncomfortable amount of time until a student speaks with thoughts/observations/or questions. Someone will always break the silence and it often leads to a bigger group discussion or someone has the same question. I learned this trick from several professors during my undergrad. It was something I told my students on the first day of class. I consider this engagement with lectures and discussions to be crucial for the learning process. And oftentimes it will lead to a larger group discussion with like and differing opinions. It is a way of sharing information that goes beyond me lecturing the information to students in front of me. Most first-year students have a very busy schedule. So this was also an opportunity for them to get to know their peers. Our department is small and knowing like-minded people to work and learn with can be pivotal for some students. I think that is why a momentary uncomfortable silence for students can actually be really helpful for their overall learning experience. Maybe slightly cruel and
uncomfortable, but worth it.

As we move into the last few weeks of this semester, my students know to expect awkward pauses and will speak their thoughts more openly. This characteristic was taught to me early on in my education and it’s gratifying to see it being instilled in others. I can see its positive effects on students who regularly engage and ask questions. Teaching this class was the highlight of my semester and will be bittersweet to finish out the class in December. It reaffirmed my love for teaching and being a big nerd about audio and sound design. I don’t think this will be the last audio class that I teach, but it was an excellent first experience.

To my students, thank you for such a lovely and laugh-filled semester

Learning and Networking at the AES Convention

 

After a three-year hiatus of in-person gatherings due to the pandemic, the long-awaited 153rd Audio Engineering Society convention took place on 19-20 October in New York, with additional events before and after, and to be followed by an online event on 26-27 October. If you’ve never been to one, what can you expect at an in-person AES convention, and is it worth going to? Here’s an overview of my own experience and opinions.

AES conventions normally take place twice a year: one in North America and one in Europe. If you’re a member of the AES, you get a discounted convention ticket. Conventions are very affordable if you’re a student member; if not, the admission price might be considered a little steep, coupled with travel and accommodation if you don’t live in the area. However, the opportunity to learn, network, explore industry products and innovations, and be inspired can make it a very worthwhile expense.

This year’s NYC convention took place on two floors of the huge and well-equipped Javits Center and was co-located with the NAB show – very handy for those interested in both audio and broadcasting. The Exhibits part of the AES convention consisted of an enormous array of booths and rooms displaying audio industry-related products and services, everything from microphones and hardware to software, acoustics and communications systems, and much more. It’s a fantastic chance to see and hear gear up close, ask questions, form relationships with manufacturers and sellers, and learn about the latest innovations in audio.

One of my favourite parts of the convention was the Tech Program and Training. In several rooms at the side of the exhibition hall, in addition to a couple of stages in the hall itself, a huge number of seminars, panel discussions, and presentations took place covering all manner of topics: studio recording, live sound, music production, post-production, networked audio, spatial and VR audio, broadcast and streaming, game audio, product development and more. Via an app, you could read about each seminar and presenter, and plan which sessions you wanted to attend. It was such a great learning opportunity; my only complaint was that there were so many terrific sessions going on at the same time, and I wished I could be in three places at once!

This year the AES also introduced a new format of hands-on learning workshops, where participants could bring a laptop and headphones and have access to audio materials sent by the presenters beforehand. Some of these workshops were more successfully interactive and hands-on, while others were similar to a normal seminar, with the limited number of participants allowing for more interaction and questions. This is definitely a great format for learning, and hopefully, AES continues with it and encourages presenters to include exercises for attendees to work on during the workshops.

For student members, there was a series of valuable events and sessions such as the Education and Careers Fair, the Student Recording Competition, and the Recording Critiques session. Meanwhile in other lecture rooms throughout the day, research and technical papers on a diverse field of topics were presented. Additional events included networking spaces, keynote speeches, and a film screening. Attendees staying on in New York could sign up for a tech tour to various venues the day after the convention – I was able to attend a tour of the famous Power Station studio at BerkleeNYC, a terrific experience that included witnessing a 3D music video recording.

It’s important to mention that thanks to the hard work of the members of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, AES is making great strides in diversifying the audio community and creating inclusive opportunities for all races, genders, physical abilities, ages, and nationalities. Here’s a Soundgirls article about the Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines for AES conventions and conferences. It’s great to see the attendees of conventions becoming more diverse each year!

A huge benefit of attending the AES convention is the opportunity to network and meet others both in your field of audio and in other fields. This is something extremely valuable in a career path that thrives on connections and relationships with colleagues and clients. With so many brilliant people from the industry in one space, it’s the perfect opportunity to go up and introduce yourself to presenters, educators, industry colleagues, and people whose work you admire. People are very approachable and really happy to talk and share advice and contacts.

In conclusion: yes, the AES convention is absolutely worth attending! There is so much learning to be had, inspiration to be soaked up, networking to be done, and innovation to be marveled at. Hopefully, the AES will be able to return to holding a longer 4-day event in the future. The enthusiastic atmosphere, positive sense of camaraderie, and veritable passion for audio at this year’s New York convention gave me a huge dose of inspiration and motivation to keep doing my best, and boosted my excitement and gratitude to be working in the amazing field that is audio!

 

Ancient Acoustics

Have you ever wondered about the sounds our ancestors heard?  Digging deeper into the questions surrounding ancient noises is archaeoacoustics.  Archaeoacoustics is the study of humans’ relationship with sound and music that incorporates ethnomusicology, archeology, and acoustics.  A related field is music archeology, which focuses more on ethnomusicology in ancient and pre-history.

Beyond the natural soundscapes that still exist today, researchers are able to study what our ancestors noticed via rocks.  In the famous painted caves of France, the paintings are concentrated in areas of exciting echos.  Other caves display similar relationships.  Stonehenge and Chichen Itza are civilizations creating monuments that incorporate interesting acoustics on purpose.  For Stonehenge, the circular arrangement of the stones and their spacings add intrigue to the ceremony.  The Mayans built Chichen Itza’s staircases with acoustics in mind using reverberation to mimic a sacred quetzal call when someone clapped.

From the sounds they heard came the music they created.  Anne Kilmer, an Assyriology professor poured over clay tablets with ancient languages written in cuneiform to find some of the earliest written songs.  In 1972 Kilmer and a few colleagues created an interpretation of a written song that is believed to be a cult hymn.  This hymn was preserved in its entirety for over 3,000 years.  What makes this song remarkable is that it uses harmony, a concept thought to be a much newer invention.  The lyrics even match the harmony, with the melody left as an afterthought.  Kilmer and her fellow researchers knew this discovery would fascinate musicians and have published sheet music for the Mesopotamian lyre, as well as recordings for the casual listener.

 

6 Steps to Starting Your Freelance Business

If the thought of being a freelancer scares the bajeebers out of you….I completely understand. Because it IS scary. Especially if you’ve had a good few years feeling the comforts of a steady paycheck and insurance a “regular job” can bring. After being a freelancer (aka being a music business owner or entrepreneur) for 15 years now, I’ve figured some stuff out. I’ve put together six steps that can help you crunch the numbers, zero in on your skill sets, and help you take that first step into entrepreneurship!

Assess your priorities.

We all have different circumstances. We are all in different stages of life. What worked for one person taking the plunge into freelancing is not guaranteed to work for another. So, we must start by assessing where our priorities are. I created this worksheet (opt into my email address and I’ll send it to you here) that helps you organize your priorities in order of the absolute must-dos/must-haves (for some people, it’s their day job, for others, it’s their gym time).

Envision your dream future exactly as you want it 5 years from now.

Jot it down. Share it in a comment for us all to see. Give us excruciating detail. Not simply saying “I want to be making a living from my music”, but describing what a day in the life of “future you” would look like. The purpose in creating this vision in detail is so that we can map out the exact steps necessary to get us there. It keeps us focused on why we are getting up at 4 am or why we are turning down another gig that does not bring us closer to our optimal life. Write. It. Down.

Assess your skills.

Since we want our “dream” to actually be realistic, here’s where you are going to take an honest and detailed inventory of all of your skills that you can monetize. Think of evvverrryyyything.

Next to each skill, do some research and see if you can make an estimate as to how much you could charge for that particular skill or service. If it’s a remote job, you could visit sites such as https://www.airgigs.com/  or https://soundbetter.com/  to see what others are charging. If it’s for a local clientele (such as in-person teaching), see what the local market charges by visiting websites of people working in the same industry.

Assess areas that need attention, growth, or development in order to monetize them.

If your list of skills seems a little short, figure out what other skills you think you might be able to monetize with just a bit more work. Write that down and then make a plan of action to get you to the level you need to be at. For example, let’s say you can record vocals but haven’t really gotten good at editing them yet. Editing vocals is all about practice. Make a plan to take on some vocal editing jobs (can be music or podcasts) for a discount so that you can get more experience.

Assess your financial situation by creating a budget.

Adulting 101 includes creating and living within a budget. Be sure to include an emergency fund, savings, advertising, investing back into your business for equipment, etc. Figure out your bottom line in real $$ to sustain you and anyone who depends on you to provide. Include your day job income, if you have one. See what the actual dollar amount is that you need to live comfortably and make that your hard dollar goal for your freelance work. Remember that the typical freelance cycle can be very “feast or famine”. It’s important to SAVE! It’s also important to budget it the unexpected. Don’t create a budget based on the “best case scenario” but the “worst case scenario”. Then when you have the more plentiful months with extra income, stash that extra into savings so that you have a bucket to draw from during the famine periods.

Assess consistent income sources.

How much does each income source make, and how many of those jobs can you realistically do per week or month? For example, teaching can be a very consistent income source. It also demands a certain amount of time. Figure out how many regular student slots you can have weekly, then how much income that generates. How much time is left every week? How much more $ do you need to make to meet your monthly financial goals? Be realistic.

By this point, you should have a solid plan in place. “These are the skills I can monetize now, starting today.” This should help you formulate a real business. Give it a name. Grab the domain name. Build a site. Start making it happen. It’s important to not jump all in too soon. Be realistic about your bills and goals. If you are still working a day job and only have time to allocate 5 hours a week to do side freelance work, then start there. If you are disciplined with your budget and hone more skills that can be monetized, in time you’ll arrive at that place where you can replace the day job income with freelance income.

 

Delving Into De-mix Technology

Since Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary about The Beatles, the use of De-mix technology has been more prominent in the public realm, and it is a truly intriguing technique. Even the term ‘De-mix’ is a fascinating one, that mentally evokes a challenge similar to ‘un-baking’ a cake.

In fact, the process of De-mixing has been used by Abbey Road Studios for some time, and the technique was developed in partnership with mastermind technical analyst James Clarke, who recalled that the idea first came to him back in 2009. The first project Clarke created was in 2011, with the reimagining of The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl, with many classic Beatles records subsequently following, including A Hard Day’s Night (the movie), 1+, parts from Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary and The White Album. Aside from The Beatles, David Bowie’s Life on Mars, Rush 2112 – The Live Concert, and material from Cliff Richard and The Shadows, as well as Yusuf/Cat Stevens, have been similarly reworked with the De-mix technology.

What is De-mix technology and how does it work?

Abbey Road Studios explains on their website that in its simplest form, the software enhances the original vocals and helps to amplify the bass, which is something that mixes in the late 1960s were often unable to do.

“Using algorithms that are trained on target instruments, De-mix can extract these components to enhance or reduce targeted EQ or isolation. Not only can De-mix be used to adjust the levels of musical elements within a mix, it can also make vocal isolation or removal a reality.

The new process unlocks mono recordings or those where full multi-tracks do not exist, allowing our engineers to adjust the balance and levels of instruments and vocals within a track to rebuild, rebalance and remix the recording. For remastering projects, De-mix allows our engineers to perform targeted EQ balancing. For example, the engineer can adjust and EQ a bass guitar without any impact on the vocals or drums.”

Abbey Road engineer Lewis Jones talked about working on vintage tapes by The Rolling Stones back in 2018, likening the De-mix process to remastering – he drew similarities between taking an initial stereo track, and then making a multi-track of that stereo in order to edit the parts more individually, and enhance them. In the case of these older tracks, however, the source is more often a mono track, which was commonplace in the 1960s.

The comparison to the remastering process makes the technology a little easier to digest. Delving deeper into the science of how De-mix works, Clarke explains:

“The process is that you create spectrogram models of the target instrumentation you’re looking for, so vocals, guitars, bass, drums, stuff like that. And then the software starts to look for patterns within the mixed version that matches those models. It then creates what are called masks, which effectively, think of them like a specific sieve, you just drop the audio through it and the mask catches the bits it wants to keep and lets everything go through. It then does the same for all the other instruments and eventually, it works out that this bit of audio belongs to the drum, or the vocal or bass guitar.”

Clarke also explained that if engineers were having issues while working with the De-mix software, he could tweak the code and the models to assist the process. And looking to the future, Clarke says he is currently moving into a deep learning approach that uses the same concept of generating these masks to un-mix the audio, however, the masks are learnt rather than derived and can be applied to any song. He states that “It’s producing some stunning results at the moment”.

What could be the impact of De-mix technology?

There appears to be only positive potential in the use of De-mix technology, the most notable being the restorative nature of its application – old, forgotten, or bootlegged tracks can benefit hugely from these techniques, and become resurrected to live a second life.

Abbey Road Studios already offer the De-mix service to clients as a remix or remastering option, and the possibilities for the future usage, licensing, or commercialisation of this technique look promising; should Clarke’s deep learning approach continue to create new versions of De-mix, it seems feasible that the technology could one day become widely available to producers and creators. If it can eventually be used as an adaptive preset (as Clarke described in his description of the technology’s deep learning potential), the impact would be huge. Ultimately, taking the innovation and quality of the Abbey Road techniques, and making the software available to use on records everywhere, is a very exciting prospect.

Sound for a 48-Hour Film Project

A week ago, I joined up with a local team of videographers to take part in the famous 48-hour film project. Barring the fact that I only slept for about 6 hours over the entire weekend, it was still one of the most awesome experiences I’ve had to date, and definitely not for the faint-hearted. In this article I’ll flesh out my experience for you, the highs and lows, and what to keep in mind should you ever want to be the SoundGirl and take part in your local 48-hour film project.

Preparation

See what gear you have available: Because we only get our script on Friday night, it’s hard to know what to expect. You don’t know how many actors there will be, what your location is, or even what kind of sound you will be recording. But there are a few things you can prepare for. The first step was to see what gear our team has on hand – because it is not a paid gig, you tend to work with what you’ve got – and then you formulate how you would go about making the most of that setup.

I had access to a Zoom H4 Recorder, a Rode Go lapel, a Saramonic lapel, and (I think) an ME66 rifle mic. I had to hire a boom pole and stand. My thinking was that we’d probably have two people lav’d up with one boom ready to go where needed. We fed two mics into the H4 and one into the camera itself to have an audio track to sync to in post (essential step!).

Make sure you know exactly how to operate the gear

Watch the tutorial in the week leading up if you must. There’s nothing worse than not knowing how to find the menu button on your field recorder hee-hee)

Have access to a sound library (I used Artlist)

Every piece of music or audio you use has to either be licensed or original, so make sure you don’t grab songs off YouTube or anything like that! On the first evening, start downloading possible SFX you might need to add in case you don’t have time to create them, as well as reference tracks for the music.

Make sure you have enough batteries for your recorder/mics

We ran out of batteries about 8 times and nearly had one of our lavs lose power during a take. Luckily, I had a bag of semi-used batteries we then cycled through throughout the weekend. On that note – also remember to switch all of your inputs ON (sounds simple, but so easy to miss!)

During the Recording:

Don’t Forget your Clapper Board

We started off using a clapper board to note takes and such, however, being in such a rush all the time and surviving on McNab energy shots alone, I must admit I took slack and stopped enforcing it. Huge mistake, as we then struggled to find the correct audio takes for the picture and spent precious time in post trying to align audio waveforms up with mouth movements. This easily added a good 3 hours onto our process which is a lot of time when you only have 48hours.

Make sure you have everything in the correct frame rate

For some reason (who knows what happened) I set the frame rate on one scene to 60fps. Gosh… I am so fortunate that I had elastic audio handy to match the dialogue up to the talent in post, otherwise, I would have been screwed. This also added a good hour or so to my edit time. Not good.

Post-Production

Clean up audio even if you’re not going to use it

I thought it would make more sense to wait for the team to send me the final cut before starting to clean up audio takes of dialogue and such, but this was a big mistake too. The final cut was given to me last minute and I had no time to do any processing on the dialogue (eeeek!). What I should have done was clean up all the audio we shot while the editor was working, regardless of whether it was being used or not, so that when we did make a selection for the final edit, I would have clean and crisp dialogue takes. If you can do this, I highly recommend it, because you may run out of time in the end.

Don’t take anything personally

Sound is almost always the last part of the filmmaking process, and no matter how much you try to convey that this process takes time, it might not always be possible for you to have the time you need to be proud of your work. You must be willing to stand firm in doing your job properly, but you must also just do the best you can with the time you’ve got (because we ALL know you have that genius inside you that can pull rabbits out of hats at the last minute to make a masterpiece). It’s okay to not feel “proud” of the final result of the sound because of mistakes, time constraints, and a misunderstanding of the process of sound by others in general. This is a learning curve for everyone so always look for ways that you can improve your workflow and get better at being awesome, but don’t for a second take anything personally

Make things up even if you don’t have the final cut

The team only gave me the final cut of the video 30 minutes before submission. Yes, you heard me right… 30 minutes… You can imagine my stress levels! But, luckily I had predicted this being a last-minute thing, so what I did, was while the team was shooting the last scenes and editing the picture, I started making up things that I thought might be used – extra foley sounds, SFX, music (with the help of my fellow soundie, Deon), so that when they gave me the final cut, it was more of a “plug-in” process rather than starting from scratch.

Lastly, HAVE FUN

There may be times when you feel a lot of pressure, or like things just aren’t working out. Perhaps you get so tired that you start making small mistakes that have a big impact – but remember that at the end of the day, you are doing this for fun. If you can keep that in mind, then everything else seems easier to manage. At the end of it, you will look back and realize that you have made lasting and strong friendships with a team of amazing people and that you did what you thought at times would be impossible. It pushes you to your limit and gets you way out of your comfort zone. It’s SO worth every single sleepless moment.

The screening of our short film will be on the 21st of October 2022, so I can’t give you the link here now, but I can show you the little behind-the-scenes video I took that encapsulates how awesome the weekend was!

Kia Shavon: The Mix Artist

Kia Shavon is an audio engineer whose extensive resume includes tracks by Foxy Brown, A$AP Rocky, Lil Pump, the NBA and NFL, and hundreds of indie artists. Professionally, she goes by The Mix Artist. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Music Engineering Technology from Hampton University, and now lives and mixes audio in NYC.

Kia has also become an outstanding educator, offering workshops virtually through Omni Sound Project as well as private lessons. It was in this capacity that I first encountered Kia and felt compelled to reach out with some interview questions.

You are known as The Mix Artist. Tell us about how you approach mixing as an art.  

Remembering that my job is to bring you into the artists’ world — into the moment they’re sharing with you — is the first step for me. I have to understand what they want to express and know how to accurately convey that message to the listener. We’re actually painting pictures when we mix these records — mental images you may see better with your eyes closed, but pictures nonetheless.

I’m starting with the “clean up” — removing unwanted sounds with cuts, fades, subtractive eq,  de-essers, etc…, chiseling away at the mud and whatever else is clouding the beauty of the image I want to expose. I’m using additive EQ, compression, and saturation to bring out the details. Also using leveling, reverb, delays, and more EQ to create depth – every part of this composition is important, but I need to show what’s in the foreground at this moment and what’s supporting.

I’m not just monitoring LUFS and inputting outputs all day. Knowing the bulk of my job is dealing with emotions and the creative expression of such is key. Getting too technical actually hinders the process. For example, maybe your vocals need to be a little buried in the beat for this particular track. Perhaps it’s a song about being lost or consumed and that’s fitting.  Sometimes I have to just do what the song is telling me to do without thinking about what’s standard or what I may have been taught in school.

You hosted an intro course on immersive audio on October 8th. What first got you excited about this technology?  

I first paid attention to it when I watched my first film in Atmos in around 2014. I was blown away and didn’t want to experience films any other way afterward. Keep in mind, that was film sound whereas I mostly work on music so I couldn’t hop right in.

Shortly after, I noticed the rapidly increasing developments being made in the visual world with the rise of VR and knew there would be a need to understand immersive audio outside of just gaming and film. We’d been listening to stereo since the ’30s, which is wild! We were long overdue for an upgrade.

I dabbled with spatial processing using plugins like dearVRpro and Fiedler Audio Stage but didn’t go all the way in until I discovered Dolby Atmos Music — a game changer for me. The whole purpose of sound reproduction from the beginning was to recreate what we actually hear and in my opinion, Atmos Music is the closest we’ve come to that. Combine that with the ability to recreate this in headphones so just about everyone can experience it *chef’s kiss*.

Whose career do you find most inspiring? Do you try to emulate them in any way?  

It’s really difficult to choose a single person whose career I find to be the most inspiring — there are soooo many. I tend to draw the most inspiration from anyone challenging the status quo simply by being themselves unapologetically and living life in their purpose on their terms. I’m always here for that. I don’t believe I can emulate or imitate something that isn’t already within me. How they came to be whoever they are as a part of their process and their methods may not necessarily work for me. Instead, I see them as an encouragement to recognize that indomitable spirit within myself and to stay on my path, respecting my own process.

Tell us about an experience with an artist that pushed you to expand your skill set.  

Y’all are going to get really tired of me not answering these questions directly. Haha. I’m pushed almost every time an artist gives me any feedback on a mix other than “this is  perfect.” Haha.

But, an artist named Shaaye, is one in particular who helped me to get out of my comfort zone as an engineer and break rules a bit. When I started working with him, I would say 90% of my clients were hip-hop artists so it was easy for me to get stuck in a pattern of doing things.  Earlier in my career, I would take more risks, effects-wise, but quickly realized that’s not what was wanted from most artists so I learned to keep it simple. For the most part, they tend to want the same things from their mix.

Shaaye is a somewhat mellow singer/rapper and he brought the creativity back out and then some. He loves playing around with space, whether it’s through reverbs or delays or whatever.  He’ll also ask for a different “effect” on almost every track, which keeps me on my toes.  Sometimes he’d have certain ideas and my initial reaction (in my head) would be, “there’s no way that’ll work,” but lo and behold, it’ll work. He gave me the freedom to experiment and “just  try things.”

If you could mix a track for any artist in history, who would it be and why?  

… I don’t know why I’m such a glutton for punishment, but the first person who comes to mind right now is Kanye West. I just know I would learn so much from that experience. Despite whatever else comes with him, he’s a creative genius who knows what he wants. If you’re working with him, you need to be at the top of your game and you need to know how to surrender to how you think things should go and instead deliver what it is that’s being asked of you. It would not be a comfortable experience at all, but I feel that’s where most of my growth comes from. That would be a lesson in flow for me. I think it’s important to be able to get out of your own way when mixing, as well as in life in general, and just allow things to be without overthinking. Things go so much smoother that way.

What piece of advice have you received, good or bad, that you still think about today?  “Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.”

I don’t know who originally said it, but a faculty member at my school, Hampton University,  used to say this all the time and I would hear students constantly repeating it. It didn’t mean anything to me at first, but after I lived life a little, I realized its application.

Understanding and living by that single sentence is a life-changer. It’s all about going with/ accepting the flow and not thinking that you know how things should turn out or even that there is one specific way something needs to happen. There isn’t.

Two people can be in identical situations, but one chooses to see the beauty or lesson in it and uses it to their advantage while the other chooses to turn it into a problem they need to fight against. The situation is a positive one for the first person because they chose to view it that way while the second person is in a funk because things didn’t go their way. They literally

created their own realities — their own experiences. We do that every moment. Life is so much more freeing when you know that you have that type of control over it, at least for me.

What do you hope to learn more about in the coming year?  

Oh wow, how much space do we have on this page? Haha. I’ll contain myself. I am so intrigued by immersive audio. I definitely want to learn all there is to know about it, not only by reading about it, but by working on some really creative projects and pushing limits.

I also want to learn how to become a better teacher. I’ve learned quite a bit over the decades and have about 15 years of experience as an audio engineer so I’d love to feel confident enough to share what I’ve learned with whoever I can help or inspire.

Thank you, Kia.

Kia can be found at https://www.themixartist.com/ as well as on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/themixartist/ and SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/themixartist/sets/kia-shavon-mixes

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