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Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

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Teaching the Next Generation of Audio Engineers

Life hardly ever takes the simplest route.  Many in the field of Audio embody this sentiment.  When I first moved to the Nashville area from the West Coast (I live in neither location now), I joined the Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society on Facebook, and as soon my request to join was approved I received a friend request.  I am no social butterfly and was surprised by the notification. Audio Instructor and Engineer Jill Courtney noticed that another female Sound Engineer had joined her beat, and that was reason enough for her to connect. However, in getting to know Jill, I learned that it is natural for her to mentor and support her sisters in arms.  In the spirit of #breakingtheglassfader, I thought I would get Jill to share some of her secrets of teaching the next generation of SoundGirls.

What is your current job title?

Audio/Video Producer/Educator of JCreative Multimedia at www.jillcourtney.com

What subjects and grade levels have you taught? Any preference?

I have taught K-12 and college, and I think I prefer college, with middle school being a close second. High school would be third, and elementary fourth. I love all my students, though. I just relate to college and middle school students the most. Both college and middle school are defining periods in a student’s life.

What got you into teaching audio?

My first truly entrepreneurial adventure was a partnership called Sharkbait Studios, which originated in NYC. When my partner and I relocated the company to Nashville, we were networking among the local universities, of which there are many. During a networking meeting with the Chair of the Music and Performing Arts department at Tennessee State University, the Chair asked for my resume, and I happened to have it handy. Right then and there, he asked if I would teach TSU’s audio production classes, and he even utilized me as an applied voice instructor and the Director of the vocal jazz ensemble.

I was newly out of my Master’s program at New York University and had only taught music, voice, Spanish, and other K-12 topics. Once I taught at TSU for a year, I was in demand as an adjunct (ha!). I ended up working for Belmont University, The Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville, and Nashville Film Institute, along with a 2-year out-of-state residency at Lamar State College-Port Arthur, where I taught Commercial Applied Voice, Songwriting, Piano, Music Theory, etc. Once back in Nashville, Sharkbait Studios was closed and JCreative Multimedia, my sole/soul venture was established.

What skills (both audio and life skills) do you focus on in your classroom?

I teach my students to listen to details in the music at hand, do their best in building the sound from the ground up, if that is their task, editing when the materials are flawed, and polishing a song into a finished product for online, CD or video applications. I teach them to keep the end goal in mind from the start, to plan too much, protect the quality of sound at every stage, and be a life-long learner without ego. Once you think you are a badass, you are finished. The most revered artists are the ones who are never good enough for their own standards and strive to be better than their former selves with every new project. I believe each new project should reflect an evolution of growth, and personally, I don’t believe in stagnating. So my skill set is constantly being added to or refined. A growth mindset is where it is at, and I hope that conveys amongst my students.

Equally important, I teach them that they must be prepared, punctual, professional, persistent and passionate about their work. If one of those elements slips, then the commitment won’t be present enough to find continued success over time, unless they luck upon a hit or a really fortunate employment scenario. I teach them to be twice as good and half as difficult as their competitors. In addition, I think it is important to paint a picture of reality for them on the job, because I would be doing my students a great disservice if I made it seem easy or glamorous because it takes a lot of years of hard work for the ease and glamour to show up, if ever it does.

I also teach my students the importance of beating deadlines. If a song or project is due on Tuesday, to have it done completely on Sunday to allow for tech glitches, tweaks or a buffer time for life to mess with you. Inevitably, life WILL mess with you, so having the peace of mind and a happy client is worth the extra effort. I love to under-promise and over-deliver with my clients. Often, the only pat on the back I get is a return client and a recommendation, and that is how I know I am doing well. This business isn’t for those who need verbal praise.

My students hear me preach about the importance of knowing the business side of the industry (music or film) as much as the technical/creative side. This is how you can be forever employable and indispensable to a company, team, or client.

What is generally your first lesson?

All lessons begin with the ear. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am an excellent talker. However, it is my listening ability that keeps me working. Learning about the craft of sound in relation to spaces, the tools you utilize, and the subjects you wish to preserve through video and/or sound are crucial. But learning how to listen and reiterate what a client is seeking is perhaps equally crucial. If they come to you for a country track and leave with one that is a little too rock-like, they may love it, but will feel unheard or manipulated on some level. If the client makes those decisions along the way, that is one thing. But the client needs to steer that ship, and as professionals, it is our job to facilitate that vision and only inject our creativity or opinions if requested. There is such nuance in human communication, especially these days. Being a great listener and an effective communicator is arguably as important as having well-refined artistry.

What have you learned from teaching?

Teaching had refined my own skill set immensely. I wouldn’t know my craft as well if I didn’t have the pressure of being on top of my game so I don’t make a fool of myself in front of a room full of students. Especially in audio, being a minority, I have to know my subject well, or inevitably, it will become a reason why a student is disrespectful or discards my authority or knowledge. Teaching has also highlighted where my strengths and weaknesses exist. It has allotted me a second chance at fully learning the parts in which I was deficient, so I can parlay that effectively, and has given me practice and a platform for showing off my strengths, conveying my secrets to success with the true joy for teaching and helping others. It has given me as much as I have given to the world over the last 20 years of teaching. I have also connected with the next generations in a way that I never would have otherwise. I love kids and young adults, but I never wanted to be a mom. In this way, I get to leave a legacy in the minds of the masses, which better serves humanity, in my opinion,/circumstance.

Why is it important to include Arts (and STEM) in the general curriculum?

Funny you should ask this, as it is so very timely. My current research for my graduate Ed.S. program in Educational Leadership through Lipscomb University is focused on this very subject. The title of my research is “Promoting gender equity in audio and other STEM subjects.” I think that audio fields, specifically, are a perfect merge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and with the new STEAM initiatives that are trending, the Arts portion is also covered. With STEM skills, it allows students to be versatile, and ultimately more successful in their future adult endeavors, which translates into more economic security, which translates into less hardship.
The more skills you have, the less you will starve. I am a walking advertisement for that fact, cause this body hasn’t missed a meal in 42 years. Ha!

What makes audio a unique subject to teach?

Audio/Sound is a trade or skill that at its root seems simplistic in nature. However, as you peel back the variables, the other factors around it become more vital. The space, the tools chosen, the subject, the mood, the health of the individual… there are so many variables that can distinguish one moment in time from another. And yet, it is also an art form. Some pay little attention to the process with a sole focus on the product, but audio must consider both as equally crucial. To further investigate, the business side, legalities, personal relationships, niche markets, and self-concept/limitations can all play into the final scope of one’s career in audio. It is unpredictable, beautiful and an immense challenge. It can be a dream come true or a total nightmare, and everything in between. Teaching this subject is as subjective as each individual in the class. It is constant differentiation.
Not everyone has an equally musical ear. Not everyone has gumption. Not everyone is healthy. Not everyone is intrinsically motivated. The best I can do is find out more about my students (by listening) and then cater to their strengths and enhance any identified weaknesses or lack of knowledge, provided that they are open to allowing me to do so.

I know you started a girl’s club in one of your schools, what was your goal in implementing it? How did your students respond? Do you have an interesting story from the group?

First, Nashville Audio Women Facebook group is an online place of connection for the few women who are studying and/or working in audio/sound in Nashville. The other was a girls’ club that I began at the middle school where I was teaching last year. My main mission for this club was girls’ empowerment because the middle school years are perhaps the most crucial for a growing girl in so many ways. Many of my students from that school, a Title 1 school, don’t have strong role models in their lives. Many had never met a woman like me.

Developing relationships based upon trust and respect was my primary goal. My secondary goal was to allow them to observe me as a strong female in this world, and once they knew me, they paid attention to how I interacted with the world. Another goal was to give them a person whom they could come to with all the questions they might have about being a female, kind of like an open-minded big sister. I think in this way, I was able to act as a role model that is unique – one that teaches because she digs helping kids, but also goes out and makes movies and recordings, sings with a rock band, pursues more academic degrees, and obsesses over animal photography in her non-teaching time. I wanted them to see that all of this is possible so that they might internalize it. My bottom line with my girls was to instill confidence and parlay life lessons. While they picked up on all of these things, they also wanted a space (in my classroom) where they could play touch football without boys. They wanted a place to paint their nails and video fake-fights for Snapchat. They wanted to ask me about boys and about periods and how to handle dramas with “haters.” I provided the space for all of that, as much as I could. I let the students direct how their club would go, largely, because I wanted them to build their own capacity as leaders and give them an honored voice.

How is mentorship important for young audio students?

I have many mentors. Many have been men, but I have found some incredible women too in more recent years. I believe they are crucial to growth and can help guide your career and provide you with a reality check and advice as you navigate the workplace. Mine are nothing short of lifesavers. For young audio students, I think one thing they don’t realize is that if all are successful, the audio instructor will eventually become a colleague, so the relationship they build with teachers is ever the more crucial. The teachers can help them find employment, write recommendation letters, and help them create lifelong connections. The reach of the teacher is often the potential reach of the student if the student proves her/himself to be worthy of such extensions of help and resources.

Any advice for the next generation?

Oh my, where do I begin? Well, I would highly suggest that any interested potential audio/sound student be as crystal clear as possible on the economic realities of this industry right now. I would encourage them to build an arsenal of skills that they can utilize in a variety of related industries. I would recommend focusing on the parts of the industry with the most jobs and welcoming atmospheres, and to be open-minded to all styles of music and sound jobs. I would also advise that they interview as many people as they possibly can along the way so that they can make informed decisions about how they want to paint their lives. Education has been key for me in remaining relevant and employed, both in the industry and beyond, and while I probably take it to an extreme that not everyone can handle, I recommend being a life-long learner. I am like a sponge with information, and am wholly unafraid to admit that I am uneducated in certain areas, but these are often the areas that arouse my curiosity. My former boss called me the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of the department, which is flattering and probably a bit accurate. I want my students to be similar so that they can survive in their chosen industry for as long as it makes sense for them.

In addition, I always thought my career would be linear. We are always taught this as we grow up. But my career has taken the most unpredictable zigzags, and I have finally come to understand that in some cases, this is the norm. This business rarely sees someone graduate with a college degree, go into the field, stay at the same company and retire with a pension. So creative thinking, a diverse skill set and a willingness to change it up when necessary are crucial for forward motion

 

A Guide to Supporting Women in Sound

A resource for men and all people interested in social equity in audio

Women in Sound includes All women, non-binary genders, LGBTQIA people, and people of colour (we also point you to this fantastic website White Accomplices)

We are often asked ‘How can men proactively support gender equality in the audio industries?’ We’ve put together a list of concrete actions you might take.

These recommendations are for people working in education, industry, audio production and other related fields.

They are summarised under three action headlines:

● Collaborate – offering support to the feminist collectives who are already helping girls and women in sound. Adopting new interventions. Also, understanding and addressing unconscious bias.

● Perspective – doing your own research, checking your assumptions, and recognising that women of colour are subject to a double hit of bias due to racial discrimination

● Changing environments – creating environments that are truly fit for purpose.

We invite you to make an #audioequitypledge:

● Read this document and identify three or more interventions that you would like to make to supporting women in sound

● Post this document on your website/blog with a summary of your interventions using #heforshe and #audioequitypledge

● Post an update six months later.

Please do something, because if you’re leaving this work to a few (almost always women), then you are part of the problem.

Collaborate

Identify and offer support to groups/collectives/non-profits

To be supported but not in a way that that seeks to promote your own organisation: Identify groups that are already supporting women and ask what kind of help you can offer.

Examples include:

Volunteer your time and expertise for background administrative support:

Undertaking advocacy work (especially if armed with data about what specific organisations have accomplished, highlighting what they need in order to further their work)

Paying for consultancy on diversity and inclusion

Amplifying work on social media

Checking if your organisational values align with the values of an organisation that you wish to support (before putting them in a position of explaining that it isn’t a good match)

Aurélie Salvaire’s book Balance the World: Tactics to help you launch a gender revolution offers many really great examples and resources.

Perspective

Check Unconscious Bias

Understand your own implicit/unconscious bias; that you may be inclined to hear some voices more clearly than others. Implement unconscious bias training

Understand the various types of unconscious bias: conformity bias, beauty bias, affinity bias, the halo effect, the horns effect, similarity bias, contrast effect, attribution bias, and confirmation bias, and others

If hiring, check that you have a qualified and diverse team looking at resumes. Look at diversity in your organisation and take steps to build a diverse team (non-binary, women, people of colour, people with disabilities)

Seek to anonymise the application process where possible.

Doing this with integrity means centring others – listening mindfully while checking your goals and assumptions.

The Audio Engineering Society is making proactive steps on diversity, and welcomes new members to its Diversity and Inclusion committee.

Listen

Listen to experiences of marginalised groups when they provide examples of what marginalising behaviours look and sound like

Centre women by listening to our values and experiences, but especially women of colour. Listen, and keep listening without debating, diminishing or deflecting. Just listen. Really take the time to digest each lifetime of experience and insight if you want to centre women  in the process of supporting change.

Relieve the burden and contribute to proactive social intervention

Don’t make women responsible for addressing gender. We need to work together to shape change:

Open your studio and employ female sound engineers to deliver workshops for girls in partnership with an organisation like the Yorkshire Sound Women Network and SoundGirls in particular are always looking to partner for workshops, and to provide internships

Offer internships specifically for women (employ consultants to advocate that you are providing an environment that is suitable to all people). The Women’s Audio Mission  offer some good examples but you don’t need to be an all-women organisation to do this

Set equity targets i.e., to be recording an equal ratio of female artists, works by female composers, and working with sound engineers by a specific date. You might subscribe to the PRS KeyChange initiative. Huddersfield Contemporary Records at The University of Huddersfield have done this. See this excellent statement and commitment from Professor Aaron Cassidy.

Wear the T-shirt – literally! The Women’s Audio Mission, SoundGirls, Gender Amplified and Beats By Girlz sell their T-shirts. Help normalise and advocate for diversity in audio

Provide allyship and bystander training for staff.

Changing Environments

Understand how to create supportive environments for women

Make sure your physical environment is welcoming to all people. See this paper on feminist hackspaces or ‘Barriers to women’s involvement in hackspaces and makerspaces’by Dr. J Lewis.

Consider how your environments are biased towards certain groups –  perhaps find diverse images of women in sound for your studio walls and remove images of musicians who are associated with sexism/racism. Imagine a space full of images like these from the female:pressure Tumblr!

Think about who you want to come to your events and support them:

Ensure that the venue is physically accessible by all people

Institutions are employing more men, so provide grants for self-employed people who are not funded by an institution (i.e., University academics are funded and independent practitioners and scholars are not)

Understand the barriers around childcare (offer funding to cover childcare and access to gender neutral baby changing facilities)

Be a responsible host (understand what marginalising behaviors are and be ready to address them – examples include everything from misogynist or sexist behaviours, through to constant overtalk and interruptions)

Make sure you share your events with Women-Led Organisations, inviting their members (and listening carefully to their feedback). You can find a few of them here

Work collaboratively with venues, clubs, studios, festivals, journals that subscribe to an inclusive agenda

Look for and/or insist on an explicit anti-harassment statement that is welcomed by the community that you support. Help draft it and work with others to check it is inclusive for all. This challenging work needs a robust, resilient, and diverse community. See this example from The Seraphine Collective

Women often know they will be a minority and this is exhausting

Conferences – don’t comment on someone’s gender, take interest in their work

Support people online, not only when they are diminished or marginalised for no other reason than gender, but also to bring out their positive contribution.

Education: create intelligent, inclusive environments for learning

Reflect on approaches to teaching and learning. From a young age, girls seem to be more socialised to collaborate, so integrate more problem solving, communication methods, and peer learning tasks into music technology education. Erin Barra’s Beats By Girlz lesson plans are great examples of this, and they encourage collaborative learning

Be demanding as all students can become experts. If you teach a minority of girls (who are also less confident), create environments that build up their confidence but also don’t shy away from being demanding. Evidence suggests that those girls will need to be confident and to prove that they have excellent technical knowledge (see unconscious bias) – and anyway, knowledge is power

Support the least confident. Notice where less confident students aren’t contributing, take the issue seriously and consider why this might be happening. Perhaps some students need other (more private) opportunities and spaces to feel comfortable to take risks and make mistakes, because they may not have had the same opportunities to work with technology in the past, or because they have been pushed away by other more confident learners. Some students may just need more assistance with working their way back into practical collaborative projects where they need to feel confident in order to be more assertive with peers

Provide equal visibility of women and especially women of colour. Just because we know about Björk, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos and Mandy Parnell we can’t simply assume that some kind of gender balance has been achieved. This is tokenism, and it is a big part of the problem. Help to address this by inspiring young people to understand that the default identity of a music producer is not a white man.

See the websites: ManyManyWomen , shesaid.so, female pressure, Her Noise Archive and SoundGirls Profiles. This also means visibility in literature. When you claim a social study of studio practice which includes a particular demographic, acknowledge it and make it clear

Employ women. Advertise roles in the right places and make proactive inclusion statements in the advert. Provide clear opportunities for prospective applicants to contact you directly for further information about the role. Think carefully about how to bring female experts into education. If you find that women aren’t applying for particular roles, undertake consultancy and ask why this may be.

In Higher Education, seek out people you can invite in to deliver guest lectures/workshops/supervisions. Some may be part-time university academics also working in live electronic music, or in a studio, or in other areas of sound – so look beyond your network, and beyond conventional academia where possible. This helps to bridge the divide between self-employed artists and academia, and provide pathways for women to have the option of engaging in academic practices

Invite conversation. Talk with colleagues to check what your institution is doing to engage students who may have experienced discrimination and, if necessary, seek consultation from staff at other institutions who are clearly addressing this well. Some institutions have called meetings with students, then set up women led or feminist groups supported by staff (i.e., Steinhardt NYU) and some work collaboratively with industry bodies such as The Audio Engineering Society (i.e., University of York #HEFORSHE)

Learn a bit more about how gender informs place and space making across our music industries

Homework: Read Sam De Boise’s Men, Masculinity, Music and Emotions and other literature on music/sound/audio/electronic music and gender

Understand the statistics by reading academic articles and education research, and drawing on websites of all-women groups. Try to avoid asking women to explain it – because this is exhausting and the resources are all available. There are some excellent resources on the Gender Research in Darmstadt website

You Can’t Be What You Can’t See. Challenge the media representation of women in sound and music. Women do not see themselves in the trade magazines, in panels at conferences or in advertisements. Digico ran a fantastic ad campaign last year called Excellence Exposed which featured a diverse group of women engineers in both their ethnic backgrounds and musical genres.

SoundGirls has a monthly feature profile of women in audio to offset this, and all their tri-weekly blogs being written by women.

Other initiatives include the PSN Europe Women in Audio podcast.

These are just a few recommendations and the issue is much more nuanced and layered, however, we’re asking you to make a start by stating your pledge. Be proud that you are a part of this important audio industry initiative.

This battle will be won by men championing diversity, standing shoulder to shoulder and making a difference together. #audioequitypledge #heforshe

Further recommendations and guidance can be found here: How Men Can Be Allies, Sexual Harassment and More Inclusive Industry Here.

Co-ordinated by Dr. Liz Dobson and written in collaboration with: The Audio Engineering Society,  Mariana Lopez of University of York Big Bear Audio, SoundGirls, The Yorkshire Sound Women Network, and The University of Huddersfield

Together we offer this, our #audioequitypledge

The Yorkshire Sound Women Network

 

Live digital audio in plain English part 2

Never mind the bit clocks… it’s a word clock primer

My last blog dealt with translating audio into a digital signal. The next step is keeping that signal in time when it’s being captured, processed and sent to different parts of the system. This is where the fabled word clock comes in. If anything weird ever happens with a digital set up, like odd clicks or pops over the PA, you can seem wise beyond your years by nodding sagely, saying “Hmm, it sounds like a clocking issue”, then making your excuses and leaving before any further questions can be asked. However, you can become a rare and very valuable member of your audio team by actually learning what word clocks are, how they work and how to fix the most common problems they can cause. They might seem strange and complicated, but they are of course not black magic. It’s all about crystals.

So… what is a word clock?

Any device receiving audio sees a string of 1s and 0s. How does it know whether 0000011100001011 is two samples, reading 00000111 (= 7) and 00001011 (=11), or the second half of a sample, a full sample (01110000 = 112), and the first half of the next one? As you can see, the resulting values can be very different, so it’s essential to get it right to the exact bit.
A word clock is a signal that is sent at a very accurate frequency of one square wave per sample (the bits in each sample make up a ‘word’). This signal is produced by passing an electrical current through a small crystal inside a word clock generator. The rising edge of the resulting wave means 1; the falling edge means 0. The clock runs alongside the audio signal, with 1 usually meaning “this is the start of the sample” and 0 meaning “this is the end.” Different shapes and sizes of crystal resonate at different frequencies, then more subtle changes are controlled by variations in the voltage running through the circuit and temperature. Some clock generators even keep their crystals in tiny ‘ovens’ to keep the temperature constant.

What the clock?

Clocks are necessary for a few different stages in the signal path. AD convertors might take a fixed number of samples per second, but they still need to make sure those samples are evenly spaced. If they aren’t, the waveform will end up deformed when reproduced by something that is in time. Thinking back to the video analogy from the last post, it’s like film taken on old hand-cranked cameras: uneven capturing of the signal leads to weird inconsistencies when it’s played back. In audio, it’s referred to as jitter. This can also happen when an accurately-captured signal gets reconverted with an unreliable clock, like a film being played on a clunky projector (see figure 1). Clocks used to trigger the capturing of the signal are often called sample clocks. There are also bit clocks, which produce one cycle per bit. These days they are only used for signal transport within devices, for example from one PCB to another. You’re very unlikely to encounter a problem with a bit clock, and if you do there isn’t much you can do except send it back for repair. You might also hear people referring to word clock as sync clock, signal clock or simply clock.

An AD converter with a stable word clock (represented by the square wave at the top) captures an accurate waveform (left), but if it’s converted back to analogue through a DA converter with an unstable clock, the waveform will become deformed (right). Source: Apogee Knowledge Base http://www.apogeedigital.com/knowledgebase/fundamentals-of-digital-audio/what-is-jitter/”

 

One clock to rule them all

A stable clock compared to a jittery one, compared to one whose frequency has drifted. Jitter is caused by a varying clock frequency, whereas a clock that has drifted has a pretty stable frequency. It’s just the wrong one. Source: Apogee Knowledge Base http://www.apogeedigital.com/knowledgebase/fundamentals-of-digital-audio/word-clock-whats-the-difference-between-jitter-and-frequency-stability/”

What we are really interested in for live audio is using word clock to keep multiple devices, e.g., the front of house desk, monitor desk, and system processors, in sync. Think of it like keeping a band in time: most digital devices on the market have their own internal clock, so it’s like each member of the band having their own click (or metronome if you’re that way inclined). If it’s a solo artist, there’s no problem. Even if the click wanders a bit, it probably won’t be noticeable, because there’s nothing to compare it to. However, when there are several members, they need to stay in tempo. Neither clocks nor clicks are perfect, and even if everyone starts off together, they will eventually fall out of sync (known as frequency drift. See figure 2). It makes sense to choose one person to keep the beat for everyone else, like the drummer. Much in the same way, you need to designate one device in your system to be the master clock, and the other devices are slaves who sync their clocks to the master. Sometimes, it can be even better to get a separate device whose only job is to keep time, i.e., an external word clock generator. This is like hiring a professional conductor for the band. Much like a conductor though, they can be very expensive and for the most part aren’t necessary as long as you have a good enough band/set up.

“Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall during the Aldeburgh Festival, 2017, by Matt Jolly. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mirga_Gra-inyt–Tyla_conducts_the_CBSO,_Aldeburgh_Voices_and_Aldeburgh_Music_Club_at_Aldeburgh_Festival-crop.jpg”

Each device still uses its own clock when following the master. They constantly monitor at what phase in the cycle the incoming clock signal is and compare it to their own. If the two fall out of time, the device can adjust its clock (usually by varying the voltage running through the crystal) until it’s locked in sync. The circuit that does this is called a phase-locked-loop. It’s like a band member nudging the speed of their click or metronome until it matches the conductor. However, some common sense is needed. You don’t want to constantly adjust for every tiny discrepancy, nor do you want everyone to follow when the conductor is obviously wrong, like if he sneezes or falls over. A phase-locked loop’s sensitivity can be adjusted, so it ignores fleeting differences and remains locked to the last signal it received if the master clock outputs major errors or drops out of the system. The device will then continue at that speed until the master gets reinstated or replaced, but will slowly drift if this doesn’t happen. The sensitivity can also be adjusted depending on how good the device is compared to the master. If your conductor isn’t the best, it might be better to listen to your own click when in doubt (or invest in a better conductor). In the next post, I’ll discuss how all this relates to our real life setups.

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

August Feature Profile

Karol Urban – Sound and Storytelling

The Blogs

Be Bold, Be You, & Be Proud

SoundGirls News

https://soundgirls.org/event/mexico-city-more-music-more-women/?instance_id=1324

Seeking SoundGirls For Music Expo – Nashville

Career Paths in Film and Television Sound

https://soundgirls.org/event/bringing-the-audience-closer-soundgirls-at-plasa-2018/?instance_id=1321

Hearing Health Seminar

SoundGirls and SoundGym

Shadow Beth O’Leary ME Tech on Kylie Minogue

Shadowing Opportunity w/Guit Tech Claire Murphy

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Edgardo “Verta” Vertanessian

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Sean “Sully” Sullivan

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Kevin Madigan

Shadowing Opportunity w/ ME Aaron Foye

Intern with Sennheiser at AES NY 2018

https://soundgirls.org/soundgirls-mentoring/

https://soundgirls.org/event/bay-area-soundgirls-sept-meeting/?instance_id=1317

Round Up From the Internet

Vanessa Parr On World Cafe
The seasoned engineer behind hits from Lucinda Williams and Rhiannon

SoundGirls Resources

Directory of Women in Professional Audio and Production

This directory provides a listing of women in disciplines industry-wide for networking and hiring. It’s free – add your name, upload your resume, and share with your colleagues across the industry.

SoundGirls – Gaston-Bird Travel Fund

Letter for Trades and Manufacturers

Women-Owned Businesses

SoundGirls Scholarships 2021 Now Open

Events

Sexual Harassment

https://soundgirls.org/about-us/soundgirls-chapters/

Jobs and Internships

Women in the Professional Audio

Member Benefits

Shadow Beth O’Leary ME Tech on Kylie Minogue

SoundGirls Members who are actively pursuing a career in Live Sound or Concert Production are invited to shadow monitor system tech Beth O’Leary on Kylie Minogue.

Beth O’Leary is a freelance live sound engineer and tech-based in Sheffield, England. Over the last ten years, she has done everything from pushing boxes in tiny clubs to touring arenas and spends a lot of her life in muddy fields working on most of the major festivals in the UK. She has a particular passion for flying PA, the black magic that is RF, travel, and good coffee. 

Read Beth’s Blog

The experience will focus on the monitor system set up and Beth’s responsibilities. This is open to SoundGirls members ages 18 and over. There is one spot available for each show. Call times are TBD. Unfortunately, members will not be able to stay for the show (unless you have a ticket).

Kylie Minogue – European Dates

September:
18th: Metro Radio Arena Newcastle
20th: Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
21st: Genting Arena Birmingham
22nd: Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth
24th: Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
26th, 27th, 28th: O2 Arena London
30th: SSE Hydro Arena Glasgow

October:
1st: Manchester Arena Manchester
3rd: Echo Arena Liverpool
4th: First Direct Arena Leeds
7th: 3Arena Dublin
8th: SSE Arena Belfast

Please fill out this application and send a resume to soundgirls@soundgirls.org with Beth in the subject line. If you are selected to attend, information will be emailed to you.

 

Intern with Sennheiser at AES NY 2018

Sennheiser & Neumann are seeking two members of SoundGirls to intern with the company during the 2018 AES NY show. Interns will need to be available from Oct. 16 – 19, 2018

Dates and Times

Responsibilities

AES NY takes place at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

Payment will be a pair of Sennheiser headphones and microphone:HD280Pro and e835. You will also receive a letter of recommendation upon successful close of the show.

You’re also welcome to join Sennheiser for dinner each evening.

Please send a cover letter of why you would like to intern and a resume to soundgirls@soundgirls.org

 

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Edgardo “Verta” Vertanessian

SoundGirls Members who are actively pursuing a career in Live Sound or Concert Production are invited to shadow FOH Engineer Edgardo “Verta” Vertanessian.

Verta is currently FOH Engineer for Vance Joy. Verta has over 22 years of experience having mixed and system teched for a wide range of musical genres in venues ranging from clubs to stadiums. FOH Engineer for Vance Joy, Juanes, Lil Wayne (ME) and more. He has been the system tech/crew chief on tours ranging from Taylor Swift, The Who, Rihanna, Jay Z – Kayne West and more.

The experience will focus on FOH Mixing. This is open to SoundGirls members ages 18 and over. There is one spot available for each show. Call times are TBD and members will most likely be invited to stay for the show (TBD).

Vance Joy – European Dates

Vance Joy – Australian Dates

Additional Dates

Please fill out this application and send a resume to soundgirls@soundgirls.org with Verta in the subject line. If you are selected to attend, information will be emailed to you.

 

Be Bold, Be You, & Be Proud

We are all amazing women; we do great things, experience amazing events, and live in wonderful ways. We are strong role models and have strong role models. We are moms, significant others, teachers, bosses, trendsetters, friends, and leaders.

All these traits are wonderful and amazing qualities that many people look up too. So then why do a lot of us as women self-deprecate? Why do we not accept compliments when they are well deserved, we don’t take ownership of our significant achievements, and we don’t lead without fear of being called a bitch. Part of it is some of our less progressive counterparts accelerating the way we feel, but I think this idea has been ingrained in us over centuries. We tell ourselves things that bring us down, and we allow others to talk or act that way to us as well. We feel the need to search for approval than to already know we are doing the right thing. We need to accept ourselves for all our strengths and weaknesses, but that does not require us to tear ourselves down. We have enough people that will do that for us. Since we are such magnificent women, it’s time for us to start changing this for ourselves.

Think about the last time you looked at a picture of yourself – did you look at it without thinking something negative about yourself or did you start picking it a part? Thinking or even saying out loud “I have ugly bags under my eyes,” “I didn’t stand right,” or “I look fat.” Maybe you didn’t even look at it because you already knew you looked terrible because you’ve told yourself that so many times you think it is true.  Society markets to us that we need to be skinnier, dress differently, act differently, and more. As a result, we do it to ourselves too. Society brings us down enough. We don’t need to do it to ourselves, and we definitely don’t need to do it to each other. We need to make sure our false opinions of ourselves don’t turn into our realities.

I think it’s time we challenge ourselves to reset the trend. I know so many strong women, yet this still seems to be engrained in us as those strong women also deal with these feelings and thoughts.  It’s time for a change, and it starts with us. Look at that picture and see your health, beauty, strength, and remember the moment in which the picture was taken. Remind yourself your leadership and direction is no different than your counterpart. You are not bitchy, you are confident, and are giving clear directions! You are a leader no different than anyone else. Stop getting stuck on that one decision or one thing that did not go according to your plan; instead, focus on everything that did! Let’s be the example that all women need and change the outlook for the next generation just like the generation before us has done in other ways.

Let’s look at that picture and say, I look great! That day was so fun! Let’s be bold, be you, & be proud for those before us, those after us, and most of all for yourself

 

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

August Feature Profile

Karol Urban – Sound and Storytelling

The Blogs

Performance Anxiety

SoundGirls News

https://soundgirls.org/event/mexico-city-more-music-more-women/?instance_id=1324

Seeking SoundGirls For Music Expo – Nashville

Career Paths in Film and Television Sound

https://soundgirls.org/event/bringing-the-audience-closer-soundgirls-at-plasa-2018/?instance_id=1321

Hearing Health Seminar

SoundGirls and SoundGym

Shadowing Opportunity w/Guit Tech Claire Murphy

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Sean “Sully” Sullivan

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Kevin Madigan

Shadowing Opportunity w/ ME Aaron Foye

https://soundgirls.org/event/bay-area-soundgirls-sept-meeting/?instance_id=1317

Round Up From the Internet

AES Membership Bursaries

The AES UK Section is working on the HeForShe campaign to address gender inequality within the audio industry and increase the representation of female and non-binary audio engineers.

As part of the campaign, we are pleased to announce that thanks to sponsorship from MathWorks we are able to provide 5 HeForShe Membership bursaries! 2 bursaries will be for students and 3 for early career professionals. The bursaries will cover the cost of the AES Membership. Applications are only open to female and non-binary applicants who have a connection to either Cambridge or Glasgow, such connection could be due to one of the cities being city of birth, or place of work, or where you completed a degree or are currently studying or maybe where you did a placement. The requirement for such connection is due to the fact that MathWorks has offices both in Cambridge and Glasgow and they wish to support the local communities.

Please send your application statement (max 400 words) to mariana.lopez@york.ac.uk explaining how the bursary will help your studies and future plans if you are a student and how it will help your career if you are an early career professional. Please make sure you explain what your connection to either Cambridge or Glasgow is.

The deadline for applications is 11.59pm on the 31st August 2018.

Exciting news from Spotify

The latest initiative with Electric Lady Studios and Berklee College of Music have launched their new EQL Studio Residency Program. You can find more info below.

Background

Women are severely underrepresented as artists, songwriters, engineers, and producers. In fact, women make up only 2% of female producers. We know that the reasons for the lack of diversity and inclusion, especially for women, in the music industry are complex and systemic. We can’t fix everything. However, we think that we have a unique opportunity to focus on creating visibility and opportunity for women in the music industry, particularly among female producer/engineers. That’s why we are partnering with Berklee College of Music and Electric Lady Studios to introduce the first-ever EQL Studio Residency.

Introducing the EQL Studio Residency

Starting in October, we will offer (3) paid Studio Residencies to women in NYC, Nashville, and London. During these paid six-month residencies, these women will have the opportunity to work in one of our studios, have access to networking and mentoring opportunities and gain valuable hands-on skills.

In NYC, we will be teaming up with iconic Electric Lady Studios where the resident will split her time between the Spotify Studios and Electric Lady Studios. In Nashville and London, the resident will work out of our Secret Genius studios where we have already shown a commitment to supporting emerging talent.

We are also partnering with Berklee College of Music’s Dean of the Professional Education Division and their newly formed Women Chair Forum. This group of female administrators will help to select the final three residents and then mentor these women for the duration of the program, providing valuable networking and coaching opportunities

Timing

The posting for these positions is live now!

Application closes at 5 pm EST on August 24
https://newsroom.spotify.com/…/announcing-the-eql-studio-r…/
Residents will start Oct 1

SoundGirls Resources

Directory of Women in Professional Audio and Production

This directory provides a listing of women in disciplines industry-wide for networking and hiring. It’s free – add your name, upload your resume, and share with your colleagues across the industry.

SoundGirls – Gaston-Bird Travel Fund

Letter for Trades and Manufacturers

Women-Owned Businesses

A More Inclusive Industry

Events

Sexual Harassment

https://soundgirls.org/about-us/soundgirls-chapters/

Jobs and Internships

Women in the Professional Audio

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