Spring is almost here! With the Earth gradually awakening, I can feel my own mind coming out of its hibernation. I find myself reading more articles, keeping up with current events, and listening to new podcasts.
Speaking of podcasts, the podcast industry has been receiving attention for some time now. I recently had the pleasure of talking with Fela Davis about podcast audio and what it means for the audio industry. Fela has nearly twenty years of experience in the audio engineering industry. Her list of credentials is very impressive. She also produces and hosts a podcast called The Art of Music Tech Podcastwith her business partner Denis Orynbekov.
I became aware of the increasing interest in podcast audio after attending the 2019 Audio Engineering Society’s national convention in New York City. I had listened to a few lectures where Fela and a panel of other professionals talked about their experiences. I had many questions and fortunately, Fela was able to answer all of them.
In the past few years, producing a podcast has become increasingly more affordable. Fela mentioned that most students have the bare minimum needed to put together a podcast. Some kind of DAW to record onto, an interface, and a microphone. Even with the accessibility, how does someone make this kind of work profitable? Fela explained that not only does she work on her own podcast, but many others too. Through 23dB Productions audio services, Fela is able to work with clients who need audio and video services. We both agreed, most people have something they want to say and there will at least be one person willing to listen to it. These can be large-scale companies or organizations or smaller groups or single individuals.
Being mobile and having your own equipment is important, but with the surge of companies, organizations, and individuals looking to use this form of media, being open to its opportunities is key. As a woman in the audio industry, what really intrigued me was, it’s kind of brand new. Fela and I both laughed, but it’s true. This is a part of the industry where women and minorities have the opportunity to flourish. There are no jerks named bob hiring their best friend over you. The pressure to prove yourself is significantly lessened.
In the beginning, most individuals will be playing the role of producer, host, engineer, and editor. Drew Stockero, a student at Michigan Technological University, does just that with his podcast If It Matters Podcast. Stockero said the podcast is about, “ordinary people having ordinary conversations about the things they find extraordinary.” He takes the time to curate each episode and interviewee, he is the producer and hosts every episode, all while recording, mixing, and mastering. After chatting for a bit about his workflow, he did admit that fulfilling every role for the podcast is a lot of work. Typically, indie podcasts are much smaller and only run by one or two people. But, as Fela stated, the option to use remote engineers is there once you start gaining clients or attention.
Radio was brought up in both of my interviews. Stockero mentioned podcasts being an extension of talk radio. Growing up, my father would listen to a lot of NPR on long family road trips. With the shift from cable television to streaming services, it is no surprise we are seeing a move from radio to podcasts. It was also mentioned that podcasting is making more money than radio broadcasts. It is undeniable that there has been a boom in revenue for the podcast industry, but all of this did surprise me. I was starting to have more questions than I started with, and definitely more interest.
I received many great words of wisdom when I asked for advice regarding this topic and its industry. You will want to immerse yourself in the business, or your local chamber of commerce. Networking is always important, but also being someone that has a positive personality and is easy to communicate with is just as important. From an artistic standpoint, being passionate about the topics you are addressing through your podcast is essential. It helps keep the information fresh, the motivation constant, and ultimately something others will want to listen to.
This form of entertainment intrigues me. It is a service where, we as engineers, can have a voice or help others have a voice and be heard. I do agree, I think it is a place that women can flourish in the industry. Not only is there a supply of work where women and minorities can be at the top, but we can also have a voice. Having the ability to not only strengthen myself, but the ones around me is an opportunity that I value. More of these conversations, podcasts, and articles need to exist for our current community and the future community. It is conversations and the spread of information such as this, that makes me feel awake and ready to take on the industry.
I hope you all have a wonderful spring and do not forget to check out the wonderful people that I got to chat with for this article. Fela Davis can be found on LinkedIn and her website felaaudio.com. The Art of Music Tech Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, IHeart Radio, and Youtube. Drew Stockero’s podcast If It Matters is also available on Apple Podcasts, Google, iHeart Radio, listennotes, and player.fm.
Episode 1 – Beckie Campbell and Susan Williams from the Orlando Soundgirls Chapter interview one of the founding members of SoundGirls, Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, in the inaugural episode of Resonating Beyond Sound.
Episode 17 – LYNNE EARLS A producer-engineer-mixer-composer and player: Irish-born, Liverpool-educated Los Angeles transplant Lynne Earls’ credits include recording K.D. Lang, Calexico, Rumer, Lizz Wright, Wayne Shorter and many others. In this conversation, she compares recording to photography, instinct and intuition guide her as she captures the authentic soul of a sound in the optimal instant.
EPISODE 16 – BONNIE MCKEE: She’s an “American Girl,” one of the “California Girls,” and a “Teenage Dream” who can “Roar.” Artist, songwriter and producer Bonnie McKee might be best known from her multiple award winning collaborations with Katy Perry, as a recording artist, or as a guest vocalist with dance provocateurs Kygo and Armin Van Buuren. If you listen to pop music, you have heard her songs for Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and many others. Meet the luminous, glamorous and fabulous Bonnie McKee.
EPISODE 12 – LESLIE ANN JONES: Engineer, producer and mixer Leslie Ann Jones has been behind the board for everyone from Rosemary Clooney and Kronos Quartet to Herbie Hancock and Alice in Chains. As Director of Music Recording and Scoring for Skywalker Sound, she records scores for video games and feature films including Apocalypse Now, Requiem for a Dream and Happy Feet. A multiple Grammy Award winner inducted this year into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame for her achievements, Leslie Ann Jones is an Audio Icon of the first order.
A podcast amplifying the voices and careers of women in music. Hosted by Thea Wood, the show is part of the Backstage Chats Foundation, a nonprofit organization offering grants and scholarships to women in music. Women are underrepresented on stage, on-air, and behind the scenes in the music biz, so it’s our mission to create gender harmony by sharing the voices and stories of female music makers. Backstage Chats with Women In Music connects music fans with female artists and industry insiders who remind us to be dreamers, to be rule breakers, and that we are all rock stars!
The Tonebenders podcast is a resource for anyone involved in post sound, with insights on everything from field recording to editing, designing and mixing in the studio.
On my last blog, I talked about recording Posival. I know I promised my next one would be about the mixing process for this album, but we are going to take a pause on that. The reason we are taking a pause is that one of my very good friends that is also a (badass) live sound engineer just dropped the first episode of her new podcast called “Women In Audio” today! I was lucky enough to be her very first guest too. What I am going to do is break down some of the key conversations that took place during the podcast.
Work Ethic
Tangela and I talked about music and what it means to us, amongst many other things. I’ll break down here the topics that specifically pertain to audio engineering. The first thing she asked me (that was audio-specific) was how I record my bands’ music. I know I’ve written about the recording process for my band’s music before, so I won’t go too much into that. What I will mention is the reason I am able to record my own bands’ music out of different studios. I am able to do these things because, from the moment I started engineering, I was a go-getter. A question Tangela asked me was *essentially*, “How do you gain those people’s trust, and how do you get to that point?”. I recommend from the moment anyone starts this journey that they DIVE right in. Be the first one there, and the last one to leave. Study. Learn. Ask so many questions. Be the first one to get up during a session when the head engineer is needing a microphone fixed. Don’t be shy in that regard. People will notice your work ethic, and opportunities will flourish from there. Another interesting question she asked me that I’ll lump into this topic is “Did you feel like you had to work harder (as a woman) to be good?” My answer was, yes I did, but this industry is so hard, to begin with, EVERYONE has to. I explained how I was very lucky to be at a tech school where I never felt talked down to, or out of place even though I was one of four women there at the time. I know that’s not always the case especially at tech schools for audio. I did touch on a couple of situations that were slightly sexist (that had nothing to do with where I’ve interned or gone to school) but all in all, I’ve been very lucky to have had a good experience as a woman in this field. I think that comes from me knowing to set boundaries very early on in my career.
Credits
Credits, and how to obtain them as an hourly worker. Credits have always been a struggle for me because it does take you having to ask for them. Most audio engineering work is hourly, and once you are done with a project- you are done. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get credits on huge platforms though. I’ve struggled to become a part of The Recording Academy for years because you have to have 12 separate credits on AllMusic.com. The way to get these credits onto AllMusic.com is by submitting a PHYSICAL copy of the album. That is crazy to me because in this day and age not that many people are recording albums. I record more singles than anything and most artists/bands are not printing any physical copies of their single. That doesn’t make the work I have done invalid, or *not professional*. That’s just what the industry has been moving towards for years, and we need to move with it.
Payment
Being paid is something I’ve written about before and how do you figure out what to charge someone when you’re first starting out? How to make a contract? How to be confident enough in your work and when it’s time to up your prices. When she asked me these questions I put it simply. My music business teacher asked me “How much do you need to live?” We made a template and broke down all my bills and figured out how many bands I need to reach out to a month and how many bands I need to be working with on a monthly/yearly basis to survive. When I first started out I charged the bare minimum of what I needed to survive. Luckily, I had other jobs supplementing my income so I didn’t have to rely solely on freelance engineering. I think being as logical as possible when it comes to pricing is the best way to go about it. Ask yourself those questions, and be honest with yourself about where you are in your career. Whether you are just starting out and maybe charging too much or you’ve been doing it for years and you’re charging too little. Either way, (this goes without saying and I’ll end this here) KNOW YOUR WORTH.
Please go listen to my friend, Tanglea Lamb, and her podcast, “Women in Audio”. She is having intelligent conversations with the amazing women that occupy this field. It’s so important for our experiences, knowledge, and stories to be heard on platforms like what Tangela is starting, and what SoundGirls has been doing for a good chunk of time now.
Word Clocks, Clock Masters, SRC, and Digital Clocks
And Why They Matter To You
Three digital audio consoles walk into a festival/bar and put in their drink orders. The bartender/front-end processor says, “You can order whatever you want, but I’m going to determine when you drink it.” In the modern audio world, we are able to keep our signal chain in the digital realm from the microphone to the loudspeaker longer without hopping back and forth through analog-to-digital (and vice versa) converters. In looking at our digital signal flow there are some important concepts to keep in mind when designing a system. In order to keep digital artifacts from rearing their ugly heads amongst our delivery of crispy, pristine audio, we must consider our application of sample rate conversions and clock sources.
Let’s back up a bit to define some basic terminology: What is a sample rate? What is the Nyquist frequency? What is bit depth? If we take a period of one second of a waveform and chop it up into digital samples, the number of “chops” per second is our sample rate. For example, the common sample rates of 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz, and 192 KHz refer to 44,100 samples per second; 48,000 samples per second; and 192,000 samples per second.
A waveform signal “chopped” into 16 samples
Why do these specific numbers matter you may ask? This brings us to the concept of the Nyquist theorem and Nyquist frequency:
“The Nyquist Theorem states that in order to adequately reproduce a signal it should be periodically sampled at a rate that is 2X the highest frequency you wish to record.”
(Ruzin, 2009)*.
*Sampling theory is not just for audio, it applies to imaging too! See references
So if the human ear can hear 20Hz-20kHz, then in theory in order to reproduce the frequency spectrum of the human ear, the minimum sample rate must be 40,000 samples per second. Soooo why don’t we have sample rates of 40 KHz? Well, the short answer is that it doesn’t sound very good. The long answer is that it doesn’t sound good because the frequency response of the sampled waveform is affected by frequencies above the Nyquist frequency due to aliasing. According to “Introduction to Computer Music: Volume One”, by Professor Jeffrey Hass of Indiana University, these partials or overtones above the sample frequency range are “mirrored the same distance below the Nyquist frequency as the originals were above it, at the original amplitudes” (2017-2018). This means that those frequencies sampled above the range of human hearing can affect the frequency response of our audible bandwidth given high enough amplitude! So without going down the rabbit hole of recording music history, CDs, and DVDs, you can see part of the reasoning behind these higher sample rates is to provide better spectral bandwidth for what us humans can perceive. Another important term for us to discuss here is bit depth and word length when talking about digital audio.
Not only is the integrity of our digital waveform affected by the minimum number of samples per second, but bit depth affects it as well. Think of bit depth as the “size” of the “chops” of our waveform where the higher the bit depth, the greater discretization of our samples. Imagine you are painting a landscape with dots of paint: if you used large dots to draw this landscape, the image would be chunkier and perhaps it would be harder to interpret the image being conveyed. As you paint with smaller and smaller dots closer together, the dots start approaching the characteristics of lines the smaller and closer together they get. As a result, the level of articulation within the drawing significantly increases.
Landscape portrayed with dots of smaller sample size
Landscape portrayed with dots of larger sample size
When you have higher bit depths, the waveform is “chopped” into smaller pieces creating increased articulation of the signal. Each chop is described by a “word” in the digital realm that translates to a computer value by the device doing the sampling. The word length or bit depth describes in computer language to the device how discrete and fine to make the dots in the painting. So who is telling these audio devices when to start taking samples and at what rates to do so? Here is where the device’s internal clock comes in.
Every computer device from your laptop to your USB audio interface has some sort of clock in it whether it’s in the processor’s logic board or in a separate chip. This clock acts kind of like a police officer in the middle of an intersection directing the traffic of bits based on time in your computer. You can imagine how mission-critical this is, especially for an audio device, because our entire existence in the audio world lives as a function of the time domain. If an analog signal from a microphone is going to be converted into a digital signal at a given sample rate, the clock inside the device with the analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter needs to “keep time” for that sampling rate so that all the electronic signals traveling through the device don’t turn into a mush of cars slamming into each other at random intervals of an intersection. Chances are if you have spent enough time with digital audio, you have come into some situation where there was a sample rate discrepancy or clock slipping error that reared its ugly head and the only solution is to get the clocks of the devices in sync or change the sample rates to be consistent throughout the signal chain.
One of the solutions for keeping all these devices in line is to use an external word clock. Many consoles, recording interfaces, and other digital audio devices allow the use of an external clocking device to act as the “master” for everything downstream of it. Some engineers claim the sonic benefits of using an external clock for increased fidelity in the system since the idea is that all the converters in the downstream devices connected to the external clock are beginning their samples at the same time. Yet regardless of whether you use an external clock or not, the MOST important thing to know is WHO/WHAT is acting as the clock master.
Let’s go back to our opening joke of this blog about the different consoles walking into a festival, umm I mean bar. Let’s say you have a PA being driven via the AES/EBU standard and a drive rack at FOH with a processor that is acting as a matrix for all the guest consoles/devices into the system. If a guest console comes in running at 96 KHz, another at 48 KHz, another at 192 KHz, and the system is being driven via AES at 96 KHz, for the sake of this discussion, who is determining where the samples of the electronic signals being shipped around start and end? Aren’t there going to be bits “lost” since one console is operating at one sample rate and another at a totally different one? I think now is the time to bring up the topic of SRC or “Sample Rate Conversion”.
My favorite expression in the industry is, “There is no such thing as a free lunch” because life really is a game of balancing compromises for the good and the bad. Some party in the above scenario is going to have to yield to the traffic of a master clock source or cars are going to start slamming into each other in the form of digital artifacts, i.e. “pops” and “clicks”. Fortunately for us, manufacturers have thought of this for the most part. Somewhere in a given digital device’s signal chain they put a sample rate converter to match the other device chained to it so that this traffic jam doesn’t happen. Whether this sample rate conversion happens at the input or the output and synchronously or asynchronously of the other device is manufacturer specific.
What YOU need to understand as the human deploying these devices is what device is going to be the police officer directing the traffic. Sure, there is a likelihood that if you leave these devices to sort their sample rate conversions out for themselves there may not be any clock slip errors and everyone can pat themselves on the back that they made it through this hellish intersection safe and sound. After all, these manufacturers have put a lot of R&D into making sure their devices work flawlessly in these scenarios…right? Well, as a system designer, we have to look at what we have control over in our system to try and eliminate the factors that could create errors based on the lowest common denominator.
Let’s consider several scenarios of how we can use our trusty common sense and our newfound understanding of clocks to determine an appropriate selection of a clock master source for our system. Going back to our bartending-festival scenario, if all these consoles operating at different sample rates are being fed into one system for the PA, it makes sense for a front-end processor that is taking in all these consoles to operate its clock internally and independently. If the sample rate conversion happens internally in the front-end processor and independent of the input, then it doesn’t really care what sample rate comes into it because it all gets converted to match the 96 KHz sample rate at its output to AES.
Front-end DSP clocking internally with SRC
In another scenario, let’s say we have a control package where the FOH and monitor desk are operating on a fiber loop and the engineers are also operating playback devices that are gathering time domain-related data from that fiber loop. The FOH console is feeding a processor in a drive rack via AES that in turn feeds a PA system. In this scenario, it makes the most sense for the fiber loop to be the clock source and the front-end processor to gather clock and SRC data from the AES input of the console upstream of it because if you think about it as a flow chart, all the source data is coming back to the fiber loop. In a way, you could think of where the clock master comes from to be the delegation of the police officer that has the most influence on the audio path under discussion.
Fiber loop as chosen origin of clock source for the system
As digital audio expands further into the world of networked audio, the concept of a clock master becomes increasingly important to understanding signal processing when you dive into the realms of protocols such as AVB or Dante. Our electronic signal turns into data packets on a network stream and the network itself starts determining where the best clock source is coming from and can even switch between clock masters if one were to fail. (For more information check out www.audinate.com for info on Dante and www.avnu.org for info on AVB). As technology progresses and computers get increasingly more capable for large amounts of digital signal processing, it will be interesting to see how the manifestation of fidelity correlates to better sample rates, bit-perfect converters, and how we can continue to seek perfection in the representation of a beautiful analog waveform in the digital realm.
The views in this blog are for educational purposes only and the opinion of the author alone and not to be interpreted as an endorsement or reflect the views of the aforementioned sources.
The music scene here in Scotland is one of the most vibrant. But behind the scenes, the figures for women in music aren’t always encouraging. Hoping to change that is a charity organisation called SWIM – or Scottish Women Inventing Music. I caught up with them to discuss their work, experiences and goals to help women in music.
Could you tell me a bit about SWIM?
SWIM is a charity organization. It stands for Scottish Women inventing Music. It was set up to try and address the gender imbalance that’s currently in the music industry as well as be a space for women where they can network and to also advocate for women in the music industry.
What are the services that SWIM offer?
We have informal networking nights usually once a month and this is a chance for members to come and meet each other in person and can discuss current work situations and any issues they’re having. We also have a database on our website where as a member you can input your skillset and then you can search the database for other members and their skills and you can connect with them that way as well. We also have an initiative called GirlPool which is a full day of workshops for young girls between the ages of 12-17. Throughout the day they get the chance to look at all aspects of the music industry. So not just pay they get to perform what they’ve done that day.
Is there a cost of joining?
There is a minimal cost of £5 a year for membership which runs from September to August each year. For that, you get a newsletter full of information from all our fantastic members and things that are happening, opportunities, collaborations, etc. There are also monthly casual meetups for members as well.
SWIM are doing a lot to help women in music in Scotland. If you would like more information on SWIM you can visit the website at www.scottishwomeninventingmusic.com
SoundGirls and L-Acoustics Announce Training Grants
SoundGirls and L-Acoustics are proud to announce three grants in support of SoundGirls’ mission to empower women in audio engineering. The grants (detailed below) provide access to the full-range of L-Acoustics training courses.
“We are honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with SoundGirls on their mission to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio,” explains Etienne Corteel, Director of Education and Scientific Outreach at L-Acoustics. “Through our dedication to innovation and product design excellence, we recognize the value of diversity in our industry and look forward to supporting grant recipients in developing their careers.”
Prospective candidates must be members of SoundGirls and have until March 27, 2020 to submit their application. Winners will be announced April 7, 2020 and may use the grants to attend L-Acoustics training courses offered in 2020. (Hotel accommodations are included. Grant recipients are responsible for any additional travel expenses).
An introduction to the elements shared by all L-Acoustics systems. This training day consists of two separate modules: Soundvision Basics and Drive System.
In order to attend Level 2 training, participants must have achieved System Technician status (Level 1), or have the equivalent practical experience in implementing L-Acoustics systems.
This training offers advanced knowledge and practical methodologies for the design and optimization of L-Acoustics systems.
Participants learn to:
Understand system behaviors through applying basic physics concepts
Assess priorities and choices, given specific objectives and constraints
Ensure quality and consistency by utilizing L-Acoustics proprietary tools
Level 2 training modules are an essential step towards mastering L-Acoustics systems.
Variable Curvature Line Source (VCLS)
An in-depth focus on the variable curvature line source, including advanced design practice with Soundvision.
This training covers methods and recommendations to calibrate a loudspeaker system. It includes practice with M1, the L-Acoustics tool for measurement and tuning.
*Grant recipient must have completed Level 1 training.
L-ISA Training
L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology combines powerful processing hardware, revolutionary software, and new sound design methods to enable multidimensional mixing and room enhancement that break the creative boundaries of conventional sound reinforcement and deliver unforgettable experiences. L-ISA technology redefines professional skills and interactions in live sound reinforcement projects.
L-ISA training includes:
All participants – How to manage an L-ISA project
System engineers – How to design, implement, calibrate, and operate an L-ISA loudspeaker system
Mixing engineers – How to prepare, encode, and mix an L-ISA show
Training Curriculum
L-ISA training is a three-day seminar that offers two different tracks: system and mixing.
Gain Without the Pain: Gain Structure for Live Sound Part 2
In my last blog, I outlined the basics of gain structure, and how to get to a good starting point for your mix. This time I want to discuss a few situations where you might take different approaches to how you set your gain, and why.
I like to think of gain as a tennis ball growing out of the mic if it’s omnidirectional, or a peach for cardioid mics, with the stalk-socket (is there a word for that?) at the point of most rejection. Bidirectional/figure eight mics always remind me of Princess Leia’s famous hair buns in Star Wars. Whatever you imagine it as don’t forget that the pick-up pattern is three-dimensional. There can be a bit of a subconscious tendency to think of pick-up patterns as the flat discs you see in polar plots, so don’t fall into that trap! The main thing to remember is that as you increase the gain, you’re expanding the area in which the mic will pick noise up in every dimension, not just in the direction of what you want to amplify. This will be more of an issue in some circumstances than others, so they can benefit from different approaches.
Quiet singer, noisey stage
My first example is the one I encounter most often and causes me the most issues. You have a loud band on a reverberant, noisey stage, and you’re trying to get the vocals audible, or even nice! This can be a bit of a challenge even with a strong singer, but a quiet vocalist can seem impossibly lost in the mix. Thinking back to my previous post, the problem in this situation is that the other instruments, the crowd and everything reflecting back off the walls is keeping the noise high in the signal-to-noise ratio. Turning the gain up will just bring more of that noise into your board and muddy the mix. Upping the gain for monitors will increase the likelihood of frequencies in the monitor mix being picked up by the mic, which feeds back to the monitor, which feeds back to the mic… which creates feedback!
In an ideal world, the other players would set their instruments at reasonable levels, and the vocalist would sing loudly, close to the mic. This would increase the signal-to-noise ratio naturally. Unfortunately, this often doesn’t happen for one reason or another, and you need to fix it at the board. In these situations I try to keep the gain as low as possible while still picking the vocalist up. I use high and low pass filters to get rid of the unnecessary noise in ranges away from the vocalist’s frequencies. I might EQ a few bits out of the vocal channel where other instruments are being picked up more than the singer, and might EQ out some vocal frequencies from other channels to give them some more space to be heard. I then try to have the fader as high as possible while still leaving some headroom. Setting your master fader or monitor mixes at +5 instead of 0 can give you the extra volume you need, while keeping the gain as tight as possible. I very rarely find myself needing to turn an entire mix-up mid-show, and if it comes to it I can just turn up all the sends from the channels instead. There are plenty of other tricks to get vocals to stand out in your mix, but that is beyond the scope of this post.
Wandering keynote speaker
On the other end of the noisey gig spectrum is the classic corporate speaker who won’t stay near the lectern mic. I think one of the most misunderstood aspects of live sound by people outside our industry is that the mics pick everything in their field up, in every direction, whether the sound is intentional or not. For example, I had someone loudly shuffle their notes and bang them on the lectern, cough and say something privately to an assistant right by the mics as they were supposed to start their speech. They then fully wandered the 20 metre (roughly 60 feet) wide stage, talking at normal conversational volume, expecting the mics to pick them up perfectly, no matter where they were. Quickly muting the channel when it’s apparent the speaker is still preparing solves the first issues, but there’s not much you can do about audibility when they’re metres away from the mics. This is an extreme example. However, it is very common for people to stand at a lectern but talk quite far away from the mics, turning their heads repeatedly to gesture towards their presentation.
Hopefully, the stage at a conference isn’t as noisy as a rock band in a club, and the audience are mostly quietly paying attention rather than screaming and cheering. It’s less common to have stage monitors, and with any luck, the PA is quite far away from the mics. In this case, you can get away with turning the gain up, to catch more of what they’re saying. Just remember to add a pretty strong compressor for when they inevitably lean in and suddenly talk loudly, directly into the mics. This can also help if you have several people using the lectern without soundchecking. You can set the mics to as high a gain as is stable, so even if they’re quiet you’re covered. If they’re loud you can always turn them down.
Popping lavalier or headset mics
You don’t always want your sound source as close to the mic as possible. Plosives in speech; the consonant sounds made with a burst of air, like p’s and b’s, can sound horrible on sensitive mics like lavaliers or headsets. These mics can also pick up too much sibilance. In these cases, it’s best to move them slightly further away or off-axis (by a matter of millimeters) so they aren’t in the firing line of the speaker’s breath, then turn the gain up to compensate. You might have noticed that lavaliers are often attached completely upside down for recording or TV. This stops the mic capsule being battered by those plosives and reduces sibilance, and the recording engineer can turn the gain up as much as needed without worrying about feedback because there are no speakers in the room.
I hope these examples have helped you to see how gain structure is just another tool in your mixing bag of tricks. There are good rules of thumb to follow for getting a decent signal-to-noise ratio quickly, but they aren’t written in stone. If you need to move the balance around or adjust different aspects of the channel strip to make your particular situation work, just try it (gradually if the show is already live!). It’s easy to talk about what the correct approach is in a textbook situation, but real life is very rarely ideal. Do what you need to do to get it working. If it sounds good in the end, that’s all that matters.
The Mountain Recording Retreat – Catharine Wood Discount for SoundGirls
This May 17-22, 2020 join Catharine Wood for the 5th Annual Mountain Recording Retreat in Capon Springs, West Virginia. An immersive 5 day audio workshop retreat with world-class mentors in a relaxed setting – Registration includes all meals, hotel and workshops ongoing throughout the day…Interested in expanding your audio toolbox while on vacation? Catharine has 5 x $100 discount registrations for SoundGirls – use WOOD2020 at checkout http://recordingretreat.com/
There are only 5 Discounts available – so register soon!
The 5th Annual Mountain Recording Retreat
Workshops, Mentoring, Golf, and Pie!
May 17-22, 2020 Capon Springs, West Virginia
The Mountain Recording Retreat is intentionally not like anything else. It is far more than recording workshops. It is about community, music, and great sound. It is five days of learning, listening, and relaxing in a community made up of world-class mentors and fellow music makers. Each year about 80-90% of the attendees sign up again for the following year.
We will have daily recording workshops, listening panels, easy access to mentors, DIY gear building workshops, and bingo where you can win prizes from the Capon shop.
Learn from World Class Mentors
Our mentors this year include Ronan Chris Murphy, John Rodd, Catharine Wood, Fett and Chris Kincaid. Check out our Mentors Page for more information on them.
Daily Schedule
Each day will feature workshops by various mentors and throughout the week there will be listening sessions where you can have your music evaluated by the mentors and other participants, but there is also time carved out to socialize, collaborate and enjoy the beautiful resort. Meals are served family style and all of our attendees and mentors share meals together.
Lectures and Listening Panels
We are still working on the schedule for 2020, but previous workshops have included: DIY Mastering, Mixing Workflow, Step by Step mixing workflow, Breathing Life into Virtual Instruments, Behind the Scenes of an Orchestral Session at Abbey Road, Intro to Synthesis, Vocal Production and more.
Several nights throughout the week, you’ll have a chance to have your work listened to and critiqued by your mentors and fellow attendees.
Ground Breaker Tana Douglas
Photograph by Lisa Johnson Rock Photographer.
Tana Douglas is known as the first woman roadie and got her start working Production in 1973 when Philippe Petit rigged a steel cable between the towers at the northern entrance to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. (Kathy Sander another roadie got her start in 1974 touring with Elton John). Without realizing it she had just done her first gig. This was followed by a meeting with a well-known Australian Tour manager Wane “Swampy” Jarvis, who piqued her interest in the production side of the Music Industry. This led to her first paying gig with a band called Fox, setting up and looking after their stage equipment known as the backline. After taking that job and relocating to Melbourne, an offer to work for a different band came along in the middle of 1974. This band was AC/DC. Throughout Tana’s four-decade career she has worked in backline, sound, lights, logistics, production, and tour management.
At just fifteen, Tana had joined the circus that was rock ‘n’ roll and after taking the job with a young and upcoming band AC/DC, found herself on a fast track to a lifelong career. Her first job with AC/DC was to continue doing backline until she says that “it became clear that we really needed our own PA to help Bon (Scott) with his vocals. I was sent to pick it up from a local sound company called Strauss, Nova Sound. Not realizing that from that moment in time I would become their FoH Sound engineer. It wasn’t so much a matter of volunteering for the position, it was what the band wanted. They trusted me and knew that I understood what sound they were looking for, which is very important. I had zero training. In those days in Australia, it was not uncommon to do 10, 12 or even 14 shows in a week. There was no time for training. I also had the dubious pleasure of operating their monitors, at the same time; through the FoH console. Not the ideal situation for a notoriously loud band.”
The sound system Tana fetched was a 3-way system with A4 bins, JBL horns, and tweeters. Tana discovered that it was not cutting it and upgraded to a 4-way system with W Bins, A4’s as midrange, and multi-cell horns and tweeters. The monitor system consisted of five fold-back wedges with dual speakers in each. The only advice she was given to running sound, was to keep the guitar volume down and it should be good. Tana says “we would do shows with other bands on the bill as we weren’t headlining these larger shows in the beginning, so I would watch and try to learn as much as possible from people who obviously knew what they were doing and apply it to the shows where we used our PA.”
The biggest challenge she faced with mixing for AC/DC was inadequate equipment and the sheer volume coming off the stage. Tana says that “as the PA grew in size so did the number of speaker cabinets on stage, for the guitars. As I was still relatively new to this whole thing, I didn’t know enough to demand a system that would be capable of doing the job. We were restricted by the budget and size of venues to accommodate a larger PA. We also travelled with all the gear in the back of a bus. Not to mention I was only 16 years old.”
Despite all this Tana learned some important lessons. One was that the equipment must be able to handle the job, so you can do your job. ”If you are good you can get the most out of your system, but there is only so much a system can give, I made it work, but thinking back it would have been nice to have had at least twice the system. Would have made my life so much easier. Even with the restrictions both the band and the audience were happy with the sound I managed to get.”
The 18 months Tana spent working with AC/DC ignited her passion for a life on the road but she realized she needed to find an environment where she could continue to learn. She took a job with a production company called ACT that specialized in International tours coming to Australia. Their crews were considered the best in Australia and Tana toured with artists Suzi Quatro, David Essex, Leo Sayer, Carlos Santana, Neil Diamond, and Status Quo.
Tana says “leaving AC/DC was a big step, a leap of faith that it would be the best move for me to grow and learn. I also wanted a team around me that I could become a part of and if I had those two things, the job I did at that time really didn’t matter. The position they needed filled was for a lighting person, so I jumped. It was a complete change of direction which I felt was appropriate for this next phase of my life.”
For the next several months she worked her ass off, watching, learning and growing. Tours in Australia typically last about a month and Tana did seven back to back tours working with some of the best international production personnel. Tana says she utilized the time wisely “I always asked about everything. How? What? Why? When? Where? something should be done. These questions make the difference between someone who knows how to set up a system and someone who knows how to operate a system. whether it is sound or lights. I think another important thing I learnt very early on was that for me to be accepted in this industry it was all about how I fitted in as a member of a crew, not how I stood out as a woman.”
Tana would make her transition into lighting official by moving to the U.K., where she landed a job building a 360 lamp lighting rig for Status Quo and then spent the next four years touring with them. Tana would move over to TASCO and head up their lighting department working and touring with Ozzy, David Coverdale, Iggy Pop, The Who, Elton John to name a few. In 1983, Tana would move to the U.S. to work for the U.S. TASCO Division along with Delicate Productions and Light and Sound Design, continuing to work with Elton John, Men at Work, INXS, Little River Band and Johnny Halliday’s Spectacle in Paris for 7 months.
Lighting appealed to the artistic side of Tana, she loved art in school and always enjoyed creating things and experimenting with color. It was also an exciting time to be involved in lighting, everything was changing so quickly. She says “we went from a couple of hydraulic light towers with 16 steel lamps a side to suspended truss configurations with hundreds of aluminum lighting fixtures, moving motors, truss spot operators, retractable set pieces, to the piece de resistance: the Vari-Lite. There was no turning back.”
Thinking outside of the box when problems arise and need a quick resolution for live TV. TASCO Crew.
The first time Tana realized she had “made it” came when she was requested for The Who and Friends Roar In at Wembley Stadium in 1979. This was The Who’s comeback show after the loss of Keith Moon and AC/DC was on the bill as well. The second time was when she was in charge of dimmers and control of the largest lighting rig ever built consisting of 3,000 par cans, 64 Vari-Lites, a dozen 10K Fresnels and all the moving parts including a giant fist with the performer, Johnny Halliday inside.
Tana remembers her time at Tasco “I loved my time with TASCO London. It was hard work and extremely long hours, new innovations, pulling all-nighters, in a freezing cold warehouse in time for the tour to start. What made it all worthwhile is I was given a position of authority which validated that all the hard work had been worth it. I have to say I loved the other people that worked for TASCO. It was a really good bunch headed up by Terry Price and Paul Newman at the time and made me feel a part of it all. That was always important to me. Growing up without any family to speak of, I needed that feeling of belonging and I found it there.”
Focusing the rig between acts.
Tana loved Tasco, but after gaining custody of her son, Tana knew she had to make some changes in her career. She says “ the blinding difference between men touring and women touring is children. I don’t know if that will ever really change. Maybe now, there are laws in place on grounds for dismissal but when I was touring it was not something that was up for discussion. I had gained custody of my son, and that meant I needed to make changes to my career. Touring for 10 months of the year was no longer an option. So she moved into Logistics.
Working in logistics, Tana dealt with making the band’s schedule work, creating carnets, and financial bonds for customs, freight forwarding to make sure the equipment arrives on time and in working condition. Dealing with artists’ personal requests, such as when Alice Cooper forgot his snake and had to get it to London in time for his first show or when a bass player left his instrument at home in LA when the band flew to England to play Reading Festival. This was an instrument he insisted was too important to travel as cargo and required breaking into his house after warning the local police, retrieving instrument and getting on a plane to Reading in time to hand it to him on the side of the stage as the band was starting their set.
Many of her clients came from the crew people she had grown up with and had moved into Tour or Production Manager positions. At first, she was working for a company, but when the company went belly up, she started to handle the accounts on her own, starting her own company Network. During the ten years she worked in logistics, she handled accounts for Bad Religion, Tom Waites, Butthole Surfers, Billy Ray Cyrus, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Luther Vandross, En Vogue, Tool, Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz, Ice-T, Ice Cube. Henry Rollins, Carlos Santana and many more. Sadly she closed her company due to health reasons in 1985.
After her health recovered, she went into tour managing. Tana believes these things are a “natural progression if you have worked enough different parts of production over the years, then you should really know what it takes to be a successful tour manager. It wasn’t something I had aspired to be and I only really worked with one band that was in development and while I enjoyed it, the band fell apart and I moved on to representing Bill Ward from Black Sabbath negotiating his reunion with Sabbath for their upcoming shows at the Birmingham NEC that were to be both filmed and recorded. That was fun and included flying Bill halfway around the world for a “chance” encounter with the promoter who was happy to have Bill on board and then the negotiations that ensued with Sharon Osbourne, who was not happy to have Bill on board. But that’s a whole other story.”
Tana now resides in Los Angeles, and has spent the past couple of years finishing a book called “LOUD”. It is being published through HarperCollins and will be released on April 20, 2020. Tana is also involved with organizations called Crewcare and Support Act both based in Australia. The organizations focus on health and wellbeing for road crew. They sponsor and the annual “Roady4Roadies” that raises funds to help and support both musicians and crew members in times of difficulty. Both organizations are doing cutting edge research into the effects of life on the road. She is also working with The Arts Centre in Melbourne on a new project for their Rock Vault that will entail a series of panel discussions and individual interviews to be filmed, centered on the history of Production in the Australian Music Industry.
What do you like best about touring?
The music, of course, is what draws most of us in, but then there are the bonds that form with others on tour that are special. A good crew makes all the difference. I would tend to pick a tour by the crew, not the performer, as the crew is who you’ll be living with for the next 12 months of your life, not the performer. Plus, a good crew doesn’t work for a bad performer.
What do you like least?
I dealt with a lot of solitude being the only woman on a tour. I mean, there is always a group of people around, but interaction with 20 to 100 guys on a daily basis can get tricky when you are out there alone as a female, for extended amounts of time. What is acceptable behavior for a guy can be frowned upon for women.
How did you deal with that?
Not always well, sad to say. We all make mistakes in judgment. I guess what is important is we learn from them and hopefully don’t keep making the same ones. At least, mix it up a little (laughing).
What is your favorite day off activity?
Swimming and horseback riding
What is your educational or training background
Zero
Did you find it hard to find people to train/teach you? Do you recommend a formal education or just learning on the job? or a combination?
Once I’d taken that leap of faith over to ACT way back in Australia with the likes of Wyn Milson, Peter Wilson, Curley Campbell, D’Arcy, Russell Kidner, Billy McCartney to name a few, it was like I’d found my tribe and to them, it was a bit like having a little sister (who could drink you under the table) but also keep up with them on the work front. Who doesn’t want the best for their little sister? On the international side, I had the likes of Patrick Stansfield, Paul Newman, Chris “Smoother” Smythe as an early support system. I think also while I was obviously young, thankfully nobody figured out just how young I was. That may have changed things.
There were no options for schooling as there are now. How effective that is I am sure it depends on who is teaching the class. I hear that Kevin Lyman is teaching a class at USC. I’m sure that would be worth attending. I think though with any schooling it needs to be adapted to a real-life situation. You can be taught that something is hot, but until you feel just how hot it is, you can’t appreciate what it is you are being told. In the touring world, it is different every day. You must be prepared to adapt to that, as does your equipment. Be flexible. There is no one way.
What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?
It’s never easy when you are going against the grain. It was a wilder time when I was starting out. There were no rules, there were no other women. I literally had to give as good as I got. There was resistance from some areas, but there was also a great deal of support from others, once they realized not only was I serious about doing this as a career, but I was also capable of doing the job better than most, there was a shift in how I was perceived. For me, the biggest obstacle was a personal one. Relationships never went well for me. Maybe it was because I was mostly in a supervisory position? Or as I say, “My picker is broken”. Think long and hard before getting into a relationship, as you can’t let a relationship come before the job you have been hired to do.
How have you dealt with them?
I tried to stay away from relationships, while likewise staying away from the group that is of the opinion that you shouldn’t be there before they even meet you. Don’t even bother with them. Prove yourself by example, by doing the job better than others. Don’t complain, make it better. Choose your battles. There is no point in winning a battle if you lose the war.
Advice you have for other women and young women who wish to enter the field?
Focus on the details. Learn from every situation that arises. There will be many and they will all be different. Your success will rely on how you fit in as a crew member, not how you stand out as a woman. There is no such thing as a stupid question, as long as you learn from the answer. Embrace change, as there will be a lot of it. The friendships you make on the road will stay with you for your life, so be authentic and true to yourself.
Must have skills?
Think outside of the box. If you have done a course or some other type of schooling that is great but don’t let it tether you. Every day is different on the road and things change in a moment. Be prepared and keep up. Always listen to advice and respect your crew.
What are your future goals
At this stage, I am interested in developing talent on both the artist side and the crew side. I have also started my second book.
Favorite gear?
I got to play with a Neve desk which at the time was a big deal. I was also lucky enough to be one of the first people to tour with the new AVOlites dimmers and consoles that changed the face of lighting.
Anything else you want to add or contribute
Where you start is rarely where you finish. Just because you start in one field doesn’t mean you need to stay there. What we think we want isn’t always what we need. By being willing to accept change you will end up where you were meant to be. It will be a journey that is not an easy one, but the rewards make it all worthwhile. Enjoy the world!
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