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Approaching Acoustic Mixes

Recently, I mixed the song “Being Seen” by Ariyel after the song received many views on TikTok. The tracks consisted of guitalele (hybrid of acoustic guitar and ukulele), lead vocal, and a supportive humming vocal. I want to walk through my process for this mix even though it was fairly straightforward and the artist was really aiming to highlight her raw and vulnerable performance. I really enjoy listening to soft acoustic songs to balance the loads of electronic-based songs I listen to regularly, and I believe it’s important to take good care of the mix no matter how simplified.

If you’re a Bake Off fan, you might recognize that whenever a contestant decides to do a “basic” loaf of sourdough bread for example, Paul Hollywood warns the contestant that everything must be perfect because there is less to judge. I think of acoustic mixes like this since there is less going on when stacked up against songs in a playlist with fuller arrangements. Since the guitalele and vocals were recorded in a home studio, I started my basic sourdough recipe with iZotope RX 9 to de-click and de-noise the tracks as much as possible without creating artifacts.

Since only two instruments are commanding the whole frequency spectrum of this song, I found it most effective to EQ the guitalele and lead vocal track at the same time, moving through one frequency band at a time. This process kept me from overloading certain frequency bands with both instruments. For example, I really liked the warmth of Ariyel’s lower register, so I had her voice fill up more of the mid-low frequencies and reduced the guitalele in that area. I also included compression plug-ins on the lead vocal and guitalele tracks, but I kept the settings subtle for overall smoothing without too much audible effect. I like using McDSP’s 6030 Ultimate Compressor for this style of compression because the simple UI and fewer parameters prevent me from overthinking this mixing step.

 

 

For the time-based effects, I wanted to reintroduce a sense of singular space since I removed a lot of that with RX, and I also sought out a small, fleeting ear candy moment with delay. I used a default 1.2-second plate for the guitar reverb and used this sparingly, but I made sure to send a little bit of the vocal to the guitar reverb as well to blend the instruments in the background. To keep the lead vocal as the stand-out instrument, I also used a longer (nearly 4 seconds) plate reverb for the lead and supported humming. This added an ethereal aesthetic to the song and also gives the listener moments to sit in the rawness of the vocal as it rings out. For the added ear candy, in the humming section of the song, I sent the vocal reverb instead of the dry vocal to a soft triplet delay.

 

 

Because there are a lot of short moments of silence, I made sure to automate the reverb levels lower during those times to make sure those moments stayed authentic to the recording. During one of my favorite classes at Berklee, an analog mixing class, I became really diligent with level and send-level automation. Now, I automate nearly all tracks in a mix all the time, and I think it is especially effective for sparing acoustic mixes. It can sometimes be a pain (especially if you’re on a laptop using a mouse pad like me), but I believe it is very worth the extra time to take a few quick passes and smooth everything out.

 

 

Whether you’re a sourdough pro or you’re just getting started on your mixing journey, I hope my process shares some insight and inspiration for your own methods. The best part about stripped-down mixes like this is that it’s all about the performance. I feel that our role as the mixer is to support the performance as it transcends a live TikTok and enters the streaming realm.

The Way We Hear

 

Immersive sound, 3D sound, Surround sound… Let’s talk Psychoacoustics

Lately, all these concepts have been gaining popularity in the sound field, many manufacturers have started to increase their innovations for the audience to experience even more realistic immersive sound. But what’s the theory behind it?

Immersive sound, 3D sound, and Surround sound are all referring to the same thing and it is basically how sound can be manipulated to recreate real-life sound on speakers and headphones, making it closer to a 360 experience. These manipulations are based purely on how our brain tricks us to hear things, It is all related to the way we hear.

The way our brain processes the information we receive in our ears defines the way we hear. Meaning that additionally to the physical shapes of our body and the mechanical characteristics of the sound waves, it is actually the brain, combining this information, creates the perception of sound. There have been studies about it and the theory behind those studies is called Psychoacoustics.

Starting with the human body, there have been several studies that defined very accurately the physical structure of our ear and the role they play in the process of hearing:

The external ear, where sound waves hit the eardrum and make it vibrate

The medium ear where the small bones transfer these vibrations from the eardrum to the internal ear (malleus, incus, and stapes)

The internal ear where these vibrations reach the Cochlea, in which interior millions of hair cells vibrate and produce signals sent to the brain

Once the brain receives these signals, it processes them according to its properties

  1. Pitch characteristics
  2. Distance-related properties – Interaural level difference
  3. Time-related properties – Interaural time difference

Here is where psychoacoustics plays a role and explains with different phenomena how we can perceive sound depending on different properties of the sound and the way our brain is programmed. There are many concepts and explanations about how our brain behaves when listening to sound:

 According to pitch characteristics:

Physically each region of the Cochlea acts as an amplifier to mechano-electrical transduction that gives “hair cells” an electromotility property which gives selectivity and sensitivity to the frequencies we hear by areas.

One common disease related to this is tinnitus, at least 20% of the population is affected by it, where despite the existence of an external sound, the person can hear phantom noises due to age-related hearing loss, an ear injury or a problem with the circulatory system

Ghost fundamental:

This phenomenon happens when a signal containing all harmonic elements but the fundamental is detected by the brain who identifies the pattern of the signal and tricks us to hear that fundamental frequency that is not present.

Robinson-Dadson curves: 

The Ear has a specific response to what we hear, meaning the higher the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) is, the flatter the response is in our ears, i.e., we tend to hear frequency range more evenly with a higher SPL. If the SPL is lower, lower frequencies are more present in our hearing

Masking:

For each tonal frequency, there is an associated masking threshold with a critical bandwidth, where any signal reproduced inside this bandwidth and below that threshold will not be heard. For frequencies around 20Hz and 400Hz, this bandwidth varies between 100Hz<BW <400Hz, behaving logarithmically on the raise. Meaning our brain processes most information within the lower frequencies, a concept utilized in audio compression such as mp3 to removed frequencies masked on the higher frequencies range

Not perceptible frequencies:

There have been findings showing that even if over 26KHz frequencies cannot be heard, they can be detected as brain activity in MRI images, causing different responses in individuals such as pleasure, tranquility, and dynamic appreciations

According to Interaural time and level difference:

Source Location:

It has been determined that the way our brain deciphers the position of a sound is determined by high frequencies. Because the wavelength at high frequencies is comparable to the dimensions of our body, it can let the brain understand what the position of the sound source is in reference to our bodies.  However, lower frequencies can also help to determine the sound source by measuring phase differences between signals perceived by each ear.

Hass effect: 

When two sound sources with the same distance and SPL to the hearing person (stereo) will produce a ghost image in the middle of the sources. If one of the sources is attenuated or delayed (5ms or -18dB), the ghost image will move from the center closer to one of the sources. Here is where concepts like time difference and level differences between audio signals are the key for most professional audio applications

HRTF. HPTF: 

The Head Related and Head Phones Transfer Functions are mathematical equations that explain how our head, torso, and ear shapes affect the way we hear, meaning how the distance between our ears, dimensions, curves, shapes, bones reflections, and bones resonators affect each frequency of a sound wave defining the sound perception for each specific individual. These anthropometric measurements are used to define personalized HRTF and HPTF.

As mentioned before,  all these concepts are being applied in Professional sound applications based on psychoacoustics theory:

References

Oohashi, Tsutomu (1991). High-Frequency sound above the audible range affects brain electric activity and sound perception. AES 91st Convention. NY

Sunder, K., Tan E., Gan W. (2014) Effect of headphone equalization on auditory distances perception. AES 137th     Convention LA.

Novatech & Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Present Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in L-ISA.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMfMA1i-hY

What is AMBEO Immersive Audio by Sennheiser? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIpVM4-3tV4

Binaural Audio Recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGt9DjCnnt0

ASMR 3D Tingles | Zoom H3 VR Mic Test (No Talking). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrf87AdR3Eg

Woo Lee, G., Kook Kim, H. (2018) Personalized HRTF Modeling Based on Deep Neural Network Using Anthropometric Measurements and Images of the Ear

 

Ashley Lambert: Voice Director, Voiceover Artist, and Singer

Ashley Ann Lambert is an actor, vocalist, and partner with R.A.W. Voice Casting out of Los Angeles, CA. She describes herself as “passionate about sound and all of its forms.” In her role at R.A.W., she uses her well-trained ear for acoustic direction and sound mimicry to cast accurate sound-alikes, direct voiceover actors individually or in groups, and lead ADR sessions to hone many of the performances we hear in our favorite big and small budget films. A professional voiceover actress herself, at times you can even hear her own voice among them. With remote work having risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, she is now busily working from home as well as in the studio.

Ashley and I spoke via Zoom in August of 2022. Her responses to the following questions have been edited for length and clarity.

What was your earliest inclination that you may have a future working in sound?

I think I did my first school musical, when I was, like, six. And I had a solo, and it really spoke to me. I got “the bug” early, I guess you could say. I always loved singing or saying lines, reading out loud for the class, or whatever. I loved speaking. And I actually ended up booking when I was 10. I started booking voiceover work, and language learning books for a Japanese tech company (I did all of their English learning series, which I guess would be sort of like the Rosetta Stone today), and I did books on tape. It had always been a part of my life. And then I also started taking singing lessons very early on, because I loved it so much. I started training in opera when I was 12, studying classical music.

Talk about some other experiences, educational or otherwise, that prepared you for your current career.

Classical training was huge. You understand it’s so technique based. Particularly with voiceover, and now that I do a lot of voice direction one-on-one, understanding the mechanics of the mouth and sound placement is huge. If you understand it yourself, you can then understand how to explain it to someone. And then I went to NYU Tisch. In Tisch, you have [courses in] voice and speech, breath work, projection, so I feel like I got conservatory training at NYU. And I went to RADA, which is the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. They had a very intensive program. I performed Shakespeare, so again, it’s about diction, accents, and being able to really understand and control your voice. We studied the phonetic alphabet. So, understanding that has been huge, and, I would say, my music background and, just, love of music. I have nearly perfect pitch, and being able to hear, when you have a group of actors working together, [if] one thing is off, has been very helpful in directing large groups, to be able to pick up the one thing that just isn’t working.

What skills have you cultivated that set you apart at your job?

I would say, funnily enough, the link of being a conductor. Either I do sessions one on one, which is more about the technical voice placement, being on-voice/off-voice, or I direct sessions with 20+ actors in a room together, doing group sounds and single sounds. When I work with a group, being a conductor is not how everyone approaches it, but I really do approach it that way – where I find what your strength is, and that’s what I’m going to have you do. Maybe you think you’re good at one thing, but maybe I need to kind of gear you back towards what your voice should be doing. I approach things as a conductor, to make a tapestry of voices really work to support a project instead of it being a little mismash that people are going to have to edit later. That’s what I like to lead with. I want the product to be perfect for right now, and you’re not going to have to be like, “Oh, I’ll fix it and make it okay later.” Especially when you’re in a recording studio, and they’re like, “Well, we have three decent takes, and I’ll edit all three together and have it be fine.” I want that one take to be great. And then I would say, I also am a really great communicator. A lot of Hollywood is being able to take what the producer wants, take what the actor wants, take what the people behind the scenes want, and figure out how to be a single voice giving the direction to the artist that isn’t going to stifle their performance; to figure out a way to describe what I mean technically, but also still give room for creative freedom. I’m very good at being that. I’m like a translator, a conductor of a translator! And underneath that, I’m respected because I also am a good voice actor and musician, so I’m not speaking from a place of not knowing. I’m speaking from a place of having been there and wanting to make it the best. And I think everyone I work with knows that the goal is to have the best product.

Can you describe a typical day? Are there certain routines that help you to get into a flow?

Yes. I’ll do a couple of different options. If I have a one-on-one session with, like, a high-profile talent, I definitely show up having prepped the script. I like to be action based when we’re working on performance, so I’ll look at each scene and know the emotional action base that needs to be behind it. But on a day where I’m going to direct, like, a four-hour session for a video game or something, I come with the script prepared, I come with my notes for knowing vocal performance (what’s loud, what soft), paint some visuals so they can creatively get in the space. Then we just kind of dive in and plow through it, but I feel like having a little map of where I’m gonna go is huge for the one-on-ones. The group sessions… they’re crazy. I just kind of show up – again, prepared, I have my notes, I’m ready to go – but I pre-assign who’s going to do what to the best of my ability. Because I cast it, I know what my troupe is for the day, so I do a little pre-assigning, but then I just go. Coffee. Coffee is my number one prep source. Just have a really good cup of coffee, and then be ready to go. When I’m recording, I do like to try to get in a little five-minute meditation. If I’m singing ever, I do a full 30-minute vocal warmup – I like to return to my Italian roots, do a little Italian aria warmup – and be extremely hydrated. I mean, those are very technical things, but three different categories. [Laughs.]

I hear you on the hydration for sure.

Very important! And it’s amazing, some days will go by and I’m like, “I had one glass of water.” But if you are hydrated? Oh! Huge difference! When I do a voice for a video game or I’ve been cast for something, I just have to keep hydrated. Your mouth starts making weird noises if not. It just gets weird. Chapstick: another good secret. Have a good amount of chapstick so your lips don’t make noise.

Beyond the essentials (you mentioned your notes), which tool do you find most helpful in the context of a typical workday?

Well, again… coffee. No, I would say if I’m doing a remote session, the sound equipment, and the headphones are everything. I use Bose headphones that I just love. They’re great. I actually have a mic on the go that I bring with me, the Shure MV88, which has been such a little gem. You just plug it into your phone and the sound quality is great. That’s been a good little secret weapon. And then I also use the Hype MiC that I just love. For my home sessions, you can kind of soundproof any room, but I work in my closet. My gowns really pad it well, you don’t need to do much. When I’m doing a remote session: good internet, good headphones, good mic. That’s it. When I’m in the studio, they take care of the technical. I’m on a giant soundstage, it’s more just have my water and have my wits about me. That’s it.

“Have my water and have my wits about me.” That’s the quote.

That’s the quote. That’s it. “Water and wits.” When I do large group sessions, it’s all improvised work, very rarely scripted lines. For loop group, or adding voices to a movie, they don’t script stuff for us. So you have to be on your toes. And like, if it’s a scene with reporters, we get the gist of what we need to be asking about, and it’s like, “Go. Come up with questions. Go.” So wits are very essential. Lately, having had a baby, I’m only functioning at like, 60%, so we’re doing our best. [Laughs.]

Eventually, that’s going to make things even more interesting, because he’s going to start to inform your whole process and your language mentally. And you’re just going to have [laughs] these little phrases in your head that come from him and your life.

Oh, my God. Totally. Already, some of those things have come out where I’m like, “whoa… I just… sorry about that!” [Laughs.] I fully volunteer myself for any mom cue. I’m like, “I will do a great voice for this. It’s authentic.”

Yeah, you’ve got it down. It’s gonna take your skill set and your art in a whole new direction.

Yes.

So what qualities do you seek in collaborators in the audio world? And this can go for casting as well.

I like people who are going to get in the trenches. In terms of the production side, and actually, for artists, it can be long days. I want you to be someone that has a pleasant attitude, that’s going to get in the trenches, knows your talent, and knows to not get your feelings hurt if you’re not the right one for it. To be collaborative is huge, right? Like, sometimes, I want you to bring your ideas to the table, but not get offended if your idea doesn’t get used. And I try to foster an environment where that’s what we’re doing, we’re all throwing ideas up. But at the end of the day, I’m the one that’s going to make the final say, or the producer in the room is going to make the final say, and I don’t need to deal with ego. I would also say I like people who are collaborators and willing to try something out of the box and do that not begrudgingly, because sometimes you can come up with great things, and sometimes we all have a good laugh that it was a disastrous idea. So yeah, I think that that’s the biggest thing, being collaborative. And also having a high standard for the quality of work. I think that we all work really hard. And I like to work with people who want to work really hard, but also want to make it a great day. Because it doesn’t then feel like hard work. I want us all to be proud of what we’ve done at the end of a session.

Whose mentorship has been most crucial to your current work? And what was the most important lesson you gleaned from them?

I have a couple. My business partners who I run my company with Wendy Hoffman and Ranjani Brow, they really taught me. They took a chance on me, when I was like 24, to just start running things basically, to start directing actors. They saw I had a skill for talking to people and being very direct, and they just threw me up there. But within that, they really taught me how to finesse the politics of it all, and how to have the right wording to command respect even though I was young. And, I mean, they threw me in, but always had bumpers on the side. I feel like they really taught me the world of voiceover direction and large group collaborations. They gave me sort of a guidebook by watching what they did, and then they would give me gentle notes on how I could do things better. But they were both people I looked at and was like, “I want to be able to dial it in as they do.” And then, in my personal music career, my singing mentor who is still my mentor to this day is a man named Val Underwood. He has brought my voice back from the dead. He always has amazing training, voice therapy, and encouragement. And he’s known me since I was 14. He’s been incredible and has always been like, “Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Your voice will continue to grow. Keep doing it.” He’s been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement that’s just amazing. And he works with the coolest artists, too. He’s been with opera divas and pop singers. It’s so cool to hear his stories and want to make my own.

What great people to be surrounded by.

Yeah.

So what do you wish others knew about the work that you do?

I wish people knew how hard we work for the group recordings. People don’t know a lot about it, first of all, but I think sometimes people think it’s very easy to do. They don’t realize it’s improv. You have to be on your toes. Sometimes they’re eight-hour sessions, where you’re just constantly using your brain, using your voice, changing your voice up. There’s a technical aspect, to understanding the technical parts of how you record in that environment and to still sound natural. It’s such a skill that not everyone has. I have so much respect for the actors I work with because it’s basically like they play 100 characters in a day in that environment. And you would never know it. I think people are like, “Oh, you’re just coming to do a couple of reporter voices or whatever.” And I’m like, no, they’re doing, like, a reporter, a kid, a little old lady at the grocery store, they’re speaking five languages. I think there’s a lot of credit owed to voice actors. People don’t know how talented they are. And I think also, on the side of more the one-on-one, people don’t understand how the tiniest adjustment to your voice can either take away from the emotional performance or add to the emotional performance, like the difference between saying, “I love you,” whispered versus fully on-voice versus shouted. Those are three entirely different characters, three entirely different motivations. And it’s so powerful. I think it’s not that I wish people knew it, but I think sometimes there’s a moment of pause that people could have. Performance can be so finessed with the voice. You give away so much when you have your face, your eyes, and all the things, but if it’s just the voice, there’s really a lot of unpacking of emotion that can be done just based on volume and, again, being on-voice or off-voice. There’s more finessing than just hopping up to a mic. It’s nice to take a moment and actually think about it. I rarely do, like session to session, but I’m very passionate about sound. I think it’s a little bit of magic art.

This is Angela Piva

 

Angela Piva was at a holiday party many years before Covid was ever a thing. This holiday party was a who’s who of audio royalty. A circle Angela was privy to, but yet… at the end of the night, someone decides to take a group photo – a photo of all the engineers. As she walks up, someone jokes “hey, no wives!” Someone comes to defend her, “She’s an engineer!” The echo reverberated in slow motion throughout the room. “I started laughing, because, you know, you have to laugh at those things because you can’t get mad, you can’t get upset… not cry…Like, Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening. [My friend] pushes me up there and I’m like, going up there anyway.”

AES Heroes Dinner

 

Today, I reiterate the importance of knowing the women who came before you. And so I’m dedicating this blog to the one and only Angela Piva. You may have heard of her. You may not have. But I guarantee you’ve heard some of her work. Her credits span from Michael Jackson, Run DMC, and Naughty By Nature, to Color Me Badd, Mary J. Blige, Ronnie Spector, and more. She broke into the business at a time when you really just didn’t see women in the game. So here’s (some of) her story.

When Angela walked into Berklee College of Music, the program was just getting started. In 1982, the school had this fancy new Mac Plus and had invested in state-of-the-art gear. She started college young and had a particular interest in synthesis but was also open to trying lots of different things. “I was like, well, let me try this and see what happens because I have plenty of time to change gears and maybe do something else. But if I don’t try it, I’ll never know, you know?” And so Angela set herself apart. She landed a job as a work-study overseeing the recording studio and then quickly got an internship at Mission Control in Boston, a studio owned by Michael Johnson and Maurice Starr. Yes, the producers for New Kids on the Block. This studio had an SSL console, which at the time was a big deal, and Angela got to learn the ropes.

These ropes would eventually lead her to Unique recording in NYC. Unique Recording Studio was a five-room studio in Times Square that ran from about 1978 to 2004. Anyone from Madonna to 2pac to Quincy Jones could be found there on any given day. It was owned by a married couple, Bobby and Joanne Nathan, and Angela says having a woman co-founder really made a difference. She says, “They were very open. There was no discrimination of any kind, you know, whereas there was at other studios and that was blatant at that time. I mean, there was one studio manager that literally told me to my face he would never hire a woman.”

Angela quickly moved up to assistant engineer. Since Unique was a 24-hour facility, she found it was a good training ground for an engineer. “You got tons of experience nonstop and the number of sessions I was on just as an assistant with well-known people, artists, and session musicians. It was so not just learning about technology, but the art of recording production. And it really trained me to be a good vocal coach for a lot of the sessions,” says Angela.

Unique’s specialty was MIDI equipment and programming. This is where Angela carved out her niche and became an asset. “I really worked my way in as an engineer through synth and MIDI programming, so we didn’t have the kind of libraries, etc. that you have nowadays…we would sample. We had drum machines and things; we used the 808, 909, you know, Kurzweil and other things. But you know, I was always working on it and synth patches. So a lot of clients had to try to hire two people. So by doing those two jobs, which I loved anyway… creating my own library and being valuable in that way too, is how I worked my way in.”

In the beginning, she assisted a lot of the big sessions, but as she says when you’re just starting out, you don’t get the top of the line. This changed over time. She developed a reputation for her programming and engineering abilities. She did a lot of indie records and one of her first radio-friendly records was with Heavy D, Somebody for Me. This then landed her a session with a little-known group at the time, Naughty by Nature who we all know would become a Grammy Award-winning hip hop trio. “They liked the work that I did with Heavy D a lot, and so they met with me and they played me some of their stuff. So I ended up engineering their first record, and O.P.P.,” says Piva.

 

The Show Documentary (Russell Simmons)

At the same time, Angela got a gig with another “unknown” group. Angela’s colleague and friend, Dr. Freeze were producing them. “I had worked with him a lot, and he wrote the song I Want to Sex You Up. So I recorded that with him and Color Me Badd.” Color Me Badd went on to sell over 12 million records, but back then, Angela says they had never been in the studio before. So she worked with them to teach them how to sing on the mic. Recording both at Unique and Quad Studios, the vocal sessions would last all night long starting at midnight.

Both Naughty by Nature and Color Me Badd’s albums went on to be double platinum in the next year. Angela remembers what that moment was like fondly. “I kept watching Billboard every week and then watching it rise. I remember being out in the street and just hearing people blasting out of their cars. [Then later] I remember once going to a club on the Upper East Side a long time ago. And I saw like a couple of hundred white people dancing to O.P.P., you know, and I almost fainted. I’m like, wow. … That was kind of the moment everything kicked off. Everything sort of changed a bit. And I was gaining more notoriety. A lot of folks contacting me, and starting to do different things. I started to work with other groups. But that really gave me the jumping point to kind of go from there.”

Angela eventually struck out on her own to begin engineering her own clients. While it was hard at first, it was a necessary move since assisting didn’t pay much, so going out on your own was necessary. She found people were really supportive. Angela says, “Run-D.M.C. was very supportive of me. When they saw me start to become an engineer, they’re like, you know, ‘Angela, you made it. You were just the little assistant. Now, look at you’… You know, for minority folks, too, like they know what it’s like to be discriminated against. So I think that’s why they were pushing for me…It felt good, positive, and uplifting when that happened when people see how far you’ve come. It’s hard to get acknowledgment from your peers.”

As the years rolled on and the economy changed, Angela began to diversify her portfolio. “If you want to be in this kind of field, you may have to wear different hats a lot. So you have to be versatile and kind of skilled in different areas.” She worked in audiobooks for a while, voiceovers, and got into the podcasting game before it was cool. While it can be difficult to break into these gigs when you start out in music, Angela says having good contacts and good recommendations really helped her. She had a colleague at Harper Collins get her first gig.

Eventually, in 2011, she landed her current position as part of the staff and faculty at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema@Steiner Studios – part of the City University of New York. “I teach advanced recording and mixing techniques and a lot about music production. I like to teach about techniques in general and how to apply them to different situations. Because I feel like, you never know where people are going to end up, what they’re going to love or what opportunities they’re going to get.”

Angela paved the way for many of us. I asked her about any challenges she faced as a woman, but she said while things weren’t always easy, she was always respected because of her work ethic. Hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and discipline are words that Angela has lived by in her decades-long career. “Being different gave me an edge. It helped me. I think it was more helpful than it ever was hurtful. Maybe there were people that didn’t work with me because I’m a woman, but I’ll never know because they didn’t really tell me. [But more importantly], don’t go where you’re not wanted. You need to be in the right place in order to get to the next level… If you love something, if you work hard, if you put a lot of energy into it, positive energy, you’re going to find your way somehow. The path will keep leading you somewhere.”

 

Angela Piva is the current president of the New York Section of the Audio Engineering Society and was also recently elected Vice President of Eastern Region, USA/Canada.

Make sure you get to know the people who paved the way for the rest of us. You will inevitably learn from them, be inspired, and also maybe make a new friend! Cheers, Angela!

 

 

 

A Walk Through of My Soldering Station

When working on electronics it is important to keep a tidy, and safe workspace.  I thought I would show what my bench looks like as an example for others who are just starting out on their tinkering journey.

Desk & Chair

I recommend a desk that is at a comfortable working height, that is clean and resistant to static & fire/heat.  An adjustable padded chair, such as an office chair, that can keep your knees at 90 degrees and help maintain good posture is key for avoiding long-term injuries.

Soldering Iron

I have both a cheap RadioShack soldering iron and a decent Weller adjustable temperature iron (WLC100 Soldering Station).  It is okay to start with the cheap one until you can upgrade.  The basic requirements are an iron that is at least 25 watts.  Most come with a conical tip (useful for small joints), but wedge tips are better for maintaining heat, which is better for good soldering joints.

Solder & Flux

Even though Leaded solder is toxic and not used in commercial products, it is still the go-to for electronics hobbyists in the United States due to its low melting point and ease of creating good soldering joints.  Lead-free is available and recommended from a safety standpoint.  Solder with 60% tin (often called 60/40) is seen as the best solder, due to its lower melting point.  Flux-core solder, as the name suggests, contains flux, often rosin/resin, which aids in creating good solder joints.

Helping Hands

Circuits and components get hot when soldering, so helping hands are a must.  There are several styles depending on your needs and budget.  I recommend one with alligator clips and a magnifying glass as a bare minimum.  Upgrades include a mirror with a light, a fan attachment, and different style clips.  There is even a silicone connector holder called a Hot Holder that is a must-purchase for anyone creating a variety of custom cables.

Fan & Airflow

A fan is a necessity in order to avoid inhaling fumes from the heated solder.  Airflow must be directed away from the working area, which means there must be at least one open window/door in addition to the fan if you are working indoors.

Light

I recommend an adjustable desk lamp for any soldering project.  I inevitably find myself in rooms with insufficient light and a desk lamp is key for inspecting tiny soldering joints.

Wirecutters & Strippers

Generic wire cutters are so important, that one might even have multiples, like angled wire cutters for circuits in a small housing.  While some use pocket knives for wire strippers (to trim the plastic coating off wires), I prefer having a multi-gauge wire stripper.

Sponges, solder suckers, scrapers, wicks

Over the course of soldering, the solder coating the tip of the soldering pen will discolor and become ineffective.  To clean the old solder one can use a small wet sponge, it often comes with the soldering kit, or a brass wool solder scraper.  I use both.  Solder suckers and solder wicks are useful when one accidentally uses too much solder on a joint and bridges two wires together.  Solder wicks are copper braids that soak the excess solder, while solder suckers are retractable pen that sucks a small chunk of solder.

Other Helpful Tools

With tiny components, fingers are often too clumsy or too large, that is why I have tweezers and needle nose pliers in my kit.  I also keep cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol to clean up my finished board.  Multimeters are useful to double-check connections within the circuit.  If there are any accidental shorts or missed joints, the multimeter should find them.

Safety notes

Wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from flying wire fragments and hot solder.  Use a bubble wand to find out if the airflow of your work area is directed away from your face.  If the bubbles are floating towards the open window, you are all set.  When the bubbles just hang in the air, it is time to add another fan or open another window/door.  Take regular breaks from the soldering and take a short walk.  It is not good for your overall health to work in a fume-filled and cramped position (even when trying to maintain good posture).  If you have a drink in your work area, make sure that it is covered (to prevent contamination), and wash your hands before handling any food or drink after soldering.  Overall it is good practice to wash your hands after soldering.

6 Tips for Hearing Your Own Music Objectively

 

I recently had a conversation with a young songwriter, who found it frustrating trying to objectively scrutinize her own music.  “I can’t even tell if a song I wrote is good or horrible.” It reminded me of the first time I was able to hear my own music objectively. It’s a really interesting story that I sort of forgot about. In recalling it, I realized there must be a way for songwriters and artists to hear their music objectively without the utter humiliation that I experienced. Let me explain.

In my early days of attempting to write songs at a commercial level, I felt I was a pretty decent songwriter. My co-writer, who was also the main musician and producer for the songs we wrote, was also really good. We loved what we were creating. We would play them for friends and family and they would be blown away. “You guys did that? It sounds like something you’d hear on the radio!”, they would say. So, when our music was getting rejected for sync opportunities (music in film and TV) we found ourselves scratching our heads. Usually, the rejection had to do with my lyrics but sometimes it would be the production quality or the vocal (MY vocal) not being “right”. Man, it hurt. But mostly, it was confusing. I didn’t know how to fix it. I’d listen back to a song we had just finished and have no idea if it was good or bad or somewhere in between. I didn’t know how to hear my own music objectively.

Around that time, over the course of a few years, we attended a lot of “pitch sessions”. Pitch sessions are opportunities for artists, producers, and songwriters to pitch their music to a panel of industry professionals; either music supervisors (the people who actually select the music for movies and TV shows), producers with hit song credits, record label executives, etc. The attendees would throw a CD into a bin (yes, it was all CDs back then) and they would randomly select one and play the track for the panel and the room full of attendees. After listening to the industry professionals talk about what they listen for, what matters to them, how they identify “broadcast quality”, what their thinking process is, eventually it became really easy to identify a song even 10 seconds in and know if that industry pro was going to like it or not. I found it really easy to determine whether or not the songs being played were at the standard they needed to be.

One fateful pitch session, over the loudspeaker, broadcasting for the entire room to hear, one of our songs began to play. My co-writer and I both sunk into our seats. We instantly knew that our song was not at the standard they were looking for. Now, it wasn’t horrible. It wasn’t way off track. But it just wasn’t quite there.

Those pitch experiences trained my ear to hear music differently and they helped me develop the ability to hear my own music objectively. Notice, I said it “helped me develop the ability” to hear my own music objectively. It did not happen at once and it is still hard to listen to my own creations the way I listen to others’ creations. But I have learned some tricks and tips over the years that I’m happy to share with you.

Just a word of warning, these suggestions are for people who really, truly want to be professionals and are seeking to be creating at that level. If you are creating music because it brings you joy and you aren’t hoping to achieve a measurable level of success, these tips aren’t for you. Keep creating and making yourself and your loved ones happy!

Stop listening to friends and family

People who love and care for you will always listen with a different filter than they listen to other people’s music. THEY will not be able to listen to your music objectively. Of course, be gracious when they tell you how amazing your music is and how amazing you are. Just know that they are not going to be the best judges of your work. That being said, your friends and family are usually your first “fans”. Don’t be tempted to dismiss them as such simply because they are your friends and family. This isn’t related to building a fan base, only to who to listen to for specific feedback about the quality of your music.

Stop listening to people on social media

This may sound a little counter-intuitive since most of you are building and connecting with your fanbase on social media. But this is one of the big reasons why it is important to move fans away from social media and onto your mailing list! Other creatives are on social media engaging, commenting, and so-called “connecting” with you for their own purposes, right? I mean, isn’t this how we get the algorithms to work in our favor? Isn’t this how we find and connect with new fans? Here’s the thing; these days we have two issues working against us as creatives when it comes to social media (only two?) First of all, yes, this is how we find and connect with fans. So we have to be there.  Second of all, we are living in an era of over-the-top positivity, which in so many scenarios is a great thing. But I have personally witnessed people posting videos or audio of themselves singing and they are…..really, REALLY bad. Yet, all of the comments are full of people telling this bad singer how amazing they are. I recognize these are dangerous waters I am treading in because the opposite response would be horrific and horrible. The truth is that even the really amazing singers have comments telling them how horrible they are. These comments are not reliable or accurate, either way! There are trolls. There are haters. There is also a reward system set up to benefit accounts for engagement. So, yes, you need to post, you need to engage, you need to comment, you need to respond to comments and all of this needs to be positive. Don’t be a troll! But also, this means you must not take any comment as meaningful feedback. Phew!

Study great songs commercially released that really move you and connect with you

There is no other way to know how to write great songs than to study great songs. Whether it’s the production you love or the “nuts and bolts” of the song (lyrics and melody), study them. Go beyond just listening for enjoyment. Break it down. Study the arc of the story, the way phrases work together, the change in melodic shape from section to section, and why certain parts of the song stick in your head.

Read books and blogs, listen to podcasts, etc. about songwriting and production

These resources often use great songs as examples and explain why a certain lyric worked so well or reveal the magical process a songwriter used to create the most beautiful melody. Be a better craftsman by studying your craft.

Become a helpful critic for other aspiring creators

There are songwriting organizations and Facebook groups full of creators who post their “works-in-progress” and ask for feedback. Take an hour one day a week and do some listening and offer constructive feedback. Remember to be kind, respectful and helpful. If something sounds so awful, that you can’t think of anything nice to say, then move on and find another post to comment on. This process of listening to someone else’s WIP, knowing the intention is to give helpful feedback, should help you begin to recognize the details of what makes a song move you.

Get professional feedback

Probably the best move I ever made to improve my songwriting was joining a company called Taxi. Taxi is a middle-man, filtering type of company. Let’s say a major record label is looking for hit songs for a well-known artist on their roster. They send a brief out to publishers and sometimes, directly to companies like Taxi. Taxi shares this brief; “major label looking for big ballads for a huge female artist’s next album, looking for hit songs along the lines of Celine Dion, Josh Groban”, something like that. Taxi members see these briefs and submit a song or two that may be a fit. Taxi charges a $5 fee per submission which I am CERTAIN is a way to keep people from pitching all of their songs to every brief because….they will. Anyway, when I joined Taxi, I really had never received any unbiased, professional feedback on my songs. The first year of my membership, every single song I submitted was rejected. For some of the submissions, Taxi would offer a critique. The critiques were coming back with specific instructions on writing better lyrics, writing better melodies, working on the production quality and so on. The annual convention Taxi holds is where I started attending my first pitch sessions. Getting rejection after rejection, reading the critiques, AND learning to hear what the industry pros were looking for sent me down the path to actually learning how to write at a professional level. Eventually, I started getting songs I submitted forwarded to the client and got quite a few sync placements that way. There are companies like Taxi but there are also organizations like NSAI (which I highly recommend if you are interested in writing for country artists) There are blogs, people like me, other professional songwriters, and/or producers sometimes offer feedback. You can also contact the press for album reviews.

The most important point of all of this is to understand that it IS possible to learn how to gain some amount of objectivity when it comes to listening to your own music. It does require work and some adjustments to your mindset. The most difficult obstacle to overcome is we often become emotionally attached to things we’ve created. The more you create and are willing to rewrite, change and even collaborate with others, the easier it will be to “detach” a bit. Keep going! Keep creating!

 

SoundGirls L-Acoustics Grants 2022 

SoundGirls L-Acoustics Grants 2022 

 

L-Acoustics is offering 4 grants for courses in the L-Acoustics Education Program. The Education Team  has structured the grants to relate to certain job profiles to help the recipient advance their knowledge  and skills in their respective fields:

This grant focuses on offering access to in-person training via our packaged seminars. For in-person attendance of courses, hotel accommodations are included with the grant. Grant recipients are responsible for any additional travel expenses.

Prospective candidates must be members of SoundGirls and have until Oct. 9, 2022, to submit their applications. Winners will be announced on the website and social media on November 1,  2022. Candidates can only apply for one choice of grant.

The recipient can choose to attend the courses at any time between the time of being informed of their award and December 31, 2023. 

System Technician Grant: 

This grant consists of enrollment in the following courses in the L-Acoustics Education Program:

o System & Workflow 

◊ Establish your role in the L-Acoustics ecosystem and align your practice with the latest  tools and state-of-the-art workflow 

o K System of choice (K1, K2, K3, Kara II, or Kiva II) 

◊ Recognize the standard configurations of the benchmark Kx system and gain hands-on experience rigging and listening to them. 

o Fixed Installation Systems 

◊ Advance your skills in implementing a safe and functional L-Acoustics system and prepare it for calibration. 

This grant aims to empower the trainee to learn how to mount, rig, cable, and connect an L-Acoustics system.

It also aims to give the learner knowledge of:

❑ Introduction to the L-Acoustics ecosystem

❑ Basic understanding of the Soundvision and Network Manager software

❑ Mount and rig an L-Acoustics system safely and prepare it for calibration

❑ Use and deployment of a K System

Completion of the courses in this grant includes 1-year access to the L-Acoustics Education Platform learning community and content for all the courses.

APPLY HERE

System Engineer Grant: 

The recipient requires prior completion or concurrent enrollment to System & Workflow, or previous completion of System Fundamentals. This grant consists of enrollment in the following courses in the  L-Acoustics Education Program:

o Soundvision 

◊ Learn the most advanced software functionalities for 3D venue modeling, system simulation, and line source optimization. 

o Drive System 

◊ Master the configuration, control, and monitoring of an L-Acoustics system from the source output to the loudspeaker inputs. 

o M1/P1 Measurement & Tuning 

◊ Learn how to record measurements with the P1 processor and how to perform a  loudspeaker system tuning with the M1 software. 

This grant aims to empower the trainee to learn how to design and calibrate an L-Acoustics system. It  also aims to deepen the learner’s understanding of:

❑ Soundvision, Network Manager, and M1 software

❑ Room modeling for optimized loudspeaker system design

❑ AVB Milan for audio distribution

❑ Tuning and calibration of an L-Acoustics system using M1 measurement software

Completion of the courses in this grant includes 1-year access to the L-Acoustics Education Platform learning community and content for all the courses.

APPLY HERE

L-ISA Grant: 

The recipient requires prior completion or concurrent enrollment to System & Workflow, or previous completion of System Fundamentals. This grant invites the recipient to attend all the L-ISA-focused  courses from L-Acoustics Education:

o L-ISA Technology 

◊ Start your immersive journey with an overview of the L-ISA Technology from loudspeaker system design, object-based mixing, and immersive audio algorithms to project workflow. 

o L-ISA Loudspeaker System 

◊ Master key system engineering steps in planning and deploying L-ISA systems:  loudspeaker system design, implementation, and calibration. 

o L-ISA Live Mixing 

◊ Create an immersive live mix, directly from your desk input channels or from an original left-right mix. 

o L-ISA Preproduction 

◊ Learn and experience the preproduction process of an L-ISA live event from the studio to the venue, anticipating the constraints of the large scale. 

This grant empowers the trainee to design, implement, and calibrate an L-Acoustics L-ISA system. This grant also empowers the trainee to prepare, encode, and control objects in an L-ISA mix as well as create a mix in L-ISA when walking up to a L-ISA system with or without preproduction. It also  aims to deepen the student’s understanding of:

❑ L-ISA Controller software and L-ISA Technology

❑ Soundvision, Network Manager, and L-ISA Controller software

❑ Software, processors, and amplified controllers

❑ Good practices for L-ISA-ready loudspeaker system design, implementation, and calibration ❑ Creating and monitoring an L-ISA mix on loudspeakers and in binaural listening environments ❑ Good practices for preproduction and visiting engineer support on a loudspeaker system  using L-ISA technology

Completion of the courses in this grant includes 1-year access to the L-Acoustics Education Platform learning community and content for all the courses.

APPLY HERE

System Expert Grant 

This grant consists of enrollment in the following courses in the L-Acoustics Education Program:

o Variable Curvature Line Source 

◊ Perfect your understanding of line source behavior to optimize your mechanical design and use of electronic settings.  

o Loudspeaker System Calibration 

◊ Develop a comprehensive approach to calibration in the entire workflow of a project. 

This grant aims to empower the trainee to advance their understanding of system optimization as well as learn about:

❑ Acoustic behavior of a variable curvature line source and its sonic performances over the audience.

❑ Physical deployment of a variable curvature line source so that electronic adjustments become optimization rather than correction.

❑ The goal of a loudspeaker system calibration and its link to the other project stages: design,  implementation, and operation.

❑ A rational methodology for the verification, the tuning, and the handover of a loudspeaker system.

❑ Best practices for an accurate and representative measurement of a loudspeaker system frequency response.

Completion of the courses in this grant includes 1-year access to the L-Acoustics Education Platform learning community and content for all the courses.

APPLY HERE

L-ACOUSTICS has revolutionized the Pro Audio industry with its legendary Line Source Systems. For the past two decades, L-ACOUSTICS has developed a reputation for creating innovative solutions to the most demanding sound reinforcement requirements. Commitment to the scientific method and product innovation have been our philosophies from the outset. For the second year, L-Acoustics is providing members of SoundGirls working in Live Sound grants for L-Acoustic Certification.

 

 

Pioneer Recording Engineer – Betty Cantor Jackson

 

Betty Cantor-Jackson is an audio engineer and producer and is best known for her work recording live concerts for the Grateful Dead from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Growing up in Martinez, California, Betty had an interest in electronics and would open up radios and other electronic devices apart and fix them. In high school, she would book shows and would go on to help with shows across the Bay Area. It was during this time that she would sound engineering and this would eventually lead to her meeting the Grateful Dead. In 1968 she would start an internship recording live sound with Bob Matthews at the Carousel which would become the Fillmore West.

Betty would work with Bob on the Grateful Dead’s second studio album and would go on to work together regularly mixing the band’s live recordings. She would go on to marry tour manager Rex Jackson and continued to record the band’s live shows with their equipment. (Jackson would die in a car crash in 1976). Betty would continue to work with the Grateful Dead helping with the stage setup and continuing to record. She would eventually stop working with Dead after a breakup with Brent Mydland (the band’s keyboardist). Her last project with the Dead was in 1981.

Betty used her own tapes and equipment to record the Dead and would keep them in her possession unless they were bought by Dead. In the mid-’80s, Betty would hit hard times having her house foreclosed and moving to Oregon to become a nursing assistant. She would end up losing her storage space and over 1000 tapes would be auctioned off. They would become known as the Betty Boards, mostly consisting of recordings of The Grateful Dead, but included bands such as Legion of Mary, Kingfish, the Jerry Garcia Band, Old & In the Way, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

The Grateful Dead declined to bid and three different parties would end up in possession of the tapes. One party stored them, while a second party would transfer the tapes to cassette and distribute them, and the third party kept them in a barn where over the years they would start to decay. This party would eventually start restoring the tapes; over 200 tapes have been restored and digitally archived. The Dead would offer this party $100,000 for the tapes, but they have vowed not to sell for less than a million dollars. In 2014, one of the other parties started to restore their tapes.

Several of these tapes have since been commercially released. The most notable of these is Cornell 5/8/77, a concert at Cornell University’s Barton Hall. It is widely regarded as one of the Grateful Dead’s best shows and one of the best live recordings of the band.

Betty would not record shows until 2011 when she stage managed Wavy Gravy’s 70th Birthday Benefit Concert. Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes fame was playing the benefit with his new project Chris Robinson Brotherhood. Betty loved the group and insisted on recording their future shows. These recordings turned into a series of live albums called Betty’s Blends. She also mixed and mastered for the Americana band Midnight North in 2015.

As of August 2019, she is the engineer and production and road manager for the band and the choir of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.

She was a true pioneer, a woman defining her path in an industry that was almost exclusively male.

Fun Facts about Betty

While working at the Avalon, she decided she wanted to be a DJ, and her friend Dusty Street wanted to be a recording engineer. Dusty would go on to become a DJ and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Betty would become a recording engineer.

She would work with McCune Sound and worked at The Monterey Pop Festival

She worked at Woodstock.

She recorded Quicksilver Holding Company at San Quentin.

She recorded Waylon Jennings at Folsom.

She was one of two women on The Grateful Dead. Candace Brightman was the lighting designer.

She once threw Alice Cooper off her stage, because he had ruined equipment at the Fillmore.

During her junior year, Cantor had written a term paper on the history of psychedelic drugs. LSD

On Sexism

In a 2018 interview with NPR Betty Cantor-Jackson also recalled having to do a certain level of social acrobatics just to get her job done right: “The only way I could get things done was to ask stupid questions that actually weren’t stupid – they were questions designed to get them to understand what they were working with. I couldn’t tell him, because that would not go, because I was a girl… [I would] play a dumb blonde and ask stupid questions and get them to understand their own self.” Cantor-Jackson took the extra time to convince venue sound engineers that her ideas were their own, and in that way, she recorded an increasingly celebrated body of work, including tapes from Radio City Music Hall, Saturday Night Live, and the now-enshrined Cornell ’77 show.

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593958534/do-you-want-to-talk-to-the-man-in-charge-or-the-woman-who-knows-what-s-going-on

Betty’s Legacy

Aside from her live recordings, Betty was a pioneer as a female sound engineer. Having to hold her own in environments where people were more likely to view her as one of their buddy’s old ladies than as the asset she was to the entire Dead community. Betty helped capture not only the music but the energy and connective hypnosis of a Grateful Dead concert. Though her name is not plastered on t-shirts or albums and to some she is only an ex-girlfriend with a forgotten storage unit, Betty’s legacy highlights the powers of passion, curiosity, and adventure.

More on Betty Cantor Jackson

Betty Cantor-Jackson – Wikipedia

Betty Cantor-Jackson (born 1948) is an American audio engineer and producer. She is best known for her work recording live concerts for the Grateful Dead from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, including the Cornell 5/8/77 album. [1] She is noted for her ear for recording and her long tenure with the band. [2] [3] Contents 1 Early life

Betty Cantor-Jackson – IMDb

Betty Cantor-Jackson, Soundtrack: Bank Roll. Betty Cantor-Jackson is known for her work on Bank Roll (2012), Word Is Out (1977), and Grateful Dead: Dead Ahead (1981).

LSD, Betty Cantor-Jackson, and the Grateful Dead

Jun 10, 2021Betty Cantor-Jackson is a person who happened to experience both these phenomena simultaneously. Little did she know her teenage decision to take a capsule of LSD would soon lead her into a life-long strange trip alongside the notoriously psychedelic Grateful Dead.

EXCLUSIVE: Betty Cantor-Jackson Rekindles Her Love Of Taping … – L4LM

By now, the tale of Betty Cantor-Jackson has been told many times over. A sound engineer that caught on to the Grateful Dead phenomenon in its infancy, Betty taped hundreds of shows during the…

Betty Cantor-Jackson

Interview with Betty Cantor-Jackson 3/18/10. Can we talk about Cats Under The Stars? It’s such a nice record. I love that record. I built the studio for that record. We were at Front Street, which was our rehearsal hall. He was playing with Ron Tutt, Elvis’s drummer, and they were rehearsing to go into His Master’s Wheels, which was the …

Betty Cantor-Jackson – Home | Facebook

Betty Cantor-Jackson September 10, 2012 · Welcome to the Grateful Dead collection Here you will find both: Downloadable Shows (typically, Audience recordings), and Stream-Only Shows (typically, Soundboard recordings).

‘Do You Want To Talk To The Man-In-Charge, Or The Woman Who Knows … – NPR

Mar 20, 2018Betty Cantor-Jackson worked as the sound engineer for The Grateful Dead on official live and studio albums — and perhaps more importantly, recorded hundreds of reels of prized soundboard tape. Ed…

 

Jobs in Audio: A Handy Visual Chart

Audio is a diverse and fascinating industry, and if you’re just starting out in your audio career it can be hard to know about all the job possibilities and different fields that exist. This chart outlines some of the main industries and jobs in audio, to help give you an idea of the career options today. Many people combine several of these jobs and skill sets into a satisfying career or change jobs or industries mid-career. This is by no means an exhaustive list of audio-based jobs or industries, and if you’re interested in a particular field of audio, it’s a good idea to do further research into the kinds of roles that exist and to speak to people who work in that field. And as time goes on, new types of audio jobs are constantly being created with the development of technology and changes in the industry and society.

Here are some questions to consider when thinking about an audio career path:

 

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