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How to Own Your Work Without it Owning You

Working in theatre can be full of ups and downs. You get some jobs; you lose out on others. You don’t always get to know why. Some production processes are smooth; others are nightmares. Since I resumed working in live theatre in 2021, I’ve had my share of all these experiences, and everything else in between. But one thing that has changed for me post-shutdown is how I approach those messier situations. And learning to survive them and still do my job well has helped me learn an important lesson about letting go of some of my emotional attachment to my work.

This is not to say that I don’t still love what I do! I remain deeply passionate about mixing musicals. There’s almost no place I’d rather be than behind a console in a theatre. However, working in theatre isn’t just a source of joy for me; it is also my job and primary source of income. And one of the biggest discoveries I made over the course of the pandemic shutdown when this huge part of my life and livelihood went away for a while, was that it can be unhealthy to tie my emotional wellbeing to something as fleeting as anyone show. And when I think back on how I approached my work then vs now, I can see that I am in a much better place mentally.

It turns out there is an important distinction between loving your work and being ruled by it. And my success at doing the former without falling into the trap of the latter is key to my current healthier overall psyche. Here are some tips and techniques that I utilize every day at work to stay grounded in calm and stormy seas alike.

Practicing Gratitude

Even within a dumpster fire, there is good. I try to remind myself each day, or even each hour, to take a moment to name one thing I like about my current job or situation. It could be anything from “I am grateful that I’m getting along well with my colleagues” to “I am grateful that tomorrow is payday.” Any small acknowledgment of gratitude that helps you to simplify what’s going through your head can be a great aid in re-centering oneself in moments of chaos. I use this technique when I catch myself falling into bad behavioral habits, such as getting impatient or passive-aggressive about things outside of my control.

Lane departure warnings

 

We may think of this as being a safety feature in fancy new cars, but checking yourself or asking others to check you when you begin to let your emotions rule your actions will help you resist the pull of the drama and tension around you. I have worked hard (with a lot of help from my wonderful therapist) to learn what my emotional defense mechanisms are and to recognize them before they get out of hand. For example, I know that when I’m stressed or low on sleep, I can turn into a bit of a control freak and micromanager. At times earlier in my career, I also tended to accidentally overstep my departmental boundaries when I thought I could help with a problem, even when the issue at hand was totally outside my responsibilities. I’ve learned that this behavior, while well-meaning, is ultimately counterproductive because it can hide flaws or issues that need to be solved by the team organically, and not fixed with slapdash “band-aid” solutions. So, learning to stay in my lane has proven to be both a gift (because it allows me to feel pride and ownership of that which is my job), and a relief (because I can let go of everything that isn’t).

Set good goals

Another way I try to cultivate a feeling of satisfaction at every job is by defining for myself what would constitute “victory” or “success” in this situation. For example, on a recent out-of-town show, my primary goal was to develop a good work relationship with a sound designer I had never mixed for before. On a different show that I supervised back in March, my goal was simply to get paid and save money for a future cycling trip. So, regardless of what happens on any of my shows in the end, I can consider them wins for me because I have met my personal goals. Anything more than that is gravy!

Work-life balance

 

To the left, to the left!

 

I’m generalizing here, but I’ve found that because of our long hours, atypical work schedules, resultingly small social circles, and overly cultivated sense of “family” or “community” among each individual theatre company or show team, we (the denizens of the theatrical workforce) are especially prone to letting the work-life scale tip in the “work” direction. Find things you value off the clock and give them the time, attention, and emotional value they deserve. Some tactics I use to maintain my balance are intermission phone calls with my spouse, taking my cat with me when I travel for out-of-town shows, going out on walks or bike rides on my days off, or cooking a simple meal at home that I can bring in to eat on my dinner break. All those things and more help me to remember what I really care about and what makes me happiest, and as a result, I am not expecting work to provide a sense of completeness (or to fill a void) in my life.

One of the great things about being a stagehand is that most of my work can only be done at work. I can’t exactly EQ a microphone or hang a speaker from home. For this reason, I try to take the act of clocking in and out very literally. When I’m at work, I commit to being there fully, doing my best, and devoting my complete attention to the tasks at hand. When I leave the theatre, I try my best not to take any of that home with me. This applies on breaks too. Of course, the existence of modern technologies like smartphones, email, and push notifications can make that hard, but at the same time, especially if you’re paid hourly, then you don’t owe your employer anything when you’re not on the clock. Try using an app timer or similar feature on your devices to limit the times of day that you can check work email. Leave your show paperwork and mix script at the theatre so you aren’t tempted to look at them after hours. If there isn’t enough time in your scheduled shift to get all the needed work done that day, then it’s ok that it must wait until your next workday. And that’s not on you.

 

Accept reality and measure expectations

 

 

We all know that just existing in a stressful situation is easier said than done. Here I am preaching about detaching emotionally from work, and the next moment I’ll be texting a friend to vent about how frustrating some part of my workday was. Being emotional is an extremely logical human response to stressors. It means your body is working as intended! But acknowledging emotions and then letting them go will allow you to keep a cool head and not get stuck in a state of burnout. As my meditation app put it, “Acceptance doesn’t mean apathy. It means seeing clearly from a place of calm, knowing when to act, knowing when to let go.” Someone might come up to you and say something like, “the show is so behind, we’ll never be ready in time!” And that might in fact be the case. But unless one of you is part of the show’s upper management, then all you can do is acknowledge that yes, the current situation is less than ideal, but it’s still ok. Know it’s not your job to fix everything, just to ask for what you need to do your job well. And if that isn’t available to you, at least you’ve made your issues known in a calm and rational way and can now go back to focusing on the here and now of the situation.

At the end of the day, it’s ok to walk away

This blog was intended to dive a little deeper into tactics for maintaining good mental health and objectivity in stressful work situations. However, I want to emphasize that I am not writing this to condone improper work conditions in any way. Everyone deserves a workplace where the expectations of their job are laid out clearly, where each employee is treated with humanity and compensated fairly, and where issues that arise can be brought forward without fear of repercussions or retaliation. That is a bare minimum of what one deserves when one enters the theatre to work on a show. And if your current employer is not meeting those standards, feel free to go find one that will. While not every job will be ideal in every way, you are not “weak” or “a failure” for deciding that a situation you’re in is not the best for you as an individual and that the appropriate solution for your own mental health is to extract yourself from the project. It is hard to remember at the moment, but it’s always true that the ultimate power you have as a worker is the power to walk away, and no one can take that from you or make you feel bad for using it.

Above all, take care of yourself

Theatre is a job, but theatre is also objectively interesting and fun. That’s part of why I and many others choose to put on plays for money instead of seeking employment in other fields. However, “love of the art” does not mean one has to be married to it, as the saying goes. Any emotions that come up because of work are just emotions, no different than the rest of the time. I hope this blog has highlighted ways that creating an emotional separation from your work can ultimately make you a better worker because you will no longer be counting on a show to make you happy. It may do that anyway, but that’s a perk, not a job requirement. You also won’t feel like you’re carrying so much of its baggage if it makes you sad, angry, or stressed. If you can live by the philosophy that your job is to show up, do your work, get paid, and go home, you’ll hopefully find satisfaction in yourself even in less-than-ideal situations, and feel pride in your work at the end of the day regardless of what else happens.

 

A great tool for making a self-care action plan, courtesy of the Mental Health First Aid Association

Lexi Jackson Music Licensing, Songwriting, and Production

Lexi Jackson is one of the most inspiring, generous, and vibrant musicians/audio people I’ve befriended online. She not only writes and produces music as eye.elle and creates playlists to feature other artists, but she is also forging a career in music licensing. After obtaining a certificate in Music Production at the Community College of Baltimore County in 2021, and interning at both Maryland Public Television’s Content Department and Women’s Audio Mission, she began work at The Sync Center. She has since landed a job as a Music Licensing Assistant at ESPN.

Lexi answered the following questions via email.

Tell us about your audio education. What program or educational experience played the greatest role in forming you into the artist and professional you are today?

Well, let me just say, I got my degree in Sociology, but I knew I wanted to go a more creative and musical route. The problem was, I didn’t know how. I’d decided I wanted to work in Music Supervision, but needed to find a way to transition my career. I came across a Music Production and Audio Recording Certificate program at a local college and that helped me tremendously! I had always been musical, and had even written lyrics to songs, but never knew the specifics about production. With this program, I learned exactly that and broadened my horizons to various opportunities in the future. One, in particular, helped to expose me to so many different types of people and opportunities that I don’t think I would have found otherwise: an internship with an amazing organization called Women’s Audio Mission. Right in the thick of COVID, I suddenly had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to challenge myself creatively, and I met some of the best people because of it.

What was the last song you released and in what ways was it a departure from others you’ve recorded?

Wow, I love this question. The last song I released was a song called “You Never Know,” and it features an artist named Ivory James. I actually met him through a friend I made in my WAM cohort. He and I worked on something as a part of our mutual friends’ WAM Final Project, and knew we had to work on something together! I created a Collaboration Form to find collaborators around the world to work with, and he filled one out. When the time came, I had lyrics written (which later became the hooks of the song) and all we needed were the verses. This song was definitely different because, not only did we work with an unfamiliar song structure, but we also took a bit more of a divide-and-conquer approach. In most songs, the chorus repeats. I wanted the choruses to be a bit more ambiguous and hard to find — after all, the song is called “You Never Know.” On top of that, we wanted to tell a continuous story to really hone in on the emotion and uncertainty that often comes with change or during a transitional period. It was an incredibly important song for me and my growth both as an artist and a person. Ivory James was able to come in, capture the vibe, and make it his own. The end result was one of my most streamed songs to date, and I couldn’t be more proud of us.

You work for the ESPN Music Licensing Department and are well versed in the world of sync licensing. Tell us a bit about sync licensing. What do you wish others knew about it?

I’m not gonna lie, understanding the world of sync can be tricky. There are so many ins and outs (audio pun intended) and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds when doing your research. The easiest way to explain it for me has always been to think of music for what it is: a product. With products, there is always an owner of that product. If you want to use someone else’s product you have to ask their permission, otherwise you’re stealing — which I’m sure we all can agree is bad. Sync licensing is pretty much the process of securing the rights to use music when marrying it to picture, and paying the necessary fees associated with its use. The first thing I wish people understood more, though, is the fact that music should indeed be paid for when using it in projects. Musicians, artists, and producers aren’t just creating art for their enjoyment: In most cases, it’s how they make a living. Pay them. The second thing I need people to understand is how important clarifying your splits is BEFORE submitting your music to any music libraries or music supervisors. We literally don’t have time for split disputes and we will move on.

What are some of your favorite plug-ins? Favorite gear?

To be honest, I’m not the biggest plug-in junkie. I’m too indecisive to choose. I stick with the stock plugins in ProTools mostly, but I’m definitely ready for something new. Got any suggestions? Lay ‘em on me!

What first got you interested in the world of audio?

I’ve always loved music. The power that it has to evoke so many different emotions has always been so incredibly beautiful and inspiring to me. There’s nothing else like it. I played instruments and sang all throughout school, but I knew I wanted to do more than just play what my band directors put in front of me. I wanted to be the one making the songs. In doing so, I still wanted a bit more. I wanted a way to share it. The desire to push myself past my limits is what got me interested in audio. It was a bit of a slow start considering I was too shy to try it out in high school. It was such a stereotypically masculine gig, I felt almost wrong for wanting to try it and I had no support to help me learn. Despite this, the music itch continued and I knew I couldn’t sit back and wait for someone to teach me; I’d have to start learning myself. I learned a little, then found a great certificate program that helped fill in the gaps. As much as I learned in that program, I’m still learning. There are always new ways to do things and cooler methods to try, so it’s a constant grind, but it’s a fun one when you get to make something really special as a result.

What goals do you have for yourself in the coming year?

My biggest goal, personally, is to be patient with myself and have self-compassion as I journey through this transition I’m embarking on. I’m working at a new job, and will soon be moving to a new state. I’ve never lived that far from home before, so there’s a lot of change for sure, but every day I get a little more excited and sure that everything is going to work out. Creatively, my biggest goal is to release an album. So far, I’ve only released EPs. I’ve been really learning to be patient through life in the last few months, and I think that same patience has shifted to my music. I’m taking my time to get inspired and I’m letting the music flow, as opposed to completing tracks by a self-imposed deadline like I have in the past. I’ve been working on new music, but the fun part is I haven’t been as open and social about it. I really want to surprise everyone with what it turns into. It’s some of my best work so far, and I’m really excited to share it with everyone when it’s ready, but I’m not rushing it.

What is the piece of advice you have received that stands out to you most, either for how great it was or how misguided?

Growing up, especially as a black female, I was often instructed to lay low or keep my head down. Though it was the advice provided with the best of intentions, it definitely stunted how I viewed myself and what I was capable of. It also prevented me from really going for the things I wanted. At some point, I realized just how uncomfortable it was for me to live like that. From a very young age, I always dared to be different. The world tried to strip that part of me, but no matter what, it always found a way to creep back in. Remembering who I am has always been a source of great strength for me. In fact, “Remember who I am,” is what I use to this day to get me through hard times. Music helps me to remember. Whether it’s listening to it or creating it, it’s medicine for the soul for sure.

What advice would you pass on to someone hoping to follow in your footsteps as an audio professional?

Perfectionism is the biggest enemy of creativity. Please know that in anything you do, the first step is to simply begin. That’s it. Get started. Waiting until you know everything, or can do the thing perfectly, is futile and will only hold you back. The sooner you can learn to catch yourself in those moments and act against those beliefs, the better off you’ll be. Learning to have fun and be okay with not knowing things right away is how you grow. Embrace that growth.

Thank you, Lexi.

An Introspection on Theatrical Sound Design

Where to begin? An empty screen, a blank page, and a freshly printed script. Still warm from the printer. I love designing for theatre. It allows me to experience hundreds of different renditions of the same script. The same story, but from a different perspective. Theatre is the original never-ending story.

Thus, when I design for theatre, I begin by asking myself several fundamental questions. I approach it in its most basic form, a story.

What are some of the thoughts and emotions I feel during the first read-through?

I am currently sound designing and composing for a play titled The Revolutionist. I remember being awestruck, fueled with energy, and rereading passages several times. There were parts that I clung to and others where the action was so quick that it came spilling off the pages. This is what the script felt like for me at this point in my life.

If someone was to map this out they might call it a tension plot. Or a visual representation of the story arc. It might look like a rough line plot with descriptions. It might be a list of points with titles and corresponding symbols with emotive words. It could very well be a single paragraph talking about the story arc’s path. Understanding how the play feels and flows is important as a storyteller, regardless of how you explain the emotions.

Following this, you might begin to form questions or deeper contemplations.

What questions are asked and answered in the play and what is left unanswered? What might this mean for the overall storytelling?

As the collaboration process unfolds, some of these themes and questions will be brought up by the director and other designers. I think by asking questions, wondering why and how, and taking the time to look at the script as a team ultimately leads to a clearer and more cohesive form of storytelling. When you ask questions about the script, you are asking about the story, the author, the period of time it was written, and so many other factors. You are taking a step into that story. I find this perspective is vital when creating the musical world for live theatre.

Keep a dedicated journal or notebook. A sound designer’s grimoire.

I would suggest collecting all of these feelings, thoughts, and questions and writing them in a dedicated notebook. I have used the google drive method of typing notes and keeping my work mostly electronic until I had the pleasure of seeing a costume designer’s personal production notebook. It was cluttered in an artistic and beautiful way. It had swatches of fabric and sketches with descriptions. There were pages filled with words that illustrated her design. What I found on those pages was what I saw in her costumes. It was magical and I knew I wanted that for my artistic process.

I don’t think I could dedicate a grimoire for each design I do, but I do think it is beneficial for large designs and projects I am passionate about. As artists, our ideas flow fast and accumulate. We want to keep them close when we need to remember some tiny forgotten idea. My current one does not contain fabric swatches, but it does have a lot of character analysis, questions, poetry, and snippets of descriptive phrases. I create mood boards to go with the sounds and music I associate with characters and locations. By compiling these thoughts and feelings on paper in one place, I have easy and convenient access to all of it. Plus, you have the opportunity to get a fancy notebook if you choose. I am sure I have sold you on this.

What do these worlds/spaces look like? Sound like? Feel like? What are some keywords, sounds, and images you might associate with the vibe?

Each designer is going to be unique in their artistic approach. Whatever helps you convey what you have in mind is going to be the right approach for you. What something looks like can tell you so much about how it sounds. How big is the space? Are we inside or out? What creatures inhabit it? What kind of weather are they experiencing? Are we experiencing a non-diegetic moment filled with underscore and magical sounds?

Consider the tension plot. Where are we at in terms of emotions that you felt when you first read the script? Maybe you have added and developed these thoughts since then. What do those emotions infer to you? If you were excited and hanging onto every line when you first read it, then an otherworldly underscored moment might be necessary to tell that story and emotion.

What leads the story? The characters? History? An unseen fate? How does that flow? Is it a slow burn or is it staggering? How does this contribute to the story?

You might answer these questions differently compared to others on the production team. You are going to share similar opinions as well. This examination is going to help you further flush out the story’s arc. In Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, shifts in socioeconomics and the unknown fate of the orchard are what drives the plot of the story. In Eric Overmyer’s On the Verge, the story is forcefully pushed along by the three female lead characters.

The answer to these questions hints at how a designer might approach perspective and how their design can emphasize that. Audience members might find it easier to relate to characters unless they have been directly affected by the conflict in the story.  It is also going to help the production team guide the audience through the experience of the story. The actors on stage need our help to do that successfully. When all of these inner workings come together, the theatrical experience is truly magical.

How does the audience interact with the action on stage? Are we in the world or are we spectators? How does sound move around us or in front of us? Is it intrusive or is it invited? What does that mean in regards to how we tell the story?

Finally, we are in the physical theater space. The production team brings the pieces of the world into the playing realm. The play is becoming realized.

These questions will be answered as you have discussions as a team and with your director. The actor playing space will be decided early on. Some parts of the play might protrude out into the audience and some may remain separated. How the action and world move around the theater space is important because the sound might need to emphasize that. Or it might need to represent it solely. It could also contradict in an adverse effect.

This sound support might manifest itself in where you place speakers, effects like reverb and delay, panning and spatialization of sound cues, and the list goes on forever. I mixed a South Pacific where an invisible airplane taxied on stage, took off down the runway, got into the flight, circled around the perimeter of the audience, and flew away. For the most part, that show was separated by the viewer’s veil. The audience members were spectators. However, in that scene, the world of the Pacific crossed that divide and created magic.

Those are the instances that have audience members smiling when they leave the theater. They are special and so much fun for designers. It is a moment to flex your artistic muscles and shine in the spotlight. These scenes are made special because they are precise. The time was taken to consider when the audience becomes part of the world. They are special because they help us tell the story and in turn, we are better storytellers.

 

Troubleshooting 101

Troubleshooting is an essential skill in any part of the sound world and especially on tour. On tour, you’re often on a tight schedule, in an unfamiliar city, and outside a quick delivery distance of the shop. Learning to diagnose and fix (or work around) problems on your own is the only way to keep a show running.

Of course, it’s also one of the hardest things to learn because there are an infinite number of problems that can pop up and most of the time you figure them out as they come your way, building a database of issues and fixes for your future self.

However, if you develop a system of how to approach problems, even unfamiliar gear or new gremlins become progressively easier to solve.

First, never discount these basics. Turning it off and turning it back on is sometimes the power cycle that’s needed if things didn’t start up in the right sequence or it’s simply checking that the piece of gear is actually plugged in. I once spent 15 minutes trying to figure out why a keyboard wasn’t transmitting MIDI (reseated and swapped out cables, got a new MLA (MIDI Line Amplifier), and more) only to realize that the keyboard itself had been off the entire time.

After the basics, you follow the signal flow. Learning how a system goes together is key to fixing a problem. How does signal get from Point A to Point Z and what are the patch points, cables, adapters, and everything in between? Connection points at adapters or racks are typically the weakest points in any chain, whether something didn’t get plugged in (jokingly referred to as a “high impedance air gap”) or strain on a connector that results in a band connection.

 

For example, some of our cameras on tour are built into the lighting trusses that hang over the stage. From the camera, there’s a cable that goes to a rack that lives with the dimmer racks (we call it “Dimmer Distro” on our tour) which is a distribution point for all the cameras and speakers that live on truss or lighting ladders that Electrics sets up during load in. At the Dimmer Distro rack, the cable patches into a panel which barrels through to a repeater inside the rack. The outputs of the repeater connect to another panel where our Crossover (XO) bundles plugin to get the camera signal from the Dimmer Distro rack across the stage to Ampland. In Ampland, there’s another panel that connects the XO run to the input of a video matrix.

As you can see, there are a lot of sections to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. And that’s just getting the camera to the central hub. There’s a whole other set of cables and connection points to get the video from the matrix out to the SM call desk or Automation or FOH or any number of other places. Learning the signal path of each of the systems in your production (audio, video, com, etc) will make it much easier to eliminate possible causes as you work through troubleshooting logic.

Ask yourself, what is the problem? Be as specific as possible. “Video is flickering” and “the FOH color shot at the automation rack is intermittently going out” are two completely different problems.

Next, ask questions to narrow down the problem. Learning the right things to ask can significantly narrow down what you have to troubleshoot.

Continuing on the video theme (com and video will be the things you have to troubleshoot most often), let’s run with the problem of the FOH color shot going in and out at automation. First question: Is the FOH shot doing the same thing everywhere? Usually, there will be multiple places that have the same video. If the FOH shot is stable in other locations (Fly Rail, SM desk, etc) that means the video input itself is okay, there’s just some problem getting to Automation. If it’s flickering everywhere, the issue is more likely on the input end, somewhere getting from the camera to the video matrix. But, by answering that one question, we’ve eliminated about half of the system (either the output side, if it’s just automation, or the input side if the problem is in multiple places) that we need to look at.

This is also something you ask when there is a main and backup (or spare) in the system. Does one work but not the other, or is the issue the same for both?

Our keyboards have a main and backup system, so when there was signal loss on one of the channels, we tested the backup as well. When that also had a problem that told me that the issue was somewhere after the two inputs merged. It ended up being a bad line coming from the pit rack up to our DigiRack in Ampland and checking the backup helped quickly eliminate a section of the system so we could move on to more likely culprits.

In this case, again, I looked at signal flow. The keyboard is sending MIDI messages to two computers: one Main and one Back Up. Those computers each send three stereo pairs to an interface, and that interface sends to a switcher that takes the two inputs and (via a pedal at the keyboards) can switch between the two signals to send a single set of three stereo pairs of audio from the pit up to the DigiRack in Ampland (with panel inputs at each rack). Then the DigiRack connects to the console via a fiber loop.

So, first, we identified the problem: “The Left channel of Key 2A (again 3 stereo pairs: A, B, and C) is coming into the board at a significantly lower level than the Right.”

Next, narrow it down:

“If we swap to the Backup, does that fix it?” Answer: No. The problem is somewhere after the interfaces connect to the switcher.

“Is it happening anywhere else?” Answer: No. Likely it’s not the fiber link or there would be other channels having the same issue.

This eliminates the first couple of links in the chain and the last one. The problem is likely either the run between Ampland and the Pit, the tails on either end or the card in the DigiRack.

Now you can start to change things. (As a note, it’s best to change one thing at a time, check if that helped, restore, then change something else. If you change a whole bunch of things and it starts working, you won’t actually know what was the problem.) In this case, I swapped the line for Key 2’s A-Left channel to a spare line in the run to Ampland and that got the channel back to a good level.

Conclusion: Bad line on that mult or one of the tails. (On tour, fix the problem, then you can do more specific tests when you have a work call or more time.)

Consistent problems like this are usually easier to identify and solve: you know when you’ve fixed the problem because the problem goes away. With intermittent issues, it’s the opposite: you can identify what the problem is only when you can recreate it, or you have to wait and watch for a while to verify that it’s not coming back.

For these problems, still, try to eliminate as much of the system as you can so you can focus on the most likely fixes. Then, find out how to recreate the problem. Pre-Covid, I had a bad fiber line that was causing pops in the system: it would be consistent popping when the system was first up, but after about 30 minutes the pops would be intermittent or stop altogether. At the console, I could see that it was happening over multiple channels, all of which were from one of the DigiRacks in Ampland. That told me that it was likely an issue with the fiber loop that connects the racks to the console. We have seven fiber links that create our loop (the console, three DigiRacks, one Mini Rack, and an SDRE), so we spent a work call powering up the system, unpatching one link at a time, and waiting to see if there would be another pop. If there was, we’d re-patch and unpatch the next link in the loop. Sometimes the pops would go away on their own and we’d have to power down and power back up to see if we’d actually solved the problem, or if it had just shifted from consistent to intermittent popping. It probably took at least three or four rounds through to finally identify the bad line. Once we were fairly certain we had the right link, we ran a spare and sent the bad fiber reel back to the shop for repair. However, after several shows with pops at random intervals, it was a few more days before I was able to relax from being on high alert and trust that we’d actually fixed the problem.

 

Sometimes you don’t have time to solve the problem, just put on a band-aid until you can get a work call or a point in the show where you can actually take a look at what’s happening. This is why you have backups and spares. On Les Mis, the backup engine on the console crashed mid-show and we ran without it for a couple of shows until the shop could send out another engine. If someone has a midshow mic pop, sometimes it’s easier to toss a new rig on them and take a look at the old mic back in Ampland instead of trying to diagnose an issue during a 30-second quick change. Recently on Mean Girls, we had one of our RF antennas disconnect sometime between preset and the show starting. Since we couldn’t get out to the towers where the antennas were mounted during the show, my A2 set up the spare antenna backstage so we had something to work with until we could check it out at intermission.

Always remember that you can ask for help. You’re only as good as your tools and your network. When my console crashed, I called a DiGiCo tech and then the shop to help me work through the problem. When our keyboards have problems, I ask our keyboard tech if he notices anything I might have missed. When video is being a pain, my A2 and I will tag team on monitors: someone can swap cables while the other one watches the monitor so we know right when a problem acts up again or if it’s fixed.

Testers are also your friend. Signal generators like QBox or CabDriver help you move step by step through the signal chain to check things. Personally, I use my CabDriver to send pink noise down the NL8 lines to my cluster as I’m building it and it’s still within easy reach. Once I’ve heard a signal through the speakers, I know for sure when I fly it out 30+ feet that everything’s functioning from the Ampland end of the bundle to the speakers. Multimeters can help you with electrical connections and cable testers (especially one that supports multiple connectors) are indispensable. Personally, I have an SM Pro CT-3 which has two separate parts so you can split it to take it to two different places (troubleshooting usually means that you don’t have both ends of the cable in the same place) and has indicator lights to tell if something is cross-wired.

Troubleshooting is a skill that takes time and practical application to build. The more problems you see and solve, the better you’ll get. It starts as a slow process, so give yourself some patience and try to work through problems as logically as possible.

Painting A Dream 

Sylvia Plath: the Beacon, Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England, September 1956 

I wasn’t sure what to write about this month since I had been so busy being active with my sisters of Non Una di Meno, after all, the patriarchy is not going to burn itself. However, I came across a post from Karrie Keyes, Soundgirls co-founder, on  Facebook about Woody Guthrie and the song: This Land is Your Land, a song with a  message, sometimes referred to as a protest song. These are the kind of songs often sung by artists such as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell to name but a few.

However, I changed my mind, but I will mention a song, very dear to my heart and is virtually a feminist hymn in Latin America and for us of Non Una di Meno Italy. Canción sin mieda – Song without fear.

This song really is a protest by the women of Mexico about the number of femicides in their country. When you watch this video, by the same time the following day, 11 women will have been murdered by men, and of those 11, four will be under the age of 14. Of the 11 murderers, ten will continue to walk freely,  unpunished.

You can find the English lyric here and some appalling statistics

 

I don’t want to be killed

When I wrote my first blog, I spoke about returning to electroacoustic composition and seeing the art as close to the plastic arts in the sense of layering sounds on a  blank canvas which gradually fills in layers creating the whole image. Of course, there are differences in the way these compositions move in time and develop; in this way, there is also an element of storytelling with a constantly evolving narrative. I do in fact use narrative visualization in my pieces, a process that seems to suit me well.

I also discussed in a previous blog what kind of composer I am. The mode of composition and the means of construction are loosely termed electroacoustic since the materials I use often start as acoustic sound samples, treated electronically. I also discussed the idea of being experimental and, as I shall demonstrate in the section on building drones, this is the principal means of producing music. But to this, can be added the process which shares much with painting; in the sense that I leave a piece at any given time in a state of non-completion and then add other layers and images to develop my story further at a  subsequent session. So, since many of the more common musical elements are not always to be found in these pieces, avoiding the word music can be helpful and Sound Artist is a useful and accurate description of what I do: painting with sound. As a brief aside, if I tell people I meet that I make electronic music, their assumption that I might perform in a Berlin basement with flashing lights around me is often their first thought. In fact, for the moment anyway, my music sits within the classical tradition as a branch of the Avant-Garde; in time, I hope to develop and move into live improvised electronics as well.

So, the piece I want to talk about is in this style: acousmatic music on fixed media, able to be performed without the presence of performers other than someone at a  mixing desk to diffuse the sound. The title then refers to my view of the composition process and refers to my dream of Sylvia Plath which became the genesis of the work; thus, painting a dream.

THE WOMEN have PERFECTED: a devotion in five moods

1: Il sogno – 0’:00” to 6:30”

2: The haunting – 6’:30 to 10’:40”

3: La conversación – 10’:40” to 16’:23”

4: La poème – 16’:23” to 20:21”

5: Der Abschied – 20’:21” to 24’:19”

The piece was inspired by a dream I had about Sylvia Plath. As a result, I felt compelled to write it. I had been previously thinking about a song cycle based on poems by lesbian writers or something based on the contours of the female body: back and shoulders. However, Sylvia Plath saved me from all that angst although I  see this piece as devotional and confessional. The title is adapted from the first line of the poem Edge which I have adapted to express a bond between Sylvia Plath and me: she was perfected in death and I, as a queer woman, am now at ease with myself.  The work was conceived as a whole but each mood suggests its own narrative thread. In fact, my music is always about people, feelings, and emotions, and I work best from a narrative line.

The narrative texts are short extracts from Sylvia Plath’s, ‘The Bell Jar, the poem  ‘Edge’, and a couple of lines of my own. One section in particular, uses fragments of a recording I made on my way home from watching a film about the women of the Bauhaus. As a committed and active feminist, I belong to Non Una di Meno, I  became quite emotional and angry at the way the women had been treated and in particular the Jewish women. So, these recordings, though not audio-perfect, have a documentary and aesthetic validity for me. Moreover, they were recorded minutes after the end of the film while my emotions were still wild and in a state of abandon,  I recorded my feelings in Giardini Cavour with dogs barking and the rawness of my inquietude.

I feel very strongly about authenticity in art; in the sense that the act of creation has a purpose for the artist and in that sense, this work is authentically me in response to my dream about Sylvia Plath. As I shall make evident the inclusion of some sound samples are symbolic for me, e.g. the Swiss cowbells which feature in the second mood were recorded by my ex-girlfriend in Switzerland and their inclusion is important to me since they are part of a life lived, even if I make them sound like chains in a more horrific scenario.

Structurally, the work sits in a classical tradition, I would even venture to say, in the  French musique concrète tradition since my teacher, Denis Smalley had studied in  Paris and most of our study listening was of the French School; I can also trace this back to my interest in the Ars Nova of Notre Dame in the 13th and 14th century right

through to the present day where influences have been Eliane Radigue, Felicia  Atkinson and Claire Rousay, artists I spoke about in last month’s blog (though Claire  Rousay is actually from San Antonio, Texas). These artists, while appealing to a new generation, are still composing electroacoustic music.

When I work, I prefer to use Adobe Audition (ideal for what I want to do but prone to crash and has no MIDI) and audio files since I can process them, develop them, and assemble the composition in the same way I did with magnetic tape. I used a  few frequency-modulated sine wave drones generated from Max MSP, but most of them are my own sound recordings.

1: Il sogno, (the sleep) is part sleep, part dream, part waking to the sounds of the city. This opening mood was the hardest for me and took a lot of repeated listening and small changes; in fact, the last change was today when I added an abstract bit of dialogue in response to a reflection on my current sense of self, placing it at the point where the six-part drone rises in frequency.

6-part drone construction

 

This screenshot shows the six separate files, each of which is often spectrum filtered from the full frequency file. For example, the low hollow drone was filtered by selecting a narrow band on the spectrum analysis; you can see that the upper partials have virtually been eliminated leaving the low (the word hollow was my subjective description to help in cataloging the files – see image below). Going back to the multitrack image you can see that I have tried to create a two-voiced drone in the lower range which overlaps and fades into the third part to become a higher-pitched drone. So, when I say, “I am rising,” referring to my sense of wellbeing, at the transition from low drone to high, the accompanying music  (drone) also rises, rather like the musical word-painting of the late renaissance in,  for example, Monteverdi madrigals. The bounce 8 (yellow) is the finished 6-part drone.

Lo hollow drone

 

One other feature to note is the use of effects on individual clips/stems. In particular, the parametric equalizer which I adapted for maximum excitation of upper frequencies on the clips of raindrops on an umbrella; on the lower track also chorus and stereo expander. Typically, throughout the whole piece, I make use of automation of volume and panning.

Rain clips

2: the haunting is mainly dominated by drones as a kind of fundamental stability.  Most of my drones are made from recorded sounds which, as well as being  ‘spectrum filtered’ (Lo hollow drone, above) can also be treated in other ways. For this work, I make do with the Fx tools in Audition plus an Arturia reverb plug-in.  Two examples of drone construction: in the example below, I copy three times extracting the stereo information to mono. Then pan hard left, right, and center and use the stereo expander to play with the width of all three clips once happy with the mix, I can bounce all three back to a single stereo track. I’m told that the  mono signal is more solid/stable than the stereo one; it’s always worth a try

Mono drones

Here I have Soloed the four tracks that make up a chordal drone. They are made up of the resonance of a recording of a Tibetan bell, which may be stretched or looped and probably mixed with a reversed version of itself to smooth it out; I never really note what I do and, as a result, each processed sound, rather like individual spoken utterances, tends to be unique. So, my usual practice would be:

piece, I have only used Sine wave drones in different combinations; just trying to get a bit of frequency modulation, but doing it my way 😉 I used this patch with three combinations of synthesis. The one on the right was rather nice since I could produce a frequency-modulated drone in each channel with a lot of variables to play with: I even noted the frequencies of each oscillator.

Max MSP Oscillator patches

What I did then was to copy and transpose the drones from low; plus an octave;  plus an octave and a fifth, and then added the ninth (see Drone 9th chord below).

I have extracted the four individual tracks as a sound file so that you can hear how they are introduced in ascending order of frequency. The lowest and the highest drones have an attack placed in front, both made by twanging elastic bands over a Tupperware plastic box. The second gave me a screech (processed) which suited the piece of text at that point, and also heralds the entry of other materials.

Drone 9th chord

Other things about this second mood are: it is the most nightmarish and contains some anguished dialogue which was recorded in anger and in sorrow. The drones are challenged by the flute sounds, the texts: some from the attempted suicide in Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, and my feminist rage at the mistreatment and murder of women of the Bauhaus. At this point, the gentle sound of alpine bells is transformed through the use of a parametric equalizer to excite the upper frequencies, making them sound more savage. A slow languorous melody creeps in disguised as a drone and makes itself noticed before thickening the texture in a crescendo towards the end of this mood.

3: La conversación is at the center of the work and eases the tension somewhat.  The fact that this 24-minute work fell into five movements reminded me of the formal aspects of composition; this is my preferred ‘bridge form’ which balances a  central movement by crescendo and decrescendo on either side. This form was much favored by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in his orchestral and chamber works. I’m not sure just how bridge-like my work is, but if I were to assign a tempo/mood marking to each movement, it would probably go like this: 1:  Andante – waking up; 2: movimento – dramatic; 3: Allegretto – getting lighter; 4:  Maestoso – dirge-like; 5: Crescendo a poco – gently leaving. So, if not classical ‘bridge form’, it’s as near a description as I can find in musical terms.

This movement is kind of transitional and contains a ‘meta-commentary’ on the whole work and its inception. The drones continue with the slow insistent melody blending in and playing with them. At the point where the meta-commentary refers to my decision to set one of her poems to music the melodies are introduced again but this time at intervals of a 5th and 8ve rather like the organum of the medieval period. These melodies were transcribed from the lines of a  reclining nude seen at an art exhibition in Turin in 2019; the cello melodies were also derived from this source. Again, the flute sounds, purposely slightly spasmodic, add a touch of drive and urgency to what would otherwise be a very tranquil section of the music. The final part of this section continues with the conversation and ends with a slight thickening of the chordal texture and an increase in volume, creating a tension that resolves just after another affirmation,  “I love you, Sylvia Plath’.

4: La poème is mainly just that, a reading of her poem Edge which was written shortly before she died. The text has been spliced and separated into units which I have adjusted to the rhythms of the organ accompaniment. The poem was read naturally and needed minimal treatment: parametric EQ and De-noise; the latter to eliminate the hiss introduced by the parametric EQ. The hiss had the potential to be quite disturbing since there were gaps between the clips containing the text.  Another noticeable feature is the use of a chamber organ. I chose this in preference to larger instruments for its ‘reedy nasal’ quality. The time signature is 5/2 and due to its very slow tempo, it has a meditative quality. The drones continue but have mutated to be something else and as the frequencies beat gently against each other the overall sound is one of evolution and just one note change at 3’:20” creates a  magical effect in its simplicity. The flutes continue to the end, albeit very flighty in nature.

5: Der Abschied gets its name from the last song of Mahler’s song cycle: Das Lied  von der Erde. The farewell seemed appropriate for the end of the work. In fact, I  broke one of my own rules, never to sing but I found the final word of the song:  Evig (forever) in a suitable register for me. It is repeated twice, and the voice is doubled, one of them being pitch shifted by about 50-75 cents, enough to make it sound like two different singers and then each of the voices is panned hard right and left and put out of sync with each other to help separate the voices and create a slight bloom around them. When making these fine adjustments (I do the same with the doubled harmonica melody), I always turn off snapping and zoom in so that I have maximum control over the separation.

This section shares a common feature with the first, in that it is ‘collage-like; and to the recognition of this approach, I owe a debt of gratitude to the recently departed Mira Calix, whose album I referenced in my first blog. It opens with another ILYSP and followed by a soft chime that introduces a section that was an experiment, worth repeating in my view. Taking an idea about some of Eliane  Radigue’s early feedback works, I recorded speaker feedback through the microphone of some text from The Bell Jar about suicidal intent, thus creating some echo delay in the voices and hi and lo feedback from the speakers. This was particularly gratifying to get some ‘old school vibe into the piece, as well as knowing that this passage is unique, and experimental even since I had no way of controlling it entirely. Even John Cage might have admitted that the uncertainty of the outcome, the chance element gives this section its experimental status. But hey, who cares about labels? I was just referring back to one of my earlier blogs, which kind of makes me feel that I’m being coherent in my haphazardness.

What else, oh yes! The harmonica melody was doubled, pitch-shifted and tweaked ever so slightly out of phase to create a pulsing kind of tremolo. The melody was based on the squeaky gate that you can hear in the footsteps passage. Out of sync/phase is a technique I have favored ever since hearing Steve  Reich’s early ‘phase’ works; though I have yet to mimic, Eliane’s technique of running two or more loops of the same recording but of unequal length so that as they continue to run, they gradually get out of sync with each other through meeting up again at some point further on. These techniques are particularly successful when the acoustics of the listening space add to the listener experience.

This section makes use of conventional correlated melodies: cello, harmonica, and voice. The drones gradually drop out of the picture leaving just a high drone and one I jokingly called ‘Fontana Mix’ since the sound source was a fountain and running water (Fontana in Italian) and of course, Fontana mix is a famous early electronic piece by John Cage. The piece ends with footsteps, a squeaky gate, a  cello, and voice

The piece will be published on Bandcamp quite soon, I hope. I am thinking of a  different title, maybe:

In the meantime, here is a link to the second, very troubled mood: The Haunting 

https://soundcloud.com/francesca-caston/the

haunting?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_shari ng

Harking back to the Canción sin mieda (song without fear) and remembering the  (far too many) femicides around the world: stay safe, Sister! 

So, from Torino…Hermana yo te quiero 

This Show Must Go Off – Soccer Mommy

Soccer Mommy landed in New York to support their new album “Sometimes, Forever”. As part of the “Gov Ball After Dark” series, the band played the Bowery in the early morning hours, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to mix the show, and then some.

Advancing

An email came in about a month before the show date, from the band’s usual PM/FOH. For this promo run, he was handling the advancing and PM needs remotely.

Initially, the band would be traveling with a manager and a local FOH engineer. Everything read like an easy show. They were a five-piece band with a backline brought in from a local vendor. No additional production. The FOH engineer would bring a mic package, and the band would bring their guitars and personals. Easy. For monitors, everyone would use venue-provided floor wedges, and Sophie [guitar and vocals] would supplement with In-Ear Monitors.

The only tricky part to this day was the production schedule. NYC’s Gov Ball music festival takes place at Citi Field usually on a weekend in June from about Noon til 10 pm each day. In support of local venues and nightlife, promoters started curating an After Dark series of Artists who would do underplays in intimate rooms after the festival was over.

For Bowery, this meant having to juggle the needs of an early show with Soccer Mommy’s late performance.

The full production schedule for my staff ended up looking something like this:

 

Each show would require the full venue call of – one Stage Manager,  two Audio techs, and one Lighting Designer.  The A2 and myself remained on call for both shows, and two different stage managers and LDs split the day as it made sense hourly.

I received a clear, easy-to-read Stage Plot, Input List, Hospitality Rider, and Backline Rider for Soccer Mommy.

 

 

48 Hours Out

During a Bowery load in one afternoon, my phone buzzes with the call of long-time mentor and incredible engineer Phil. I have known him since I moved back to New York in 2010. I feel lucky each time our paths cross, and most recently, it has been FOH at Bowery. His call asked if I was free and interested in mixing Soccer Mommy for their full weekend of shows here in New York. It included an early evening show at Rockwood Music Hall, and possibly the Governors Ball Festival set the afternoon after their Bowery show.

Logistically it was a little tricky on short notice, but that feels a bit like everything in our industry these days.

I was excited at the chance to mix, and really enjoy the music, so I told him “sure, throw my name in the hat”. The next morning an email came through to firm up the agreement and get up to speed. The band’s manager sent over the day sheets for the Rockwood performance, and I had a nice conversation with their usual PM/FOH about mix notes and general approach. Suspicions were validated. The band is phenomenal and “do the heavy lifting”, making it a dream to mix. We chatted effects, mic choices, and our favorite tips for getting quiet singers over loud backline.

The biggest jump was going from the first gig to The Bowery Ballroom show.

Rockwood Music Hall is a 200-capacity performance space known for its great sound, but logistical challenges. The FOH position is very cramped and lofted, accessible only via ladder. The room lends itself to playing to it, rather than trying to recreate your show in it. Higher SPL shows can be a bit tricky, and the band is much closer together than most other stages.

I was still excited at the chance of working with a band for a few nights. As someone who greatly misses touring, this gets me close. I get a chance to learn how to best work together, everyone’s personalities, and playing styles, and if you do it right, you see your mix grow and get better at each show.

Show Days

Friday was a nice compact day. 2 pm load in for 5:30 Doors and a 6 pm performance. This was part of WFUV’s live series, which broadcasts on their radio station. I was working closely with the radio personnel as well as venue staff. All inputs would run into a passive 2-way split. The radio station would operate independently from what I was doing and record the audio from their broadcast desk. We came to an agreement on the input list based on what would work for both of us.

The 35-minute set flew by and we cleared out for the late shows at the venue.

The nice thing about New York is that Bowery Ballroom is only a 10-minute walk from Rockwood, so we loaded all personal gear into Bowery that night. It made the morning of our 10:30 am call a little less harsh.

Saturday came too early and I saw the band back at Bowery at 11:00 am. A bagel and coffee spread was a MUST.

I think we were all grateful for the longer soundcheck this day. Even if it needed to happen 12 hours before their set. There was a lot of new material for them to get through, and having time to rehearse everything with full production was helpful.

Our stage at Governors Ball would have a similar Avid S6L console to the one I installed at Bowery, so I spent extra time with my show file knowing that it would need to translate on a larger stage. I also went a little heavier with the Waves plugins than I usually do when busking a mix. The Waves doubler on lead vocal, as well as the F6 floating band dynamic EQ on the vocal group really helped to get lyric fidelity just over the band, without sacrificing the power of the guitars. Another trick I used was to send a bit more of the vocal group to our center cluster and front fills. This helped the audience in those coverage zones hear the vocals over the stage volume.

During the show, I recorded my mix, as well as the group outputs using the AVB protocol on the desk.

Doing so helped me to fine-tune my eq and effects settings. Using virtual soundcheck I heard an accurate vocal performance without needing to worry about the band on stage or any stage volume. With that, my show file for Gov Ball, and for tonight’s performance was in a place I was comfortable with.

Sunday– We had a 12:30 pm arrival at our festival stage, with stage access 30 minutes before our set at 2:45 pm. It would be a scramble. Working in the wings I saw some familiar faces from old shows and a couple of past employees. It all warmed my heart and helped to calm my nerves.  We exchanged pleasantries while juggling gear and risers.

The Gov Ball set made me miss the report of my venue engineers and I. Needing to rely on a festival monitor engineer is hard, and while I had myself in a good place at Front Of House, I noticed the band struggling on stage and wished for a little extra time, or to split myself in two.

For a “throw and go” I had a lot of fun, and was pretty happy with my mix. It evolved with each show as I learned the arrangements and what I wanted acoustically from the show.

 

I love the new record and recommend everyone give a listen. I look forward to seeing Soccer Mommy with their touring crew and swapping stories, and if I cannot be on the road, pinch-hitting is the next best thing.

 

How to Avoid Over-Editing Podcasts

You may have heard the basic tips and tricks of podcast editing, or editing any kind of speech audio. Remove ‘ums’ and ‘ahhs’, breaths, mouth noises, pops and clicks, silences, etc. But sometimes we can take it too far and actually end up over-editing a podcast in pursuit of the perfect sound (tip number one: there’s no such thing as perfect). Here are three things I’ve learned which have helped me avoid doing just that.

Don’t get rid of all ‘ums’ and ‘ahhs’

Yes, they can be very distracting, particularly if there are too many of them. If they’re littered throughout a person’s speech and are of no value to what’s actually being said, go ahead and get rid of them. But I really think it’s okay to leave the occasional one in. Maybe the person in question speaks quite fast and it’s difficult to remove an ‘um’ without cutting into the next word. Maybe they’ve started an answer with an ‘um’ because they’re considering what they’re going to say, or they’re reacting in the moment to an unexpected question or statement. There can be various reasons, but if it isn’t excessive (as in every other word), there’s no harm in a couple of ‘ums’. Sometimes we have to make allowances for someone’s natural speech patterns.

Don’t get rid of all breaths

You may have heard that this is the thing to do, but I personally would argue against it. Again, if someone is a really heavy breather and it’s a very distracting sound, by all means, remove it (or at least quieten it down a bit). But for the most part, it’s perfectly natural to hear someone take a breath while speaking, so much so that we usually don’t even notice it. So if it’s not overly noticeable, there’s no need to take it out. If you are removing a breath, just make sure you do it by reducing the dB rather than deleting it, or the edit might sound too sharp. It all comes back to the idea of trying not to mess too much with people’s natural speech patterns. You want your audio to sound as clean and polished as possible, but you also want your guests to sound like human beings and not robots.

Silence can be a good thing

Everyone has different editing styles, and those styles will suit different types of podcasts. Some may be more fast-paced, others more reflective. There is a tendency for some editors to take out every pause or every bit of silence, but decisions like this should be made based on the pace and style of the podcast. One of the most valuable pieces of advice I ever got from a tutor was that silence can be an incredibly important storytelling device. If you’re editing a particularly emotive or thought-provoking conversation, leaving in pauses gives the podcast more breathing room and allows time for the listener to really process what they’re hearing. So before you take silence away, always stop to consider what it might add.

Make (only) Some Noise: Noise Regulation at Live Events

 

Noise regulation is a necessary part of our live events family getting along with the wider community. We want to put on great, big, all-encompassing shows, and our neighbours want to work, play and sleep without being disturbed. Some sort of compromise needs to be reached to keep the peace between us. This is where noise regulation comes in: it varies depending on the nature and location of the gig, but an agreement to keep to a certain average volume (more on that later, for the pedants, reading this) is usually a condition of the event’s licence. Breaking that agreement can result in fines, but even more importantly it can lead to the licence not being issued the next time, or even revoked from the venue. If you have any respect for the wider live community you’ll do your bit to stick to the noise limits. Even if you don’t, someone else will probably turn you down or switch you off anyway.

How are the limits decided?

There are several different approaches to setting limits. It starts with consulting your country or region’s guidelines on noise at work (because it is a workplace, for us technicians and bar staff, security, etc.), and adapting these sensibly, for example offering free ear plugs to staff and guests if recommended limits will be exceeded, rather than making it unfeasibly quiet. There don’t tend to be government guides specifically for live performances, so licence providers deal with applications on a case-by-case basis. Third-party noise consultants, colloquially known as the noise police, can help with this aspect of planning as explained by UK consultancy Vanguardia’s Roly Oliver in this guide (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/blog/noise-management-for-events-ds00/). Factors like the location, time of day, length, and nature of the event, as well as how often it’s due to occur, contribute to whether a licence is granted and what volume is agreed. For example, a one-off community event in a park on a Saturday afternoon might be given more leeway than a rave every Wednesday night in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.

The limits are usually based on how loud the sound from the event is at the nearest residence (or sometimes it’s really the house with the person rich enough to retain a lawyer for noise complaints), so both modelling and real-time measurements concentrate on this area. When the PA system is first set up, music is played through it and measured at that residence. Seeing as it will be heard by the general public, it is recommended that the song doesn’t have swearing in it, but for some reason, Rage Against the Machine is a perennial favourite. The licence issuer will usually do the off-site measurements but noise consultants are often hired to do their own measuring alongside this, for verification and as a backup for the promoter if there are any disagreements. The consultants or venue staff also measure within the venue, usually at FoH for convenience. The music is turned up until it hits the off-site limit, and whatever the measurement is at FoH at that point becomes the maximum level for mixing (again, for any pedants, we’ll come back to this). There might be several off-site recording points of interest, so depending on how many microphones are available they’re either recorded all at once, or the process is repeated for each location. If there are multiple sound systems at the event, for example at a festival, each one will be measured in turn. This process is called noise propagation and can only take place at a previously agreed time, to minimise disruption to the community. When setting up one-off events, the PA takes priority over other aspects of audio in order to be ready in time for propagation.

What exactly do we mean by average volume?

Of course, what is meant by ‘volume’ and even ‘average’ isn’t completely straightforward. As sound engineers, we most often think of volume in terms of the sound pressure level (SPL), measured in decibels (dB). SPL measurements are usually taken through filters that account for how humans perceive this pressure, as we are more sensitive to some frequencies (centering around human speech) than others. These filters are known as A, B, C, or Z weighted (https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/decibel-d_59.html). A-weighted measurements are roughly the inverse of equal loudness contours (see figure 1) at lower SPLs, so if we were to hear sound that we perceived to be equally loud across the spectrum at a lower volume, the meter would register it as equally loud as well. The C-weighted filter is flat across much more of the spectrum. As the sound gets louder, the equal loudness contours start to resemble C-weighted filters more closely. B-weighted measurements are in between A and C, and Z-weighted ones are completely flat, but these two are almost never used for live sound. Luckily for audio engineers, most SPL limits are set in terms of A-weighting, so there is more room to play with lower and higher frequencies than if it were C-weighted. However, low frequencies travel further than higher ones, so they can still cause issues at off-site monitoring locations.

Depending on the budget for noise monitoring, the equipment may or may not be sophisticated enough to record which frequencies are the loudest. A lot of venues have simple handheld sound meters that give you one overall SPL reading so there’s not much that can be done about it, but bigger gigs and festivals use software that includes a real-time analyzer (RTA) so one can see which frequencies are causing issues. The engineer can then decide whether notching those frequencies down will be worth a corresponding increase in overall volume, or whether it’s better to leave them in and mix at a lower level.

Whatever the limits end up being, they’ll be described in terms of a time window, for example, “95dB(A) Leq15’ ”. The Leq (technically LAT for the pedants) is the mean value of sound energy over that time, on a rolling basis. So the example limit is an average of 95dB, A-weighted, over a continuous 15-minute window, measured throughout the show. You might also see reference to “fast” or “slow” measurements. These are settings for sound meters that are traditionally used for regulating noise at work, for example on factory floors, so are only averaging over a few seconds. They aren’t that useful when applied to something as dynamic as a live performance, but if the event organiser has based their noise regulation plan directly on occupational noise documentation or they only have a basic handheld device, that might be the parameters that you’re left with. If you’re given a proper Leq value you can get away with a much louder performance by interspersing songs with chatting from the artist or alternating louder songs with quieter ones. Even the changeover can help bring the measurements down. As long as it averages out ok, and you don’t go above any peak limits that are set (these tend to be much higher than the average limit and measured as C-weighted), you’re fine.

But my band needs to be mixed LOUD!

Cool story. If you’re given a low limit (and admittedly they can be upsettingly low, especially at outdoor festivals in the middle of cities), you have two options:

  1. Learn to mix well at a lower volume.
  2. Have a bad show.

Unless you’re with a very rich headline act who doesn’t care about the gig renewing their licence, and you have a big stick to keep the system engineer away from their gear, there is no third option just to be loud because you’re cool. No matter how much you turn it up, the system engineer will turn it down further along the signal path and all you’ll achieve is making your mix sound worse. If you really push it (or there isn’t a separate system engineer) you might get switched off completely. Some small venues even have an automated ducker or kill switch which will kick in as soon as you go over the set limit. There are plenty of tricks out there to get more out of your mix at lower volumes. Jon Burton, university lecturer and front-of-house engineer for EDM act the Prodigy, is famous for making their shows sound massive while sticking within noise limits. In fact, he wrote his master’s thesis on one of his approaches (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/83934715.pdf).

The sound of the noise police

Due to the large fines and reputations at stake, there is often quite a lot of distrust between audio engineers and noise consultants, but we are on the same team. They are not just killjoys who don’t like music; by monitoring at FoH and letting the engineer know whether they’re within the limit in real time they’re actually making the process easier for everyone. By asking engineers to stick within the agreed limits, they are protecting the event from fines and complaints and ensuring it can take place again next time. It is in everyone’s interest to work together to leave both the audience and the wider community feeling positive about live events by reaching a compromise while delivering the best show possible.

Further resources:

Speaker manufacturer d&b offers free noise prediction software for their systems:

https://www.dbaudio.com/global/en/products/software/noizcalc/

Guidance on noise at live events from the UK Goverment’s Health and Safety Executive: https://www.hse.gov.uk/event-safety/noise.htm

Live DMA working group’s inventory of various sound regulations across the region: https://www.live-dma.eu/sound-regulations-in-europe/

AES’s white paper Understanding and managing sound exposure and noise pollution at outdoor events: https://www.aes.org/technical/documents/AESTD1007_1_20_05.pdf

ProSoundWeb article based on this white paper and other research, outlining the what has informed the World Health Organisation’s stance on noise levels and potential future global standards, and how to approach mixing within these limits: https://www.prosoundweb.com/live-event-sound-levels-rising-above-the-insidious-undercurrent-of-aural-incapacitance/

 

Lisa Machac: Founder of Omni Sound Project

Lisa Machac is a musician and entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas who, in February of 2020, founded the audio education platform Omni Sound Project. Through Omni’s virtual member mixers and other educational opportunities, she has brought together women+ artists, engineers, and producers from all over the globe while maintaining an essential intimate quality.

Committed to music education and empowering folks from marginalized genders, Lisa has forged partnerships with a multitude of audio companies to offer powerful incentives to Omni’s workshop attendees and participants in their popular Four Track Challenge (being held August 1st-6th, 2022). She has also begun contributing to the popular recording magazine Tape Op, and has thus far interviewed audio legend Lenise Bent as well as the songwriting/producing duo NOVA WAV

Lisa answered the following questions via email.

Had you played a role in developing an organization prior to founding Omni Sound Project?

Yes, I have always been self-employed/entrepreneurial. I opened a wine bar that I operated for a few years (and then sold) and after that, I owned a business hosting yoga retreats. I love working for myself and the creativity it allows!

What has been the most difficult aspect of maintaining an online audio organization?

As you know, Omni was to be a local, in-person organization but the pandemic immediately forced us online. Looking back, I’m so glad! We are now a global organization with members on every continent. (Well, not Antarctica… yet!) The one and only downside of being an online community is that we have not yet gathered in person. The relationships that have developed in the Omni community are deep and genuine, and we can’t wait to finally see each other at a live event someday.

What are your hopes for Omni as it grows?

2023 will be Omni Sound Project’s FOURTH year and we have very big plans. In addition to our free intro classes and workshops, we’ll be finally hosting in-person events. I’ll be sharing more about that in 2023, but it’s my intention that the in-person events will be immersive education experiences that build local communities.

It’s my hope that over the years, Omni becomes the go-to educational community for anyone interested in audio engineering and music production, but especially for marginalized folks who may not feel welcome in more traditional settings.

Can you tell us a bit about the Four Track Challenge ⏤ what it is and how it came to be?

The Four Track Challenge was inspired by repeated requests from our members for actual hands-on practice. I wanted to keep the challenge accessible enough for brand new producers/engineers but leave space for those with experience to really go crazy with their skills. Basically, we provide prompts to challengers and at the end of the week, we gather for “Hear and Tell,” where participants are invited to share their creations and provide positive feedback to other challengers. It’s basically a really big creative love fest, and we all look forward to it all year!

How has the Omni community ⏤ faculty and members ⏤ influenced its growth and current form?

Oh, wow. Well, quite simply: Omni wouldn’t be Omni with our teachers, members, and allies. When I look back at all the incredible folks who have been drawn to this community over the years it’s really obvious the imprint they’ve had. In our events, the teachers and I create a lot of space for socializing in addition to education. We host regular member mixers where people can meet for support and encouragement and our Discord is a super safe space to ask questions and form friendships. The types of people who are drawn to Omni tend to be really optimistic, kind, and encouraging.

What is your relationship with audio ⏤ personally and as a collaborator? As mentor or mentee?

I consider myself a musician with an interest in audio. I took a basic class with Women’s Audio Mission back in 2012 or so and quickly realized that I am far too impatient to be an engineer. However, as a musician, I wanted to experience a less intimidating and more welcoming atmosphere in the recording studio. I also know how important it is to receive encouragement when creating. Omni is basically a big audio cheerleader: trying to give marginalized folks more confidence to be themselves in the studio because that’s what will make the studio a better place to be!

In terms of mentoring, I rely a lot on several mentors. My good friend Josh Thomas (of Rupert Neve Designs) has never turned away a request from me for advice and guidance. Our sponsors have guided me through program creation, and our teachers mentor me with curriculum development. I haven’t yet actively mentored anyone, but do consider my work with Omni to be a form of mentorship for sure!

What dreams have arisen for you as a musician and creative since beginning Omni Sound Project?

I’m still exploring my next evolution as a musician. I was a performing musician for many years and right now my lifestyle is a mismatch with performing live gigs. I’d like to get back into performing at some point.

In the meantime, I have been learning how to play the piano. This is definitely helping me finally uncrack the code of music theory in a way that’s more visual than playing guitar or mandolin (my previous instruments). It’s really challenging but really fun, and I could play for hours.

Who would you most like to involve in a future event that you haven’t yet worked with in that capacity?

There are so many incredible engineers that we have not yet worked with! I’m always excited to connect with new teachers that want to share their knowledge with the Omni community. There are also a lot of companies that I want to partner with to aid their efforts in reaching marginalized genders.

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