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Acoustic Insulation or Conditioning, What Does My Room Really Need?

When selecting our musical instruments, amplifiers, effects rack, monitors, audio interfaces, etc … we are generally extremely selective.  since for some of us, it would be unacceptable to put at risk the quality of our sound.  But how is it that many times even having the most ideal equipment we find a not so optimal result? We immediately begin to judge our purchase, or worse even our ears or abilities. When that answer might be in front of us…  on the sides and behind, That’s right. The Acoustics of our Room.

We must remember first that sound is the interpretation that our brain makes through the ears of a set of vibrations (sound waves) propagating in a suitable medium, in our case most common air.  And acoustics is the response of those vibrations to a certain sensation.    Let’s talk about these sound waves.

These., are taking a tour of the entire room, before reaching our ears, colliding on all surfaces, and absorbing many elements of the environment. It is for that reason that we always listen with different characteristics, even if it is the same sound source, for example. , the difference we can find when listening to our violin in an auditorium as we would in our room. Or the sound of our voice in a classroom, unlike how it is heard in a bathroom, another example, would be when we hear the same sound source in the same room before and after a move (that is, without the furniture and then with all of them) but,  acoustics not only tells us about what happens inside a room but also how the outside can influence our sound source and vice versa. For example. , if our room has a window facing the street, all external sound filtration influences.  Similarly, if our case were that the room we are taking as a reference is inside a small house, and our sound source affects the other environments that adjoin it. By paying attention to these details, we can realize that audio as the result depends on many factors. And paying attention to all of them is of the utmost importance so that our final result is the desired one.  So, we return to our initial question What do I really need? to give a more concrete answer to this, let’s rather than define the difference between the concepts of insulation and acoustic conditioning.  So, let’s see…

Conditioning Acoustic

When we talk about acoustic conditioning, we refer to everything related to treatments, techniques, tools, or any type of system that allows us to control, improve or modify the interior of the enclosure with which we want to interact, always in order that our sound source to capture or capture is as close to the natural or desired sound.

 

Sound Insulation

This could basically be conceptualized, as controlling what comes out and enters noise/sound to our enclosure. Through materials, treatments, techniques, and any type of system that allows control and/or absorption.

In other words, sound insulation would be the level of sound attenuation that exists between the enclosure and the outside.

 

Having these definitions, we approach a clearer way to our response; we can address with greater knowledge the problems that have always surrounded our enclosure. Attacking key points such as, for example, if we talk about acoustic conditioning our objectives would be, to control the reverberation times present in the space, (these may vary, depending on the type of work to be done or the enclosure that we are conditioning, but in general they are short times that seek homogeneity in the frequencies)

Also, one of our objectives within acoustic conditioning would be to attack these problematic frequencies. The bass frequencies are special, these tend to accentuate the corners of the room. and they generate a really distorted sound image of how the low frequencies are sounding through our monkeys (this is one of those reasons why many times we hear our sound mix so different at home and then when playing it on some device .  we can not deceive our ears anymore), it is for this last reason that I would like to mention one more objective within this article, about acoustic conditioning, this one talks about., the diffusion of reverberation.  This supports us in such a way that we can hear in a very clear way the direct sound of our monitors and that the reverberation resulting from them does not interfere in a counterproductive way with the rest of the room.

 

Developing this topic in detail becomes a broad task, and very interesting since within the acoustic conditioning we will find, then. In short, everything that happens within a receptor, speaking of acoustics.

 

 

But what if our problem is out of it? That’s where the targets to attack related to sound insulation come in.

This seeks that none of the external sounds interfere with the work that is done inside the enclosure, because let’s say that we are creating a kind of “hermeticism”, likewise we take care that unwanted sounds do not leave our room to the outside.

To achieve this sometimes-structural modifications are needed since they influence many things like, what material are the walls of our enclosure made of, if we have windows, if our windows are sealed or not, the material of our door, etc … to achieve the desired point of isolation.

 

This is a really challenging mission, but with this, I do not want to say that it is out of our reach, we can try with different treatments and materials if they are and are placed in the right places and go little by little to achieve significant advances.

Now that we have a wider view, we can define in a slightly clearer way what happens in our room, and thus reach a conclusion about What does my room need? This does not mean that both can not be combined, sometimes the output can be a hybrid between both acoustic solutions. The most important thing is to know the difference to know how and in what way to attack the key points and to be able to obtain the most natural, optimal, or desired sound source.

 

Written By: Maria Fernanda Medina is from Tegucigalpa Honduras. She has a BA in Acoustic Technology and Digital Sound from the Galileo University in Guatemala City. Maria Fernanda has mainly worked in live audio field as a freelancer, and with audio rental companies. Developing herself in the Backline, Stage manager, and Production. Both international concerts and national festivals. “Currently, my passion is for audio and social commitment that I feel with my country, that has guided me in the dissemination and education. I’m enjoying this facet of my life that I get to explore more every day

Je ne suis qu’un artiste sonore

I’m finally resigned to the fact

Eliane Radigue: Opus 17 – 1970 Keny Arkana – 2017

Each morning, as I do my exercises, I often listen to Café del Mar; I always start with three sets of deep squats. I just feel that once I’ve done those, I can’t really stop and slide out of finishing. Ah, finishing! What should take about half an hour, for someone with ADHD and trying to keep up with my feminist group’s messaging on four or five different platforms means that the natural breaks between sets become a  bit longer as I try to understand the latest initiative: we Witches are nothing if not dedicated and why wouldn’t we be: the patriarchy still needs to be dismantled; to be clear, this is not ‘man bashing’; it is the institution, centuries-old, based on biological distinctions of the differences between men and women, which although self-evident, are no justification for the unequal distribution of power wealth and property between the sexes. Anyway, this wasn’t the theme of this month’s blog.

Why was I exercising? It is a sad fact that as the years go by, it becomes more important to keep in good shape to get the best out of life. So, second question:  why is a woman of my age, classically trained in music, listening to Café de Mar; and wait, there is more to come…? As I flipped through Apple Music, I came across  Keny Arkana, a French rapper and Hip Hop artist from Marseille. I so would love to be her (it would at least take 45 years off my age): Apart from her musical abilities, she’s angry with the system and expresses it with her words and music. In one of her songs, she plays on the idea of Marseille as the city of culture/rupture… In case you were wondering what Keny can do for a woman as she exercises… Beats, baby!!

Before I leave Keny and link myself back to the theme of this month’s blog, I’d like to float an idea of a collaboration with Keny, even if she doesn’t know it yet. In my  March blog, “I always cry on a Sunday” I included a poem, in English translation but originally in French, ‘Translation of a Polish Song’ by Renée Vivien (1903). It’s an extremely violent and angry poem about Renée’s lover Natalie Barney, who had betrayed her. This is one of the songs I have chosen for my song cycle, which is next on my ‘to-do list. For the other songs in the cycle, I envisage using a soprano voice,  whereas for Translation of a Polish Song… one of my ideas was to have a French woman rapper for part, or all of it. So, with a bit of googling, I found Keny. I haven’t asked her yet since I haven’t written anything to date, and I would clearly need a lot of her input to improvise an extension to the poem since a rapper could finish it in 15  seconds… but she would be so perfect.

Anyway, I’m getting to the point of the blog. While exercising to both le crui et le  cuit kinds of music. I started fantasizing that maybe I might produce a couple of  Café del Mar type numbers and make a bit of money; it didn’t seem that hard,  almost formulaic. And then, that’s when it dawned on me…. I can’t do that, I’m not that kind of musician. I’m a sound artist, composer of acousmatic music, and, to boot, very much in the French Tradition. So, the theme is Acousmatic music and how a half-English, half Italian-woman finds herself intellectually between the Alps and the English Channel. I might add, that here in Turin, we are about an hour’s drive from the French border via the Frejus tunnel. Also, the King of Italy’s palaces were in Turin, and, as well as being King of Italy, he was also the Duke of Savoy, a  mountainous region just across the border. Moreover, before the Unification of Italy on 17 March 1861, the nobility of Turin spoke French while others spoke the local dialect, which is francophone in nature. My mother was from Casale Monferrato, 50  miles downriver from Turin; so, the francophone dialect was literally my mother tongue from birth. Maybe those are part of my French credentials…

While at the University of East Anglia in the late seventies my main musical interests turned out to be Early Music and Contemporary Music. In the earlier periods of music history, much of what we know, and that has been handed down to us as tradition, was geographically centered in Europe, and here begins the French  Connection.

Much as I loved English Early music and that of the Italian schools, it was the Notre  Dame school of the 12th and 13th centuries that were my first loves: Léonin and Pérotin,  the latter being a student of the former, were the architects of this transition from Ars  Antiqua to Ars Nova, when the first examples of polyphonic music were sung in the great Parisian Cathedral.

Following on from them, were composers such as Guillaume de Machaut, who wrote the Messe de Nostre Dame around 1365, and following on from him: Guillaume  Dufay and Gilles Binchois, both born around 1400 from the Burgundian School  (Franco-Flemish), took the Ars Nova to new levels of sophistication. One notable  English Composer of this period is John Dunstable who was revered for the  Contenance Angloise style of polyphony, mainly making use of thirds and sixths.  What is interesting about Dunstable was that most of his manuscripts were lost during the dissolution of the monasteries, and yet copies were found in continental  Europe. After these composers, the Renaissance gave us Josquin De Prez, born in  France around 1450 who left us much liturgical music as well as chansons.

So that was a short tour of my French credentials from the Ars Antiqua to the  Renaissance. Of course, I love the Italians as well, Monteverdi, and the infamous  Gesualdo di Venosa who as well as being a noted madrigalist also achieved notoriety for murdering his wife and her lover upon discovering them together.

However, we are SoundGirls! So, let’s laud two women composers of Early Music, not from France, but hey, they are that good. Hildegarde of Bingen, was a German  Benedictine abbess, born around 1098 thus a contemporary of Léonin and Pérotin.  She was a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and scientific and medical writer. Her sacred music, unlike that of the Notre Dame school was monophonic. But she was a Sound girl and earns her place here…

The other woman composer I want to cite, again not French, is Barbara Strozzi, a  composer of madrigals, who was born in Venice in 1619, towards the end of the  Baroque period. Another Sound Girl who deserves a shout…

Eliane Radigue is my other Sound Girl and inspired a section of my Sylvia Plath composition in which I used feedback, created in the same way she did back in the late 1960s by just holding the microphone in front of the speaker and experimenting.

Turning now to the other great interest of my days at University, I want to briefly talk about my experiences with contemporary music and, in particular, musique concrète. The University had just moved to a new campus and the music department housed a  fully equipped recording studio, conveniently annexed to the concert hall.

As well as Studer tape recorders, 4 monitor speakers each with its own amplification, and a 24 (I think) channel mixing desk, we also had a large reverb plate and two modular Synthesizers, an EMS synthi 100 and a smaller VCS 3. Dolby A units were used to reduce tape hiss, especially since an original recording might be re-recorded many times and signal-to-noise ratio could become a problem. One last feature was the variable speed control for the Studers so that one could manipulate sound through speed changes without it always being half or double speed, creating octave shifts.

All of this would have been nothing were it not for our professor, Denis Smalley.  From New Zealand originally but he had spent time at the Paris Conservatoire studying with Olivier Messiaen and at the GRM studios, also in Paris, where he practiced his art. It was shortly before taking up his post at the University of East  Anglia that he composed one of his most enduring works, and probably the one that got me involved in musique concrète: Pentes composed in 1974 at the Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)  There is a Spotify link at the end of the blog.

So, my credentials for being a composer of musique concrète, electro-acoustic music, or acousmatic music in the French tradition are simply the fact that everything I learned in the late seventies from Denis Smalley, and most of the examples of music we listened to was from the French School in Paris. Of course, there are other traditions in Germany and America, for example, Stockhausen, and Cage are just two important composers in their tradition. Next month I’ll extend this theme to feature women composers, some also within the LGBTQIA+ community, which covers countries on both sides of the Atlantic, with a couple of examples from Latin America too.

OK, so the story of my being in the French tradition is true for me; that is where my artistic and cultural center of gravity resides. Just today, I followed a link to Lesbiche, Bologna (amusingly abbreviated to Les Bò) for a talk on the French lesbian philosopher and feminist Monique Wittig; the term lesbian is important in this context since it is fundamental to her views on feminism and the heteronormative patriarchy which, she claims, enslaves women. I somehow find French philosophers baffling but, like a moth to a flame, I am inexorably drawn to find out more (earlier I  referred to the styles of music I exercise to as le crui et le cuit – “The Raw and the  Cooked” which is the title of a work by the French Anthropologist, Claude Levi Strauss). So, more French stuff… By the way, if anyone is interested in Wittig’s rather unique views, One is not born a Woman (1981) is the essay to read (If you want to cut to the chase, try the last paragraph pp10/11).

http://www.kyoolee.net/one_is_not_born_a_woman_-_wittig.pdf

So, I want to continue and finish with: what is acousmatic music on fixed media? And what, if anything, makes it traditionally French?

Acousmatic art is defined by its modes of composition:

Electroacoustic composition, involves microphones, tape recorders, and synthesizers to collect, produce and elaborate sounds that are recorded to tape or hard drives, like a stereo or multichannel recording…

Experience proves that the perception of sound is often linked to and even dominated by the visual aspect of a musical representation, the band on stage, for example. The term Acousmatics reminds us of the way Pythagoras  described his teaching method, behind a curtain, and in the dark, so that his  students could fully concentrate on his words

In acousmatic concerts, music is spatialized by a performer through a multi-speaker device inside the concert hall or outdoors. On stage, the performer uses a mixing board, distributing the component sounds of the piece through an “orchestra” composed of about forty speakers. The apparatus varies according to the venue. Each concert is therefore a unique event that is far more enriching than a simple listening session on a CD.

The spatial interpretation of acousmatic music requires a console for projection/diffusion (fader, multitouch surface, interactive gestures, etc.) which is, in effect, a musical instrument; and its “operator” is a performing musician.  This requires some virtuosity, conditioned by the speaker system chosen, and the ergonomics of the sound projection instrument as well. Also required is a  stylistic knowledge of the repertoire, a simplified graphic representation of the work and how it is to be spatialized, as well as a good musical memory of the piece.

These then, are the main features of acousmatic music, which are not inherently  French. However, in my experience with this art form, I have been mainly within the  French tradition and style. I should also point out that I have also been very influenced by the American minimalists: Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and La  Monte Young. And as I will show next month, there is a new wave of women electroacoustic composers, who have brought the music into the 21st century, not afraid to make use of melody and rhythm when it suits them.

For this last, more technical section, I’ll be drawing on the Treatise on Writing  Acousmatic Music on Fixed Media by Annette Vande Gorne, in which the technical examples are almost wholly of French origin.

What is the source material of electroacoustic composition? My first piece in 2019,  after a 40-year break, was based on a 40-second recording on the Turin Metro; no synthesized sounds were used everything was taken out of the original recording, cut and spliced and processed, looped and stretched, mixed and remixed until, I have a  track, which forms part of the composition. This particular piece, Nine to Five to  Paradise lasts 14 minutes and is available on SoundCloud. I guess we can call it my student piece, in which (almost) everything I needed to do with Adobe Audition and my MacBook Pro to process the sounds and assemble the piece could have been done in my University studio in 1978. Of course, it would have taken me much longer and would not have been so rich in content. On the technical front, digital working makes it possible to copy and recopy ad infinitum without losing fidelity and of course to work in “real-time”; though some processes introduce sonic artefacts, that’s not particularly a digital-only problem.

So, to begin with, one of the sound categories: Accumulation of Corpuscles is similar to the idea of granular synthesis. But in this case, the density of the grains is in growth and can be discerned as such. This example from Denis Smalley’s Wind  Chimes begins with a Percussion and resonance energy and then the accumulation  of grains at around 35”

The term Montage is used to describe cutting and splicing techniques, for example,  removing or changing the attack of a sound, or Delta sounds which involves reversing the clip so that the sound goes from nothing to a crescendo and stops. I  have often joined a forward and reversed clip, and then copied and transposed them, to then mix on separate tracks, out of sync, to create a chordal, fluctuating drone sound. This clip by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, Orphée 51 is reputed to be the first instance of tape being reversed.

The next technique I’d like to highlight is Micro-montage which refers to using extremely short splices in a kaleidoscopic manner to create a splice of about 15 – 20”  which can further be copied, remixed, and so on. The recommendation in a tape studio is a minimum splice of 1 -1.5 cm which is equivalent to 26 – 40 ms sound. This is extremely tricky and slow with tape and would need a good number of splices to create a loop long enough to be recorded so that one could start mixing down to more complex and dense structures. It is much easier to do digitally, but still a painstaking job. The clip below is CCCP by Jon Appleton, recorded in 1974

It’s not possible in this blog to cover all techniques, so we’ll move on to considering combining sounds and sequences. Of the three main categories: Fusion, which is what I often do successively to create drones is mixing two so that they sound like one but richer, perhaps. Superposition by complementarity where each layer is recognizable, as a kind of duet. Rejection, of which I shall be making a great deal of use in my present work is where one layer masks another, and by gradually unmasking, the underlying, previously submerged sound is revealed, giving the impression that one is growing out of the other. In my present work, I am

constructing a drone of about 12 to 16 voices, and over a time period, by using this technique of unmasking, the internal color of the drone will change but imperceptibly. Veil by Paul Dolden illustrates this point clearly, you must, however,  listen to the end of the clip to get the magic of this simple technique. I think it’s fairly obvious that, in this case, both sounds need to share qualities for it to make musical sense; though this does not preclude making use of other ‘surprise’  elements.

In another section, where different forms of combining sequences of sounds are discussed, mixing three or more chains moves on to feature polyphonies where a  distinction is drawn between using similar soundtracks to weave a texture which is likened to a Jackson Pollock and in the examples I want to look at, the juxtaposition of sound colors which is likened to a stained glass window or mosaic.

The first example is from the 13th century: Celui sur qui from the Montpelier Codex as an example of how each change of note of the cantus fermus, drawn from  Gregorian chant seems to occupy its own world. And at the change of each long note with its melismas floating above, we seem to be in a different musical place.  On a personal note, I went into raptures at the end of the clip hearing that gentle discord (01:16) resolve so gracefully; it took me completely by surprise.

François Bayle’s Grande Polyphonie certainly deserves its stained-glass mosaic  epithet for the colors it evokes

The mix, so far of my acousmatic piece, EDGE ILYSP. Tracks 23, 25, and 26 show splices put at the front of each drone to provide an attack out of which grows the drone.

The last section deals with transformation techniques within the five domains of frequency, spectre, amplitude, time, and space. We shall barely touch on space since it deserves a lengthy section to itself, and we have already discussed briefly the performative aspect of using space by sending the sound around the auditorium.

With regard to playing with time, repetition is a foundational element of musique concrète. However, how to reconcile repetition and variation is contingent on the synergy that flows from sounds that work with, or sometimes against each other.  Playing two loops with similar sounds but of uneven length so that the out of sync  creates novel sounds as sound waves beat against each other in seemingly never-ending variation

Repetition, but slowly evolving to create timelessness is a technique used by minimalists, as in this example by Steve Reich: Desert Music. Despite the semblance of stasis, even in this short clip; comparing the beginning of the repetitive phrases with those at the end of the clip clearly evinces the evolution of the repeated calls.

I am finishing off with the briefest of brief hints at sound diffusion and spatialization for two reasons. First, I have been experimenting with ambisonics and possibly preparing my piece for 16-channel diffusion. Second, I have a nostalgic link with this piece by Pierre Henry which we listened to, as a class, during our studies with Denis  Smalley. Variations pour une porte et un soupir, (Variations on a squeaky door and a  sigh) is a classic of Electroacoustic music. In 25 short movements: this section is a  biphonic dialogue, crafted from mono sources.

Link to Pentes composed in 1974 by Denis Smalley

A side note to Pentes. It was recently performed on Friday 6th of May in Brussels,  Belgium, alongside other Classiques de l’acousmatique.

Link to Nine to Five to Paradise composed by Francesca Caston aka Frà

https://soundcloud.com/francesca-caston/nine-to-five-to paradise?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Next month, I want to celebrate experimental composers and music makers who are women or from the LGBTQIA+ community.

But for now: Buondì da Torino 

Frà

 

 

Let’s Load in!

 

One of the biggest components of a stagehand’s job on tour is load in. We often joke that we’re not paid to run the show, we’re paid to load it in and out and fix problems. (As an A1, your job is also about mixing the show, but the sentiment still holds true.) For me, I start prep work for load in even before we get to the venue: I chat with the house head and make up an advance for each city we go to. There will almost always be something that changes, but it’s easier to tweak a few things onsite than have to figure everything out from scratch.

(As a note, this is for larger tours that move once a week or less. It isn’t really sustainable to advance a tour that moves multiple times a week. Those smaller tours are the ones where your system is smaller so it’s more feasible to walk in and figure things out at the venue. That’s where you learn a lot of your problem-solving skills, which you’ll continue to use when you are on larger tours with more moving pieces that have to fit together. Tours rarely get easier; they just get bigger.)

One part of my advance is an excel document that’s an overview of the venue and how we fit into it: what the dimensions of the stage are, where the amp racks will go (this is called Ampland), and how high the theatre ceiling is over the pit so I know how far I can trim the cluster out (which also tells me how many boxes I can use), etc. The other part is a summary from speaker prediction software: on Les Mis and Saigon, I used Meyer’s MAPP and on Mean Girls, I use L’Acoustic’s Soundvision. This tells me what angle I should use for point source boxes or what I’ll need to set the splays to for the arrays.

Once we get to the venue, the first step is to take a look around and talk to the audio house head. I’ve been on the road for a decade at this point and have been to all but maybe 8 of the 68 cities that we hit on Mean Girls. So for most of the venues, I have archival photos and paperwork and know roughly what I’m walking into, but things always change. New management, new crew, post-Covid renovations, at this point I can’t assume that it’s the exact same space I came to two or three years ago.

So you get the lay of the land and try to identify any problems with the plan. If the venue left the house cluster up, now is the time to take it down or fly it further out so I can hang mine. Are the holes to run cable under the stage too small for all the cable we have? Let’s talk to the house head about running it around the pit rail.

I’ll use a disto with an inclinometer (so it can give me both distance and angle) to double-check the accuracy of the room for Soundvision and the measurements for how high the cluster will actually be able to trim out. Going back to Soundvision, I put in the new info and see if I have to make adjustments or if I have to cut (or maybe can add!) boxes on the cluster.

 

A normal load-in on Mean Girls has a spotting call an hour before load-in starts. This is when the Carpenters measure out where motors will go on the floor and I have some time to take the measurements of the house. Load in itself starts with a 5-hour call on Monday evening. Then we break for the night and come back at 8 am Tuesday morning where we’ll work through the day (with a lunch and dinner break) until the end of the show around 10:30 pm.

So at the end of the spotting call, load-in begins and the trucks start unloading. Most of the trucks will be packed by department: Audio has a truck for most of our gear, Electrics (LX) has one for theirs, Carpentry has one for the deck, another (or maybe two) for set pieces, Props has another, Wardrobe and Hair one more. However, the first truck is usually mixed to give every department something to get started. (On smaller shows it’s more likely that most of the trucks are mixed.) Carpentry will get drops to hang and motors to rig so LX can hang truss, Audio can hang towers, and Carpentry can build scenic pieces. Audio and LX usually get cables we can run. On the first truck, we get our FOH (Front of House) runs that will connect Ampland that’s backstage to the console out in the house. These are usually the longest and most complicated cable runs, so it’s better to throw the entire local audio crew on the project and get it done and out of the way.

When our truck is ready to unload, we’ll dump all the cases, carts, and racks and find a place to put them in the theatre, usually denoted by a color code on the case label. Some, like spares (YELLOW), just go somewhere out of the way like down the side of a hallway or a rehearsal hall we’re using for storage. Others have consistent places: FOH (PINK) will always go to the theatre lobby, and Pit cases (PURPLE) will go down in an elevator to the basement level or off to the side to eventually ride down on the pit. Cases like Ampland (GREEN) change depending on the venue and where we end up putting our amp racks.

Once everything is off the truck, it’s time to work on projects. Most of the time the A1 will take care of getting the system set up: tip the console at FOH, build the towers and the cluster. The A2 will cover everything upstage of the proscenium: running all the cable (cross-stage, towers, cluster, pit, remote musicians, etc) and setting up com stations and onstage monitors. Some things, like the pit, can fall to either one. I’ve set it up as an A2, but on this tour, it worked better with the flow of load in that I, as the A1, set it up. This is where people and time management skills come into play. On most tours, I have 6 locals on the load in crew for audio, so my A2, Sherie, and I trade off crew so each of us has enough people to complete each job.

So, with all the cases off the truck, I’ll take the majority of the crew to FOH to tip the console: taking racks out of their cases to form a table and setting the console on top. It sounds easy until you remember that the SD7 (with part of the flight case) weighs around 400lbs. So I need at least 4 people to help me set that up safely. While I have the crew, Sherie has some time backstage to get the racks set where she wants them and start patching the FOH bundles we ran when they came off Truck 1. Then we split the crew and I take three people to build the towers (stacking three sections one on top of the other and bolting them together) and cluster (taking two carts, re-splaying the speakers, and connecting them all together to fly out), while Sherie gets the other three to start working on smaller projects like tying in feeder into power the racks or starting on com runs.

Load-in for Les Miserables tour (2017-2020) in Nashville, TN. (You can see the towers being built at the 0:22-0:27 mark)

After I’m done with the towers and cluster (and get rid of the large carts that the towers and cluster travel into clear space for others to work), I can send my crew to Sherie so she has everyone and can start on the longer cables runs that go across the stage, or into the pit, or to the Dimmer Racks (for cameras and stage monitors we have built into their truss).

While they’re working on those, I’ll make sure that we are clear of the pit (it’s usually an elevator that can come up to stage level to give us more space to build large pieces like truss or the towers) so Props can take the pit down and get ready to set up chairs and stands for the musicians.

Next, I can start on smaller, solo projects while Sherie continues with the crew. I prefer to be the one who patches things into racks. I’ve had enough well-meaning local crews that have accidentally plugged in something upside down, into the wrong place, or managed to slam an NL4 into a Powercon socket, that it’s easier and faster if I do it myself. So I finish setting up my console, patch everything in (with the help of more color coding), and power up.

Then, I’ll head to the band rehearsal and work on that. This is something we only use during load-in so our show band (3 keyboards, drums, and a guitar) has a few hours to rehearse with the local musicians (2 reed players, trumpet, trombone, bass, another guitar, and a percussionist). This system consists of two speakers on stands (I get help for those, they’re heavy), and cables to run from a rackmount console to the various stations for all the electronic instruments.

This marks the end of Monday. My usual goal is to have the towers and cluster up so the pit can go down (or be ready at the top of the day on Tuesday) and most, if not all of the cross-stage runs are done. If we hit that point, we’re on track for the next day.

Tuesday morning we start our 4-hour call, power everything up, and continue working. I’ll take some time to make sure the towers sections are set at the correct angles (that disto comes in handy again) and I have sound coming out of all the right places, including any house system that we tie into to help supplement the touring system (under-balcony speakers or delays up in the balcony).

Once Props is done setting up chairs and stands in the pit, I’ll head down with a few locals to set up mics, conductor monitors, Avioms, and make sure everything is patched correctly for the musicians. While I’m in the pit, Sherie will work on deck with the rest of the crew to lag Front Fills in and continue setting up com stations as automation, the fly rail, and stage management gets set onstage.

Before we break for lunch, I’ll make sure that all my outputs are functioning and that SMAART and my wireless mic are set up for Quiet Time. (This is ideally when the Carpenters, Props, and LX are on their lunch break. I have an hour without people making noise on stage and they don’t have to listen to pink noise and loud music, so win-win.)

For Quiet Time, there are two general approaches: by ear with music and a disto, or using SMAART and an SPL meter. You use whichever your designer prefers, which on Mean Girls is the SMAART method. First I walk around with the SPL meter while a local is at the console to adjust levels and mute and unmute outputs as I tell them so I can set a consistent volume level across the house. Next, I’ll trade off with them, and give them the wireless mic to set at seats I’ve taped off so I can use SMAART to set the delay times for the matrix outputs. Finally, I’ll play music and walk the house to make sure that the delay and levels I set sound correct, making adjustments as needed.

After Quiet Time we have about 2 hours to finish everything up before the dinner break. That involves sending the local crew to strike the band rehearsal I set up the day before, getting percussion set up in the pit and our drummer set up in his booth, and checking that everything is coming into the console at the right places.

At the same time, Sherie is working on tuning RF, focusing the onstage cameras that Stage Management and Automation use during the show, making sure all the onstage monitors are set up and having the local crew neaten up or tape down cable and sending cases to get backloaded on trucks or tucked away in storage.

When we’re show ready, we break for dinner, then come back for soundcheck. Sherie will battery up and get the mics ready for the actors while I’m in the pit adjusting mic positions for the musicians as they settle in. Then we’ll do half an hour with just the band, setting levels for the local players and adjusting the mix in the house. The last half hour adds the actors onstage and Sherie will come out front to mix the songs while I walk around the house to make sure there’s a good balance between the band and vocals and it sounds consistent in all the areas of the theatre.

Once sound check is done, I’ll make sure we’re set to start the show (MIDI checks, the console is in the right snapshot, etc) and Sherie will set out any practicals as part of her preset and walk our local audio through the cues they’ll have during the show.

At this point, we’re done with load in itself and ready for the show. Post-show usually means heading to a restaurant or bar for some late-night food and a drink or two to celebrate getting the show in. Then we look forward to tomorrow and the touring stagehand tradition of No-Alarm Wednesday!

Load-in for The Phantom of the Opera tour (2013-2020) in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

The Best Free Drum Machines and Sounds

Drums are usually an integral part of any commercial track. No matter the genre, drums can play an important part in the groove of a song and can completely alter the style and mood if you programme the sounds in different ways. It’s also an easy sound to get right considering even the most basic of DAWs usually come with a decent-sounding drum pack. However, it’s worth exploring the different options out there and changing up the flavour of your track by adding in some fresh-sounding drums.

For that Vintage Sound –  BPB Cassette Drums

The plugin comes with a set of three drums ranging from warm, clean, and hot. The website states the clean sounds were based on unprocessed recordings whereas the warm and hot kits have been resampled using an audio cassette deck. This plugin works with windows and mac and it should be compatible with any DAW that accepts VSTs.

For EDM Drums – 99 Sounds 99 Drum Pack

It has over 450,000 downloads, the 99 Drum Samples pack has some quirky sounds to try out and is perfect for writing EDM or dance music. The pack is Royalty-Free and has been recorded using an array of techniques from sampling to synthetisation and is available in 24-bit Wav format.

For Beginners –  Logic Pro X Drummer

For those that are just getting started with music production or have little experience programming drums, the Logic ‘Drummer’ function is ideal. It essentially writes and creates a drum pattern for you. It takes into consideration the tempo of your track and you can select a drummer from a wide range of different genres and styles and alter their drumming pattern, fills, and loudness. Unfortunately, it only comes with Logic, but for those who have the DAW, it’s worth looking into, even if it’s just for some inspiration.

Acoustic Drums – Spitfire Audio LABS Drums

If you’re in the market for great quality sounds look no further than LABS, and their drum sounds are no exception. They are perfect for those that want an authentic sounding kit that can be added to any project and the interface is relatively easy to use and manipulate.

Obviously, there are an entire plethora of options out there and I do recommend searching the web if you are interested in expanding your drum sounds library. But these are just a few to get you started! Like all collections, it can be quite fun to gather different sounds and add them to your roaster but I also encourage you to have a go at making your own drum sounds. Who knows maybe your drum pack will feature in someone else’s creation one day!

Andrea Arenas – Live Sound & Studio Engineer

Andrea Arenas is a Live and Studio Engineer working in the industry for over 17 years. Andrea is currently working as a sound technician for La Perle by Dragone in Dubai. Andrea discovered audio when she was in her teens and overheard some of her friends from orchestra discussing audio engineering.  Andrea wanted to pursue music as she had been learning percussion since she was ten years old. She was deterred by her family who said that music was not an option, so audio engineering opened another career path for her. At the time in Venezuela, there were no official institutions offering audio as a career path, so Andrea enrolled in electronic engineering at Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela, with the understanding that it was somehow related to audio and music. Andrea is currently enrolled at Iberoamerican University, Puebla working on a Master’s Degree in Cultural Management.

 

Career Start

How did you get your start?

I approached a recording studio in my university, part of the communications department, open-minded and willing to find a person who could take me in to teach me all about it. The person in charge of it, fortunately, took me in and taught me most of the things I know about sound today.

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

That first job in the university studio was the door to starting my career in audio, it let me understand what the field was about and if it was something I would enjoy. So it was one of the most important decisions I’ve made in my audio career

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

I learned about types of gear, signal flow, working processes, and critical listening. I learned about which parts of the sound career I liked and whatnot.

Did you have a mentor or someone that really helped you?

Yes, Francisco ‘Coco’ Diaz was the person who took me in at the university studio and mentored me for almost 3 years. Even after all these years, I still go to him when I need some perspective or advice. You can follow his Instagram account in Spanish for musical production tips @serproductordemusica.

 

Career Now

What is a typical day like?

I wake up around 8 to 9 am and take care of any home and personal activities like cleaning, cooking, yoga, etc. Then I check emails and work on any out-of-work projects like my personal music, podcasts, mixing, university classes, volunteering work, etc. Then, my work hours for the show usually start after 2 pm. When I arrive at the theater, I check the schedule for the day. We usually have some training, rehearsals or validations with artists. Soundcheck happens every day a couple of hours before the show starts, depending on my track for the day (because I rotate 4 tracks, foh, monitors, RF, and musical director) I’ll do presets for microphones, consoles, computers, etc. Then I run two shows and go home at midnight.

How do you stay organized and focused?

Discipline is part of the daily routine in every aspect of my life, I think mainly because of my musical training, I try to plan short-term goals and keep track of schedules I plan in my mind. I say “in my mind” because following a routine is not my way of doing it. Depending on the day’s mood I organize my activities trying to follow those short-term goals, let’s say I try to keep a weekly schedule rather than a daily tight schedule.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

Feeling that I’m part of a show that, for at least two hours, takes people’s imagination to new places, to enjoy and be happy for a moment. It makes me feel rewarded.

What do you like least?

Having shows on days you want to see your favorite artist show.

If you tour, what do you like best?

Before the pandemic, I was touring with Cirque and my favorite part was always during the first soundcheck at every new city. I usually felt very tired at that moment because of the transfer work, but as soon as the first notes sounded, I could remember why I was doing it, kept going, and enjoyed the moment.

What do you like least?

Working many days in a row, one time I worked 22 days in a row, live sound can be physically very demanding sometimes

What is your favorite day off activity?

I still work on my personal projects during the days I don’t have shows. I consider everyday activities as a choice and I disagree with thinking that on days off I’m “free”. Of course, I also enjoy doing nature or art activities, but I consider them as part of my schedule to achieve the mental state I need to be efficient, enjoy my creative process and enjoy life.

What are your long-term goals?

Keep learning and be open to new opportunities. The pandemic changed my perspective about two things: making plans and depending on a single paycheck. So I’m willing to expand my horizons as much as possible, always open to new experiences related to sound, music, art, culture, and a sense of community.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

It has probably been to leave my country and be able to be recognized as a professional again despite having to practically start from scratch. It’s common to find people don’t trust your skills and even doubt your CV when you are from a different latitude and speak different languages. Fortunately, not everyone thinks the same way, and some others gave me the opportunity to prove myself and let my work speak for myself

How have you dealt with them?

I always try to mention that despite anything that I’ve dealt with (consciously or not) I’m true to myself, and my ideas and keep working as hard and passionately as possible.

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

Follow your instincts, speak up, despite feeling intimidated by others, and don’t let these feelings rule the way you behave or think. There will always be people more experienced and less experienced than you anywhere, just be aware that your opinion is also important and can be considered as others.

Must have skills?

Problem-solving, active listening, and patience

Favorite gear?

I always say that because I haven’t tried them all, I can’t choose a favorite. I think the idea is to feel comfortable with the gear you use, and learning the most about it and practicing will be the only way to get there. So I usually try to feel comfy with the gear I use, sometimes I wish I could have the trendy ones or the ones that a super famous artist or studio owns, but sometimes it is not possible. So I embrace reality and get the best out of the gear I have in front.

Healthy Practices for the Audio Professional – The Physical Body

Recently, I have developed a desire for more information regarding better ways to take care of myself, specifically the professional me. I want more techniques and concepts tailored to my profession, regardless of what hat I am wearing that day. I also knew that I needed the how and why these techniques and concepts are being suggested to me. That way I could customize a routine to suit my ever-changing needs. I needed to find something that dove below the surface and I wanted to share my findings with others in the audio industry.

I began this process by sending out a survey to colleagues, peers, and friends. The survey asked what the individual does for work and what kind of concerns they have or struggles they face daily doing said work. The information I received ranged from anxieties for their body, to mental health issues, and personal challenges. I chose to first look into the physical concerns that surveyors had.  I collected practices, techniques, and backed research that could provide information to those who are looking to take better care of their body in the audio industry.

Posture

Posture is one of my problem areas and I was not surprised to hear reports of body pain in my survey. Responses like ‘Generally poor posture from prolonged periods at desk. Occasionally required to lift things beyond what I believe is safely within my strength capability,’ echoed similar situations that I have experienced. I broke posture down even further to take a look at specific bad habits and suggested practices that can aid in better posture and less aches and long-lasting pain.

A lot of our work as audio people is conducted sitting at a desk or standing for long periods of time. Prolonged sitting contributes to a flattening in the natural lumbar curve, muscle fatigue, and deconditioning of the lower back muscles (Jung). Not only is this going to cause immediate discomfort, but also long term health issues. Issues with posture and back pain are often considered to be challenges  faced when you are much older, however none of the survey respondents exceeded the age of thirty-five. There is also the factor that audio engineers and technicians heavily use and rely on their bodies. Excessive, heavy use is going to take a toll on the body, regardless of age. Once we cannot use it anymore, we can no longer do our job.

Similar to our ears needing breaks, our backs need them too. Ear and back fatigue go hand in hand in this industry. Prolonged sitting requires us to break up these stretches of time with movement. Getting up for a walk and stretch will also give your ears a break. I say stretching as a general term because any movement is welcome for this situation. Sitting puts a lot of stress on the discs in our back. Movement will help relieve some of that pressure and allow you to come back to the workstation feeling refreshed.

Rounded shoulders are another posture problem that is exhibited in my surrounding colleagues. This bad habit is personal to me as well and causes a great deal of pain. Similar to how sitting posture can affect and change the muscles in the lower back, this can also occur in the shoulders and neck. This can result in a reduced range of motion, muscle weakness when performing the easiest of tasks, and the individual being more prone to serious injury (Malmström). This poor posture puts the body out of alignment. Misalignment adds stress to the body and mind, decreases range of motion, pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders, and limits the overall support that our spine can provide us.

I have learned several beneficial techniquest to free this region of my back. The Feldenkrais Method and exercises are some of the most helpful for me. Not only does this method help the body-mind connection, but the exercises can aid in easier movement, increased utilization of the nervous system, reduce muscle tension, and even aid in breathing. There is also Progressive Muscle Relaxation. This method is similar in it also supports a mind-body connection. However it functions a little differently. This relaxation technique incorporates tensing and relaxing muscle groups. It has been found to aid in relaxation and anxiety, help differentiate between tenseness and relaxation, and pinpoint problem areas. Oftentimes, people don’t recognize that they are holding tension, which is where PMR can help.

The last issue on the topic of posture is called Tech Neck or Computer Neck. It is something exhibited in every person who owns a phone. Most of us are also familiar with the term ergonomics. Someone who suffers severely from posture issues might consider setting up their workspace with ergonomics in mind. A good place to begin is with your computer screens and monitors. These should be an arms distance away with the top of the screen at eye level. This will keep you from looking downward at your work and deter you from slouching.

Lastly, like I said before, stagnation leads to stiffness and lack of movement leads to weak muscles and pain. Gentle rotation and stretching of the neck and head is going to relax these muscles. Don’t become a vulture at your desk.

Diet

Diet was also a unanimous issue sounded throughout the survey responses. One surveyor reports, ‘I generally don’t build the padding into my schedule for real meals, I very often find myself going to the King, the Clown, and the Colonel. Definitely starts to show itself after a weeklong gig of eating the greasiest food available.’ What I have seen from reports, diet comes with two issues. One being the above; not having access to the best food when on the job. Not only are these eating habits going to contribute to weight gain, but also increase rates of hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes (Bray). These are life long effects that can generally be avoided.

The second issue being the lack of understanding of nutritional value and how to use that to your advantage. If you feel like you are not eating enough, take a look at what you are putting into your body. What foods are high in good calories and what contain empty calories. Some high calorie food options are;

I like to incorporate high calorie foods into my snacks since my work is so fast paced. This helps me curate a rotation of snacks and meals that I can rely on for fulfillment. Things high in added sugars and fast food are where you are going to see a lot of empty calories.

Why are they deemed good calories though? True nourishment is going to help you with things like lack of energy, fatigue, headaches, dizziness, and muscle weakness. Those are also going to be some of the first signs that what you are eating is simply not cutting it for the demanding jobs we work. Good calories are not the only thing you are going to want to look out for.

Incorporating snacks that are high in antioxidants, antihypertensive, and contain natural beta blockers are going to also help your diet out. These properties have been found to support the cardiac system, help with migraines and anxiety, as well as blood pressure. Some of these options are;

Understanding the characteristics of foods and what they can offer you before you consume them can help you utilize food to your advantage and find a healthier way of eating when on the busy clock.

However, a lot of employees are given a per diem for their food. This can be exciting when you are in an area with lots of good food options, but can be devastating when you are not. Or you have a special diet like me. Fast food can easily become a constant. It can also be challenging when packing meals is not as accessible or financially feasible. For week-long gigs, packing food is no longer practical and if you are spending your own money outside of the per diem, trips to the grocery store add up quickly. I might suggest using your per diem for groceries and meal prepping if your employer is willing to give it to you in advance. For longer stretches of work where meal prepping is not an option, consider healthy and portable snacks that follow the information above. Try to develop conscious eating habits that incorporate gained understanding from this article and its research, and remember that it is better to eat fast food than not eat at all.

Natural and Artificial Light

Lack of natural light and elements are a constant complaint from those who work in dark environments like theatres. In my research, one respondent simply states, ‘Very long periods of sitting in one spot with very little sunlight.’ People are a lot like plants. We tend to flourish with the addition of a little sunlight. In a study titled ‘Why We Need More Nature at Work,’ researchers report with more exposure to natural sunlight and elements there is a decrease in stress related diseases, anxiety, depression, and even blood pressure.​​ This clearly shows a correlation between natural elements and an increase in mental health and stability. Who doesn’t want more of that?

Interestingly enough, researchers have also found little difference between the results of actual natural elements versus simulated elements. This includes things like visual representations of the outdoors and nature soundscapes.  So if you live in an urban jungle, consider giving this a try. Especially when so many of us don’t have easy access to things like window views and strolls through a park. Some other suggestions to prioritize light in your work life are;

On the other hand, too much sunlight can also be an issue. With the summer season approaching, engineers and technicians are stocking up on sunscreen. One respondent reports an understaffed +12 plus hour day, on top of a long day prior, where they nearly passed out from heat exhaustion. He was a danger to himself and others. We as individuals are accountable for ourselves and our preparedness, but companies should also be accountable for supplying their employees with what is needed for long days in the sun. Especially when overexposure can have life-threatening consequences.

As someone who has been a lifeguard and has worked many shows in the heat, it is always surprising to find out how little consideration sun protection is given. Or how little people know. Therefore, these are the suggestions made by health professionals in regards to protection from the sun and heat;

This section can offer insight to how employers can accommodate their employees during the hottest time of the year. It also outlines what employees might want to expect when arriving on the job site.

Relaxation & Slee

This is the subject that I personally feel gets surface level generalization. So let’s talk about methods of relaxation. As a sound designer and composer, I have a fascination with sound therapy. Delta and beta waves, binaural beats, soundscapes and music, naturescapes, and even white noise and certain frequencies have been found to be beneficial in the aid of relaxation (Salamon). Guided meditations are also a strong option in any mindfulness practice. Those 10 minutes of walking, stretching, or being outside could include some of these to further your relaxation experience.

I am a big believer in relaxation being something that starts at the beginning of the day rather than an emergency tactic at the end. That is why it is so important to factor relaxation into your day and routine. We don’t want to end our day overwhelmed and overstimulated if we can avoid it. I am an avid journaler and have different journals for different areas of my life. My work-life journal is great for keeping a log of the things you experience and realizations about yourself. This is helpful for reflection on the past and goals and needs setting when looking forward. Keep track of what works and what doesn’t.

My personal list of relaxation techniques are;

To many people, sleep is relaxation. I would challenge others to see them as separate. There is a quote from the book Stillness is the Key, ‘If we treat sleep like a luxury, it is the first to go when we get busy. How many of us have sacrificed sleep for our work time, and time again? My closest friends know who I am dedicating this section to. So let’s talk about sleep and what healthy sleep should look like.

There is a big difference between sleep and napping. When the ratio between the two is more time napping than sleeping, the quality of your sleep suffers. Anything beyond a 20 minute nap reflects a need for more sleep and having poorer sleep quality. In a study published in Sleep Science Review, better sleep leads to an improvement in mental health with factors like depression, anxiety, suicidal idealations, rummination, and burnout, along with stress-related disorders like generalized stress and PTSD (Alexander). All of these conditions exist within this industry and to some of us, they are really important issues.

However, turning to sleeping medication can be a dangerous option to take in order to gain some of that precious shut eye. In a recent article surrounding sleep, anxiety, and the coronavirus, prolonged cold and sleep medication use was found to actually cause more damage than be helpful (Kai). Things like a relaxation routine, PMR, and a healthy diet are going to help a person fall asleep easier. Some other options for better sleep are;

Conclusion

When researching these topics, I found a lot of parallels to other concerns brought up in my survey. These concerns fell into a more ‘mental/mind category’ that I would like to explore next. Furthering my research, expounding upon established conversations, and providing a wider range of helpful practices for the niche work that I do is something that needs more presence. What helps the body helps the mind and vice versa. Taking these concepts and techniques into consideration could lead to better performance of your job and skills. From a long term point of view, it will also lay the foundation of being healthier well into your later years.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their concerns and experiences to my survey and helped with the long process of research. If you are interested in a more in-depth look at the work cited part of this article, please reach out! What is included is a brief representation to the more extensive list. Stay tuned for future articles on this subject!

Work Referenced

Posture

Jung K-S, Jung J-H, In T-S, Cho H-Y. Effects of Prolonged Sitting with Slumped Posture on Trunk Muscular Fatigue in Adolescents with and without Chronic Lower Back Pain. Medicina. 2021; 57(1):3. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57010003

Krantz, Jodie. “Freeing the Neck and Shoulders: Feldenkrais Exercises to Relieve Shoulder and Neck Pain,” Youtube, uploaded 20 Aug. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWkUkmbQ94k

Malmström, EM., Olsson, J., Baldetorp, J. et al. A slouched body posture decreases arm mobility and changes muscle recruitment in the neck and shoulder region. Eur J Appl Physiol 115, 2491–2503 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3257-y

Rennwellness. “Dangers of Rounded Shoulders and How to Fix Them,” Ravenswood Chiropractic and Wellness Center, 19 Jun. 2019. https://www.rennwellness.com/physical-therapy/dangers-rounded-shoulders.html

“The Best Ways to Fix Forward Head Posture,” Benevida Health and Wellness Center, 27 Nov. 2019. https://www.benevidawellness.com/how-to-fix-forward-head-posture/

Diet

Bray, G. A. “Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes; New York: AA Knopf,” Obesity Reviews, 14 Feb. 2008. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.557.8672&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Bremner JD, Moazzami K, Wittbrodt MT, Nye JA, Lima BB, Gillespie CF, Rapaport MH, Pearce BD, Shah AJ, Vaccarino V. Diet, Stress and Mental Health. Nutrients. 2020; 12(8):2428. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082428

Huizen, Jennifer. “10 Natural Beta Blockers,” Medical News Today, 27 Apr. 2021. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/natural-beta-blockers

Huth, P. J., Fulgoni, V. L., Keast, D. R., Park, K., & Auestad, N. (2013). Major food sources of calories, added sugars, and saturated fat and their contribution to essential nutrient intakes in the U.S. diet: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003-2006). Nutrition journal, 12, 116. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-12-116

Liu, A. G., Ford, N. A., Hu, F. B., Zelman, K. M., Mozaffarian, D., & Kris-Etherton, P. M. (2017). A healthy approach to dietary fats: understanding the science and taking action to reduce consumer confusion. Nutrition journal, 16(1), 53. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-017-0271-4

Owen, L., & Corfe, B. (2017). The role of diet and nutrition on mental health and wellbeing. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 76(4), 425-426. doi:10.1017/S0029665117001057

Natural and Artificial Lights

An Mihyang, Stephen M. Colarelli, Kimberly O’Brien, Melanie E. Boyajian. “Why We Need More Nature at Work: Effects of Natural Elements and Sunlight on Employee Mental Health and Work Attitudes,” Plos One. 23 May. 2016. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155614&mod=article_inline

Chulv, Vicentei, María Jesús Agost, Francisco Felip, JaumeGual. “Natural elements in the designer’s work environment influence the creativity of their results,” Journal of Building Engineering, Vol. 28, March 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352710219313105?casa_token=dxidzq55lMgAAAAA:lvC1mLW-TctzFdQjxFe_negtOREn2JTRB1-tx7kZox_r8QJSYclE4EXKNp9RTtP7dh2Gb6WaqUw

Sleep and Relaxation

Alexander J. Scott, Thomas L. Webb, Marrissa Martyn-St James, Georgina Rowse, Scott Weich. “Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials,” Sleep Medicine Reviews, Vol. 60, 2021, (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1087079221001416)

Holiday, Ryan. “Stillness is the Key,” Portfolio Penguin. 2019.

Kai Liu, Ying Chen, Duozhi Wu, Ruzheng Lin, Zaisheng Wang, Liqing Pan, “Effects of progressive muscle relaxation on anxiety and sleep quality in patients with COVID-19,” Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Vol. 39, 2020, (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744388120302784)

Maurice Ohayon, Emerson M. Wickwire, Max Hirshkowitz, Steven M. Albert, Alon Avidan, Frank J. Daly, Yves Dauvilliers, Raffaele Ferri, Constance Fung, David Gozal, Nancy Hazen, Andrew Krystal, Kenneth Lichstein, Monica Mallampalli, Giuseppe Plazzi, Robert Rawding, Frank A. Scheer, Virend Somers, Michael V. Vitiello, “National Sleep Foundation’s sleep quality recommendations: first report,” Sleep Health, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 6-19, (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352721816301309)

Salamon, Elliott, Minsun Kim, John Beaulieu, and George B. Stefano. “Sound Therapy Induced Relaxation: Down Regulating Stress Processes and Pathologies,” BioSonic Enterprises. 2002. https://lbdtools.com/resources/Reference_PDFs/SoundTherapyInducedRelaxation.pdf

 

Dana Jae: Studio, Film, & Live Sound Engineer

In the audio landscape of Northern California and beyond, Dana Jae has done it all these past 30 years: live sound, film sound (production and post), purchasing, studio recording, mixing, mastering, and education. She began as a purchasing agent for Leo’s Audio in the late 80s, acquiring extensive knowledge of audio equipment through brochures and spec sheets as she researched manufacturers and their offerings. From that time onward, she became proficient in live sound, serving as a house sound engineer at the San Francisco nightclub Bottom of the Hill beginning in 1991, touring the US and Europe with the band Medicine as their sound mixer from 1994 to 1995. From 1999 to 2004, she also partnered in and presided over the record label and commercial recording studio called APG Records/APG Studios, which has evolved into Portero Post. She then explored film audio through the creative visual media production company Films on 45 in 2007. She also runs her own sound company called dcj Productions, though that has since taken something of a backseat to her work as an audio educator — she is currently Broadcast Electronic Media Arts Department Chair at City College of San Francisco.

I met Dana Jae in April of 2022 while she was lending her experience to a tri-annual event called Bushwick Book Club Oakland and simultaneously providing her students with real-world experience mixing live sound. After a thrilling in-person conversation about audio education, Dana Jae and I corresponded via email and she answered the following questions. Her responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

What was your first piece of gear and what did you create with it?

I bought a Tascam PortaOne 4-track cassette recorder in 1983 when I was 20 and started recording bits and pieces of my electric guitar with some pedal effects. I played around with running the cassette backward to make some strange loops with my voice recorded (through the same pedals) to create some good noise that eventually turned into a song with more melodic parts added later. I learned to bounce tracks to get more than 4 in order to play with more overdubs. Thus began my official songwriting beyond writing lyrics, which I had done since around age 11 or so.

Describe your most memorable learning experience as a novice engineer. Was it fun? Difficult? A bit of both? 

The first time I had to run FOH sound at a local festival was a huge learning curve for me. I had done sound for about a year or so at a lot of smaller clubs and outdoor events, but nothing the size of a festival in the Castro for Pride. I was supposed to be the (learning) second engineer and not the lead mixer. I think this was sometime in the late 80s. The guy mixing told me, after the first song of the headliner, to take over as he had to go find an outhouse. I was shocked as I knew it would take him the entire rest of the set to get there, stand in line, and then get back. I was so nervous! “What if something went wrong? Would I know how to fix it? What if there is feedback? What if…?” He just split, and I had to find a way to calm myself down quickly, center myself, and stop my hand from shaking on the faders. Deep breathing.

I just focused on the band on stage and opened my ears to the whole sound. I kept asking myself, “What’s missing in the mix? How does the bass sound? Should I EQ it a bit more? Maybe I should add some delay at the end of a couple of the vocal lines in the chorus.” I got into the zen of mixing live at that moment and was transported. I think I lost 5-lbs that day from my heart racing. The best part about it was the soaring feeling of having dialed up a pretty good mix, that I was actively mixing throughout their set, and some kudos I received after. Was it fun? Shoot. Not back then. But it became so much fun the more I mixed and learned as I went. Events like this one and every gig thereafter started the word-of-mouth trajectory that made my live sound career flourish. By the time I started mixing at Bottom of the Hill in 1991, I felt ready to take on any mix and be able to deliver.

How did your time as a purchasing agent shape your relationship with gear and sound in general?

The best part about purchasing was being paid to research manufacturers and model numbers as well as important specification differences between different model numbers. It was like having an audio education with all the brochures and spec sheets (this was pre-everything available on the web), so I would shuffle through hundreds of brochures, make phone calls, and receive FAXES! of current pricing. Those jobs enabled my ability to “talk audio” with anyone. I have so many manufacturer names and model numbers stored in my wee noggin. And I also was able to buy the gear I wanted for myself at cost plus 5% (employee deal) = SCORE! I became a gear geek early on. The Shure brochures were (and are) so full of excellent audio education.

You teach audio at CCSF. What first motivated you to begin teaching and what inspires you to keep teaching?

City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is where I teach and have been since 2001. At the time, I was working/owning/promoting a record label and recording studio I had, partnered with another audio engineer, in 1998 — APG Records/APG Studios. We had 6 or 7 artists on our label. My friend who was teaching at CCSF was applying for tenure and she asked me for a letter of recommendation to add to her tenure portfolio, as we had known each other since the 1990s and I was one of a few of our colleagues who had my own letterhead! (ha!) Alas, I wrote the letter and when we checked in some months later, she told me she had received tenure and was looking to hire a lab instructor in the department. I had never thought about teaching as a profession, but when she had me come in to shadow her one afternoon to see what it was like, I thought: “Oh, yeah! I can certainly do this!” She knew that I trained some of our interns at the studio and also for my own live sound company (dcj Productions) and said it was a lot like that, except I had to be organized to complete grading, paperwork, etc.

What is one of your favorite ways you’ve found community in the Audio field?

Most definitely through organizations like SoundGirls, Women’s Audio Mission, and Audio Engineering Society. I have also been attending numerous audio conferences over the past 20 years like NAMM and these are where you can meet a lot of audio professionals. Also, being the purchasing agent for several local pro audio firms had me seeing the names of all the local top audio folks and I was able to meet many of them through these pro audio companies via events we would host on occasion or chat with them when they came in to pick up gear.

You own your own sound company, dcj Productions. What do you feel is the most unique personal quality you offer your clients?

All of my live sound work has been through word of mouth. I never had a website for dcj Productions because I didn’t have to. I had a business card with a phone number and email address. I provide a personalized service that attends to the needs of the local community (mostly the not-for-profit sector) and am someone who communicates clearly and in a focused manner. Since I am able to do many different sound tasks from live sound to recording to editing and mixing, I have found that one job usually has led to another that way. Once I started teaching full-time at CCSF in 2011 (was part-time for 9 years), I had to slow way down on the gigs to focus more fully on the college and my students.

You have worked across so many settings. Is there any area you would still love to explore?

I absolutely love composing and mixing other artists’ music. I’m a plugin freak and really enjoy tweaking a mix with the myriad plugins I own. This includes composing using soft synths. There are so many VI plugins out there! I’ve also been developing my skills in the area of immersive audio and developed a class at the college teaching surround sound mixing. We received some grants to purchase the latest for two different surround mix rooms that I’m very proud of. They are excellent learning environments for students to work in a solo fashion in a smaller mix room to develop their mixing skills on the latest technology.

What advice do you most often give to people just beginning to pursue audio?

It is important to learn everything. These days there are so many aspects to audio: AES67, Audio over IP, Immersive Audio, live sound event production, wireless… it’s endless!  My advice is to stay focused and be sure to learn something every day. Join audio groups such as SoundGirls, AES, SMPTE, and WAM. Read up on gear, new developments, and the people in audio via online magazines such as Sound on Sound, TapeOp, Mix, ProSoundWeb, and FOH. Learn to wrap a cable well, and you’ll have doors open to you.

 

Dana Jae’s website can be found here: http://www.danajae.com

She is also on the following platforms:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/dana.jae

Instagram – danajae33

Twitter – @danaj33

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/danajae/

 

Audio vs Video Podcasts

Most people, when they think of the word ‘podcast’, think of audio. However, there are a growing number of podcasters who are using video as their main medium, with audio largely taking a backseat.

Is this something we need to embrace in the future? Or is it okay to be an audio traditionalist?

In recent months Spotify has branched out into video podcasting through its Anchor platform, giving creators options beyond YouTube. This has sparked further debate within the industry about whether video is going to become an essential part of podcast consumption.

Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think it will

There are certainly a lot of successful and popular video podcasts out there, and good luck to them. If having a visual element helps people engage with the content, or is key to getting your story across, that can only be a good thing. But when it comes to a straightforward panel or interview show, does video really add anything to the experience that audio alone wouldn’t be able to offer? I may be biased, but there is something special about audio storytelling. For years, people have been predicting the demise of radio drama (especially when television first began to increase in popularity). Yet it’s still going strong in many parts of the world, and now we have fiction podcasts too. Audio-only stories have never been more popular.

That being said, the word ‘video’ is appearing in more and more podcast producer job adverts. But I can’t help thinking that, by requiring video editing skills from applicants, employers might potentially miss out on hiring a great audio producer who doesn’t necessarily have those additional skills. If video is your main area, then fine — but if you’re primarily making audio podcasts, with video as bonus content, then it could be an issue.

I recently discussed this subject with a client. She was of the opinion that audio is far more important than video when it comes to podcasting, not least because of how easy it is to listen while engaging in other activities like running, going to the gym, cooking or tidying the house. So many of us schedule our podcast listening time during such activities, not to mention morning and evening commutes or even winding down before bed (when the last thing we might want to do is stare at a screen). Sometimes we just want to close our eyes and shut out the rest of the world, relying on only our ears.

One downside of focusing on video is that — not always, but often — sound quality is compromised. I’ve seen podcasters turn what was originally a Facebook or Instagram Livestream into an audio file, and that’s where you really notice the shortcomings. As a college lecturer of mine used to say: an audience will be more likely to forgive poor video with great audio than great video with poor audio. Wherever possible, it’s always better to record remote interviews through dedicated platforms (like Riverside or Zencastr, for example) which allow you to get the best possible audio quality and take advantage of separate tracks (you can use these for video too, so there really are no excuses!).

Video podcasts look like they’re here to stay, so it’s a debate that will go on and on. But ultimately, for most audiences, I think audio will remain the go-to.

An Interview with Lebo Poen

Connecting with Fellow Women

This month I have been in the spirit of networking. Having hosted online webinars, delivered motivational talks in events around Durban, SA, and to the KZN Women in Business members, and am using my audio skills to start a podcast (which I will tell you ALL about in June!!), I thought it would be great to get up close and personal with a fellow female in my sound circle.

I met Lebo Poen when I was studying audio engineering at Abbey Road Institute, Johannesburg. At the time, she and I were the only women in the entire building! It was lovely getting to know her on a personal and professional basis, so I thought I’d reconnect with her (6 months later) to check in with how she is doing and tell you a bit more about her and her experience as a woman in the sound and music industry, the good, the bad and the inspirational!

So, here goes!

How did you get into the audio/music industry?

“My love for music definitely came from my dad. His ear for music is one I still admire to this day.

I studied music and sound engineering immediately after high school, and while in music school we were strictly encouraged to begin being active in the industry. We all had to either gig in different bands or attend gigs to expand our network.

But, because of my dad’s influence, well before music school, as a teenager I had already enrolled in extra music lessons (even after having grown up in a school that had music from grade 1), and I have predominantly been involved in singing groups/choirs/bands.

I’ve always known I wanted to end up pursuing a career in music (or the creative sector rather), but just that it would not be an easy road.”

How has your experience as a female in a male-dominated industry been?

“This question always makes me emotional because the evidence of male privilege within the music industry affects over 50% of the women who walk this brave path.

It has taken me much longer to get to where I wanted to be in my 20s although, I never look back and say; “What if?” Or as the famous saying goes; “Life Happens”.

Time was stolen from me at that early stage… time I could never get back.

There have been men in the industry responsible for hindering my progress, be it through the job application process – giving preference to males when we were both equally competent or whether it was blatantly letting me know that the job would only be mine if I was willing to afford sexual favors to the potential employer…

There are deep-rooted issues within the music industry, especially in our country, South Africa, where men are only just starting to realize that discrimination against women in the industry (and in general in our culture) is not acceptable.

I have also witnessed women alongside me who did not have the heart to keep pushing toward their dreams of creating albums or even going into specializing when it comes to sound engineering. They settled for “safer” jobs and changed careers. The discrimination was too much to handle. My heart cries out to them all.”

When I was at Abbey Road Institute, you and I were the only two women there. How was the experience for you?

“It’s lonely sometimes, to be honest. I have been so used to predominantly working with men, used to how they are nearly never mindful of their sexist so-called jokes, etc.

I am so used to hanging out with men that whenever I meet female creatives or engineers, it’s a pleasant surprise – it’s like finally, someone I can connect with that could “get it”.

In the same vein, it doesn’t mean that I’ve been able to befriend female engineers at first glance, I guess it’s about the individual. It’s weird!”

Have you ever been a victim of discrimination in the music industry, if so – what happened and how was it handled?

“I have.

Fortunately for my sake, I am very resilient, and I have had a pretty firm stance in my adulthood as far as faith matters are concerned, so when I realized and encountered discrimination happening to other females around me I would report what I witnessed when they struggled to speak up for themselves.

So, when I experienced discrimination there wasn’t an ounce of fear within me.

I spoke up. I acted.

On two occasions I reported an issue before I abandoned the working relationship. One matter was settled in a disciplinary hearing that went in my favour. I was given the verdict of the offender’s suspension after I left the professional relationship.

Nothing was done about the other matter at the time of my reporting, but I am grateful that a few years later I received a call from an old colleague letting me know that that offender had since been fired. There had been more complaints against him and evidence had been weighed, and he was let go.”

What are some of the struggles you face as a woman in the industry, and how can we address these?

“The top two struggles I face are assumption and unfair treatment.

I am sure many other females can relate. Most of the time, when a man and a woman both raise their hand for a position for which they are both competent, the assumption is that the woman is less competent and unable to fulfill the role “as well” as the man would. This assumption leads to employment or selection of the man instead of the woman, regardless of skill set or experience.

Secondly, if a man and a woman were to both apply for a job where their skillset/competence does not meet the minimum requirements (i.e., they would require training), that training would much rather be provided to the man than the woman.

This is what I have called for years, part of ‘The disease in the music industry.”

What have some of the highlights of your career been?

“I have been blessed to have met some inspirational people on this tough road. It has not been all gloom!

I have been a part of amazing, big stadium shows locally, which had some of the country’s top musicians, either focusing on FOH or monitor mixes for the artists/performers on stage. On some projects I co-engineered, on others, I flew solo behind the console.

In this work though, it is rare that in a big event there is one engineer. It is always a team effort, and it matters a lot that one has good interpersonal skills in general.

Another highlight was when I worked as a technical producer with a room full of journalists in a “Current Affairs” show that ran live on-air every evening. I have a passion for broadcasting and a special place in my heart for journalism/newsworthiness/storytelling.”

What are you working on/busy with now?

“I am working on getting my second book published.

My first book was a poetry anthology Called “For the Broken Ones”, and it was published in 2018 by Nsuku Publishing Consultancy.

I have also curated a production event where music meets poetry, and rehearsals are underway for the band to perform 10 tunes of that set.

I have also collaborated with a friend who is a playwright, working with them on a performance in which I play a role as well. I am rehearsing lines as we speak.”

Do you have any words of inspiration for females in the industry out there?

“Never give up.

The world is changing every day.

Perspectives and mindsets shift with each passing day, and if you are determined about having your legs in the industry, then it will happen. It is just a matter of time.

It is also important to not compete with anyone and always be on your own side.

As a believer, I always encourage people to pray.”

How can we support/find you (socials, published work, etc.

“I am @ellpoen on IG and Twitter. My book “For the Broken Ones” is also still available for sale and I accept orders of copies via direct messages.”

Thank you so much to my friend, Lebo for her time and effort to chat, as well as her inspiration for other women in the industry to persevere and follow their dreams, despite any challenges that may arise!

 

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