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Daniela Seggewiss – Time Flies When You Are Doing What You Love

Daniela Seggewiss can’t believe that she has been working in Live Sound for ten years, because time flies when you are doing what you love. She initially caught the live sound bug when she was 13 and attended her first concert.

Daniela grew up surrounded by music, with music always being played around her house and she learned to play piano and drums, but she never could put her finger on what fascinated her about music. Until “I visited my first concert (One-Day 70ies Rock Festival – Sweet, Slade, Suzi Q, Hollies). Seeing that technical side of live music was the missing piece of the puzzle. I remember the one moment I realised I wanted to work in audio. I was standing next to monitor world watching crew, band and audience interacting with each other, that magic moment when music connects people and lets them forget their troubles. I knew there and then, age 13, that that’s what I want to be when I grow up, I wanted to be part of creating that magic. Following that fateful moment, I spent my time figuring out what career options there are in audio and how to make it happen for me.”

Her family was not quite sure how to deal with Daniela’s choice for a career, mainly as they had no idea what it meant to be a sound engineer and could only imagine the world as one of Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll. They did their best to support Daniella, while her teachers and career advisors in high school tried to stir her into more conservative alternatives.

After finishing her A-Levels (high school), Daniela would apprentice as an event technician at a German national broadcasting station, learning about sound, lights, and rigging. This provided her a solid foundation in audio knowledge and stagecraft. She would eventually start out in audio taking care of the live sound for WDR’s (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) events in Cologne, Germany.

“Our team of three handled live audio and projection for every in-house event from planning to overseeing or operating the event itself. The events ranged from conferences to literature readings, and award shows to orchestra and big band performances and the occasional jazz or rock show.”

She would spend her summers working in Ireland for a festival, as an audio engineer on the second stage and the main stage audio tech. “My day started midday with the 2nd stage soundcheck followed by the gig and me running to the main stage to make the load in for the evening gig.”

Daniela would eventually leave Germany, to study and work in Leeds. She is a registered freelance sound engineer and was able to work in venues throughout Leeds. Rotating between four venues, with different size rooms from 100 -500 capacity. More often than not, she was the only tech working the gig, doing monitors from FOH and assisting the bands with the backline.

“The venue I spent most my time was the Cockpit in Leeds, which had three rooms in three arches under a railway bridge with aluminum stuck to the arched ceiling, literally a gig in a tin can. A shift in there would involve several power cuts, water dripping off the ceiling and stage invasions by the whole audience. After surviving that nothing a gig throws at me nowadays takes me by surprise.

The Cockpit main room had a monitor desk, and most engineers did not like mixing monitors there, so I got that shift regularly and figured out quickly that I prefer that side of the multicore.”

Working at those venues, led to working with a local music festival, Bingley Music Live. It is a three-day, 15,000 capacity festival. She started as 2nd stage audio tech and worked her way up to main stage monitor engineer.

She currently works mainly as a freelance monitor engineer for the bands The Sweet and Opeth. Her year fills ups quickly between the two groups. She fills in the gaps with festivals and local gigs in Leeds.

In 2017, she finished her BSc from Leeds Beckett University (Hons) in Music Technology, which has increased her knowledge of recording. She continues to learn by taking part in manufacturer training, d&b, Shure, Midas, etc. to make sure she stays up to date with the newest technology.

Her long-term goals are to start working with sound companies, so she can work her way up to working on larger-size tours. Although she does enjoy the medium size productions, being part of a small team that is family. And for now, feels that she could Mix Bands and See the World forever.

What do you like best about your job?

It’s two things for me.

The touring family & seeing the world! The friends I’ve made on the road from as early as that first concert are family to me! The part I like best about these deep friendships is that it does not matter how often we see each other, whenever we do, we can pick up right where we left off, and it feels like we haven’t been apart at all! I have “family” all over the world now, which is very handy considering I love to travel, too.

My family always traveled a lot. We own a campervan and would just go to the coast for a weekend. I always loved going on trips, exploring new places, meeting new people. Now I get paid to do that.

What do you like least?

It is the travel pace that I like least. I don’t even mind long flights too much, yet anyway. Give me another ten years, and I’ll probably hate them, too. But for now, it’s not having enough time to explore a gorgeous part of the world due to the brief time we spend in one place. I can tell you my bucket list of travel destinations is becoming longer and longer instead of getting checked off.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

The most significant obstacle for me was to find the way into the industry, especially into the rock’n’roll side of things, as there was no clear career path that I could follow and come out as a sound engineer.

I was very lucky to make connections early on with a network ever-expanding. However, even with some contacts, I felt like I did not have many options after finishing school as there are no sound companies in or near my hometown.

However, working through these obstacles confirmed that I was really passionate about becoming a sound engineer. And my way through the industry starting in broadcasting, followed by tiny clubs to medium venues and finally festivals and touring is exactly the “education” every sound engineer should experience. You have to grow in the industry! It is a hands-on job that has to be learned through hands-on experience.

I know there is still a lot of discrimination happening in this male-dominated industry. Either it never really happened to me, or I just didn’t care.

The local crew that thinks I must be the merch girl, just makes me chuckle nowadays. However, I have encountered local engineers, who thought I didn’t know what I was doing. In most of those situations, my touring crew family was more upset by the situation than me. It was only encouragement for me to show these guys that I know exactly what I was doing. And the band gave me the thumbs up at the end of the show was the best thing to shut these people up.

How have you dealt with them?

I feel like I just run through any wall. It was in my head that I would be a sound engineer, so any dead-end or obstacle was ran over.

Thinking about it now I realise that there were a lot of “No’s and “You cannot do that” involved, but I was so determined that I just kept going until I found a “Yes.” I came out the other end stronger and even more determined. So my determination and passion for this job help me with all the obstacles.

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

Never give up! Be persistent.

Your best shot is to get to know sound engineers in your area, your local venue. I know this is the cliche answer. Networking! It is still weird for me to know to advertise myself and network to get my name around but that is where jobs come from, at least as a freelancer.

What helps me is to remember that we are all tech geeks and love to talk about it. Also, most engineers, however big their current gig might be, started out exactly where you are right now and provided the timing is right, are happy to give you advice!

As there is no clear, academic career path to become a live sound engineer, persistence, and professionalism, from the beginning is the key, as you never know which one of those 1000 people you talked to about sound might get you your first/next job. It was the monitor engineer I met when I was thirteen that got me my first job in a venue when I moved to the UK, ten years later.

Must have skills?

Such a simple question it seems but oh so complex.

The big picture:

Technical understanding – managing all those buttons

Music – it’s all about the music, you have to have a feel for music to understand the musician’s needs and requests and translate that into technical terms.

People – in my opinion the skill that’s the reason you get/ lose you the job

You’ll spend a lot of time with your band & crew so be easy to be around.

Especially as a monitor engineer you are working with people and need to be able to understand them almost on a psychic level, translate whatever they throw at you, in context of their daily mood, to a sound.

On a more practical level, it has to be Tidiness!!!

A tidy stage doesn’t only look good and professional but also you make your life so much easier for changeovers and fault finding. And this applies to 50 cap bar gigs to arena shows.

What other jobs have you held?

I am proud to say that I have managed to work as a sound engineer all my adult life. I was lucky enough to make some important connections early on and had that little bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time, so whenever one job opportunity ceased another opened up and I grabbed it tight and did not let go.

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

Not really. I am German and a perfectionist, which makes for a highly efficient combination. I demand a lot from myself. So no male counterpart, may he be oh so ignorant of my skills, has ever topped the expectations I have towards myself.

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?

On a more general level. Maybe. I wish I would have been more in the moment in the past couple of years. So many great things happened and kinda just flew past, again coming back to this rapid pace of life.  I am proud that I have grabbed every opportunity that presented itself to me if anything it has been my private life that had to pay the dues so far.

I actually regret not continuing to play music regularly … I can still play a bit piano, taught myself some chords on guitar and love playing drums but I wish I would have continued to improve my playing … well, it’s never too late for that I guess.

Favorite equipment

I love DiGiCos. I seem to agree with their workflow.

I tour with a SD9 whenever I get the chance, and since I first used one, it felt like any given function I was looking for was exactly where I thought it would be.

I also always carry my RF Explorer which saved me and my IEM loving artists several times.

Parting Words

Keep calm! It took some club shows with power cuts and over-enthusiastic young bands knocking the PA over to teach me always to keep calm.

I bought my RF Explorer after getting an Arabian prayer through a GTR wireless, luckily only mid soundcheck. I did not want to take that chance ever again though.

Thinking outside the box.

The heaviest thunderstorm I have seen to this day at an outdoor gig in the Czech Republic taught me to think outside the box and just make it work with whatever you have available. That day the whole stage & backstage was flooded. But in good old “the show must go on” fashion we found as many towels as we could in an attempt to dry the stage and played the show with pedalboards on towels. Having learned a lesson, we played a show in Norway right after heavy rain with all pedalboards and wireless in zipper bags.

In the end, it all comes down to the ability to make it happen, which in my opinion is one of the main characteristics of the live sound / live concert industry. There is no second chance. We have the one chance to get it right so if something goes wrong we look around and use whatever we can find around us to make it happen!

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent

Profiles of Women in Audio

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

April Feature Profile

Heather Augustine – Patience, flexibility, and persistence

The Blogs

Festival Guide part 2: In-house Tech/Engineer

Maintaining Business Relationships – Part 2

A Chance to Build Each Other Up

SoundGirls News

https://soundgirls.org/event/video-conference-on-audiobook-editing/?instance_id=1261

SoundGirls Productions Meet & Greet

Amsterdam SoundGirls Tour & Social

SoundGirls London Chapter Social – June 17

NYC – Location Sound Mixing Opportuntity

Shadowing Opportunities – Berlin

Shadowing Opportunities

Round Up From the Internet

CompTIA – Advancing Women in Technology – Technology Programs for Women & Girls

 

 

The Nine: Alesia Hendley

 

 

Producer, songwriter, and gender diversity campaigner Carla Marie Williams

 

 

http://www.musictech.net/2018/04/rhiannon-mair-interview/

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.

Member Benefits

Events

Sexual Harassment

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

Jobs and Internships

Women in the Professional Audio

Maintaining Business Relationships – Part 2

Last month I wrote the first part of this two-part series on business relationships. I focused on the seller or company side of the relationship offering my perspective on a few things companies can do to strengthen and maintain customer relationships. I mentioned that I disagreed with the ideology that the customer is always right because relationships are a two-way street. Just as businesses need to keep up their end, customers need to as well.

Customers shopping for audio services have an extensive selection of companies and service providers they can choose to hire. To be able to secure the best resources for the show it’s important for the client to build a relationship with companies, to create a successful event. Customers need to remember companies have several clients and projects they are working on and that the business will continuously be changing.

The customer needs to understand a company exists to make a profit by selling a service or product. For that company to stay relevant, the company will need to try new things, increase inventory, and pay staff properly.

If the company met or exceeded the exceptions that were set in the past and you the customer plan to use their services again, let them know. Purchase or reserve the services as soon as allowed. Companies can’t wait around hoping for work to come in.  To maintain the relationship let the company know about any plans for reoccurring business.

As with any relationship, the customer should expect that things will change. Prices, staff, and inventory. As professionals, be open to trying new things the company suggests because they are the experts you have hired and trust.  Take advice on new equipment and trust that the staff hired will uphold the company’s values and professionalism that has been experienced in the past.

Don’t shortchange the company.  Companies are successful due to multiple customers; allow time to work out details, remain flexible, listen to advice offered, and most of all communicate. This relationship is based on what the client’s needs are, but companies cannot meet those expectations when the expectations are unknown. No one is a mind reader. Communication is vital in any relationship, and in this instance, the client needs to drive the conversation, so the company can help create a successful event and offer the proper support to the client.

As with any relationship if it is not working it is ok to move on and try something new; which both entities have the right to do, but don’t set up this relationship up to fail from the start. Develop a two-way business relationship so both the client and company can be successful.

A Chance to Build Each Other Up

Yorkshire Sound Women Networks Meetup, March 2018

On March 25 I had the pleasure of attending the Yorkshire Sound Women Networks meetup at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds.

The Yorkshire Sound Women Networks were founded in Huddersfield on July 14, 2015, with the aim of bringing women together to “share knowledge and skills in music and sound technology, sonic arts, production, and audio electronics.” They describe their “glorious mission” as “to inspire and enable more women and girls to explore sound and music technology.”

Since 2015 they have seen the network expanded to encompass regional groups in Sheffield, Hebden Bridge/Todmorden, York, Oxford, and as far afield as Malta. As well as regular member meetups, the network offers workshops in synthesis, Ableton Live, Arduino, live coding, production sound, and sound design.

March 25 was the first joint meetup for all groups, and the first time the network has offered a full day of workshops, talks, and performances. The day was open to all women who were interested in attending, from within the Yorkshire region and beyond.

Sharing knowledge was one of the key themes of the day – the programme handed to me as I registered included the statement “Today is our chance to build each other up by sharing ourselves, our knowledge, our resources, our networks.”

I appreciated that these resources and knowledge included talks on more administrative and educational topics, as well as electronics and music. Andie Brown’s practical and informative presentation focussed on finance management for the self-employed, while Michelle Myrie’s talk provided insight into her experience of changing lives through music through her work with NEET young people – young people “not in education, employment or training.” It was clear that YWSN had thought carefully about what topics would be pertinent and valuable to the attendees, who included students and women who were interested in electronic music and sound, as well as professional performers, musicians, and educators.

Collaboration was also a welcome theme. In the section of the day dedicated to showcasing work from YWSN’s regional groups, it was exciting to see how musicians and sound artists were inspired by each other’s work, which resulted in unusual and unexpected collaborations. The Hebden Bridge/Todmorden group spoke about a sound walk they’d designed which incorporated location sound recording and electronic sound art. The Huddersfield group performed live (their first live performance as a group), using a mixture of synthesizers, vocal manipulations, and found instruments.

The highlights of the day for me were an immersive electronic music performance from University of Huddersfield student Ching Wu, and Vicky Clarke’s hands-on DIY electronics workshop, where we had the chance to breadboard a noisemaker. As someone who hasn’t fiddled with electrical components since sound school, it was a fun and somewhat challenging reminder that there’s more to sound-making than sitting behind a console or computer in a studio.

Finally, it was immensely encouraging to see lots of young women in attendance – from Ching’s performance using Ableton Live, to the Malta Sound Women Network’s report on their work and events (delivered by video). It was clear to me that providing this kind of supportive spaces and communities where collaboration and experimentation (both successes and failures) are encouraged is not only a good thing, it is vital to the continuation and growth of women working in music and sound.

To slightly paraphrase the quote from Laurie Spiegel, printed in the programme information for the day): Bravo to the Yorkshire Sound Women Network. I can’t wait to hear what you’ll create next.

Special thanks to Liz Dobson from YSWN for inviting me to attend the day.

You can find

The Yorkshire Women’s Network on Facebook Here

Malta Sound Women Network

Yorkshire Sound Women Network – Sheffield

YSWN Hebden Bridge

Leeds Sound Women

YSWN York

Tips to Improve Workflow When Mixing FOH

In my opinion, the dream of every sound engineer is to achieve a high impact mix that provides the audience a great concert experience. Therefore we must take into account a series of considerations.

Having a good position for FOH, so you have a real reference of the system, it is important to remember that there is more than one point where the audience is listening.

Make sure you a system that has proper coverage and is aligned and optimized. We must be aware that our mix will reach every listening point and having proper optimization will help us avoid cancellations that hurt audio quality.

Having a solid understanding of the input gain (gain structure). Understanding how our tools work technically (consoles, processors, among others) we help us achieve a dynamic mix with plenty of headroom.

Solving these issues beforehand will allow us to focus on mixing the show. However we do not always have the best work tools, but by keeping the bases clear, we can solve technical difficulties as they arise.

These are some of the techniques that have worked for me when mixing Sala.

Attend the rehearsals- it is essential to be in contact with the musicians and the project in general, you should pay to the performance of the musicians, knowing the musical repertoire and the feeling and dynamics expressed by each song.  We have an obligation to learn what our artist or musical group wants to reflect to the public

Recording multitrack sessions is something that has worked for me, and I highly recommend it. With the session files, you will have the ability to practice and study, learning where solos take place and you can learn the dynamics of vocals and instruments. The more you learn the music the more ideas  you will get in order to achieve a high impact mix. You will also be able to set up your workflow (you can set up files for different digital consoles using their offline editors) and speed up your workflow during soundcheck and the show.

Experiment with different microphone techniques – There is a wide variety of microphones to choose from, take into account the following characteristics: sensitivity, polar pattern and frequency response. You can select microphones that best suits the artists and their sound. You do not always have the time to experiment during a soundcheck, so make sure you determine the best microphone positions beforehand.

The stage plot and input list- is a must for the engineers. Having an accurate and current input list and stage plot is a must.

How to Make a Stage Plot and Input List.

List of Software and Apps to make a stage plot

We do not always have the possibility of finding the desired team, but by studying hard, training, and practicing, we can solve every obstacle.

By Samantha Martínez Luviano

Originally from Mexico City, she began her audio and production studies in 2013 at G. Martel University.  She took part in a series of courses that opened the doors to the music industry, such as Mixtlán, Meyer sound, Shure learning center, liveS, among many more skills that contributed to her job growth, she is currently studying engineering in mechatronics. Samantha is now an independent sound engineer.

Consejos para mejorar el flujo de trabajo al mezclar FOH

En mi opinión, el sueño de todo operador de sonido, es obtener una mezcla de alto impacto que satisfaga a nuestros oídos y así hacer disfrutar a nuestra audiencia ofreciendo un buen concierto, por ello hay que tomar una serie de consideraciones, tales como:

Contar con una buena posición de nuestro FOH para tener una referencia real del sistema, es importante recordar que hay más de un punto en donde la audiencia esta escuchando, por eso el siguiente paso es:

Tener un buen sistema de audio alineado y optimizado, al tener un sistema con una buena cobertura, estaremos consientes de que nuestra mezcla llegará a todos y cada uno de los puntos de escucha y teniendo una buena optimización nos ayudara a evitar cancelaciones que empobrecen nuestra mezcla.

Tener un buen control de la ganancia de entrada (Estructura de ganancia), al conocer como funcionan técnicamente nuestros instrumentos de trabajo (consolas, procesadores, entre otros) podremos tener una dinámica y mayor headroom llegando al objetivo de transmitir la música de nuestro artista al público.

Todos estos conocimiento nos ayudarán a resolver desde antes algunas situaciones que nos harán distraernos y así, podremos enfocarnos mas fácilmente a mezclar un show con nuestro artista; Sin embargo cuando vamos empezando no siempre nos encontraremos con las herramientas optimas de trabajo, pero teniendo claras las bases, podremos resolver cualquier dificultad; es por esta razón que les comparto algunas de las técnicas que me han funcionado a la hora de mezclar un show en Sala.

Antes que nada, hay que tener bien estudiado y entendido el uso y tipos de procesadores tales como el de tiempo (reverberaciones, delays), dinámica (compresores, compuertas); filtros (shelving, HPF, LPF), ecualizadores (paramétricos, semi-paramétricos).

El buen control de ganancia de entrada es de suma importancia así como entender perfectamente el concepto de fase, teniendo claro estos aspectos, obtendremos una mezcla sólida y balanceada.

Cuando tenemos la oportunidad de empezar a laborar con una banda, siempre es emocionante pero aun siendo un maestro del buen uso de los procesos debemos tener la obligación de aprender el concepto y genero de lo que nuestro artista o grupo musical quiere reflejar al público.

Este es el flujo de trabajo que me ha funcionado para poder enriquecer mi trabajo.

Asistir a los ensayos- es muy importante estar en contacto con los músicos y el proyecto en general, ya que deberás prestar atención a puntos como: la ejecución que tienen los músicos, conocer el repertorio musical y con ello el sentimiento y dinámica que expresa cada canción.

Grabar los ensayos en multitrack– es algo que me a me a funcionado de una forma maravillosa por lo cual lo recomiendo ampliamente, ya que con este material y desde cualquier DAW (software) tendrás la posibilidad de practicar y estudiar, como por ejemplo: saber cuando enfatizar un “solo”, además al escuchar con atención la grabación te darás cuenta de la dinámica de la voz e instrumentos que ejecutan los músicos, con esto tendrás una idea mas clara del uso que puedes darle a los procesadores de dinámica, mientras más estudies los detalles de la grabación veras que saldrán múltiples ideas de lo que puedes hacer para lograr una mezcla de alto impacto, además de que de verdad agiliza tu trabajo a la hora de hacer el show.

Experimentar técnicas de microfoneo– tener conocimiento de la gran variedad de micrófonos que existen en el mercado, tomando en cuenta las siguientes características: sensibilidad, patrón polar y la respuesta en frecuencia; con esto podrás seleccionar lo que mejor que  te convenga para tener un mejor sonido. No siempre se tiene el tiempo para verificar una y mil cosas dentro de un show pero uno de las principales tareas de un ingeniero de sala, es posicionar la microfonía con el fin de facilitar aún mas el trabajo de tu mezcla. Intentarlo!

El stage plot e input list-  es una gran ayuda para los ingenieros a cargo de sus respectivas áreas así como el realizar junto con la persona encargada de monitores el input list.

A continuación comparto el input y stage plot del artista con quien trabajo.

Como dije al principio no siempre tenemos la posibilidad de encontrar con el quipo deseado pero estudiando duro, capacitándote y practicando podremos resolver todo obstáculo.

How to Make Stage Plots and Input Lists

Software and Apps for Designing Stage Plots

Samantha Martínez Luviano

Originaria de la ciudad de México, comenzó sus estudios de audio y producción en el año 2013 en la universidad G. Martel y en seguida tomó una serie de cursos que le abrieron las puertas al medio de la industria de la música, como Mixtlán , Meyer sound  , Shure learnig  center, liveS, entre muchas más capacitaciones que aportaron mucho a su crecimiento laboral, actualmente se encuentra estudiando ingeniera en mecatrónica.

Su primer acercamiento laboral dentro del audio fue en el año 2016 al formar parte del staff del festival  “El rock nos une” como técnico en microfonía, y ha tenido la oportunidad de  operar en teatro, festivales, eventos corporativos y asistido a ingenieros de alineación de sistemas, por otro lado, ha realizado grabaciones y mezclas en estudios.

Actualmente trabaja de forma independiente en empresas de renta de sonido y trabajando de planta para dos bandas haciendo mezcla de sala.

 

A Lesson About Fun & Failure

When you are working hard towards your goals, it is easy to forget to take time off and have some fun. In all honesty, I take myself way too seriously all the time. I need to remind myself to have some fun, sometimes.

When you have a goal that you are working towards, booking new and challenging projects, chasing deadlines, client meetings, pushing yourself to get a little bit closer to your goal, your dream. And somewhere on the way, I guess you just forget to have fun.

I had a rehearsal the other day, two hours of going through a DJ set. After two hours of playing my favourite music, what could go wrong? Well, I will tell you this, EVERYTHING went wrong. It was hilariously bad. I was laughing and crying because I couldn’t believe it went so poorly. I messed up everything! But I had so much fun and instead of beating myself up about it I just thought “Hey, it is better that this happens in practice and not on a gig.”

A younger me would not have cried with a such a bad rehearsal. I believed the world would end because I messed up, feeling I would never improve, never be good enough. A younger me would never have thought that I one day would become a Production Manager. The feeling that everything you do has to be perfect and systematic was always on my mind. The fear of failure! And when you fear failure you stop having fun.

Luckily I never listen to myself, how wise or unwise I may be. However, I did luckily listen to the people who encouraged me.

But in all seriousness, from a young age, women are taught not to explore and have fun, they are not allowed to make mistakes. There is this excellent book by Professor Lucy Green called Music, Gender, Education. It is worth the read and as a woman, it explained a lot that I had never thought about and why I was feeling the way I did as a young woman.

How we are educated from a young age is perhaps why we have a more systematic and serious way of being sometimes.

So let us make music because it is fun, not because we have to. Let us rehearse and mess up. Let us have bad days and know it is not the end of the world. Let us have some fun on the way to reaching our goals and let us pick each other up when we feel down.

Let us fail but not feel like failures.

 

The Sacrifices of Study

There are always going to be obstacles on the path towards dreams and goals. The real question is how much are you willing to sacrifice in pursuit of them? For a lot of people, sacrifices mean smaller or more trivial things; skipping a Starbucks coffee, eating in for supper, not buying a new Xbox or skipping getting your car detailed. For me, well, let’s just say I’ve always been an extremist…

In September of 2016, I had just wrapped up my last festival for the summer where I got my feet wet with stage managing and caught my first glimpse into the world of sound. I had already learned a lot from witnessing the relationships and interactions between techs and performers and I’d also been put to the problem-solving test of running an entire stage for a whole weekend without knowing what the hell I was doing. My trick in that department boiled down to two key components.

1) Always observe the what is going on around you, and if you find yourself stagnant, walk a lap. Chances are you saw that musician put his sunglasses down backstage, and you’ll probably walk by as he’s enlisting all of his friends on the hunt for them. Grab the glasses and deliver, when it is his turn on stage your relationship is already gravy and you will thank the heavens above for this happenstance. At first, I thought I was magic, no lie. I seemed to just see it all and fix all the problems, but the reality is if you pay attention – you are effective. Even when in conversation, keep half an ear to conversations around you. This will save you! Whether you’re working in concert, theatre, film or probably any job ever.

2) You don’t have to know how to fix a single thing. You just need to know who does! Network. Pay attention. I had a full stage running ten minutes behind because of roaming musicians and ten minutes before an eight-piece Argentinian clown band was meant to hit the stage I was informed that there is no mirror backstage for them to use for makeup application. Let me explain that we are in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere, on an island in the ocean! Before even batting an eye I accepted his needs and scanned the faces in the immediate area. I went on my gut instinct about this one person’s connection with another person who may be able to help, but who is at the other end of the field. I attempted the delegation and continued on with my rushed plethora of duties. No more than two minutes later (and I was watching the clock) a full-body mirror was being toted backstage. Hazaa!! Faith! Observation! Delegation! What a victory! The show may go on! I put in the effort and believed that I could accomplish anything. From mirrors to electrical work! Anything is possible.

After this experience, I was confident that if I pursued this path, I could find success. So as I was leaving Vancouver Island, I got in touch with a sound tech that I had met at festivals up north. He invited me to stay at his place/studio with him and let me shadow him at work. I didn’t even stop for Vancouver pizza or sushi; I went straight to his work from the boat. He was awesome. I felt at ease being upfront with how little I knew. I straight up told him I knew nothing, had zero experience but was going to be good at this quickly. He laughed, nodded and shared his knowledge, and answered all of my questions. I stayed with him two days and during that time connected with some other folks I had met up North on the festival circuit.

A new pal Joey was having his CD release party up in Prince George on Oct 1. and Danny Bell was going to be mixing him at the Legion there. I barely knew Danny from Adam but I got in touch and asked to shadow. He agreed! Now I had one week to get there. I had no money and no vehicle. If I stayed in one place I could grab a job and get a house and be warm and comfortable, but I wanted to LEARN, and I felt like I was out of time.

That evening, outside with my new mentors (he didn’t know that was his title yet) Vancouver workplace we ran into a festival-goer from up north. He offered me a seat in the rideshare to Kamloops that he was taking the very next day! From there I got to the highway and stuck out my thumb. It was cold, I was tired, and I was terrified that I was making a fool out of myself, but I decided I had no time to be embarrassed. This was the beginning of a new path, a new me, and I was going to be fearless and unstoppable.

I was lucky to stay with some lovely pals in the evenings along the route, and although I was fully prepared and even expected to be sleeping outside, it thankfully wasn’t in the cards this trip.

When I got to PG, I had a day or two to kill, then came the show! I was so nervous. Danny was great and showed me how he set up the stage, what his methodology was and talked through his mixing with me. He didn’t make me feel like a jerk for mentioning instrument imbalances. This was before I knew how rude it was to approach techs with that, and maybe that’s the reasoning behind why a useful skill of mine is balancing ensembles. Possibly because he let me talk about it so freely. My biggest memory of this event was having him explain compression and showing his X32 app to me on his iPad. I watched that ball bounce around like it was a secret code. Within its fluctuations were a language that might be able to explain to me….what the hell compression even was! I smiled and nodded and promptly added it to my lengthy note of necessary sound things to google.

On the longish walk back to Danny’s place reflected on the sacrifices I had made. What the hell was I doing? I asked. I just wanted a house, and a partner, maybe some kids, or at least a dog and some friends and a car. Why am I hitchhiking across British Columbia with everything I own on my back, just to not understand anything I was being taught. Ahhh, because you see, I was facing my fears. I was embarking on an uphill battle to complete a task, to work towards a goal and follow through. To realize a dream you must first climb mountains, and I was just learning how to walk on my own, so it felt insurmountable. I could feel the arduous path before me, and it was a terrifying realization.

Around this time another new festival-goer friend and musician had been telling me that they knew some techs that lived in Edmonton and that they would probably be willing to meet with me. And with that, it was decided I was hitchhiking to Edmonton to meet and find my next round of educators.

Janna Dickinson aka JDog broke into the industry last year when she accidentally worked nine festivals! At the Last-ival, having worked every volunteer role through to stage-managing, she watched the techs and realized that she had finally found a job where her varied skillsets could finally all work in unison. She spent nearly two months couch hopping while hitching to every tech across BC that she had met at festivals who were willing to teach her anything. Her first gig was waiting for her when she returned! With a childhood free from live music, she had never played in a band or plugged in an electric guitar. She was learning it all from scratch! So, learning WHAT an XLR cable is called, let alone what it’s for! She returned to the same festivals this year with a new role and received honorable mentions at each one. Follow her on her journey of navigating such a complex industry as a complete novice, working solely on instinct, an ear, and the drive to work at her passion no matter the odds. Unafraid to ask embarrassing questions on her quest for excellence, she carries with her goals of touring, teching/tuning, tv and teaching. Her freelance company is Penny Lane Audio & Production.

Read Janna’s Blog 

Festival Guide part 2: In-house Tech/Engineer

Much like in part one of my festival guide, the key to working in-house at a festival is to be prepared. Pack warm, waterproof clothes, way more socks than you think you’ll need, sanitiser, etc. If you have any special dietary requirements make sure they know as soon as possible, and bring extra non-perishable food in case the message doesn’t get passed on. The days are long and busy; you may not get a chance to sit down to eat your meals, let alone leave the stage to get them. Someone else might pick your food up for you, and they might not understand what Coeliac is, for example, so have a backup ready.

When prepping the gear, read all the specs you’ve been sent carefully (e.g., a Shure Beta 98amp, 98AD/C and 98H/C may all have the same capsule, but they are not interchangeable) and allow for several bands to be mic’ed up at the same time if you have rolling risers. Pack extra mics (I’d recommend mainly Shure SM57s. We joke about it, but they really will work on almost any instrument) and adapters so you’ll be ready when someone inevitably brings more than what was on their spec. In fact, take the specs as a guide rather than gospel and plan to be flexible. If you are operating a desk, try to find out whether the bands have their own engineers, and whether they have a show file. If not, along with your generic starting file you can start building ones for them to save time on the day (but expect there to be changes!).

If you’re in charge of patching, discuss with the rest of your department whether you’ll work “1 to 1” (everyone gets plugged in as per their channel list) or if you’ll have a festival patch (all bands use the same channels, with similar instruments grouped together. e.g., inside kick drum is 1, guitars all go in 13-16, brass in 24-30, etc.). Festival patch can be a lot quicker if you’re using analogue desks, sharing backline and mics throughout the day, or if you’ll be mixing most of the bands yourself. It helps the in-house monitor engineer in particular because they can leave rough mixes up and just tweak them band to band instead of starting fresh every changeover, which can be very time-consuming. 1 to 1 is obviously a lot easier for guests, though, especially if they have programmed a lot of scenes for their set in their file which could take too long to adjust after a soft patch.

Festivals can be intense, with very short changeovers, so staying organised is paramount. Label absolutely everything. Imagine you were to suddenly get ill and have to leave. Would a colleague be able to step in and know where and what everything is? If not, label it up until there’s no way anyone could get confused. If the worst happens and you do have to go, someone will be able to pick up where you left off. More importantly, when you’ve been working flat out for 14 hours and your brain goes blank right at the critical moment when you’re fault finding, you’ll be able to rely on the labels to get you through. If coloured tape everywhere doesn’t suit the look of the show (for example if it’s being broadcast), silver marker pen on black tape is a lot more subtle. Keep your paperwork and a pencil with you, so you can note down any changes as you go along. Don’t forget to update anyone else who needs to know, e.g., other stage crew, engineers or the broadcast truck. Carry a phantom power checker, and a small mic with a patch lead and an XLR to jack for DIs so you can test any lines that go bad straight away (after making sure that channel is muted!).

Don’t wait for bands or engineers to come to you, go and find them as soon as they get to the stage. Check for any changes to their spec, ask them how they like their mixes if you’re doing monitors for them, and so on. Musicians can be very laid back, so you need to be friendly but firm to keep them on schedule. At the changeover, make sure they set up as quickly as possible. Take the lead for line check if you’re mixing. Ask for the instruments you want to hear, and politely tell them to stop playing the ones you don’t. For monitors, the quickest way to get usable mixes is to ask everyone to put their hand up when they want the instrument that is being checked in their mix, and not to put them down until it’s loud enough for them. Don’t get flustered trying to give everyone what they want at the same time, just calmly work from one side of the stage to the other and let impatient people know you’ve seen them and you’ll get to them. If the engineer on the other end of the multicore is moving too fast for you, ask them to slow down. You both need to hear everything, so they should be happy to oblige.

Festivals can be manic, challenging, wet and cold, but it’ll be over before you know it, and that huge sense of achievement you feel at the end might even be enough to persuade you into another field the next week. You’re going to need more socks.

Other articles on Festivals with useful information

Festival Guide Part One

Working Coachella and Surviving Festival Season: How Two Monitor Engineers Approach Festival Season

Coachella Music and Arts Festival: Two Companies that Did!

Rat Sound Answers Your Questions about Coachella

 

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