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A Beginners Guide to Wireless Frequencies 

Learning about and using wireless equipment can be overwhelming – there are a lot of differences from traditional gear and rather importantly there are strict rules around using radio frequencies that vary from country to country.

How does wireless equipment work?

 

Wired microphones convert sound into an electrical signal. This is sent through the wire to the sound system. Wireless microphones, however, convert sound into radio signals. This signal is then sent from a transmitter to a receiver which sends it to the sound system. The transmitter is a device that converts the audio signal into a radio signal and broadcasts it through an antenna.

Transmitters are small clip-on packs or in the case of handheld wireless microphones, they are built into the design of the handle. All wireless transmitters generally use a 9-volt battery. The receiver is tuned to receive the radio waves from the transmitter and convert it back into an audio signal. This means that the output of the receiver is just like a traditional wired signal. The balanced audio signal from the receiver output is then connected via an XLR to a typical input in a sound system.

There are a few different kinds of antennae on receivers – single and diversity. Single antenna receivers have one receiving antenna and one tuner but these can be prone to dropping out or getting interruptions in the signal. Diversity receivers, however, perform better as they have two separate antennas and two separate tuners. This means the receiver will automatically choose the best of the two signals, sometimes using a blend of both. This reduces the chance of a drop out because the likelihood is high that one antenna will be receiving a clean signal.

What frequency should I use for my equipment?

This is one of the trickiest areas to cover with wireless equipment because it depends on a lot of factors. Some frequency bands work brilliantly for speech but not for music, and some bands are simply too small to fit in lots of audio channels for a larger group. Some are prone to interference due to being license-free, popular bands and it can be a minefield working out where to begin.

When deciding what band to use, firstly it is good to know that each performer/person that is using wireless in the same location needs to be using a different frequency. It’s good practice to set up the receiver with a blank channel in between or a spacing of 0.25Hz increments on the receiver. Secondly, it’s important to know which spectrum band is suitable and legal to use for your venue – this will depend on the number of wireless devices you’re using, where you are in the world, and if you are moving around or touring with the same equipment. Wireless devices include “low power auxiliary station” equipment such as IEMs, wireless audio instrument links, and wireless cueing equipment, which all have the same rules as wireless microphones. Though not fully extensive, a guide to the available frequency rules of most countries can be found at Frequencies for wireless microphones

There are different areas of the radio frequency spectrum that we are allowed to use for wireless equipment but some are more suitable and better than others, and these are constantly changing, which makes it a hot topic for discussion. It’s useful to remember that the frequency spectrum works in the same way as physical space, in that it has a finite amount of room to be shared. The company Shure has strong concerns, particularly about the ever-decreasing UHF band in the Netherlands and has set up a site to raise awareness at www.losingyourvoice.co.uk

 

The UHF band is the preferred spectrum for wireless equipment however this is getting smaller for wireless use all the time. Ultra-high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one-tenth of a metre (one decimetre).

Most places including the UK and the USA have overhauled their UHF frequency ranges in recent years due to the digitisation of television, freeing up the old analogue frequencies. Originally analogue television transmitted in the 400-800MHz range had been separated into 8MHz “channels” and these refer to a particular frequency range.

Channel 38 is the spectrum of 606.5 – 613.5MHz and is a popular choice in the UK. Governing body Ofcom requires customers to purchase a yearly UHF UK Wireless Microphone Licence to use Channel 38. A flexible license means that owners are allowed to use radio microphone systems in any location. Channel 38 is a shared space and is large enough for 12 radio microphone systems, however, the downside is that if wireless equipment is tuned to the alternative Channel 70 it cannot then return to Channel 38.

Channel 70 is the band of 863 – 865MHz and this is free to use for radio microphone equipment in the UK. This spectrum is so small that it can be difficult to fit many systems into this space. Additionally, if other users nearby are also trying to use this space it can cause interference. Another issue with Channel 70 is that there is no “buffer” range at the lower end as 4G transmission lives immediately below 863MHz which can cause interference.

The band of what used to be Channel 69 (833-862MHz) is illegal to use since its’ digital auctioning in 2013 and it was replaced with Channel 38 for wireless equipment. Because of these challenges, Channel 70 may not be the best solution for larger setups requiring more space.

In the USA there are similar changes coming into place courtesy of the FCC which is the US governing body. The latest changes include the bands 617 – 652 and 663 – 698MHz which will be banned from wireless use as of July 13 2020. The move away from the 600MHz band is due to channels 38-51 in this spectrum being auctioned to television stations. This means that after July 2020 the available frequencies for wireless will include some frequencies on TV channels 2-36 below 608MHz, 614 – 616MHz, 653 – 657MHz, and 657 – 663MHz. Though this may seem like a current transition, this has been in progress for some time – the use of band 698 – 806MHz has been prohibited by the FCC since 2010 as this was repurposed for licensed commercial wireless services and public-safety networks.

What other frequency options am I allowed to use if the UHF range isn’t right for me?

Again, the list of available space is specific to each country, license and equipment tuning limitations however utilising either side of the UHF range can work, with the VHF (very high frequency) spectrum often making a good and practical backup solution.

The VHF band is classed as 30 – 300MHz, with a differentiation given between low and high VHF:

“Low-band VHF range of 49 MHz includes transmission of wireless microphones, cordless phones, radio controlled toys and more. A slightly higher VHF range of 54-72 MHz operates television channels 2-4, as well as wireless systems defined as “assistive listening.” VHF frequencies 76-88 MHz operate channels 5 and 6.

Band III is the name of the range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 174 to 240 megahertz (MHz). It is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting. It is also called high-band VHF, in contrast to Bands I and II.”

The Shure website explains the pro points of using the high-band VHF range, saying:

“The high-band VHF range is the most widely used for professional applications, and in which quality wireless microphone systems are available at a variety of prices. In the U.S., the high-band VHF range is divided into two bands available to wireless microphone users. The first band, from 169 – 172 MHz, includes eight specific frequencies designated by the FCC for wireless microphone use by the general public. These frequencies are often referred to as “traveling frequencies,” because they can theoretically be used throughout the U.S. without concern for interference from broadcast television. Legal limits of deviation (up to 12 kHz) allow high-quality audio transmission.”

Other than the UHF and VHF bands, if we look to the higher end of the spectrum the WiFi frequency range at 2.4GHz is another option, however, this also has its limitations due to it being a small shared space and the fact that a lot of WiFi networks in the area can cause interference.

So what does this mean in practical terms to get started?

If you are purchasing new wireless equipment it’s very important to understand its limitations in what frequencies you will be working with at any given venue, and this is multiplied tenfold if you intend to travel with the same equipment. Many modern receivers do not allow the tuning options to change ranges once they have been set – as previously mentioned, the UK channels 38 and 70 cannot be swapped once they have been tuned, and similarly, radio microphones that can tune to Channel 38 will not tune to the “Duplex Gap” of 823 – 832MHz or the shared space of 1785 – 1805MHz. This means that equipment needs have to be very well researched prior to purchasing and that pre-loved second-hand gear will need extra investigation for this reason.

What are the power restrictions for my wireless equipment? 

As a general rule the power must not be in excess of 50 milliwatts when operating in the television bands, and no more than 20 milliwatts when operating in the 600MHz band or the Duplex Gap.

So to recap what questions should I ask first to get setup?

To get started with wireless equipment the key starting questions are:

While it may seem like a lot of questions to ask and elements to consider, most wireless manufacturers will state the capabilities and limitations of their equipment, and keep you up to date with changes that may affect its’ use. With a bit of research and preparation, it’s possible to find wireless equipment to meet a variety of audio needs and budgets, that works within the law and sounds great wherever you may be.

 

BBC Sounds Podcast is Live

January can be quite a busy month for most people. New goals, new mindsets, new plans. I have always loved January as it is my birthday month, as well as many of my friends’ birthdays. The month has already flown by! I celebrated NYE in Newcastle with a uni friend then returned to work in London. Despite being known to be a “slower month” in the industry, I managed to stay busy! I have taken a week to continue my birthday celebrations, a few days in York with my mum and a trip to Lisbon with a friend. I don’t want the fun to end!

In more exciting and relevant news, my BBC Sounds audio piece is live! It went up on 16th January and started to gain traction on Instagram on 22nd January. I am yet to post about it on my personal social channels and may not get round to that until February, so stay tuned! I have mentioned the piece before, but for anyone who doesn’t know, this is how the BBC have described it:

I have flown the family nest for the bright lights of London. I usually don’t realise I miss home until I hear the Geordie accent in an unexpected place. A park, a coffee shop, the tube. My parents are polar opposites. Mum is the life and soul of the party, usually connected to a telephone, but as for Dad… He’s a poet. Some artists appear out of the blue. My 58-year-old Scottish father deals with the passing of a friend, his wife’s endless diets and his children’s travels abroad by putting pen to paper. His spelling is awful and the rhyming can be questionable but it definitely brings a laugh to anyone that has the pleasure of hearing them!. And he uses his autobiographical poetic content to communicate with the rest of the family. Through family conversation and anecdotal comedic poems, this piece will remind you that some of the best moments can happen in the home. My Dad is a poet and he really didn’t know it. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts.

This has been about a year in the making, with my initial application to the programme occurring when I was working in Seville between January and April 2019. I am so happy with the progress I made completing the BBC New Creatives scheme, learning about how to distribute and market my own audio work. This has been difficult to carry out when applying for many different jobs and then once more after moving to London for a full-time job. I hope that this audio piece can lead to more increasingly exciting opportunities in the near future! I know my Dad would love for his work to be picked up and published! I had always suggested he make a book with all his poems, but a podcast is another fun alternative!

You can find a link to my work here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0801sr8

Best of luck to everyone’s 2020 endeavours!

The Bad Buzz: Finding and Fixing Unwanted Noise

Of all the irritating things that happen when you’re rushing to finish a soundcheck, an unwanted buzz coming through the PA system is one of the worst. There are so many possible culprits, and it seems to happen all the time. Since it’s such a common issue, I wanted to walk through the process I use to find and eliminate unwanted noise, in an attempt to make troubleshooting less stressful.

Finding the Source

To begin, determine whether the buzz is coming from the audio system or something onstage by turning off the PA and monitors. If there’s silence, you know the problem is within the system itself. Turn them both back on and mute the PA system: do you still hear the buzz in the monitors? Use this information to narrow your focus area. If the buzz is solely in the monitors, for example, then you know to examine the channels and equipment that are being sent to the monitors only (such as a click track), and can consider the possibility of a bad channel on the monitor board.

Most likely the buzz is caused by a specific input. If it is unclear from the meters which channel is noisy, mute your inputs one by one until the noise stops. (If you are running monitors from front-of-house, make sure your aux sends are post-fader so that the send is muted along with the channel). Check for a bad channel on the board by hard patching the noisy input to another channel. If the buzz persists, check for a bad channel in the signal path by changing inputs on any snakes or sub snakes in use. Listen for any crackling, pops, or other giveaways that there may be a bad microphone or cable.

Most importantly, talk to the musicians! Ask them to stay quiet while you are troubleshooting and ask about their gear – they will be able to tell you any problems they have experienced at past gigs, and maybe even what solutions have worked.

Troubleshooting the System 

If the buzz is system-only, the issue is probably power. Check where everyone onstage is pulling power from and whether or not the circuit is used exclusively as audio power. Ideally, backline power will be on a circuit used only for the musicians’ gear, but often at smaller venues lighting and audio share power. Lighting dimmers, movers and fans may be audible if power is shared, so see if the buzz changes as lighting dimmers are moved. It may disappear when the lights are at 100%. In this case, there’s not much you can do besides try to reconfigure the power to be as separated as possible.

Next, check for cable crossing. Look at the paths of unbalanced cables. Do they cross paths or run along any cables carrying AC power? Electrical interference often arises when AC cables are in close proximity to unbalanced cables (for example, pedalboard cables), so it’s best to keep them as separated as possible.

There can also be grounding issues at play. If the hum sounds like it’s around 60 Hz, you probably have what’s called a ground loop. Ground loops occur when the ground connections from two or more separate sources (say, the system power and amplifier power) differ. Ideally, both pieces of equipment reference ground at 0 Volts. But nothing is ideal in real life, so it’s more likely that the ground readings differ slightly: say, 10 millivolts and 0 Volts. When this happens, the difference in electric potential can cause a small current loop that flows between the two connections, resulting in noise.

Here the quickest fix is to lift the ground switch on the channel or amplifier (if there is one) or use an adapter that accomplishes the same thing. But this workaround is not ideal since it removes a safety feature. Having the guitarist move around and angle the pickups differently may be enough to get rid of or at least lessen the hum.

Troubleshooting the Stage

If the noise is coming from one of the pieces of equipment on the stage itself, turn the PA system off and start with the simplest case. Here we’ll use the signal flow of a guitar as an example.

To begin, have the guitarist set their amp to clean. Have them unplug and re-plug their instrument cable at both ends – sometimes the problem is as simple as one end of the cable not being completely connected.

Next, have the guitarist plug directly into the amp, bypassing any pedals. Ask the guitarist to move around onstage, to see if the noise changes with location. If so, environmental noise is probably being picked up by the instrument cable, and there should be a spot on stage where the sound minimizes or even disappears altogether.

Connect pedals one by one and see if the buzz reappears with a specific pedal. Plug the guitarist directly into a DI box, and see if the hum disappears with the ground-lift switch flipped. If so, then you know it’s a grounding problem, with either a ground loop in place or an instrument grounding issue somewhere.

A buzz can also be the sign of tubes in a tube amp going bad. If so, there’s not much you can do beyond tolerating the buzz or switching amps. In the rare case that the guitarist is plugged into two amps and sending each amp one side of a stereo pedal, noise can result from a grounding issue between the two amps themselves.

The General Process

Buzzes, hums, and other unwanted noises only have a few likely sources: instruments, cables, and equipment. When unwanted noise occurs, stay calm and determine the general location of the buzz (system or stage). Then, continue narrowing in until you find the source. You may not always be able to find or fix the exact source, but the tips I have given should help you on your way.

 

Los Angeles – Monitor System Prep Internship

SoundGirls can apply to intern assisting with monitor system prep with Karrie Keyes

You will be assisting in prep of the stage and monitor system for the Pearl Jam 2020 Tour.  Be prepared to work hard and get dirty.

If you are interested in interning please send an email to soundgirls@soungirls.org

Please include a brief reason of why you are interested and a resume. Please let us know what dates you can intern.

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Rising Star – Carolyn Slothour Live Sound Engineer

Carolyn Slothour is an up-and-coming independent FOH and Monitor engineer, who has been working in the industry for just over five years. She works as an A1 and A2 at a few production companies based in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, including a company called Zero Fossil which is a clean energy/solar-powered production company. She is the house engineer at a local venue called Brillobox and fills in at several other local venues while not on the road. The past year she has been touring as FOH, tour manager, and playing flute with a variety of artists including Mija, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Alison Sudol, & a rock theatre group called Squonk Opera. She has several tours planned for 2020 as well.

Carolyn has always been passionate about playing & performing music and decided to move from New Jersey to Pittsburgh to attend college at the California University of PA to follow her love of music, while not really knowing what path she would ultimately take within the industry. The Music Technology Bachelor’s degree she received covered a wide range of things, including music performance & theory, music business, and recording & live sound technology. During her time in college, she interned at a recording studio and production company. While interning, Carolyn discovered she was most passionate about live sound. Having attended and performed in live concerts throughout her life, she says “I realized it made sense for me to work in an environment I’ve always loved and felt at home in from the start.” From there she started picking up freelance sound gigs and has been building her diverse resume of audio work since.

Her current goals are to mix at more large-scale festivals and continue to grow in many different ways. “I have always loved to attend festivals, and working them has become some of the best times of my life, despite the usual “throw-and-go,” high-stakes style mixing at them tends to be. I enjoy the rush and the feeling of accomplishment when it all comes together. I also hope to continue to grow in several different areas of the music industry – including live sound, performance, studio engineering, sound design, composition, and production. I love to learn and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”

Can you tell us about a tour or show that you’re proud of? A challenge that you pulled off?

My last FOH tour with !!! (Chk Chk Chk) was one that I’m very proud of because I was able to combine my two passions – mixing FOH & playing the flute. When I first met the band, they asked if I would be interested in playing flute with them on a couple of songs of theirs. I was absolutely interested and ended up playing flute on 2-3 songs every night from FOH. It could be a little challenging at times to take my focus away from mixing and put it on performing, but playing the flute is like second nature to me and it felt great to play in front of large audiences with such a great group of musicians. I’m a huge fan of their music, so it was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had at work. I also recently mixed FOH for Mija at Corona Capital Music Festival in Mexico City, along with some extremely talented musicians & engineers. The festival brings in around 146,000 people, so that was a pretty special gig for me as well.

Can you tell us about failure and what you learned from it?

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a failure, but one mistake I made recently was creating a show file at a venue while on tour within someone else’s show structure. It all worked fine until I loaded it up at the next venue with that same console, & there was a lot of basic setup that did not work for the new venue. The house engineer and I spent a while trying to figure out why a variety of things did not work correctly and I ended up finding that certain settings were set very strangely when the show file was initially created. After all that trouble, the show ended up sounding great and it was a good night. But I definitely learned the hard way to only travel with show files that I personally created from the start.

What do you like best about touring? 

My favorite thing about touring is that every day is never exactly the same as the last. There are always different challenges & different people, in a different place, so it’s never boring. It’s taught me to take life one day at a time – not only in my career but in all aspects of my life. It can be a stressful job, but it also takes a certain amount of ‘letting go’ and just going with the flow. And I feel really lucky that my career enables me to travel around the globe and see places that many people only dream of.

What do you like least? 

My least favorite part about touring is being away from my cat, & not being able to focus on playing music & my other interests as much as I’d like. I try to make time for my hobbies on the road as much as possible though.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

My favorite day off activities is finding crystal shops & beautiful nature spots where I can relax and spin poi or play the flute. I also enjoy searching for good vegan restaurants in whatever city I’m in.

What, if any, obstacles and barriers have you faced? 

Freelance audio is a competitive industry, and every engineer has to prove themselves in order to build a reputation. Sometimes it’s a little harder to prove myself to those who may not have faith in women to do a great job, but it’s to be expected when less than 5% of audio engineers are not men. Women tend to be held to a higher standard, but that is a blessing in many ways. We work harder and better in order to make it. If you’re truly passionate about your job & have a solid work ethic, you won’t have trouble finding gigs.

How have you dealt with them? 

I’ve grown a thicker skin since I started freelancing. As in any job, there are people who are unpleasant to work with or don’t believe you will do well. The key is to focus on your own work & put in 100% effort so that they have nothing negative to say after seeing/hearing you do your job well. It’s important not to compare yourself to other engineers because everyone is on a different path and will come across opportunities at different points. Having a positive attitude helps immensely.

The advice you have for other women who wish to enter the field? 

Take the time to learn the basics and do prep work – read manuals, ask questions, & have the initiative to figure things out on your own. Then when you’re put in front of a new console, or any new piece of hardware or software, you’ll have some base knowledge to figure out how it works quickly. Never be discouraged by your lack of knowledge. Most of the learning you’ll do will be on the job, so try not to worry too much about what you do & do not know. No engineer knows EVERYTHING. It’s also very important to not have an ego about your knowledge and experience because it will keep you from learning and is generally just a bad attitude to have. There’s always something to be learned from a situation, as well as from fellow engineers. Plus, the more knowledge you have, the more you’ll realize how much more there is to learn. As long as you keep the drive to learn & adapt, you will go far.

Must have skills? 

Communication & social skills are a must – those were honestly the hardest ones for me starting out because I was always a fairly withdrawn & antisocial child. But it’s the key to getting a lot of gigs. You must be friendly, understanding, easy to get along with, and able to stay calm in stressful situations and never place blame. Generally, people will hire someone they like before someone they don’t, even if they’re a little less competent. Adaptability is also a very important skill – when you work with different people & different sound systems every day, you have to be able to work with many types of personalities and limitations.

Favorite gear? 

I’m a huge fan of analog consoles and gear in general because it tends to sound really great right off the bat. I always enjoy mixing on the classic Midas H3000, and I’m a sucker for good outboard compressors. As for digital consoles, my favorite brand is DiGiCo because they have the power to do pretty much anything I want. I’m a firm believer that if something sounds bad through a sound system while completely flat, you should change the mic first – so great mics are very important to me. I’m currently in the process of building my personal mic closet, so I enjoy testing out different mics that venues have in-house. My favorite combination of microphones varies from artist to artist depending on the sound I’m going for, but it’s usually a mixture of Sennheiser & Audix microphones. My favorite kick drum mic combination is a Shure Beta 91a inside, and an Audix D6 outside.

The SoundGirls Podcast – Carolyn Slothour: FOH Engineer and Flutist

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent

Profiles of Women in Audio

Women Behind Film

 

Let’s talk about film composers – Women film composers. 

More precisely, the lack of representation of women in film scoring.

The centre for the Study of Women in Television and film released a report stating that of the top 250 domestic films in 2018, 94% were scored by men.

This year, Hildur Guðnadóttir was the first solo woman to win Best Original Score at the Golden Globes. It was a historic moment that I hope will advance the profession and therefore offer more scoring opportunities to women.

The world of movie scores tends to be male-dominated with composers such as Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Michael Giacchino, and Danny Elfman. However, with this new demand for content on platforms like Netflix and Amazon, we can only hope more opportunities for women to score films and series’ will increase.

For the first time in Oscar History a woman, Eímear Noone will conduct excerpts from the five nominated scores. This is a major milestone and hopefully will open doors for other women in the profession.

Although these milestones have been long-awaited, it is encouraging to see women being represented behind the camera. We can only hope that these are the first steps in evening out the playing field.

 

How Do You Measure Career Success?

 

Written By: Erica D’Angelo

 

I’ve been working as an audio engineer in Australia since 1997.  When I meet young sound engineers starting out, particularly women,  I am inspired by their passion and fearless attitude towards forging a career in this very challenging industry, particularly in a country like Australia where the market for audio professionals is pretty small.  The same questions and fears that I faced working in a male-dominated industry still confront women today. I want to share my story to illustrate how a career in sound can take many paths, but the key ingredients for longevity are the same today as they were 25 years ago.

I started life as a classical musician completing a Bachelor of Music majoring in Clarinet in Adelaide, South Australia.  In the classical world, it was rare to come across audio reinforcement, only on the odd occasion of being part of a recording, but when I finished my studies and started gigging as a sax player and with pops style orchestras I started to notice the microphones, the miles of cables, and how there were only ever guys running the sound.  That all looked way cool compared to hanging out with the middle-aged people sitting in symphony orchestras.

Teaching music in the UK a few years later – the early 90’s, when techno/jungle and drum and bass were coming up from the underground in London,  kids were bringing cassette recordings to the class of pirate radio techno raves and asking how to make that music. I didn’t know, but I wanted to learn.  Each school had bits and pieces of gear – 4 track recorders, microphones, outboard gear, mixing desks – so I started to teach myself. Eventually, I enrolled in the SAE Diploma of Audio Engineering course and embarked on a new career at the age of 26.

Studying in London brought great opportunities.  I was resident FOH at my local Latin bar, mixing salsa bands that actually came from South America, which for an Australian was a new experience.  The guy that owned the PA became my first mentor – a generous Ghanaian man called Tito, who was happy to teach me everything he could. Other opportunities arose in film and TV but overwhelmingly I found live sound to be the most exciting.

Early days at Adelaide Festival

Eventually, the lure of the sun and the beach called me back home, where I landed in Sydney as an experienced live sound engineer, but with no idea of how the Australian industry operated.  I talked to every FOH engineer at every gig or festival I went to and found a lot of great advice was freely offered. It became clear that to be a working sound engineer in Australia you had to mix rock and roll.

So far, I had never crossed paths with any other women working in the industry.

I went and got a job with Jands – who at the time was the biggest PA company in Sydney that provided the production for all the touring acts, had a huge inventory of Clair Bros, Meyer, and JBL, and employed dozens of audio and lighting technicians for both touring and local shows.  Finally, I met two women employed as lighting techs, but working for Jands was as masculine an environment as was possible. These guys were (notoriously) hardcore roadies, in the days when OH&S concerns were laughed at, and you proved your worth by being able to lift the most, party the hardest and work the longest hours.

Despite the prevailing attitudes, I earned respect from my colleagues, and again was mentored by a couple of the guys, gaining invaluable training on large-scale sound reinforcement systems.   I liked the job, the loading in and out, the long hours, the banter – the physicality of it all. I learned quickly that you don’t need to be able to lift as much as the guys – there are plenty of other jobs to do and if everyone is working together no one has an issue.

Jands was going through one of their many restructure, which saw them sack all their permanent staff and invite back half of them as casuals.  I took this opportunity to get out and keep looking / learning. A couple of years in TV followed – working on entertainment shows which showcased live bands, as well as some very well-paid hell in the Shopping Network channels.

My next major achievement was being part of the Adelaide International Arts and Fringe Festivals for eight years.  These gigs were so much fun, working in crazy purpose-built venues, or parks, or rivers, working with international artists, working with crew from all over the country.  These festivals all involved miles and miles of cables, large-scale reinforcement systems, and logistical nightmares – requiring way more than audio skills. Operations and scheduling were organisational skills that I really enjoyed using and the beauty of these Arts festivals was more women on the crew!  The Australian rock and roll scene really was a man’s world for a very long time.

Schools Spectacular

Back in Sydney, the lead-up to the 2000 Olympic games was in full swing.  I was working as an assistant audio director with the Arts Unit of the education department – a department that provides large-scale performance opportunities for public school talent.  We would famously produce the Schools Spectacular every year in the Sydney Entertainment Centre – flying a massive PA, fully miked orchestra, dozens of radio mics, full broadcast split.

The Olympic Committee in conjunction with Norwest Audio was looking for as many large scale gigs as possible to practice fine-tuning the PA they would use for the opening ceremony, so our organisation was kept busy in the years leading up to the main event, staging events such as the Pacific School Games,  – so Norwest could get their specs right. During the actual Olympic event, I was seconded by the Olympic organising committee to be the Audio director of the Team Welcoming ceremonies. This was a great gig – pre-production involved going all over the country recording children’s choirs singing the national anthems of each country, that would be played at the ceremony each country has when they arrive in the athlete’s village.  For some countries, it is the only time they get to hear their anthem played.

In the 2000s I moved to Melbourne and started my own audio services business – Mind’s Eye Entertainment – writing and producing pop musicals for schools, sound design for theatre, and doing whatever else came along to pay the bills.   As much as I loved the life, I have always been an absolute realist with a pragmatic approach to survival, so when an opportunity to start up Staging Rentals in Melbourne came about, I took it. This was not audio, but it was events and high-end corporate events with large budgets.  So, I got to use the operations and logistics skills to full effect, as well as being account manager, truck driver and on the tools building stages as required. Again, the physicality of the job appealed to me. I met my husband at this time and loved working with him on gigs, but the inevitable question of age and babies started nagging.

I was 39 and decided to try and have a baby.  The male-dominated worlds I had been working in were not going to be conducive to a mature woman getting pregnant, so I changed jobs again and got an office job coordinating logistics in the exhibition industry.  At 41 after one round of IVF I produced a baby boy, and again was confronting how to shape my career while being a mother. A great fallback I always had was a teaching qualification, which I did as a matter of necessity way back when I finished uni.  I started looking for new career directions and discovered the world of vocational education – you could complete a Certificate III in sound production while at high school. This was an incredible discovery – all my qualifications and experience were perfect for a job like this.

Six months after having a baby I was teaching sound engineering to 16 and 17-year-old boys at a catholic school.  I loved it.

I continue delivering audio training to school kids at a private school in Melbourne. I teach part-time and spend the remaining time being technical production manager of the school’s large events. The school has a 1000 seat concert hall with flown Nexo array,  a multitude of incredible microphones and a generous production budget.

Discovering Soundgirls a couple of years ago was huge for me.  I was 50 and starting to question who I was – was I a sound engineer, a teacher, a manager?  I was middle-aged, grey hair, and still coiling cables – what kind of role model was I? How do you measure career success in the world of audio – FOH for a touring group?  Or simply having a workplace where you get to work and talk about audio all day?

After getting to meet the Melbourne Soundgirls and share stories, I found my personal story was finally validated – the fact that I am still here 25 years later thinking, talking, working and now inspiring young people to pursue a career in audio defines me as an audio professional.

New goals are to further my knowledge of acoustics.  I love the science of sound, how it behaves in a space, and I’ve taken very baby steps in studying acoustics – logarithms, logarithms, and more logarithms!

Shadow Re-Recording Mixer Stacey Hempel

Post Audio/Re-Recording Mixer & Editor Stacey Hempel has invited SoundGirls who are working in post-production audio or wish to work in post-production to shadow her.

Stacey has worked in the industry since 1993 and has an extensive client list. She is well versed in Pro Tools 12 Ultimate, Dolby Atmos Mixing, Experience on a wide variety of control surfaces, Soundminer, FTP, Network Servers, Dropbox, Media Shuttle, Aspera.

 

Shadow FOH & Monitors on Dermot Kennedy

SoundGirls have been invited to shadow FOH and Monitor Engineers Will Donbavand and Simon Lawson on Dermot Kennedy.  SoundGirls will be able to shadow both engineers and will get a chance to observe a touring production. You must be 18 to apply and be pursuing a career in live sound. You will be expected to show up for load-in and stay until load-out.

Apply Here

 

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