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On Mentorship

We talk a lot about the importance of mentorship in this industry, and in general. While I may have studied theatre sound design in college, I feel like so much of the learning I have done has been through mentors who have given me a chance to watch them work. Now that I have gotten a few years of career experience under my belt, it has been super rewarding for me to take up that mantle and start mentoring myself. So, for this blog, I want to talk about my own experience progressing from mentee to mentor.

“There’s a very ancient saying, but a true and honest thought, that if you become a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught!” – from The King and I. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Photo by Matthew Murphy

My first major mentor was Chris Evans, head of sound at the Benedum Center in downtown Pittsburgh. I was lucky enough to intern with him in the summer after my junior year of college, right when I was figuring out that I might want to mix musicals professionally. As Chris worked in an IATSE house (which meant that as a non-union worker there were limitations on what tasks I could do), my jobs included marking up scripts, making paperwork, and pulling sound effects. But mostly I just got to watch a brilliant mixer do his thing. I learned so much from just getting to be in the room with professionals and seeing how people behaved gave me a profound understanding of our industry. I returned to school that fall determined to channel all that I had learned from my new role model and be the best person I could be, not just the best mixer.

As I went on in my career, I collected a host of other mentors, some of whom probably don’t even know I think of them that way. I met folks through work, by shadowing them on shows, or by attending trade shows like USITT and AES. It can be awkward to approach someone when you have no footing in the business yet, but if I showed a genuine interest in what they do and a respect for their time and knowledge…the doors would magically open to me. And really, I can’t think of any other way that I could possibly have learned so much about the industry.

As I moved up in the ranks at my regional theatre gig, I kept in touch with mentors like Chris, but I also slowly began to mentor my apprentices. They each came in with different backgrounds, so while they all were hired to do the same job (be my A2 and assistant), it felt good to learn about each of them and try to tailor the experience to what they specifically wanted to learn about, whether it was mixing a musical, being a better A2, or doing cleaner paperwork. I could give them a safe place to learn on the job by handing over responsibilities a little at a time and share stories about when I had been in their shoes as an apprentice myself a few short years ago.

Even then, I still felt like I had so much to learn myself, but I was now squarely in the middle of the progression of my career. I wasn’t at the top yet (still nowhere near it!), but I was at least a few “rungs” up the ladder. I could now speak from personal experience about getting one’s first job, but also about getting a second job, or moving to a new city for work, or any of the other career hurdles that I had somehow managed to overcome. And as I continued to learn from mentors of my own, I could immediately pass that wisdom on, and hopefully save my mentees from falling into some of the pitfalls that I did, or that my mentors had during their early careers.

3 generations of Goodspeed Musicals Mentorship gathered safely at my pandemic wedding! L to R: Rob Baldwin, Olivia Denison, me, Jay Hilton. Photo by Eric Brushett Photograhpy.

Once I finally started working in NYC, I felt like something shifted. I began to get approached by teachers to guest-lecture for their students, and by young people asking me questions about getting into theatre. At first, I approached these encounters with an imposter-syndrome-fueled dread.  The way I saw it, I too was still making it up as I went! I had no idea how the NYC theatre scene worked, having just arrived there myself in January of 2019. I could give no advice on how to get a job, how shop builds worked…how could anyone think that I was a good example of someone to learn from? The first few times I mentored, I think this nervousness definitely showed! But, as I stood in front of my first group of students, I realized something. All you can give is your own story, and as “once in a lifetime/the stars aligned” as your career path seems to you, even sharing that information goes a long way to demystifying this world of theatre. And once I got a little better at doing it, I discovered I kind of liked it 🙂

After that first fateful experience guest-lecturing, I figured out my spiel a little bit. I kept inviting young aspiring mixers to shadow me at Rock of Ages, and did my best to connect with people who are underrepresented in NYC theatrical sound. However, it was during the pandemic that I really felt myself cross the proverbial bridge from mentee to mentor. I don’t know how it happened, but as we were all pivoting to life at home, suddenly people needed more guest lecturers in classes, or assignments to replace being on run crew for shows. And not only was there a need, but I suddenly had the time to fill it! The first months of 2020 I had been working multiple shows on top of each other basically nonstop (which by the way I DO NOT recommend!), and the effect was beginning to really deteriorate me physically and mentally. I wanted to continue being there for any young person I could, especially young women. And when the shutdown happened, I tried my best to keep paying it forward, even without being able to invite folks to shadow me at Front of House.

I’ve had a couple of great mentoring experiences this year. I took on my first SoundGirls mentee, zoomed with a young aspiring designer after this year’s virtual USITT, and most recently, did a structured 10 week program through Sound Thinking NYC where I helped my mentee complete a composition she wanted to work on. Again, my experience and career path didn’t always match my mentees exactly, but I found that I could help guide them in the right direction, or at least offer my takes on where they could go to learn more about the subjects that excited them. These experiences have been one of the absolute highlights of this time away from work for me, because no matter where my mentees were on their career journey, it was completely ok that none of us knew the answers! I would say things like, “well, I have no idea what job advice I can give right now, but here’s how it worked pre-pandemic.” The shared feeling of “making it up as we went” made me feel like I could be honest about my own uncertainties. And while at first, I worried that I was setting the wrong example by not having the answers, it turns out that my admitting what a mystery this line of work is made it ok for them to feel that way too.

Some of this year’s class of SYNYC mentees at one of our virtual meeting!

To me, this is the heart of mentoring, and what makes it different from just teaching. Sure, plenty of practical learning might happen by osmosis, but your job as a mentor is first and foremost to just do what you do, lead by example, and be honest about your struggles. We all want to come back to an industry that is more inclusive, more just, and more tolerant of people’s individual needs. And I believe that those of us who are mentors have a responsibility to keep opening doors in the industry to make that change happen for those coming up behind us.

Ask the Experts – Hearing Health

Tinnitus, Sudden, Noise-Induced, and Hidden Hearing Loss.  Hearing Tests, Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants and More

Join SoundGirls for a webinar on hearing health with Audiologist Julie Glick, Musician Scott Simmons, and Sound Engineer Swaan Barat. Moderated by Lighting Designer Kille Knobel

This is your opportunity to ask questions about hearing health and get them answered and learn about how to protect your hearing. We will discuss different types of hearing loss and learn what options are available to you. We will also meet a musician and sound engineer who are willing to share their experiences with hearing loss and their careers.

May 16, 2021 -11 AM – 1 PM PDT / 2 PM – 4PM EDT

Register and Post Questions

Moderated By Kille Knobel

Kille Knobel is a graduate of Interlochen Center for the Arts and CalArts. She has been the LD for Pearl Jam for over 20 years and has toured with Cher, Bette Midler, Temple of the Dog, Janet Jackson, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, NIN, and countless more.

Kille has spent much of her career working special events, corporate shows, and television. When she’s at home in Los Angeles, she can be found working at The Jimmy Kimmel Show and wrangling her three sons – 16, 13, & 12. Two of Kille’s sons were born with congenital sensorineural hearing loss and wear hearing aids. Kille has become an unplanned expert in pediatric hearing loss and special education having spent years learning to effectively advocate and navigate the resources and technology needed to best support her kids.

Bridging her personal life and working in a high-risk profession for hearing damage, Kille is passionate about promoting better education and awareness surround hearing health in our industry.

Panelist Include

Julie Glick, Au.D., F-AAA

Dr. Glick has 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.

Swann Barat

Swann has always been passionate about live music and at age 16 she decided to become a sound engineer. After graduating from an electrical engineering program in Poitiers, France, Swann moved to Vancouver, BC, and studied Audio Engineering and Production. A freelance sound technician, Swann has worked at most Vancouver venues, including 5 years as the head technician at the Biltmore Cabaret and more recently as the technical director at the Fox Cabaret. She was also a live sound instructor at Nimbus School of Recording and Media for 6 years. As both a tour manager and a front-of-house technician, she has toured all over North America and Europe during the past decade.
In 2016, she was diagnosed with a genetic condition causing progressive hearing loss and tinnitus. She has been wearing hearing aids since then and that allowed her to keep doing her multiple jobs in the live sound industry. 

I’m a sound technician. Losing my hearing was devastating

Scott Simons

Scott Simons’ career as a musician started at the age of 15 when his father, a local news weatherman, hired him to write the 6 o’clock new theme music for WBOY-TV. After seeing his name credited at the end of every newscast, Scott knew he wanted to write music for a living. Playing keyboards in cover bands as the only under 18 kid in bars and composing jingles for local radio and TV stations led to him studying music at West Virginia University.

After receiving his B.A. in Music Composition, Scott Simons spent the next 10 years touring in several 15 passenger-cargo vans while fronting original indie-pop band The Argument. To make ends meet while pursuing his dream, Scott taught pre-school through 8th-grade music, private piano lessons and was a substitute band teacher. The Argument toured the country, performed on public radio’s “Mountain Stage” twice, and was named as one of the “Top Ten Unsigned Bands in America” by the American Music Awards. When the last van broke down and the band broke up, Simons began writing and producing for other artists which lead to frequent writing trips to Los Angeles and Nashville and his first co-publishing deal with Bug Music. In 2006, his self-produced internet smash cover of Rhianna’s “Umbrella” was added to many radio station rotations all over the US and overseas, received praise on countless internet pop culture sites such as TMZ.com and amassed millions of plays on MySpace, YouTube and other social media.

In 2008, Scott made the move west to LA and has been keeping busy as a writer, performer, and recording artist ever since. As a songwriter and producer, Simons has worked with many writers and artists all over the world. Last year, his cowrite “Faithful” was a Latin American hit with Mexican-American pop artist Alex Hoyer. His recent collaboration with Italian pop DJ group Daddy’s Groove “Stellar” hit #1 on the Italian Dance Music charts. Scott also co-wrote “Another Break Up Song”  with up-and-coming soul singer songwriter Allen Stone. Other notable song placements include dance music legends Dirty Vegas, Drake Bell (Nickelodeon’s “Drake & Josh), Brandon and Leah (“Keeping Up With The Kardashians” ), Eurovision Contest winner Lena, Holland Idol winner Lisa Lois and broadway actress Shoshana Bean from the musical “Wicked”.

As a performer, Scott has worked behind-the-scenes and occasionally in front of the camera for 9 seasons on America’s Got Talent as Assistant Music Director after doing all 3 seasons of The X Factor (USA). He was also the Music Director for seasons 3 and 4 of Little Big Shots on NBC as well as for Nickelodeon actor-turned-musician Drake Bell, X Factor finalist Chris Rene, The Voice finalist Chris Mann and American Idol finalist Megan Joy. He has played keyboards for Leona Lewis, Aimee Mann, Lucy Woodward, Robert Schwartzman, Toby Lightman and has also appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Anderson Cooper Live, Ellen and The Brazil Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. Simons also sings the Emmy-nominated theme song for Nickelodeon’s “Paw Patrol”, Netflix/Dreamworks “Veggie Tales in the House” and Esquire Network’s “Lucky Bastards”.

Scott’s original project is TeamMate, a two-piece band with his ex-girlfriend and drummer Dani Buncher. The duo spent the last few years touring the United States supporting OneRepublic, Bleachers, and Skylar Grey and has been featured on Huffington Post, KROQ-FM, KIIS-FM and The Advocate. On TV, TeamMate’s music has been heard on ESPN’s Wimbledon coverage, NBC’s Sunday Night Football, Freeform, the CW in various shows and commercials. Rapper Wiz Khalifa also sampled TeamMate’s song “LA Winter” for the first track of his last full-length album “O.N.I.F.C.”.

Scott currently teaches Songwriting at Point Blank Music School in Los Angeles in addition to private songwriting and piano lessons, consultation and is working with West Virginia University College of Creative Arts to mentor graduate students entering the music industry.

Learning New Skills

 

So I learnt a new skill. Or rather, I improved a skill I haven’t used since university. I learnt it from a man called John and he was, in my opinion, the best tutor we had. He had a PhD and taught us about the avant-garde world of music and presented us with new ideas. “Will a tree make a sound if it falls in the forest if no one is there to hear it?” and other fundamentals of sound and sonic art. If you want to learn more there’s a book John swore by called The Digital Musician by Andrew Hugill.

KUDAC, Kingston University Digital Arts Collective, was a place where both students and teachers participated in creating textures and sounds. There John taught us how to circuit bend PCB boards and manipulate them in audio programming software like Pure Data and Max MSP. To expand what we thought of as music and sound and perform with it. He was my mentor so when he left to teach at Brown University in my second year I felt lost. All the sonic art and circuit bending seemed like I had tried to impress my mentor rather than learning some useful skills. However, today I believe that his work got me thinking of sound in such a different way, that it ended up changing my music and my work as a sound engineer. To think outside the box and try things out, no matter how crazy it may seem.

The practical skill I’m talking about is soldering. It is a fundamental skill for any sound engineer, and very useful. A skill I have been lacking in. This is why I recently took SoundGirls online workshop and now have a whole pile of fixed cables at home. It was so much fun to be taught by someone else, who also is a woman. A great deal of my own education was done by men and all my engineering colleagues are men too. She was understanding and encouraging throughout the session and not only taught me the basics but also shared her own tricks. My cables have been screaming for some serious TLC and I am so grateful to now be able to fix them myself.

Soldering has been the one skill I have envied in my male colleague’s skill set, and it’s always set us apart. Thanks to the SoundGirls workshop I have now taken another step towards confidence and equality. To show that I can do everything he can.

Confidence may not be something one can teach, it’s something that needs time to grow and requires a willingness to evolve. So I commend SoundGirls for equipping women all over the world with skills that will foster confidence in an environment that feels safe. At a young age, I was told that no question is too stupid to ask. I took it to heart and it has set me apart from my colleagues and classmates that were too proud to ask for help. So, whatever questions you may have, know that we are always here to answer them, no matter how small, stupid or silly you may think it is, we don’t think so.

 

Answering Your Questions: Glossary of Sound Effects

In the original post, we get a ton of questions asking what keywords should be used when trying to find very specific sounds. While a quick peruse through parts 1,2, and 3 of this series would help, I decided to relay a few of these questions to our editorial team. I’m very curious what buzzwords they will recommend. Continue reading to see if your question was answered!

Let’s start off easy

What do I write when someone quickly grabs someone’s arm?

Brad: face slap

Tess: pat

Katie: body hug, impact body, skin, smack, slap

What should I search for if I want a sound effect for grabbing a bag of chips?

Brad: cellophane

Tess: crinkle, plastic bag drop/impact

Katie: mylar, crinkle plastic, foil, crumple, junk bag

What sound would you use when someone starts to walk?

Sometimes it is easy to overthink search terms when trying to find the perfect sound effect. A lot of the time there isn’t a fancy word for the sound you’re looking for. For example, a footstep would do just fine for this request.

Brad: For this, you’d need to know the surface, but I’d start with a quick scuff or foot drag if you’re trying to highlight the sound

Tess: scuff, skid, lino squeak, basketball squeak

Katie: scuffle, scrape, dirt slide, a cement slide, gravel

What sfx do I use for quickly grabbing an elevator door to stop it from closing?

Brad: metal hollow, metal ring, metal lock, metal latch

Tess: metal hit/impact

Katie: metal duct, container hit

I need a sound for someone sitting on a bed except for the word “creak”.

Sometimes you need to get creative with the words you use when searching for a specific sound. If you are looking up “bed” and not finding anything, think of works associated with a bed or a similar material.

Brad: couch sit, couch plop, cloth hit, cloth impact, cloth movement

Tess: hinge

Katie: springs, pillow hit, cloth drop, laundry, couch

What sound would a bouncing grenade make?

Tip: Doing a quick search on youtube for a reference clip can really help spark inspiration. Listen to examples of the sound you are trying to replicate and try to deconstruct what you hear. A lot of the time there is no one specific sound and what you’re looking for requires a build of multiple sfx’s. Don’t limit yourself!

Brad: metal drop, gun drop, metal hit

Tess: tink

Katie: shell drop, bullet case, metal debris, shiny, solid

What sound would you use when someone grabs your hand and it startles you?

How do you translate emotion into sound? Sometimes trial and error is the only way to find the perfect sound effect. Let’s see what our editors came up with…

Brad: horn, violin pluck

Tess: In my head, this needs to be a build of sounds, maybe a BONK plus a TWANG, and a COWBELL. Other options are POINK, DOINK, or PLUCK

Katie: gasp, surprise, shock, emote, fear, anxiety, curiosity, inhale short

What sound does sushi make?

Context is everything. This type of sound could go in multiple directions; realistic, toony, surreal.

Brad: goop, goo, slime

Tess: splat

Katie: rice cake, squish, wet, slimy

What would I write for an angelic noise?

Brad: angel chorus

Tess: choir, ethereal

Katie: heaven, drone, symphony, gliss, harp, ascend

 

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.

 

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