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Goodbye for now!

 

This will sadly be my final blog. Thank you to anyone that has read, responded, or contacted me through my radio channels and email. I have written for many different publications throughout my time at school, uni and now working life. I’ve always wanted to blog but knew I would never keep it up if I ventured it on my own, ie. starting my own site or YouTube channel for that matter. Being held accountable to such an inspiring team has made it easy to feel motivated and willing to write for readers each month as well as everyone else that contributes. I am proud to have been part of such a fun project!

I have always incorporated music and blogging into my academic life. My dissertation included lots of audio interviews and links out to my Soundcloud and Mixcloud pages. I also still have my BBC recording equipment ready for when I next feel inspired to create a podcast. We are all probably looking forward to listening to more music as the nights get cooler and cozy nights in are the way forward. Even blogging as a whole in the industry has been making a relative comeback, across beauty, music, tech and everything in-between! We are also seeing a new podcast launch every minute which can only be a good thing.

The lack of live music at the moment can at least be replaced creatively by musicians going live on Instagram or YouTube, interacting with viewers, and making sure their music lives on. I was lucky enough to attend the outdoor venue in Newcastle earlier in the year to see ABBA and Beatles tribute acts which was so much fun. I do hope outdoor, spaced-out, less crowded venues are the way forward. The industry now needs to look at new ways to be seen, whether that be on social media platforms or back to old school via newspapers and magazines, it will always be an area that is growing as people look for more forms of entertainment.

I know I currently have endless lists of TV shows and films to watch as well as classic albums and new podcasts. As long as we keep creating, we keep listening! Best of luck to everyone for 2021, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you on another blog somewhere in the future most likely.

We Need Help

It is now October 28th, 2020. Aside from unemployment benefits, I have had no income at all since my last show on March 7th, 2020. The amount I get from Pandemic Unemployment Assistance has fallen to $235 a week before taxes – not even enough to cover my rent, let alone food and other living expenses, and it looks like no further economic stimulus is on the way. Many of my old coworkers have taken grocery store jobs or are driving for delivery services to make ends meet. I myself am about to start a temporary part-time job. It barely covers my expenses, but after eight months of nonstop job applications, I have to take what I can get. Some of the event workers, especially those of us who are less established, are starting to doubt whether we will be able to return to our jobs when live performances finally return.

Full-time audio engineering is something I have worked eight years for. Finally finished with my electrical engineering degree, I had planned to spend this year pursuing audio engineering full-time and prove to myself that I really could make a living with it. Until the pandemic hit, it looked like I would succeed.

Unfortunately, when discussing my situation with people, the reactions I have gotten are not exactly sensitive. Variations of “Wow, must be nice, I wish I could be on vacation like that” and “Well, now you can go and get a ‘real’ job instead of chasing your hobbies” have been a constant refrain since the pandemic began. I’d like to give these statements some perspective.

To start: we have not been on vacation. We have not been coasting. Sure, having the time off was a welcome change for a couple of weeks, but nobody I know has been treating eight months of unemployment and an unknown return-to-work date that moves farther back every day as a vacation. We have been worrying about how to pay our rents, mortgages, utilities, find health insurance, protect ourselves and our loved ones, and still put food on the table somehow. We have been grieving the sudden loss of the careers we have spent years and maybe even decades in. We have been applying to jobs for months without success or have had heavy discussions with our family and roommates weighing making money against the risk of catching and bringing home COVID-19.

More importantly, our jobs are not hobbies. We are highly skilled professionals who have worked hard to get where we are, and most of our jobs cannot be done seriously on the side. Working days that tend to fall anywhere between 10 and 18 hours, usually in a row, is not a hobby. Living with minimal health insurance, or none at all is not a hobby. Managing mental health on the road is not a hobby.

A career in the arts is a legitimate career

Many of my music-loving friends are itching to go to concerts again. But I think what they don’t realize is the extent of the damage that the pandemic is doing to the entire entertainment industry. It’s not just independent music venues that are at risk of closing – they are just one small part. It’s the whole ecosystem that inspires people to get onstage and allows artists to go from playing house shows to playing local, regional, national, and international stages that are about to collapse. This includes the production companies that rent audio and lighting equipment out for tours and festivals. This includes the bus companies and drivers that make bigger tours literally go. This includes the bookers, promoters, and artist management organizations that set touring schedules and keep talent circulating. The small amount of economic stimulus that was doled out to these sectors at the beginning of the pandemic ran out long ago, and the entire event ecosystem is struggling. Many closures have already happened.

Refusing to value the arts not only damages the culture and identity of a city, but it also removes revenue from the industries that are interlocked with the events industry like tourism, hospitality, nightlife and restaurants.

One of the last shows I worked on came at the end of February. It was a sold-out three-night run of Death Cab For Cutie hosted by The Showbox, one of Seattle’s most iconic music venues. It was incredibly impactful to see a homegrown Pacific Northwest band come back to play three intimate shows in a city that has gentrified immensely since they first shot to fame. It felt like a piece of old Seattle had been resurrected, if only for a few hours. But it also felt bittersweet. The land the Showbox sits on was recently sold to a developer intent on replacing it with luxury apartments. The possibility that this kind of homecoming might never happen again in that venue, that maybe six months later the Showbox might just be another construction site downtown, hung over the room. This is the same future many venues around the country now find themselves trying to avoid. Without help, the structure that allowed a night like this to happen and the pathways that led this band full circle will no longer exist.

This is where you come in. Write your local, state, and federal officials demanding relief for the arts, and keep writing. Participate in social media campaigns and use whatever platforms you have to speak out. If you know a band or artist that might use their platform to speak out, ask them! Buy music and merch from bands — with shows gone, that is the only source of income for a lot of musicians right now. If you have the means, donate to relief funds and the organizations that are fighting to keep our stages lit. We need you.

Get Involved:

National:

We Make Events – www.wemakeevents.org

National Independent Venue Association – www.nivassoc.org

Live Events Coalition – www.liveeventscoalition.org

MusiCares – www.grammy.com/musicares

Extend PUA — www.extendpua.org

Washington State:

Keep Music Live Washington – www.keepmusiclivewa.com

Washington Nightlife Music Association – www.wanma.info

Save the Showbox – www.savetheshowbox.com

 

 

How to Use iPhone Synth Apps in Logic Pro X

 

Synths are one of my favourite things to use when creating a track or soundscape and they can help you experiment with different sounds. However, the downfalls are they’re not cheap and can often take up a lot of space in your studio. Luckily I have found a solution after experimenting with different synth apps designed for smartphones.

When I started playing around with the Minimoog Model D I loved the idea of a Moog Synth being able to fit in the palm of my hand. However, I wanted to record it into the tracks I was making but wasn’t sure how. But, I believe I have found the solution.

For this, I used my iPhone, the lightning to USB charging Cable, and my iMac running Logic.

To start off with I plugged my iPhone into the iMac using the lightning to USB charging cable. I then went into the Audio/Midi settings on the iMac and Enabled my iPhone to be recognised as a device.

I then opened the Minimoog app on the iPhone and configured the input and output settings to IDAM MIDI Host.

I then opened Logic and created an external MIDI track and made sure the Use External Instrument Plug-In was checked and the Audio Input device selected was ‘iPhone’. You also want the MIDI Destination to be the iPhone as well. Then hit Create.

You should now be able to hear and play your iPhone Synth app in Logic.

Using this is a great way to experiment with Synth sounds and is a fantastic solution if you want a portable Synth in your pocket. Happy creating.

 

 

Lunch and Learn: Phasing

The latest gear and hottest plugins are regularly trendy topics of discussion in the sound community. But for this week’s blog post, I’m going old-school and throwing it all the way back to good ol’ PHASING! (Hold for applause)

Now, I bet you are thinking to yourself, “What is phasing exactly?” or perhaps “How does it apply in the real world?”, and most importantly “Do I even need to know this?!” Well, you’re about to find out…

WHAT IS PHASING?

Phasing is timing differences when combining identical audio signals and is usually the result of delay between multiple signals. Phasing can have a noticeable effect on the sound quality of your audio, and it comes up in all kinds of productions like recording, sampling, and live shows. Phasing has the potential to leave your tracks sounding thin and “not quite right”. However, you can also use phasing to your advantage, and you can utilize it in a handful of interesting ways!

WHEN IS PHASING BAD?

The most common scenario where phasing can be a nuisance is when it comes to phase cancellation. In the real world, we hardly ever hear pure sine waves, but to make understanding phase cancellation easy, I am going to use sine waves as an example.

The basic description of phase cancellation is when you have the waves of two or more signals out of phase with each other. When the wave on one signal is at its peak, the other is simultaneously in a trough. Because the peaks and troughs are out of sync, they work against each other rather than supporting each other. The frequencies are cancelled out and, acoustically, it causes a weak sound.

In Phase

In Phase

Out of Phase

Out of Phase

The place you’ll most likely to run into the nuisance of phasing is in a recording environment, especially one with multiple microphones. For the sake of example, I’m going to focus our attention on recording a drum kit. Consider even a single snare drum, miced from both above and below. Since the top and bottom heads of the drum are usually moving in opposing motions, the two mics can record signals that are directly out of phase. Now factor in a mic on the bass drum, hi-hat, and multiple overheads, and you have a set up ripe for phase issues.

When recording with multiple mics, a quick and easy solution is the 3:1 Rule of Mic Placement. When using two microphones to record a source, try placing the second mic three times the distance from the first mic, as the first mic is from the source. So if the first mic is one foot from a source, the second mic should be placed three feet from the second mic. Using this simple 3:1 rule can minimize phase problems created by the time delay between mics.

Sometimes, the problem doesn’t show itself until you’re mixing. In that case, you can usually pull the tracks up in your DAW, zoom in close on their waveforms, and slightly nudge one track just a bit. You’d be amazed what a difference just moving a track by one or two milliseconds can make. Check out this detailed video tutorial to learn how to align waveforms in Protools:

 

 

There are also some very effective phase alignment plug-ins on the market that can clean things up. You can check out ones that I find helpful below:

Waves InPhase captures audio enabling users to time-align clips quickly with a phase correlation meter making it easier to use. InPhase does exactly what it says it does, but some skill is required to get the most out of it as the controls are comprehensive.

Eventide Precision Time Align can be used with mono and stereo formats and includes phase invert and control over volume. There is also a neat distance control, meaning users can enter actual measurements in feet or meters.

You can also try inverting phase using Protools built-in invert. This plugin’s only purpose is to invert audio waveforms. You can find it built into your Protools Audio Suite.

You can see in the examples below a before and after of the waveforms. The first picture the waveforms are in phase. In the second image, the bottom track’s waveforms have been inverted:

Screen Shot 2020-11-03 at 11.39.10 AM.png
Screen Shot 2020-11-03 at 11.39.38 AM.png

WHEN CAN PHASING BE USED TO YOUR ADVANTAGE?

Aside from fixing phase issues, you can occasionally use phasing to your advantage! There are a handful of fun audio tricks out there to try, but here are two that, although simple, I think are pretty neat!

The “Out Of Speaker” Trick
This trick is incredibly simple — All you need to do is invert the phase of either the left or right channel of a stereo file! On speakers, the sound will appear to come from somewhere outside the speakers and envelop the listener. However, there are a couple of downsides to this trick. First, it only works on speakers and is most pronounced only when the listener is centered in the speaker’s “sweet spot”. You will not have the same effect if wearing headphones. The second downside is that if your stereo track is summed to mono, it will completely disappear due to the left and right channel cancelling each other out……which is the perfect segway to my next phasing trick!

Phase Cancellation Tricks
The first example is if you have a film or television mix and you want to create an M&E only track. If you have the isolated dialogue track, you can invert it and play it against your full mix. The inverted dialogue track will cancel out the dialogue in the full mix, and you will be left with a mix that includes only your music and effects. The second example is similar but with a music mix. If you ever want to make an instrumental track from a full mix, you can take the isolated vocals and invert. When played against the full mix, you’ll be left with an instrumental track!

WRITTEN BY BRAD MEYER

SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST

If you liked this blog you should also check out:
LUNCH AND LEARN: HOVER VEHICLE DESIGN
CREATING ALIEN VOCALS
FAULT BY UNFILTERED AUDIO: USING A SPECTRAL SHIFTER FOR SOUND DESIGN

 

Pittsburgh SoundGirls Present a Webinar on Freelancing

Please join our Pittsburgh SoundGirls Chapter for a Freelancing Webinar on Nov. 11th.

Learn how to manage your finances, networking and creating your own career.

Moderated by Carolyn Slothour and Laura Moeller

Panelists Include:

Devyn Caraballo:  Operates her own sound company & custom cables

Deborra Peelor: Lighting designer & lighting professor

Angela Baughman:  Sound designer & engineer

Elizabeth Andrews: Theatrical lighting designer

November 11 at 7 PM EST

Register Here

Love of Learning – Carolina Anton – Sound Engineer

 

Carolina Anton is a freelance sound engineer based in Mexico City. She works as a FOH and Monitor Engineer and specializes in sound design and optimization. She works with several sound companies such as 2hands production, Eighth Day Sound, Britannia Row, among others. She has done international tours with artists Zoé, Natalia Lafourcade, Leon Larregui, Mon Laferte. Carolina is also the owner of GoroGoro Studio – an audiovisual studio for immersive sound mixing experiences. She is the representative in Mexico of ISSP Immersive Sound software for live shows, a partner in 3BH an Integrative company that specializes in architectural, acoustic, and audiovisual technological design.  In her spare time, she is the head of the SoundGirls Mexico City Chapter.

Lifelong Love for Learning

Carolina grew up with a Montessori education that instills a lifelong love of learning and has provided Carolina with a solid foundation and base in her work and life. During her high-school years, she was enrolled at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education which gave her a solid understanding of engineering and the use of technology. At the same time, she became interested in Japanese culture and started to study the Japanese Tea Ceremony. At age 19, she started to study music and took a percussion diploma at Berklee College of Music and then went on to study with teachers from Escuela Superior de Música in Mexico City. She started playing drums at pubs and restaurants and formed her own band, soon after that she was invited to play drums for some artists as Laura Vazquez (ex- keyboardist of Fito Paez)

The Spark

In 2002, she received a scholarship to continue her Japanese studies at Urasenke Gakuen Professional College of Chado, Midorikai in Kyoto, Japan. In 2004, she graduated and returned to Mexico City. Upon returning, she found that she had no one to play music with and decided to find a job in music, so she could play drums and also thought she could work in audio. Carolina remembers saying to herself “it looks very easy pushing all those buttons and moving faders! And I love music… but actually had no idea what I was getting into, from that day I started this wonderful but complicated path.”

At the time there were limited professional audio programs in Mexico City, so she started taking every course she could find and says she still is constantly keeping updated on training and certifications. With her love of learning she started buying all the books on audio she could find and started to study on her own. She says it took her over four years to find someone that would help her get her foot in the door. She says “all rental companies told me that as a woman I had no future in this… a woman cannot carry cases or cables! Work at night? Travel with men? This work is impossible for a woman like you!!… They said. After almost three years I finally found one company that would support me and help me forge my own path from below. At that point, I swore that nobody was going to slow me down.”

While Carolina saw herself working in a recording studio, this would not be as the company that gave her a shot was a live sound company and she decided to “just let it flow and along the way, I realized that I really like this job so I started talking to all audio engineers close to me, without realizing that I was fully involved and made to work in live sound. I knew then that I like challenges and excitement, plus I work better under pressure.”

Career Start

She started as PA Tech and worked her way up to FOH and Monitors and now mainly freelances with 2Hands Production Services and Eighth Day Sound. Carolina’s first national tour was as a system engineer for Zoé Unplugged in 2011. Her first contact with international artists was with Earth, Wind & Fire where she approached with Eighth Day Sound on the same year with whom since then she has worked on tours and festivals such as Noel Gallager High Flying Birds, Cage The Elephant, The Cranberries, Faithless, and Electric Forest Festival, among others.

The first time Carolina got to mix was unexpected, “I remember that my job was only doing the PA design and tune it, but the musicians were late and I have to pre-prepare the scene of a venue SC48 and I didn’t know very well how to set up (I am very good with the mixers so it didn’t take me so much to understand it)  after I finished setting up the mixer, Gloria´s staff ask me to check the monitors and PA (so I send some pink noise and test the mics), I was so relaxed and did that thinking that in some point the main engineer will come, unconsciously I began to place filters and make a pre-mix (good for me!)  When the musicians arrived and I didn’t see any staff with them, I asked for the engineer and with all the calm in the world, they told me… “You are!” At that moment I got very nervous but luckily I had prepared everything correctly so the show flowed perfectly. Definitely in this profession, we must be prepared for everything.”

Carolina has toured as a Monitor Engineer for Gloria Gaynor, Kool & the Gang Mexico 2012, Janelle Monáe Mexico 2012, Vetusta Morla, Natalia Lafourcade, Leon Larregui, Mon Laferte and before the pandemic hit she was on tour with MexFutura. She has run FOH of Café Tacvba & Zoe, Everyone Orchestra, Madame Gandhi, Hellow Festival, PalNorte Festival, Electric Forest Festival and BPM Festival. She has been a system engineer for Marc Anthony Mexico 2012, Empire of the Sun “Walking on a Dream” Tour Mexico City 2011, Bunbury “Licenciado Cantinas” Tour Mexico 2012, ZOÉ & Café Tacvba Touring for 5 years (2011 – 2016), MTV Unplugged Miguel Bosé, Enrique Bunbury, Pepé Aguilar, Zoé, Kinky, and 90`s Pop Tour 360º – 2019.

Her credits also include Recording sound engineer and/or Assistant sound Engineer   Caifanes, MTV Unplugged Pepé Aguilar, Viva Tour: En vivo – Thalia and Production of the Live Streaming for the Vive Latino festival 2015.

Career Today

In 2015, she was invited to become a partner in 3BH, an integrative company that specializes in architectural, acoustic and audiovisual technological design. Working with post-production and music studios in Mexico and LATAM. The engineers at 3BH work to integrate projects at the highest level from construction, electricity, insulation and acoustic conditioning, monitoring design and calibration in ST, 5.1, 7.1, ATMOS formats, signal design and work with the highest technology. She also is the owner of GoroGoro Studio audiovisual studio specialized in immersive sound mixing experiences and traditional formats. The most recent material is a video with immense sound by the band MexFutura, presented on AppleMusic.

Never Stop Learning

She has certifications in Shure Advanced RF Coordinator for Axient Digital Systems,

AVID Protools, Meyer Sound – Sound System Design of Meyer Sound & SIM 3 Training and System Design, SMAART Software Applications & Procedures Training and System Design, Martin Audio Professional Loudspeaker Systems & MLA Certified Operator Training Program, L-Acoustics System Fundamentals, Audinate DANTE certified levels 1 – 3 and SSL Live console, Yamaha, Digico & MIDAS.

Carolina’s long-term goals are to keep touring and learning. “A long term goal that I have managed to achieve was mixing in immersive sound, I have been specializing in this area for several years and I find it very fun and interesting… I think it is the future in various areas of sound.”

What do you like best about touring?

I love to travel, meeting people, having the opportunity to use different gear, and mix at different venues. I love trying different foods and being able to learn about different cultures.

What do you like least?

I miss my family very much. I don’t get invitations from friends because they think I am always away. Sometimes it is nice to know that you are going to return home every night.  Also not having enough time to visit the city where we are working.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

Watching movies, enjoy the silence & nature, be with my family, play with my cats, read and sleep.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced? How have you dealt with them?

I had many obstacles, which I no longer remember, but surely the principle was to be a woman working in sound. For a long time, I was angry about the rejection that many colleagues had, but I realized that I was getting attention and was losing time, so I decided to ignore all the negative comments and focus on finding a mentor.

Fortunately, I found very good people along the way, who have helped me pass through all these obstacles and taught me in a professional manner to achieve my goals.

I  have become more secure in my job and I learned that if you have a good attitude and confidence in what you are doing you will be fine!

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

If you have a true love for your profession, do it without stopping!

Every time you have a problem do a self-evaluation and trust yourself.

Be humble but with decision and commitment, I am sure that you will achieve all your goals.

Must have skills?

Listen to other people, be objective and patient.

Favorite gear

D & B , Martin Audio , L´Acoustics, SSL LIVE , DIGICO ,MIDAS , SIM 3 Audio Analyzer, Smaart Software , Lake Processors, DPA & Sennheiser mics.

Closing thoughts

I am very happy and proud to represent SoundGirls in Mexico. I’m sure there will be many opportunities for growth and improvement for all women and men in this industry.

Infinitely thank my family (my mother and my brother) who support me in all my decisions, my boyfriend, my mentors and friends who were and are always by my side.

I have always in my mind the basic principles of The Way of Tea, harmony, respect, purity and tranquility (wa, kei, sei, jaku), this are the roots of my life.

Is very important to have an internal balance between ourselves and our work. Many times, we focus so much on our work that we forget it is very important to take care of ourselves. It is also very important to be consistent with what we do and say at all times.

Many have confused my tenacity and decision with unconsciousness, but there is a big difference in taking risks to break visible and invisible barriers to achieve your goals and objectives, always being humble and respectful with those around me and with myself.

More on Carolina

Carolina Anton on The SoundGirls Podcast

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent:

Profiles of Women in Audio

 

An Update

I hope everyone’s been doing well and staying consistent (as consistent as you can be during these unprecedented times). For this blog, I’d like to write about quarantine and how my relationship with music has blossomed from it. During quarantine, I wrote a lot of music. Now, I’m in the process of recording that music, and hearing it come to life. The most exciting part of all of this is getting MY voice back. I’ll dive into that deeper.

During quarantine, my band, “Happy, Hollow”, broke up. I’m sure we weren’t the only band to break up during this pandemic, so hopefully, some of you find this relatable. To give you a short summary- we as a band ended up in physically different places. We decided it was best to go our separate ways (again- this is the short version). Another thing to note, I loved Happy, Hollow with all my heart, but it was starting to become very hard to write music for the band. I felt like I was losing my voice, and wasn’t able to write the music I wanted to. I was starting to feel like the music wasn’t as authentic as I’d like it to be. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and the music I write is very personal, so authenticity is extremely important to me as a consumer, and as an artist. Anyways, once the band decided to break up, I was in a writing slump. I had been for a while. I’ll touch base on that again later. For now, I’d like to detour into something very sensitive that I feel a lot of female songwriters, and musicians need to hear. Something that I had to overcome from this experience the past year.

I want to start off first by saying- DO NOT ever let anyone tell you your music isn’t good enough, what you have to say isn’t important enough, or even that your music is boring. If someone does say these things to you, whatever you do… DO NOT believe them. It’s a hoax. It’s a lie. It’s a cover-up for their own insecurities. As a woman, some men in this industry get freaked out when they see us do things better than they can because they are so used to seeing themselves as the best. They are threatened when they say these things, that is where those negative words are coming from. This happens a lot. For some women, they stop writing for YEARS because of it. Luckily, I only found it hard to write for a couple of months. There was no freaking way I was going to let negative words coming from someone else’s insecurities stop me from expressing myself.

Now that we’ve touched on that, I’ll get back to my quarantine story. When trying to get out of the creative slump I was in, I reached out to my good friend, Spenser Wilson. I asked him to send me something I could write lyrics over. I wanted to get out of my head, and not worry about chords, or anything other than lyrics and melody. He sent me this great acoustic guitar demo. I wrote and sang a verse and a chorus over it. I sent it back, and we realized we had something cool here! He lives in California and I live in Texas, so we continued to send the session back and forth until we had a finished product. I cannot stress enough, that after just writing ONE verse and chorus, my creativity came flooding back through the gates. Sometimes it’s as simple as getting out of your comfort zone, and out of your own head. The song we ended up writing/recording together was called, “Managing”. This is one of the first songs of my new endeavor simply called, “Virginia Louise”. Spenser is helping me produce a lot of the songs and has always been so good at writing unique guitar and keyboard parts for my music (just wanted to give him a quick shoutout).

Now I have four songs that are all in the process of being recorded right now. I couldn’t be more excited to share these deeply personal songs with the world. They feel like me, and I haven’t written music like this since before Happy, Hollow.

I know this story is pretty personal. I thought about writing something different, but I felt readers would benefit from knowing that it’s okay to be in a creative slump. It’s okay to have things end. It’s okay to be in a completely different place than you thought you’d be because of this freakin’ pandemic! Don’t be too hard on yourself. I definitely am (to a fault). When I start something, I have to finish it or take it to the next level of success (what I wanted to do with Happy, Hollow). What I’ve found though, is that “Happy, Hollow” (as heartbreaking and as big of a decision as it was) breaking up was the best thing that could’ve happened to me. I am writing so freely now, and working with people who understand my music. It feels so authentic, and it feels like me. Besides, who wants to put music out there, that is just a facade of who you want people to think you are anyway?

Follow your hearts my fellow sound engineers, and don’t let anyone rain on your parade.

P.S A GREAT podcast I’ve been listening to over quarantine is “Dear Young Rocker” on IHeartRadio. It’s available on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Truly a fantastic, relatable, and funny podcast. Give it a listen!

How To Choose The Podcast Microphone That’s Right For You

The most important step towards building a successful podcast with an engaged audience is creating interesting, compelling content. But somewhere along the way, every podcaster will come to the same inevitable realization: If I’m going to take this seriously, I need a better microphone.

The best podcast microphone is the podcast microphone that’s right for you. For the uninitiated, differentiating one microphone apart from another is no easy task. We’re here to help, so you can get back to the important stuff: creating great content, knowing it sounds great all the while.

To choose the right microphones for podcasting, you’ll need to consider the following:

USB (plug ‘n play) vs. XLR (additional hardware) input

There’s a lot to be said for something that just works, and that’s why USB microphones are popular. USB ports are ubiquitous, so there’s a very good chance whatever you’re using to record your podcast has a USB port built-in. XLR microphones require additional hardware — an audio interface or mixer — to connect to your computer, but offer flexibility and versatility that USB mics can’t match. Audio interfaces, used widely in professional recording studios, will add additional audio routing and processing capabilities to your recording setup.

USB microphones are plug ‘n play, so all you’ll need to do to get them up and running is make sure that you’ve selected the right microphone in the “Input” panel of your podcasting software. For Alban Brooke, head of marketing at podcast host Buzzsprout, that simplicity and ease of use goes a long way. “Your time should be spent podcasting, not learning how to record, edit, or upload your podcast,” he says.

One key benefit XLR mics offer over USB mics is the lower noise floor provided by the audio interface or mixer, which essentially acts as an external sound card. “Audio interfaces are a must for good sound,” says Kate Astrakhan, an audio engineer at professional podcasting agency Podcast Network Solutions. “Get an Audio Technica ATR2100 and a Behringer interface, and for less than $200, you have something that will give you professional-quality sound,” she says.

Dynamic microphones pick up less sound than condenser microphones, but that can be a good thing

As far as podcast microphones go, the choice is between dynamic microphones or condenser microphones. Each is built differently, and if you’re so inclined, you can read more about the science that separates these two kinds of mics. Practically speaking, dynamic microphones are less sensitive to sound and more physically durable than condenser microphones.

Dynamic microphones are capable of recording at far higher volumes than condenser microphones, which is why you’ll see the Shure SM-58 on concert stages worldwide. That’s not a selling point for podcasters — unless you’re recording on stage at a concert, which actually does sound like a great idea for a podcast.

Because of their lower sensitivity, dynamic microphones roll off some higher frequencies and produce a “warmer” sound, akin to a classic “broadcast” or “radio” sound. Condenser microphones capture more nuance in vocal recordings than dynamic microphones, which can lead to a richer, more natural sound.

The increased sensitivity of condenser mics comes with a tradeoff: you run the risk of recording background noise alongside all that added nuance. “Condenser microphones pick up a lot more nuanced than dynamic microphones, but for many people, that means a condenser will pick up a lot more unwanted background noise,” says Buzzsprout’s Alban Brooke.

A good way to mitigate unwanted background noise is to pay close attention to the space where you record your podcast.

Your recording space matters — even more than you might think

For quality audio, the space in which you’re recording is just as important as a good microphone. Not taking recording space into account is the most common mistake up-and-coming podcasters make, says Podcast Network Solutions’ Toby Goodman.

“The number one thing podcasters don’t take into consideration is the room in which they’re recording,” he says. “You could buy a top-of-the-line microphone, put it in a bad room, and it would be like buying a sports car and trying to drive it off a mountain — it just doesn’t work.” His colleague Kate Astrakhan agrees. “The key to selecting a good microphone is first making sure your room is full of soft surfaces, not hard surfaces,” she says. “Then even if you buy the cheapest USB microphone available, your sound will be better than it would be otherwise.”

Soft surfaces are the key to dampening sound reflections. Buzzsprout’s Alban Brooke recommends a simple solution: “Record where there’s a lot of soft material to soak up the sound — for a lot of podcasters, this means a walk-in closet,” he says.

Might not be glamorous, but it definitely gets the job done.

Consider how many speakers you plan to record

When it comes time to record more than one person at once, it’s helpful to understand a microphone’s polar pattern. These patterns illustrate the directions in which a microphone picks up sound: in front and from both sides, but not the back, for instance.

Most podcasters should stick with cardioid mics, for solo speakers recording directly into a mic, and bi-directional mics, which records two speakers in front and in back. Some microphones allow you to choose from different polar patterns, so take that into consideration if you plan on recording multiple speakers with one microphone.

If you regularly record with additional speakers — if your podcast features a local co-host that records with you in person, for example — then investing in an audio interface is a must. Pick up an audio interface with 2 (or more) XLR ports and as many dynamic microphones as you need. With that setup, recording multiple people will be a breeze.

Choose the podcast microphone that’s right for you

No microphone is a magic bullet, but this guide will help you determine which works best for your podcast. Now, go forth and record some great content!

This article is originally published on descript.com.

 

A Little Bit of Magic

 

I miss mixing shows. That thought has snuck up on me every week or so for the past several months. It’s always a tiny bit surprising because I knew I liked my job, but I’d never stopped to take stock of exactly how happy it made me. I know I’m not alone in that; all of us want to get back to our usual, wonderfully irregular lives. One of my favorite things about mixing is that there is always something to do. When I started in theatre, I dabbled in a few other jobs, but as an actor, I got bored sitting backstage for the scenes I wasn’t in and I’d end up helping the crew with set changes. As a sound designer, I found myself, despite a valiant effort to pay attention, inevitably spaced out in my seat when there weren’t problems to actively solve.

But mixing, that’s the best of all worlds. There’s always something to do, something new to watch, something to keep you on your toes. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen a show, there are always surprises:

When I toured with Les Mis, we were probably 30 shows into the run when my A2, Mark, started to learn the mix. We were talking through a scene with a whistle sound effect and he asked, “Do you take that off Felipe’s whistle? Or something else?”

“…. Wait, Felipe whistles?”

Sure enough, watching for him the next performance, Felipe came out, brought two fingers to his mouth for the whistle, and I had to resist the urge to do a facepalm. He wasn’t even tucked somewhere over on the side where I might have missed him. He was dead center stage and the only possible way I would have missed it was…. if I hadn’t even looked. On the upside, no one had noticed up to that point (more a testament to Felipe’s timing than mine), and once Mark pointed it out, we attached the cue to the visual and moved on with the show.

I typically evaluate audio through a cinematic lens when I’m watching a show, meaning that I always have the question in mind: Does the audio match the visual? Sometimes the answers are simple: does the actress exit the stage as she continues to talk? Alright, then her level should decrease as she disappears so it sounds like she’s moving away. Is a guy giving a whistle to alert his friends? Then maybe (just maybe…) the effect should link up with his motion. Just like in a movie, what you’re hearing should complement or even help clarify what you’re seeing. If those two senses aren’t working in harmony, the audience is likely to get confused and pulled out of the show.

These are examples of what I’d unofficially term mechanical augmentations: they’re fairly obvious if you’re looking for them, but go a long way to assist the storytelling or your actors by reinforcing their choices. The more you’re able to pay attention to these details, the better able you are to understand the director’s vision or the character choices, and based on these, you can make more intelligent mixing decisions.

During “Why God?” in Miss Saigon, Chris is lamenting the cruel irony of having found something good and worthwhile in war-torn Vietnam when he had previously been content and safe in his lack of attachments. Towards the end of the song, a group of Vietnamese men come up to him, pleading that they will give him money if he can get them visas to flee the country, until he bursts past them, dramatically venting his final frustration to whatever higher power might be listening.

Through the course of this song, Chris goes from a state of confused contemplation to angry vexation. The music has a natural crescendo, but the true catalyst to the shift in his mood comes from the chorus as they badger him. As the mixer, you have the actors already doing their part, getting more insistent and physically closing in on him as they plead their case, but you can give the scene an extra push. You’re trying to make sure there’s a logical transition from Chris being mildly annoyed to aggressively frustrated which is where (for me) the cinematic lens comes into play. The mixer can push the level of the men begging steadily up along with the orchestra so they both get progressively louder until it makes sense that Chris’s reaction is to push past them to get away from the cacophony.

In the second act of Mean Girls, Regina sings the song “World Burn” as she plots her ultimate revenge against Cady. The beginning of the song starts with Regina, all in black, on a dark, empty stage, save for the copier she’s pushing and the harsh uplight that illuminates her face. She’s pissed, but this is not a yell-in-your-face confrontational angry, this is a quiet, oh so controlled venom where you know she’s not playing and is ready to do some major damage.

Again, you follow what makes sense with the visual onstage. Having Regina’s voice booming out of the PA wouldn’t seem realistic and would jar the audience out of the moment. You want to keep them focused and immersed in the show, so the mix for this scene wants to be subtle and controlled. Still clearly audible, but exactly what you imagine when you think of the phrase “deadly quiet.”

Broadway Cast Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

In addition to those subtleties, there’s another kind of moment. These aren’t necessarily as obvious upfront, and it might take some trial and error to figure out the right combination from a mixing standpoint, but when it happens, there’s just a little bit of magic. It sounds corny, but you know these moments when you get a chill up your spine, or your breath instinctively catches, or the audience goes absolutely nuts and you can’t help but grin like an idiot.

One of the first moments I found like that was back in college on the show, Altar Boyz. Towards the end, one of the characters, Juan, receives bad news but tries to soldier on with the show. Yet, partway through his solo, he reaches a breaking point and runs away. The rest of the boys chase him down and coax him back in a musical moment that starts quietly and begins to build until it culminates with Juan choosing to step back into his spotlight and belt the final bits of the song.

If you get the dynamic bump between the build with the boys and the power of Juan’s reentrance into the song right, the audience starts cheering for all they’re worth, and it’s a grin-like-an-idiot moment. But it’s not just the fader bump that makes that moment. Part of the magic in these little snippets of a show comes from the fact that you can’t do them alone. If the audience doesn’t like Juan throughout the show, what do they care if he comes back to finish the number? There’s a lot riding on the actor himself to bring that moment to fruition. The best moments are the ones where you add a final flourish to bring it home and make the performance that much better.

Another one of my favorite moments was in Les Misérables at the end of “On My Own.” Eponine’s song builds up to this massive culmination of music and then everything cuts off, the vocals, the orchestra, everything, for just a second before she finishes the song with a soft “I love him, but only on my own.”

In the musical build-up to that peak, I would also push the vocal reverb on Eponine and, if I got the balance just right, it felt like the sound was suspended at that moment as the reverb rang out through the house. But there was a razor-thin margin for success which required precision between several different factors: how the actress was singing that night, how I was mixing, and the acoustics of the theatre itself (which changed weekly). If you didn’t push the reverb enough, you wouldn’t get as powerful an impact, but if you pushed too hard, it sounded unnatural and pulled the audience out of the story.

It didn’t happen every show, because there was no exact formula of constant variables where you could just say “x + y = MAGIC!” But that’s part of what makes the times where everything does come together so special.

US National Tour Cast Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy

As you’re working a show, you’ll learn to look for those places for little tweaks and nuances to augment your mix. It doesn’t matter if you take a show because it’s a job to pay the bills, or it’s one that’s been on your bucket list for years, finding those moments will keep you engaged and ultimately give you your favorite parts of the show. I worked on Altar Boyz well over a decade ago, and I still smile whenever I think of mixing that song with Juan. Those are the kind of moments that I miss most and can’t wait to have again when we can get back to work.

 

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