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A Good Attitude Will Keep You Going

And Zero Tolerance for Sexual Harassment

I recently embarked on my first tour ever. Yes, I’m 27, and yes I’ve been playing in bands and making my music for over a decade. I’ve done long drives and weekend “mini-tours,” but I have never been on a real tour. And then this September, it happened!

Before I left, I was feeling grateful that I was going to go on tour this year and not last year, or the year before, or the year before. I had finally reached a point where I stopped caring about what other people thought of me. My anxiety about making an ass of myself in the years between absolute-and-total-beginner and goddess-of-pop-and-production-and-also-successful-film-composer—aka my ultimate dream—had pretty much diminished once I turned 27. I knew that this was going to be a very valuable asset on my first tour because my band was the opener for two other well-known bands, our budget was next to nothing, and at the end of the day, it was entirely possible that the headliners’ fans wouldn’t like us. The thick skin was a welcome change. My newfound penchant for not giving a shit, paired with years of work that had led to this moment was, without a doubt, feeling pretty good right about then.

Another reason I was glad to be touring later rather than sooner: I had worked in restaurants a lot, and my restaurant “skills” that I had previously seen as invaluable were suddenly feeling extremely valuable:

But one of the things I had not foreseen was how much my live set design* affected the entire flow of my band’s setup, our soundcheck, our show, and any challenges that came up along the way. My live setup was lightweight, looked good, and got the job done. At the onset of my first-ever national tour, my live set consisted of:

Drum World:

Bass World:

My World:

The music we were performing contained synth riffs and all sorts of expressive percussion sounds, as well as swells and other emotive drops that were integral to the songs. After tweaking frequencies and decibel levels according to the feedback of a number of trusted sources, I was proud of what I was going to be working with on stage every night, and I was excited about the live musicians I’d chosen to play with me.

However, midway through our tour, I had to fire one of the musicians I’d been so excited about. The reason? Sexual harassment of underage fans.***

That this happened mere weeks before the Harvey Weinstein stor(ies) broke and dominated our news feeds. Of course this person tried to defend himself with comments about how “no physical harm was done” and how “the Internet isn’t really real.” (Yes, these are real quotes from a real adult who was a working professional. And no, they had no bearing on my decision to promptly remove this person from my tour.) By the time he got home, our entire nation was fuming over sexual harassment scandals. Perhaps it’s silly of me to think that he learned his lesson by reading the news? I’m still hopeful.

Anyway. My remaining bandmate and I were five shows deep into a ten-show tour, and were suddenly faced with a huge task: play a set of (relatively complex) pop music for an audience of about 1,000 people in an expressive and engaging fashion, all while being short one musician.

So how did My World and Bass World pull it off?

First of all, I was lucky. The Ableton project folder I had saved to my brand new, purchased-on-credit solid-state laptop**** happened to include the Ableton session I had used months before for a couple of impromptu two-person shows. The day after we fired our rogue drummer, I fired up said session in the minivan and promptly began adding any bells and whistles I believed we were missing in his absence. This consisted mostly of drums tracks and one-hits that I had to mildly adjust: some pocket issues here, some EQ issues there. I made a decision to add a bitcrusher effect to any drum tracks that felt too “acoustic” to play on the house speakers. For those who don’t already know, a bitcrusher is a rudimentary distortion that digitally alters resolution. It adds a bit of a prickly sound to sounds that don’t have much prickle. Too much bitcrusher and things can easily get chaotic, but the right amount and things sound more interesting. Put another way: drum tracks that sounded too angelic were transformed into a sample that sounds something like the lo-fi quality of Sleigh Bells or Crystal Castles. (Side note: I still haven’t decided if I am still a Crystal Castles fan after member Alice Glass’ public statement about her prior bandmate’s extremely abusive behavior toward her. Considering Crystal Castles is the work of both of them, is it more supportive to engage with her work, or to denounce his?)

After this brief editing, my bass player/backing vocalist (who herself is a talented producer and songwriter) and I rehearsed in our minivan while our photographer/tour manager drove us to our next show. Our rehearsal was my laptop, my Push, and us singing and playing air guitar and bass.

Our first show without a drummer I told the audience to “take care of each other.” Our second one I told the audience “we used to have a drummer but they had to be sent home.”

I was under the impression that something was wrong. But, as it turned out, I was the only person on the tour that had that impression. Myself, along with my team, had communicated with the tour team about what had happened, and we were scooted off with nothing but blessings and anecdotes from similarly sad experiences. For the remainder of our short but sweet tour, new fans poured their hearts out to us, took photos, purchased autographed posters and t-shirts, all without so much as a mention of the absence of a live drummer.

So what was at play when I pressed play each and every remaining night on that tour?

First: and foremost: songwriting. Before this tour I’d spent years working on singing styles, lyrics and character perspective concepts that (finally) seemed relevant and original to a wider audience.

Second: our live setup was simple, but it was also capable and flexible. I’d never anticipated needing to let a core player go in the middle of a tour, but I could when I needed to. My remaining bandmate and I were at a slight advantage because we had played a two-person set before (albeit to a much smaller and drunker audience), Also the fact that we were the first of three acts meant that it was totally okay that our setup was simpler than the other bands’. But, we were also open to the objective criticism of what we would be missing without a live drummer, namely dynamics and the energy of another person on stage with us. So we made up for that with some lightweight native plugins and mad stage presence. We had so much stage all to ourselves now! So we used every square inch of it to keep energy high.

We did not see any decrease in merch sales or new fans. We did not need to field any questions about the absence of a drummer. Anyone who spoke to us about our music was excited and wanted to know when they could come to support us again. Most surprisingly, myself and everyone on my team took it in stride. The weight of sexual harassment among our personnel had been dealt with swiftly and strictly. We had exercised morals we lived by, and now we had shows to play.

So. What’s my point?

Sexual harassment is never tolerated, even when the harasser’s role is theoretically indispensable. Make the most of what you already know. And most importantly, be prepared for anything. A good attitude will keep you going.

*Music Directing is the design of artists’ live setups and is a profession unto itself. I will be sure to devote a whole blog post to this topic soon.

**In the past I have played with having my own vocal rig. At one point I ran my vocals through Ableton Live because I anticipated the possibility of wanting to play with effects and looping in real-time without having to purchase expensive pedals. At another point, I invested in the TC Helicon VoiceLive Touch which afforded me amazing on-stage effects. However its signal flow also provided a great deal of noise and confusion, usually from front-of-house people. Ultimately it didn’t do the job I wanted, so I sold it.

***Again, this story will eventually be a blog post unto itself.

****If you are going to use a computer on stage (especially one that you interact with while you are performing), it needs to be a solid-state drive laptop. Traditional spinning drives can skip when they feel vibrations from drums, stage monitors, your own body accidentally knocking your computer over. And you don’t want that!

Sign SoundGirls Open Letter to the Professional Audio Community & Music to Address Sexual Harassment

Find Information on Sexual Harassment in the Music Industry

Live Fast, Stay Young!

A former reprobate’s guide to getting healthier on the road

Being a professional gypsy can be a lot of fun, but let’s face it, it’s not always conducive to optimum health. I lived an unhealthy life when I first started touring – in fact I had every bad habit available – but over the years I’ve figured out ways to love life on the road and look after myself at the same time. Here are the good-living tricks I’ve picked up along the way – I hope they give you some ideas if you’re trying to take better care of yourself!

Drink and drugs

Let’s start with the obvious. A lot of us drink more than is wise – it’s all too easy to get on the bus and have a few beers after a long day, and Roadie Friday can get messy as we all know. But even if you don’t get wasted on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to give your body a rest and have a few alcohol-free-days a week. It’s easier if there’s something healthy on hand that you like to drink instead – coconut water, kombucha, decaf and herbal teas are good, and I’m also a fan of alcohol-free beers. Sometimes you just want that ‘job well done’ feeling of a nice cold one, and there are more and more coming on the market these days.

As for cigarettes and drugs? There’s no middle ground really – you know what to do if you and your body want to stay friends. I found Allen Carr’s ‘Easy Way’ book a massive help in stopping smoking, and his stopping drinking one also altered my habits without me even trying. A great incentive to change bad habits is stashing the money you would have spent and treat yourself to something cool as an end-of-tour present instead!

Food

It’s usually relatively easy to eat well if you have tour catering, but it can be hit and miss if you don’t. Even with catering there are great and less-great options, so just be mindful and make the best choices you can – it’s never going to be perfect, but go for the most nutritious thing on offer. Juicers make frequent appearances in catering these days, so take advantage – use plenty of vegetables and not too much fruit to keep the sugar down. (I like to compete with myself to make the ultimate disgusto-juice – greens, beetroot, ginger, the hardcore stuff – the worse it tastes, the better it must be for you, right?!) If you’re at the mercy of local catering, which can be good and can be awful, then it’s helpful to have an emergency stash of healthy stuff. I keep things like nuts, protein bars, oatcakes, etc. in my tool drawers for bad-catering days – and in my suitcase as well, to stop me from monstering the overpriced hotel Pringles when I check in, and I’m ravenous!

I’m always hungry after load-out, and it can be hard to resist the temptation of stuffing my face with whatever’s going. I learnt a great healthy touring trick on a bus where some people wanted the usual load-out pizzas, and some wanted a change. We had a chat with production, and they agreed that we could halve the amount of pizza, and use the remainder of the budget for different things that we would put on the runner’s list. That worked brilliantly. We had a selection of items like vegetable crudites, hummus, nuts, crispbreads, dips, avocados, dark chocolate, etc.; whatever we fancied within reason and budget, and everyone was happy – it’s much easier to resist the siren call of cheesy carbs when there’s an alternative! If that’s not an option, you could buy your stash of healthier load-out snacks for the bus. Another favourite trick is eating light before the show and boxing up some of my dinner – sure, eating late at night isn’t ideal, but being realistic I know I’ll always want something, and it’s a better option than piling into the junk food at midnight!

Probiotic /vitamins

I take a multivitamin and supplements as an insurance policy, and I’m a big fan of taking a probiotic tablet each day, particularly when you’re traveling in far-flung places – it can help keep your digestion happy.

Exercise

Loading in and out is a workout in itself, and as we’re on our feet all day the general activity levels on the road are pretty high. Maximise the good work by taking advantage of hotel gyms on days off to get the cardio happening, or if that doesn’t appeal there are lots of online fitness classes, you can stream or download to do in your hotel room. Rubber resistance bands make a great portable alternative to weights, and a skipping rope takes up minimal room in your luggage. Alternatively, take yourself out for a brisk walk around the city, or if you’re near countryside you can join forces with a few others, rent a car and get out into nature!

My yoga practice has been a huge blessing – it’s free, I can do it just about anywhere, and all I need is my mat. I like to do an hour before work, or in the pre or post soundcheck pause. A dressing room is an ideal place, but I get creative – there’s almost always somewhere I can find a quiet spot, even if that’s a stairwell or a corner of the loading bay behind some stacked cases! The key is to remember that anything is better than nothing, and you’ll feel so much better afterwards.

Hide!

Part of the fun of touring is going out for dinner with the gang on a day off, but once in a while, it’s a treat to hibernate. Find a supermarket and get yourself a roadie buffet, or have some room service, watch a movie or box-set, chill out and have a luxurious early night!

And relax….

Guided relaxations are a lovely way to help you fall asleep and are a great entry point for meditation with all the associated benefits of stress reduction and improved sleep. You could try one of the many Youtube guided relaxations or podcasts that are available for free or download an app that you can listen to on headphones in your bunk. (This has the bonus of drowning out the collective farting and snoring.)

Overall, be inventive and experiment! Rome wasn’t built in a day, but just making one or two changes can make a big difference to how you feel every day, and help you to live fast and stay young!

SoundGirls FOH Workshop – Los Angeles

This  workshop covers various Front of House system design and scenarios. Topics include designing the PA, software prediction, coverage over SPL, time alignment, sub-woofer configurations, and coverage gaps. This is an intermediate course and will help professionals to hone their skills.

Designing  your  PA  

Using  Prediction  Software  accurately  

Coverage  over  SPL  

Time  Alignment  

Subwoofer  configurations  

Filling  the  gaps  of  coverage

About Ivan Ortiz

Ivan Ortiz is a veteran, with over 18 years of experience in professional audio – gaining his education working for a small sound company that specialized in Latin acts while attending Full Sail. After he graduated he headed to the west coast – taking an internship at Rat Sound Systems and his “can do attitude” led to weekend work with several Los Angeles based sound companies. Ivan would go on to tour as a system tech for Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, Pepe Aguilar and toured for several years as a monitor engineer for My Chemical Romance, Gavin DeGraw, and multiple fill in gigs for other bands as FOH or MON Engineer.

Ivan would go on to work for LD Systems in Houston Texas working the Houston Rodeo as Monitors Engineer for the event for five consecutive years. While working for LD Systems Ivan also had the opportunity to work on national televised events as the A1 for NCAA Final Four, NCAA Sweet Sixteen, Houston’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, before returning to Rat as shop manager and all around Tech Master.  Ivan is now the Technical Resources Manager at Rat Sound Systems.

 

“The Sound Guy is a Girl, but She’s Good I Swear!”

On Being a Woman in Audio in the Middle-East

The first time my parents took me to a concert I was about thirteen years old, and I remember looking at the guy with the huge board full of knobs in the middle of the crowd and thinking: “I want to be that ‘guy’ someday”. I started getting more and more interested in sound and acoustics as the years went on, and most importantly I started attending more and more concerts, and that’s where my fascination grew for the field of live entertainment. At the age of 18 I began my undergrad studies in physics, and at the age of 21, I decided to move to France to pursue my master’s degree in sound engineering.

The first day of class in sound school I looked around only to realize I’m the only woman there. And that was the first time, as silly as it may seem, that I realized that this is a man’s field. Before that day it had never occurred to me that this was a man’s, a woman’s, both or either’s field and even after that it seemed pretty insignificant to me. I wanted to be a sound engineer, and that was all that mattered even if I was going to be the only one in the Middle East.

I moved back to Lebanon in 2014 at the age of 23 and started working in one of the largest sound rental companies in the region, Fida Zalloum sarl. I began with basic tasks mainly stage set-ups and assisting other engineers but soon the opportunities unraveled and the first time I handled a mixer on my own was in the summer of 2015 at the Baalbek International Festival, one of the most prestigious festivals in the region, doing monitors for the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, I’ve done monitors for the likes of Tina Arena, Richard Bona, Ibrahim Maalouf, Bob James, Angelique Kidjo, FOH/monitors for Lisa Simone and various visiting foreign and local acts. With stages ranging from small to large scale, bands and orchestras, and attendance ranging from a couple hundred to 20,000 people.

It has not been easy, far from it. Starting out in a country that up until then had not known of female live sound engineers, has forced me to prove myself ten times more than any of the male engineers. People were looking at me curiously; clients were coming up to my boss asking why he hired a female sound engineer and not a “normal” male one. I had countless musicians ask me if I could handle the mixer on my own if no one were helping me. I even had clients refuse to work with me just because I am a woman and supposedly was unable to do what was so far labeled as a man’s job. To this day, I still get weird looks while rolling a cable at the end of a concert, or while lifting a case, or while running a mixer and doing other technical tasks. All of that is in addition to sexist comments I heard in the workplace on a regular basis.

All of these obstacles could have pushed me to give up and accept that it is a male’s field, but I didn’t. Why?  First of all and most importantly this is what I love; this is what “I want to be when I grow up.”  The fact that I’m a woman, or more like: the fact that I am not a man had no part to play in me choosing my career and passion. How I did it? Courage and fierceness. I set objectives and sprint towards them disregarding any disturbance around because I understood that in the big picture, all these small difficulties are obsolete. I love my job; I love everything about it from the long hours to the physical exhaustion to the rush I get when I hear the screams of the crowd as the concert is about to begin. This is my passion, and this motivation is what keeps me going.

And to be fair, being the only woman doing this in my country has given me a great deal of exposure. People were talking about “that girl in live sound” and the fact that I was able to prove I was as capable as any male counterpart has made most clients change their prejudice towards females working in this field. More and more people are not only accepting but support it, and I find this to be quite pleasant and rewarding. If I had to sum up my experience in a sentence, it would be one I so often hear at gigs: “the sound guy is a girl, but she’s good I swear!”

If I can give a piece of advice to any woman interested in sound, starting out in sound or working in sound is to be courageous and fierce. Don’t focus on the obstacles and don’t let your fears take hold of you if you are true to what you want to do and what you love you will make it. I am making it with no signs of stopping any time soon, taking it day by day in one of the most hostile regions for women and their advancement, and all I can say is that it is so darn worth it.

Sana Romanos is a project manager and live sound engineer working in Beirut, Lebanon. Sana will be heading up the Middle-East Chapter of SoundGirls.

From Stage to FOH – Alice Wilder

Alice Wilder is a Front Of House engineer based out of New York City. She currently works for M.I.A., Wolf Parade, and Austra, and has done FOH for Foxygen, Divine Fits, Tinashe, The Drums, and Diana amongst others, as well as monitors for Third Eye Blind. When she is not on the road, she can be found mixing records in her home studio or working as FOH at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Alice grew up in Muncy, Pennsylvania, where she developed a passion for music in high school.  She went to college to study accounting, but after three years in the program realized she couldn’t see herself working in that field. She dropped out in 2006 and moved across the country to Seattle.

Once on the west coast, she started playing guitar in local bands. Alice realized she didn’t particularly enjoy being on stage and decided to focus on finding a way to be involved in the behind-the-scenes of the music industry. She started interning as a sound engineer in local live sound venues. It didn’t take long for her to get hired on as a monitor engineer at Neumos. Around that time, she had also started working at The Comet Tavern, a barebones, 16-channel analog board small venue where she refined her signal flow skills: “I would go in early, and see how everything worked. I couldn’t see (the signal flow) at Neumos, but at The Comet, I could see how the cables went out into amps and then into monitors, really understand the routing.”

Alice is a self-taught engineer and credits her interning and first gigs in Seattle with showing her the ropes of being a sound technician. She learns best through trial and error and mentions she follows her gut when mixing.

In 2009, she went on her first tour as FOH in Europe for Seattle band Grand Archives.  “I don’t think they wanted to bring me; I think I actually had to persuade them to bring me. My ex-girlfriend was opening for them, and I was in her band, and that was kind of the transition for me: I was opening for (Grand Archives), and then I would go and do sound, and I preferred doing sound. I think that was a determining year for me – I realized I did not want to be on stage anymore, get me off of here, I can’t wait to do sound!”

She worked at Neumos until 2011 when she started touring extensively with Toronto dance-electronic band Austra.  She met the band after working with them at Seattle’s block party, in 2011, and they were so impressed with her skills that they brought her on as their touring FOH. She has since found more clients, by networking at festivals after receiving compliments on her mixes or being referred to other bands through some of her current employer’s management. Her main touring gigs in 2017 are M.I.A. and Wolf Parade.

Alice’s favourite parts of touring are: “seeing/exploring places I wouldn’t normally think to go to or spend money on going to.  Meeting people from different parts of the world and experiencing the food they eat with them is fun.  This is about all the time you have on tour.”  Her least favourite parts of touring are not having enough time to visit a new town or place, not getting enough sleep and shared hotel rooms. On an off day, you’ll find her visiting local cemeteries: “I like to try to do non-touristy type things, as most people do now I think.  My favourite thing to do is visit graveyards.  I know it sounds dark, but really it’s just nice to get the peace and quiet whenever possible on tour, “smell the roses,” if you will.  The Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris is wonderful.”

When she’s not on the road, Alice has gotten into studio mixing. Although she is currently most comfortable in the live sound world, she is working on her engineering skills whenever possible: “anytime I have a day off, I’m on YouTube watching tutorials or buying plugins, or speakers or gear. I’m just trying to learn as much as possible.” She mixed Austra’s latest album, Future Politics, and is currently mixing projects for Petra Glynt and Caveboy.

In live sound, Alice’s favourite pieces of gear are outboard delay units and the Waves C6 multi-band compressor. In the studio, she currently likes Slate plugins and their monthly subscription service, which gives you access to all their products for a flat fee. She describes their plugins as very transparent and is a fan of using their EQ’s and compressors on busses when mixing in her studio.

Regarding her long-term mixing goals, she would love to one-day mix FOH for Beyoncé or Lady Gaga. She has a soft spot for working for female artists and loves helping or assisting women with elevating their music career in a male-dominated industry. She would also love to be on a tour with bigger production, where she would have her choice of mixing consoles & PA. Her long-term studio goals are to get into producing and to mix more records.

When asked about her must-have audio engineering skills, Alice states that knowing signal flow and having a good ear are crucial: “ultimately, you have to have a good ear and know how to mix if you want to have this job. You can’t just go in and start assigning compressors and slam everything. Knowing when to be dynamic, knowing what the band wants to sound like, and knowing how to translate that for them to the audience.”

The biggest barriers she has faced while touring have been “speedy line checks, communication problems and bitter house engineers,” which she has dealt with by “being a composed professional and making stuff happen however I can.” She also recalls this story: “one time, in New Orleans, the sound guy didn’t show up to work, and so the bartender pointed at a closet where he thought all the audio stuff was.  I ended up setting up the entire sound system, including the desk and wired everything together.  That was fun.  Luckily it was on one of my very first tours, so I had the drive to pull it all together. I’ve definitely had to deal with a ton of “mansplaining” too of course.  I take those instances with a grain of salt now and just rise above the silliness. Getting angry only makes you more exhausted and doesn’t help the situation.  I’ve learned how to have fun with it now, but it certainly wasn’t in the beginning.

She offers this advice to young women looking to enter the field: “there are a lot of ups and downs and bumps in the road, but if you stick with it, it’s a very fun career choice. More and more women are entering the scene, so the condescending/belittling attitudes are diminishing, and equality is happening. We need women in this field.  We need the balance, the talent, and the brains.  It’s an awesome job!”

You can find more information about Alice and her current mixing projects on her website alicewildersound.com

d&b audiotechnik – System Reality Workshop – Germany

 

The real world of the d&b audiotechnik System reality. Join us for two days of training that will provide in-depth product information as well as hands on sessions, enabling the attendee to have a basic understanding of d&b systems. In addition attendees will learn the theory and its practicality in achieving superior sound in the real world, and is focused on optimising the designed sound system by using the on-board tools in the amplifiers.

This workshop has been designed for SoundGirls and includes

Basic Electro Acoustics

A review of the principles of acoustics. Important questions are answered such as; how does sound propagate and how do sound waves combine?

The d&b workflow: ArrayCalc prediction and R1 remote control software

Become familiar and comfortable with the design, deployment and operation of a d&b sound system using the d&b Workflow. Learn the basics of acoustics, loudspeaker characteristics and design. Learn the configuration of a d&b sound system using the ArrayCalc system simulation software as well as the R1 Remote control software for configuring d&b amplifiers and controlling d&b sound systems. Set up, listen and tune the system with the d&b on-board tools at the amplifiers.

NoizCalc – Far field noise immission software.The d&b NoizCalc software uses international standards to model the far field noise immission from one or more d&b loudspeaker systems. NoizCalc takes data from the ArrayCalc simulation software and calculates snapshots showing the sound propagation and relative attenuation values towards the far field for a certain scenario with particular meteorological conditions. With these tools, the optimal sonic experience is delivered reliably and faithfully to the right ears, and not the wrong ones.

Hotels

d&b has graciously offered to organise hotel bookings. They have a special d&b room rate with a local hotel. Room prices are 69 euros per night and include breakfast.

You can indicate your if you wish for d&b to book hotel and your room preference upon registration

d&b will also be inviting SoundGirls attending to a dinner during the workshop.

 

What are you worth? or Do I need an agent?

In an industry where fees are kept close to everyone’s chest, it’s often hard to know what is a fair price for your time. Taking a job where I feel I have been ripped off in the fees department is never a way for me to feel like part of a team and produce my best work. I have found that it is often not a one-off. Doing one show at a discounted rate, in my experience, only leads to being offered more shows with a discounted fee attached. It is often assumed, in theatre, that the Sound Designer is at the bottom of the pile when the money is being handed out. Add to that the global phenomenon of women being paid less than men. Yes, women working full-time still often earn less than men doing the same job:

Women are Still Paid Less than Men Even in the Same Job

Nursing Pay Gap Women Paid Less

Research Finds Women Paid Less than Men in 90 Sectors

The Gender Pay Gap

It can feel the struggle to find out if you are getting paid what you are worth. I have said this before but, I have found that, for me, working for free has never led to a paid gig. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but not in my personal experience.

There are Guidelines for Theatre Designers, but not specifically for Sound:
The Association of Lighting Designers has a suggested fees document that covers everything from a major musical (£20,000) to a fringe/pub theatre production (£1,000). I find that the only way not to drive myself mad is to try to stick to this. If there are special circumstances, like a very short run in hope of a transfer, then I will make sure there are clauses like: I get the first refusal if the show transfers, and that transfer will come with a fee that is the going rate. I also make sure the copyright of the sound design and content created stays with me.

If I have to be away from home, there is the issue of accommodation. £500 seems to be a standard figure offered for accommodation and travel but I am very honest if I can’t find anywhere for that and/or there are last-minute changes to schedules. Not being able to book ahead makes everything a whole lot more expensive.

Also, I always mention any dates I am not available for during the rehearsal and production period. We aren’t expected to be there for every day of rehearsals unless specified in the contract and compensated, but it is still good to give a heads-up to the director and producer of any clashes in my schedule. Theatre Sound Design pay rates mean you often have overlapping projects; people understand this but communicate with them so there are no awkward surprises later on.

I do sometimes wonder if it’s worth trying to get an agent to do the negotiating, but the only benefit I can see is that they have more of an idea of what the going rate is. I would still have to agree, or not, to the terms of the contract. Technical Design Agents in the UK theatre scene don’t really get you to work, at least not actively. As far as I’m aware, they negotiate the contract on your behalf. I have heard a variety of things from Lighting Designers: those whose rate tripled when they got an agent, to the agent who insisted on taking a cut from all of their clients’ earnings, regardless of whether they had been working as a designer or not.

The only way through, for me, is to make sure I don’t go into a job feeling that I’ve been taken advantage of. If I can manage that, then I am happy to negotiate the contract myself. And there is always the rest of the creative team who, if they won’t actually tell you the fee they are on, will tell you if they think yours is below the going rate.

 

 

 

Standard Brazilian P.A. Mix for DVD Recording

In our past blog, Live Recording of a DVD of Setanejo, my colleague Karen Avila went through the crazy process of Brazilian DVDs. Although she was specifically referring to the ‘sertanejo’ style, most Brazilian artists record a DVD before going on tour. We only get one day of live recording. Also, some new singles are recorded live on that day, to promote the ‘DVD tour.’

We usually record the sound/light/video check, with cameras in positions that would be impossible to do with the public. Then, we record the show with the public and re-do some songs at the end. It works fine, but we have to mix the P.A. with the recording in mind.

Over the years I’ve been the DVD P.A. mixer, but also the studio mixer and editor. I’ve developed some procedures – some are my own, some that I have learned from more experienced colleagues – in order to have a good P.A. mix without compromising the recording.

Overall volume and alignment of the P.A., front-fill, subwoofer, and delays:

Most DVDs are not recorded in open areas because it is safer concerning weather variations. On the other hand, acoustics are always a problem here. The house mix is usually not centered because it is more important to have open space in the middle for the audience and cameras.

Because of these conditions, I always prefer a digital console, which can be controlled through Wi-Fi. It is better that the P.A. console is not the one being used for recording but, depending on the budget, it will be FOH, monitors, and recording…

FOH not centered – Digital console, Wi-Fi controlled

The volume has to be high enough for the crowd to be excited and reach them even when they are screaming the song. Brazilians usually sing all the lyrics during the whole song, together with the band (I think this is a Latin phenomenon). But it cannot be too high, so it doesn’t mess up the ambience microphones. We want to clearly catch the crowd screaming. It is the same for delays all over the room.

Front-fill is a solution and a problem. I usually only put vocals and solo instruments on the front-fill in this type of mix. And I do not put any effects on the front. The best crowd is always the one near the stage. They need to hear the singers, but we have to be careful in case we have some editing, studio overdub or auto-tuning to do afterward. All high frequencies tend to be reflected back to the stage and mess up the ambience mics. I do not use a lot of hi-hat and overheads, nor high-frequency percussion on the mix.

For the front-fill, I use an HPF. I need it to complete the Main Stereo. It doesn’t have to sound really, really nice. It is usually on an aux send or matrix send

 

I cut the subwoofer at 80Hz because it is easy to cut this out from the crowd in the mix. I use it a lot. It saves me when we don’t have too much volume, but we need the crowd to jump and dance. I only send the instruments that I want to excite the crowd to the subwoofer; like the kick drum, the electronic stuff, and the bass. It is usually on an aux send or matrix send. We must be very careful to have the subwoofer outside the stage, or in an end-fired or cardioid arrangement.

 

I like to duplicate the voice with some parallel compression, to make it powerful but not too high. I need a strong de-esser because of the above-mentioned high-frequency issue in the P.A.

As for effects, unfortunately, I must use very little. For example, I cannot do crazy long effects or delay rides. Usually, I prefer to use a short modulated-delay (in eighth-note), a medium stereo-delay (in quarter-note) instead of reverb. If you don’t put a lot of feedback in them, they will be wonderful esthetic allies. I also use a little overdrive in some of the instruments, but especially in vocals, to add presence, since I don’t have analog gear in general.

 

Basically, this is it. I’m constantly in touch with the recording suite, so they are always giving me feedback about P.A. leak in the recording. If we are always working as a team with artists, monitor/recording/P.A., lights and video, it will come out just fine.

Florencia Saravia-Akamine has over 20 years dedicated exclusively to audio, whether in the studio or live. Today, she centered her activities in the areas of “live sound” and recording, editing, and mixing for broadcasting. (This has changed through the years and will probably keep on changing every day.

More on Florencia Saravia-Akamine at Pro Audio Clube

Kansas City Internship

SoundGirls Members can apply to intern with SoundGirl Samantha Potter

Get some real-world experience in the Kansas City area. Different kinds of experience available from Houses of Worship, to a local 8-piece R&B Band. Some events are weekly and some events are on random weekends. Anything to fit your schedule!

The right intern can be as green as spring grass, or a more experienced individual trying to get more board time. The right attitude is an attitude of learning. Don’t come into the internship thinking you have nothing to learn. I cannot teach someone who refuses to have an open mind. This internship is a real hands-on work experience, including some load-ins and load-outs.

The position is unpaid, although food is often provided.

I prefer to be a mentor to my interns and help them learn and grow and develop a friendship. This is a field all about networking and relationships, and it starts with internships. I’m interested in helping my interns find their path and get started in their careers here in KC. I’ve been professionally working in KC for five years now with experience in studio work and live sound, so I am happy to teach in either.

Preference to 21+, but 16+ accepted.

Send name, contact info, SoundGirls Member ID, cover letter and resume to soundgirls@soundgirls.org

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