Join Us

Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

Join Us

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

 

Ask the Experts – Audio Restoration & Archiving

Audio restoration is the process of removing imperfections (such as hiss, impulse noise, crackle, wow and flutter, background noise, and mains hum) from sound recordings. Audio restoration can be performed directly on the recording medium (for example, washing a gramophone record with a cleansing solution), or on a digital representation of the recording using a computer.

Audio restoration definitely presents some unique challenges. You have the noise imprint from a poor recording or media that’s degraded over the last 30 years. You have to figure out how you define the noise and highlight aspects of the recording that are sonically engaging but etch out that which detracts from the vivacity of the music. Audio restoration is a subjective process, and there are many strategies or perspectives that the audio engineer or sound editor can employ.

The archival perspective says that audio restoration should restore the recording to its original condition, while the commercial perspective says that the recording should be both restored and enhanced to appeal most immediately to modern audiences.

This is your opportunity to ask professional engineers working in restoration audio questions about their careers, jobs, and what skills you need to work in restoration audio. Panelist include Catherine Vericolli, Jessica Thompson, Anna Frick, and Maria Rice

Ask the Experts – Audio Restoration & Archiving

April 30 at 11 AM PST/2 PM EST

Register and Post your questions

Moderated by Catherine Vericolli

Catherine Vericolli is a recording and archival engineer, and an outspoken analog purist. She opened Fivethirteen Recording Studios in Phoenix, AZ in 2005, where for nearly fifteen years she’s dedicated herself to keeping the traditional analog recording process alive in the desert. Her studio hosts national touring bands, guest engineers, and film scoring projects, in addition to providing a high-end recording experience for the many local bands that call Arizona home. Now, Catherine specializes in production, studio management, machine maintenance and analog transfers. Splitting time between Nashville, TN and Phoenix, she’s also the transfer and project manager for Useful Industries, Archiving and Restoration. She can be found traveling the country speaking on panels about audio, writing for industry publications, and educating the next generation of audio engineers. Catherine is also active in advocacy for women in audio, and she serves on the board of SoundGirls.

Panelists Include

Jessica Thompson

GRAMMY-nominated mastering and restoration engineer and audio preservation specialist Jessica Thompson has digitized, restored, and revived historic recordings for artists ranging from jazz pianist Erroll Garner to blues and folk revolutionary Barbara Dane, from Ethiopian keyboardist Hailu Mergia to proto-punk band Jack Ruby, from anarcho-hardcore band Crucifix to synthesizer legend Pauline Anna Strom. She masters music both new and old, including every release from cult-favorite label Awesome Tapes From Africa. She sometimes writes gear reviews for Tape Op Magazine and contributed a chapter on “Mastering the Sonics of Historic Recording Media” for the book Music Preservation and Archiving Today. She currently serves as President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy. In her spare time, she likes to ride steel bikes and walk her dog, Eddie. @jathompso https://www.jessicathompsonaudio.com/

Anna Frick

Anna is a mastering engineer and the restoration center manager at Airshow Mastering in Boulder, Colorado. Her work encompasses studio albums, live recordings, reissues, and compilations across an array of formats, old and new, and a wide variety of genres and styles, from bluegrass and folk-influenced acts to rock and New Age projects. Legends like Ralph Stanley and Doc Watson, exciting contemporaries such as Billy Strings and GRAMMY-nominated Wood & Wire, and important blues and jazz archival recordings have all benefited from her uncanny ear and deft touch. She balances her strong instincts and intuition with her technical experience and each client’s goals to finesse every project she tackles. “[A band has] been working on their album for quite a while by the time I hear it, and it’s their vision – their baby – that they are putting out into the world. I don’t want to impede that vision. Ultimately, I want the music to move you.”

For Airshow’s restoration center she oversees all archival digitization projects. She mastered Third Man Records’ GRAMMY-winning box set, The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, as well as having mastered thousands of hours’ worth of historical recordings from university archives and collections across the country. Each project is unique, with a singular story and special considerations: “[It] involves everything from understanding the recording medium, the equipment, and the transfer process to having the tools and the knowledge to tackle all sorts of bizarre problems. Understanding digital audio files and how to maintain file integrity over time.”

Anna holds a degree in Music Industry Studies from the University of Colorado at Denver. She is a graduate of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Leadership Bluegrass program, an AES member, board governor and Producers & Engineers Committee Co-Chair of the Recording Academy – San Francisco Chapter, and chapter head for Colorado’s branch of SoundGirls.org.

Maria Rice

Maria Rice is a Boston-based mastering and restoration engineer.  She’s been a Recording Academy member since 2011 and serves as Chapter Governor on the New York Board, focusing on student mentorship, diversity outreach, and advocacy.  For 12+ years, she has been one of two engineers at Peerless Mastering, working with clientele ranging from indie-famous darlings Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, Superchunk, Magnetic Fields, and Stephen Malkmus to modern legends like the late Larry Coryell.

Specializing in audio restoration, Maria has received three nominations for the GRAMMY Award for Best Historical Album:

Various Artists Ork Records: New York, New York  (59th GRAMMY Awards)

Various Artists Bobo Yeye: Belle Epoque In Upper Volta  (60th GRAMMY Awards)

Jackie Shane Any Other Way  (61st GRAMMY Awards)

Her remastering work also includes the 2018 reissue of Blondie’s Heart of Glass, remastered from the original tapes, and the 2018 reissue of Washed Out’s High Times, originally released on cassette and known as “one of the cornerstones of the then-nascent genre chillwave.”

Maria has also worked with the Internet Archive as a restoration specialist and is currently on the faculty of Point Blank Music school as a mastering lecturer.  Originally from the Maryland/DC area, Maria obtained a B.A. from Boston University and privately studied piano at the New England Conservatory.

 

 

 

Ask the Experts – Mixing for Live Broadcasts

Mixing for a live broadcast is exciting and challenging because anything can happen and it is up to the production teams to keep everything on track. There are a lot of elements involved: time, information, content, mic techniques, and crew. There can be many job titles involved depending on the size of the production and would include a broadcast engineer, audio assistants, and stage crew. Often broadcasts happen live from venues vs. a studio, adding the additional challenge of the venue’s logistics and not blocking the view of musicians, conductors, and audience.

There are problems and challenges that happen every time. It never goes exactly as planned, being as prepared as possible and ready for the curveballs is key to make sure the production goes live to air on time.

This is your opportunity to ask professional broadcast engineers questions about their careers, jobs, and what skills you need to work in live broadcasts. Panelist include Mary Mazurek, Eileen Delahunty, Mark Travis, and Katarzyna Sochaczewska.

Ask the Experts – Mixing for Live Broadcasts

April 26 at 11 AM PST/2 PM EST

Register and Post your questions

Moderated by Mary Mazurek

Mary Mazurek is a GRAMMY-nominated recording engineer. The Recording Academy awarded her nomination at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in the category of Best Engineered Album, Classical. She is also a broadcaster and radio/podcast producer. Her work is regularly featured on WFMT Radio and WFMT.com. Additionally, she is a sought-after educator and speaker who enjoys contributing in the classroom and on panels and committees within her industry and beyond. She serves as a role model and advocates for women in the recording industry, which is currently less than 5% female. She loves sharing her sonic insights across disciplines.

Mary began her recording career in 1991 at University and Universal Recording, Chicago. Since then, she has engineered thousands of sessions for albums and broadcasts. Her credits include Alec Baldwin, The Chicago Chorale, The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Charles Earland, Michael Feinstein, International Music Foundation, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Kronos Quartet, LA Guitar Quartet, Howard Levy, Lyric Opera, The New York Philharmonic, Yo-Yo Ma, Johnnie Hammond Smith, Dr. Lonny Smith, and many others. Her work can regularly be heard on WFMT Radio, Chicago, in syndication in the US, and throughout the European Broadcast Union.  Her recordings appear on the Bellissima, Cannonball, Çedille, Delmark, Lyon & Healy, MSR, Naxos, Random House, Sheridan, and Sounds True labels.

She is on the faculty of Columbia College’s Audio Arts and Acoustics Department and DePaul University School of Music. She has also taught at The Illinois Institute of Art and the Merit School of Music. She has guest lectured at Cleveland State University, Ohio University, UC Denver, University of Illinois Urbana, and Northeastern Illinois University.

Mary is a voting member of The Recording Academy. She has served as a governor and task-force chairperson in that organization. She was elected the first woman president of the Engineering And Recording Society of Chicago and continues to serve as a steering committee member. She is a full member of the Audio Engineering Society and is the chairperson of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is currently a member of the exclusive DPA Master’s Club and an Educational Advisor for Leapwing Audio.

Panelists Include

Eileen Delahunty, Senior Producer – WQXR

Eileen Delahunty started her radio days in Boston working on the morning show at WBCN. She moved to New York City to work in public radio on the Peabody Award-winning NPR show Heat with John Hockenberry as a producer and director.  It wasn’t long before Eileen planted her feet solidly at New York Public Radio.  During her almost 3 decades at NYPR,  she’s worked on countless programs and specials including; Selected Shorts, The Poet’s Voice, Bloomsday on Broadway, Concerts from the Frick Collection, and The Next Big Thing.  Eileen has also produced and directed hundreds of live broadcasts from venues all over New York City including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, LPR, The United Nations, Bargemusic and across the ocean at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.  Sharing her skills and background, Eileen has mentored live broadcast crews in New Orleans, Louisiana and Louisville, Kentucky.

In 2009, Eileen started working with NYPR’s new purchase: the classical station WQXR.  She continues to produce and direct the live broadcasts including the national series, Carnegie Hall Live.  She also produces and directs original music concerts out of NYPR’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.

Mark Travis – New York Philharmonic Audio Producer

Mark Travis joined the full-time staff of the New York Philharmonic as its Audio Producer in 2011 and currently serves as the orchestra’s Director of Media Production.  He has directed the orchestra’s broadcasts, currently hosted by Alec Baldwin, since 2003.

With 25 years in media, he’s just about done it all, serving as a writer, producer, broadcaster, lecturer, podcaster, artist, Multicam director, video editor and audio engineer. From 1999 to 2011 he served as a producer for Chicago’s WFMT Radio Network, where he wrote and directed more than 800 nationally syndicated programs. He also has an extensive discography as a music producer, including three Grammy-nominated recordings by the New York Philharmonic. Other credits include projects with Carnegie Hall’s Song Studio with Renée Fleming, Ensemble Connect, Handel & Haydn Society, Ensemble Companio, Living Music with Nadia Sirota—Pirate Radio Edition, the 92nd Street Y, the National Youth Orchestra, the Chicago Chorale, UMS, Interlochen Public Radio, Greenwich Choral Society, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as a regular guest lecturer for Mannes College of Music at New School University and the Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida.

Mr. Travis is a member of the NARAS and serves on both the Grand Jury and Radio Advisory Board for the New York Festivals International Broadcasting Competition. He has also served as juror and Music Committee Chair for the United States Artists panel in Los Angeles. He has been the recipient of more than 30 medals and trophies for his broadcast work, including the 2015 Grand Jury Prize and five best-director awards from the New York Festivals, and he was named a special honoree for his writing in the 2017 Webby Awards.

Katarzyna Sochaczewska Broadcast Engineer

Katarzyna Sochaczewska is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Mechanics and Vibroacoustics, AGH UST in Kraków, Poland, and it was from here that she received her M.Sc. degree in Acoustical Engineering in 2017. Throughout her bachelor’s and master’s degree studies the primary focus of her work was centered around the field of binaural and surround sound recording and reproduction, while also taking in the general study of recording techniques and practice. This background has led her to her current area of specialization, namely that of multichannel audio, which, in turn, has resulted in her participation in various projects relating to ambisonics technology. These include soundscapes, IR measurements, and psychoacoustical research into spaciousness and localization. She has a strong interest in surround and 3D music production and is committed to its ongoing improvement, and this has been recognized by the industry in the form of her having received a number of notable awards for her compositions (AES Recording Competitions, Saul Walker Design Competition, 3D music production competitions). She is also a practicing engineer with experience in live sound, studio recording, and since 2017 has held the position of audio producer at the national polish radio station – RMF Classic. She was also the recipient of the SoundGirls Travel Fund 2019, and ASA CIRE grant 2021. 

 

 

Producers:  Your job listings need to include pay

And that pay needs to be reasonable

I don’t know of a time prior to this pandemic that the entire entertainment industry was out of work.  It’s very difficult to think of when or how we will get back to work, and the grim reality is that many of the companies with which we are accustomed to receiving work will not be there when “normalcy” returns.  This means that when we do return to work, there will be more of us than available jobs.  My biggest fear is that producers will try to take advantage of these situations and offer new jobs at the lowest possible dollar.  It’s been happening since before the pandemic, and I’m afraid the situation will only get worse when those jobs are in higher demand.

First of all, when are we going to get to the place where openly discussing pay isn’t a taboo subject?

For as long as I have been searching for jobs in my professional career, the pay is almost always the last thing I find out about.  Why?  Why would producers hide that information?  Are they embarrassed about the rate?  Is it too low?  Is it illegal?  If the answer to any of these questions is yes, well then, producers, I’m here to say that you’re doing it wrong.  Your pay rate, benefits package, and special offers should be a selling point for you.  If you’re touting your company’s great reputation, clout, and place in the industry, but you’re not willing to share pay information until you’ve almost got a potential employee hooked, I can’t help but think that you’re taking cues from the Mr. Wormwood Book of Ethics, and my theatre buddies will know that Mr. Wormwood is not good company to keep.  Many of us begrudgingly go through the motions of updating our resumes and websites, collecting letters of recommendation, filling out lengthy applications, and making time for multiple interviews just to learn that after all that time, the salary was never worth it in the first place.  I don’t know about you, but when that happens to me, I feel cheated and duped.  I shouldn’t have to pass a series of tests just to find out what you’re willing to pay me if I’m offered the job.

Look, I get it, your company was hit hard too.  You’ve had to resort to Zoom theatre and other cheap programming just to keep the electricity on.  You’ve had to furlough many of your full-time staff, and you’ve been trying to live off of PPP loans for 11 months.  If that wasn’t bad enough, you are going to have to beef up your Covid-19 compliance when you are able to open again, and that will mean shelling out more money.  The thing is, though, there is a way to do this honestly and ethically.

If you are unable to offer a living wage for a full-time position (*protip—$30k p/y as the full-time Technical Director in Los Angeles County is not a living wage) you need to rethink your company’s structure.  If having a very experienced, top-of-the-line TD is a priority for you, you need to prioritize their salary first.  Commit to paying that person what they are worth, and they will commit to you.  Maybe the scale of your productions needs to come down.  Maybe the number of shows you produce needs to be adjusted.  Maybe you need to up your grant writing and donor outreach game, but the simple fact of the matter is if you cannot afford to pay an experienced TD what they are worth AND produce your dream list of shows at the same time, then you can’t afford either, and your internal structure needs to change.  If $30k is what you have to offer, and you cannot budge on that number, that means the job description needs to change.  This is not reasonable for a full-time job, but it could be reasonable for a part-time job, depending on the job requirements.  It could also be reasonable as an entry job for a recent graduate or even an internship.  Being able to make creative adjustments to facilitate the job security of your current and future employees is a really attractive prospect.  It also means that you can proudly display your pay rate on your job listings and know that you are being fair to your applicants.

Producers, you have to prioritize your people

All of us have been using this downtime to really explore those HR processes that have and have not been working.  We should all be very aware by now that “must-have five years professional experience” and “$30,000 per year” for a full-time skilled job are just two points that should not exist together in the same sentence.  If you’re saying to yourself, “It’s always worked for us in the past,” you should know that even if it’s been working for you, that doesn’t mean it’s working for your employees and applicants.  Companies that try to get by on the lowest possible salary have a high turnover rate usually due to employee burnout.  The employee that is receiving a lower than living wage rate is either trying to work as much as possible to pick up lots of overtime so they can make rent, or they’re working tons of side gigs and have little energy or will leave to perform adequately for their main company of employment.

The fact that we feel we HAVE to take the low-paying jobs so that we can get that “five years professional experience” is what creates the rat race that we desperately need to dismantle because when we all come back post-pandemic, that rat race is going to be much worse.  We will shift the reasoning for taking these jobs to “so that I can eat and live” and when we do so, we will be handing over even more leverage to the producers that think the technician/designer/actor/etc. that works for the lowest dollar wins.  Producers, you have to prioritize your people.  Be open, honest, and fair in your job offers, descriptions, and expectations.  Make sure a human is capable of living off of only your job.  Eliminate the need for side gigs.  Make the people the center of your budget—prioritize them.  Happy employees make happy companies, and there is no other version of this very simple mantra.

 

“Sound Guys:” How Bias is Transmitted Through Implicit (and Explicit) Language

How many of us have been approached with, “Wow it’s weird to see someone like you at the console! Do you know what all those buttons do?,” and the immediate thought was, “What do they mean by that?” Some of the language we use contains implicit bias that can perpetuate harmful stereotypes. My intention here is to talk about how language can be harmful and why it is important to be mindful of the impact of our words.

Let’s start by looking at an example of a comparison that tries to present two subjects equally, but does just the opposite. Stanford linguists conducted a study on the sentence, “Girls are as good as boys at math.” The sentence implies that being good at math is more common for boys than for girls. When they swapped “girls” and “boys” so the sentence read, “Boys are as good as girls at math,” subjects associated a natural math ability with “girls,” as the second part of the sentence. While the first sentence is trying to convey that both sexes are equally good at math, it’s actually implying that math comes to boys more naturally because it is setting “boys” as the standard for “girls” to meet.

The same thing applies when someone says something like, “Although she is a girl, she is really good at math.” This sentence is suggesting that girls are not usually good at math by saying that this person is, despite the fact that she’s a girl. By insinuating that this girl is an anomaly, we are implicitly telling other girls that they probably are not good at math because girls usually are not.

Subtle Prejudice

Subtle prejudices crop up in the audio industry when we hear people say things like, “Mary can mix a band as good as Steve,” or  “They’re a girl but they can push a subwoofer like a man.” By setting men as the standard for both of those skills, it is possible that we are intimidating women out of those roles even if the intent is to praise someone for their skills. When we use sentence structure that unintentionally creates comparisons between two subjects, we are sending a message that we think one of those subjects is better than the other.

Alternatives

These alternatives are more inclusive: “Mary and Steve are really great front-of-house engineers.” And, “They’re really strong and great at loading trucks!” Now we are promoting someone for their unique skillset, without comparing them to anyone else or saying that they are an exception to a standard.

Implicit Bias

Implicit bias in language exists in ways other than the order of words in our sentences. Linguistic Intergroup Bias (LIB) occurs when we describe people that fit into our own demographic in a positive light, whereas people outside our demographic receive negative descriptors. In a study conducted at Emory University, two groups of students were shown cartoons of adults depicting different scenarios and asked to describe what they saw. Participants in one group provided judgmental descriptions for illustrations of folks outside of their own demographic and described folks within their personal demographic more matter-of-fact. Participants in a different group were shown the same pictures but asked to acknowledge their first thoughts as social constructs that had nothing to do with the events in the pictures. After taking a moment to recognize their own biases, the students in the second group wrote factual and non-judgmental descriptions for illustrations of people in and outside of their demographics.

Unconscious Bias

Most of us have unconscious biases that we transmit through speech. The study on LIB at Emory University demonstrates that we tend to favor folks that remind us of ourselves, and those biases become exacerbated when we continue to describe “outsiders” with judgmental language. We see this favoritism manifest in the industry in a number of ways; Like when men refer to other men as “assertive” and women are “bossy.” They have ingrained biases about how women should act and transmit it via a double standard in their speech.

Problematic Language

Problematic language doesn’t just exist in how we structure our sentences or what we choose to say. Many tech companies, such as Google, Amazon, and Twitter, have stopped using “master/slave” to describe one piece of hardware receiving commands from another. Nikon stopped using such terminology twenty years ago. And what about calling cable ends “male” and “female?” It doesn’t describe what those cable ends do. It’s time we call them what they are — plugs and jacks. The live performance was the first form of entertainment. Why then, is it the last to change?

Our jobs dictate that we adjust to changes in complex technology. With the rise of digital audio, audio engineers had to switch from analog snakes to CAT5 and fiber cables. Now engineers are becoming competent at networking technology as the foundation of most sound systems. Audio folks are very adaptable! We really shouldn’t balk at changing a couple of words that come from traumatic or problematic origins.

Moving Forward

Thankfully, there is a movement within the industry; some regional theater companies have stopped using the phrase “hang the blacks,” when the crew hangs stage curtains. They say “hang the black curtains” instead. Implementing change in the terminology we use can be done, we just have to make the conscious choice.

Many established technicians and engineers have said, “Well, what people say hasn’t bothered me. I kept my head down and showed up to work.” This is a textbook case of survivorship bias, which is when we persevere through poor treatment from others, accepting those challenges as a necessary part of our career paths because we do not see the people that did not survive. Just because a few of us have made it by tolerating toxic environments does not mean that is the way it has to be. And, it becomes a cycle; those survivors can contribute to perpetuating toxic work environments due to learning harmful techniques and tone from bad mentors. For every individual who tolerated a bad work environment, there are several people that were chased out, and not for lack of thick skin.

There are scientific ways to discover our unconscious biases. Take these tests from Harvard’s Project Implicit – here are many! Do one at a time. Inclusion efforts, like all aspects of professional development, are a marathon and not a sprint. That is to say, it is imperative to keep it up. While part of the job is dealing with pressure, we need to stop creating unnecessary tension through speaking our unconscious biases. If you are a supervisor or in charge of hiring, check in with your crew and see if they are also taking these tests.

From a financial standpoint, it literally pays to take steps to create an inclusive workplace. If we are driving people out, we will not diversify, grow, or even replace retiring talent. Most of us can identify with being short-handed on a gig — it really sucks! Not to mention that if people leave because of an intolerable environment, there is the cost of hiring someone new. Turnover is expensive, and retaining your crew by encouraging a positive environment will save you the pain of hiring costs. Creating an inclusive environment will also open you up to new client relationships. It is possible that you will attract new employees who are savvy technicians and great with clients. This means those clients will keep coming back! Plus, your current employees will feel emotional support and do better and more efficient work. So there is absolutely monetary gain in educating employees on inclusivity.

Regardless of our intentions, the language we use can either implicitly or explicitly transmit bias because what we say conveys our thoughts and beliefs. Bias can be passed through sentence structure, how we describe others and industry terminology. If we educate each other and address implicit language that transmits bias, we open up our industry to new people, new ideas, and innovation that we might be missing out on right now.

Sources:

First, huge thanks to my editors Ellen Juhlin, Corwin Evans, Jenapher Zheng, and Julien Elstob for their feedback. You all held me accountable in writing well and making sure I got my point across!

Survivorship Bias (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

The Power of Language: How Words Shape People, Culture (Stanford News) https://news.stanford.edu/2019/08/22/the-power-of-language-how-words-shape-people-culture/

Some Well-Meaning Statements Can Spread Stereotypes (Stanford News) https://news.stanford.edu/2018/07/10/well-meaning-statements-can-spread-stereotypes-unintentionally/

The Story Behind “Master-Slave” Being Excluded by (Most) Tech Firms (Ongig Blog) https://blog.ongig.com/diversity-and-inclusion/master-slave-computer-term-bias/

How to Find Prejudice Hidden in Our Words (greatgood.berkeley.edu) https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_find_prejudice_hidden_in_our_words

Stereotypes and Biased Language (Purdue Online Writing Lab) https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/using_appropriate_language/stereotypes_and_biased_language.html

Your Words Have Impact, So Think Before You Speak (Entrepreneur.com)

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251290#:~:text=Within%20the%20words%20we%20speak%20is%20an%20emotional%20potency.&text=Words%20influence%20others%20and%20build,whether%20it’s%20good%20or%20bad.

 

X