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Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

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Member Benefits

As a member of SoundGirls you get:

ESSENTIAL LIVE SOUND TRAINING: HOW LIVE SOUND WORKS FOR SHOWS.

SoundGirls Members get one month free. Register Here. Here’s what the Essential Live Sound Training consists of:

  • 1. Over 100 videos, each one an easy to watch, bite sized piece of information. Every part of the audio systems we use for live sound is broken down into its own video, which makes it really fast to find exactly the info you’re looking for.
  • 2. Explanation of fundamental audio concepts that EVERY audio engineer should know. This is the technical stuff that you need to get a complete understanding of how live sound works for a show.
  • 3. One of a kind diagrams. A lot of audio concepts are pretty abstract! So, I worked with a world-class graphic designer to create some amazing visual learning tools that will help you see some of the topics we’re discussing.
  • 4. Quizzes. Every video has a quiz so you can review what you’ve learned by checking your knowledge. This is a great way to make sure you’ve got it!
  • 5. Q&A Webinars. I will be holding LIVE Q&A sessions where you can ask me any questions related to live sound or touring production. This can be about anything you want to know – what gear I use on tour, how to mix with prerecorded tracks, what a tour manager does, any kind of audio technical issues, ways we apply this knowledge on stage, or anything else.

Dale Pro Audio Discount – SoundGirls Members receive a 10% discount on almost every product offered at Dale Pro Audio. (Offer excludes discounts on Apple, Antelope Audio, Manley, and Focal). Of course, Dale Pro Audio would love to meet you in person, if you are in NY stop by and ask for Lisa.  email soundgirls@soundgirls.org with you member username to request discount code.

SoundGirls Lending Library

SoundGirls members are able to check out a book from our library for 30 days. It is free for members.

Rational Acoustics – Smaart 15% Discount at their online store

System Measurement Acoustic Analysis Real-time Tool (SMAART):

System Measurement – This is a dual-channel analyzer.  We can look at individual channels and take those signals apart to examine their level, frequency content, duration, etc . . . And we can compare two signals, the “what went in” of a system to the “what came out,” to determine what happened in between. In other words, what our systems (electronics, speakers, acoustical environments) are doing to the signals passing through them (frequency response, impulse response.)

email soundgirls@soundgirls.org for the discount code – good for one use per person.

Emerson College Los Angeles – Studio Discount

SoundGirl Members are able to rent the studio at Emerson College for a discounted rate of $35 per hour. If you are interested in this offer – please email us at soundgirls@soundgirls.org – with your name, email and SoundGirls username name.

Studio Specs:

Emerson LA: Audio Recording Studio Equipment List
• S6 M10 Avid Control Surface
• Neumann U87 microphone
• 4 SM57 microphones
• Sennheiser MKH 416 Shotgun Microphone
• 2 Focusrite ISA Two Mic Preamps
• Aston Spirit Multi Pattern Microphone
• Adam Sub 12s
• IW 150 M&K Sound Speakers
• Genelec Nearfield Monitors
• Avid HD I/O
• Avid Xmon
• ProTools HD
• Audio Plugins
o Waves Horizon Plug-in Bundle
o Altiverb
o Auto-tune Antares 8
o Izotope RX Post Production Suite
o Slate Digital Plugins (Coming Soon)

Wage Gap Discount

Empirical Labs Inc. (ELI), designs and manufactures professional audio signal processing equipment used in recording studios, live sound, broadcast studios and other audio production facilities all over the world. They also produce plug-ins for digital audio workstations (DAWS) and software for digital signal processors.

Empirical Labs would like to address the intersectional wage-gap by offering a 33% discount on their Arousor plug-in to all SoundGirls members.

To take advantage of this offer, email soundgirls@soundgirls.org  and enter ELISoundGirl in the subject line.

SoundGirls Note:

About Those 79 Cents

The most frequently cited pay-gap statistic obscures the even wider gaps faced by people of color. Often, this argument is accompanied by the now-famous statistic that women earn about 79 cents for every dollar men make at work. This is an important data point, but focusing on that figure alone masks the role race can play in perpetuating these disparities.

For instance, it is important to ask: Which women? The 79-cents statistic is an average that includes all women, but it obscures the even wider gaps faced by women of color. For black women, the number is closer to 65 cents, while for Latinas it is even lower, at 54 cents. This data draws attention to the fact that while women as a group aren’t paid as much as men, women of color see even more pronounced earnings gaps. Read more

Stage Hands Clothing is a woman owned company and holds a deep value and passion for the rights of others. They care about where products are made and who makes them.  They work very hard to find a balance between supporting American owned companies, identifying American manufactured goods, offering union made options, and providing input from experienced and knowledgeable current backstage professionals.

To meet these goals, they created a coding system to educate the consumer. It is important to Stage Hands Clothing that the customer is able to make the most educated decision concerning the products they buy.

They work hard to identify products from USA companies first.  Additionally, when tradespeople have a favorite product, not produced in the USA, Stage Hands Clothing will selectively sell these items. They do their best to label their products so you can make the most educated choices. When it comes to your workwear and gear, they strive to ensure you will be the most knowledgeable consumer and prepared stage hand on the site.

Stage Hands Clothing offers SoundGirls members a 20% discount on your entire cart. Email soundgirls@soundgirls.org for your coupon code

Uptowork’s Online Resume Builder – Choose professional, elegant, creative, or modern resume templates. Uptowork’s resume maker offers 20 templates in 400 colors. You can easily adapt the designs to any resume format you choose: functional, reverse-chronological, or combination. SoundGirls Members receive access to their free platform using code SoundG53% at checkout

Soulsound.co.uk – 25% Membership Discount

Get the tools you need to accelerate your career in audio engineering. Soulsound.co.uk is a members-only website supporting sound engineers from college to world tour and in the studio, offering online video tutorials, master classes, quick tips, and more.

SoundGirls.Org members can enjoy a 25% discount off any of their membership plans.

To take advantage of this offer, email soundgirls.org@gmail.com and enter Soulsound in the subject line.

Sound Design Live – One FREE Consultation

Sounddesignlive.com offers web-based training dedicated to revealing the most helpful strategies and information for success in the audio industry.

Sound Design Live is currently offering SoundGirls.Org members a free initial consultation called Success in Sound.

Success in Sound is a free personalized strategy session where we will:

To schedule your free consultation, e-mail soundgirls.org@gmail.com and enter Sound Design Live Offer in the subject line. Please include your login name, login e-mail, or SoundGirls member profile URL in the e-mail body so we may verify your member status.

Free Admission to Music Expo

MUSIC EXPO is the premier music conference in the San Francisco Bay Area for artists, recording musicians, songwriters, music producers, audio engineers, DJs, students or anyone interested in the art of music making. It’s a full day of educational sessions with music production masterclasses, music business panels.

email soundgirls@soundgirls.org for your free admission code

Free Admission to Sound Productions Workshops and Seminars – Located in Dallas, Texas

email soundgirls@soundgirls.org for complimentary admission

 

Anything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong” – Murphy’s Law

 

“Murphy’s Law” is when something bad happens unexpectedly at the worst possible time. (more…)

Finding the Rewards in Your Work

 

I often forget that my job is pretty unique. It’s just what I do, just like everyone else sometimes it is hard to get up and go to work. I find it especially hard right now in the dead of winter and in my quiet season.  But then every once in a while I am reminded my job is pretty awesome. (more…)

On Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

By: Anonymous SoundGirl

PrintI’m not especially attractive – my looks are pretty average, I’m not especially feminine, and I don’t flirt. Turns out those aren’t disqualifiers for sexual harassment. (more…)

Pulling Beauty from Restraint Part Two

Sound Design for a Baroque Opera – Part 2

In Part 1 of this 2-part blog, I introduced my challenge of creating a modern sound design to fit a baroque opera staged in a 19th-century music hall, including my initial approach to the space and decisions about amplification. This part will cover creating the soundscape for the pre-show and prologue, speaker positions and the issue of levels. (more…)

Cynthia Daniels – Taking the Leap and Living Your Passion

 

Cynthia Daniels is a two-time Grammy award-winning (‘02 & ‘11) recording engineer most known for her extensive work in Broadway musicals (The Producers, Flower Drum Song, etc.) and TV/Film (World News Tonight, 20/20, MTV).  Besides engineering, she has garnered a ‘07 Emmy Award for her work as a composer and music supervisor for the daytime series “Guiding Light.” Cynthia has worked with many renowned artists such as Julie Andrews, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, Chaka Khan, Sarah Jessica Parker, just to name a few. Her Easthampton recording space MonkMusic Studios, designed by John Storyk, has been nominated for a TEC Award and is home to renowned productions such as Beyonce’s “God Made You Beautiful” and Randy Brecker’s “Randypop.” Aside from her thriving career in music engineering and production, she devotes her time to supporting emerging artists through the fledging independent label MonkMusic Records. (more…)

SoundGirls.Org – NAMM – She Rocks Awards

By: Karrie Keyes
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The last week has been a whirlwind of activity for SoundGirls.Org. We welcomed several members from around the globe to Anaheim and NAMM last week. It was so fantastic to meet members in person and I know everyone had a great time meeting up and hanging out with each other.

(more…)

Ghost the Musical at Guildford School of Acting

GHOST is a timeless fantasy about the power of love. Walking back to their apartment one night, Sam and Molly are mugged, leaving Sam murdered on a dark street. Sam is trapped as a ghost between this world and the next and unable to leave Molly who he learns is in grave danger. With the help of a phony storefront psychic, Oda Mae Brown, Sam tries to communicate with Molly in the hope of saving and protecting her.

I knew the musical Ghost would be fun to do. There would be loads to play with; the ghost battles and the deaths. Add a band and loads of comedy and I knew this would be a great show.

Sword Fights – Electricity – Demons – Trains- What’s Not to Like

SoundScape
I wanted the sound of the ghosts interacting with each other to be a strong sound. It needed to be full of energy and still have an element of impact within it. My first thought was to base the sound of the battles around sword fights but to give some other energy as well. Death and organisms seem very analogue to me and very elemental so I thought I’d throw some electricity around in there.  The battles with the ghosts needed to be timed to be exact so the SFX would match with the live-action on stage.

I decided to film the fight scenes during rehearsals. Stage fights are choreographed and well-rehearsed, and I was confident the scenes would be the same every night. By recording the scenes, I was able to make sound effects to fit and come to the technical rehearsal with the nuts and bolts or the spine of the soundscape in place.

Trains seem to be featured heavily in the shows I have done recently but this was the first time I needed to time the percussive sound of the train on tracks with the music. Finding a small section I could loop and time stretch to match the tempo of the no.  It meant the SFX, which was very loud and sudden within the show, would help move a number along rather than distract from it or break the spell.

The other big soundscape moments were the transitions from life to the afterlife.  We didn’t want to lay on a thick moral interpretation of that; so we designed two versions for that transition. The first soundscape was dense; demonic, throbbing, growling, and animalistic. The second version used an element of glass and bells, to convey a sense of air and space. The denser more growling sound was used to signal the deaths that had some element of discord.

When the guy who killed Sam died or when Sam’s friend, who orchestrated the whole plot, died I used this soundscape. It helped to give a sense of the discord within those characters and a hint of them being surrounded by something not pleasant.  When Sam died there was an element of the second soundscape there to give a hint of where he could go and to accent the choice he makes to stay with his girlfriend Molly. When Sam finally moves on to whatever comes next I used a fuller version of the second soundscape to covey a sense of having resolved things.

I created a ghost reverb to use when characters died; it was not too long or too short. It just put the ghosts in a slightly different space from the characters that were still alive. This did prove problematic at first, as it became messy moving from a ghost-speaking reverb to a ghost singing reverb during the show. Laura, (the No. 1 on the show and was programming the SD8), and I decided to use the ghost-speaking reverb for numbers as well. Maybe with a little tweak if we needed something longer for a ballad.

The set was a very open and lovely and all of it was required for the acting space. This meant the band would have to be remote. The band was a five-piece, plus brass and strings on tracks. The tracks were run by Qlab and triggered by the Musical Director (MD). A band room was constructed into a cloth store on the side of the stage; the band relied on a video monitor to see what was happening on stage. Also, the MD had a camera that was broadcast to the vocal booth on the other side of the stage and FOH. The cast and crew could see the MD at all times and were able to follow his upbeats, etc. Vocals and fold back of the band were fed to the room through an Aviom system.

Mixing tracks with a live band presents challenges; you want the tracks that were produced in a different space to sound as close to the band and the room. It’s a good idea to have as many stems from the tracks as the console and equipment will allow.  Separating the string and brass tracks, etc. allows you to treat them differently. It helps if the tracks are as untreated as possible, so you can ride the faders and follow the dynamics of the show. Eliminating pre-recorded reverbs, allows you to use the same reverb on similar types of instruments and will help the mix to gel together. All of the vocals were live although some were sung off stage in a vocal booth. Laura the No. 1 did an excellent job in combining all of these elements into a cohesive mix.

Laura Sound No1

Laura No1

I really enjoyed working on this production and with all the talented women on the sound team.
Laura – No1
Gemma –  Production Sound Engineer
Sarah and Olivia – Backstage and radio mics.

Guildford School of Acting uses a professional band and creative team to put shows on. The cast and the technicians are all students supported by the in-house professional technical team.

 

Passion – Drive – Success

Starting Out

So, you’ve discovered your love of music, technology, and production. That’s the first step! Being passionate about this work is an absolute must, or, frankly, it’ll suck you dry. (more…)

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