Back home in Denmark I know two very talented women in their mid-twenties and I am envious. I wish that I was their age and just starting out in the industry. On the other hand I don’t, the ten years I spent away from the industry was full of life experience. I obtained a Masters in Science and became an nurse anesthetist. I know I am intelligent and smart and I will always be able to support myself.
Those ten years were not wasted at all. It may not be a bad thing to take sometime out if you feel you are not going anywhere in the industry. Learning something different, obtaining education and experiences that you can fall back on, It’s never too late to come back and in many ways it is so much better for me now than it was twenty years ago. Now I’m more confident and I know how to put my foot down, to stand up for myself. I do know what is most important to me and that is working in live sound.
I am happy for my young colleagues in Denmark that this industry has changed so much over the last twenty years and that there are so many great opportunities to learn and study sound engineering. It has become more acceptable to be a woman and a sound engineer. Of course this is still a male dominated field and there are still doors to breakdown and issues that must be dealt with. It will change for the better and we must remember that most of our male colleagues are supportive and really only care about doing a great job, regardless of gender.
My last guest blog I wrote that I would tell you about the situation that got me back in business. Well, you’ll get that story next time.
The highlight of this week has been for the first time in my life I picking up an instrument. I have always been intimidated about the musical side of sound engineering. At Brit Row we have a whole Rock n Roll set of instruments just sitting there in the training room. So, since I’m determined to break down all barriers I have, I picked up a guitar and learned how to play play “Come as you are” (Nirvana) on a guitar.
Our lectures this week were about microphones and their polar patterns and the functionality of a DI-box. We also went through the universe of EQ and what to do with dynamic’s. We went through the line system from source on stage to satellite boxes further on to split boxes and out to the consoles. We learned how to troubleshoot and how to do a line check.
We learned how the MIDAS XL3 is configured and at the same time we were introduced to the job-position of FOH Engineer. It has been a busy week learning theory and getting some hands on training. Loving it.