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How to Make an Awesome Audio Rider

An audio rider is essential to every gig. There can be a lot of confusion over what it should entail and how best to present the information, so here is how to make a clear, concise rider and the pitfalls to avoid. Much of this might seem obvious, but even people on arena tours make some of these mistakes. If you already know everything in this post, share it with your musician friends who don’t have an engineer yet so they can make great riders too.

Is my favourite beer really that important?

When people hear the word “rider” they tend to think of a rock and roll list of demands for lots of alcohol and no brown M&Ms in the dressing rooms. That is indeed part of the rider, but the term refers to the entire contract for a gig. It covers fees, security, food, drink, technical information, and anything else that is required on the day. The audio rider is probably the most important part of that because without it the promoter doesn’t know what equipment and personnel they’ll need for the gig to happen. Your audio rider should, at the bare minimum, list the instruments you’re bringing, how many people are in the band, and which members sing. If you only send one document to the promoter, it should be your audio rider, not a list of food and drink. Seriously.

Advance the show in advance!

Your rider must be sent in plenty of time before the show. Organisers make budget decisions and might need to hire extra equipment depending on your requirements, so you have to give them enough time to sort that out and negotiate who will pay for any extras. This is true of festivals in particular because they might be juggling the needs of dozens of acts over several days and stages. There can be many layers of communication between the artist, the festival organizers, and the audio supplier so the process can be slow, and setting the equipment up can take days. It’s no good complaining that you sent your rider on Friday when the equipment list got agreed weeks before and got shipped to the site on Tuesday. If the organiser has a deadline for riders make sure you meet it and preferably send it much earlier.

Start with the basics

If you’re just starting out or you don’t have your own engineer, you don’t have to worry about which mics to ask for or even which things need to be mic’ed. Just say what you’re bringing and the house engineers can make a channel list for you that is suitable for the room. For example, some venues might warrant every drum being mic’ed up, but smaller venues might work better with just a stereo pair above the kit. If you have no strong feelings on the matter let them decide. You do need to tell them exactly what you have. “1 x drums” is not helpful. There is no such thing as a “standard” drum kit. List each drum you have, how many channels of playback, how many people sing and where they stand, etc. Don’t just lump things together and presume it’ll be obvious. Mentioning pedalboards isn’t necessary unless they contain something that should plug into the line system, like a Sans Amp. When listing vocals, explain which musician they belong to. A band with drums, bass, guitar, and three vocals could mean anything between three and six people, so make it clear.

It is not necessary to list the brands of your instruments. They are only relevant if the promoter is hiring the gear for you or if you’re sharing backline with other bands who might want to know what they’ll be using. If someone has several amps or keyboards, differentiating them by brand can be helpful, but other than that it just takes up space. How a musician performs has far more influence on the sound than the make and model of their gear so the house engineer is unlikely to need this information before soundcheck.

Advance the plot

The next step is to make a stage plot. Draw where each instrument and vocal mic goes. This is much more useful than a list of gear because the techs can make decisions about how to run cables and plug everything in, what to do for monitors and how best to arrange the changeover. There are apps that will help you to do this (https://soundgirls.org/list-of-apps-and-software-for-designing-stage-plots), but using something like MS Paint or even drawing it by hand is perfectly fine, as long as it’s clear. It doesn’t need to be a photo-realistic masterpiece of your band rocking out in all its majesty, just show where everything goes and what it is. Less detail is often better because there are fewer distractions on the page. Figure 1 was drawn in Paint and shows all the information you need. Numbers in brackets in the rest of the article refer to notes in blue on the plot.

 

A perfectly professional stage plot, made for free in MS Paint

 

If you have a channel list, add the corresponding channel number where each one gets plugged into the line system. For example, write the number by the guitar amp because that’s where the mic goes, not where the guitar itself will be played (1). If you have wireless mics, put the numbers where the mics will be at the start of the set and make a note that they’re wireless (2) and where the receivers need to be (3). Things like drums and playback that are all in one place can have one set of numbers, e.g. 1-10, rather than positioning each number beside each drum or playback output (4). Style your inputs and monitors differently so it’s easy to see which is which at a glance (5).

Mark each place where you would like a power drop. If you have your own extension leads or some instruments are close enough to plug in together, just mark the best position for the venue’s power drops instead of everything that needs electricity. Don’t forget power for pedalboards (6)! If you’re performing in a foreign country, be sure to specify what kind of sockets you require, e.g. “110v USA” for American equipment or “230v UK” for U.K. power. Don’t presume every country in a region has the same plugs. British plugs are different from French plugs, which are in turn different from Italian ones. Mark each individual drop if you’re using a mix of your own and locally hired gear (7). This is especially important for artists traveling between 110v and 230v systems because they’ll need special transformers, which might have to be hired in as an extra. Certain models of backline can be particularly sensitive and rely on accurate voltage in their supply, so a travel adapter will not suffice.

Put your channel list at the bottom of the stage plot, as long as it won’t make it too cramped (8). Leave things like mic choices to a separate channel list on a separate page, but having each instrument and its number on the same page as the plot makes things clear and faster to see, especially during busy changeovers where you don’t want to keep flipping back and forth between pages.

Colour coordination might seem like a great idea, but it often ruins your channel list when it’s printed in black and white. Strong colours can also make text hard to read in low-light conditions, like backstage.

Going pro – channel list

Once you’ve reached a point where you have certain mic preferences, you should include a channel list separate from the stage plot. You should have a column for channel number, instrument name, mic, stand, whether the mic needs phantom power, its position, and any notes. Things like gates, compressors, whether the drummer plays left-handed (especially if they’re in the middle of a bill that is sharing backline!), or that you’re bringing some of your own mics should be noted here. Channel lists traditionally follow a certain order starting with drums and ending with vocals. If your engineer has a strong preference otherwise that’s their decision, but if you’re sharing backline or an analogue desk they might have to use the same order as everyone else. If you want your channels to be plugged into certain subsnakes/satellite boxes, you can add a column for that. Refer to performers by stage position rather than, or as well as, name. No one at the venue knows who Sam is, but they’ll know where the stage-right vocal should be.

If you know what you want for monitors, list them after the channel list. How many wedges each person needs, hardwire mixes, and wireless IEMs, including whether they’re mono or stereo. Note whether you want certain IEM mixes to have extra packs as spares etc. Feel free to add notes for each mix so the house engineer can get a rough starting point dialed in.

Pro secrets the music industry doesn’t want you to know!

There are some practical points that you might not know if you haven’t worked in-house yourself. First of all, the techs often don’t get the full rider and are unlikely to read all of it even if they do. Make sure everything relevant to your audio requirements is in the audio section of your rider, even if you have to repeat yourself. For example, if you mention that you’re bringing your own mics in the “fees” or “fly dates” section, don’t presume the audio team will see that. Make a note of it on the channel list.

If the act is bringing an engineer/s, say so. Say whether they have a show file, and for which desks. If the house engineers don’t know you’re bringing someone, they’ll waste time making a show file for you that they could have spent getting the stage ready or helping another artist. If certain aspects of the rider are deal-breakers, make that very clear. Although riders are contracts, they are often seen as general guides or wishlists, especially when it comes to mics. If you can’t possibly do your show without something, let them know. Well in advance!

You might be tempted to colour code your channel list according to stage area or subsnake/satellite box, but do so at your own peril! Although some tech-savvy techs like to use tablets or even their phones for their paperwork, most stage plots are still printed out for reference, and nearly always in black and white. Those lovely deep, rich colours you used for your subsnakes will render the information unreadable, and different shades of grey are a meaningless coding system (see figure 2). Dark background colours also make text hard to read in low-light conditions, for example, backstage. If you use colour, use very light and distinct ones and write the colours down as well, e.g. “red 1”, “green 3” etc.

It’s vital that you update your rider as soon as anything changes. Make sure you update both the stage plot and channel list, and double-check that they match! One of the biggest sources of confusion is mismatching plots and lists, as it’s usually impossible to tell which is the right one. If you have several set-ups, e.g. a vocalist who performs with a band or to track depending on the show, make separate riders for each one. If you’re adding guest vocals or a string quartet for a special performance, make a special rider. If you have different demands depending on whether it’s a festival or your own headline show, send the paperwork that reflects that. The whole point of a rider is to make sure you have what you need, so the organiser needs to know exactly what that is every time.

One of the biggest mysteries in live events is that of the disappearing current rider. Even if you make yours perfect and send it away in plenty of time, there are beings that can intercept it and give the venue one of your old riders, or in some cases a rider for a totally different act with your name on it. How or why this happens no one knows. Maybe it’s gremlins or tralfamadorians. The only way to really circumvent them is to have a link on your rider for the most up-to-date version, e.g. your website or a Dropbox folder (9). Include the name, role and contact details of your designated grown-up so they can answer any questions the venue might have (10).

Help us to help you

Keeping your rider up to date might seem like a lot of work, but once you’ve made the first one it gets much easier. It is definitely worth spending the time to get it right. The venue can get a lot done before you even arrive, and can set you up much faster if they know what to expect. This is particularly important on festival stages where changeover time is at a premium and the stage crew might see 20-40 riders over the course of a weekend. Making yours neat and easy to understand makes changeover and troubleshooting much easier, leaving you time to concentrate on getting the best sound for your set. Help us to help you have the best show possible, and those non-brown M&Ms will be all the sweeter after.

List of Apps and Software for Designing Stage Plots

 

Not Everything Needs To Be Perfect

 

We are only four ( going on five ) months into the year, and even though Covid-19 still exists, I find myself stressed once again despite it. I want to be the one to shine a positive light whenever my stress tries to overtake me but I’ll be real here: being constantly positive isn’t easy. Yes! Yes! I can already hear someone call out that I’m a real Sherlock, nevertheless, it’s the truth. I’ve been beat-making constantly in-the-box for the last couple of weeks and sending my various hooks and verses to those that had requested them without having a moment to just stop and air out for a bit. I knew that if I wanted to avoid becoming a music zombie, I would have to step back though I hesitated a lot. I was pumping out melodies based on references emailed over to me, then I was meticulously nit-picking every little thing I could, followed by spending hours with the EQ because it just didn’t sit right.

What was I doing so wrong? Why didn’t the sounds in my head line up to what I heard from my speakers? I think, looking back at this, I clearly wasn’t on the verge of being a music zombie – I already was.

So for this month, I wanted to highlight some points and tricks to help you stay on track and avoid serious burnout.

Step One: Remember – You Are Unique

This might come as a shock to you, but surprise! You have been declared authentically yourself. That means you have thought processes, personal experiences, and a sound that can only be described as you sounding. Confused? Allow me to elaborate: if you are a cellist for argument’s sake, you might be able to fit into a classical musical genre with the way you learned to play. However, you have the dictation as to what your sound is. You can fit into any mold because you choose to. Your creative choices are born of the ability you have learned throughout lessons and experiences. This is true for the engineer, who may color rhythm sections in a session as blue and the record track as red out of either a practical or stylistic choice, and the singer may only sing songs composed in C major because they know that major key best fits their sound.

You’re not the next Rhianna, Prince, or 50 Cent. You’re you, and while these songs you love are references that can be good as inspiration and, well, references, you don’t need to mimic your favorite song or mix it identically the same. Embrace what you can bring to the table.

Step Two: Remember One Central Goal

If you find yourself stressed on where you want to start- or like me- find yourself debating if panning hard or slightly left will make the track better – take this advice: focus on one central goal! What is the impact you want to leave on the client, fans, and/or yourself? Do you want to finally pick up one song from the backlog and finish it? If so, work on that one track, and don’t go starting side projects! I guarantee the moment you do you’ll gain an “ I’ll come back to it“ mentality and WON’T come back to it. Take it by the day, something like this ( Yes! It’s time for a list within a list! ):

Day One: Writing lyrics or revising lyrics. Simply take the day to just put some words down. You don’t need to have the final product down yet – but what you will have is an idea of what you’re dealing with.

Day Two: Simple chord progression, a drum loop you like, maybe you play the piano and create something that’s just perfect. You don’t need to mold the sound of it to the lyrics – just feel the song out. Make sure you record whatever you come up with – it doesn’t need to be high-end – voice memos will do just fine.

Day Three: Time to see what’s been cooking the last two days! Place the beat in any DAW – it could even be Garageband on your phone, and bring up that beat you made. Now try mumbling total nonsense while keeping on the beat, it’s a little silly but it works! Any words pop out during mumblefest? You might have stumbled upon something you want to expand on. Experiment! Bring back in those lyrics from day one, and build it up from there. You have all the puzzle pieces. A beat, a vibe, and words. Also, don’t worry about editing – right now it’s all about the music.

There you have it. You made a goal, and instead of trying to cram it all into a couple of hours, you took it day by day- each day with fresh ears and new perspectives that only benefit the song you made. While this example might help artists heavy-handedly, it can be applied to sound designers, engineers, and FOH.

Step Three: Stop Doing

Opinion incoming! Alert! Here I go! If you love what you do, do NOT make it your job. A job is something you can like, hate, neutral, but it’s just a paycheck. A hobby is something you do as an enrichment activity, but what you love? With elbow grease – It’s a career. A lifelong commitment to your job and hobby getting hitched together. You meet like-minded people, explore depths of yourself you never knew existed! The moment you let the burnout get to you though? That’s a job, something just for a paycheck. Learning more becomes homework instead of an adventure. Make sure to do other things besides your career, you have the knack for this line of work sure! Yet you are so much more moving pieces. If you stop whatever you are doing and just take a moment to get some oxygen, read a book, watch a new show. You allow yourself the right to be and do more than one thing. It tells your fatigue that this is not a job’s obligation but a career desire.

You are not a robot, not everything needs to be perfect.

 

 

 

What Is a FIR Filter?

The use of FIR filters (or finite impulse response filters) has grown in popularity in the live sound world as digital signal processing (DSP) for loudspeakers becomes more and more sophisticated. While not a new technology in itself, these filters provide a powerful tool in system optimization due to their linear phase properties. But what exactly do we mean by “finite impulse response” and how do these filters work? In order to understand digital signal processing better we are going to need to take a step back into our understanding of mathematics and levels of abstraction.

A (Very) Brief Intro To DSP

One of the reasons I find mathematics so awesome is because we are able to take values in the real or imaginary world and represent them either symbolically or as a variable in order to analyze them. We can use the number “2” to represent two physical oranges or apples. Similarly, we can take it up another level of abstraction by saying we have “x” amount of oranges or apples to represent a variable amount of said item. Let’s say we wanted to describe an increasing amount of apples where for every new index of apples, we add the sum of the previous number of apples. We can write this as an arithmetic series for all positive integer number “n” of apples as:

Where for each index of apples starting at 1, 2, 3, 4…etc onto infinity we have the current index value n plus the sum of all the values before it. Ok, you might be asking yourself why we are talking about apples when we are supposed to be talking about FIR filters. Well, the reason is that digital signal processing can be represented using this series notation and it makes it a lot easier than writing out the value for every single input into a filter. If we were to sample a sine wave like the one below, we could express the total number of samples over the period from t1 to t2 as the sum of all the samples over that given period.

In fact, as Lyons points out in Understanding Digital Signal Processing (2011) we can express the discrete-time sequence for a given sine-wave at frequency f (in Hertz) at a given time t (in seconds) with the function f(n) = This equation allows us to translate each value of the sine wave, for example, voltage in an electric signal, for a discrete moment in time into an integer value that can be plotted in digital form.

What our brain wants to do is draw lines in between these values to create a continuous waveform so it looks like the original continuous sine wave that we sampled. In fact, this is not possible because each of these integers are discrete values and thus must be seen separately as compared to an analog, continuous signal. Now, what if the waveform that we sampled wasn’t a perfect sine wave, but instead had peaks and transient values? The nature of FIR filters has the ability to “smooth out” these stray values with linear phase properties.

How It Works

The finite impulse response filter gets its name because the same number, or finite, input values you get going into the filter, you get coming out the output. In Understanding Digital Signal Processing, Lyons uses a great analogy of how FIR filters average out summations like averaging the number of cars crossing over a bridge [2]. If you counted the number of cars going over a bridge every minute and then took an average over the last five minutes of the total number of cars, this averaging has the effect of smoothing out the outlying higher or lower number of vehicles to create a more steady average over time. FIR filters function similarly by taking each input sample and multiplying it by the filter’s coefficients and then summing them at the filter’s output. Lyons points out how this can be described as a series which illustrates the convolution equation for a general “M-tap FIR filter” [3]:

While this may look scary at first, remember from the discussion at the beginning of this blog that mathematical symbols package concepts into something more succinct for us to analyze. What this series is saying is that for every sample value x whose index value is n-k, k being some integer greater than zero, we multiply its value times the coefficient h(k) and sum the values for the number of taps in the filter (M-1). So here’s where things start to get interesting: the filter coefficients h(k) are the FIR filter’s impulse response. Without going too far down the rabbit hole in discussing convolution and different types of FIR windows for filter design, let’s jump into the phase properties of these filters then focus on their applications.

The major advantage of the FIR filter compared to other filters such as the IIR (or infinite impulse response) filter lies in the symmetrical nature of the delay introduced into the signal that doesn’t introduce phase shift into the output of the system. As Lyons points out this relates to the group delay of the system:

When the group delay is constant, as it is over the passband of all FIR filters having symmetrical coefficients, all frequency components of the filter input signal are delayed by an equal amount of time […] before they reach the filter’s output. This means that no phase distortion is induced in the filter’s desired output signal […] [4]

It is well known that phase shift, especially at different frequency ranges, can cause detrimental constructive and/or destructive effects between two signals. Having a filter at your disposal that allows gain and attenuation without introducing phase shift has significant advantages especially when used as a way of optimizing frequency response between zones of loudspeaker cabinets in line arrays. So now that we have talked about what a FIR filter is and its benefits, let’s discuss a case for the application of FIR filters.

Applications of FIR filters

Before sophisticated DSP and processors were so readily available, a common tactic of handling multiway sound systems, particularly line arrays, with problematic high-frequencies was to go up to the amplifier of the offending zone of boxes and physically turn down the amplifier running the HF drivers. I’m not going to argue against doing what you have to do to save people’s ears in dire situations, but the problem with this method is that when you change the gain of the amplifier for the HF in a multiway loudspeaker, you effectively change the crossover point as well. One of our goals in optimizing a sound system is to maintain the isophasic response of the array throughout all the elements and zones of the system. By using FIR filters to adjust the frequency response of a system, we can make adjustments and “smooth out” the summation effects of the interelement angles between loudspeaker cabinets without introducing phase shift in-between zones of our line array.

Remember the example Lyons gave comparing the averaging effects of FIR filters to averaging the number of cars crossing a bridge? Now instead of cars, imagine we are trying to “average” out the outlier values for a given frequency band in the high-frequency range of different zones in our line array. These variances are due to the summation effects dependent on the interelement angles between cabinets. Figure A depicts a 16 box large-format line array with only optimized interelement angles between boxes using L-Acoustics’ loudspeaker prediction software Soundvision.

Figure A

Each blue line represents a measurement of the frequency response along the coverage area of the array. Notice the high amount of variance in frequency response particularly above 8kHz between the boxes across the target audience area for each loudspeaker. Now when we use FIR filtering available in the amplifier controllers and implemented via Network Manager to smooth out these variances like in the car analogy, we get a smoother response closer to the target curve above 8kHz as seen in Figure B.

Figure B

In this example, FIR filtering allows us to essentially apply EQ to individual zones of boxes within the array without introducing a relative phase shift that would break the isophasic response of the entire array.

Unfortunately, there is still no such thing as a free lunch. What you win in phase coherence, you pay for in propagation time. That is why, sadly, FIR filters aren’t very practical for lower frequency ranges in live sound because the amount of introduced delay at those frequency ranges would not be practical in real-time applications.

Conclusion

By taking discrete samples of a signal in time and representing it with a series expressions, we are able to define filters in digital signal processing as manipulations of a function. Finite impulse response filters with symmetric coefficients are able to smooth out variances in the input signal due to the averaging nature of the filter’s summation. The added advantage here is that this happens without introducing phase distortion, which makes the FIR filter a handy tool for optimizing zones of loudspeaker cabinets within a line array. Today, most professional loudspeaker manufacturers employ FIR filters to some degree in processing their point source, constant curvature, and variable curvature arrays. Whether the use of these filters creates a smoother sounding frequency response is up to the user to decide.

Endnotes:

[1] (pg. 2) Lyons, R.G. (2011). Understanding Digital Signal Processing. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall: Pearson Education.

[2] (pg. 170) Lyons, R.G. (2011). Understanding Digital Signal Processing. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall: Pearson Education.

[3] (pg. 176) Lyons, R.G. (2011). Understanding Digital Signal Processing. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall: Pearson Education.

[4] (pg. 211) Lyons, R.G. (2011). Understanding Digital Signal Processing. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall: Pearson Education.

Resources:

John. M. (n.d.) Audio FIR Filtering: A Guide to Fundamental FIR Filter Concepts & Applications in Loudspeakers. Eclipse Audio. https://eclipseaudio.com/fir-filter-guide/

Lyons, R.G. (2011). Understanding Digital Signal Processing. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall: Pearson Education.

Dispelling the Inaccuracies of Hearing Loss in Sound of Metal

 

Dispelling the inaccuracies of hearing loss in Sound of Metal. As an audiologist for the past 24 years with 13 of those years focused on the specialized hearing needs of musicians, sound engineers, and audiophiles, I couldn’t believe, even from the beginning of the movie, all of the inaccuracies of the portrayal of hearing loss, its causes, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Dispelling the Inaccuracies of Hearing Loss in Sound of Metal

It took me three tries to get through the Academy Award-nominated movie Sound of Metal. As an audiologist for the past 24 years with 13 of those years focused on the specialized hearing needs of musicians, sound engineers, and audiophiles.  I couldn’t believe, even from the beginning of the movie, all of the inaccuracies of the portrayal of hearing loss, its causes, treatment, and rehabilitation.

I understand that this is a movie, a dramatization of life and that Hollywood took artistic license with the occurrence of sudden hearing loss, but the portrayal is completely inaccurate. Some major steps in the process of sudden hearing loss and its diagnosis and intervention were left out and I would like to dispel that and clear up what happens in real life.

YOU WILL NOT HAVE PERMANENT TOTAL SUDDEN HEARING LOSS IN BOTH EARS BECAUSE YOU’RE A MUSICIAN.

On a bright note – I am thrilled about the awareness and attention the movie has given to the subject matter of hearing and hearing loss and am hoping to use that attention to shine a light on reality so that people can practice, play and listen to music safely and without fear.

Sudden Hearing Loss vs Loud Sound Exposure Hearing Loss

Sudden severe to profound bilateral (both ears) hearing loss is very rare and its cause is typically viral or because of an autoimmune disease.  Sudden hearing loss incidence is about 20 per 100,000 annually and bilateral sudden hearing loss is less than that (per the Clinical Practice Guidelines: Sudden Hearing Loss, published August 1, 2019, by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.) Since the main character, Ruben, is a drummer and the name of the movie is Sound of Metal, I felt there was an underlying message that this type of hearing loss could occur as a result of his profession. It is true that hearing loss can happen from loud sound exposure. However, it is most typically gradual, affecting the higher frequencies from 2500Hz-6000Hz first.  This type of hearing loss is perceived as a loss of speech clarity or that hearing is muffled.  Usually, when someone has this type of mild hearing loss in the high frequencies, they may be unaware of it, but they will be if it further declines and becomes severe and by then it may be too late.

Some signs of a high-frequency hearing loss are difficulty hearing in noise, asking for more high frequencies or clarity in a mix, needing the television louder than others, and a general feeling of hearing but not understanding what is being said. That’s why it is crucial to be proactive and take necessary precautions to avoid having this happen. These steps include having an annual diagnostic hearing evaluation, monitoring loudness levels using NIOSH standards with a sound level meter, wearing hearing protection when you can’t control the volume, and getting the right in-ear monitors with a good fit coupled with the right mix so you don’t have to turn them up too loud while rehearsing and performing. The important thing to know is that it’s never too late to start!

Medical Intervention

Unfortunately, sudden hearing loss is possible, but typically it only affects one ear and needs to be treated medically immediately.  We hope that the perception of hearing loss in one ear is something as simple to fix as wax removal, however, do not assume that to be the case.  According to my colleague, Dr. Yu-Tung Wong, MD, Otologist out of Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “Examining the ear may show impacted ear wax as the cause of hearing loss, especially in someone who wears earplugs or ear monitors. It may also show correctable physical damage to the eardrum.  In the event that the physical examination is normal, and the sudden hearing loss is identified in the first few weeks, most patients would be treated with oral steroids with or without intratympanic steroid injections, and sometimes hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Generally, one-third of patients will improve by themselves even without treatment, and one-third of patients will not improve despite all treatments. The remaining one-third of patients must have treatment to improve.  The hearing recovery is not always complete but may allow the patient to use hearing aids to amplify their residual hearing to a functional level.”  So, the take-home message is do not wait if this happens to you- call your Audiologist and Otologist or Otorhinolaryngologist, commonly known as Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor or “ENT” immediately.

Sound of Metal did not address medical intervention of sudden hearing loss at all. In fact, Ruben was told by the seemingly cold audiologist in the beginning that “sorry there is nothing we can do for you”. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth as there is a lot that could have been done. While they do not sound like normal hearing, cochlear implants are truly amazing, but they would not have been the first stop on Ruben’s journey of aural rehabilitation.

After his first hearing test, Ruben should have been treated by a medical doctor, preferably an otologist, and further hearing tests would have been done to check for possible recovery.  This process could take at least a month to come to a conclusion. Had his hearing loss not improved, he would have then been told his next option which would be hearing aids, which are WONDERFUL these days! Additionally, he could have also gotten custom in-ear monitors tuned to his hearing test results to use while performing.  I do that when appropriate for my clients and JH Audio is the only in-ear monitor company that will help me accommodate for hearing loss. I have found it to be a tremendous help so that my clients don’t have to compensate by turning up the volume on their monitors too loud and their engineers don’t have to compensate for it in the mix, therefore, reducing the risk of further hearing damage due to loud sound exposure.

The fact is, that no one is even considered a candidate for a Cochlear implant until they first try hearing aids and show no benefit. Cochlear implants are typically done one ear at a time, not both ears at the same time. The good news is most insurance companies and even Medicare actually cover the cost of cochlear implants so no need to short sell the Airstream, Ruben!

Lastly, you would never have outright left Ruben, who has been through such a traumatic event with people, first of all, he doesn’t know, and second, he doesn’t speak their language. To me, it would be equivalent to being shipped off to a foreign country where no one spoke English after a trauma.  You just would never do that in real life, plus he never expressed a desire to be part of the Deaf community. It was, however, great to see the Deaf community represented and its realistic portrayal, but again it just wouldn’t be the next step for Ruben in real life. A more appropriate route would have been surrounded by friends and family supporting him through all the steps of medical intervention.

Positive Notes

Some positive notes – the sound design team did a great job letting us all hear what it is like to have severe hearing loss. We actually all have gotten to experience what hearing loss is like in real life the past year during the pandemic while wearing a low-pass filter called a face mask!  I’m hoping this experience raises awareness and empathy for what it’s like to not hear clearly and also how important visual cues are to hearing.  Hopefully when all is said and done with the pandemic people will have a newfound awareness and understanding of hearing loss.

Regarding Sound of Metal, I hope it doesn’t scare people to quit playing instruments or make them TOO paranoid. Instead, I hope by following a good hearing conservation program which includes getting your hearing tested annually, wearing good earplugs (best would be custom fit and I prefer Sensaphonics who uses Etymotic Research filters), wearing in-ear monitors at a safe level, and monitoring loudness in general that everyone can continue their careers for a long time with good hearing health!

JULIE GLICK, Au.D., F-AAA

Dr. Glick was first introduced to custom in-ear monitors and musicians earplugs twenty years ago when she started her career in private practice in Beverly Hills, California, and is thrilled to have come full circle after spending time gaining a myriad of experiences in Chicago and New York City. Musicians Hearing Health

Her passion for music and commitment to the field of audiology led her to recognize that the optimization of the live performances of musicians and hearing conservation was a niche she wanted to be involved in from the very beginning. Over the past twenty years, Julie has spent invaluable time with monitor/sound engineers and has been backstage and in rehearsal studios with musicians of all genres.  She has also worked as an audiologist for two years at Sensaphonics Hearing Conservation in Chicago. Through all of these experiences, she has gained great insight and appreciation for all the technical details that go into live musical performances and how important hearing and hearing conservation is to not only musicians but to the fans as well. Dr. Glick’s knowledge and technical expertise in sound, hearing, and hearing conservation make her a valuable asset to the music community.

Dr. Glick received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Hearing Science from The Ohio State University, Master of Science in Communicative Disorders from California State University, Northridge, and Doctor of Audiology from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, School of Audiology. Dr. Glick is a licensed Audiologist and Hearing Instrument Dispenser in the states of California and New York and a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology.

Creating Spacious Mixes with Panning

Panning in a musical context is the act of distributing the sound signal into a stereo or multi-channel sound field. Most DAW’s will have a Pan Knob that you can use to send the audio hard left, left, centre, right, hard right, and everything in between. The benefit of panning is that it can create space and width inside your mix and allow the listener to have a broader listening experience.

So how do you pan your mixes? Well here are a few top tips that will help create space and depth in your mixes.

Vocal Tracks

Music that features a voice in it, no matter the genre, typically follows this panning method. The Vocals should be panned centre, as well as any kick or snare tracks (although if you don’t want that hard-hitting sound you can always pan the snare and kick just off centre). If you have a couple of harmony vocal tracks, you can pan them hard left and hard right so that they’re not competing with the main vocal. If you have a lot of different harmonies pan the strongest hard left and right and then pan the others in opposite directions with each other. For example, if you have two of the same harmony takes pan one 90° left and the other 90° right.

Frequency Zones

If you have a few instruments or sounds that are occupying the same frequency, a nice trick can be to pan them on opposite sides of each other. This will create space and alleviate some of the muddiness.

Song Structure

Another useful trick with panning is it can allow you to diversity the sound of your song structure. For example, you could keep your intro and verses very tight, and then when the chorus begins you can open up the sound by panning certain voices and instruments out. This will create a wider sound and ultimately make it feel like a bigger chorus.

Keep it Balanced

The most important thing to remember is to keep your mix balanced! Once you start diving into panning it can become quite easy to just start panning everything. This is not recommended. The best use of panning comes from using the technique just to open up your mix. You don’t want to be left with a track that sounds too loud and muddy in the right ear and brittle in the left.

Check Your Mix

Make sure you are checking your mix on a variety of different sources. From headphones, monitors, cellphone speakers, etc. This is important as listening on only one source can give you an altered listening experience and what sounds good on your mix headphones might not sound great on a pair of cheaper in-ears. So, make sure to check check check!

Overall panning is an incredible tool to open up the sound of your music. There is no right or wrong way to do it and my advice would be to just trust your ears.

 

Letter to the FCC to Preserve the UHF Band for Live Events

Are you a participant in live event production? Yes? Then do every segment in our industry a favor and use the template to lobby the FCC to preserve the UHF band for live entertainment usage. It takes 5 minutes to do this and is VITALLY important.

 

[on your letterhead if you have letterhead]

 

[date]

Ms. Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary

Federal Communications Commission

45 L Street NE

Washington, DC 20554

 

Re: MB Docket No. 15–146; GN Docket No. 12– 268; Report No. 3169; FRS 17596

Dear Ms. Dortch:

(state who you are — e.g. I am an audio engineer artist who uses wireless microphones and monitors) state that you support the designation of one channel in the UHF TV band for use by wireless microphones as originally planned by the FCC due to the importance of UHF TV band spectrum for wireless microphone use, and specifically support the Sennheiser and Shure Petitions for Reconsideration filed in January 2021).

(optional: state anything else you would like to add)

Respectfully submitted,

(your signature — typed is OK)

(your name and title)

(your address and phone if not on letterhead)

[To File:

Email your letter to joe.ciaudelli@sennheiser.com with a note “please file with the FCC on my behalf”

OR

To file electronically directly with the FCC:

Go to https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings

Enter proceeding numbers 15-146 (hit “ENTER”) and 12-268

Fill out the form.

Choose “Comment” for Type of Filing.

Upload your document

Click “Continue to Review Screen”

Review and Click “Submit”]

 

How Do We Value Musical Equipment

Value, Quality, Price, and Branding

Recently, a friend of mine excitedly shared photos of their newest guitar purchase; an attractively restored Fender Telecaster. As we chatted, my friend elaborated that it was a Mexican model and that the staff in the shop had cheekily encouraged her to try the American-made alternatives (priced much higher). I reminisced about snobby attitudes I’d also encountered over the last ten happy years with my vintage strat, and started thinking how do we value a brand’s reputation, quality, and price point when it comes to musical instruments and equipment? I wondered if the criteria might be more relevant than ever before, following the financial uncertainty of the pandemic era and its effect on those in the Arts.

In pre-Covid times I’d noted the pleasant surprise that peers and friends would take from a quick dabble or closer inspection of my old strat, and conversely, those who would instantly disregard it when finding out its origins. While urban legend continues to hold onto the narrative that the American models play better, sound better, are built better and are priced accordingly, the definitive truth is less clear. Kyle Smitchens from Guitar-Muse spoke with Fender to pose these questions and find out. He explains:

While the electric guitar is absolutely not my area of expertise, I’d experienced the same issues and debates in the classical guitar world. As a student of the instrument, it was taught as gospel that Spanish-made guitars were of the highest quality and price, and Chinese-made guitars were to be avoided at all costs: rumours of badly manufactured, mass production factory lines with no QA prevailed. Unbelievably, it wasn’t until I’d been working for several years that I actually encountered a guitar shop that stocked a Chinese-made classical guitar for me to try out myself – and I loved it.

In music, these attitudes seem to span across the board – from music notation software to DAWs, and everything in between, many believe only the most expensive and well-used brand names are the real industry standard. We know the psychology of selling makes people skeptical in general of anything that seems under-priced or ‘too good to be true’, and are wary of the ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ philosophy, but we also trust that word of mouth is the most effective method of sharing good products. We ask one another what gear we are using, source recommendations, and share with our friends our latest finds and surprising bargains. There have been various ‘unbranded’ and reasonably priced products over the years that nowadays I couldn’t live without thanks to peers, friends, and knowledgeable internet strangers.

Behringer came to exist because the founder, Uli Behringer was a struggling musician and sound engineer back in 1989 – at this time, he couldn’t afford the necessary equipment for his own studio. He started by creating products for himself, but this soon grew into a business. Behringer’s philosophy is “to deliver life-changing products at prices everyone can afford.”

I’ve sadly witnessed a large number of my peers selling instruments, musical equipment, and gear throughout the last year since coronavirus took hold. It’s highlighted the financial struggles that were present before the industry shut down, that of course musicians and engineers will always need the right equipment to be able to work, and the cost quickly adds up. As well as being expensive, musical instruments and setups are often judged, so there is a distinct need for gear that’s reputable, reliable, sounds great, that also leaves enough change to grab some chips on the way home from the gig. While nobody wants substandard, cheap, nasty gear that doesn’t perform, the questions have to be asked: Is it not somewhat paradoxical to respect the Fender brand and reputation, yet view a huge number of their products as inferior? Shouldn’t Behringer be a little more celebrated for putting their philosophy into practice? Does a reasonably priced product automatically equate to a substandard performance? And shouldn’t instruments be judged by how they feel, play, and sound rather than where they were manufactured?

I hope as the world emerges from a gig-less and financially tough year, that we will be able to openly share the best bargains in our kit more freely, with a little less stigma than before. If something performs to a high level (or the adequate level we require and can afford), then surely we should enjoy that. Returning to work is likely to be an adjustment for those across the music and entertainment industry. If we can lighten the financial strain of replacing or upgrading necessary equipment by researching our product needs differently, perhaps this will help us all get back to working, creating and making noise once again, without breaking the bank.

The Importance of Field Recording

Throughout the past few years, I’ve been networking with people in the sound community. I’ve met and spoken with so many amazing people in the film, television, and video game industry who have been nothing less than helpful and hopeful. One tip that gets brought up the most is sound libraries. Any sound designer knows those sound libraries are very important to have. That includes the ones you’ve recorded and the ones you’ve bought. Of course, not buying all the sound libraries at once but little by little over time.

An important part of your journey as a sound designer is also learning to record sounds, yourself. You don’t even need the fanciest or most expensive equipment in the world to do it. I, myself, own a Zoom H1, Zoom H4n, and Zoom H6 with a Sennheiser MKH 416. Learning to work with what you have is also a valuable skill. Of course, you’re not going to have access to everything you want to record for a film. But, a good practice is recording things around your home. I try to go on a walk every day and carry a Zoom H1 in a fanny pack. You never know what interesting sound you’ll find out in the world of your neighborhood. Plus, the sunshine and air are great for your mental health and overall health. Stepping away from your computer is a nice reset from work, too. If you can record it at a higher sample rate, you have so much more freedom to work with the audio versus what you get in a library. But, be prepared to have enough hard drive space to hold all the sounds you want. This also can be helpful in learning how to clean up the audio. Not everything you record out in the field will be clean and this can be a helpful experience with that.

If you’re into ASMR videos on YouTube like myself, there are interesting sounds in just tapping a glass or candle holder. Watching other people record sounds is also helpful on your sonic journey. I didn’t know cactus needles can sound like rain falling! Watching others record different sounds can help give you ideas and maybe, that’s the sound you’ve been looking for on a project you’ve been working on. We had some storms and wind a month ago here in Sacramento so I opted to record some rain on my metal awning and some wind through my window for wind howls. Always be careful and make sure your equipment is safe as well. You wouldn’t want rain getting into it. For wind, a good windscreen or blimp are great options to capture wind better.

Field recording shouldn’t feel like a chore or job, either. You never know what kind of sounds are near you or right outside your house. Just the other day I recorded my weekly garbage pickup. The truck has some nice squeaky brakes as well. Always be aware of what’s around, always keep listening, and don’t be afraid to experiment. So go out there and explore your world sonically!

 

 

Ask the Experts – Career Development – Resumes, Impostor Syndrome, Networking

ASK THE EXPERTS –  Career Development – Resumes, Impostor Syndrome, Networking, Interviewing, and More

With Live Events starting to be announced many working in this sector are finding that they need to re-establish their networks, freelance work, and are having to re-interview for jobs, tours, and gigs. We thought it would be a good idea to talk with some people in our industry that are in hiring positions and discuss how to handle submitting and updating your resumes, re-establishing your networks, preparing for interviews, and overcoming Impostor Syndrome.

This is your opportunity to ask Industry Leaders Meegan Holmes, Jim Yakabuski, Whitney Olpin, Samantha Potter, Dawn Birr and Tina Morris your questions.

May 8, 2021 -11 AM – 1 PM PDT / 2 PM – 4PM EDT

Register and Post Questions

Meegan Holmes

Meegan Holmes – Global Sales 8th Day Sound

Meegan has worked in live sound for over 25 years doing everything from system teching to mixing monitors and FOH. She is now in Global Sales for one of the largest sound system providers in the world, 8th Day Sound/Clair Global – Los Angeles

Samantha Potter

 Samantha Potter is an audio engineer and an editor for ProSoundWeb with a passion for writing and educating. Additionally, she serves as the “Install Empress” for Allen & Heath USA, helping to merge the live sound solutions we all love into the commercial and install space.
Growing up as a musician, Samantha found her way to live sound by way of the studio, proving that bassists make the best sound engineers. The host of Church Sound Podcast and a co-director and leader instructor for Church Sound University, Samantha can often be found teaching, writing, and hosting discussions on various live-sound topics.

Whitney Olpin

Whitney has been the Monitor Engineer for Melody Gardot, Lauryn Hill, Fitz, and The Tantrums, Sublime with Rome, Marian Hill, X-Ambassadors, and Walk the Moon. She also mixes monitors at the iHeartRadio Theater in Burbank. Whitney (pre-pandemic) was a production manager for Live Nation clubs and theaters in Los Angeles.

 

Jim Yakabuski Director of Audio U.S.  Solotech

With nearly 40 years as a professional sound reinforcement engineer, Jim started out mixing as club bands in western Canada in the early 1980s. He soon transitioned to a role as a concert staff engineer at dB Sound and the rest is history. Even with a packed schedule of writing pro audiobooks, penning articles for top industry magazines, mixing Peter Frampton, Journey, Avril Lavigne, Van Halen, Gwen Stefani, Matchbox 20 and basically any huge name band you can think of — Jim always has time to talk about the latest mix techniques, the coolest gear, and fun audio tips and tricks.

 

Dawn Birr – Sennheiser

Dawn Birr began her career in the audio industry in 2000, joining Sennheiser fresh out of college.  She started as a temporary receptionist and began to learn her way around and through the company.  Shortly afterward she moved into Customer Service and began learning how the customers and company worked.  Thanks to a nurturing company culture and strong role models who encouraged her to learn as much as possible, Dawn was promoted over the years to Neumann Product Manager, Professional RF Product Manager, VP of Sales for U.S. Installed Sound, Global Commercial Manager for Audio Recording, Channel Manager for the Americas for Pro Audio, and most recently to Global Customer and Markets Insights Manager, Pro Audio.  She completed her MBA in 2005 and is an advisory board member for The Women’s International Music Network and a proud SoundGirl.

Tina Morris – Studi Manager The Village

Tina Morris started her career in music as a guitar and Music Production/Engineering student at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Immediately after college, she started her professional career at Sound Techniques giving her a head start as an engineer and studio tech and working with some of the best in the business. After years of gigging with her band as a heavy metal guitarist, working as a freelance engineer for NPR, Q Division Studios, and The Blue Man Group she decided to move to LA with her husband. After moving she landed the position of head evening tech for The Village Studios.  Continuing to impress employers and clients alike with her expertise, Tina’s hard work was rewarded with a promotion to her current position as Studio Manager of The Village. Now the proud mother of her son Jackson, age 10, Tina still manages to balance her role of manager and mom.

Additional Resources

Before applying for jobs or internships – take some time to clean up your resumes and social media –

Tips for resumes and social media

Industry Directories – Get Yourself Listed

 

 

 

 

 

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