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The Six Figure Home Studio: A Review

When I first heard about The Six Figure Home Studio, I was skeptical. Who was this guy and was he really making six figures? Could a 31-year-old engineer/mixer really have enough experience to give solid advice to the thousands of people coming to his site?

I was surprised to find what Brian Hood has to say has a lot of value. In six years, he grew $5,000 and a studio in his parent’s basement to a 6-figure income (gross/pre-expenses) business in Nashville. He recognizes common business struggles for home studios (and freelancers) and has come up with easy and practical tools to help. I reviewed the website, podcast, video series (free portion), mailings, and Facebook group. A few elements stood out as the best:

 I Publicly Shared ALL Of My Studio’s Income, Expenses, and Tax Numbers

Brian posted his business earnings from 2014 (month by month) and yes, it was over six figures (around $120,000). The catch: After expenses and taxes his net income was around $50,000. This is an excellent case study of the reality of owning a home studio.

Website Download: Rate Sheet

(link at the bottom of the page)

This is a free download if you give an email address (which does sign you up for the mailing list). The rate sheet is geared towards music production but has a lot of great advice and the rate ranges provided seem reasonable and realistic.

Facebook group: The Six Figure Home Studio Community

The first two rules for this group are “No gear talk unless it’s related to business/budgeting/growing your bottom line” and “No mixing talk. There are more than enough groups for this.” It feels like a community – the conversations are interesting, and everyone is treated with respect (including the women in the group). It’s a great resource for business questions.

Video course: The Simple Business Roadmap

This free “course” is a collection of videos that can be watched in about an hour. In the videos, Brian gives simple suggestions how to start a business and create a plan. It’s worth it to sign up for the video about sales where he talks about how to target potential customers (including online strategies).

Article: Why Most Home Studios Fail To “Make It” (Spoiler: It Has Nothing To Do With Marketing)

Brian has created “The Home Studio Hierarchy of Needs” which shows “the fundamentals necessary to create a successful, profitable, flourishing home studio business.” When it comes to finding business, studio owners (and freelancers) tend to work in a lot of different directions without much focus. Brian breaks this down into a process that is easy to understand and implement.

Home Studio Assessment

This is an assessment based on his above “Home Studio Hierarchy of Needs.” It only takes a few minutes (answering questions on a scale from low to high). The questions range from your social skills to beliefs about business or marketing. The results help zero-in on problem areas such as “skills & knowledge,” “relationships and ethics,” or “profit and maximization.”

Room for improvement

I love the overall concept (a business resource specifically for home studios), but sometimes it comes across as just a personal blog that’s Nashville-centric. I was hoping to see perspectives from a variety of professionals, but the only views other than Brian’s were on the private Facebook page and the podcast’s second host.

While I see value in the site’s paid content, I fundamentally disagree with targeting colleagues (versus clients) for profit. Most professionals in our industry will offer information for free to support colleagues in times of need. We’re all running businesses and everyone doing this has tricks and “secret sauce” that could probably help a lot of people. This site sells it openly; there’s a $695 program that essentially is a mentorship. That’s a lot for a struggling business or someone getting off the ground. It’s like a neighbor asking for sugar; you could ask for money but is that what’s best for the relationship in the long run? In this field, sustaining is about the long game – not the race to the top.

Lastly, in the videos Brian says many times, “I know guys who do this” or talking about “getting connected to the right guys.” I was surprised to hear it given that female engineers and mixers do exist, many of us own home studios, and inevitably one (or many of them) would find the site. It’s disconcerting for a site that’s promoting itself as “The #1 Resource For Recording Studio Businesses” and over 9,000 Facebook followers to be speaking as though women in the industry don’t exist. If nothing else, I hope this is remedied in the future of the site.

Overall

Business education is lacking from audio education curriculum, and it’s often low on the priority list for a lot of freelancers and home studio owners. Owning a studio is about so much more than what gear to buy or learning how to mix better. The Six Figure Studio fills some of the business gaps and offers some interesting and valuable content on the topic. But, it’s also a site somewhat early in its own growth and expertise. There’s a lot to take from it (with a discerning eye).

It’s Time to Stop Just Talking About It

In January 2017, I asked the readers of this blog how they were going to take action to support women in sound – what were they going to stand up for that year? I am more than a little ashamed to say that it’s taken me over a year to decide to take an active stand myself. But now that I have, I don’t plan to stop.

I am tired of talking about being a woman in sound. Please understand me: I am not tired of talking about my career in sound (far from it), and I am not tired of talking about other women in sound. I am irritated by only being asked to answer questions about how difficult it is to be a woman in the sound and music industries. I am frustrated by requests for a definitive answer on why there aren’t more women working in pro audio.

I am exhausted by the questions put to me by professional panels, organisations, and publications which are more interested in talking about the issue of the lack of women in sound, than taking action to do anything about it. I am tired of talking about the problem when I could be boosting the profile of women in the industry by talking about my career in sound.

It is no longer enough to acknowledge there is an issue. If I want change – if we all want change – we have to take action and encourage the leaders in our industry to do the same.

A few days before International Women’s Day, I saw an opportunity to call out one of the major audio industry publications on the representation of women in their magazine.

Below is a transcript of the full Instagram conversation. The original can be found here

@soundswilde

Happy International Women’s Day, Sound on Sound. Let’s have a chat.

I was given a copy of the December 2017 issue of Sound on Sound at a conference last week and I was drawn to this statement in the Inside Track article about Kesha Lee “This is the 132nd article in Sound on Sound’s Inside Track series, and it’s a sad reflection of the state of the music business that only three female engineers have featured in the first 131”

You’re absolutely right; it is a sad reflection – not just on the state of the music business, but also on the organisations and publications that perpetuate gender imbalance and inequality in the music and audio industries. Which, by your own admission, includes Sound on Sound. You’re part of the problem.

The fact that fewer than 3% of the engineers featured in the Inside Track series have been female is pretty shocking in itself. On top of this is the reinforcement of the message that in order to work in the audio industry, you need to be male. Let’s take the December issue as an example.

There are no female writers credited that I could see. Of the 18 ads which include pictures of people, only 1 has a woman at a mixing desk – and she’s a student with a male tutor. Of the 11 ads which include quotes, none of the quotes are attributed to a woman. Special shout out to Radial Engineering who included 8 pictures of 8 male engineers with a quote from each of them in their ad, and to Warm Audio for their tagline “like father, like son”. Way to be inclusive, fellas.

As a woman working in pro audio, I am often asked why gender imbalance persists in the audio industry. The short answer is that there is still a cultural and sociological bias that women don’t belong in technology. This manifests in the kind of non-inclusive imagery and marketing that you can see in the December 2017 issue of Sound on Sound. Put simply: you can’t be what you can’t see.

I’ve been training and working in pro audio for 18 years. There have been a lot of positive changes in the audio industry, for which I am grateful. We still have a long way to go if we want the 5% (the current representation of women in audio) to change to 50%. I want to work in a diverse, equal industry. I hope you do too. If you consider Sound on Sound to be an ally of women in the audio industry, then we need you to step up and do better. You’re in a position of power and privilege. You can use it to challenge bias among your advertisers, subscribers, and contributors and pro-actively support a more gender-equal industry. I hope you will.

Kirsty Gillmore – sound designer, sound engineer, European Co-Director of Soundgirls.org.

@soundonsoundmag:

Hi Kirsty, thanks for the thoughtful and thought-provoking points you make.

As regards advertising, SOS is only allowed to reject submitted advertisements for very specific reasons. Unfortunately, these reasons don’t include perpetuating gender imbalances within the industry. This isn’t a question of editorial policy but a matter of law, and one on which we have taken legal advice in the past. It is counterintuitive but is also, sadly, the current situation.

Regarding the authors who write for SOS, we are aware that bylines are overwhelmingly male, and we would really like for this to become less so. This is a reflection of the pitches we receive rather than any bias within the office. If you’d like to help us change this, then we’d love to hear from you or any female engineers interested in writing for us.

Your own writing is great, so do feel free to send some of your own article ideas over. We’re always on the lookout for new reviewers or people with interesting techniques to share. If you’re interested, drop an email to Ellen Glasper, our Production Editor (nell.glasper@soundonsound.com), and we can take the conversation from there.

Concerning the representation of female engineers and producers within SOS, this has always been a difficult thing to get right. Recent feedback has triggered a discussion in the office about how we can improve the representation of women in the magazine and in the industry in general, and we are open to suggestions about how best to do this. A lot of female engineers and producers have broken through in the past few years, which is great to see, and we hope to cover them in the near future if they’re willing. — The SOS Editorial Team

  1. Incidentally, we’ve received several article pitches over the years from people wanting to explain why women are so under-represented in the industry and suggesting what can be done about it. They were all written by men, and they all basically amounted to “women just aren’t naturally interested in this tech stuff.” They were awful, and we never printed them.@soundswilde

Thank you for your considered response, @soundonsoundmag. While I understand you have no legal recourse to change the content of advertising, you could issue a statement supporting diversity in sound, and encourage your advertisers to reflect this in their advertising with SOS. I also fail to see how including more women in the magazine is “difficult to get right”. You’re not even reflecting the current percentage of women in audio at the moment (5%) in most (if not all) issues, so (failing blatant sexism) it’s difficult to see how you could get it more wrong. Feature more women engineers. Feature more women producers. Feature more women studio owners. Particularly feature more WOC. It’s great that you’re discussing this, but discussion alone will not change gender inequality in the industry. 5 of the MPG awards this year went to women – there are 5 interviews with top industry achievers waiting right there.

Thank you for the offer to contribute. I am heartened that you welcome applications from female writers. I would be further heartened if you took action to go and find female writers, instead of passively leaving it up to them to find you. Have you approached any female tech writers directly? Have you reached out to the many women and feminist music and sound tech collectives, co-ops, and non-profits worldwide to ask if any of their members might be interested? There’s a comprehensive list of women and feminist sound & music tech collectives, co-ops, and non-profits. Have you actively encouraged women writers to apply with contribution ideas?

Regarding articles written by men claiming women “just don’t like tech,” I’m not that interested in your decision not to run articles that perpetuate gender bias – I would hope that you do this as a matter of course. I’m interested in the actions that you decide to take now and pledge to take in the future that will change gender inequality in our industry. You describe SOS as “the most respected music/audio magazine publishers globally.” Do you respect the female and non-male members of your readership and the global audio/music community enough to actively challenge bias in the industry, rather than simply noting that it exists?

Here’s a couple of suggestions: include the recent AES #HeForShe event in the news section of  SOS, if you haven’t decided to already. I believe you were in attendance. Take notes on what Ableton is doing on their website at the moment to increase the visibility of female artists and producers. (Note from the author: Ableton showcased exclusively female artists on their website for a limited period for IWD 2018)

I think (I hope) we’re in agreement that the gender bias in the audio/music industry needs to change. I repeat: you have a position of power and privilege in our industry.  Please use it to pro-actively support gender equality.

SoundGirls Note – Here is a fantastic ad campaign that DiGiCo ran last year.

Colorado SoundGirls – KCSU and Bohemian Foundation Venues

Join our Colorado SoundGirls Chapter for a tour of KCSU radio station at Colorado State University. SoundGirl Hannah Copeland (KCSU General Manager) will give us a tour of their operation there and tell us about station and audio facilities at CSU. Then we’ll pop over to the newly-renovated Washington’s – a 900-capacity venue with a brand new state-of-the-art lighting and sound system – and get a tour from Production Manager, Kevin Gregory.

This is a free event – but please register here

Fort Collins is about an hour north on I-25 from Denver. We’re hoping to get a crew to carpool from the Denver-Boulder area. Contact Anna Frick if you are interested in carpooling anna@airshowmastering.com

 

 

 

The Mental Game of Unemployment

Years ago, I got burned by some friends who hired me to work for them then fired me months later out of the blue. It was the most surprising and crushing experience of my career. There’s been plenty of times I’ve had people say they’d hire me then didn’t (that’s normal). I’ve been turned down for work by friends before and that’s ok, too (it’s part of the business). This was different because I was working and completely confident in my job. I had dropped most of my other clients and gigs to work for them, too. When I was fired, I reached out to everyone I used to work for, but it was too late. I had already been replaced, or they didn’t need anyone.

Being unemployed is a mental game. You’d think it’d be time to relax and enjoy some freedom, but it’s totally the opposite. I felt rejected. I questioned my skill and ability. I felt silly for not having a backup plan. I had seen friends, and colleagues go through periods of unemployment but thought I was immune to it because I was a hard worker and always found something else.  I realized my whole career I had a false belief, “You can achieve anything you want if you work hard enough.” I think women hear this message a lot: “You can do it all.” For the first time, I was trying really hard, and it didn’t get me anywhere.

I hit a tipping point when I finally had to admit: “I can’t do it all, and I can’t make it happen.” Something about saying that lifted a huge weight. It was then ok to share how scary it was to be out of work and how much I doubted myself after being fired. I was so humbled by the generosity of friends and connections. One friend went so far as to get me an interview with someone she met a couple of days before.

It took a couple of months, but I started getting calls for work again and eventually got a couple of job offers. My chops came back quickly, but something was different about it. Since I wasn’t trying to “make things happen” all the time I was more relaxed. I don’t know what changed, but I could work faster, more efficiently, and communicate better. I felt more appreciation for every opportunity I was given.

At the time, one of the things I was most bummed about was one of the projects I didn’t get to work on with my friends. It was a major tv show with big names and a lot of buzz around it. I thought I lost a once-in-a-career opportunity. A year later, that show had poor ratings and got canceled after it’s first season. Meanwhile, one small gig I landed while I was unemployed went on to win a Golden Globe. I had no idea I was working on something that would be significant while I was doing it.

I haven’t talked to my former friends since getting fired, and it doesn’t matter. The experience made me realize how much I value honesty, transparency, and openness in any relationship. There’s politics in business, and sometimes decisions have to be made that hurt people you care for. How someone chooses to handle it is the true sign of their character.

Before my unemployment, I would have said success was a measure of what I worked on. I wanted to work on great projects, win awards for my work, and have a reputation for being a “great” mixer. What I’ve since realized is all those things are subjective. Success doesn’t have to be based on what other people think of you or your work. It definitely doesn’t have to be other people judging you for what you work on (or don’t work on). Today, I view success as a reflection of character. It’s something you can “make happen” every day.

DISEÑO SONORO – Foley

 

Los efectos de sonido en la filmación comenzaron cuando las películas dejaron de ser mudas para pasar a transmitir sonidos y voces. En 1927, Jack Foley desarrolló múltiples y diferentes técnicas de sonidos para cine, gracias a su colaboración en la película “ShowBoat”, en donde realizó los efectos de sonido sincrónico en tiempo real y así comenzó el efecto sala, mejor conocido como efecto Foley.

El sonido tiene la capacidad de hacernos sentir parte de una historia; algunas veces pasa desapercibido, pero si no estuviera ahí, la película no generaría el mismo sentimiento.

El foley puede comprender desde el sonido más sutil y cotidiano, hasta efectos sonoros creados para dar más sentido a algo en concreto, por ejemplo:  la ropa, puertas crujiendo, vidrios rotos y el mar, entre otros.

Al inicio, puede ser confuso comenzar a recrear los efectos sonoros. ¿Qué sonido es el mejor? ¿qué pasa si no me gusta el Foley que estoy creando?

Con esto en mente, hay que centrarse en tres áreas principales: pasos, movimiento y accesorios específicos. A continuación, se muestran distintos escenarios de lo que podría suceder, así como algunas recomendaciones de lo que puedes hacer al respecto:

Experimentar hace al maestro: Crea tus propios sonidos, prueba varios materiales, fábricas, suelos, etcétera. Esto te ayudará a tener una idea de un sonido y decidir qué es lo que requieres, en la medida que te funcione. Muchas veces, el producto final termina siendo algo que no esperabas, también te ayudará a crear un flujo de trabajo y en proyectos futuros podrás tener tus técnicas de grabación listas.

Prepárate para ensuciarte: Sí, ser un artista de Foley es un trabajo sucio, es recomendable utilizar ropa que no te moleste manchar, ya que estarás en el estudio durante varias horas y además te proporcionará comodidad para poder realizarlos. Trata también de usar ropa que haga poco ruido, para evitar que se filtre algún sonido externo.

Crea plantillas: El orden en las sesiones optimizará tu tiempo; crea plantillas en tu software de grabación (DAW) con tiempo. Independientemente de cuál utilices, el trabajo será más rápido y esto también les hará más sencilla su labor a los ingenieros de edición, de mezcla , etcétera.

Tener un diario se convertirá en tu mejor amigo: En él deberás registrar cada movimiento que estás haciendo, con su fecha y hora respectiva, desde lo más sencillo, como: “Tuve un error de grabación” o “No logré el paso adecuado”, hasta lo más complejo: “Hoy aprendí una técnica de grabación”. Puede ser tedioso, pero a largo plazo será de gran ayuda si llegaste a olvidar a crear un sonido, o también, cuando realices proyectos similares, tendrás una idea de cómo trabajarlos, gracias a tu journal.

Ir al cine: Ya sea para referencia o inspiración, esto te abrirá la mente, no sólo para ver efectos especiales, escuchar pasos en diferentes tipo de relieve y demás; también podrás ver cómo los géneros en el cine varían en Foley, en su manera de ser creados, grabados y mezclados.

Habrá cambios de último momento: Es la ley de la vida y más en la producción de películas. Ten en cuenta que puede haber proyectos que te pidan entregar al día siguiente (yo he tenido que entregar desde una hora o hasta media hora antes de la proyección), por lo que tendrás que trabajar bajo presión, pero no te preocupes, no siempre será así y aprenderás mucho.

Guarda todo: La regla de oro. Graba todo y si no estás segura de que lo hiciste, vuelve a guardar.

Colocación de micrófonos

Los micrófonos sensibles son excelentes para captar matices sutiles en efectos de sonido. Dentro del estudio de Foleys, puedes utilizar los siguientes modelos de transductores:

Trata de que la dirección del micrófono no esté muy cerca de la fuente que quieras captar; aléjalo unos cuantos centímetros para tener un poco del sonido del cuarto.

Estos son algunos objetos y técnicas sugeridas por artistas de Foley en Hollywood:

TÉCNICAS

OBJETOS

Cada película es distinta; además, cada producción y dirección provocan procesos diferentes, por lo que siempre aprenderás cosas nuevas. Así que al final, en todo momento sigue intentando nuevas ideas y guárdalas, nunca sabes cuándo las podrías usar.

By Tania Moreno and Carolina Anton

Tania Moreno – Nació en Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, el 2 de abril de 1996. Estudió la preparatoria en el Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey en Monterrey, México, y actualmente es estudiante de Ingeniería de audio en el Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey en Monterrey, México.

Ha estudiado una segunda carrera en Francés y también ha estudiado y realizado prácticas en Helsinki, Finlandia.

Es locutora y artista de Foleys para proyectos de animación y actualmente acaba de fundar su productora de audio Happy Dog Productions, especialista en la creación de diseño sonoro, scoring, mezcla y masterización.

Carolina C. Antón – Originaria de la Ciudad de Mexico, con más de 9 años de constante crecimiento, amante de la música, su primer acercamiento fue tocar la batería, inmediatamente inició de manera autodidacta e independiente, comenzando a realizar grabaciones en vivo, diseños y optimización de refuerzo sonoro y Head de audio para festivales internacionales a nivel internacional. Actualmente es ingeniero de mezcla para en vivo (FOH / MON). Ha mezclado para varios artistas, participando en giras mundiales.

Desde el 2016 comenzó su representación de Soundgirls.Org en la Ciudad de Mexico

Agradecimientos a la comunidad de Artistas de Foley: Peggy Vázquez, Estefanía Monroy (BHD estudios) y Alexa Castillo (BHD estudios) por aportaciones de consejos.

 

 

SOUND DESIGN – Foley

Using sound effects in film began with the passing of silent films. In 1927, Jack Foley developed multiple techniques of sounds for cinema, thanks to his collaboration in the film “ShowBoat,” where he made the effects of synchronous sound in real time and thus began the room effect, better known as the Foley effect.

Sound has the ability to make us feel part of a story; sometimes it goes unnoticed, but if it were not there, the film would not generate the same feeling.

Foley can be the most subtle and daily sound, to sound effects created to give more meaning to something in particular, for example, clothes, doors creaking, broken glass and the sea, among others.

In the beginning, it can be confusing to begin to recreate the sound effects. What sound is the best? What happens if I do not like the Foley I’m creating?

With this in mind, you have to focus on three main areas: steps, movement, and specific accessories. Below are different scenarios of what might happen, as well as some recommendations of what you can do about it:

The experiment makes the teacher: Create your own sounds, try various materials, factories, floors, and so on. This will help you to have an idea of a sound and decide what you need, as long as it works for you. Many times the final product ends up being something you did not expect, but it will also help you to create a workflow, and in future projects, you will be able to have your recording techniques ready

Get ready to get dirty: Yes, being a Foley artist is a dirty job, it is advisable to use clothes that do not bother you because you will be in the studio for several hours and it will also provide you comfort to perform. Also try to wear clothes that make little noise, to prevent any external sound from leaking out.

Create templates: The order in the sessions will optimize your time; Create templates in your recording software (DAW) with time. Regardless of which one you use, the work will be faster, and this will also make it easier for editors, mixers, etcetera.

Having a diary will become your best friend: In it you will have to record every movement you are making, with its respective date and time, from the simplest, such as: “I had a recording error” or “I did not achieve the adequate step “, even the most complex:” Today I learned a recording technique “. It can be tedious, but in the long term it will be very helpful if you forget to create a sound, or also, when you do similar projects, you will have an idea of how to work them, thanks to your journal.

Go to the cinema: Whether for reference or inspiration, this will open your mind, not only see special effects, listen to steps in different types of relief and others; You can also see how the genres in the cinema vary in Foley, in their way of being created, recorded and mixed.

There will be changes at the last moment: It is the law of life and more in the production of films. Keep in mind that there may be projects that you ask to deliver the next day (I had to deliver from one hour or up to half an hour before the screening), so you’ll have to work under pressure, but do not worry, it will not always be the case, and you will learn a lot.

Save everything: The golden rule. Record everything and if you are not sure that you did it, save it again.

Placement of microphones

Sensitive microphones are excellent for capturing subtle nuances in sound effects. Within the Foleys study, you can use the following models of transducers:

Try that the direction of the microphone is not very close to the source you want to capture; move it a few inches to have a bit of the sound of the room.

These are some objects and techniques suggested by Foley artists in Hollywood:

TECHNICAL

OBJECTS

Each movie is different; In addition, each production and direction cause different processes, so you will always learn new things. So in the end, at all times keep trying new ideas and save them, you never know when you could use them.

By Tania Moreno and Carolina Anton

Tania Moreno – was born in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, on April 2, 1996. She finished high school and is currently a student of Audio Engineering at the ¨Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterrey¨, Mexico. She has studied a second career in French and has also studied and completed internships in Helsinki, Finland.

She is an announcer and artist of Foleys for animation projects and has just founded her audio production company Happy Dog Productions, a specialist in the creation of sound design, scoring, mixing and mastering.

 

Carolina C. Antón – Originaria de la Ciudad de Mexico, con más de 9 años de constante crecimiento, amante de la música, su primer acercamiento fue tocar la batería, inmediatamente inició de manera autodidacta e independiente, comenzando a realizar grabaciones en vivo, diseños y optimización de refuerzo sonoro y Head de audio para festivales internacionales a nivel internacional. Actualmente es ingeniero de mezcla para en vivo (FOH / MON). Ha mezclado para varios artistas, participando en giras mundiales.

Desde el 2016 comenzó su representación de Soundgirls.Org en la Ciudad de Mexico

Acknowledgments to the community of Artists of Foley: Peggy Vázquez, Estefanía Monroy (BHD studies) and Alexa Castillo (BHD studies) for contributions of advice.

 

Columbus Live Sound Workshop

Join our Columbus Chapter for a Live Sound Workshop

This Live Sound Workshop will focus on signal flow, miking and mixing for live sound, and the planning of concerts. The concert at the end of the workshop will provide a hands-on experience for the material learned throughout the day. This is a community workshop and open to anyone that wants to learn more about live sound and the basics of running small concerts.

Register Here

Natalia Ramirez – Tuning her way into the music industry

As a young violin player from Medellin, Colombia, Natalia Ramirez never imagined becoming the GRAMMY and Latin Grammy multi-awarded producer’s right hand. Natalia began music lessons at age 6; playing violin and singing got her interested in a variety of music-related activities: she was part of her school’s band for many years and became a member of a recognized young orchestra in Colombia. At some point during high school, her oldest brother moved from Medellin to Bogota to study audio engineering in college.  This is how she heard about audio engineering for the first time. Through her brother’s experiences, Natalia felt she no longer wanted to be a performer but someone involved with the “behind the scenes” of the music creation process. Natalia studied and received a Bachelor of Music with an emphasis in audio engineering at Javeriana University in Bogota. While being a student, she worked as a tutor in the audio department and got involved in several audio projects, initially doing post-production for films.

Talking about being the right person at the right time and the right place, in 2011 Natalia gets selected to participate as assistant engineer for a recording session with Julio Reyes Copello, Colombia’s most important songwriter and producer. The album recorded in that session, “Kany García” by Puerto Rican artist Kany García, received two nominations for the 2013 Latin Grammy Awards, “Best Singer-Songwriter Album” and “Best Engineered Album,” taking the Grammy under the “Engineered” category. During that session, Julio quickly picked up on Natalia’s incredible organizational skills as well as her precise musical ear and trusted her to tune vocals for a song right after. Natalia became obsessed with this process. She used her musical skills and audio techniques to make them sound as if no software had ever intervened with the original recording. Julio Reyes liked the result so much he immediately picked Natalia as a vocal post-production engineer.

After graduation in 2013, Natalia remained in Colombia working as a personal assistant and vocal post-production engineer for Julio Reyes’ projects. In 2015, Natalia moved to Miami to pursue a Master’s Degree in Arts Presenting and Live Entertainment Management at the University of Miami and then joined Julio Reyes Copello as studio coordinator and vocal post-production engineer at his personal studio, the Art House Studios, after graduating in 2017. As an engineer, Natalia has been nominated for three Latin Grammy and one GRAMMY award. Furthermore, she successfully earned the nickname “Nati-Tuner,” in honor of her outstanding proficiency as a vocal engineer. She has participated in more than 130 songs, by artists such as JLo, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, among many others alike. Her dedication, passion, and excellent technique for vocal production has been recognized by the Florida Chapter of the Recording Academy as Natalia was invited to feature her work at the 2017 In The Mix® Listening Session held at Marcella Araica’s studio.

What are your long-term goals?

I want to become an expert in treating vocals manually. Nowadays, everything is digital, and there are so many different plug-in options for tuning and aligning vocals, but I’ve noticed most of the times they are set to perform as an automatic response for certain key/rhythm. Most people don’t realize this damages the waveform, making the tuning sound very evident and bumpy and changing the natural frequencies that were captured. It can be aesthetic sometimes, but that doesn’t work in every genre. I feel getting hands on every single word, and vocal track individually makes a big difference on the final result. When you hear an artist sing, you remember why they struck a chord with so many listeners. If you start mangling with their voice carelessly and don’t take care of their identity, it undoes all the magic that they worked so hard to manifest.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

This is an industry dominated by men, so being a young woman in the industry hasn’t been easy. I’ve faced many comments like “they hired her because she’s pretty” and things alike, so it’s been a huge undertaking for me to create a reputation for myself based on my work while others claim it belongs to the fact that I wear a dress. I believe that as a woman it is important to embrace the qualities that make us women instead of watering it down to “blend in.” We are all creators and members of a community that celebrates individual identities and personalities so why should I be shy to show mine.

Must have skills?

Definitely, the confidence to face rejection, that’s the only way you will ever grow. Then it’s the clarity to acknowledge that even though you may be doing well that there is still more efficiency and expertise in other skills, you should be honing.

What other jobs have you held?

Another passion that I have is managing events. I got a master in Live Entertainment Management, so aside from being an audio engineer throughout these years, I’ve also been a studio coordinator for a variety of albums and a production manager for multiple live events. I love organizing and multitasking.

Advice you have for young women starting out?

Do you ever feel pressure to be more technical or anything else than your male counterparts?

At first yes, but then I remember that I bring something to the table that most of them don’t have, and that is my abilities I’ve developed as a classical musician (my ear) combined with my strength to multitask and obsession with detail

Natalia on treating vocals manually

I usually ask for the instrumental and all the vocal tracks in one session. I prefer they don’t send me any files consolidated so that I can handle the original audio clips. I like to work with all the vocals dry, no EQs or reverb so that I can hear the natural color of the sound captured by the mic and the tails of the notes. This allows me to hear the little details in the voice (air, tone, sharpness, etc.)  I also ask for any additional takes that were not used in the final comp. I use these as a resource to make the transitions smoother, especially replacing “s’s.” I find it very helpful because during tuning even if you don’t change the pitch of an S I feel there is still something going on while it is passing through those plugins. If you can find a way to replace that effect on notes that have no tuning (S’s and T’s), then the final result will be much better.

My tool has always been Auto-Tune. I know that the latest version of Melodyne is excellent, but I believe the tools are only tools, so as long as you accomplish the results you want with your tool, then you have achieved what really matters. For this same reason, I prefer to tune without the key of the song set in my software. This might be unusual for most people, but to me, it makes a lot of sense as it helps me with the slides and drifts between notes to sound more natural. People tend to want to keep everything locked in the notes of the key, but like anything in music if you keep everything exactly on the grid you remove the magic in the music.

Pitch is not always perfect. When you tune an instrument, and you start playing, it eventually loses that “perfect” pitch. This happens in recording sessions as well, where the pitch can slightly vary throughout the session. That is why I tune my vocals making sure they follow that unstable pitch. You’d be surprised how many times I see someone send me something that is already “tuned” and “perfect” by the algorithm but sounds sharp or flat because the music isn’t always perfect.

Lastly, I like using post-production shortcuts to synchronize the chunks of background vocals instead of using automatic responses found in plug-ins like VocALign. It takes more time, but after trying so many methods out, I can say it makes all the difference in the world to go manual. Those plugins are incredible however when you’re stretching audio you are changing the actual waveform, so you create artifacts, lose textures (especially in the high end) and even cause phase issues. Doing it manually sounds more natural, and you’d be surprised at the difference this makes when you’re stacking 40 vocals.

Feature Profile by Maria Elisa Ayerbe Barona. Maria grew up in Colombia and is a recording and mixing engineer, sound designer, and audio educator. Maria has worked as an audio engineer on Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated albums, Laura Pausini’s album Similares and Paula Arenas and Mau y Ricky for Best New Artists Latin Grammy’s. Maria worked as a recording and mix engineer at Art House Studios, founded by multi-award Grammy and Latin producer Julio Reyes Copello.

Maria currently resides in Miami with over ten years of experience in recording, mixing, music production, and post-production. Maria works as an independent audio engineer and has worked with a variety of artists, producers, and studios. Including Juanes, Kronos Quartet, Nashville Symphony, Bogata Philharmonic, Fiona Records and more. In 2016, Maria created the independent label South Mountain Music, as a platform to develop and produce fresh music for upcoming artists. Since 2007, Maria has worked as a university professor teaching audio related courses in Colombia, Tennessee, and Florida

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Giving Back to the Audio Community – Lenise Bent

Producer/engineer LENISE BENT is one of the first women recording engineers and has worked on many iconic records including “Aja” by Steely Dan, “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp and “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac. She was also the first woman to receive a platinum album for engineering on Blondie’s AutoAmerican.

Lenise is a native of Los Angeles and comes from a musical and technical family. She studied piano and played flute in the Compton Festival Orchestra and at the age of eight was enrolled in the Screen Children’s Guild, working in film and television. This lead to studying film and TV production in college until one day she was invited to a recording studio. With her love of music, she was hooked, dropped out of college and enrolled in a recording school the very next day. Fortunately, her parents were supportive.

After graduating from Sound Masters Recording Institute (this was one of the only schools in Los Angeles at the time), she was hired as an assistant engineer at The Village Studios in Los Angeles, eventually working her way up to engineer. It was at The Village that Lenise furthered her education in audio recording, working with and being mentored by many legendary engineers and producers, most notably Roger “The Immortal” Nichols and Roger Linn. Lenise then became chief engineer for hit producer Mike Chapman, working with several artists including Blondie, Cher, The Knack and Suzi Quatro. Together they recorded in several iconic studios such as The Record Plant Sausalito, Air London and United Western, which is now United Recording and EastWest Studios.

Lenise’s first session as an engineer was April 1977 at the Village Studios (formerly The Village Recorder) Studio A. The equipment was a Harrison 3224 console, Ampex ATR 100 2 Track, Technics ¼ Track, and M-79 2” 24 Track tape machine. The Artist was Americana musician (and uncle) Willie Wilson. The Village encouraged all the assistants to use un-booked studios when they weren’t working on their own projects.

Lenise moved into post-production audio, beginning with creating the foreign music and effects tracks for the entire Disney cartoon catalog, and eventually specializing in recording and editing Foley. She has worked on several films and animated series, such as “Robo Cop,” “Street Sharks,” and “Extreme Ghostbusters.” She has traveled the world for Dreamworks supervising and producing the foreign dialogue and vocals for “Shrek,” “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” and “Shrek 2”. This rekindled her love of recording music, and she is now engineering and producing up-and-coming musicians as well as seasoned artists. Currently, one of her projects, a blues/rock band called the Primal Kings, is all-analog, recording and mixing to tape and cutting vinyl.

Lenise believes in giving back to the audio community and is a sought-after lecturer at colleges throughout the country. She holds workshops and consults with singer/songwriters to learn basic recording techniques and is currently creating a workshop for recording and editing analog tape. She taught Production Sound, Post Production Audio and Studio Protocols and Procedures at SAE-LA and conducts “History of Audio Recording” presentations at The Grammy Museum. She also works in audio restoration and repair, including restoring the audio for the photo exhibit “Who Shot Rock n Roll” for the Annenberg Space for Photography.

Lenise is a long-standing voting member of NARAS and the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy and is on the advisory board for the TEC Awards at NAMM as well as the executive committee of the Los Angeles chapter of the Audio Engineering Society. She also belongs to SoundGirls, Women in Music, ARSC (Assoc. of Recorded Sound Collectors), the prestigious Hollywood Sapphire Group, The Blues Foundation, and Women’s Audio Mission (WAM).

SoundGirls interviewed Lenise on her long career

What do you like best about your job?

I love working with musical creatives, inspiring and capturing their performances.

What do you like least?

The few times I got stiffed. Valuable lesson: always count your pay in front of the person paying you.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

Fortunately, very few. I was told once that I wouldn’t be working on a project I really wanted because they preferred to work with a guy but I eventually got the gig, and it was great.

How have you dealt with them?

Honestly and professionally.

Advice you have for other women and young women who wish to enter the field?

To me being a recording engineer is a genderless skill, I think the individual who is passionate about recording and producing and does the hard work to learn well will succeed. I learned early on that on a session my required skills were why I was there, not because I was a woman. In the studio, I am an engineer/producer.

Yes, I realized that there might be obstacles when I started out, there were VERY few woman in the recording world at that time, so I made sure I did my job well and brought good energy on the project.

Be versatile. The more you know, the more valuable you are. Have a strong work ethic and be willing to do the jobs others aren’t, you will move up faster.

Value yourself. Working for free is being a volunteer and if that’s what everyone else is doing then okay. Otherwise, have your rate.

Be trustworthy.

Do not say you can do something if you can’t.

Leave gender out of it. You are an audio professional; your gender is secondary. Dress appropriately.

Save your money. There was a time when being a recording engineer was a very lucrative career. Times have drastically changed. Be mindful of your audio opportunities. Join a union, work for a company that provides benefits and a pension. Start saving for retirement NOW. I know it sounds cold and unartistic, but it’s reality.

Don’t sleep with your clients or co-workers. Just don’t.

Have good social skills. You can be a ProTools wizard and know everything audio, but if no one wants to be in the same room with you for more than five minutes, it doesn’t matter. Be an asset to the project and the production team, not a liability.

Must have skills?

ProTools, basic recording techniques, signal flow, knowledge of electronics. Learn your gear and mic placement. I encourage learning what good audio sounds like. Have excellent social skills and hygiene. Remember that you are providing a service.

Favorite gear?

Neve 8068, 80 series consoles, Neumann U67,  LA2A, 1176, DBX160 (Great on female vocals) limiters and compressors, EMT 140 plate reverb, Izotope RX 6, Burl converters, Prism converters, Altiverb. There is so much great gear out there that I love!

Do you ever feel pressure to be more technical or anything else than your male counterparts?

No, I don’t think more, but I better be at least as good. I prefer to be better. : ) When I started, I knew if I was more technical and did my job really well I’d have more credibility and work.

Is there anything about paying your dues you wish you would have paid more attention to that came back to haunt you later in your career?

Yes, I wish I had better electronic knowledge. When I started out studios had maintenance departments, and assistants and engineers weren’t required to know how to solder or build mic cables, etc. Good stuff to know.

When the DAW came along were you an immediate adopter?  Or did it take you a long time to convert?

I was already doing post when it came along (SoundTool!), and it was a welcome tool for fixing audio right away. I was working on Foreign M, and E’s (Music and Effects) tracks so if there was any English it was so easy to remove it. Also editing foley was a breeze, everything could be synced so easily. The foley artist still had to have good sync though, still, do.

What part of analog engineering practices have you maintained?  

I still record to tape. The main thing I apply to digital recording is the style of recording, making commitments to performances and moving forward, like recording to tape. I like to work quickly and in the moment while the emotion is still high and not wait until later when I can’t remember what nuance I liked. I record and comp, boom.

What are your favorite plugins?

I like the UAD bundle and Altiverb. I try a new plug-in on every project so I can learn it. I admit that I don’t use many plug-ins as I am usually in a studio with the outboard gear that I’m used to. The most important thing about plug-ins is to understand how to use them and why you are using them. I’ve received tracks that I’m hired to mix, and there will be five or six plug-ins on one track!

Do you have a few stories you can tell that have taught you valuable skills? Whether industry people skills or tech skills?

Here’s a good one…do not get stoned, high, drunk, etc. during a session. I was working with the group The Band, and we were recording basic tracks to 2” tape. I’m not a pot smoker but their keyboardist Garth Hudson kept insisting that I take a hit of his pot, that it was different and would help me really focus. After several refusals, I finally took that hit just to get him off my back. We had done three takes of a song, and now it was time to comp the track.  Robbie Robertson and the others decided they wanted the first verse from take 2, the first chorus from take 3, the bridge from take one, and well you get it. Remember this is 24-track tape, folks, totally destructive audio, razor blades and splicing tape, requiring focused experience and skill in the finest of times. Thankfully, the group took a long dinner break, allowing me to spend all that time juggling take-up reels, going back and forth, as I put the track together. Yes, there was major panic. When they returned from dinner, I had just finished. We played it back, and it was all good except the bridge was upside down. They all laughed like crazy except for Robbie who was not amused. I was amazed I got it as right as I did. Ugh.

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