Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

Join Us

Tips for Getting the Vocals on Top

Down in the trenches of clubs keeping the vocals on top of the mix and loud enough in the monitors is a challenge. Here are some strategies that Karla Barrera utilizes.

The biggest problem I have is when mixing loud music like punk or metal is how to keep the vocals loud enough. When the musicians don’t hear themselves in the monitors, and they are on the edge of feedback? First of all, the sound starts with the stage volume always. You need to control your stage volume right off the bat.

First of all, the sound starts with the stage volume always. You need to control your stage volume right off the bat.

Check levels starting with the Kick drum and beyond. Once I get to the bass and guitars, I listen to what is coming off the stage and if you feel like the stage volume is too loud, here are a few things to think  about

Is the bass the tone too woofy and boomy? Instead of having the bass player turn down his/her level, should I suggest changing the tone a bit? (Familiarize yourself with the EQ knobs on bass amps, usually Hi, MIDS, LOWS, CONTOUR,  ETC… EXAMPLE: “Can you back off the low mids a bit so that the low end won’t wash out the vocals in the monitors? ”

Is the guitar just too loud? Should I suggest turning town some of the high-end on the guitar or should I have them turn down the master level? Can you get them to warm up their tone? Example “Maybe warm up your tone a bit to give more space for the vocals.”

Should I suggest to the guitar player to face the amp towards the wall so that the amp won’t bleed into the vocal mic as much and shoot at me/the audience? (some guitar players do not want to turn down because they want to keep their tone.)

Try to get the guitarists/bass players to run thru all of their pedals. Have them toggle through their boost, clean, distortion channels to search for any dramatic level changes that will change mix too dramatically. Take a moment and work with the guitarist. What you are looking for is consistency through levels. The boost will naturally be a little louder, because, well it’s a boost pedal for solos. Once you take a moment to check their pedal levels, you are that much closer to having control of the levels coming off stage. EXAMPLE: “Your clean channel is much louder than your distortion. Can you back off your clean level and turn up your distortion to even out the levels? ”

Don’t be afraid to school musicians. Let them know nicely that sometimes their tone does not translate the same as it does in their rehearsal space as it does in your venue. (which is why you give them these suggestions). Some musicians don’t play live very much.

Once you are done with the basic sound check line check and you are ready to hear a quick song during sound check, turn off the PA and let the band know that you want to hear what is coming off stage first before you turn up the PA and you will turn up the PA shortly. Listen carefully to the stage without your mix (30 – 60 seconds or till you hear a loud part kick in) that way you can tell what is actually happening on stage before you start turning things up.

Once you have done that, start turning up the vocals, get them nice and loud before you turn any of the band up. If you can’t get the vocals loud enough before putting the band in the PA the band should turn down, flip amps around or change tone. Sometimes, it’s the snare, or the cymbals and drummers will absolutely not hit softer. They hate that.

EXAMPLE: “Right now, I am struggling to get the vocals loud enough, and I don’t have any instruments in the PA, do you guys mind turning down a bit and I’ll put more of your guitars in the monitors?” (note this is not decreasing the stage sound and will not be ideal for a struggling vocalist)

EXAMPLE: “Any way you can tape your cymbals a bit? They are much louder than the vocal right now.”

EXAMPLE: “Can we mute your snare a bit with a little bit of gaff tape on the snare? It’s bleeding straight into the vocal mic.”

When you are mixing, and there is a certain element on stage that is sticking out too much, just take the snare mic or guitar mic or hi-hat out of the house. You may not even need it because it’s loud enough coming off the stage.

The 2nd problem happened to me for the first time last night. I put Shure Beta 91 inside the kick drum but later changed it to AKG d112. I had feedback coming from somewhere when the drummer hits the kick which stopped when I muted the main vocal microphone and the guitar microphone. We turned away the whole guitar cabinet, and it got better.

Both are great mics, but here is where you should start:

First of all, you need to EQ the monitors before the band arrives to make sure there is no feedback on stage BEFORE the band arrives. You need a graphic equalizer on every monitor mix and find all the frequencies that are feedback and need to be cut out.

Once you stabilize the stage, check the lead vocal in the house before the band arrives. Get a long XLR and take the mic to FOH if possible or have someone check the mic for you while you are at FOH. Make sure you have a graphic equalizer on the house too and get it as loud as you can. When you hear feedback, start taking out those frequencies that are feeding back. You can download an RTA mic app that can help you see the offending frequencies that way you know exactly which frequency to cut (I use the app FrequenSee)

The kick drum was making the vocal mics feedback because you had them cranked so loud and you were not equalizing the monitors or the PA properly. Think about the basics. GAIN STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING! Less gain before feedback. Instead of gaining up your vocal, turn up your monitor outputs to +5dB that way you have more headroom to turn up before reaching for the gain knob.

Should the bands be less loud on stage? should I reconsider my mic techniques?

Maybe, try my steps from above to make sure you have control of the stage. Trying new mic techniques could work. I would have to know what you are doing.


Karla Barrera is a sound engineer at The Roxy and works freelance around Los Angeles. She previously worked as a Production Manager and Sound Engineer at The Viper Room. Karla is also the artist manager for Imaad Wasif. She attended The Arts Institute of California.

Delaware – Intern at The Ladybug Music Festival

 

 

 

Ladybug Music Festival is looking for SoundGirls members to volunteer for the 2017 festival. There are many positions available for any level of experience.

The event is July 20th in downtown Wilmington at various stages near 2nd and Lower Market Streets. They will have 8 to 10 small indoor venues they are looking for engineers to run sound at. Some are simple singer-songwriter artists with one or two inputs. Some are full band and may require more experience. The main stage is run by Electro Sound and volunteers are needed to assist at that stage with setup and artist relations.

Volunteers to mix sound at one of the smaller stages would need to be available between 4pm and 10pm. (there may be a small pay for this position only)

Interns to help with setup of the sound systems in these smaller venues would need to be available between 2pm and 5pm.

Interns to help with artists load in would need to be available between 3pm and 7:30pm.

Water and Limited Food Vouchers will be given to volunteers. Free parking is available through the organization. Anyone interested in volunteering or running sound for Ladybug Music Festival should email a resume and cover letter no later than June 15th to soundgirls@soundgirls.org

 

Norway – Sound Check with Sound Engineer Sune Snellman Jakobsen

Sound Check with Sound Engineer Sune Snellman Jakobsen

Sound Engineer Sune Snellman has invited us to shadow him doing soundcheck for ‘Trentemøller’ at the ‘Rockefeller’ venue in Oslo. Q&A afterwards. There may be a chance to view John Dee and Sentrum Scene venues housed in the same complex. 

There are only six spaces available – Please register here

 

A Life in Insurance Diverted – Holly Ann “Boots” Latcham

linecheckHolly Ann Latcham (Boots) is a touring FOH engineer and Production Manager. She also works as a system tech and monitor engineer for venues such as First Avenue 7th Street Entry, Mill City Nights, the Turf Club, and the Fine Line. She also runs her own company Holly Ann Audio, offering gear rental for small to medium-sized events and tours, FOH and monitor engineers and occasional tour management. She recently has started doing some corporate work with Damron Production Services.

Boots was introduced to the world of live sound at the age of 19. Growing up in a small town of 800 in the heart of Minnesota, she never met anyone that played in a band or even played an instrument other than in the school band. The music she was exposed to was limited to church hymns and her mom’s favorite country artist Shania Twain. That all changed when her brother came home with a Blink 182 album and she was blown away, listening to them every day on the way to school. That would eventually spill over to other artists including Linkin Park and Creed.

As Boots got older, her obsession for music increased and she dreamed of writing her own tunes. That is when she discovered there was an arts high school in the Twin Cities that had a music program “I begged my parents for weeks to at least take me to the open house. I recorded and submitted an application to audition for a spot for my senior year. When I got the letter of acceptance, my teenage-rock-emo-punk self could hardly contain the excitement I felt about being able to finally see more than the cornfields surrounding my tiny town. I packed my bags and cried as my parents convinced me that I had to sell my horse to be able to attend Perpich, and I moved to the Big City”.

She started her senior year at Perpich with enough credits to graduate from her previous high school and opted for no class until after lunch when the arts portion of the day started. Perpich had a world-class recording studio in the music department, and Boots practically lived in one of the iso booths. Here she learned what microphones were and how to connect them, what mixing was, what compression and reverb were. “I spent every day in that studio from the second it opened until the lunch bell rang”. Here she learned that she could do this for other people in the studio and it was called audio engineering. When it came time to pick a college she searched all over to get as far from Minnesota as she could and still study the art of recording. Boots would end up at the University of Montana in Missoula.

It was while attending UM, she finally met her friend’s non-existent roommate. Non-existent because he was “always out on tour”. “Finally, he was home for a month. Between shots of tequila and smoking cigarettes, I got him to tell me stories from the road. He showed me pictures of him and a crew traveling overseas and taking days off in places like Barcelona. He told me stories of my favorite artists at the bar after their shows. Finally, he started talking about the Clair Brothers PA system and his role on these massive arena tours as a systems tech. “I was fascinated. Starstruck, Obsessed, even. How do I do that? How do I get to be a roadie for a living?” He told Boots that he had attended Full Sail University. 

tour-life-3

Within a day of learning this, Boots was applying to private schools across the country with a greater focus on recording and live sound. Believing she would get her start in the studio, she found a program dedicated to teaching studio engineering and landed back in St. Paul, Minnesota at McNally Smith College. Boots was determined to finish college as fast as possible and move out of state. She finished her studies at McNally in a year and a half and while there discovered she did not have the patience to become a studio engineer. She decided to focus on live sound and getting out on tour. “Before I graduated, I started running sound at a local bar with original acts for $50/ night. I worked my way in with stagehand crews around the city and was as friendly as I could be with anyone I met in the industry. For the first five years after college, I worked round the clock to move towards being strictly FOH or monitors at the venues around town, trying to get the locals to take me seriously, even though I lacked experience”.

No one ever said this industry was easy, and after five years Boots had almost given up, she was working seven days a week, working FOH for almost every venue in town, but the pay was so horrible that she could hardly pay bills and still by groceries. She had signed up for classes with the Farmer’s Insurance Company and told everyone she was quitting sound. She was one test away from becoming a licensed insurance agent when she got an email from Bobnet.org. It was a call looking for a Minneapolis-based engineer to work with an up-and-coming band. “Thinking I had nothing left to lose, I wrote a witty cover letter and sent in my resume – two pages of five years in audio. Twenty minutes later, the phone rang. Hippo Campus was looking for an engineer, and no one knew who they were yet. I was asked to meet them at an upcoming gig for free and run sound, just to see if we all clicked and would get along. Thank god we did, because four months later, I was in a van on my way to SXSW 2015 with these boys and tearing up my insurance license”.

roland_m5000_websterhall

Two years later, Boots is still on the road with Hippo Campus. She says some days are really hard, but she has never gone to bed mad after a show. She thrives on being able to help an artist create that moment for people’s live and new equipment. As Hippo Campus moves on to bigger and bigger stages, the larger and larger PA’s are starting to look more like the ones in her college friend’s roommate’s photographs.

Boots longer terms are goals are to work on arena tours as a FOH/ PM and would also love to tour as the system/ PA tech. We know whatever she decides to do she will be successful with her work ethic and attitude.

What do you like best about touring?

The tour families that are created. Hippo Campus and JR JR recently finished a run with Saint Motel, and that whole band and crew feel like a new family to me! I miss them every day!

What do you like least?

Post-tour depression. Use the Saint Motel tour for example This industry will cross our paths again, but we all know it won’t be the same as this last tour. There will be more tours with a different family like it, but it is always going to be hard to share so many memories with a close group of people, see them every day for weeks, and then suddenly only see them once in a while (if you’re lucky!).

What is your favorite day off activity?

I love getting out of whatever city we are in and finding the biggest green space. Hike, bike, rock climb, just anything physical that can get us outside!

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

Typical tour barriers – There was a tour where I came into sub for the usual engineer, only the band had just gotten a new monitor rig and wireless set-up. With a flight out DOS on the first day of the tour, the flight was late and the gear was in complete disarray as the usual FOH was on tour already when the band acquired the new gear. I had 2 hours to set it up properly and do soundcheck. Doors ended up ½ hour late, and not everything was working the way it should’ve. By show #3 on that tour, I got all the bugs worked out though! The hard part is when artists are staring at you like “Why isn’t this figured out yet?” but you know it would be unprofessional to try and explain it.

How have you dealt with them?

Just keep smiling and stay calm and get it done! If you’re working hard and have a can-do attitude, people will trust it’s not your fault when things go wrong, and either way, you’re going to fix it for them.

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

There is a lot of talk about sexism in this industry. I’m not going to deny its existence, but I think we have to stop thinking that it’s the music industry’s only problem. Sexism is all over our society, no matter what field you choose to work in. Just know that how you handle it will be the difference between you going where you want to be and you being stuck in the spot you are fighting so hard against.

My general rule is to pick your battles. What I mean is, if it is not in danger of disrupting the show, try to put your best foot forward and keep working. It’s not going to help anyone or set the proper vibe for the artist if I hold up all of soundcheck just because I want to teach the local hand that calling me sound ‘guy’ is offensive. If I tell them with a smile “Hey man, I prefer to be called Boots,” or “sound madam”, I usually get a chuckle out of them, and as the day goes on, they see my work ethic and hear the room sounding great and have nothing but respect for me from then on out. My guess is that my male counterparts also have issues with this particular fellow, so it really I really won’t be doing the world any good by giving in to his pessimistic habits.

Don’t get me wrong – there might be some instances where you need to put an end to obvious and uncomfortable situations. Just don’t be afraid to speak up to whoever else is in charge that they can help you so you can focus on what really matters: the show. Also, know that most people working with you want you to feel comfortable in your work zone too. I’ve honestly had my artists and peers come to me to acknowledge that they saw the moment in question too and want to make sure I’m comfortable. If your tour family doesn’t have your back, then you need a new tour family.

Must have skills?

Staying cool, calm, and collected. ALWAYS

mym32vstheirql5Know your gear in and out. Traveling with a console? Don’t rely on others to tech it for you. With today’s internet and offline editors, you should know your desk inside and out. This way, when it comes to a moment in need of troubleshooting, you aren’t in the dark. Not touring with a console? Contact your local production companies to get some face time behind the most commonly seen boards and gear on the road: Avid consoles, Midas Pro 1’s and 2’s, and Yamaha M7’s.

Favorite gear?

roland_m5000_930clubCurrent favorite is the Roland M5000 console. It is perfect for the size of bands I am touring with from many angles: price, functionality, and tone. The timbre of the board is easy and more transparent than many in its immediate competitive range. The processing gear offered on each channel sounds beautiful and transparent in ideal ways, and the number of options they give without having to have an expansion pack or dongle is amazing. Want D-essers on every channel next to your comp? No problem! Want 10 band parametric EQ’s and 32 band graphic eq’s on all your outputs? EASY! I was able to run monitors from FOH for Hippo Campus by running a double input list so they couldn’t hear my FOH changes in their ears. The board has enough processing power to handle all 32 channels twice no problem, and the functionality shortcuts they built in made it so easy to run my shows this way.

SoundGirls Sound System Optimization Workshop Denmark

20160921_114621In September, SoundGirls.Org hosted a workshop on Sound System Optimization that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The workshop was organized by SoundGirls Representatives Malle Kaas and Petra Randewijk and featured instructors Theis Romme and Rasmus Rosenberg. The workshop was held at Amager Bio and made use of their L’Acoustics Kudo System.

The two day workshop focused on the skills needed to properly tune a sound system using audio acoustical analysis software. Attendees were provided information on how to identify crossover points, optimal equalization, delay times and speaker placement.

20161122_131720Both instructors are industry veterans and brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the workshop. Theis Romme is a project manager at Victory Tour Production and System Engineer for ‘Volbeat’. Rasmus Rosenberg is a freelance engineer and an instructor at several institutes in System Design and Optimization, he is also a Super-User of Smaart and a Beta tester for Smaart v7 and v8.

Using analyzing methods to optimize a sound system isn’t a new idea. It started out in 1978 with engineers ‘Dr Don’ Pearson and Dan Healy, that toured with the Grateful Dead. They would utilize a Bruel & Kjaer 2032 Audio analyzer to optimize the PA of the day.They were posting their results in different articles and this led to a cooperation with companies like Meyer Sound and Rational Acoustics, who would go on to develop measuring methods that would later result in software applications like SIM3 and Smaart.

Rasmus hoped that the workshop would be driven by those attending, he was not let down. Stating that “The participants were well prepared and attentive. We hoped the class would be driven by the participants, their questions, curiosity and desire for new knowledge, and we got all what we hoped for”.  Theis and Rasmus designed the workshop and drew from several sources. Meyer Sound, Rational Acoustics, industry training sessions, power point presentations, and the unique drive rack they designed, built and use for system optimization.

This gave the participants a understanding of the workflow of a system tech, and the measurement platforms, role and function in that context. Rasmus says that “ by reviewing a “typical” day workflow and focused on the four different phases we divide a day into, Design, Verification, Optimization, Show. By showing, the workflow, context and results of our methods, we encouraged the participants to dig even deeper into the specific knowledge of the different subjects and techniques, that we touched on”.

20160920_163057The first day, Rasmus explained the theoretical side of system measurement by introducing the group to basic terms of Smaart. Smaart was chosen, as it is the most commonly used acoustical audio analysis software. With software like Smaart it is possible to find information on room acoustics, output of the speaker system, phase, SPL, room coverage, delay times and frequency response, all useful information to optimize a sound system. ‘Theis did recommend using Smaart for monitors as well.

It is one thing to understand the theoretical aspects of audio analysis software programs, but an entirely different thing to translate that into practical use. So on day two, Theis took the group through the practical side of working with a measurement program, how to optimize a system, showed on- and off-axis measurement positions, phase alignment,etc. He also gave the group some options for system design and sets of workflow.

Theis also took ran through a couple of practical exercises, where attendees could change position of speakers or adjust spl levels of the subs, so they could get a sense of the impact such changes have positively or negatively. Theis also imparted an important lesson -Often you will have to make compromises and make difficult decisions that may sacrifice audio and acoustical quality, but this is part of being a team player in the overall production. Knowing how to optimize less than positive conditions is a skill all engineers need to have.

While the experience level of everyone attending varied, Rasmus and Theis adapted information to everyone’s level. Both Rasmus and They did a fantastic and left those attending with more than enough information to continuing learning.The most important thing they imparted to the group was confidence to start working with a measurement program and to keep learning.

20160920_204912This might have been the first time so many women engineers from all over Europe were gathered in one place. We hosted a total of thirteen SoundGirls from six different countries and one SoundMan. Over the two days everyone dug into learning the complexities of tuning a system and Smaart. They also made new friendships across nationality and background. Everyone shared their experiences from their work back home.

We had members attending from Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands and England. While all that attended came to learn and grow as engineers – they all said that finding and meeting other women engineers was a driving factor. “To find out if I am all alone or if I have some fellow female techs” said Kristina a member attending from Norway.

When attendees were asked if they would use the information in the workplace the responses were a resounding yes. Terhi from Finland said “ time aligning a delay line has never been as easy as it was yesterday on my gig at a church”. Kristina from Norway had used it solve some low end issues, and Louise also from Norway was purchasing a new soundcard and giving measuring another go. Aiste from Lithuania says “ I work in a theater so first I will use it at my venue, and also as we are travel around with the shows I can measure the systems in all different venues. Gaining experience myself and making sure that the sound I get, coming to an unknown venue is matching the settings I am working in as much as possible”.

When asked if they would travel to attend another seminar Brigit from Denmark said “ I would definitely travel a long distance to attend a Soundgirl workshop again!” and Kristina from Norway said “Yes!Now even more willing! Both for the seminar and to hang out with the other techs”.

A big thank you to Theis Romme, Rasmus Rosenberg, Kim Kahn Technical chief at Amager Bio and Mikkel Alyd House tech at Amager Bio for doing a great job! And a big thanks to all the SoundGirls that attended.

If you couldn’t make this workshop we have asked Theis and Rasmus if they will teach this workshop again in September 2017.  Always check the website for up to date news and events. 2017 events are in the planning stages and will be posted as they are confirmed.

Musings on the Role of Femininity in the Music Industry

Historically speaking, women, and those that are female-identifying, have largely been unwelcome in the music business. Unless you were an overstated, hyper-exaggerated version of a sexual, feminine ideal in a front person role, you had no place, no business being near a stage, studio, or mixing board.

The concept of the feminine identity in relation to the music industry is one that perplexes and fascinates me. Now I don’t necessarily mean simply dressing in a “girly” way – most, if not all, of us, are unable to wear a skirt when working (it’s not practical in the slightest, not to mention a possible safety hazard in live situations. I prefer my trusty blue jeans.) – but more the attitude, the feeling of being “feminine,” whatever that means, and how it translates to our work.

I interviewed a few of my colleagues regarding their thoughts on this topic, asking the question, “have you ever felt like you’d have to reject your femininity in order to be successful in the industry?” Most that I asked this question to initially responded with a hard, “no.” Jill Meniketti, band manager for Y & T stated,

“That’s not something I’ve ever focused on.  I focus on my work, which I take seriously.  When you excel at your job, that garners respect, regardless of gender.”

Delving in a little deeper into the feminine mentality/attitude aspect garners a slightly different response. When I first got started in the studio, my college professor insisted that being a woman in the studio was a massive advantage, because they are better at keeping the peace and stepping into the role of the band’s creative therapist. My friend Eva Reistad, a studio engineer based in Los Angeles, echoes this thought. When I asked if there was a time when being feminine proved advantageous, she stated, “yes there was: band members sometimes are more open to the fact that you’re a woman, in which case they’ll sort of open up and tell you more things, which will cause the session to go better. I don’t think it’s really anything so much as femininity so much as being female.” Somehow, just being a woman allows people to feel more secure and comfortable in that situation.

Through all my discussions on this topic, the main conclusion I come to encompasses more than just femininity. It’s about being comfortable with who you are. As Eva puts it, in the end, what I think is how you present your aura, your energy, that will determine how you are treated. You cannot control how other people react. Be comfortable with yourself entirely.”

There is power in being a woman in the music industry. Being confident and secure in who you are provides a sturdy foundation for the rest of your work, whether you are a tech or an artist.

Jill’s Website:

Eva’s Website:

 

Life on the Warped Tour

warped3“Oh my god! You did Warped Tour? That must have been AWESOME!” is usually the response I receive from people when I tell them I toured with Warped this past summer. From an outsiders perspective it is pretty awesome, and from an insiders, it’s still kind of awesome!

Warped Tour is one of those legendary places that all pre-teens and teens have attended or dreamed of attending since the mid 90’s. The legendary status that comes with Warped in the world of Punk Rock, Hardcore and Metal is historic. It is the longest running festival, continually propelling tens of thousands of kids (and parents!) to see acts from the radio today to artists who parents jammed to on cassette.

Then there are the people in the background, the people who never get noticed but make every day happen and run crazy schedules to make these shows happen. The hardest working people on Warped Tour, with the worst schedules, are definitely the Sound Techs, Stage Managers, backline and the setup crew. Since I don’t have experience with the latter, I’m going to tell you about the former!

Every morning you wake up tired, your body heavy with the need to sleep. You look at your phone. 6:30 am. I think “Ok I can lay here and relax for another 15 minutes. When I hear Amy moving around, then I can get up.” I inevitably nod off and wake up in a panic around 7:15 and scramble to get ready and to catering. Load in on my stage, Monster South, starts at precisely 8 am every morning. That is not true of all of the stages, but it’s definitely how mine rolls.

We wait at the back of the truck behind our stage, sometimes waiting for hours for the stage to be placed itself, or waiting hours because the local union says we can’t unload our truck until THEY get there. After those mornings the rush to get everything up before 11 am, becomes real, and kids sometimes are staring at you as you check your system for the first time that day. My Check was: The Floozies, “Love, Sex and Fancy Things” For the Bass, Trombone Shorty “Hurricane Season” and a variety of music from Sting usually “Shadows in the Rain” or “Hounds of Winter.”  So not exactly a punk rock system check.

But most mornings we wait. On our stage, we have a beta system being tested called the K-Array. It is the first thing off of the truck and the last thing on. These line array rigs are 3 boxes a cart and probably around 7 feet tall. They are heavy and awkward to get out of the truck, and definitely caused many a fallen off toenail. Slowly the members of our various bands start to show up, along with tech people from other bands. You see they have a choice. Unload the truck with us every morning or sell merch all day or some various other choices. We always had a lot of help from our bands. They really were into teamwork on our stage.

Once the truck was unpacked to the point where most of the PA was off I would break away and start working on my own. Most mornings I started by pulling our feeder across the stage and getting the PA feeder run. As the FOH/System tech for the stage, I had to make sure the PA was rigged, wired, and functioning every day as well as making sure the guest engineer’s files were properly pulled up and patched.

warped8I worked with some amazing people. My monitor engineer, Mike, has been in this business longer than I’ve been alive. He showed me some great tricks when he was feeling nice; he also helped me rig my PA for the tour, much to my dismay. I was more than capable of rigging my system, but the initial week of the tour set the load-out pace. Once we started with Mike helping me on the out, that’s how it rolled. It was a fast and efficient system, with Mike and Jon getting the whole stage down in about 15-20 minutes. Our whole stage down and loaded some nights in (our fastest time) 38 minutes! I learned a lot from Mike, unexpected things. Like how to properly align your chain bag on a single point system, or the magic of Gold Bond. Jonathan was a stage and patch ninja! He had some of the best looms I’ve seen for the stage. I LOVE neat stages! My stage manager Myles and our Backline tech Cesar were literally the best team on the tour. Our stage had 0 problems, and if they did it was handled quietly and efficiently. I have so much respect for those guys. We had a great team.

After the setup came the hard part for me. I only mixed two bands all summer, Vanna and Cruel Hand. Most of my day I spent hiding from high dB levels and screaming music. Honestly, I probably needed gun muffs on top of my 25dB filters as my ears constantly rang for that tour. No good. As we all know, you can try to give hardcore music a dB limit, but it never works out. And especially not with our system.

One of the biggest challenges of the tour for me was actually the PA. This Array was meant for a much longer throw than we needed it for. We needed the PA to throw 80’ tops on any day, most days about 35’-45’ to FOH. The system was easily throwing well over 100’ until I finally started to turn off my top two boxes and after a recommendation from Bill Black (FOH on North), I also inserted a high shelf starting at around 2k to take out the harshness of the system. It was then much easier. Not only that but we had no front end on the system. There was no unit at FOH that gave me control of my system, allowed me to see how it was performing or even if it was hitting the limit. There was no way to enforce our levels without the ability to mute the PA from a source that wasn’t the board. That is especially hard for Monster North who had bands bringing their own desk.

Warped tour is one of the most brutal tours I’ve done, in terms of schedule, exposure to the elements, and levels of exhaustion. But It was over before we knew it. One day we’re saying “Oh MAN, a month left. It feels like we’ve been out here  for a year.” To the end where it became “I can’t believe we only have a week left!”.

warped-2Warped tour was an amazing experience as a growing engineer. I had the ability to do whatever I wanted with the scenes for my bands every day. It was a festival! If I got bored with my scene for either one of my bands, I would just dump the entire thing and start from scratch. Not only did it hone my engineering skills immensely (two months potentially mixing from scratch every day) but also I learned some amazing techniques from engineers who have been doing this for a very long time. I have to say that one of the biggest benefits of the tour was the opportunity to grow as an engineer. I can also say that Hardcore is one of the hardest genres to mix, and if you can make that sound good everything else is cake! It has a very style-specific sound live; generally, it’s a super-produced sound with tracks and effects trying to resemble an album feel, less live.

warped4Some of the things I’m most grateful for are the friends I made in those two months. I toured with a fellow SoundGirl, Amy Truong, and she rocked the stage and patch on Monster North. I also had the pleasure to tour with another lady Sammy Keyes-Levine who was FOH for the Full Sail Stage, and another kick-butt SoundGirl Nikki Berna who ran Monitors for Full Sail. We had such a great crew of ladies I’m sure I’ll be friends with throughout my career.  I had never had the opportunity to work with so many women! In the ten years, I’ve been doing sound on the east coast; it took me eight years to finally work with another woman engineer! What a great experience to have so many ladies. I’m very grateful to Rat Sound Systems for their drive to hire females.

It’s important to take away lessons from everything you do. Warped Tour taught me a lot of things I needed to work on, such as my propensity to get very stressed when there is an issue. Or learning that sometimes people’s dislike of you and treatment of you is not a reflection of you, but rather a reflection of them upon you. It was very lonely for me on my stage sometimes, but being FOH for these types of festivals/tours are lonely by nature. FOH has very little interaction with the stage unless there is a problem.  I know that there was some dislike of me from some of the men on my stage who for some reason thought I wasn’t qualified for my position. A lot of muttering and starting of rumors from the men because I am female, or drunken conversations where you’re told that they don’t believe you deserve the position. But after ten years in the sound industry, being belittled by people who don’t know me becomes normal, and you become more able to ignore it and be comfortable with your skills. Sometimes to those people asking for help is seen as weak, but it’s not. The best engineers I know STILL ask questions of other engineers because to do what we do and do what we love, we must always be learning. Otherwise, what’s the point?  Our industry changes every day, in turn, we must learn.

Warped, though difficult, was one of the most important things I think I have done to date in my life. The best advice I can offer is do the thing that scares you the most, conquering your fears brings your dreams to fruition! Take the bull by the horns and get what you want, because you are the only person who is going to get it. I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into for Warped. And at the end, I had invaluable life experiences, and I would do it again.warped5


loreenLoreen Bohannon: Complete audio geek! Loreen has worked in the live sound field since the age of 16. Working from the case pusher up to audio engineer within a small local company for many years, Loreen took her skills to the road. As a freelance engineer, she has worked with a great variety of acts dealing with all positions. She has toured with Rusted Root, Warped Tour, and is currently touring with Cabinet as TM and FOH.

About Loreen: loves learning and teaching anyone who will listen about her craft! Loreen also produces and hosts a radio show that features local talent called Music on the Menu. She does as much outreach as possible to local youths in Northeast PA, showing them that there is a place where they can work, do what you love, and not be looked down upon if you don’t fit in! Loreen loves to write and read, and you just can’t get her away from small furry animals.

Ready to Rock? A Beginner’s Guide to Life on the Road

So you’re heading off on your first tour – congratulations! It’s an exciting time and you’ll never be this new again, so enjoy it! You’re going to learn a lot on the technical front, but it’s also a lifestyle, and there are certain ‘soft-skills’ and behaviours which make life a lot more comfortable – so from someone with a couple of touring decades under her belt, here’s some non-technical advice for life on the road.

– Rule number 1: no pooping on the bus! You’ll get a heavy clean-up penalty, or at the very least, serious bad vibes from the bus driver (who’s responsible for cleaning the toilet) for the rest of the tour. So no solids down there – we put tissue paper in the bin to avoid blockages.

– Whilst we’re on the subject of toilets… bus slippers or flip-flops are a REALLY good idea. You’re likely sharing this moving bus with a lot of guys, which can be an unhappy barefoot experience… not everyone’s aim is true!

– Tidy up after yourself on the bus and in catering. Clear your cups and plates away and leave the place as you’d wish to find it.

– Dress appropriately, both at the gig and on the bus. That doesn’t mean you have to dress like a guy, you can absolutely retain your femininity – I wear light make-up at work, and I love getting a bit dressed up on a day off. But low-cut tops and revealing nightwear won’t help you to be taken seriously, so be mindful of what’s on show.

– Be cautious around tour romances, especially in the early years of your career. As one of the few women on the road, you’ll probably attract a degree of interest, and you might meet someone who sparks your interest in return. But you don’t want to discover, a few tours in, that you’ve been more-than-friends with a bunch of your touring colleagues – live production is a small world. I’m not saying you should disregard the idea of another crew member as your partner – hey, I met my husband on the road. Just tread carefully and respect yourself – if you treat yourself with respect, others will follow suit.

– On the subject of self-respect, go easy on the post-gig temptations of drink and drugs. By all means, be social and have a few beers if you enjoy it, but remember that you have a responsibility to be fully capable of doing your job the next day, and it won’t go unnoticed if you repeatedly show up late or hungover. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the same rules apply to you as a brand-new audio tech, as to the guitar tech who’s been with the band for 30 years.

– When you mess up (yes, you will), hold your hands up – nobody likes the person whose fault it never is. Own up, apologise, correct it and move on.

– We all have days when we’re feeling a bit jaded. Sometimes there are legitimate problems to discuss, and we all have a little moan sometimes – I’m just as guilty as the next person. But moaning can be very insidious on tour and it really brings the vibe down, so check yourself. A lot of people would give their right arm to do what we do, so if we can’t be positive then let’s at least be quiet!

– Get enough people to lift heavy cases: there are no prizes for slipped discs, and you don’t prove anything by hurting yourself. Learning to direct local crew is one of the skills you’ll acquire over time, but being confident, clear and polite in your instructions is a great place to start, as is asking names and shaking hands.

– Get used to the fact that there are lots of daily jobs that aren’t that much fun but are 100% necessary, and as a new member of the audio crew, they’ll probably fall to you. Just smile and get on with it – the more experienced members of the crew have all had their time doing the exact same thing, and if you bring the right attitude to work, someday you’ll be one of them. What’s more, it cements you as a team player, and for a woman, it has the added value of showing that you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty.

– Life on the road is tough, great fun and hugely rewarding. Glamorous it ain’t! It takes time to work your way up, but the journey can be really exciting, with many great perks and happy times. So be friendly, professional, reliable and above all – ENJOY it!

From the Mosh Pits of Orange County – Whitney Olpin

hdotd2015Whitney Olpin has been working in Live Sound for the last six years, working as an Independent monitor engineer and stage manager. She has spent the last year touring with Fitz and the Tantrums. Based in Los Angeles, when she is not on the road she picks up local work through Live Nation.

Whitney grew up in Utah and took part in church and school choirs as well as the internationally recognized Salt Lake Children’s Choir. She would teach herself piano at age 12. Whitney says she was always interested in music but growing up in Salt Lake her exposure to music was limited. “In middle school, my family moved from Salt Lake City to California, and I suffered complete culture shock. I went from being a Mormon raised, Mariah Carey listening kid to living in mosh pit loving Orange County, CA”.

Whitney remembers during the early 2000s when she was in high school that Orange County had the best alternative music scene –

“It consumed my life, all music — all the time. We’d pile into cars and drive to shows all over Southern California. Sometimes we didn’t even know who was playing. This was before smartphones or iPads; there was no Googling the set times or previewing bands on Spotify first. That wasn’t what it was about. It was about the scene, the music, and the experience. I’d be in the crowd waiting for the next band to start just watching all the techs setting up and checking microphones, etc. I’d see them outside loading the van, talking about where they were going and where they’d been. I made a lot of friends that played in bands locally. I think the first ‘gig’ I ever had might have been loading their drum kits into their trucks or carrying a guitar or two. I just wanted to be part of the action. If it hadn’t been for that music scene, I wouldn’t have all these tattoos, and I’d probably have been a lawyer by now. Sorry, Mom”.whitneyleigh

After high school, Whitney would go on to attend college in Orange County. She enrolled as a music major and took a few basic electronics and tech classes for fun. She realized quickly that tech was more her speed and transferred to an audio engineering program in Massachusetts. During this time, she would strike up a friendship with someone who worked at a local theatre, he would recommend her to the local sound company, where she would start working and interning. She also worked as a bartender, a runner, and stage-hand, and sold merch in the local punk/metal scene.

The venues were full of vintage analog gear that would break all the time, and this taught Whitney to be incredibly resourceful. She also learned how small the touring world is, seeing a lot of the same engineers coming through over and over. This allowed her to make some strong connections and friends, a few that she remains in touch with and hits up often for their “Ninja Skills.”

whitfohAfter college, Whitney would move back to Los Angeles and start working at various local venues including the House of Blues Sunset and Saint Rocke. This is where she would learn digital boards and spend a lot of time mixing house and monitors. She was also introduced to mixing new genres Pop, Reggae, Jazz, Country, Hip Hop, Gospel and Acoustic acts. “The House of Blues Sunset was notorious for doing underplays, so I got the opportunity to mix for a lot of big-name artists. It was challenging and exciting”. At Saint Rocke, she would meet sound engineer Grace Royse. A few months later Grace would call asking her to fill in on a gig with Fitz and the Tantrums.

melodygardotpiano

Melody Gardot Piano

Whitney would hit the road for the first time in the fall of 2015, as a monitor engineer for blues and jazz musician Melody Gardot. “Melody insisted on picking up a different piano in each city for her to play on that night. We never knew what style we would get, and with so many live instruments on stage, that tour kicked my butt. Every place we went, I would sit down and play, move mics, phase reverse, eq, etc. until the piano sounded as natural in the monitors as possible. I can mic that instrument like nobody’s business now! But most importantly, I learned the subtle art of annoying the FOH engineer to death with Journey piano covers. Epic”.

She would move from that tour to Sublime with Rome, where she would work with Grace Royse at FOH. “Switching from jazz to punk was a whirlwind in the best way. I grew up in punk and metal clubs, so this tour felt a lot more like home. The bond between the band and crew is family strong; in fact, I still think that camp is one of the best around”. (Meet the Women Running Sound for Sublime for Rome)

Since then it has been a whirlwind of shows and tours for Whitney. She has done local and fly dates with Dirty Heads as TM/ME, FOH for SWR, and ME for Toni Braxton. She also has mixed monitors for Ms. Lauryn Hill. Whitney’s favorite thing about touring is Learning. “Every time I go out on the road I come face to face with all the technical things I have and haven’t mastered yet. You just can’t get it all from working in a club. I enjoy learning from other engineers on tour and asking their opinions”.

She also loves traveling and finds waking up in a different city invigorating. At the same time, she dislikes the lack of sleep, eating mystery food every day and being away from loved ones. On days off she likes to find a local hiking spot or drops in on a fitness class.

“When I first got started I remember hearing a lot of warnings from other people, like get out of this industry while you still can’ and stories of smelly 15-hour plane rides, sweaty summer tours, overnight load-ins, etc. So I think it’s important to for me write about what keeps the fire burning when the gig gets tough”.

Warped Tour 2011

Warped Tour 2011

“I remember one of the first shows I mixed monitors for; it was on Warped Tour, on a local stage in Boston, MA. It started pouring rain, and all the other stages shut down, but our stage was totally covered with tarps, so the singer looked at me like, ‘fuck it, I’m gonna keep going.’ So I ran out, flipped all the wedges over, and they kept playing. Since all the other stages were closed, all the fans started following the music to our stage. Suddenly this little no-name hardcore band had hundreds of spectators and kids moshing in the mud. I still think back to that moment– this band did it with no monitors in the pouring rain because they love this shit”.

“Sometimes shows don’t go perfectly; mistakes happen, it rains, whatever. I make it a point during every show to breathe and take a minute to take it all in. I take a look out at the crowd and see these fans just losing their minds. I was just like them. I’m still just like them. When times get tough, I remind myself that I got into this for a reason and I’ll keep going for that same reason. Never lose sight”.

Whitney keeps her skills up to date by attending trainings and seminars completing training for Midas, SSL, Soundcraft and Rational Acoustics. She also reads audio books when she has time. She is fascinated by how large-scale events are produced and feels it important to understand it from the production side and touring side. Her future goals include moving into bigger tours with larger productions. She wants to learn more about audio systems, and as much as she loves mixing, she would like to move into system teching.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

For me, the biggest obstacle has been juggling multiple jobs while building my career. It was scary to walk away from a steady bartending job of eight years, a job I relied upon almost my entire adult life. I used to say it supported my audio addiction.

How have you dealt with them?

In 2014 I quit my bartending job. I was beginning to get more sound gigs and just couldn’t handle the scheduling nightmare anymore. Plus the more audio I did, the more I realized I had outgrown bartending. I didn’t realize it then, but all the years I spent behind the bar would actually make me a better engineer. It taught me fundamental skills like multitasking, maintaining a sense of urgency, speed, and communication.

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

I don’t really look at myself as a ‘female audio engineer.’ I just think of myself as an engineer. However, I can’t ignore the blaring fact that  women make up just a small fraction of this industry both on and off stage. With advances in technology and social media, I think the general public is becoming more aware of live sound engineers. When I get fans asking to take a photo of me at the monitor console after the show because ‘they never see women mixing’ then I know there’s a problem. I’ve straight up had a male engineer tell me thinks girls can’t mix and we can’t hang. I still laugh thinking about it. Haters, unfortunately, are a part of life. I just think of it as fuel for the fire.

My advice for women is the same as it would be for men. Be prepared to work hard and from the bottom up. Get a job at a local venue or studio and be persistent about wanting to move up the ladder. Learn everything you can from everyone you can. Also, “Fake it ‘til you make it” never worked for me. Don’t let your pride get in the way of asking dumb questions. That’s how you learn. It’s amazing how far, “Hey, your mix sounds great. What are you doing on that vocal effect?” goes over. We’re all nerds at heart, and from my experience, we all love to geek out about it; use that to your advantage.

When the time comes, don’t be afraid to accept or reach for gigs that intimidate you. I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t apprehensive about some of the shows I’ve mixed, but some of them led to more significant opportunities. I’m still trying to master the art of not psyching myself out. I’ve been in multiple situations where an engineer couldn’t make the show, and I got to mix, which in turn led to future gigs. Don’t let self-doubt hold you back.

Must have skills?

Signal flow, signal flow, signal flow. Cable management. Maintaining composure. Attention to detail. A strong sense of self-awareness. People skills. A sense of humor. Integrity. As a monitor engineer specifically, having the ability to gain and maintain an artist’s trust is paramount.

Favorite gear?

I’ve admittedly never been much of a gear head. I learned on the basis of ‘make it work with what you have,’ but there are a few pieces I really can’t live without. One is RF coordination software (currently I use Vantage and Shure Wireless Workbench) and a good spectrum analyzer (I tour with an RF Venue Rackpro and a handheld RF Explorer). No kidding, there have been shows I couldn’t have gotten through without them. Also my JH Roxanne In-Ear Monitors. They have an adjustable bass feature and sound better than any other IEMs I’ve tried. The cables are also easy to repair on the fly if need be.

Parting Advice:

Whitney’s offers this advice to those wanting to go into audio I knew early on that I wanted to go to school for music technology but had trouble finding a good fit, program wise. I think society imposes this idea that you need to get a degree, so I shied away from anything that didn’t offer one. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. When anyone asks me what I think of audio schools I tell them what one of my engineer friends said to me once, “ You could’ve bought a console with that money!” That has always stuck. He’s right. Look, I’m not saying school isn’t important. Just be wise in what you choose. Maybe take a workshop and see if it really interests you before you jump in. I believe strongly in music performance and electronics degrees, but audio engineering can be learned on the job. I got book smart in school and street smart at the venue. There’s no reason you can’t do both economically”

Everyone’s journey in audio is different, and opportunities arise when you least expect them. My best advice is whatever path you choose, make sure you live every moment. Get the most out of every relationship and connection you make along the way. I’ve been doing audio for only six years now, but not once has someone looked at my resume. I would be ignorant to say I’ve gotten to where I am all on my own. I’ve always gotten gigs by endorsement from someone I know who has a little faith in me. Trust me when I say it counts to call and check in with the people who were there from the beginning. The ones that make you re-wrap all your cables because you do it wrong, or call you out because your mix sucks. Embrace the tough love. It might sting in the moment, but they are preparing you for the battles ahead. There are a few of these engineers in my life that I will always look up to. They are constantly setting the bar higher and higher. Surround yourself with people that inspire you, and you can do great things.

We caught up with Whitney in August of 2019:

Since talking about her touring in the original interview, she continued to tour with other acts like Sofi Tukker, X Ambassadors and Walk the Moon. She currently mixes monitors at the iHeartRadio Theater in Burbank and production manages for Live Nation Clubs & Theaters in Los Angeles.

X