In memorium of SoundGirls.org member Julia Brightly
SoundGirls.Org has just received news that one of our earliest supporters has passed away. Julia Brightly passed away on May 3rd from an aggressive form of cancer. Julia worked as live sound engineer for over 20 years and brought her talent as a FOH Engineer to M83, Mogwai, Caribou, Slint, Fuck Buttons and The Knife.
Julia was also a singer, storyteller, writer, musician, painter, illustrator, broadcaster, producer, and feminist lesbian. Her work is showcased on her website JuliaBrightly.com. Not only was Julia an extremely talented and creative artist, she was extremely brave. In 2009, she came out as transgender and made her transition to a woman.
Michelle and I never had the opportunity to meet Julia, but many in the industry have spoken very highly of her. Justin Weaver of Clair Global originally introduced us to her and had this to say: “Julia was an absolute pleasure to work with & a fantastic mixing engineer. After meeting her while she was on tour with M83, we were very much looking forward to working together again on a new project this spring in the USA. Unfortunately she fell ill during rehearsals overseas and could not continue on with the tour. She will certainly be in our thoughts and we pray that she has found peace.”
Last year Karrie interviewed Julia and detailed her set up for M83 at the Hollywood Bowl.
We would like to express our sincerest condolences to Julia’s friends and family and all those who will miss her.
Karrie and Michelle
SoundGirls.Org
By: Malle Kaas
Last week Mina Göl Berthelsen and I attend a “drum mic event” in Copenhagen, Denmark where we both live.
There were 12 sound engineers gathered together with a drummer, a drum kit and “tons” of mic’s. The idea of the event was to put two or three different mics on each drum part, and then record them on to individual tracks to compare them with each other.
We had the drummer playing different rhythm, (Rock, Latin etc.), and then played back in a loop where we were comparing the different e.g. kick mic’s up against each other by listening to one at a time. Kind of an A-B test.
We probably had five rounds with traditional and not so traditional drum mics. Some mics were used again, but on different drum parts. Totally, we were checking out approximately 30 – 35 microphones. (more…)
Rent closed at the end of March. It was a successful show by any measure. It was a labor of love. It was also a minefield, a mountain, and in the end, a “changing” experience in a lot of ways. My last week of shows there, was also my first week of tech for my next show, Cabaret, at another small-but-mighty theater company- Stray Dog Theatre. (more…)
What does a sound engineer do?
I’m currently mixing FOH on the Goo Goo Dolls “The Otis Midnight Sessions” acoustic tour.
When most people hear “Acoustic Tour” they expect a couple of musicians walking in with acoustic guitars on their backs, playing campfire songs. I have yet to do an acoustic tour like that. When I toured with Indigo Girls years ago, I cannot tell you how many times we showed up with our truck full of gear to the local crew shaking their heads asking “ I thought this was two girls and two guitars?” In fact it was 20+ various stringed (more…)
Some Reassembly Required- Rent: part 5
A friend of mine, who is also my gear guy for the show, was gracious enough to come see Rent and give me his opinions on how things sound. We talked for quite a while after the show about what he heard. The condensed verdict is that overall, things are in pretty good shape, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. So now, a little more than halfway through the run, I’m changing…well…almost everything. (more…)
Dear SG members and supporters;
It’s hard to believe that SoundGirls.org launched just over a year ago. There has been an incredible amount of support and we are grateful for that. We’ve been hard at work over the past year and we’d like to give you and update on what’s been going on. (more…)
First Out of State Gig – Take One!
In my last post, I wrote about how I got word that I’d be working at a corporate conference in Novi, Michigan. It was a two-day corporate conference for a prominent beauty line and I would be working it with my co-worker and veteran of live sound Rod Price. In my post I chronicled the prep for the gig
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Touring Life and Being a Mother
I read a Tumblr post recently that was in response to the fabulous Pro Sound Interview with producer and recording engineer Trina Shoemaker. The author of the post wrote that after reading the article, she had resigned herself to the fact that to make it in the pro audio industry she would never have children.
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