With a background in theatre and mixing musicals, Yvonne will be blogging about her current projects and tips and techniques she’s found useful.
What are you worth? or Do I need an agent?
In an industry where fees are kept close to everyone’s chest, it’s often hard to know what is a fair price for your time. Taking a job where I feel I have been ripped off in the fees department is never a way for me to feel like part of a team and produce my ...When the Going gets Tough…
Why would I allow my knockbacks to define me when I could choose to let my recoveries do so?Radio Mics and Vocal Reinforcement, Part 2
I’ve covered some of the things I have learned about radio mics here, but it’s a constant art of just doing what works and not being afraid to change the way things are done if they aren’t working the way you need them to for the job in hand.Radio Mic Placement in Musicals
Radio Mic Placement in Musicals – Well, we had to pull the mics down the forehead. What seems like a small movement in position made a huge difference to the amount of level we could get from the mics.The Nativity
This was a working church, so that meant every evening we had to be out of the building for two hours so that they could perform evening mass. We also had to be out of view entirely for the Sunday service. We took everything down and had to rebuild it for the Monday evening show.Making Mistakes – Learn and Move On
Of course messing up something that doesn’t get fixed before it makes it into the show is not a habit to cultivate. But dwelling on the mistake you just made is not going to keep you focused in the moment and moving the show along.What would Shakespeare do?
Would Shakespeare shun today’s technology? Shakespeare utilized a sound department, using sound effects and they lowered actors in from the flys. Shakespeare’s plays would have originally been performed with young men playing the roles of women. Does that mean women shouldn’t be performing as well?Their Rightful Place in History
As a woman in tech it can sometimes feel like we are fighting for recognition and it is troubling when those who write history choose to ignore women and the tremendous achievements they made. Women were instrumental in both sound engineering and computing from the beginning. Here are just a few.What is a Sound Design Associate?
As an Associate, I think it is important to remember this is not my show. I may have artistic input, and if the director asks for something, I will work hard to make it happen. But I always keep the designer aware of any changes I have madeThe Sound Design of Brideshead Revisited
One of the best discussions I had in my early days as a sound designer was with a vocal coach. We use to discuss listening to the whole play rather than just the elements of the sound design.QLab: An Introduction
QLab is my software of choice for play back in musicals and plays. QLab is a Mac-based piece of software that I have found it to be robust, flexible, and quick to program. If you need a playback engine for music tracks or sound effects and you have a Mac, then it’s absolutely worth looking ...Signal Flow
You have a bunch of awesome equipment, you have awesome musicians, and you need to get the sound from the musician or SFX playback computer through all that awesome equipment and out into the world or recorded in some way.A Month in the Life of a London SoundGirl
London rush hour is awful and I do whatever I can to avoid it. Sometimes I cannot, early morning production meetings and tech rehearsals have me squeezing onto a London tube with a rucksack that has a laptop and my hard drive. Not Fun. This last month I have found myself doing a lot ...Ghost the Musical at Guildford School of Acting
Yvonne Gilbert is a London based Sound Designer and Engineer with a background in Theater and Musicals. 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.Yvonne’s Top 52 Tips to Remember
Yvonne’s 52 tips to remember, or how to be a badass sound engineer.It’s Panto Season
A Pantomime is a musical children’s show put on at Christmas. It has a long history that can be traced back hundreds of years. It always based on a children’s story like Jack and the Beanstalk or Cinderella.Life Long Learning
By Yvonne Gilbert You weren’t born knowing anything; nobody was. Everything you do that isn’t an automated function such as breathing is something you had to learn to do, even walking. All the sound engineers you know had to learn and be taught things and never stop learning. Never let someone make you feel bad because they ...It Doesn’t Sound the Way You Think it Does.
By Yvonne Gilbert I first started working on plays about ten years ago at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank. The first show I worked on that made an impression on me was Pillars of the Community, Sound Designer Ian Dickinson. The preshow soundscape was set in a dockyard, and it sounded good. (I have ...Letting Go of Anger
By Yvonne Gilbert We have all had bad days at work. Sometimes there is that guy who won’t let up with the comments, the guy who will try to take things out of your hand because you can’t possibly carry anything. Sometimes every decision you make is questioned, and every conversation is used to try and ...The Unique and Spectacular Venues
By Yvonne Gilbert I’ve worked in some wonderful venues some of my favorites have been found spaces or spaces that weren’t supposed to be theaters originally. They do provide their own challenges Bridewell Theater The Bridewell Theater is in an old swimming pool near Fleet Street London. It was originally a swimming pool set up for the use ...Mixing Musicals
By Yvonne Gilbert I’ve spent a lot of my career mixing musicals, in London’s West End and on tour. They range from a five piece band and six in the cast with one SFX to a 20 plus cast and a 20 piece orchestra with 100 + SFX in each act. Depending on the piece it ...Sound Design for Theatre
By: Yvonne Gilbert Sometimes people ask me what I do, and I say, “I’m a Sound Designer.” The more I mix with people who work in Sound but not in Theatre I realize it is a role that doesn’t exist in other areas of live sound. The theatre Sound Designer is a bit different from the ...Notes on American Idiot
By: Yvonne Gilbert I knew it was a good show five minutes into the first run through. The LSMT cast was energetic and tight, and the show itself was amazing. Great. There were some alarming moments in the run through; the cast threw themselves around, and there was a bit of singing while lying on the ...What’s Your Plan B?
Or – The Machines are Out to Get Us. By: Yvonne Gilbert It happens to everyone at some point. That crucial bit of kit fails at the wrong moment. The radio mic on the lead has sweat in the mic head or the connector. Someone in the Brass section has knocked water into the stage box. The ...What Do You Call Yourself?
By: Yvonne Gilbert Do you know that the colour orange is named after the fruit, not the other way round? That’s why redheads (that colour is not red and nor is the breast of a robin) aren’t called orange heads. Apart from the ancient Egyptians there isn’t much evidence that the ancient world could distinguish the ...Lift – The Musical
By: Yvonne Gilbert I recently worked on a production of Lift a musical set in and around the lift of Covent Garden underground station. It was directed by Paul Baker at the Ivy Arts Centre in Guildford originally being produced at Soho Theatre in London. Lift is a rock musical rather than a more traditional musical with ...