Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

Join Us

Finishing a Song and Workflow

What finishing a song a week taught me about workflow?

I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and for a long time, I thought this was a good thing. That was until I read a quote recently that stated:

Done is Better than Perfect

Initially, I was skeptical. When I applied it to music-making I thought to myself I would rather have things perfect than simply completed. Who wants a mediocre piece of work that is done over an intricately detailed piece that might not be completed?

I realised at this moment that I have hard drives full of unfinished work simply because I have deemed it ‘imperfect’.  Yet I have very few finished pieces of work in comparison.

So, I set myself a challenge to start writing and FINISHING a song a week. The rules were it didn’t have to be perfect, I didn’t have to like it, it just had to be DONE.

A month later and many songs completed I realised that I was wrong.

Before I would spend days EQ’ing a kick drum and weeks getting the perfect balance of reverb only to be exhausted with the song months later.

Writing and finishing a song in a week has given me the boundaries I need to prioritise what needs done and limited the amount of time I work on everything. Resulting in the feeling of accomplishment having seen something through to the end.

I ultimately have started liking my one-week songs over the ones I spent four months writing the verses for!

So, if you’re like me and spending an unhealthy amount of time trying to make something ‘perfect’ may I suggest putting a time limit on it and remember –  it doesn’t have to be polished, it just has to be done.

 

Skills College Can’t Teach You 

With graduation season upon us, the Class of 2020 is preparing for graduations in their homes. Through these difficult circumstances, graduating from college is an amazing accomplishment that deserves recognition. It has been a year since I have graduated from school, and through this year I have learned many skills college doesn’t teach you.

Here are a few things you will not learn in college

Networking and relationship building: “It’s not what you know but It’s who you know” is truer than you may think. Networking is meeting new people in a professional context, building those relationships over time, and providing value to each other. This skill is essential because a person’s main success is due to “human engineering”—your personality, communication ability, negotiation skills, and emotional intelligence.

Setting realistic career goals: Nine out of ten chances you aren’t going to land your dream job right out of college. I’ve been denied from Turner Broadcasting several times since I have moved to Atlanta. Setting goals, with realistic deadlines, is an important skill to have in any job where you don’t have someone explicitly telling you what to do. Goal-setting is also valuable for personal development and growth.

Work Hard. Hustle Harder: Good things come to those who hustle! How to sell your ideas and yourself is something not taught in college, but you’ll miss great opportunities if you lack the skills and confidence to put yourself out there. You get that dream job by selling yourself to a hiring manager. You get startup investors by selling your vision. You negotiate a raise by selling yourself to a higher-up.

It is so important to continue education and work on skills that college doesn’t teach you. These skills and many more will help you get a job and keep a job in the industry. Congratulations to the Class of 2020! Despite the circumstance, finishing school amazing. With hard work, determination, and drive anything you want to achieve can and will happen.

What Makes You Stand Out?

When you’re getting started in the music industry (live sound and studio recording), what makes you stand out to a live sound company or a music studio ready to hire? We’ll discuss the types of jobs available, how to find out about jobs, resumes, good and bad ways to cold contact, and other ways to get a foot in the door. This webinar will discuss how business worked before the pandemic, how it might look after, and what you can be doing now to better be prepared.

Moderated by April Tucker, a Los Angeles-based re-recording mixer and sound editor who works in television, film, and new media. She holds both a Master’s Degree and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music/Sound Recording. April enjoys doing educational outreach such as writing for industry blogs, giving lectures and presentations. www.proaudiogirl.com

Panelists: 

Tina Morris, Studio Manager, The Village Studios (Los Angeles)

Catherine Vericolli, Owner/Manager/Engineer, Fivethirteen (Tempe, Arizona)

Meegan Holmes, Global Sales, 8th Day Sound (Los Angeles)

This webinar is limited to 100 people. It will also be live on Facebook and it will be recorded and posted on the SoundGirls website.

 

Paying Yourself First 

 

SoundGirls Presents Paying Yourself First

Andrea Espinoza will be teaching us how to financially plan for your future.

Register here  – May 21 at 3 PM PST.

This is a Zoom Webinar and it will be recorded and available online at a later date. It will also be Live on Facebook.

Topics Include:

Andrea Espinoza is an Audio Engineer turned Tour Manager. With a BFA in Sound Design & Engineering, Espinoza spent eight years working in touring audio before she diversified into roles that included automation, carpentry, and video. In lieu of recent events, she has been able to fully pivot to her own practice as a licensed financial educator and advisor, helping to set those that she comes into contact with on the path towards financial freedom – one conversation at a time.

 

Striving for Excellence

 

I love to show this picture when people ask what my job is like, especially in tech. It’s from one of our first previews of the Miss Saigon National Tour: I’m at front of house (FOH) with Mick Potter and Adam Fisher, the sound designer, and the UK sound associate respectively, next to me on the console. The executive producer, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, watches the show on the end of the row, keeping a sharp eye out for any aspect that might need a bit of polish. On my other side is the US sound associate, Josh Hummel, who’s taking the picture, so it’s a full house in every sense of the phrase. There’s nothing like mixing a scene for maybe the third or fourth time with multiple people — all of whom have the ability to fire you — within a five-foot radius. And while you’re mixing, the producer is making suggestions to the designer who is making adjustments and talking with the associate, who is also making adjustments while giving you notes to help you refine your mix. Oh, and please, don’t miss any pick-ups.

It doesn’t stop once you leave tech. Granted, FOH becomes less crowded once the directors, producers, and designers are gone, but there are now thousands of people in the seats and they also expect perfection. They will happily be your harshest critics if they feel like the experience isn’t up to snuff, and you don’t have much of a safety net: actors can cover when they forget something, but there’s no way to ad-lib a fader up after you’ve missed the line.

Until you’ve done a few shows and learn to trust in your abilities as a mixer, it’s easy to let your nerves get the better of you. This is a common problem in many careers; a musician has to be “on” for an audition, an athlete has one chance to break a record or win a medal, a businesswoman has one meeting to nail a presentation. However, there is one major difference. Those jobs have one thing: one project, one match, one audition. As a mixer, it’s every day, 8 shows a week, week after week that you have to spend at a level of peak performance.

Mixing has and always will be a high-pressure job, but if you’re able to accept that and work with it instead of fighting it, you and your blood pressure will thank you. Sometimes it’s as easy as finding a scene or a song in the show that you can jam out to or get carried along with the sweep of the music. Other times it’s finding some way to let go of adrenaline or calm yourself down before your start. I know people who will take a walk around the theatre if they need to work off some nerves. Personally, I like a game or an easy crossword puzzle that keeps me occupied and gets my brain going, but I can put aside at a moment’s notice.

Most of the time, the stress comes from falling into the trap of expecting perfection. Achieving a “perfect” show depends on millions of variables and is therefore close to impossible. I was listening to a podcast called “How To! with Charles Duhigg” where he had Dr. Green, a peak performance psychologist, talk about dealing with stress, specifically related to performance. Green said at one point, “There’s a difference between perfectionism and striving for excellence.” That phrase resonated with me and my approach to mixing. Mixers rely on a unique ability: they have to constantly strive and expect nothing less than complete accuracy, but if they do make a mistake, they must also have the capability to forgive themselves and move past it almost immediately, otherwise, it can derail the rest of the show. “Striving for excellence” is exactly what we do. You walk up to the board with the commitment to do you very best every single time, but allow yourself enough grace to acknowledge your mistakes if they happen and move on.

Sometimes that commitment is your best defense against nerves. If you bring that mindset of striving for excellence every time you step up to the console, it’s just another show. It doesn’t matter if a producer with a net worth of upwards of a billion is pacing around FOH, or if it’s just you left to do your thing: you always mix the same show. I’ve seen the opposite with the actors a lot. There are always a few that consistently do warm-ups, but when a creative or someone important comes to the show, suddenly the dressing room hallways are filled with a cacophony of vocal exercises. Backstage you can see the ones that have been doing the show they’re supposed to the entire time: they’re calm and collected; conditioned by weeks of practice. Those who choose to mark their singing for most shows, then decide to go all out for this show are the ones huffing and puffing; they didn’t realize that it was so much work to dance and sing like they’re supposed to. (Plus it’s an absolute treat for the mixer to have to play “Guess the Level” when actors decide to actually sing out for the part they never do, or option up an octave instead of the normal note.)

When mistakes happen—whether due to surprises or not—one of the biggest, and least productive, traps a mixer can fall into is dwelling on that mistake. Your brain only has so much bandwidth to devote to a task at hand and, as soon as you start using up processing power to berate yourself over a missed pick up, you limit what ability your brain has left to focus on the show. Believe me, you’ll have plenty of time to beat yourself up when the show is done if you want to.

The best method I’ve found is to acknowledge it. My involuntary reaction ends up being a sharp head jerk and a pissed off grunt, but then I put myself right back in the show. Take a moment, but only that, then focus on the next line, the next band move, the next scene. Don’t give yourself an opportunity to linger. It’s not easy at first, because that’s exactly what you’ll want to do, but with enough repetition, it will become a habit.

Once the show is over, then you can do a replay of what you missed. It shouldn’t be to blame yourself but to do a technical analysis and take stock of what happened in the moment. Did you grab the wrong fader? Were you focusing on something or someone else? Did you lose your place and fumbled while getting back on track? When you know what caused the mistake, you can take steps to help yourself the next time.

One of my more glaring mistakes was the press opening of the tour for Miss Saigon. It was a tense, quiet scene between Chris and his wife, Ellen, and I grabbed the wrong fader and, instead of Ellen comforting Chris, another woman was loud and proud talking offstage about her dress for the opening party. Again, mentally curse, and move on. After the show, I highlighted that line and made sure I absolutely could NOT miss the fader number was in my script. That served as a reminder for me every time to make sure I threw the right fader.

On a less obvious note, in Mean Girls, one of the lines changed from when I first learned the show, and “I noticed you failed your last few quizzes. Is everything okay?” became just, “I noticed you failed your last few quizzes.” For some reason that the last sentence was so ingrained in my head, that there were multiple times where I forgot it was cut and had to scramble to get the next fader up in time. To solve that, I made a concentrated effort to consciously remind myself to bring up the next fader on the word “few” and, with show after show of that constant thought, it eventually became habit.

In both cases, the mistakes (or close calls) were singular events, blips that didn’t snowball into larger catastrophes, but being able to keep your cool under pressure can help you have less of those blips in the first place. When Les Mis had the official press opening for the tour, it was just like the Saigon preview at FOH, only more people. Designers from every department, directors, production management, producers, you name it, if there was an open space, it wasn’t empty long. And despite their best efforts, they’re never completely quiet: pencils scratching on notepads, fingers tapping notes on tablets, whispers back and forth. Even with all the distractions, I focused on the job at hand and had a solid, clean show. Afterward, one of the production managers told me a few people had mentioned to him that they were impressed that I could be so calm with so many eyes peering over my shoulder. You don’t always get the feedback, but people are watching and they’ll notice how you handle yourself in a stressful situation.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to walk into every show with clean feet, or “leave your baggage at the door.” Did you miss a line or two in the last show? Were the dynamics not what you know they should have been? Did you have an absolutely flawless performance? Great. That was the last show. This is a new day and a new show. Come to it without resting on your laurels or harping on yourself for the mistakes of yesterday; each new show is another chance to get it right, another chance to feel that satisfying rush as everything comes together. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes the stress of our jobs can discourage aspiring mixers before they even have the chance to learn how to master it. Remember to be patient and show yourself some grace, especially when you’re learning. Good things take time.

 

The ABCs of Women in Theatre

Maybe it’s the quarantine getting to me, or maybe it’s the fact that two of my quarantine cellmates are six and eleven years old, but for this month’s blog, I decided to go a little Dr. Seuss on you!  I’ve given you the name of a woman of theatre you should definitely know of for (almost) every letter of the alphabet.  I’ll give you just a taste of the genius that each and every one of these women were and are, but if I were you, I’d take these names straight to Google to soak up every bit of info you can after you read this blog.  Enjoy!

A is for Aphra Behn to start this off right.  She was a seventeenth-century woman playwright.  It seems she was a leader in feminism too and wrote on hot topics, arranged marriage, to boot.

B is for Bradley, Lillian Trimble’s last name.  Being America’s first woman director is what gave her fame.  She loved Melodrama.  To her, it was the best.  She broke into the scene with her play, The Woman On The Index.

C is for Cheryl (and her last name) Crawford, too.  She was a producer when for women, it was new.  She founded Group Theater and Actors Studio when she moved to New York from Akron, Ohio.

D is for Dianne, her last name is Glancy.  She’s a Native American Playwright, specifically, Cherokee.  She’s published over ten plays and written even more.  She also writes literature and poetry galore.

E is for Eugenia Rosenthal, she went by Jean, for short.  She pioneered a path of the technical sort.  Born in 1912, she was always a climber, she paved the way for women lighting designers.

F is for Frances Goodrich, you want to know her.  She’s a 1956 Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner.  She and her husband, and this takes the cake, won those two prizes for their Diary of Anne Frank. 

G is for Georgia, in this case, Georgia Stitt.  She’s an American composer, and she’s the real sh*%!

H is for Hrotsvitha, a very FIRST first.  To leave her unmentioned would be just the worst.  She’s probably the very first woman playwright, a tenth-century nun, her art was a sight.

J Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron are the first women writing team to win the best score for Fun Home.  Another first definitely not to be missed, this musical featured the first lesbian protagonist.

K is for Kitty Clive, a diva of her era, she was one of the first to play the lead in The Beggar’s Opera.

L is for Lorraine Hansberry and remember this one.  The first black woman produced play on Broadway was hers: Raisin in the Sun.

M is for Micki Grant, she helped pave the way.  She’s one of the first women composers of Broadway.

N is for Nell Gwynne, 1650 English born.  At 14 she hit the stage, acting, of course.

P is for Peg, Peg Woffington of England.  She pioneered “breeches” roles, cross-dressing women.

R is for Rebecca.  Can you say Lenkiewicz?  Have you heard of her 2008 play, Naked Skin?  It was produced at National Theatre on the Mainstage, a first for a woman playwright during that day and age.

S is for Sara Barielles, we all love this queen.  She led the all-women creative team for Waitress in 2016.

T is for Tony (Antoniette) Perry.  You’ve heard of the Tony Awards, right?  Same Person.  That’s scary.

V is for Vinette Carroll, she directed on Broadway.  The first black woman to do so, by the way.

Z is for Zelda Fichandler.  In 1950, she founded Arena Stage in Washington DC.  Arena Stage won the first regional Tony in 1976 and was the first to move to Broadway a show of their pick.

These women are heroes, bad-ass superstars.  Let’s always make history remember who they are.  Through pandemic ramblings, or word-press, or pen, keep spreading the word of these powerful women.

 

Minimalist Mixing Techniques 

Hi SoundGirls! Back in January, I wrote about the recording process for a 16 song album I was working on at the time. Although I promised that my next blog would be about the mixing process, that took a pause because my last blog ended up being about my friend Tangela’s new podcast, “Women in Audio”. I was lucky enough to be her first guest, so for my March blog, I broke down some essential topics we talked about in the podcast, and provided links to it at the end. If you haven’t listened to the Women in Audio podcast yet- I suggest you do. She has multiple interviews streaming now, plus the conversations are fun and intriguing! You’ll definitely enjoy them.

With all that being said, we are circling back to the album I just wrapped and today’s blog will be about the mixing process, (YAY!).

You might’ve noticed the title for this month’s blog is called “Minimalist Mixing Techniques”, so you already know what I’m about to dive into…the art of NOT using 10,000 plug-ins on ONE song! Now, there is nothing wrong with that at all! If the song is calling for production, or if you want to just be creative with plug-ins…do it. There are certain artists or bands I work with that I like to get very creative with plug-ins, but in this instance- we didn’t go that route, and I wanted to talk about the steps I used to get the band their final product.

Here is the list of steps I would take from when I would first open up the session to when I sent them their first mix of the song:

Clean up your session

What I mean by “clean up your session” is- get rid of tracks you don’t need. Not using that DI track you captured? Hide and make inactive. If you have two tracks that could become 1 (ex. two mono overhead mic tracks)- create it as a stereo track. Make your starting base simple, so you can move through it seamlessly.

Set up your effects

Now that you’ve gotten rid of things you don’t need. Start adding in things you do need to create some depth in the mix. I would recommend only 2 (maybe 3) effects tracks since we are keeping this mix minimal. A reverb, delay, and a slap delay are pretty effective for any mix.

Start with the drums

The way I mix is I start with the drums soloed and then I move through the mix adding in each instrument at a time. For the drums, I would recommend bussing together the things that are the same (kick in/kick out, snare top/ snare bottom, etc), but don’t get too “bus” happy. One of the reasons I sometimes like to mix minimally is because it’s easy to have control over your mix when you don’t have too many things bussing into one another (aka phase issues, and your mix could get muddy if you lose control of the low end).

EQ

Eq is always incredibly important in any mixing process. I think it’s usually best to eq minimally, and if you’re capturing things well in the studio you shouldn’t have to do TOO much of it on the back end anyways. With this, I would recommend practicing using pro-tools stock eq so you can focus on using your ears instead of your eyes. You’ll question the eq moves you make more than you would vice versa (which results in minimalist eq techniques). That will also help you avoid phases that you may create yourself by eq-ing too much.

Compression

When mixing minimally, compression is key. You want to keep the dynamics of the song, but you don’t want things poking out of the mix when they shouldn’t be! I think the most prevalent two things to compress in a minimal mix are the snare and the bass. Obviously, compress the kick, guitars, vocals, as need be, but I’d say the snare and the bass you will want to focus on most. Since we are keeping it simple, keep a small ratio, set your attack/release (all dependent on the instrument), and slowly add in the threshold. Keep it on the lighter side though. Remember, we want those dynamics there!

Bussing

I kind of went over this in the “drums” paragraph, but to go into more detail, I will say- bus together with the things that make sense and make the mixing process easier for you. The reason I would bus the kick in/kick out together is that I have more control over the total sound of the kick through eq AND compression. It would be the same thought process for two guitar mics on the same amp, and so on.

That’s the gist of mixing minimally. I hope this blog helps you go outside of your comfort zone, and trust your ears a bit more. That’s what mixing this way has done for me!

I hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and creative out there! No matter what, never stop making music or doing what you love.

Until next time SoundGirls, and as always- feel free to email me at virginia@backbeat365.com.

 

 

SoundGirls Mix45

SoundGirls Mix45 Guidelines

Get together with 3 or 4 other audio engineers and spend 45 minutes mixing multitracks. Come together in conversation about what you enjoyed, what you found difficult, what you focused your time on, and your approach to the mix. Do a final “live” run-through recording your mix, sharing the file with the group. Everyone takes turns listening, commenting, and asking questions. Note, this is not a contest, but a way to keep mixing and exploring new techniques with a community.

Sign-Up Here

Sessions Available

Necessary Equipment

  1. A mixing console or DAW  capable of receiving digital multitracks
    1. e.g. X32, Pro Tools, SQ5, Reaper
  2. A computer to play multitracks, AND record the main LR output
    1. e.g. TracksLive, Audacity
  3. Headphones or nearfield speakers
  4. An internet connection
  5. Two hours

The Order

  1. Receive multitracks
    1. If multiple microphones are used for the same instrument, you may select which tracks you want to use
  2. Setup routing
  3. Meet the group, introduce yourself, and be prepared to start your 45 minutes
  4. 45-minute mixing session
    1. This time is to include naming, grouping, and any mixing you see fit
  5. At the end of 45 minutes, the group comes back together to discuss their process
    1. e.g. “What did you spend the most time on?”, “What did you tackle first?”, “What dynamics processing, if any, did you use?”, etc.
  6. Final run-through
    1. Record your LR out and do one last complete pass through the song. This is your chance to “mix it live” just as you would at a show.
  7. Upload the mp3/wav to the video chat
  8. Take turns listening to each upload (on the same monitors/headphones you used to mix if at all possible) and having a discussion about differences they noticed between their own mix, comments about placements, asking questions about technique, etc.
    1. e.g. “I hear you used some pretty heavy delay on the background vocals, I like the sound of it. What were your parameters?”, “The drums are sitting very far back in this mix, which is not necessarily something I would do. What genre do you normally mix?”, “What EQ did you implement on the bass to get it to sound like this?”

The Rules

  1. No mixing before the 45 minutes begins
  2. Only routing the multitracks and picking tracks with multiples (it is not necessary to use every single track) can be done ahead of time
  3. Naming, grouping, bus assignments, FX, etc. must be done within the 45-minute session
  4. Your individual group must decide the limitations of outside processing (e.g. “only stock plug-ins” or “anything is game”)
  5. Be kind. This is a game of speed, priority, experience, and general mixing technique. Some boards are easier to mix on, DAWs allow quick changes, etc.

Example

  1. https://youtu.be/4o8c_qnKlR8

Multitrack Sources:

  1. The ‘Mixing Secrets’ Free Multitrack Download Librarywww.cambridge-mt.com › mtk
  2. Telefunken Season 4
  3. Telefunken Season 3
  4. Telefunken Season 2

Sign-Up Here

Basic Networking For Live Sound Engineers

Part 1: Defining A Network

By Arica Rust

 

The World of Audio Over IP:

There is a certain sense of security that comes from physically plugging a cable made of copper from one device to another. On some level my engineer brain finds comfort believing that, “As long as I patch this end to that end correctly and the integrity of the cable itself has not been compromised, the signal will get from Point A to Point B.”  I believe one of the most daunting aspects of understanding networked audio, and audio-over-IP in general, stems from the feeling of self-induced, psychological uncertainty in one’s ability to “physically” route one thing to another. I mean, after all these years consoles still have faders, buttons, and knobs because people enjoy the tactile feedback of performing a move related to their task in audio.

The psychological hurdle that must be overcome is that a network can be much like a copper multicore snake, sending multiple signals all over the place. The beauty and power of it is that it has so much more adaptability than our old copper friend. We can send larger quantities of high quality signals around the world: a task that would be financially and physically impractical for a single project using physical wires. In this first blog, part 1 of a 3 part series, I will attempt to overview a basic understanding of what a network is and how we can create and connect to a network.

 

What Is A Network?

     A network can refer to any group of things that interconnect to transfer data: think of a “social network” where a group of individuals exchange ideas in person or over the Internet. Cisco Systems (one of the biggest juggernauts of the industrial networking world) defines a network as “two or more connected computers that can share resources such as data, a printer, and Internet connection, applications, or a combination of these resources” (Cisco, 2006[1]). We commonly see networks created using wired systems, Wi-Fi, or a combination of these. Wired systems build a network using physical Ethernet connections (Cat5e/Cat6 cabling) or fiber, while Wi-Fi uses radio frequencies to carry signals from device to device. “Wi-Fi” is a marketing term for the technology that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) define in standards 802.11, and we could dedicate an entire blog just to discussing this topic[2].

 

Unicast vs. Multicast

 

In a given network using the TCP/IP protocol, which stands for “Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol”, devices exchange packets of data by requesting and responding to messages sent to one another. In a unicast message, one device talks directly to another as a point-to-point transmission. In a multicast message, one device can broadcast a message to multiple devices at once. To understand how devices exchange messages to one another, we must understand how IP and MAC addresses work.

I like to think of a data network like a department in a tour: there are the audio, lighting, video, and other departments, and each department has its own participants who communicate with each other within their own department. Let’s look at the analogy of a network compared to the audio department. Each individual, (the monitor engineer, PA techs, systems engineer, FOH Engineer, etc.), act as discrete hosts performing tasks like a computer or amplifier talking to one another on a data network. Every device has a unique MAC address, which stands for “Media Access Control” Address and, like the name of each person on a crew (except 48-bit and written in hexadecimal[3]), is unique to the hardware of a device on a network. An IP address is a 32-bit number written as 4 octets (if translated into binary) and is specific to devices within the same network[4]. Think of an IP address as different from a MAC address like a nickname is to a given name. There may be several folks nicknamed “Jay” on a crew, maybe Jennifer in Audio and John in Lighting, but as long as “Jay” is talking to people locally in the same department, the other hosts will know who “Jay” is being referred to.

 

 

These two networks (or tour departments) are not local to the same network

 

MAC addresses are specific to hardware, but IP addresses can be “reused” as long as there are no conflicts with another device of the same address within the same local network. A group of devices in the same IP range is called a LAN or Local Area Network. LANs can vary from basic to complex networks and are seen everywhere from the Wi-Fi network in our homes to a network of in-ear monitor transmitters and wireless microphone receivers connected to a laptop. So how do these devices talk to each other within a LAN?

 

IP Addresses and Subnet Masks within a LAN:

Let’s create a simple LAN of a laptop and a network-capable wireless microphone receiver and dive deep into understanding what composes an IP address. The computer has an IP address that is associated with it via its MAC address and the same goes for the receiver. In Figure A the two devices are directly connected from the network adapter of one to the other with an Ethernet Cat 6 cable.

 

Figure A

 

The IP address of the laptop is 192.168.1.1 and the IP address of the receiver is 192.168.1.20. Each of the four numbers separated by a period actually translates to an octet (8 bits) of binary. This is important because both devices are on the same subnet 192.168.1.XXX. A subnet is a way of dividing a network by having devices only look at other devices that are within their same network as defined by their subnet mask. There are 254 addresses available on the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. According to a Microsoft article, “Understanding TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics”, XXX.XXX.XXX.0 is used to specify a network “without specifying a host” and XXX.XXX.XXX.255 is used to “broadcast a message to every host on the network”[5]. So, in this network example, neither the computer nor the receiver can use the IP addresses 192.168.1.0 or 192.168.1.255 because those addresses are reserved for the network and for broadcast. But how does the computer know to look for the receiver in the 192.168.1.XXX IP address range? Why doesn’t it look at 10.0.0.20? This has to do with the subnet mask of each device.

Let me give you a little history about these numbers: believe it or not, but there is an organization whose main gig is to assign IP addresses in the public Internet. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages IP addresses that connect you and your Internet Service provider (ISP) to the World Wide Web. In order to prevent conflicts with the IP addresses that connect with the Internet, the IANA enforces a set of standards created by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). One set of standards referred to as RFC 1918[6] reserves a specific set of IP ranges for private networks, like the example 192.168.1.XXX. That means that anyone can use them within their own LAN, as long as it does not connect to the Internet. To understand more about how our computers connect to the Internet, we have to talk about DNS and gateways, which is beyond the scope of this blog. The key for our laptop and receiver to determine whether another device is local to their LAN lies in the subnet mask. Both devices in Figure A have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Each set of numbers, like the IP address, corresponds to an octet of binary. The difference is that instead of indicating a specific number, it indicates the number of available values for addresses in that range. The subnet mask becomes a lot easier to understand once you think about it in its true binary form. But trust me, once you understand what a subnet mask ACTUALLY refers to in binary, you will better understand how it refers to available IP addresses in the subnet.

A subnet mask is composed of 4 octets in binary. If we filled every bit in each octet except for the last and translated it to its true binary form we would get a subnet mask that looks like this:

255.255.255.0 can also be written as 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000

Binary is base two and reflects an “on” or “off” value, which means that each position of each bit in the octet, whether it is zero or one, can mathematically equal 2^n (2 to the nth power) until you get to the 8th position.

The octet XXXXXXXX (value X in octet of either 1 or 0) can also be written as: (2^7)+(2^6)+(2^5)+(2^4)+(2^3)+(2^2)+(2^1)+(2^0)

Binary math is simply done by “filling in” the position of the bit in the octet with a “true” value and then calculating the math from there. In other words, a binary octet of 11000000 (underlines added for emphasis) can be interpreted as (2^7)+(2^6)+(0^5)+(0^4)+(0^3)+(0^2)+(0^1)+(0^0)=192

OK, OK, roll with me here. So if we do the binary math for all values in the octet being “true” or 1 then in the previous example,

11111111=(2^7)+(2^6)+(2^5)+(2^4)+(2^3)+(2^2)+(2^1)+(2^0)=255

So if we refer back to the first subnet mask example, we can discern based on the binary math that:

11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000=255.255.255.0

When a value is “true” or 1 in a bit in an octet, that position has been “filled” and no other values can be placed there. Think of each octet like a highway: each highway has 8 lanes that can fit up to 254 cars/hosts total on the highway (remember it is base 2 math and the values of 0 and 255 are accounted for). A value of 1 means that the lane has been filled by 2^n cars/hosts where n=lane position on the highway and the lanes count starting at 0 (because it is a computer). So to add another car, it must move to the next lane to the left or bit position. For example, if you climb up from 00000011 to 00000111 each 1 acts like cars filling up a lane, and if the lane is filled, the next bit moves on to the next left lane.

 

 

Each position of a bit is like a lane on a highway (left), when the value of the lowest bit is “filled” or True (remember this is an analogy, really it’s either binary On or Off), the ascending value “spills” over to the next bit (right)

So why do we care about this? Well if a device has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 or 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 that means that all the binary values of the first 3 octets must match with the other devices in order for them to be considered to be “local” to the same local network. The only values or lanes “available” for hosts are in the last octet (hence the zeroes). So going back to Figure A our computer and wireless network both have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 which indicates that the first 3 octets of the IP address on both devices MUST be the same on both devices for them to talk to each other AND there are only 254 available IP addresses for hosts on the network (192.168.1-254). Indeed both the laptop and receiver are local because they both are on the 192.168.1.XXX subnet, and the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 only “allows” them to talk to devices within that local network.

In this example we talked about devices given static IP addresses as opposed to addresses created using DHCP. In a static IP address the user or network administrator defines the IP address for the device whereas a device set to DHCP, or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, looks to the network to determine what is the current available address for the device and assigns it to that device on a lease basis[7]. In the world of audio, the type of network addressing you choose for your system may vary from application to application, but static IP addressing is commonly preferred due to the ability for the operator to specify the exact range they want the devices to operate in as opposed to leaving it up to the network to decide. Returning to our earlier analogy of the audio department on a tour, each host needs a way to communicate with one another and also to other departments. What if the PA tech needs to talk to someone in the outside network of the lighting department? This is where routers and switches come into play.

A switch and a router often get referred to interchangeably when in fact they perform two different functions. A switch is a device that allows for data packets to be sent between devices on the same network. Switches have tables of MAC addresses on the same local network that they use to reference when sending data packets between devices. A router works by identifying IP addresses of different devices, and “directing traffic” by acting as a way to connect devices over separate networks. Routers do this by creating a “routing table” of IP addresses and when a device makes a request to talk to another device, it can reference its table to find the corresponding device to forward that message[8]. Routers are kind of like department crew chiefs where you can give them a message to be delivered to another department.

 

Routers can connect separate networks to allow them to talk to one another

Routers often get confused with their close relative the access point and though you can use a router to function similarly to an access point, an access point cannot be a router. Routers and access points come up often in wireless applications as a way to remotely get into a network. The difference is that access points allow you to get into a specific local network or expand the current network. Unlike a router, access points do not have the capability to send messages to another network outside the LAN.

So now if we wanted to add another device to our network in Figure A and we don’t need to cross into another network, let’s say we add an in-ear monitor transmitter, we can add a switch to connect all the devices.

 

Network from Figure A with a IEM transmitter added, all talking via a switch

The switch connects the three devices all on the same local network of 192.168.1.XXX. You can tell that they are all local to this network because they have the subnet mask 255.255.255.0, therefore all devices are only looking to “talk” to messages on 192.168.1.XXX since only the values in the last octet are available for host IP addresses. Voilà! We have created our first LAN!

It may seem daunting at first, but understanding the binary behind the numbering in IP addresses and subnet masks is the key to understanding how devices know what other hosts are considered to be on their local network or LAN. With the help of switches and access points we can expand this local network and with the addition of routers we can include other networks. Using these expanding devices allows us to divide our network further into different topologies. In the next blog, this concept will be expanded further in Basic Networking For Live Sound Part 2: Dividing A Network. Stay tuned!

If you want to learn more about networking, there are some GREAT resources available to you online! Check out trainings from companies such as:

https://www.audinate.com/learning/training-certification

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications.html

https://avnu.org/training/

And more!

 

[1]https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/global/fi_fi/assets/docs/SMB_University_120307_Networking_Fundamentals.pdf

[2] https://www.cisco.com/c/en_ca/products/wireless/what-is-wifi.html

[3]https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource_library/files/89301711029b9788/networking_fundamentals_for_dante.pdf

[4] Ibid.

[5]https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/164015/understanding-tcp-ip-addressing-and-subnetting-basics

[6] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918

[7] https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/faq/firewall/what-is-dhcp-and-what-does-it-do

[8]https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business/resource-center/networking/how-does-a-router-work.html#~what-does-a-router-do

 

 

Resources:

Audinate. (n.d.). Dante Certification Program. https://www.audinate.com/learning/training-certification/dante-certification-program

Audio Technica U.S., Inc. (2014, November 5). Networking Fundamentals for Dante. https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource_library/files/89301711029b9788/networking_fundamentals_for_dante.pdf

Cisco. (n.d.) How Does a Router Work? https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business/resource-center/networking/how-does-a-router-work.html

Cisco. (2006). Networking Fundamentals. In SMB University: Selling Cisco SMB Foundation Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/global/fi_fi/assets/docs/SMB_University_120307_Networking_Fundamentals.pdf

Cisco. (n.d.) What Is Wi-Fi? https://www.cisco.com/c/en_ca/products/wireless/what-is-wifi.html

D-Link. (2012-2018). What is DHCP and what does it do? https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/faq/firewall/what-is-dhcp-and-what-does-it-do

 

Encyclopedia Brittanica. (n.d.). TCP/IP Internet Protocols. In Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/technology/domain-name

Generate Random MAC Addresses. (2020). Browserling. https://www.browserling.com/tools/random-mac

 

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. (2020, April 21). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority

 

Internet Engineering Task Force. (1996). Address Allocation for Private Internets (RFC 1918). Retrieved from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918

 

Microsoft Support. (2019, December 19). Understanding TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics. https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/164015/understanding-tcp-ip-addressing-and-subnetting-basics

 

Thomas, Jajish. (n.d.).What are Routing and Switching | Difference between Routing and Switching. OmniSecu.com. https://www.omnisecu.com/cisco-certified-network-associate-ccna/what-are-routing-and-switching.php

 

 

X