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Hiring a Producer Vs Booking a Studio

So you’ve written a song or two…or five. You want to put out an EP. What’s the first thing you do? Start googling “recording studios near me”, right?

Maybe that’s not exactly how to go about it.

“So how should I go about it, Becky?”

I’m glad you asked!

The first question to ask is this; “Am I wanting to take a snapshot of my song as it is or do I want to commercially release it and have it sound like other commercial releases?”

Before we get into this, let’s define some of the terms I’ll be mentioning so you know exactly what they mean.

Production/Arranging

The orchestrating of all parts in a song or facilitating the orchestration by the musicians either hired out or created by the artist/band themselves. Selecting the sounds, designing sound effects, bringing an artist or band’s sonic vision to life.

Recording: Probably obvious

Mixing: The process of using volume levels, panning (where a sound lives in the stereo left to right spectrum), frequency equalizers, reverbs, delays and other effects to create space and separation of all the recorded/programmed elements in a song.

Mastering

The final treatment after a song has been produced and arranged, recorded and mixed and sounds well balanced. This process usually brings the overall volume up to standard, adds a shine or polish, more punch or more smoothness to the overall sound, depending on what the song is calling for.

I made up these definitions so don’t yell at me if I’m not quoting your music production textbook.

Booking a studio

Recording studios are all about capturing a “snapshot” of what you are bringing. If you have a crappy-sounding acoustic guitar, their $6000 microphones and $10,000 worth of preamps and compressors will capture that crappy sound beautifully. If your singing is mediocre, your mediocre singing will sound silky smooth. You get my point?

A commercial recording studio usually has larger acoustically treated spaces for the best quality you can get, specifically for recording instruments like drums or string ensembles, or choirs.

A recording studio usually has a “control room” which is where the engineer is sitting at the recording console, and the artist or musician is in a separate room viewed through a glass window. This separation again creates the best possible acoustic setup.

The studio usually has at least one but often several engineers who will do the recording. This engineer can range from a beginning-level intern to a genius wizard and everything in between. You may find a favorite after working with a few different engineers.

Your engineer may or may not be a producer or arranger. Don’t assume that they will be.

There’s a good chance your engineer won’t care if your song sucks. You show up with your song that says “I can’t believe you broke my heart, I should have known from the start” they won’t say a word. Remember…snapshot.

The cost of the studio and engineer are usually separate. The studio space might cost $75/hr and the engineer may cost an additional $100/hr. Be sure to double-check before booking.

You can usually get “block deals” at a studio. This means you can book the studio for a whole day, including an engineer for a discounted hourly rate. This can be great for bands who are really well-rehearsed and want to record as a band at once with very little over-dubbing. The danger in doing block deals is that bands usually try to squeeze in as much as they can in that time. By the end of a 12-hour session, your singer may have lost their voice or everyone is just flat out exhausted. What happens at the end of the block could be quite different than what happens at the beginning of the block. Another deal studios sometimes have is something like “record your song for $100!” This might actually mean “we’ll take a snapshot of what you give us (see #1) and we only have 2 hours to do it so let’s hurry”. What you’ll have in the end might be a nicely recorded demo.

The studio may include mastering but may not. Be sure to check.

Hiring a Producer

As defined above in the terms, a producer is often the person doing all of the arranging and orchestrating. What this means is that your producer needs to have an understanding of exactly who you are as an artist and what your sonic vision is for your music. This means a lot of communication, not just a “show up and record”.

A producer is like the sculptor of your sound. The importance of open, respectful and honest communication both ways is of utmost importance. A producer who gets “offended” if you don’t like something or who doesn’t seem to “get” you mean you will be compromising every little decision about your song until in the end, you don’t love it. So find a producer you can trust to listen to you.

A producer is often the one recording and mixing everything. Make sure they have a good quality sound coming from their productions. Listen to their past works and make sure it lines up with your quality standard.

A producer is usually working out of a home studio. Make sure their recording space is comfortable and has a good vibe. While home recording spaces certainly won’t be as epic as a huge recording studio, there should still be a sense of professionalism and order there. If it’s messy or uncomfortable then you won’t be comfortable recording and may not give your best performances.

Oftentimes a home studio doesn’t have a separate control room which means leave your friends at home. The more people in the room where you are recording the more chance there is that your producer will have to keep shushing your friends which isn’t much fun.

A producer should be interested in elevating the “bones” of your song (aka the lyrics and melody). A great producer will want the song to be the best it can be and they know that the greatest arrangement and production won’t “fix” a poorly written song.

If you love the producers’ arrangement but the final mix and master are not at the quality you want, it is 100% acceptable to ask them to outsource the mixing and mastering or ask them to send you the “stems” (which has become the term for individually recorded tracks in your song) so that you can find someone else to mix and master the song.

A producer may also be a mentor, not just someone who makes your music. If they have experience in the industry and they are willing to share insight and wisdom, that is worth grabbing on to! Even better if they can help guide you in the backend side of your music business, including marketing and strategies for building a fan base. (PS That’s how we do it at VoxFox Productions! 😉 )

So before doing that google search, ask yourself what you want the end result to sound like and what it is for. In a nutshell, it could be simplified to this:

Wanna take a snapshot: book a studio.

Looking for a Creative Partner: Hire a producer.

Jeri Palumbo – Sports and Entertainment Broadcast Mixer

Jeri Palumbo is a Broadcast Sports and Entertainment Mixer based in Los Angeles. Jeri has been working in audio for over 30 years, first as a trained musician and arranger before going into post-production and then moving into live broadcast. Working mainly within sports broadcasting, her clients include the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, The Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, and The Oscars. Jeri is also part of the RF Coordination team each year for the Rose Bowl. She has worked with entertainment shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and American Idol. She has won a Telly Award for her mixing work on “Songs of the Mountains”, a live bluegrass show.

Jeri’s family background is made up of four generations of musicians and her grandmother and mother were both professional jazz musicians. Her great-grandfather was a musician and violin maker, and Jeri’s father was a folk guitar player. Jeri started piano at age three and by the time Jeri was in high school she was arranging and writing scores. Jeri attended The Juilliard School of Music majoring in composition and orchestration, landing her a contract as a musical director which led to her interest in sound engineering. She worked side by side with the sound engineer and was introduced to the Fairlight CMI, the first digital synthesizer and wave manipulator, she was fascinated by how the engineer was able to change pitch and EQ. This was a game-changer and inspired Jeri to learn more about engineering and the potential possibilities of sound manipulation with digital audio tools.

Her Parents

Jeri’s parents would warn her that a career in music was unpredictable and urged her to obtain skills needed for steady employment and the possibility of retirement. Jeri studied computer science and IT (for two semesters) and then landed a job working in IT/LAN platform trouble-shooting at First Union Bank. While Jeri loved working and learning the technical aspects of the job, she still craved the creativity music provided. She wanted to blend her technical skills with her creative skills and looked toward Post-Production.

Post-Production

Jeri enrolled at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, and hit the streets knocking on doors of all the post-production houses in nearby Charlotte, NC. She offered to intern for free and most did not return her calls. One that did was Media-Comm where she interned for a semester and learned to use the video editor from AVID and AVID’S AUDIO VISION, their pre-cursor to ProTools. Eventually, Media-Comm hired Jeri where she focused on enhancing audio for TV shows. One show that broadcast out of Media-Comm was RaceDay, a live show that preceded NASCAR on Sundays. Eventually, RaceDay came knocking and asked Jeri to mix the show. While Jeri had never mixed a live show and she had her doubts, the director of the show said “Audio is Audio and you will be fine”. Jeri did her homework and was told by a former mixer that he would not touch it as it was live and found that several people had turned it down because of the live elements and fast pace. Jeri took the gig and pulled it off.

Sports Community Radar

RaceDay was a big, complicated national show, and Jeri ended up on the list of live sports mixers because of it. Within a week CBS Sports called and asked Jeri to work on the NCAA Final Four. Jeri caught the attention of CBS Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN. All of this led to a career working across the country on high-profile sports events, primarily serving as an A1 working in the broadcast truck. She was also asked to A2 for a friend in need one day and eventually wore all the hats in broadcast audio; A1 mixer, A2, RF Tech and Comms. As an A1 mixer, Jeri is in charge of everything you hear in the final broadcast. Jeri has been particularly embedded in RF technology and coordination, which has numerous technical challenges, particularly with the shrinking RF UHF spectrum. She worked alongside major RF manufacturers and colleagues of RF gear and technology in the recent RF Spectrum auction and lobbying to save a portion of the RF Spectrum for production. One of Jeri’s close partnerships with regard to saving these RF changes was with the late, great Mark Brunner of Shure. Jeri’s in-depth tech articles on the RF spectrum and the impact of the changes have appeared in several trade magazines.

Her most recent stint in sports was as A1 mixer for eSports and Gaming. In an unusual and unprecedented move, (and to much debate from many of her colleagues), Jeri mixed a live broadcast in stereo while simultaneously mixing an embedded object-oriented surround to the HOUSE – with no FOH – from the same console (Calrec Artimis see article https://calrec.com/blog/craft-profile-jeri-palumbo/). What Jeri tried to convey, and what those on the outside didn’t know, was that the network launch for this major event was three weeks short of having their studio finished for audio. So she did what any professional would do, tried to make it work with what she had, from the broadcast truck.

It’s Not All Sports

Jeri with her mentor Les Paul

Jeri has also been involved in other fields of audio and has worked as an A1 on a bluegrass show called Songs of the Mountains. Songs of the Mountains was a live-to-tape bluegrass show broadcast on PBS. There were tough parameters on this show as the producers did not want to mic the traditional instruments. Instead, they wanted it to be organic and traditional, where the musicians would play around a central microphone and step forward for solos. The show was challenging with the various acoustical instruments and Jeri found herself riding EQ more than faders as the frequencies would often play against each other. They used an AKG C414 because of it’s adaptability in the ever-changing scenario of the different instruments used.  Jeri is proud of the work she did using simple techniques and she was awarded a Telly Award for her work.

New Projects

Recently Jeri has been instrumental in launching Arena Waves, a library of the highest quality music audio for Sports and Television content. Arena Waves kept Jeri extremely busy in 2020, while most live events were canceled due to COVID19, and was launched at the beginning of 2021.

Like so many in our industry, Jeri’s career path has been diverse. Her solid educational background in music and IT allowed Jeri to move into post-production and then into live broadcasts and engineering and again, back to music.  In her own words with Arena Waves, “It’s a perfect meld of everything I know”.

Arena Waves is high-caliber music licensing library for sports, gaming, television and film. With seasoned composers and session musicians on board, (most have played on your favorites records), Arena Waves debuted at launch in the mid-three-quarters to high range when it comes to catalog volume (over 70k+ and adding 50-100 new cuts per week). Several things make this catalog unique, one being its ease of use while also having mobile platform flexibility. But more importantly,  it’s worth noting the efficiency of the ready-made cut-downs for bumpers and highlights in the Producer’s Edge section. Cues are drop-in ready. Arena Waves also writes on-demand theme and cue requests and can provide quick turn arounds. With remarkably catchy themes from hard-driven rock, to dark and broody or moody, there is literally every style for every listener and media requirements and tastes. In fact, the catalog is so eclectic that, even though its intended purpose is sports, television and film, one can create personal playlists (register, it’s free) for their own listening pleasure. The music is that good and that diverse.

For more information, check out www.arenawaves.com and be sure to follow all their socials.

What is a typical day like?

Arrive early, unload the truck, run cables, interconnect with the facility, set up audio, fax if working in the field. In the truck, patch my patch bays, SAPS, routers and fader layouts. Load and set up music cues.

How do you stay organized and focused?

The pressure of live keeps me focused.  Also having a Plan A, Plan B, etc as backup options for live. For complex mixing (i.e. eSports or multiple routers of audio), I’m a big fan of populating my bottom layers to remain static while cloning to upper layers per need of each show.

What do you enjoy the most about your job? 

It’s live, it’s exciting and when it goes well, it’s instant gratification.

What do you like least?

It’s live, it’s exciting and when it goes badly, you SWEAR there’s not enough money in it EVER!

The best part of being on the road?

I’m on the road although I’m not on a bus, I am on planes a lot.  The best part is the road family, exploring new areas of the world and for certain eating local cuisine.

What do you like least? 

The hours, the wear and tear on your body, lack of sleep.

What is your favorite day off activity?

Exploring local cultures

What are your long-term goals? 

To try new things, push my personal limits and continue to follow current and new passions.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced? 

For CERTAIN misogyny and sadly, only from certain productions and a small posse of peers.  Also sadly, everyone else –  not just me – has experienced the exact same treatment from the exact same people from the exact same productions.  When a recent interviewer offline told me she encountered these issues WITH THE EXACT SAME PEOPLE 20 YEARS AGO on a sports event (this production travels), I challenge all the networks to wake up and investigate these “hand fuls” that are predictable, unprofessional and putting a black eye unfairly on the entire broadcast community (and is now into its second generation of newcomers being mistreated yet again, by the EXACT same people). I assure that the broadcast community is not what these few bad apples represent, but the network productions ignoring it won’t fix it.

How have you dealt with them? 

I ask questions not only of them but of those around them.  If they all “posse together”, then I move on to a team that is worthy…and good…and healthy.  I don’t stay in places where I know it will be IMPOSSIBLE to change.

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

1) you have to have thick skin.   Sports and Rock n Roll comes with a lot of testosterone that often “react” in their environments of comfort (ie a football field before a game).  These people are in “game mode” and are not there to think of anything else.

2) production mal-treatment vs real emotions.  Please know the difference.  It’s intense and gets crazy and not every minor thing said is a reason for “HR”.  HOWEVER, abuse should never be tolerated.  Just know the difference and if you don’t know, get educated before entering this environment, hence “thick skin”.

3) know when you are in a toxic team – those that withhold information, constantly throwing their fellow members under the bus, not owning up to errors, etc.  Be aware that even though this exists to some extent everywhere, not EVERY production conducts itself this way and the good ones, with good leaders, will NOT tolerate this from their team.

4) move on when you know it’s not going to work out for you.  Get out earlier and find your tribe sooner

5) hone your skills

6) when you’re wrong, admit it. If you don’t know something, admit it.  When you DO know, help your teammates learn

Must have skills?

1) know your audio or tell those around you you are willing to learn what you don’t know

2) people skills

3) be kind and understanding to those around you

4) everybody has a bad day and everybody has a bad GIG…shake it off, learn from it, get up and do it again

Favorite gear?

OOOOOOoooooh….well, in-studio mixing,  I’m a big fan of Eventide gear.  I’m also a big fan of the AKG414 due to its wide range of patterns,m. I love Sennheiser wireless mics for field and lav needs. I love all Lectrosonics RF wireless IFB/In-ear products. Both Sennheiser and Lectrosonics wireless mics and IFB/IEMs are interchangeable to me in quality and robustness.  Radioactive Audio Designs uses a nice VHF and lower bands for communications that steer clear of broadcast bands….and Clear Comm and Telex have some nice workarounds with their comms systems as well. Shure’s Wireless Workbench is great for some concert venues (although I haven’t really used this on large scale events). I like seeing Studers in the studio broadcast environment while I like seeing a Calrec on  broadcast trucks or remotes.

More on Jeri

Jeri Palumbo | NAMM.org

The Life of an A1, in the Booth and on the Field

Women in Audio: Jeri Palumbo, Broadcast Engineer and Musician

Jeri Palumbo — Roadie Free Radio

Jeri Palumbo – Signal to Noise Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/656bzuW0yjwfw74KHNZTT8?si=uZv1QV-cQs-z9XBC3UMKAw

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zYGqU9njB1AUqdbZXFWUz?si=thDEBDaNRIqqTQpCPFyeww

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent

Profiles of Women in Audio

Taking Leaps

Last year was definitely a leap year. A hop, a jump, or a leap, people I have met have spoken of big and small changes. Since the salons are closed, they found themselves standing in the bathroom and taking scissors to their hair. In spite of it being risky, they quit their stable job. They planned their move out of the city. Bought something new, even though money was tight. They took breaks from their families with the purpose of recharging.

Throughout 2021 we will continue to process what happened, the uncertainty and worries that came into the light over the past year.

Yet I want to look ahead, or at least drive and power myself and others forward. Preserve the strength that arose from desperation and the contemplation you only find at the bottom. Because once we hit that, there’s a turn. I have recently learnt about technical analysis in markets and once you understand that whenever something goes up, it will always always have a corrective period. As in what goes up, must come down. At all times, it turns.

Like what my mum always used to say, go to bed and you will see it feels better tomorrow. There’s nothing like a new day to give you a fresh perspective. A new day to boost your confidence, fortify your thoughts, and see a problem with different eyes. It may seem like a strange expression, “different eyes”, since they don’t change, but we do.

So what are the leaps you will take this year? I’m not talking about goals like “I’m going to eat healthy” or “I will run a 10K this year”. Instead, what are your fears and how can you challenge them?

I have now been sick and injured for about two months, and as I sit at the kitchen table looking out at the world outside, my latest challenge is to be part of it. We are all waiting for life to resume, tours to go back on the road, and tickets to go on sale. Simultaneously we have to face the facts of the new normal and that we might never return to how it used to be. One synonym to resume is “restart”, and if I could offer a different perspective I would prefer to use this verb. Right now, as spring is kicking earth back to life, is a chance at a restart, back-to-school edition. Like when you came back from holidays and you weren’t sure if you’d still fit in. What if the other kids had changed… Well, I really hope that when we restart, others will see me and recognise I’m different. Because I have worked hard for a great deal of change, to reform my thoughts on how I want to live my life. My own giant leaps. What will be yours?

 

Women-led Non-Profit Organizations

March marks Women’s History Month where we pay homage to the women in the world that make an impact and difference in society. SoundGirls has been an amazing platform for women in the audio industry. In this article, I will be sharing resources for other women-led Non-Profit Organizations that help recognize and support women in music.

Beats By Girlz

Beats By Girlz is a Non-Profit Organization designed to empower women/GNC youth through music technology after-school and summer programs. Youth ages 10-17 can find their local BBG chapter and sign-up for Ableton Live lessons. Are you a music producer wanting to give back to the community? Sign-up to create your own chapter and provide lessons! More information can be found Beats By Girlz

Gear Fanatix

Gear Fanatix is a new platform for women/GNC individuals to review gear and have a safe space for discussion on music technology software and hardware. Think GearSluts minius the misogyny. Gear Fantix is looking for contributors to their platform! For more information about Gear Fanatix can be found Gear Fanatix

Gender Amplified

The mission of the Gender Amplified movement is to provide a platform for the promotion and advancement of women in music production and to identify and motivate the next generation of women music producers. By organizing public events that foster healthy dialogue about the role gender plays in the music-making process, Gender Amplified endeavors to give voice to a subculture of women and gender non-binary people who are using music technology to create their own music and perpetuate their unique identities. Gender Amplified

Hit Like A Girl

Hit Like A Girl is hosting the tenth annual international contest for female drummers, percussionists and beatmakers. Its purpose is to showcase and encourage drumming and lifelong musicianship for girls, women, and gender-expansive individuals, regardless of age, playing level, or geographic location. SoundGirls has teamed up with Hit Like A Girl for this month’s contest! More information can be found Hit Like A Girl 

Shesaid.so

The shesaid.so community consists of women and gender minorities from all sectors of the music industry: from record labels, artist management companies, and booking agencies, through to technology platforms, creative agencies, composers, artists and more. With headquarters in London and LA, shesaid.so has 18 global chapters around the world including NYC, France, Italy, and Mumbai. More information can be found Shesaid.so 

Women’s Audio Mission

Women’s Audio Mission is the only professional recording studio in the world built and run by women/GNC (Gender Non-conforming) individuals. Each month and year Women’s Audio Mission provides hands-on training, work experience, career counseling, and job placement for over 2,000 women. More information can be found Women’s Audio Mission 

Women In Music

Women in Music is the industry’s leading non-profit working to advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition. Founded in 1985, WIM is now fueled by 100+ volunteers working daily to serve thousands worldwide. More information can be found Women In Music 

70+ (and growing) All-women and feminist sound/music tech collectives, co-ops, non-profits

Women in the Professional Audio

Women-Owned Businesses

 

 

Sounds Like Spring

Granted, being located in SoCal really stunts all seasonal variety. But trust me! Once you’ve lived in sunny LA for a year or two, anything below 50 degrees begins to feel like the arctic. I know, it’s a bit dramatic. I myself am embarrassed to agree, especially having grown up on the east coast.

In fact, because I’m from New England—where every season is highlighted—spring holds a lot of memories for me. I can easily recall the smell of Spring and if I close my eyes I can hear a light breeze fluttering through my childhood bedroom window.

With the uneasiness of the current global climate and orders to remain at home indoors, it is easy to feel in some ways that Spring is being robbed from us. That is why this year as Spring begins to settle in and the world outside changes as I watch from my couch, I find myself reminiscing about Springs past. Memories of long sunny days filled with laughter help to remind me why it is important we social distance at this time, so that hopefully one day soon we can all reconnect in the Spring daylight. Until then, I’m enjoying the joys of Spring through my memories.

Growing up with the extremes of all four seasons, allowed me to appreciate their differences. One thing that stands out the most for me between the seasons, besides their obvious climate differences, are the sounds I associate with each one.

As an assistant sound editor at Boom Box Post, one of my duties is to handle backgrounds on the shows I assist. The other day as I was cutting BG’s for a fall-themed episode, I noted that some of the established background sound effects, such as birds and winds, had been switched out with effects of a more seasonal specific aesthetic. Yes, backgrounds are particularly notorious for being inaudible in the mix, but as they say, the devil is in the detail.

This got me thinking, what are some sounds associated with springtime?

I decided to reach out to our editors and compile a list. I thought it could make for a helpful blog post, especially since I always come across one tip in particular for aspiring editors and audio students: to start building up a personal SFX library.

So here are 10 Spring-inspired sounds, that if you have access to, you should go out and record this refreshing time of year!

Sounds like spring

Jump Rope-Pavement Chalk-Pogo Stick-Spring Birds-Bicycles-Spring Storm-Puddle Jumps-Spring Breeze-Playground Ambience-Wind Chimes

Don’t have access to the sounds listed above? That’s ok! It just means it is time to get creative. A lot of these sounds can be easily duped. Here are some tips and tricks I came up with! Some might be more successful than others, but that’s the fun of trial and error.

sidewalk-chalk-3367719_1920.jpg

Tips and Tricks:

Jump Rope: Don’t have a “real” jump rope? No problem! You can use any old rope you have lying around. If you have a long rope, try tying one end to a pole or tree for bigger more rhythmic circles.

Pogo Stick: Wait, so you’re telling me you don’t have a pogo stick lying around the house? That’s ok! What if you plucked the inside spring of a stapler? Or one of those springy door stoppers? After layering up a couple of sounds you can create yourself a custom pogo stick!

Spring Birds: With streets being quieter than ever, now is the perfect time to get outside and record the birds! Even just opening a window in my apartment to let fresh air in fills the room with their singing.

Puddles: If you aren’t blessed with any rain you might miss out on the fun of actually jumping into a puddle this spring. However, you can still recreate this sound at home. This one is pretty simple, just fill up your sink or bathtub and start splashing around. Maybe try out some different-sized bowls and cups.

Playground Ambience: Ok, so now might not be the best time to record children walla—with the world social distancing and all—but that doesn’t mean you can’t take yourself on a nice little walk to the local park. Why not reconnect with your childhood self and take flight on the swing set? You’re never too old!

Wind Chimes: Have you ever dropped or hit an aluminum water bottle by accident? I think layering up that ringing—which almost has a Tibetan bowl quality to it—could make a really cool wind chime. Sometimes I gently tap mine against the table on purpose because I find the sound soothing. I recommend playing around with different amounts of water in the bottle to change the timbre of the ring.

 

Women and Non-Binary People in Audio Photo Project

 

Major stock photography sites (ie., Shutterstock, iStock, Adobe, Getty, etc) do a great job of providing filters to narrow down exactly what type of model you want. The problem is, the majority of stock photos of women and non-binary people working in audio will most likely bring up a few photos and ones that are an absolute fail.

We are working to diversify the photos people can use for use in articles, social media, and research. If you are interested in having SoundGirls submit your photo on stock photo sites (Upsplash, Shutterstock, Stock, Adobe, etc.) please read the guidelines for photo submission below and then fill out this form and submit your photo.

Submit your photo

Upsplash Guidelines

We currently only accept original photos. We do not accept screenshots, in-game captures, composite art, digital art or any other form of a non-photographic image.

Photos meet the minimum size requirement of 5 megapixels.

For a standard landscape orientation photo, 5 megapixels is at least 2500 by 2000 pixels in size.

Unsplash Photo standards.

We don’t accept unclear photos, photos containing excess noise, ‘spotting’ (marks made by water or dirt on the lens at the time the photo was taken), selfies, or shots taken at extreme angles.

Photos are original.

We do not accept composite images on Unsplash. A composite is an image that has been created using multiple photos.

Photos are not over-edited.

Our interpretation of over-editing includes:

Photos do not contain nudity.

While we appreciate the beauty of nude portraiture, Unsplash is for people of all ages and therefore we do not accept overtly sexualized images or images containing nudity.

Photos are not duplicates of existing content that you have submitted to Unsplash.

Photos do not have borders, graphics, text or watermarks overlaid on them.

This is the most common reason that photos are not accepted on Unsplash.

Photos do not contain violent imagery. Unsplash is a place for people of all ages.

You must be the original photographer of and own the rights to any photo you share on Unsplash. You can read more about this in our Terms.

Have questions about the Guidelines?

 

 

Writing, Arranging, and Recording “Sweet Talk”

In July of last year, I was in a writing slump. I kept getting this feeling that I should find a beat on a beat-making website, buy it, and write over it. That way I didn’t have to worry about writing the music, I could just work out my writer’s block with lyrics and melody, so that’s what I did. I found the music behind, “Sweet Talk”, on BeatStars. I then purchased the beat and began writing over it.

When it came to writing lyrics for this song, it wasn’t easy. This song had a lot of drafts. I would write something, listen, go back to the drawing board, and then repeat that process all over again (a few times). I think that is the beauty of writing though. Sometimes the lyrics and melody come so easily, it feels like magic. You wonder, “Wow. Where did that come from?”. Then some songs, it’s not so easy. You have to work to get the song out. You have to work to get the words you really are trying to say out. This song was more like that.

When I finally had a structure for the song and lyrical content I was more than happy with done, I scheduled a drum session. This song has a lot of typical pop elements, synths, electric drum kit, etc. However, I wanted to add more depth. I added more depth by having a live drummer play on the song. He specifically played on the chorus, post-chorus, and bridge. We kept the electric kit in the areas he played a live kit but mixed in the live kit to give the song more energy and more of a rock’n’roll vibe. I think we accomplished this pretty well.

For the mic method of the live drum kit, I close mic’d everything. I knew I would want the person mixing this song to be able to have every aspect of the sound of this kit available when mixing, so the energy of what we were doing would come through as we wanted.

After the drum session, I scheduled a vocal session. I scheduled the session with a producer friend of mine, and we rearranged the song even more. The first version didn’t really have a chorus, so we made this version have one. We recorded my vocals on a CM7 in an ISO booth. We didn’t double the vocals, and we added some of his harmonies to the track. My friend’s harmonies had a chorus effect on them in the final mix to add more depth to them. I thought it sounded pretty cool!

I was not a part of the mixing process, so I can get too much into the specifics of that. However, I did master the song. When mastering this track, I kept it simple. I used a Slates mastering console that also had a compressor. I slightly compressed the track by 1db with medium attack and release. I eq’d the track slightly with the pro tools stock eq. I gave the track more top end, cut out some harsh midsy tones, and gave the healthy low end in the track a small boost as well.

The song “Sweet Talk” was written after I personally went through a lot of rejection. I wrote it about having your voice be heard again, being victorious, and mainly- I wrote it to empower the voices of others who have ever felt small or mediocre at some point in their life. I hope you find meaning and enjoyment in this song when listening to it as I did while writing, recording, and engineering it.

This song will be released on April 9th under Virginia Louise on ALL streaming platforms. Give it a listen, and see if you can hear the elements I mentioned in this blog. As always, if you’d like you can email me at virginialouiseandmusic@gmail.com.

I hope you SoundGirls are having a wonderful 2021 and have things to look forward to as the vaccine continues to roll out!

 

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, Sunday -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

 

 

 

 

 

Circuit Bending: Learn Something Useful by Failing

 

Ever wonder about the strange noises that electronics make?  Capturing that weird and turning it into music or art?  Welcome to the world of circuit bending, where consumer gadgets are hacked into one-of-a-kind synthesizers.  Officially circuit bending has been around for as long as circuits have existed.  However, the popularity of coaxing music from frankensteined electronics paralleled the rise of synthesizers in the 1960s.  Reed Ghazala’s name pops up in 1966, when he coined the term, as the leading figure in the movement.  He has written about (Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments, 2005) and taught techniques for circuit bending, and his builds have been made it on recordings by artists such as Tom Waits, and The Rolling Stones.  Circuit bending is a chance art form.  It relies on imperfections and momentary occurrences or happy accidents.

In order to learn more about circuit bending, I interviewed Chris Bullock, a location sound recordist who also makes music as Bone Music.

What got you into synths?  And what led you into Circuit Bending/Circuit Modding?

I was working for a YouTube channel and the main talent asked if I had any use for a small synth he’d been given as a thank you for helping out on a crowdfunder. It turned out to be a Korg Monotribe, which is a gorgeous small monophonic analogue synth. I was doing a sound production module at a local college and started using it in some sound design elements for that. I found it really satisfying, there’s a meditative quality to making a synth drone, which appealed to my sensory-seeking nature. I’m autistic so playing with drones while watching a lava lamp is relaxing on another level! Ultimately, there are some limitations like the Monotribe doesn’t play unless you press a key. I ended up doing weird things like keeping it playing with my foot while using my hands to make other sounds, so I started looking at more flexible synths.

My first mod was to add MIDI capability to the Monotribe. It’s an easy thing to do, no soldering required, but it reminded me how much I used to love building electronics kits as a kid. So I started to learn electronics again, this time with a focus on music and an intention to better understand what I was doing. I also got into watching Look Mum No Computer (LMNC) videos on YouTube and really enjoyed his weirdness and enthusiasm for building strange instruments.

What is Circuit Bending?

Circuit bending is manipulating a circuit to get an output that wasn’t intended by the manufacturer, like a new interesting sound. You can do this by making new connections on the circuit board using wire or even your fingers.  It’s really important to only use battery-operated toys and stay away from stages that have large electrolytic capacitors, which can store a lot of charge.  Often bends will be things like freezing or crashing a chip momentarily, or slowing down the signal coming from a clock source. Everything sounds better slower!

How do you approach a new project?

When I start a new project, I have a look around online to see how other people are approaching the same idea. Right now, I need to make some oscillators for my synth and I’m weighing up the options like whether to make something Arduino-based or to stay analogue. There are so many ways to do a similar thing, all with different pros and cons. What I’ll do is test a few ideas out on a breadboard before I build anything. Reading comments under YouTube videos and on forums helps with ideas, particularly when things don’t work how you’d expect.

Where do you get your inspiration?

My successes are built on other people’s experiments, I have to acknowledge that. But I also get a lot of inspiration from my environment. Every time I learn something new I’m wondering ‘will it noise?’ I learned about how inductors and capacitors can be made to resonate and my immediate thought was could you make some sort of one-shot reverberation based on this? I haven’t answered that yet. I pulled an ultrasonic range finder out of my Arduino box of bits the other day and thought Theramin! It’s not just electronics, I’m always listening to things in the kitchen or out on the street, good noises are everywhere.

I used to work with seismic data and I’ve thought about making an installation piece that uses a representation of the frequency content of layers in the earth to make music, but as we go deeper we generally just attenuate high frequencies. It’s difficult to make something geologically valid and sonically interesting. I’ll probably come back to that in the future.

What is your favorite piece of gear/favorite project?

It’s a small thing, but I made a version of the Smash Drive, which is a distortion pedal built around an LM386 amplifier chip.  It’s one of the first things I got to work on stripboard, so it was rewarding having success after a few failures. I made it inside an Altoids tin. It’s silly, but I’ve always associated those tins with hobby electronics builds. I had a long-standing dream to make an electronics project in an Altoids tin.

Tell me about the Koko/Furby Project.

Furbies are a popular toy to bend, although not that easy. I was looking on eBay and saw this Furby that needed TLC. He was dormant, hadn’t started up in a long time. I felt weirdly sorry for him, so bought him. I did some research and discovered you can kick-start Furbies by spinning their motors. I had to disconnect the battery compartment because it was so corroded, but when I attached a new battery pack and kick-started it, eventually he woke up and told me his name was Koko. He’s sleepy and stubborn, but I’m very fond of him. I put switches in his ears so you can squeeze them to make connections between points on his circuit board that make him stutter or crash. I tried to slow him down by replacing his crystal resonator with an adjustable high precision oscillator, but unfortunately, he doesn’t speak in deep demon-like tones when you do that, he just says his phrases really slowly. He’s given me a few scares, a fair bit of frustration, and a small fire but I seem to have developed some sort of weird attachment to him. I put an audio jack in him and grabbed a load of samples I use in other projects.

How does failure play into your process?

I fail all the time, I try to make things where I haven’t quite understood the entirety of how something operates or interacts with other parts, and so it doesn’t work. I actually have a bag I called the ‘bag of shame’ because it’s full of little dead circuit boards. I’m waiting for a particularly aesthetic chutney jar in my fridge to be empty because I’m making an art project called ‘we are lit by the light of our failures.’ It’s going to have some soothing colour changing LEDs running off an Arduino and a bunch of my non-functioning circuit boards in the jar. Sometimes all you get is a lot of frustration, but often you learn something useful by failing. Other times you end up with the basis of a slightly pretentious art project.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out?

Don’t be afraid to fail, but start small. If you have ideas for big things, write them down to get them out of your head for a bit and try a few small things first. Kit builds are good. If you are looking for toys to bend, look for older ones with discrete components where you can identify things like the processor, clock source, and memory. Look for information on YouTube and find a community of makers. Books are good – Hand-Made Electronic Music is inspirational.  Get a decent soldering iron, don’t open up anything mains powered or with a flashgun or CRT, and don’t forget to ask of everything ‘will it noise?’

Chris Bullock’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJtuQavcjxMAce8t17MEQNg

 

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