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Thriving on Chaos – Karen Weigold

 

Karen “Keeks” Weigold grew up in Toronto, Ontario (Canada). She was always passionate about arts and spent the first 18 years of her life as a dancer. When the time came to apply for post-secondary education, her love for the entertainment industry pushed her to attend the Toronto Film School’s Sound Industry Program. While at the college, she met artist & producer Dan Hill. Dan offered her an internship in his home studio, and soon she was skipping classes in favor of recording band demos. It was while working at the studio that she was introduced to some live sound techs. By shadowing these techs, Karen got her taste for live sound. Her first live sound gig was at The Big Bop, a now-defunct venue in Toronto. Karen describes her live sound training as being “the hands-on “sink or swim” method.” She believes in taking chances and trying out new things to figure out what works, and what doesn’t.  She credits Dan with pushing her into the live world, as he recognized that she thrived on the chaos that is often present at shows.

As a touring freelancer, Karen has worked as front of house, monitor engineer, tour manager and production manager. Her first touring gig was mixing monitors for Ian Thornley of Big Wreck. She was offered this job by her friend Sean Palmer (current FOH for The Used) who was Big Wreck’s FOH at the time. After spending two days working with Karen at The Mod Club, he was so impressed with her work ethic that he offered her the monitor engineer position, even though she had no touring or digital board experience.  Never one to be scared of a challenge, Keeks prepared by reading the Avid SC48 manual beforehand. On her first day on the gig, Sean gave her a crash course on the board’s most important functions. She recalls that first show as being stressful but exciting, as she was running five stereo in-ear monitor mixes, five-floor wedges, a drum sub and side fills. The show went well and was a great learning experience. She was welcomed to the crew and proceeded to work with Ian Thornley, as well as with Big Wreck when they reunited, for four years.

During this time, she also worked as FOH/TM for Hollerado, Wildlife and Alyssa Reid before landing a FOH gig mixing The Weeknd. Karen spent a surreal 2.5 years with The Weeknd, mixing all over the world.  From there, she spent a year with Irish band Heathers, mixing in Europe, Canada, the US and even a short stint in Malaysia. Since 2013, she has spent the majority of her time out on the road as FOH/TM of Toronto darlings July Talk. When she’s not travelling the world, Karen can be found working as a house tech for The Mod Club, Danforth Music Hall and the Phoenix Concert Theatre.keeks_julytalk

I first met Karen when she came through Café Dekcuf in Ottawa with Heathers. As I watched her take charge of the stage set-up and flip her MC7L board alone, I thought to myself: “damn, this is a woman I want to know!” I’m happy to say that she’s now a friend, and is always up for giving me some tech or life advice. I asked her a few questions about her experiences as a sound tech before she headed out on a US tour with July Talk.

Karen describes the best part of touring as travelling and “being able to be a part of something special and unique each night. I feel incredibly lucky to be included in some of the magic I’ve been a part of since 2009. The artist trusts you as a sound person to convey to the world what they’ve poured their hearts and souls into! It’s a pretty incredible thing.”

She also thrives on “working in a new venue every day, with different gear and different challenges; sometimes it’s great, and sometimes you need to figure out how to make it great.” She acknowledges that being faced with different set ups every day can be difficult, but that this is what ultimately makes you a better tech. When given the chance, Karen loves to work with Midas Heritage 3000’s and DigiCo Consoles, Waves plug-ins, outboard graphs, TC Electronic D-Two’s, Sennheiser 421’s and Avalon 737’s.

Her biggest dislike of touring is the food: “When you’re not privy to catering it can be pretty awful at times… I try to stay as healthy as I can on the road, but sometimes gas station bananas don’t cut it and you just need to hit the In-&-Out to animal style your night!”

For those looking to get into touring, Karen says some must-have skills are being patient, having a sense of humor, knowing how to Tetris gear, being understanding, open to learning, and knowing how to multi-task.

In regards to finding the right artists to work for, she adds: “if it feels good, do it. If it doesn’t, it’s not worth it. I’m referring to working with/for people who make you a better person and give you a sense of accomplishment, happiness and respect. I’ve been on tours (and know a lot of people who are/were on tours) that were not great experiences mentally or emotionally. Why put yourself through that? At the end of the day it’s all just rock and roll, we’re all here for the same reason. Touring work needs to be supportive, respectful and professional. If you can’t count on your road family, then you need to find a new one.”

IMG_1928Much like many women in this industry, Karen has experienced sexism, both on the road and while at her house gigs. She believes the industry is slowly changing but still considers sexism to be the biggest obstacle she faces on a regular basis. She has been told by venue techs that she isn’t mixing the show and even been laughed at when she has announced herself as the band’s sound tech. When faced with these situations, Karen’s advice is to tackle them head-on! She explains: “I wouldn’t ever want the women in my life to feel like they don’t have a voice to be heard, so I try to live my life like that when I’m faced with less than ideal situations. Speak up, do your job the best you can and don’t ever let people make you feel like anything but their equal. Being quick thinking and tactful makes it easier to have the upper hand. Let your work speak for itself. Sexism is someone else’s problem, not mine, and I won’t let it be mine. Don’t get me wrong, I do meet more incredible people than not, some of whom have become some of my closest friends, and in the coming years I’m sure whatever is left of [sexism] will be on it’s last legs.”

Karen’s long-term goals are to keep working on her mixing skills and to continue touring with great people. She also notes that she never wants to stop learning, and wants to keep surrounding herself with people who inspire her to do better and to be better – this applies to both her personal and work life. I have no doubt she will accomplish these, as she is one of the most hard-working people I have ever met! I wish Keeks all the best on her future tours and thank her for taking the time to answer my questions.

If you would like to contact Karen, she can be reached at standbygold@gmail.com

 

SoundGirls.Org – June 2015

June 2015 Highlights (more…)

Video Game Sound Designer

Sound Designers make everything you hear in a game except for dialog and music. They will use a DAW to create the sound effects.  They can pull sounds from sound effects libraries or make the sounds from scratch.  They will record sounds in the field or in a foley studio.  Then they can take those raw sounds and mix them together and use effects to make the game world come alive.  Designers will be asked to make all kinds of sounds depending on the game.  They can make anything from huge dragons to car engine or machine guns and tanks. Part of the job is also making every single sound in the game.  This includes every footstep and cloth rustle you hear as the game character moves around the world.

Technical Sound Designers are responsible for integrating all the sounds in the game.  They work with the game engine and audio middleware such as Wwise or Fmod  to put all the sounds in.  This is a very important position since they control where sounds are placed, what volume the sounds are played at and how far away you can hear the sound in the game world. This is where the games mix takes place.

Audio Directors  are responsible for for making sure all of the audio in a game fits together.  They will interact with all of the other teams making the game to figure out what sounds are needed.  They will review all of the sound designers work and oversee the sound implementation. They lead the audio team.

Composers write all the music you hear in the game.  This is different than other composers because a lot of game audio is interactive.  This means the music is created so that it can switch from loud, thunderous battle music to quiet exploration music in the same song at any time.  Game scores can be all live musicians or all samplers and synths.  It depends on how big the game is and what feel the game needs.

Dialog Producers direct the talent in the voice over sessions.  They will help format the scripts so they are easy to read in sessions.

There are different ways this can all be set up.  All of these jobs could be done by one person on a smaller team.  Sometimes there are multiple sound designers and technical sound designers if it’s a bigger title.  Sometimes you can have one person who works at a game company who hires outside contractors to all of this work.  Outside contractors can either work for themselves or they are part of a bigger company that does sounds for a bunch of different games.

How to get started
Try to intern at a game company or work on an indie project.  This will give you experience so you can get your foot in the door at a game company.  Learning the tools will help you as well.  Fmod, Wwise, Unreal and Unity all have free downloads of their software so you can learn how everything works together,  Play a lot of games and listen how everything works together.  A lot of games will let you adjust the volume on music and sound effects.  Turn each one off and listen how just the music works, then listen to how the sound effects all work.

 

Courtesy of: Tom Smurdon

Copyright SoundGirls.Org 2015

Working as an A2 for a musical

By: Amy D Truong

Hey all–just wanted to share my most recent experience.

I just finished a 4-week contract where I was responsible for prepping the A2 position (or Sound 2 if you’re from the UK) for a musical with a new cast. I had the privilege of working with the sound guys that worked on the same musical on the West End in London–maybe you can figure out which one by the character names. (more…)

How to Say No

So here’s a revolutionary idea, freelance sound people: you don’t have to take every job offered to you. (more…)

Marcel van Limbeek on Shure Wireless Workbench 6

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By Marcel van Limbeek, ME for Tori Amos

Organised by SoundGirl.Org member Malle Kaas and hosted by Britannia Row Productions, this event featured Tuomo George-Tolonen from Shure Brothers. Tuomo discussed Shure’s Wireless Workbench 6 and control software. Workbench 6 is essentially a software programme that deals with all on stage and show radio frequency (RF) transmissions. The workshop was quite an eye-opening presentation for me, not just in terms of the Wireless Workbench software itself, but also as far as general use of RF components is concerned. (more…)

TV and Promo

I recently did a week of Television shows with an artist promoting their new record. I haven’t worked with this artist in several years and was unfamiliar with the songs to be performed. So to prepare for this, the first thing I do is request audio files of the songs. Then I start listening. If there are any tracks involved, I ask for a breakdown of the stems so I can hear what is coming from each track. (more…)

Identifying the Battles Worth Fighting

 

Please note – this blog is just my observations and thoughts. It is written to encourage debate, ideas, and reflection on sexism within our industry. It is important that we look at it from different angles and perspectives. It is not written to suggest that we simply ignore it and move on – it was written to help understand the different views women have on sexism and how they choose to combat it.  Would love to hear how you have decided to deal with it.

As I have been exploring sexism within the audio industry – I have discovered two opposing views from women. The first view that is echoed by women that are established in their careers is that – Yes, there is sexism but it has not hindered or held them back. They feel that they worked hard, often harder than their male co-workers, did not give up, and have confidence in their craft. They state that they rarely see sexism and believe that women have made huge strides and the industry is very accepting. (more…)

Two SoundGirls on Tour

This time last year, I was finishing my first professional tour as Front of House/Tour Manager. Although I no longer work for the band that took me out, I can look back on the experience and appreciate all that I learned – first tours are often very much a trial by fire! (more…)

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