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Affordable Starter Plug-ins

Post Grad Resources:

This time around for post-grad resources, I looked into plug-ins must have’s for those starting out on their own. Ones that are quality and include an affordable price or offer free downloads. As always, this article is opinion-based. I am sharing information that I have gathered in hopes that it can help other young professionals.

Waves Silver Bundle

The Waves Silver bundle is an excellent package of plug-ins to have. It includes 16 different plug-ins, several different compressors, limiters, equalizers, reverbs, and delays. Waves Silver also includes two different analyzers, which I think everyone needs to have in their toolbox. It offers several different transparent and character plug-ins which offer users the option of transparency or to add coloration to tracks. It is repeatedly said to provide a solid foundation of plug-ins for the purchaser.

Waves state the bundle is geared for music production, mixing, and mastering in personal to professional studios. It comes with all of the basic plug-ins you may need to take a mix from start to finish. I personally have used over half of the plug-ins in this bundle and find all of them to be incredibly easy and simple to use. They do not evade scrutiny though. Compared to other similar plug-ins, the Waves plug-ins appear outdated and may be clunky to use due to its dated appearance. GUI can be a big deal to some users and several of the plug-ins on this list have a really pleasing interface to work with. But at just 89 dollars, it is a lot of bang for your buck.

Waves CLA – 76 Compressor / Limiter

Another Waves plug-in to add to your arsenal is the CLA – 76 compressor/limiter. This combo brings character and coloration modeled after amplifiers from the 60s. Like the plug-ins talked about before, it has a similar GUI and user functionality. The price of this plug-in is unbeatable; 30 dollars. It can also be found in many of the different Waves bundles, but unfortunately not the Silver bundle.

Several of the positive features are its explosive attack, built-in distortion modeling, and sounding amazing on drums. Some argue that the coloration is lackluster, but the price just cannot be beaten. Another bonus to add is that Waves plug-ins can be added to most consoles and used for live sound. Just an added bonus if you chose to do so.

Izotope Elements Suite

This bundle is a steal of a deal with over a three hundred dollar savings. Izotope Elements markets itself as everything you need to repair, mix, and master. It bundles four different Izotope packs for the price of 199 dollars.

The first pack is Ozone Elements which includes an equalizer, imager, and maximizer. This plug-in is an excellent tool to master with. Its appearance is really nice and it combines the EQ, imager, and maximizer into one plug-in. This is a great feature that keeps your work process flowing and stops from slowing you down. This plug-in alone is one of my favorites.

The next thing included in the suite is Neutron Elements. Neutron is meant to assist in the mixing process. The plug-in comes with a 12 – band equalizer, transient shaper, an exciter, and compressor. Again, all features are combined into one plug-in; one place. At first, I had never heard of a ‘transient shaper’. What it is meant to be used for is cleaning up transients, adding punch or attack, and bringing more clarity and presence to the mix.

RX Elements represents many of the repair features of this bundle. It includes a de-hum, de-click, de-clip, voice specific de-noise, and a spectrogram view of the audio files. The spectrogram allows you to see your recording in a graph form where it is representing frequencies and their intensity against time. This allows you to target very specific frequencies that you may need to focus on.

And last on this list is Nectar Elements. Nectar Elements is also used to repair audio files. It helps clean up sibilance and overall tone, as well as set reverb and compression. The plug-in incorporates adjustable sliders to set levels of the many different features. It has a slightly different view that users may not be accustomed to.

FabFilter Essentials Bundle

The FabFilter Essentials bundle is on the more expensive end of this list. This essentials pack includes the Pro-R reverb plug-in, Pro-Q 3 EQ plug-in, and the Pro-C 2 compressor plug-in at 399 dollars. I have referred to these plug-ins repeatedly when researching for this article. They are described as being incredibly powerful, beautiful to look at, and also easy to use.

The reverbs in the Pro-R are convincing and intuitive. The selections are realistic and add a natural-sounding coloration to recordings. It offers reverbs ranging from small rooms to huge spaces. The Pro-C 2 is a transparent compressor that comes with all of the modern features to make up for its lack of coloration. Some might find this plug-in a bit more advanced compared to others on this list. But FabFilter offers tons of user resources and helpful videos on its website if you ever need the support. The Pro-Q 3 is one of my favorite EQs to use. I find that it meets all of my needs when it comes to mixing. It offers a wide range of filter types to really fine-tune your mix and the interface is one of the best on this list. I find this really important when I am focusing on frequencies and adjusting filters for any given amount of time.

The biggest plus to this pack is that it allows users to obtain good-sounding tracks in a short amount of time. The price may be on the steeper end, but the value of the product and the quality it will add to your work is well worth it to many.

Celemony Melodyne 5 Essentials

Melodyne 5 Essentials is currently just 99 dollars and is essential to anyone editing vocals, pitch, and timing. Celemony is repeatedly praised as being award-winning technology and is a reliable tool to have in the sound and music industry. There can be a bit of a learning curve with this software. The interface can appear foreign and confusing to those who are new to it. Editing pitch and time takes a patient ear and tracks can easily be taken beyond the point of sounding realistic. Thus, the creation of autotune.

Like I mentioned above, Melodyne is used for things like pitch correction, time adjustments, it can apply automatic adjustments as well as manual, and it can also analyze and transpose audio files into a musical format. This can be helpful for those who have a musical background. Melodyne 5 Essentials is supported on both Mac and Windows and can be used on most DAW’s without issue. It is also easily upgradable if you ever chose to get a fuller version of Melodyne. Therefore, the Essentials version is a great way to get your feet wet when it comes to this kind of editing.

ValhallaDSP

Last on this list is ValhallaDSP. I am always looking to add to my reverb collection and I have found ValhallaDSP is a great company to help feed my addiction. They offer several affordable reverbs, delays, and other modulating filters and effects. Currently, they are offering three free downloads; a large reverb, an echo type effect, and a spacey flanging modulator.

These plug-ins have been praised for their storytelling capabilities by designers looking to be more experimental. They are described as being eccentric and over the top. They are not intended to be used to create a realistic or authentic sound, though it may be achieved if worked at. They are also easy to use and look at. Many of the parameter descriptions show up when hovering over a given parameter. It is made to help the user achieve what they want without having them work too hard. Along with the price point, it is a really great, simplistic line of plug-ins.

That concludes the list of plug-ins I have chosen to look into for this article. I personally think they are all great additions to those who are just starting out on their audio journey or individuals who have graduated and find themselves without resources. I am sure there are many, MANY other great options out there and I welcome feedback and conversation on the subject. Furthering the sharing of information and resources to those in need and want to learn is one of my agendas and I think it is also one of SoundGirls.

Special thanks to Allen Harrison, Ryan Nicklas, David Peterson, Tyler Quinn, and Drew Stockero for helping me research this article. You are appreciated.

 

The Importance of Gain Staging and Automation

Gain Staging is the act of managing the levels of your track. Automation can then give you the control to increase or decrease the volume so that it sounds equal and at a similar level throughout. By implementing gain staging and automation in your mix, you can immediately make your track sound more professional. So, here’s how to do it.

I personally like to focus on Gain Staging and Automation on vocal tracks as it creates a radio-ready sound. If you have an instrumental track it can work well with a lead instrument. In this case, it’s best to trust your ears as you don’t want to diminish any dynamics being performed.

The first step in good Gain Staging technique is creating a good recording level. Ideally you want your levels coming in at -18 dBFS but no more than -12 dBFS

I tend to apply some EQ on the main vocal channel and then send the signal to a vocal bus for compression etc. You want the automation to be on the main vocal channel NOT the bus channel.

Once you’ve got a good take you can then start automating your vocal paying attention to the level of each word and syllable and turning it up or down so that the sound is level with the rest of the recording. You basically don’t want any loud peaks or very quiet sounds the goal is to have each word and syllable at roughly the same level. If it helps you can insert a loudness meter just to keep an eye on your levels.

Once you’re done, the automation on your track can look a bit crazy but that’s perfectly fine. Hopefully, now you have a great vocal performance that levels out the loudness and quietest parts of your track to create an engaging performance. The great part about automation is that it leaves less work to do for the compressor so I’ve often found vocals sound a bit more vibrant.

I hope this technique helps even out your recordings and helps you craft that radio-ready track!

 

Art House Foundation and Leapwing Scholarship

Scholarship for Abbey Road Institute Miami

The Abbey Road Institute Miami believes in diversity and inclusion and couldn’t be more proud to announce this SoundGirls Scholarship, sponsored by Leapwing.

SoundGirls is excited that two of our members are involved with this great program Maria Elisa Ayerbe-Barona and Natalia Ramirez.  We thank them for the dedication to SoundGirls and Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio.

I am tremendously happy to learn that Leapwing Audio and Soundgirls will be sponsoring a scholarship for a future music producer at the Abbey Road Institute program in Miami! Abbey Road Institute’s program in Miami focuses on a 100% individually tailored and hands-on educational approach, perfect for a unique student with a unique passion for music and production.  As one of the few female music producers in the industry and proud member and supporter of the Soundgirls Organization, I understand the importance of high-quality education as a means to diversify and enrich the music industry. I am sure the prospective candidate for this scholarship will be outstanding, and I am certain this incredible opportunity will match with the right person thanks to the incredible outreach the SoundGirls organization has built over the years.

Maria Elisa Ayerbe-Barona

 

I’m very excited Abbey Road Institute is finally coming to Miami. The program will start in January next year with a very select group of students that will be experiencing the studio life in a boutique setting that I had the immense opportunity to be a part of since the beginning. Art House Studios is basically home to me so it makes me really happy that the school has partnered with SoundGirls and Leapwing Audio to give an outstanding woman the opportunity to show her talents as an audio engineer while being surrounded by great people and beautiful music. This scholarship represents a life-changing stepping stone in equality and diversity in our industry. I’m definitely thrilled beyond words!

Natalia Ramirez

This scholarship:

Submissions can be made until October 10th, 2020 at 11:59pm EST and winners will be contacted before October 31st, 2020. To submit your application for a scholarship, you must be 18 years old (before January 4th, 2021) and have a valid US residency permit. During the application process, you will be asked to upload the following items:

Click here to submit your scholarship application.

Transitioning in the Music Industry

Laura Nagtegaal and Savy Dunlevy share their stories of working and transitioning in the music industry. 

Transgender people are in a unique position to see exactly how sexist dynamics in the workplace tend to play out and Laura and Savy will share their stories and experiences with us and what the industry needs to do to overcome sexism and transphobia.

We look forward to this discussion and are thankful that Laura and Savy want to share their stories with us.

August 30th at 12 PM PDT

Register Here

Savy Dunlevy is a wireless and communications audio technician for broadcast television and live events. Although a newcomer to the world of audio, they have worked in and been involved with entertainment since birth. Some of their favorite projects include shows with HGTV, ABC Network, Broadway promotional shoots, Say Yes to the Dress, and Paul McCartney: Live at Grand Central.

 

 

 

Laura Nagtegaal – Laura’s career touring the world as a guitar technician, tour manager, and merchandiser started 25 years ago. With her sunny and infectious demeanor, she spreads her own newfound joy and youthful life force around.

Laura shared her story with SoundGirls last year and you can read it here Transitioning in the Music Industry

 

 

 

Speak Out – Reach Out

2020 still has no end in sight. There’re glimmers of hope that normality might come back here or there as we see imagines for physically distanced events and people being allowed to gather in crowds, however, we know the live events landscape has been forever changed.

During these hard times, we first need to make sure we reach out to each other for support and second speak out so people outside of our industry might understand the life-changing issues we are facing.

Reach out to each other, your family and road family, friends and neighbors. Find
support, a place to talk through your struggles and successes. 2020 has been quite the roller-coaster with many things out of our hands. If you reach a point where you cannot deal with it anymore reach out. It’s extremely important to support one another.

With no end in sight, our day-to-day lives can be daunting and hard. If you find you are struggling ask for help. If you do not have people you can confide in here are two options for online therapy Talkspace and Therapy Conductor.

If you are feeling really low and not sure where to go or what to do please reach out via a
suicide hotline. Here are the US line and an International directory as well.

Suicide Prevention Lifeline

International Suicide Hotline

Another option is to check with your location state or country resources as well. Most states have set up reduced or free therapy options for people affected by everything occurring.

Look into educational programs to pivot your career for the time being, along with food and financial support. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help so if you need help, please do so.

If you have the energy or are able it’s important to tell our story; how everything going on has upended our lives, careers, and finances.

Speak out – Stand up and speak out. Tell your story, tell our story. It’s more important today than ever. We need to speak up for our industry and craft. The effects that 2020 has had on our lively hoods, dreams, and goals are astounding. This can be done in many ways, protests, individual conversations, petition signing, data collection and more.

Whatever energy you can muster, speak your story to help educate whomever we can about the long-lasting struggles in our industry that are affecting our personal lives. As many of us and our counterparts have said we were the first to be unemployed and will likely be the last to be employed again. Supporting one another needs to be a priority and expanding the global outlook of these issues will assist in that support.

Some opportunities to speak out and tell our story are

Roadiecare.com – they are organizing events across the globe to raise awareness.
LiveEventsCoalition.org – they are lobbying for support for live event professionals.
Change.org – A federal petition for the industry.
ExtendPUA.org – A source to reach government folks to tell our stories and petition for support. #Wemakeevents – they are also raising awareness through events.

Here are also two other resources for general information and industry resources.
ILEA International Events Association – Resilience and Recovery information
Events Industry Council – Standards, practices and research to elevate the events industry.

In the meantime: Stay well, Stay Safe, Stay Motivated.

 

 

 

 

Reimagining our Industry – Webinar

Thanks to COVID-19 we are all now unwilling participants in a seismic experiment that is shaking the foundations of society, technology, economics, healthcare and our Industry. SoundGirls and ProSoundWeb are pondering how we might reimagine our industry.

As we move from survival to adjustment, from chaos to catalyst, the next normal (or abnormal) is being shaped right now.

COVID-19 and protests happening throughout the world have unmasked our current systems  – the fragility of business and society, the consequences of urbanization and globalization, and our dependence on technology and healthcare. Activities in which consumers are likely to change behavior most are in travel, shopping, socializing, and live events.

We are faced with a choice to rebuild the world as it was or to realize the possibilities before us. Join a panel of industry veterans in a conversation about shaping the future of the pro audio industry.

Sept. 12 at 12:00 PM PST

Register Here

Moderator

 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.

Panelist Include

Alesia Hendley is an Audiovisual professional that found her passion at a young age as a sound engineer within her Father’s church. Now you can find her making connections within AV, Digital Signage and IT, along with executing creative ventures. As a young professional she’s finding ways to bring AV technologies, and creative visions together in the effort to leave her mark by making an impact.

 

 

Jeri Palumbo has been a broadcast audio mixer and specialist for the past 27 years in Sports and Entertainment. Prior to her work in broadcast, she spent years as a trained musician and arranger on the music side of the business before going into post-production and eventually live broadcast. With a current focus on live remote broadcast events, Jeri’s work has included the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cups, the Oscars and more. Entertainment shows have included The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and American Idol to name a few. She also won a Telly Award for mixing the live bluegrass show “Songs of the Mountains.”Jeri has worn the hats of broadcast engineer/mixer, field audio, RF tech and communications and most recently broadcast A1 mixer for gaming eSports in immersive surround 5.1. Jeri served on the RF Coordination committee for the NFL, NBA All-Stars and serves in the same capacity for the Rose Bowl every year. Jeri also worked on the NFL’s Enhanced Audio team (sounds from the field) on its debut roll-out.

 

Bill Reeves has been working in the concert production industry for over 40 years. Starting out on the lighting crew. He graduated to LD/Production Manager within a couple of years and has been working exclusively as a Production/Tour Manager for better than 30 years. Highlights Luther Vandross (14 years), Prince (3 tours including Purple Rain), Stevie Wonder, Anita Baker, Maxwell, D’Angelo, Anthony Hamilton (14 years up to present).

Bill is also the co-founder along with Lance Jackson of Roadies of Color United.

 

Carlos Mosquera, born in Venezuela, has been passionate about music from a young age. Through Venezuela’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs called “El Sistema,” a music education program that reaches 400,000 children, Carlos received his Bachelor in Music. After playing with Symphonic Orchestras and ensembles around the world, he then graduated with a B.A. in Sound Technology from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in the U.K. After graduating,

Carlos has become immersed in music and sound technologies. He has been a Recording/Mixing Engineer for organizations like the L.A. Philharmonic, The Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles, The Herb Albert School of Music at UCLA, and L-ISA Applications Engineer and developer for L-Acoustics’ new immersive audio technology. As an L-ISA Engineer, he has worked on numerous major shows such as Lorde, Lady Gaga, Childish Gambino, Alt-J, LA Philharmonic, Deadmau5, Aerosmith, Bon Iver, Sleeping Beauty Dreams, Cages, among others.

On his own time, he developed a positional app for the visually impaired called “Guiding Sounds”, using inaudible impulses reproduced by speakers. It’s an accessible, scalable, and cost-efficient solution that allows blind individuals to access real-time information of their location, enabling them to find exactly where they are, and how to interact with the world in a whole new way, no internet required. Carlos’s passion for music, sound, mixing, and coding extends beyond his professional career

SIDNEY WILSON 40+ years in the professional audio industry, Sidney’s experience includes a multitude of positions from touring as a front of house engineer, monitor engineer and systems engineer. He also has had stints in the nuclear power industry, MRI (Super Conducting Magnets) industry, working on Particle Accelerators at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and teaching audio electronics. In addition, he has experience in design and building of recording studios. He decided to spread his wings into commercial real estate sales and analysis of 200+ apartment complexes, including real estate development projects and single tenant net lease properties nationwide.

However, his heart is in Audio and the last 10 years have been focused on high‐end professional digital console rentals, sales and service as Operations Manager at Hi‐Tech Audio, Inc., and starting a small company (Erevu Group) specializing in noise measurement, analysis, and solutions for large outdoor concerts and events.

 

 

 

 

Recording through Live Stream Services

 

Ali “AMAC” McGuire

File Sending Guidelines 

Audio Movers Plugins: audiomovers.com

Two articles on sample rate and bit depth

soundgirls.org/understanding-ad-da-converters

prosoundweb.com/digital-audio-basics-sample-rate-and-bit-depth/


Vanessa Silberman

 

SoundGirls YouTube Channel

 

 

 

 

 

Diversity and Inclusion

Resources to Increase Diversity and Inclusion in the Music and Audio Industry

We are often asked ‘How can the industry proactively support gender and racial equality in the audio and music industry.

We’ve put together a list of concrete actions you might take.

Marginalized Groups in this document include women, non-binary genders, LGBTQIA and BIPOC.

These recommendations are for people working in education, industry, audio production and other related fields. We hope that you will read this document and identify three or more steps you can take to make the industry more inclusive.

Hiring and Referrals

Employ people from marginalized groups:

Resources for hiring and recruiting people from marginalized groups

Advertise roles in the right places and make proactive inclusion statements in the job postings. Provide clear opportunities for prospective applicants to contact you directly for further information about the role. If you find that people from marginalized groups aren’t applying for particular roles, undertake consultancy and ask why this may be.

Update your personal references: Can you refer people from marginalized groups for gigs and employment?

If in hiring a position, check that you have a qualified and diverse team looking at resumes. Make sure you have a diverse pool of candidates to interview. We hear all the time, we don’t care about gender or race, we just want to hire the best engineer. But how can you do that when your applicant pool excludes over half the population.

Seek to anonymize the application process where possible.

Look at the diversity in your organization and take steps to build a diverse hiring team.

Offer internships specifically for people from marginalized groups.

10 Ways to Prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace

Provide Sexual Harassment, Diversity, and Bystander Training:

A note about corporate training programs:

Organizations often implement training programs in order to reduce their likelihood of being named in harassment suits or to check a box for E.E.O.C. purposes but does little to change workplace dynamics. Make sure your program is not solely to protect the company. You want to search out and find programs that include empowering bystanders, encourage civility, and offer continued training.

Here for the Music Campaign has resources to build safety into shows and festivals. They work with artists, promoters, fans, venue staff, touring professionals to address sexual harassment and assault in the industry.

Two Types of Diversity Training That Really Work

Confronting Sexual Harassment

Check Unconscious Bias

Understand your own implicit/unconscious bias; that you may be inclined to hear some voices more clearly than others.

Avoiding Unconscious Bias at Work

Test yourself for hidden bias

In the workplace

Reporting Harassment & Policies

As inequalities persist, business owners in every industry have a responsibility to examine the workplace structures they’ve set up or enforced. They must then ask themselves what makes a workplace inclusive and then make changes to support employees from marginalized groups.

What policy does your tour have in place? How do crew members report issues? It is imperative for policies to be effective and that they are taken seriously and handled in a timely manner? It is also imperative to protect the identity of the crew member reporting.

Does your business or tour have an effective reporting mechanism?

HR and harassment issues are some of the most commonly reported types of claims and employers need to be sure to have multiple avenues so an employee can feel comfortable reporting. Regardless of the notification method, employers should follow a consistent documentation process for managing those allegations to ensure consistent outcomes and effective remediation.

Your Company Ethics Hotline Might Not Be Enough

Be an Ally for your co-workers: Although this article is specifically on being an ally for women, it can be easily adapted to include all marginalized groups.

For the Men Who Want to Support Women in Audio

Listen

Listen to experiences of marginalized groups when they provide examples of what marginalizing behaviors look and sound like. Listen, and keep listening without debating, diminishing or deflecting. Just listen. Really take the time to digest each lifetime of experience and insight.

Relieve the burden and contribute to proactive social intervention

Don’t make people from marginalized groups responsible for addressing inequities. We need to work together to shape change:

Set equity targets i.e., to be recording an equal ratio of female artists, works by female composers, and working with sound engineers by a specific date. You might subscribe to the PRS KeyChange initiative. Huddersfield Contemporary Records at The University of Huddersfield have done this. See this excellent statement and commitment from Professor Aaron Cassidy.

Changing Environments

Understand how to create supportive environments for marginalized groups.

Make sure your physical environment is welcoming to all people. Consider how your environments are biased towards certain groups

In Education: Create intelligent, inclusive environments for learning

Reflect on approaches to teaching and learning. From a young age, girls seem to be more socialized to collaborate, so integrate more problem solving, communication methods, and peer learning tasks into music technology education. Erin Barra’s Beats By Girlz lesson plans are great examples of this, and they encourage collaborative learning

Be demanding as all students can become experts. If you teach a minority of girls (who are also less confident), create environments that build up their confidence but also don’t shy away from being demanding. Evidence suggests that those girls will need to be confident and to prove that they have excellent technical knowledge (see unconscious bias) – and anyway, knowledge is power

Support the least confident. Notice where less confident students aren’t contributing, take the issue seriously and consider why this might be happening. Perhaps some students need other (more private) opportunities and spaces to feel comfortable to take risks and make mistakes, because they may not have had the same opportunities to work with technology in the past, or because they have been pushed away by other more confident learners. Some students may just need more assistance with working their way back into practical collaborative projects where they need to feel confident in order to be more assertive with peers

Provide equal visibility of women and especially women of color. Just because we know about Björk, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos and Mandy Parnell we can’t simply assume that some kind of gender balance has been achieved. This is tokenism, and it is a big part of the problem. Help to address this by inspiring young people to understand that the default identity of a music producer is not a white man.

See the websites:  shesaid.so, female pressure, Female Frequency Her Noise Archive  SoundGirls Profiles Women in Sound 

Employ people from marginalized groups. Advertise roles in the right places and make proactive inclusion statements in the advert. Provide clear opportunities for prospective applicants to contact you directly for further information about the role. Think carefully about how to bring female experts into education. If you find that women aren’t applying for particular roles, undertake consultancy and ask why this may be.

In Higher Education, seek out people you can invite in to deliver guest lectures/workshops/supervision. Some may be part-time university academics also working in live electronic music, or in a studio, or in other areas of sound – so look beyond your network, and beyond conventional academia where possible. This helps to bridge the divide between self-employed artists and academia and provide pathways for people from marginalized groups to have the option of engaging in academic practices

Invite conversation. Talk with colleagues to check what your institution is doing to engage students who may have experienced discrimination and, if necessary, seek consultation from the staff at other institutions who are clearly addressing this well.

Understand the statistics by reading academic articles and education research, and drawing on websites of all-women groups. Try to avoid asking women to explain it – because this is exhausting and the resources are all available.

Additional Steps You Can Take to be an Ally

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See. Challenge the media representation of women in sound and music. Women do not see themselves in trade magazines, in panels at conferences, or in advertisements. Digico ran a fantastic ad campaign last year called Excellence Exposed which featured a diverse group of women engineers in both their backgrounds and musical genres.

SoundGirls has a monthly feature profile of women in audio to offset this, and all their weekly blogs are written by women.

Identify and offer support to organizations doing this work.

You can find a list here

Volunteer your time and expertise to these organizations. Whether it is doing advocacy work, amplifying their work on social media, administrative work, or financial contributions.

Wear the T-shirt – literally! The Women’s Audio Mission, SoundGirls, Gender Amplified, Beats By Girlz, Roadies of Color United sell their T-shirts. Help normalize and advocate for diversity in audio and the music industry.

These are just a few recommendations and the issue is much more nuanced and layered, however, we’re asking you to make a start. Be proud that you are a part of this important audio industry initiative.

Further recommendations and guidance

How Men Can Be Allies, 

Sexual Harassment 

More Inclusive Industry

Blogs on Diversity and Inclusion

The AES Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Resources for hiring people from marginalized groups

Resources for hiring people from marginalized groups

The EQl Directory

The EQL Directory is a global database of professionals that seeks to amplify the careers and achievements of women working behind the scenes in music and audio. Any person around the world can add their name and claim their space. And, any person looking to hire a more inclusive creative team can find professionals in their area.

POC in Audio Directory

The directory features over 500 people of color who work in audio around the world. You’ll find editors, hosts, writers, producers, sound designers, engineers, project managers, musicians, reporters, and content strategists with varied experience from within the industry and in related fields.

While recruiting diverse candidates is a great first step, it’s not going to be enough if we want the industry to look and sound meaningfully different in the future. Let us be clear: this isn’t about numbers alone. This is about getting the respect that people of color—and people of different faiths, abilities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, educational backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientation—deserve.

Women-Owned Studios, Sound Companies, and Services

Women in Lighting

Femnoise

A collective fighting for the reduction of the gender gap in the music industry. But we soon realized that the solution is not just activism. We have to go one step further: to connect and empower underrepresented individuals on a large scale, worldwide.

POC Theatre Designers and Techs

Wingspace

is committed to the cause of equity in the field.  There are significant barriers to accessing a career in theatrical design and we see inequalities of race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability across the field.

Parity Productions

Fills creative roles on their productions with women and trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists. In addition to producing their own work, they actively promote other theatre companies that follow their 50% hiring standard.

Production on Deck

Uplifting underrepresented communities in the arts. Their main goal is to curate a set of resources to help amplify the visibility of (primarily) People of Color in the arts.

She is the Music DataBase

FUTURE MUSIC INDUSTRY 

WOMEN/ NON-BINARY DJS/PRODUCERS

South America – Productores por país – Podcasteros

Diversity Database for the Perth Music Community

Women in Live Music DataBase

50+ All-women and feminist sound/music tech collectives, co-ops, non-profits

 

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