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Soundgirls Expo 2019

This July the SoundGirls Orlando Chapter, along with B4 Media Production and Mainline Marketing, hosted our second annual SG Expo at Full Sail University. The expo was intimate; we had panel discussions and presentations followed by everyone filling the lobby to network and explore the vendor tables. The people who showed up were eager and enthusiastic, some were thrilled to bits that this organization existed and we welcomed them right into our community. Beckie Campbell, the Orlando Chapter Head, and owner of B4 Media Productions got the band back together with Willa Snow – the Austin SG Chapter Head and Laura Davidson with Shure.

Beckie Campbell has been on tour this summer as a FOH Engineer for the Indigo Girls. She found her way back to Orlando to host the expo. Beckie gave expert advice on live sound, production management, and being a small business owner.

Laura Davidson represented Shure at our expo for the second year in a row. Her RF presentation enlightened those new to using wireless microphone systems. Her RF Basics discussion is integral to any new engineers exploring the wireless in live sound production. She also shared some of Shure’s new wireless microphones, which had some impressive features. Shure’s rechargeable rack-mounted station was a favorite of mine. Having worked in live sound for over 15 years, changing batteries took up such a large part of my day when we had 20+ cast members with IEMs and belt packs. The ADX1M micro body pack transmitter was one of my favorite new items, the compact size was impressive (and adorable).

Willa Snow presented for Allen & Heath, giving us some insight on their new firmware updates and iLive family of consoles and accessories.  She also contributed to our panel discussions, giving our attendees a bright and refreshing attitude on mixing live music in Austin, TX.

Mainline Marketing, another amazing local company, supported our expo by bringing some amazing equipment for our guests to demo and get hands-on experience. Michael, Michael, and Zach provided us with expert knowledge and experience. They also brought along the fabulous Shure Jeep, which was a huge hit.

Some new players this year included Kaysen Thurber with Inearz, a local Central Florida company who are passionate about preserving hearing for musicians and Wesley Devore, the Documentation Manager for Presonus Audio Electronics.

Inearz is a Central Florida family-owned company. Kaysen’s father, Kim Fisher. Kim has been building IEM drivers since the 70s. He started his own company in 2003 and has kept it in the family ever since. Kaysen has been working with her father since she was 15 and continues to represent the brand passionately.

Wesley Devore braved a hurricane in her home state of Louisiana to join us in Orlando. Wesley writes the manuals for Presonus; her presentation featured Presonus’s Studio Live console and their scaleable ecosystem of products. Presonus’s NSB Stagebox was a beefy addition to their line of consoles, a stagebox that behaves as an I/O router with gain compensation down the line. Each integrated system would have control over its gain, so nothing is set by any one part of the system, in turn giving the operator complete control.

Featuring these women and providing a platform for them to be passionate about their products and experiences is the main reason we present this expo. We had several students from local colleges, including some who traveled over three hours to attend. Many of these women echoed the same stories we’ve heard over and over, being passionate about music and technology while feeling pushed aside by men who think their passion is more “serious.” Referring them to SoundGirls, including the scholarships that are offered and resources provided on the website was exactly what they needed to hear. Screw gentle encouragement; we can push these women into their dreams. Empowerment is in our tagline for a reason; we can equip these young ladies with the education and confidence necessary to succeed in their career of choice.

 

Intern with Sennheiser at AES NY 2019

Sennheiser & Neumann is seeking one member of SoundGirls to intern with the company during the 2019 AES NY show. Interns will need to be available from Oct. 15 – 18, 2019

Dates and Times

Responsibilities

AES NY takes place at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

Payment will be a pair of Sennheiser headphones and microphone: HD280 Pro and e835. You will also receive a letter of recommendation upon successful close of the show. Travel expenses are not included.

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

 

Keeping Up

When You’ve Got Too Much Going On

 

I don’t know about you, but I feel like there isn’t much of a down season anymore. There’s a festival season, corporate meeting season, holiday season, and more — all blending together to create a full year. As a result, it seems like my to-do list for work and life only gets longer. I’ve been striving to find a better balance during the busy times to make sure I get downtime when work gets a little quieter.  Here are a few things I do during my busy times to make sure I give myself time to relax, instead of always playing catch up.

Make a Priority List.

I do this at work and home. In our industry, things pop up all the time, so my list is a bit flexible, but the goal each day is to check off more items then I add. This doesn’t always work, but I make sure to check off at least one thing every day. It also helps to make sure you meet specific deadlines too.  The list also helps me address similar things at one time in hopes to get more things done.

I practice this at home, as well. When I get home after a shift, I try to spend at least one-hour taking care of things on my list for my personal life. This can be cleaning for an hour, paying bills, etc. I try to do this each night, so these things don’t pile up. If I have a short day at work, I will try to spend more time working on these items so the days I’m exhausted its ok to skip. This helps to prevent my to-do items from piling up.

Health and Happiness

Within my priority list, I always keep items that will contribute to my health goals and happiness.  Often I will list a nap on my priority list. Funny I know, but I enjoy naps so keeping it on my list reminds me it’s ok to prioritize it. A priority list doesn’t have to include tasks you don’t like. It is a list of things you want and need to accomplish. Each person looks at these items differently.  I frequently list going for motorcycle rides or going to happy hour with friends to make sure I’m spending time on things that make me happy, just as much as tasks that need to be completed.

Say No

It’s ok to say no. When setting your priorities, be it work or home, sometimes just one more thing will not fit, so say no. At work, it may be more of a discussion with a supervisor of what they would like to see done first.  Talk about what they would like to see higher on your priority list and adjust from there. At home as long as you’ve got clean underwear, it’s ok to push off laundry to the next day. Again, here look at your list and prioritize what is more important to you, so you feel like you’ve accomplished something as not to get overwhelmed later.

Practicing setting a priority list can help you feel and stay balanced. Crossing items off each list every day will help you accomplish a lot, while also balancing work, home, health, and happiness. Remember not everything on your list needs to be a chore. Anything can go on your priority list it’s intended to help you keep up the things you need and want in mind while a lot is going on.

 

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

July Feature Profile

https://soundgirls.org/maya-finlay-feet-in-two-worlds/

The Blogs

Interview with Veronica Simonetti

 

Teaching Kids about Sound

Internet Round-Up

Sharing The Long Road: The Career Of Claudia Engelhart & Inside Her Unique Partnership With Artist Bill Frisell

POC Women in Audio Directory

The directory features over 500 people of color who work in audio around the world. You’ll find editors, hosts, writers, producers, sound designers, engineers, project managers, musicians, reporters, and content strategists with varied experience from within the industry and in related fields.

While recruiting diverse candidates is a great first step, it’s not going to be enough if we want the industry to look and sound meaningfully different in the future. Let us be clear: this isn’t about numbers alone. This is about getting the respect that people of color—and people of different faiths, abilities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, educational backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientation—deserve.

Craft Profile: Jeri Palumbo

SoundGirls News

Mixing Music Live – Discounts Available to SoundGirls Members

Sound Particles Licenses Available

Meyer Sound Supports SoundGirls

The Ethel Gabriel Scholarship

https://soundgirls.org/scholarships-19/

SoundGirls Events

https://soundgirls.org/event/bay-area-chapter-meeting/?instance_id=1567

Synth Workshop presented by Female Frequency & Soundgirls

 

 

In Conversation with Daniela Seggewiss

 

SoundGirls Opportunities

SoundGirls and SoundGym

Shadowing/Mentoring/Internship Opportunities

Shadow Gil Eva Craig – NZ & Australia

SoundGirls Resources

Spotify and SoundGirls Team Up – EQL Directory

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

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

July Feature Profile

https://soundgirls.org/maya-finlay-feet-in-two-worlds/

The Blogs

Engineering Ourselves and Rewiring the Brain

Creating Monster Vocals with Voxpat

https://soundgirls.org/creating-effective-transitions/

Internet Round-Up

Sisters of Sound Podcast – Interviews Broadcast Tech Caroline Sanchez. Freelance musician, audio technician, and technology consultant who’s landed some pretty exciting gigs throughout her career.

She talks about how she got the audio ball got rolling with a Bachelor of Music in Sound Engineering Arts from William Paterson University. She then jumped at the opportunity to intern at Bonnaroo, which lead to more high profile jobs like working for SNL, Good Morning America and even the Grammy’s.

Listen to the podcast and then read her SoundGirls Profile here
https://soundgirls.org/this-is-why-i-do-this-job-caroline-…/

Whitney Leigh, Mary Broadbent, Erika Duffee

A Big Shout Out to Tegan and Sara for supporting and hiring women to work on their albums and on their road crew! You can too by finding professional women working in all aspects of audio and live event production on The EQL Directory – makeiteql.com

Their new album was produced by Alex Hope, Engineered by Rachael Findlen, Mixed by Beatriz Artola, Mastered by Emily Lazar, and Assistant Engineering by Annie Kennedy.

On their last tour, their road crew was Female-Dominated! It looks like their 2019 road crew will be diverse as well! Whitney Leigh, Erika Duffee, and Mary Broadbent worked the LoveLoud festival with Tegan & Sara!

 

The Turn It Up Hall of Fame: Honoring pioneers of gender and music. Women will be heard! Turn It Up was founded to raise awareness of women’s vital contributions to music past, present, and future. These contributions are too often overlooked. As of 2019, only 7.7 percent of the inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were female, according to a Longreads article by Evelyn McDonnell. Turn It Up is creating their own hall of fame, one whose emphasis on inclusion is rooted in a broad and generous understanding of genre and gender. Send them your nominations! TurnItUpTeam@gmail.com.

SoundGirls News

Mixing Music Live – Discounts Available to SoundGirls Members

Sound Particles Licenses Available

Meyer Sound Supports SoundGirls

The Ethel Gabriel Scholarship

https://soundgirls.org/scholarships-19/

SoundGirls Events

https://soundgirls.org/event/melbourne-chapter-social/?instance_id=1566

https://soundgirls.org/event/bay-area-chapter-meeting/?instance_id=1567

In Conversation with Daniela Seggewiss

 

SoundGirls Opportunities

SoundGirls and SoundGym

Shadowing/Mentoring/Internship Opportunities

Shadow Gil Eva Craig – NZ & Australia

SoundGirls Resources

Spotify and SoundGirls Team Up – EQL Directory

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

Engineering Ourselves and Rewiring the Brain

I recently came across a news article about people who chose to drastically change large areas of their lives, which included changing their internal narrative and concept of ‘self’ entirely. My interest was piqued and led me to investigate the science behind this concept — the ability to rewire the brain.

What is neuroplasticity?

The discovery of neuroplasticity is a relatively newly accepted one, only becoming appreciated and understood in the last 20 years. Science previously believed the brain to be ‘hardwired’ to function in predetermined ways. However, we now know it is ‘softwired’ by experience.  It turns out that we are changing all the time and that our brains are like flexible plastic and can be rewired.

Neuroplasticity is the ‘muscle building’ part of the brain. Dr. John B. Arden, author of “Rewire Your Brain,” summarises the principles of neuroplasticity with the phrases “Use it or lose it” and “Cells that fire together wire together.”  He explains that our brains reorganise when we have new experiences, and the connections the brain makes when performing a skill are strengthened with use.

Conversely, if the skill lies dormant, the connections are weakened, just as any muscles in the body will weaken without exercise. The more repetition we engage in, the more neurons will fire together, strengthening and increasing in power until it becomes automatic to us. This means that we become what we think and do.

We are the engineers

When we find a bad connection when engineering, we understand that we must re-route our signal and find another way. In life, when we see an inner “connection” in us that we deem to be undesirable, we must engineer ourselves.

In the initial news article that piqued my interest, not all of the subjects were able to undertake such drastic rewiring in themselves. While some successfully overhauled and maintained all areas of their lives and “selves” completely, some were unwilling or unable to believe anything other than their familiar inner narrative about who they were and their capabilities. This duality of neuroplasticity is outlined as “The plastic paradox” in Mike Sheerin’s documentary “The brain that changes itself”:

“The same plasticity that allows us to change our brains and produce more flexible behaviours is also the source of many of our most rigid ones. All people start with plastic potential. Some of us as we grow and develop, enhance that flexibility. For others, the spontaneity, creativity, and unpredictability of childhood give way to a routinized existence that repeats the same behaviour and turns us into rigid caricatures of ourselves. Anything that involves unvaried repetition; our careers, cultural activities, skills repeated, and neuroses can lead to rigidity.”

The connections we engineer 

For those wishing to roll up their metaphorical sleeves and embark on some mental cable coiling and re-routing, the good news is our behaviour is not rigidly determined. The brain forms connections and pathways – major pathways are like highways that are frequently used, but we can also take the dormant backroads and over time and use, build them up to be the new highways.

Through stimulation and exercise, we can change the brain at a physiological level. Arden explains that we can even turn genes on or off with our behaviour and can rewire the parts of the brain that are out of balance with the others.

Musicians have been studied at length to understand neural connections associated with skilled repetition. Arden outlines research that has found not only behaviour (in this case instrumental practice) changes the structure of the brain through neuroplasticity, but just thinking about or imagining particular behaviours can change brain structure as well, meaning that mental practice contributes to the rewiring of the brain.

“Neurons communicate something new. The brain would not be able to record anything new if it were hardwired. Remembering something new is, therefore, rewiring the brain. By making connections between ideas or images, you also make connections between the neurons that encode those ideas and images. “

What this means

When we repeat an action, a thought, or emotion, we reinforce a neural pathway. We, as engineers then must take care with what is going into our input, that is, what ideas and images we are allowing into our brains that will make subsequent connections.

The discovery of “mirror neurons” has been an interesting one, and Professor Ramachandran has been an advocate of their importance. He explains mirror neurons are motor command neurons that fire and orchestrate a sequence of muscle twitches to allow a physical action such as pulling a lever. A subset of these neurons also fire when watching another person do precisely the same action – the neurons are performing a virtual reality simulation of the brain.

Ramachandran goes onto explain that when we feel pain, cells respond in the anterior cingulate area of the brain. Again, when we watch someone in pain, a subset of anterior cingulate neurons will also fire. This has led Ramachandran to believe the mirror neurons are involved in the basis of all empathy. The broader implication of this means that our brains take on and feel that which is around us, and what we “feed” into it.

We are changing all the time with everything we think and experience. Knowing that plasticity is an inherent part of the brain, we need to learn enough so we can guide the changes, keep our input signals clean, and be content with our own ability to wire and rewire ourselves.

Creating Monster Vocals with Voxpat

People often ask us why we choose to work in such a niche market, sound for animation, and for us, the answer is simple.  Live-action sound design has its own challenges and rewards, but more often than not, you’re recreating the sounds of the real world.  While working in the animated realm, week after week we get to work inside imagined worlds, create sounds for unknown creatures, and image futuristic technology conceived in the minds of the world’s most fantastic artists.  These new worlds give us the opportunity to use ever-evolving sound design techniques to breathe life into them.

We found such a technique when the software developers from Digital Brain Instruments approached us with the opportunity to create new presets for their stand-alone application, Voxpat, which is a sound design tool for creating monsters, creatures, and robot vocals.

The Software

In the past we’ve used our usual suite of plugins as well as Dehumanizer for this task, so we were interested to try out a new creative avenue.  It turns out that Voxpat is a sound designer’s dream if a slightly complex one.  It combines all of the different vocal processing plugins you might want to use into one massively powerful application: convolution, sample player, ring modulation, harmonizer, FM synthesis, spectral pitch shifting, delays.  And the list goes on, and on, and on.

This plethora of sound design tools all packed into one application means that you need to read the manual to use it to its full potential.  But, once you do, the sky is the limit in what this application can do.  What Voxpat lacks in intuitiveness (and it is somewhat lacking here), it certainly makes up for with power.

Recording the Samples

This month, we used our creative team meeting to have a mini masterclass on how to use Voxpat.  Then we opened up a mic to record raw new monster vocals to use for processing. The team had a blast coming up with interesting types of creatures so that we could play with the full harmonic spectrum in Voxpat.  We recorded ourselves as a screeching monster, a giant serpent, an ogre, and even a gargle monster (our intern almost choked, but we assured her it was worth it. Anything for a great sound!).

 

 

Eric and Tess applaud Jessey for her awesome squealing alien sounds. Here are a few of the raw samples:

 

You can listen to their samples

Creating New Voxpat Presets

You can download a demo version of Voxpat here, and check out the Boom Box Post preset pack.

 

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

July Feature Profile

https://soundgirls.org/maya-finlay-feet-in-two-worlds/

The Blogs

Freelancing – Scheduling Your Gigs

Interview with Rosa Lin, Acoustician

The Art of Networking

Working For Free

Should You Work a Gig for Free for Exposure?

Internet Round-Up

Ep 9 – Samantha Potter Talking Church Sound Signal To Noise Podcast

 

The Turn It Up Hall of Fame: Honoring pioneers of gender and music. Women will be heard! Turn It Up was founded to raise awareness of women’s vital contributions to music past, present, and future. These contributions are too often overlooked. As of 2019, only 7.7 percent of the inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were female, according to a Longreads article by Evelyn McDonnell. Turn It Up is creating their own hall of fame, one whose emphasis on inclusion is rooted in a broad and generous understanding of genre and gender. Send them your nominations! TurnItUpTeam@gmail.com.

SoundGirls News

Mixing Music Live – Discounts Available to SoundGirls Members

Sound Particles Licenses Available

Meyer Sound Supports SoundGirls

The Ethel Gabriel Scholarship

https://soundgirls.org/scholarships-19/

SoundGirls Events

https://soundgirls.org/event/los-angeles-soundgirls-social-4/?instance_id=1564

SoundGirls Orlando Expo 2019

SoundGirls Opportunities

Apply to Work The Ladybug Music Festival

SoundGirls and SoundGym

Shadowing/Mentoring/Internship Opportunities

Shadow Gil Eva Craig – NZ & Australia

Shadowing Opportunity w/ FOH Engineer Kevin Madigan

SoundGirls Resources

Spotify and SoundGirls Team Up – EQL Directory

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

Working For Free

You may have seen those ads on job boards. You know the ones. “Low/no pay,” “micro-budget,” “volunteer,” “passion project, no one is getting paid.” You may think, “Who would work for free? Who are the people taking these jobs?”

Competition is high in audio/creative industries and competing against many other people for the same job is a regular occurrence in the freelance world. Unfortunately, our first compromise is usually financial. There are those who are so hungry for work and experience that they will do it for low/no pay. And there are others simply willing to do a favour.

Of course, if you are in a position where you would consider working for free – the apparent upsides may outweigh everything else. Your first thought may be that this experience will lead to future, paid work from this client. Sure, it could but don’t base your decision solely on that unknown. You are not guaranteed paying jobs from that client in the future, and it is more likely they will keep coming back to you for free work.

For many students/recent graduates, that unpaid internship may look like your way into the industry, but you must be cautious as you can easily be taken advantage of. Here in Ontario, the only legal way employers can hire unpaid interns is if said intern “performs work under a program approved by a college of applied arts and technology or a university, or under a program approved by a private career college.” That being said, unpaid internships have been the norm for many years. There are some unpaid internships where you may be expected to do the work of a paid employee – this is where you will be taken advantage of. Internships can be an amazing experience, and a jump start to your career. Keep in mind though; you are not guaranteed a job at the end, so make sure you put as much into it as you get out of it.

We now reach this conundrum; if you are someone without much experience in the field, you will find it hard to get paying work. You want to work and need the experience, but you also don’t want to work for free, potentially devaluing yourself and the industry. Are there ways you can take on low/no pay work successfully?

My personal rule of thumb for doing free/low pay work is to make sure I’m getting something out of it too. Whether that is a non-monetary payment such as baked goods or a killer mixtape, or a trade of services. I think it is important to receive something in return for your work so that the client understands that your time and experience has value. At the very least, make sure you establish an agreement that allows you to keep your work and use the project for your personal reel, etc. If I ever take on a job for free, it can be a fine balance to negotiate paid work in my schedule as well. It is important to establish expectations like deliverables and deadlines first so that you are in control of prioritizing paid work.

Working for free is a very polarizing subject. Even in speaking to friends and colleagues while writing this blog, I found we all had slightly different opinions. Have you done work for free? Would you again?

7 Sound Alternatives to Working for Free

10 Reasons to Volunteer Your Time or Work for Free

Should You Work a Gig for Free for Exposure?

 

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