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Mix With the Masters Scholarships Marcella Araica and Producer Danja

SoundGirls Members have the chance to receive a 1000€ (euro) scholarship provided to SoundGirls members from Mix With The Masters. There are three scholarships available for the week-long session with award-winning engineer Marcella Araica & Producer Danja.

This is a week-long seminar valued at 4,000€ and includes lectures and workshops, accommodation within the mansion, catering (breakfast, lunch, dinner) the fitness room, swimming pool and shuttles from Avignon to the studio.

You must have an advanced understanding of audio and work as producer/mixer/engineer to attend Mix with the Masters.

Session Dates: March 24 -30, 2020

Apply for the scholarships here

Deadline to apply is March 6, 2020

You are responsible for Travel to France and the remainder of the balance to Mix with the Masters.

Session Includes

  • private bedroom, on-site within the mansion for 6 nights
  • Full-board accommodation with meals prepared by gourmet chefs on-site
  • Return shuttle services from Avignon to Studios La Fabrique
  • Unlimited drinks and snacks throughout the week
  • Approximately 50 hours in the studio with the guest speaker
  • One-on-one time between you and the master to assess and work on your own material
  • Professional photography done throughout the week, including portrait shots of you with the Master
  • Hundreds of full-resolution photos shared with you afterward via a download link, to keep and use as you please
  • A certificate of completion issued on behalf of Mix With the Masters and Studios La Fabrique, signed by the Master if you wish
  • Exclusive MWTM merchandise given only to seminar attendees: embossed Moleskine notepads, pens, mugs, t-shirts, USB keys, and stickers.
  • Use of the La Fabrique swimming pool, garden, fitness centre, and scenic walks
  • Nearby access to the enchanting town of St. Rémy de Provence

     Marcella “Ms. Lago” Araica, has swiftly burgeoned into a towering beacon of talent as one of the music industry’s hottest, most prolific sound engineers. Credited for mixing over one hundred chart-topping tunes, Marcella has had the opportunity of working with world-renowned musical icons such as Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Madonna, Nelly Furtado, Usher, Joe Jonas, and Missy Elliot, along with super producers Timbaland, Danja, and Polow Da Don. In just a few short years, this musical mastermind has already accomplished what most strive to achieve in a lifetime.

    Nate “Danja” Hills is one of the most sought after writers and producers in pop music today and is a two-time Grammy Award winner, four-time Grammy nominee and SESAC “Songwriter of the Year” in 2007, 2008 and 2010. Danja boasts a catalog that features twelve #1 Billboard Singles including “SexyBack,” “My Love,” “Lovestoned” and “What Goes Around Comes Around” by Justin Timberlake, “Promiscuous” and “Say It Right” by Nelly Furtado, “Give It to Me” and “The Way I Are” by Timbaland, “Gimme More” by Britney Spears, “4 Minutes” by Madonna, “Sober” by Pink and “Knock You Down” by Keri Hilson. In addition, Danja has written and produced songs for a who’s who of popular music including, among others, 50 Cent, Bjork, Ciara, Diddy, DJ Khaled, Duran Duran, Jennifer Lopez, Jo Jo, Katherine McPhee, Mariah Carey, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, T.I., T-Pain and Usher


Program

The process of greatness fostering greatness has long been recognized and is the reason why masterclasses are organized. The Mix With The Master’s seminars is part of this tradition, offering an exchange of in-depth first-hand studio experience and knowledge that is unparalleled and not available anywhere else. Each seminar is conducted by one of the world’s top music mixers and producers, ready to share their professional secrets with a select group of a maximum of 14 carefully-screened, professional-level participants, who come from all over the world.

One factor that contributes to the enormous success of the seminars is that all tutors support the general MWTM ethos, which is about the love of music, music technology and wanting to help others. Participants also are in part selected on displaying similar, positive attitudes. The fact that the seminars last a full week is another major contributory factor because it offers tutors the time and space to go into real depth, and the participants the opportunity to spend a prolonged time watching a master at his peak, and to ask any question they can think of.

The tutors share exclusive, insider-information on any subject: detailed technical knowledge, how to run sessions, how to handle artists, how to manage a career, the right attitude, how to remain successful, and more. The tutors also assess the work of the participants, by listening to their mixes and mixing recording sessions that they bring, and providing extensive feedback to each participant on where they are at, and how they can get to where they want to be. This is invaluable and offers participants wanting to become world-class professionals in their own right a unique advantage.

Another primary factor in making the MWTM seminars exceptional is that they take place at La Fabrique, a large, comfortable, high-end recording studio located in a picturesque historic building, surrounded by huge, lush grounds, and set in the south-east for France in one of the world’s most beautiful environments. The secluded and idyllic location offers the participants and tutors a lot of space to relax and recharge, far away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and the all-demanding intensity of their regular professional environments.

Because the courses are residential, the participants and tutor work, eat, socialize, and sleep in the same environment. While tutors, and participants, will at times opt to retire to their private quarters, there is ample opportunity for social interaction outside of the studio environment. Participants interact extensively with each other and the tutor, making it easier to assimilate the intangible qualities necessary to be successful at the highest level—presence, focus, social skills, intelligence, creativity, the right attitude, and so on.

In short, for seven days participants can experience mixing with a master in both senses of the phrase, mixing and interacting with them. Get more information about Studio La Fabrique

 

 

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Love for Chaos: Willa Snow Live Sound Engineer

Willa Snow is an independent FOH, Monitor Engineer, and system tech based in Austin, TX. While she has only been working in Live Sound for just over three years, she is filling up her resume.  She regularly works with Texas Performing Arts, Stage Alliance, and C3 Presents, amongst others. She works as a board op/system tech for Bass Concert Hall, as a monitor engineer at Historic Scoot Inn and Emo’s, and as a FOH/MON engineer for several other clubs in town. She has toured with the Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare during the fall of 2018 for their piece, “Considering Matthew Shepard,” as an assistant stage manager and general audio tech.

Before Willa discovered the world of audio, she was pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter. She was playing coffee shops and small venue gigs at the age of 15, and she says “despite that I had no clue about the world of audio, all I knew was that I had to sing into a mic nice n loud.  I don’t recall ever having a monitor mix, or even an engineer introduce themselves.”

She would enroll in college with the intention of going into performance. This was until she was required to take a recording technology course for her major.  “That year I fell HARD for working in the studio. I loved how many variables there were to play with, and all the different directions that you could take a piece of music in. The creative process was suddenly busted wide open for me, and I couldn’t let that go, so I switched my focus to engineering. My decision to change solidified when I found out how few women there are on this side of the industry… less than 5% is just B.S! I became even more impassioned when I started working in live sound at 23 and discovered all the directions that you could take that path in, and all the wonderful types of music and performance that you’re exposed to! Since being a youngin singing acoustic pop-punk in run-down venues in Silicon Valley, my instrument has changed from a guitar and my voice to a console and mics. Each show that I work is a chance to explore and express my musicality alongside the incredible talent that I get to work with here in Austin, TX.”

Willa started out working in recording studios while in college as a ProTools op and audio engineer. She has a BA of Contemporary Music from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where she was trained in various instruments, music theory, orchestration, advanced vocal techniques, western and world music history, and basic business management, as well as studio production. In contrast, all of her live sound knowledge has been developed on the job and through independent research on various subjects.

After graduating from college, she moved to Texas and ended up taking a job in live sound as an A2 for a small local production company, where she was taught how to build PAs and tune systems. While there, she soaked up everything she could learn and said she “initially hated live sound! In comparison to the studio, it’s loud, chaotic, and terrifying, Everything’s happening all at once, and almost nothing goes according to the original plan. I must have developed Stockholm Syndrome because now I can’t get enough of it! I’ve learned to love the fluidity and chaos, and I’m constantly finding myself challenged to grow and inspired by the techs that I encounter and the artists that I get to work with.”

Like many of us, when Willa first started running sound, she was terrified of failing. She put a lot of pressure on herself and says she feltthat as a woman, people were going to be looking at me as an example of all women engineers. If I wasn’t 100% absolutely perfect, then it would be reflected 100x worse on me than it would a male in my position, and it would be a stain on the reputation of women engineers the world over. I put all that pressure on myself, despite having only just begun my journey into live sound!”

Then  Willa started to notice something… “in my conversations with more experienced engineers and hearing their origin stories, they all said the same thing: they were TERRIBLE when they were starting out! I heard many tales of butchering mixes and struggling to make the broken gear work in dirty clubs. I finally realized that in order to grow and move past this mentality, I needed to give myself permission to fail. So, before every gig, I would have the following conversation with myself: “let’s go out there and SUCK! Let’s have the worst mix ever, and get shamed out of the club! The band is going to hate everything you do, and the gear’s going to catch fire, and it’s going to be GREAT!” And strangely, that worked for me. Giving myself the space to be an inexperienced failure allowed me to embrace that risk, and to go in with a clear head and tackle the show. At the end of the day, we’re all human, and humans mess up and make mistakes, and that’s okay; the key is how you recover from that mistake. Do you own it, fix what needs fixing, and learn from it? Or do you wallow? After a few months, I didn’t need that non-pep pep talk anymore. Now I just walk in with my shoulders back and a big, fat smile on my face.”

One of Willa’s Early Failures

Early on in my experience (I think it was my second gig), I had a show where All The Things Went Terribly. I was given an incorrect load-in time; I hooked up the mains wrong, my iPad mixer was futzing out, the stage sound was terrible, the FOH mix was REALLY bad… so bad in fact that when the singer of the band greeted the crowd and asked, ”how’s it sounding out there?” the audience responded with, “clap… clap… crickets…” An audience member standing near me even leaned over and asked me, “it doesn’t sound good, does it?” I could do nothing but admit that indeed it did not. Oh, it was so embarrassing!! Thankfully the band was very kind and even tipped me at the end of the night.

As soon as I got home, I called up one of my sound buddies and took him out for beers. I walked him through the entire gig, top to bottom, and asked him for some guidance on the mix, and for advice on how to do things better.

A few weeks later, I got the opportunity to mix the same band again. I made sure to get to the venue extra early, set up and rang out the stage as cleanly as I could, incorporated some suggestions my friend made into my mix and remembered exactly how the band set up the stage and where they needed lines. The band showed up, and this time, All The Things Went Smoothly. Stage and FOH sound were vastly improved, the band had a great time, the audience had a great time, they even gave me a ‘thank you’ shout out!

As Willa continues to learn and grow, her long-term goals are to become a touring FOH /Monitor Engineer and System Tech.

What do you like best about touring?

I like hearing how the sound of the music changes in different venues, and the constant momentum of traveling from place to place

What do you like least?

I miss my loved ones and my own bed while I’m away.

What is your favorite day off activity?

My favorite day off activities are resting and taking care of my plant collection. It’s lovely to have a period of quiet and calm after the storm.

What are your long-term goals?

I have several interests that I’m avidly working towards, my main ones being touring as a FOH and/or MON engineer, and/or as a system/PA tech.

What, if any, obstacles or barriers have you faced?

I’ve been turned down for a tour because of my gender, and am all-too-often dealing with unwarranted attention and sexist comments.

How have you dealt with them?

It depends on the situation. For the tour, I let it go and decided that wasn’t a tour I wanted to be involved with anyway. I turned to the SoundGirls forum for advice when going through that process, and deeply appreciated the support and words of encouragement that I received from the group. When dealing with sexist comments on the job, sometimes I’ll ignore them, while others I’ll confront head-on and shoot something back (ex: if I get called honey, I’ll call them sweetie. Stops that sh** real fast.)

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

Learn as much as you can from every situation and interaction, and ask as many questions as you can at appropriate times. Don’t be afraid to work hard, and allow your enthusiasm to drive you. Always keep an air of professionalism at every gig, no matter how big or small. Say yes to every challenge and opportunity possible. Be authentically who you are and embrace that; faking it until you make it is not a thing. It’s okay to stand up for yourself when you are being mistreated; no amount of abuse is worth your time or mental health.

Must have skills?

Have a running knowledge of basic signal flow, mic placement, gain structure and EQ techniques, and learn to embrace failure (how else are you going to learn?). Be kind and cool to those you interact with, and keep your connections positive as much as possible.

Favorite gear?

Work gloves, c-wrench, and my Shure SE846 IEMs. An Allen & Heath desk is always preferred.

 

 

 

Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read Our Quick Round-up!

It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org

November Feature Profile

https://soundgirls.org/adriana-viana-independent-brazilian-sound-engineer/

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It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org

November Feature Profile

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