Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

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Sydney Bolton Live Sound Engineer, Production Manager and Translator

Sydney is a freelance live sound engineer working out of the great Northwest. Working in live sound since 2012 and works for the Showbox / Showbox SoDo, Morgan Sound, Carlson Audio Systems,  and The Triple Door. She will be heading out on the road this fall with Gaslight Anthem as their monitor engineer.

Sydney’s interest in audio was sparked during her middle school years when she was recommended to The Vera Project in Seattle. The Vera Project is a DIY project that offers classes in audio, lighting, and studio recording and allows participants to volunteer to work their shows. Sydney says she was “always really interested in music. I actually thought I would become a musician and play in bands, I never thought I’d end up doing audio. When I was a kid I was really interested in how movies were made, and wanted to work in special effects for a while, so as I got older and started going to concerts that interest shifted to what goes into putting on a show and No one wanted to form a band with me, so I figured audio was the next best thing.”

Sydney volunteered with the Vera Project for about a year and a half before being hired full-time. At the same time, she attended the University of Washington and graduate with a degree in Electrical Engineering (focus in DSP).

CAREER START


How did you get your start?

I got my start at a DIY venue called The VERA Project in 2012, and I worked there from 2012-2016. I was a volunteer for about a year and a half before getting hired by their FOH staff.

How did your early internships or jobs help build a foundation for where you are now?

I was fortunate enough to join The VERA Project when there was a full staff of experienced engineers working at other venues, and it was those connections that really helped build the start of my career and get me outside gigs, especially once I turned 21 and was able to work in bars.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

I learned a lot. I think the main thing I learned was to have confidence in myself and my skills because I was a high schooler in charge of running shows on my own. I got very used to being underestimated and doubted and learned to ignore people’s misconceptions of me. I developed strategies to deal with people that were being judgmental and ignorant and also learned the importance of letting the people that did accept me right away know how meaningful that was.

Did you have a mentor or someone that really helped you?

I would say I’ve had a few throughout the different stages of my career.

Back at The VERA Project, there was one engineer in particular named Chris Gibbs who did a lot to get me to the point where I could take shows on my own. He was also responsible for throwing me a lot of the first gigs I got outside of The VERA Project as I started to outgrow it.

Kelly Berry took a chance on me while I was still in high school and working for his small audio company was my first introduction to production work. Josh Penner, Robin Kibble, Alejandro Irragori, and Ryan Murgatroyd have all been very supportive and helpful with navigating the touring side of things.

More recently, I credit Josh Wriggle with seeing my potential as a production manager, convincing me to give it a try, arguing with the right people to make it happen, and mentoring me through the whole process. Aside from production managing the occasional Showbox show I also production manage at a smaller venue and take occasional production assistant work.


CAREER NOW

What is a typical day like?

It varies a lot depending on what job and venue.

On a typical day doing venue sound, I’ll show up and we’ll load in the tour, and get them set up. When they’re ready to soundcheck I’ll hand over drive lines and open up the PA. About half the time, especially at the larger venues I work at, the tour will be mostly or completely self-contained and that is pretty much all I have to do until load-out. If I do get to mix, I’ll talk to the support when they arrive, double-check that the input lists and stage plots we got are accurate, find out if they have any specific mix notes for me or any other requests, prep everything for soundcheck so that we can just throw and go. One of the main venues I work at has a 5:00 PM noise curfew most days, so usually opener soundchecks are pretty rushed – we are lucky if we get half an hour.

Working for production companies is obviously very different since you don’t have a system to walk into and sometimes the builds are very big. Usually, we’ll show up, dump the trucks, more often than not wait for the staging company to finish building the stage. From there we organize which cases go where and layout power, audio, build towers if needed, and fly PA. I am usually patch, so once the PA is in the air I get to work laying out everything that goes on the stage – placing subsnakes, coming up with a patch plan for all of the acts, micing everything, having a plan for changeovers, making sure the A1s know the input list. Then we do the show, take everything down, get it all back in the cases, and get the cases back in the trucks.

Production managing is very different. Hopefully, the tour has gotten back to me and I have all the information I need, but that’s not always the case. I usually show up a couple of hours before venue access, in case the tour arrives early and also so I have time to print and set out day sheets, give the shopper plenty of time to get hospitality shopped, tidy up the green rooms, etc. I like to hand over any cash to the tour first thing so that I don’t have to think about it, and if there’s a runner I introduce them to the tour manager as soon as possible. After the security meeting before doors, the rest of the day is managing parking, scanning in receipts and filling out paperwork, refilling the tour’s ice, and dealing with whatever problems arise. At the end of the night, I introduce the tour manager to our house manager to settle, help clean out the green rooms once the tour has left, and head home.

How do you stay organized and focused?

When it comes to scheduling, I use a digital calendar but also have a paper one hanging by my door that I write all of my workdays and call times into. I know my limits and try to avoid working more than 5 days in a row, and I also try to keep one regular weekday off (usually Mondays) and at least one weekend day off each month. It helps keep me sane – that I can have a little bit of regularity to my schedule, and I know that there’s at least one day when my schedule will match up with friends who work regular jobs.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

I am the happiest on days when I get a mix dialed in that I feel proud of, on the days that I do sound for friends’ bands, and on days when I get to work with bands that I am a fan of. Those are the days that remind me why I do this. I also appreciate the huge variety of music that I get to work with – I’ve been introduced to genres that I didn’t know existed and found out about so many great artists through work. Even if it’s not music that I personally like, enough other people like it enough to show up and keep me employed that night. When I can’t appreciate that anymore it will be time to find another job.

What do you like least?

I don’t like that no matter how tired you are, how far away you’ve come from for that gig, or how injured or sick you are, there’s probably someone that had even less sleep than you, that came from even farther away to get there, that hurts more or feels worse than you. That’s the side of our industry that I don’t like.

What are your long-term goals?

I want to tour. I was really close before the pandemic, and have had many near misses since things reopened, but it just hasn’t worked out yet.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced? How have you dealt with them?

I’ve dealt with the usual misogyny that most women in this industry will face at some point, and I’ve written for SoundGirls in the past about experiencing racism for the first time. There are venues in town that I know I can’t work at if I want to be treated well and paid the same, and that’s frustrating but you just have to work around it. I’ve noticed too that lately it’s taken coming across some of the few other Asian people in this industry to find people willing to go out of their way to support me and give me opportunities, and while the solidarity is nice it’s frustrating that my career seems to hinge on it.

Mostly I just try to let it roll off of me. As I said above, I think confidence is key. I know that I’m a good tech and that the right opportunities for me will come along. Finding the people who support you and stand up for you, and keep them close by is also really important. I feel like I have gotten to the point where I have a really solid group of people around me, that has made a huge difference in how I feel at and about work.

But if it bothers you too much and you don’t want to put up with all of it, that’s totally valid too. I know that I have thought about quitting many times. In the end, I like my job and the people I work with too much, but that might not apply to everyone. It can be hard sometimes.

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

Be confident in yourself first and foremost. Until you get to venues big enough to have a separate monitor position you won’t have anyone to back you up or help troubleshoot, and there will be many times where you will need to stand up for yourself and trust in your skills.

Find the people that want to help you succeed and stick with them. Always say thank you. And once you get to a point where you can help others, try to create opportunities for those below you.

Also, don’t be afraid to turn down gigs or walk away from places that aren’t treating you well. If you are good at what you do, there will always be more work. There is a lot of pressure to say yes to everything, especially when you’re first starting out, but you don’t have to.

Must have skills?

You absolutely have to be able to keep calm under pressure. We spend a lot of time in hurry-up and wait mode but do enough shows and you will have one that goes catastrophically wrong.

You also shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions and own your mistakes. No one starts off knowing everything, and mistakes are part of learning.

Be someone that people like to work with. Technical knowledge can always be learned, but being someone that is on time and pleasant to be around will get you much farther.

Favorite gear?

I’m mostly on DiGiCos these days, and we’ve got Quantums at my main places of work. I got to try out nodal processing for the first time the other day when mixing monitors and it was pretty cool.

Translator

Knowing other languages can be surprisingly helpful too. During the pandemic, I revised Spanish translations for the plugin company Goodhertz and translated a new plugin into Spanish from scratch, which is a job I never knew existed. I speak several languages and I find it an excellent way to win over international crews (and it can also make facilitating communication much easier).

Read Sydney’s Blog

 

Recording an Orchestra

 

Recording an orchestra, whether for a live concert or a studio recording, can be a thrilling experience, as you have a huge range of instruments, sounds, textures, and dynamics. Your aim is to capture the orchestra’s natural sound and the surrounding acoustics and to optimise it for the listening experience. Orchestral recording is of course something that takes time to learn and obtain good results from experience. Here’s an introduction and overview of some basic aspects that are useful as a starting point.

Pre-production

It’s important to know the space that you will be recording in, as the size, shape, and acoustics of the hall or room will affect the sound and your microphone choice and placement. It’s very helpful for planning if you can find out any details in advance from the orchestra about the pieces, instrumentation, and player seating information such as stage diagrams. The type of music will also inform your microphone setup, as the sound you aim to produce will vary depending on whether it’s a concert recording, film scoring session, album recording, early music with period instruments, contemporary music with unusual instruments, etc. Getting copies of the score will be helpful to examine the instrumentation, follow along and make notes during the rehearsals and recording, and aid in editing later.

You should find out if you can hang microphones from the ceiling or if there is an existing system of hanging mic cables. There might be limitations on where you can place mics and stands if it’s a concert, or if there will be video recording. If it is a concert recording, find out if there are any other elements such as spoken presentations on handheld microphones or video projections that should be recorded. Think about whether you’ll need to move or adjust microphones between pieces. For a studio recording, a talkback system should be set up to communicate with the conductor, and you should be ready to carefully mark your takes and write notes on the score. As you’ll often be working with a large number of microphone channels, creating an input sheet is essential. For a location recording, making a list of gear to bring could be very helpful. An orchestra recording often requires 2 to 3 people, one of whom might take on a producer role to follow the score, make musical decisions and communicate with the conductor and musicians.

 

Instrument sections

The sections of the orchestra are as follows, and the number of players will vary depending on the piece:

The positioning of the instruments might vary depending on the piece, the stage, and the conductor’s preference. Below are a couple of examples with two common strings setups, one with the cellos and basses on the right, and one with the second violins on the right.

 

Microphones and placement

Generally, an orchestra is recorded with a set of “main” microphones positioned high above the head of the conductor and the front of the orchestra, plus “spot” microphones positioned closer to certain instruments that need more detail, and often an ambient pair of microphones further away to pick up the acoustic of the space. Often microphones with quite flat frequency responses are used to capture the natural sound of the instruments. Commonly used microphones include Schoeps’ Colette series, DPA instrument mics, Neumann’s KM, TLM and M series, the AKG C414, and Sennheiser’s MKH omni/cardioid mics. Options for smaller budgets could include Line Audio, Røde, Oktava, SE, and Lauten’s LA series.

For the main omni microphone set, an AB stereo pair or a Decca Tree (or a combination of both) hanging or on a tall stand will capture a lot of the sound of the orchestra, with closer detail in the strings at the front. Two Omni microphones high on the outer front edges of the orchestra, often called “outriggers”, will pick up more of the outside strings and help to widen the image. Spot microphones in cardioid or wide cardioid could be placed on individual instruments that have solos, on pairs of players, or on groups of players. A spot mic list might commonly look like this: violins 1, violins 2, violas, cellos, double basses, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns (2 to 4 mics), brass (2 to 5 mics), timpani, percussion (2 to 10 mics), piano, celesta, soloist(s). A pair of Omni microphones could be placed or hung higher or further away in the hall to capture more of the hall’s natural reverb and the audience applause.

Note that depending on the acoustics of the space and the purpose of the recording, you could use very different combinations of hanging omni mics or spot mics, and you might need fewer or more microphones. The best is to use your ears and make decisions based on the sound you’re hearing!

Below are examples of hanging microphones and spot microphones on stands.

 

 

Mixing

The purpose of having the main omni set, spot mics, and ambient mics is to create a good balance between the acoustic of the room and the orchestra as a whole, and the closer detailed sound of individual instruments and sections. It’s a good idea to listen to reference recordings of the pieces and to hear a rehearsal of the orchestra beforehand so you can hear the conductor’s balance of the instruments and how it sounds in the space. Compared to mixing other genres, less processing is used as you’re trying to capture and enhance the natural sound and balance of the instruments, and orchestral music has a huge dynamic range. Commonly used processing includes EQ, subtle compression on some mics, a limiter/compressor on the master channel (especially if being a live broadcast and the overall level needs to be raised), and reverb to enhance the natural acoustic. Some reverbs favoured by classical engineers are Bricasti, Nimbus, Altiverb, and Seventh Heaven. Some engineers measure the delay between the spot mics and the main mics and input it into the DAW to time align the signals – you can decide whether this improves the sound or not. If doing a live mix, following the score is useful to anticipate solo parts, melodies, and textures that would be nice to highlight by bringing up the level of those spot mics. A fader controlling all mics could be used to subtly bring up the level in sections that are extremely quiet, especially if for broadcast. If mixing in post-production, automation or clip gain can be used to enhance solos and dynamics.

Surround sound and Atmos mixes are now being explored by many orchestras and audio engineers, often with the addition of specifically placed surround mics or sometimes as “up mixes” using the existing stereo microphone setup.

 

Editing

Unlike many other genres of music recording, editing a classical recording is done linearly on your timeline, cutting, pasting, and moving all tracks together. For a studio recording, you’ll likely have many takes to piece together. For a concert recording, some orchestras might request that the best parts of several concerts or rehearsals are edited together. Commonly used DAWs for orchestral recording are Pyramix and Sequoia, which have features convenient for large track count recording and editing. Source-destination editing allows you to easily listen to several takes and select the best parts to send to a destination track with a separate timeline, using in and out points. When editing several takes together, it’s important to use crossfades to make edits inaudible, and make sure the tempos (speed), dynamics, and energy of the music match when they are edited together. Some conductors and musicians like to schedule a listening and editing session with the engineer after a first edit has been made, while others like to receive an audio file and send back a list of feedback and suggestions for edit changes.

 

Further learning

If you’d like to go deeper into orchestral and classical music recording and mixing, a great resource is the book Classical Recording: A Practical Guide in the Decca Tradition. The DPA Mic University website also has useful articles about orchestra and classical instrument recording.

Photos were taken by India Hooi.

Mental Health on Tour

 

More of the industry is now beginning to talk about the mental health of everyone within it, specifically those of us who are affected by being on tour. Unfortunately, even with those who advocate for it, the majority of the industry is still greatly affected by terrible mental health conditions. In general terms, the tours, the companies, etc. do not seem to care beyond presenting to the public that they have been to panels, or participated in workshops, but do not actually apply it to their team. How do we practice what we preach? How do we hold the correct people responsible?

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if mental health in the industry had a handbook or a map of sorts?

Tamsin Embleton does just that with her book Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual.

Topics Include:

Embleton clearly did her six years of research and three years of writing with over 80 interviews with other professionals in the industry. The book covers A LOT of ground: addiction, the general stress of the industry, depression of post-show/tour, the anxiety of travel days and pre-show, eating disorders and why we don’t get much nutrition while out on the road, relationships you form within the industry and outside of it, and the most common health issues we see in the industry

On the opposite end of that spectrum, however, Embleton recently made public “A call to arms from a touring friend, who has worked on the road for several decades at a high level. We need those in positions of power to carefully consider the health implications of routing and scheduling. We need systemic and cultural change.”

 

Do we need to hold the companies responsible for these conditions? Do we as the technical team need to speak up more and say “No. I’m not doing that.” when we could lose our jobs if we were to utter such a phrase? Do the artists and performers need to be more understanding when they ask for something to be done and be prepared to be told no? Who do we hold accountable? If we were to hold the companies responsible, or the artists were to be prepared to hear no, or the techies say no loudly, what would the new cost of this be, and who’s new cost would it be?

Karla Barrera Mixing at Both Ends of the Snake

 

Karla Barrera has been working in live sound for over twelve years and got her start working at clubs throughout Los Angeles, as a house tech, including The Viper Room. She works for Launch, and Motion Audio, and tours as FOH and Monitor engineer and is currently touring with Mt. Joy as their monitor engineer.

Karla has an extensive background in music, playing in symphonic, marching, and jazz bands, as well as drum lines. Karla says “Music was a huge part of my life and being able to play music in my teenage years really inspired me. I loved reading music and practicing whatever instrument I was into at the time while also reading the album credits on records that I loved. That’s when I discovered the people behind the recordings and production of a record. It sparked my interest in wanting to be a part of music behind the scenes.” Karla attended concerts and this solidified her path in audio, she fell in love with the ebb and flow of energy from the artists to the audience and knew she wanted to become a FOH engineer.

Karla would enroll in The Art Institute of Los Angeles and graduated with honors. She would cut her teeth interning at The Viper Room, and under the mentorship of Matt Andrade was able to focus on her mixing and teching skills. Karla credits several mentors that took the time to teach her how to be confident in her work, including; Christian Murphy, Jason Hines, Doron Dina, and Francis O’Riley (Franky Fingers).

Karla says some of the things she learned when she was starting out was signal flow on analog equipment, and considers it so valuable. She also learned that it was important to recognize signs of burnout. Karla recounts her experience with burned-out engineers “There were so many people I came across that were burned out and didn’t care as much about providing a good service to local bands. I learned that we are in a position of service to an artist and that it’s important to provide a good experience to them without ego.”

Career Now

What is a typical day like? 

On tour:

Load in / set up / sound check can be from 10 am – 4 pm

⁃ Set up monitor world on stage left

⁃ Direct hands to help me flip my desk, build mic stands, run hoses across the stage, etc…

⁃ Put up antennas and Scan for new frequencies

⁃ Make sure the artist is comfortable in the new space.

Dinner break 4-7 pm

⁃ Make sure all body packs have fresh batteries.

⁃ Allows time for a shower if I didn’t get to it in the morning

⁃ Reorganize my suitcase/day bag. Has to be done every other day or else life becomes more chaotic than it already is.

⁃ Go out for dinner w other crew members / wait for the group Uber eats order/catering

⁃ Stretch

⁃ Nap

⁃ Change into show clothes. Or just fresh socks and shoes.

Show/load out 8 pm -12 am

Just to do it all again the next day (unless it’s roadie Friday)

How do you stay organized and focused? 

I drink Guayaki Yerba Mate or a cafecito.  Also, PACKING CUBES !!! Oh and I take notes constantly.

What do you enjoy the most about your job? 

My favorite part is constantly learning and growing. I feel like, after every tour, I evolve into a new version of myself. I’m constantly soaking up new information and implementing new techniques.

What do you like least? 

When you build a file on an offline editor and the venue desk does not have the latest firmware.

Just a heads up: Digico SD12 had an update in October 2022 to v1619 and the only offline editor available for download is v1619.

If you tour what do you like best? 

I enjoy working directly with the artist and collaborating on ways to have the best-sounding show.

What do you like least? 

Weird sleep schedules and having to wake up in the morning and find the nearest bathroom in a new city/venue.

What is your favorite day of activity? 

Being in nature and getting some fresh air. It’s important to get off the bus or out of the venue and connect with the earth.

What are your long-term goals?

I have some bucket list venues I would love to mix shows at (Madison Square  Garden, Sydney Opera House)

Also, work with more Latin artists down the line.

Continue to become more knowledgeable and gain more practice networking pro audio equipment in all aspects.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced? 

One of the most recent obstacles I’ve faced was having a family member end up in the hospital while I was away. It was a rough time for me because I had to set aside my feelings and emotions in order to mix a good show.  I learned to keep myself together somehow.

Also, before I started touring with a console, I felt like a lot of house engineers couldn’t picture me as a seasoned sound engineer. I always felt like I had to prove myself to new people all the time. That was annoying. Once I started touring with my own desk, I felt like it somehow gave me more credibility as an engineer. I guess you could say that comes with the growing pains, but also mainly because I’m a  Latina woman mixing sound. It just doesn’t compute with some people right off the bat that I could, in fact, mix and navigate my way around any desk and mix in any room or at any festival. I’ve had many “first time doing this” experiences on every single gig I’ve been on. They’ve all been different, but I always managed to make the best of every situation.

How have you dealt with them? 

When it comes to personal family issues and not being able to help with what’s going on back home, it’s just not easy to deal with it. I knew prior to accepting my latest tour that my mom was struggling with her health and I was open to management about it. If my sibling told me he needed me in person, I would have to leave the tour. It hasn’t gotten to that point this last tour thankfully, but I had to keep working without letting the stress back home affect my work. I think being open and honest can sometimes help feel more supported by management/clients.

Also, I burned sage and palo Santo on stage left to help cleanse my space and mind to maintain a healthy and focused state of mind.

Re: preconceived notions of me – I learned to care more about what the artists/management think about my mixes and work ethic.

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

Always try new things; don’t stay in the same place for too long. There is so much room to grow in the world of production.

Watch YouTube videos / listen to podcasts about audio about live sound/rf coordination / SMAART / DANTE /  live sound desks / learn to network consoles  with waves or UA / learn how to multitrack on every console

Must have skills? 

Favorite gear? 

Karla’s Top 100 Favorite Albums!!

Karla’s Top 100 Favorite Albums 

  1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell
  2. Radiohead – In Rainbows
  3. The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute
  4. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
  5. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
  6. Jimi Hendrix – Axis: As Bold As Love
  7. Bob Marley – Kaya
  8. Arcade Fire – Funeral
  9. The Black Keys – Brothers
  10. The Strokes – Room on Fire
  11. Lianne La Havas – Self-Titled Album
  12. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Self-Titled Album
  13. Aniceto Molina – Los Mejores Exitos
  14. Nick Hakim – Green Twins
  15. Imaad Wasif – The Voidist
  16. The Budos Band – Long in the Tooth
  17. Charles Bradley – No Time for Dreaming
  18. Shuggie Otis – Freedom Flight
  19. Moses Sumney – grae
  20. Little Dragon – Machine Dream
  21. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup
  22. The Black Angels – Passover
  23. Fever Ray – Self-Titled Album
  24. The Knife – Silent Shout
  25. Toumani Diabate – New Ancient Strings
  26. Al Green – Call me
  27. Pedro Infante – Palabritas de Amor
  28. Badbadnotgood – IV
  29. Bjork – Medulla
  30. Portishead – Dummy
  31. Sufjan Stevens – Age of Adz
  32. Interpol – El Pintor
  33. Chet Faker – Built on Glass
  34. Charlotte Day Wilson – Stone Woman
  35. Donavan – Sunshine Superman
  36. Nick Drake – Pink Moon
  37. SadGirl – Water
  38. Haelos – Full Circle
  39. Idles – Joy as an Act of Resistance
  40. The Kills – Blood Pressures
  41. Band of Skulls – Baby Darling Doll Face Honey
  42. Them Crooked Vultures – Self-Titled Album
  43. Los Angeles Negros – Y Volveré
  44. Calle 13 – Self Titled Album
  45. Hercules and Love Affair – Self-Titled Album
  46. Selena – Amor Prohibido
  47. Durand Jones & The Indications – American Love Call
  48.  Caifanes – Self Titled
  49. Siouxie Sioux and the Banshees – The Rapture
  50. Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
  51. PJ Harvey – White Chalk
  52. Television – Marquee Moon
  53. Devotchka – A Mad And Faithful Telling
  54. The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?
  55. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
  56. Heartless Bastards – Arrow
  57. Teleskopes – Self Titled
  58. The Hives – Tyrannosaurus Hives
  59. Savages – 2013
  60. Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
  61. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground and Nico
  62. Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow
  63. Helado Negro – Far In
  64. Soft Hair – Soft Hair
  65. Marconi Union – Weightless
  66. Glass Animals – ZABA
  67. Phantogram – Eyelid Movies
  68. Dirtwire – Electric River
  69. HVOB – TOO
  70. Janis Joplin – Pearl
  71. The Growlers – Are you in or are you out?
  72. Dungen – ta det lungnt
  73. Dr. Dog – B Room
  74. Moonface – Heartbreaking Bravery (w/ Siinai)
  75. Karen O & Danger Mouse – Lux Prima
  76. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
  77. Radiohead – King of Limbs
  78. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
  79. Antibalas – Where the Gods Are In Peace
  80. Wings – At the Speed of Sound
  81. U.S. Girls – Half Free
  82. All Them Witches – Nothing as the Ideal
  83. ZZ Top – Tres Homres
  84. Spoon – They Want My Soul
  85. José González – Veneer
  86. Kokoroko – Could We Be More
  87. Blood Orange – Coastal Grooves
  88. Curtis Harding – Face Your Fear
  89. Nina Simone – Baltimore
  90. Cream – Disraeli Gears
  91. Juan Gabriel – Lo Mejor En Bellas Artes – 40 Aniversario (En Vivo)
  92. Zola Blood – Black Blossom
  93. Future Islands – On The Water
  94. Sault – 5
  95. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
  96. J.S. Epperson – Splendor
  97. Lee Fields – My World
  98. Grizzly Bear – Shields
  99. Local Natives – Hummingbird
  100. Miles Davis – Bitches Brew

 

Tools Of The Trade

 

You’re talking shop with the guys over a few drinks in the bar across from the venue. Everyone is listing off what they wish the higher-ups would approve so they can finally put in the order and check off things on their wish list. You’re mentally going through your own wish list and what ideally every venue would have so you can stop hauling all the different things you need for each venue. Our own personal “working wish list.” Like most other wishlists, ours in the audio world is ever-evolving with each announcement of the soon-to-be-on-the-market gear and the newest toys. There are some essentials that are on everyone’s wish list though. For instance, we can never get enough electrical tape, it’s simply something we are constantly running out of and always find ourselves in need of. When you are touring or travelling for work, these tools can sometimes be difficult to get a hold of so it’s always nice to have your own. Hopefully, this wish list will help you both pack your own gear bag and maybe even add more to your growing tools.

What’s In My Gear Bag?

As I briefly touched on the subject in the article “Travelling” back in January, you can’t easily travel with everything you need for this career. However, if you need to travel and bring your own gear, it’s good to have as much of your gear in one bag so you’re not stuck juggling multiple bags with a little bit of everything you need. For the most part, unless you are bringing your own mixing console and sound system, these tools are fairly easy to keep in one or two bags.

So what is in my everyday use gear bag?

This is a bag that I instinctively reach for as I am heading out the door on any given day for work.

On the outside of my bag, I have various types and sizes of carabiners along with multiple colours of electrical tape. These items are ones that are replaced on a regular basis and needed without having to search through my bag to get them.

There is also an ever-growing monkey-fisted knot of tie line, also commonly referred to as a trick line. Tieline is used more commonly in theatres, but contrary to what some people think, it’s not just used for our lighting friends. I have used tie lines to keep cables in place on balconies, and risers, and even sometimes securing them below the stage.

Proceeding to open the first layer of the gear bag, therein lies a shock dispersion space for my work laptop and tablet that I can remotely mix from. I have rarely if ever, found myself in a situation where I didn’t need my tablet in some form. Yes, it’s definitely handy to mix remotely, especially if your mixing location is not ideal, but it’s also a way for you to see notifications and important updates from the rest of the team.

 

 

Closing that first layer and moving on to the next, you’ll easily find spare aux cables, cable adapters, and papers with my Sound Notes notebook. While many of my colleagues have asked why I write a lot of notes about the show or carry spare blank channel strip sheets, this is mostly to keep improving on what we’ve already done for the show. Each performance is going to be different and I like to keep track of where we constantly are on the sliding scale of “How good was that performance?” Some nights, it really does feel like the best performance and you’re listening to it for the first time. Some nights, everything goes wrong. By trying to keep track of where you are on that sliding scale you can see what worked and consistently had good reactions from the crowd, and what needs to be gone over and looked through for next time.

Moving on, therein gets the slightly messy storage of the actual tools one might find in a regular toolbox. A small glow-in-the-dark flashlight, a magnetic flashlight, spare batteries, a portable battery, rigging gloves, different coloured gaff tape, the mini screwdriver kit because something is always needing maintenance, a small hammer, and so many sharpies that have just been randomly collecting at the bottom.

 

 

Finally, the last storage space in this gear bag. This is the space where I keep my mixing headphones, a dynamic vocal mic, a Lavalier mic, and a wireless vocal mic with a receiver. These have been some of the latest additions to my gear bag.

 

What’s On My Ultimate Wish List?

I don’t think most of what I would ask for is completely unreasonable.

For the FOH mixing position, I want a wide enough space to actually be able to load in equipment without breaking our backs or constantly being pushed into walls, or having flight cases run over our feet. This would allow us to actually be able to move and lift these heavy consoles hopefully without breaking anything, including ourselves. Plus a Midas 32 would be fantastic.

 

 

For the PA system, I just want a flying line array, I would settle for a stackable system but we’re going for big dreams here. L-Acoustics recently developed and marketed some amazing ones. Some fill-in loudspeakers to prevent drop-off with distance and sub-bass as well would be amazing! There doesn’t have to be a lot of them for my wish list, but at least something.

 

 

Having copious amounts of radio mics and the spare batteries to go with them shouldn’t have to be on the wish list, but you would be surprised how many places run out of spares for both mics and batteries. It is absolutely not the venue’s job to have spares for all the shows that come to them, but it’s always nice to know if something breaks and you can’t immediately repair or replace it, you have something on standby. Most venues will also provide this in their technical specifications and will be talked about during the advancement process.

A Dante audio network is luckily becoming more common, especially in theatre from what I have seen, but is still not standard. If you make the effort to become certified in something, like Dante, wouldn’t you also want to use that knowledge? Thus, it is on my list.

What current comms system the venue is using is also always nice to know. There have been a few times while on tour that we have rocked up to the venue and found out we needed to use our own instead of being allowed to use the ones at the venue.

 

 

 

This is not uncommon to get things that are antiquated and we don’t always find out they are out of date until we arrive at the venue. During the year 2020, or since soon after, multiple venues globally have undergone restaffing, updates, and reconstruction. This can mean that several of their technical specifications and contact information sheets are also obsolete thus making the advancement process problematic and questionable.

So for the advancement process, I would like to add these things to my working wish list:

Up-to-date power specifications.

An up-to-date contact sheet of people you may need to get a hold of at the venue including the audio crew chief, production manager, technical manager, and venue manager (basically everyone in charge).

Stage specifications, including mixing positions, in advance of the show (not just waiting until the last minute the night before).

Health and safety specifications so you’re not caught off guard if they have something a little uncommon to most venues. A good example of this is some venues requiring Risk Assessors (not always provided by the venues) to be part of the load-ins and load-outs for shows across Europe and the UK. This is likely to also gain ground in North America soon with its growing popularity.

Another thing that I would like to add to my working wish list that would be assumed as common knowledge but somehow isn’t is literally buckets of consumables like tape, cables, tie lines, etc. Every time that I have put in a request for more of these consumables the initial response is something along the lines of “You need more? We just bought some!” Yes, we need more because it’s consumable and we go through comically large amounts of these items.

And of course, the final item on my wish list, who wouldn’t want the classic red curtains?

 

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Five Days In The Life

 

We often are asked the question “What’s a normal day in your life in this industry?” Well, that’s a difficult question to answer because every day is so vastly different, and hardly anything goes as initially planned. As an example of this, I’ve taken the opportunity to write about my recent trip to France for work and the five days spanning that trip. Everything from getting up and going to the airport for the travel day, to a rather unexpectedly long day, and everything in between. It should be stated that I wrote about this trip specifically because it gives insight into how the industry, in general, can be, as well as what it is like being new to an established crew and the only woman on that crew.

Day 1: Wednesday

The alarm goes off but you’re already up and getting dressed. You could barely sleep the night before because you know how travel days are and what is to be expected: Everything will go wrong. Teeth brushed and you double-checked everything to make sure nothing is left behind (something is always left behind). The bag that you’ve already packed the night before is grabbed right before you head off. The cab meets you on the street and drives you the 25 minutes that it takes to get to the airport. Normally this would have taken longer, but there’s no traffic at this time in the morning. Thank the driver as the door closes, rush through security checks at a snail’s pace, check your watch to see if you have time to grab a coffee or something on your way to the gate (you don’t), do the awkward half-run/half-speed-walk straight to your gate, board the plane, get the announcement that the plane will be delayed in taking off by at least an hour and no one is allowed to leave the plane. It’s not even 7 am yet. You finally arrive an hour and a half later than you needed to be. Go through the security checks again and find your ride. Try to memorise all the names of the performers and their specialties that your new colleague is throwing at you, drive an hour and a half to the studio where the orchestra recorded what they’ll be performing this weekend, and spend about three hours in the studio listening and re-listening over and over again. Back in the car to drive another hour down the road to the warehouse where the orchestra has mock setups so everything can be perfectly presented on an actual stage. After a quick tour of the place, you spend the rest of your day going through the setup and asking questions (always ask copious amounts of questions). Dinner out is a quick pizza with the guys on the tech crew. Back to the warehouse around midnight and finally to bed where you see the guys were kind enough to make it for you with bunny sheets and a pillow. Thanks, guys.

 

Day 2: Thursday

Up at 7 AM. Shower in a bathroom full of men giving you a hard time because you’re the only girl, but eventually they leave and you finally have some privacy.

 

 

Breakfast is whatever you can scrounge and a cup of tea. Time for setup and powering everything on for the 9 AM first sound check and rehearsal at 11 AM. Your lunch break rolls around 1 o’clock and it’s family style. Everyone sits around the large table and luckily there’s wine (viva la France!). Back to another rehearsal at 2 o’clock sharp. Dinner is suggested around 8 that night after we’re practically at each other’s throats and had enough. We go out for dinner and more banter at 9 PM. The usual debrief over food helps ease everyone’s minds and stomachs. It is back to the bunker beds close to midnight.

Day 3: Friday

You’re up at 6:30 this time to get some alone time in the shower. One of the guys comes in at 7 on the dot but you are already dressed and about to head out of the bathroom. You’ve found some bread and cheese for breakfast and sit at the communal table to go over yesterday’s notes. It’s raining outside. There is so much to prepare for the show tomorrow to make sure everything goes smoothly and tensions are a little high between techies and performers. Everyone got up and joined the table by 8 AM and the first sound check was at 9 with the first rehearsal at 10 this morning. You’re going to try recording today’s rehearsal.

Mother Nature has other plans for your day…

At exactly 11:30, the power goes out due to the storm and you haven’t hit the save button in the last hour… FUCK! Your coworker thinks that because of the cover of the dark, this is a great time to slap your ass, and you repay him with a harder slap across his face. By 12:30, everyone (mainly the boss) has finally agreed that the power isn’t coming back on anytime soon. The remaining people come in from their extended smoke break and lunch is served around 1 in the afternoon. Power still isn’t restored after everyone is done with lunch, so the tech crew decides now is a great time for another extended smoke break and to show you the town in the pouring rain. At least there’s a castle nearby.

 

 

You get a call around 3:30-4 that power was restored so you head back and see how bad the damage was. You spend the rest of the rehearsal doing damage control before the first truck needs to be loaded. Shut down and final loading of the second truck before everyone goes out for dinner that night around 9. The usual debrief over food and drinks. Back at the warehouse and the performers leave on the tour bus at midnight sharp. You head up to bed and pass out immediately.

Day 4: Saturday

The screaming alarm goes off at 5 am. In the shower, dressed and tea in hand by 5:45. You go to the communal table where a new friend is waiting for you. At some point, the guys bought you a small stuffed animal. Final check to make sure you are not forgetting anything in the bunker room. You and the rest of the tech crew are in the van and leave at 6:30. The Head of Audio plays the show over Bluetooth so you and he can go over notes and highlights of the show. An hour and a half up the road to the venue the show is at today. Arrive at the concert hall at 8. Breakfast is provided by your hosting venue: muffins, coffee, tea, etc. Set up and the push for getting gear from the truck begins at 8:30. Someone’s foot gets run over by a flight case at 8:35. Lighting, video, and sound attempt to work together as best as possible. Risers are raised, then lights are flown, and then hard patching begins. But you notice the audio snake isn’t long enough for the venue. Why did no one check this? You compromise and have the FOH mixing console in a slightly awkward area and decide to mix the show from the tablet. Everyone has worked up an appetite and lunch is served around 1, a type of gumbo-style dish with stewed beef, rice, potatoes, and wine. It helps you prepare for the first sound check at 2. The dancers and performers finally decide to join the fun and come to rehearsal after making it just in time for the lunch break. The show somehow starts magically on time and it goes really well. Then, it happens. The audience won’t stop demanding an encore, and the company boss gives in (at the protest of the entire crew) and runs the whole show again, with intermission. The second unexpected show ends at 2 am and you still have to load out. The dancers and performers disappear sometime around 3:30ish in the morning (no one saw them after they took a second smoke break), and it’s just the tech crew left to break down the set and load trucks. You finally finish the load out at 6:30 in the morning. You have a plane to catch in four hours, and the airport is an hour’s drive away. Do you opt for a little sleep, or act like a zombie for the rest of your extended day?

Day 5: Sunday

You opted to stay awake and one of the guys agreed to give you a ride to the airport since it’s on his way back home. You’re in the car and on the way to the airport at 7 am. After traffic and getting petrol, you arrive a little later than intended but still with plenty of time to get through security and the boarding process. You rush through security checks at a snail’s pace, check your watch to see if you have time to grab a coffee or something on your way to the gate (you don’t), do the awkward half-run/half-speed-walk straight to your gate, board the plane, get the announcement that the plane will be delayed upon arrival due to weather in the local area and that no one will be allowed to leave the plane. The travel day begins, and the circle of techies touring life continues…

Emily Pearce – From the Marines to Live Sound Engineer

 

Emily Pearce is the Monitor Engineer and RF Tech for independent artist Blue October. Emily is a longtime musician, learning to play piano at age seven, and would play throughout high school. She also learned to play clarinet and taught herself the oboe in middle school, while playing with percussion ensembles and the drumline during high school and college. Emily learned to play the bass guitar while attending The Los Angeles Recording School.

Emily would enroll at Grand Valley State University in the music education program, yet after two semesters Emily joined the Marines and auditioned for the Marine Corps band. Emily didn’t make the cut which Emily believes was a blessing in disguise after learning about her friend’s poor experience with the Marine Corps Band.  Emily would serve a four-year term working in Marine Corps aviation with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron-13 and VMX-1 both out of Yuma Arizona. She received an honorable discharge as a Sergeant.

After being discharged Emily became interested in the technical side of music production and reached out to a few engineers to get a feel for what that might be like.  Emily loved the idea of touring and working live events and used her military benefits to enroll in The Los Angeles Recording School, graduating with an Associate Degree of Science in Recording Arts.

Emily believes the seeds to work in the music industry were planted long before she realized these jobs existed, growing up Emily says she has vivid memories “of Michael Jacksons Thriller, Journey, and Metallica playing in our living room.  Alongside artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles.  I was always borrowing (with or without permission) my older brother’s mp3 player and my older sister’s CD player so I could jam some MCR, Atreyu, and Death Cab for Cutie.  I developed a love for metal and went to my first show at 15 and fell in love.”

Career Start


How did you get your start?

I moved to Los Angeles to attend The Los Angeles Recording School in 2017 to take the opportunity to dip my toes into a major market.  Since the program I attended was primarily studio focused, I took a lot of volunteer opportunities around town and was the person that showed up to a gig to just ask questions.  I shadowed a few people at White Oak Music and Arts in the valley and The Viper Room on the strip in Hollywood.  I attended a SoundGirls class on live sound at the Ventura Theater and was linked up with a summer internship at Schubert Systems.  I worked my butt off and showed I could learn and be a part of a team. I was hired full-time and worked there up until the pandemic.  During that time I learned so much and was afforded a lot of opportunities to network and grow.  None of us were hired as just one specific role which gave me experience in many positions like being a Systems/PA tech, RF tech, stage tech, and mix engineer for notable artists.  I also met people who hired me for my current gig, which may be the best part.

I also worked at a few clubs/theaters around town including The Whiskey, The Federal NOHO, and The Satellite in Silver Lake to name a few.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

Understanding your place in a team is just as important as being the leader of it.  Being teachable and asking questions when you don’t know something will make people trust you more than if you think you know better than everyone else.  And if you are mixing monitors, don’t take it personally.

Career Now:

What is a typical day like?

I am primarily a touring engineer as of right now.  We usually start loading in at 11 am and with a lunch break, we are usually ready for line check with techs at about 2:30-3 pm.  The guys come to the stage to check a few songs and will sometimes use that time to work on adding new songs to the setlist. Depending on how long they want the stage, we are usually done and have a small break from 4-5 pm before the meet and greet.

During our meet and greet, the band plays one song and while the band takes pictures, the techs get the stage peeled for the opener and cover the set.  Dinner break is 6-8 pm.  I use this time to hang out and make sure I’m ready for the set by putting fresh batteries in all my wireless, checking my scenes/setlist for correct order, making sure I’ve saved my file, etc.  We do another line check right before the set starts at 9 pm.  Our show I almost 2 hours so we are usually loaded out and lock the trailer at midnight.  Then we shower and get to the bus before call usually around 2-3 am.

How do you stay organized and focused?

I like to make sure everything goes back in the same place and in the same order just as a general rule.  This applies to our trailer pack and how gear is packed in the cases and how it’s set up/torn down.  Things like mics and labeled looms/cables are all inventoried by me before they go into cases.  I always pack up my personal things like laptops, adapters and my in ears first followed by the band’s molds and wireless.  Making sure you have a routine helps you not misplace gear especially when load out is moving fast.

I have a photographic memory so I’m pretty good at seeing when something is missing, but having a physical list of gear or order of operations for yourself could be a good way to do the same thing.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

I love the problem-solving and technical aspects of my job.  It’s always fun to figure out a new way to do something or an easier way to get the job done.  I love live events because of the finality of a show and how fast things move.

What do you like least?

RF anxiety on a daily basis.  Our space is shrinking rapidly.

If you tour what do you like best?

I love traveling and working with amazing people while doing what I love.  Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m really awake.


What do you like least?

I don’t love paying for an apartment back home when I’m hardly in it.


What is your favorite day off activity? 

I love going to get a good meal on days off.  Usually something local or what that place may be famous for.  Second to that would be hiking and mall walking.

What are your long-term goals?

I would love to work on bigger festivals and shows than what I am doing right now, although I’m pretty content with the level of touring I’m at.  I am spoiled and skipped van tours.  I just want to always come to the gig excited to work the show and excited to see the people I work with. Right now I’m so blessed that I have both of those things.

My long-term goals are probably more knowledge/skill oriented than working for a huge artist.  I just want to be the best I can be at my job.

What obstacles or barriers have you faced?

I am lucky that I haven’t faced too many obstacles along the way.  I know that working in a vastly male-dominated world can be daunting to some, but that is something I was used to since I am a former Marine where the numbers are almost identical to live audio.  I have been turned down from gigs because a touring camp didn’t want a woman on the bus, but that is their loss and I wouldn’t want to work with people who don’t want me around for something so trivial.

How have you dealt with them?

I find that walking into a gig or venue with the right attitude makes those around you respect you.  I tend to show up to the gig with a level of confidence that shows I should be respected, not to be confused with arrogance or false confidence.  I’d like to think that’s working for me because I rarely encounter anyone who gives me a hard time.  Plus I know I have 11 brothers with me on the bus that always have my back.

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

Have confidence.  In my experience, the industry is changing, especially after the pandemic.  A lot of the people who had old ways of thinking have been weeded out.  Trust yourself and know that you belong.

Must have skills?

Wrapping cable and a good attitude will take you a very long way.  Signal flow and having a good grasp of digital gear are a must as well.

Favorite gear?

I love having a Q box with me.  I was generously gifted with one and it’s one of my favorite things to have with me if I need to troubleshoot.  I’m also very grateful for Shure’s wireless workbench software.  It’s essential for coordinating wireless and I use it daily while on tour.

Anything else you want to add or contribute

Never stop asking questions and learning your craft.

And a huge shout out to Mike G from Schubert Systems for giving me an amazing start, to Josh Sarraulte for teaching me and continuing to teach me everything I know, and to Mckenzee Morley for hooking me up with my current gig.

The people you meet and form friendships with along the way are one of the most important things you do!

Sam Boone – Systems Engineer

 

Sam Boone has been working professionally in audio for just three years and is currently a freelance system engineer, completing her first tour with Volbeat in 2022. She discovered audio in middle school and spent considerable time working in churches through her teen years. Sam played in the school band as an oboist and then took up guitar as she decided she wanted to attend a school for music. She admits that she was a terrible musician but her love of music, would lead her to live event production. She would go on to attend Middle Tennessee State University as a part of their recording and music program. At the same time, she was interning with a local production company, and when they offered her a full-time position she dropped out of school.

Career Start

How did you get your start?

I got my start interning at a regional production company. I managed to land that internship by asking for an introduction from a family friend who was familiar with the company.

What did you learn interning or on your early gigs?

I learned several technical skills, primarily basics like cable management, show power, and troubleshooting and repairing gear. I also learned how to prep a tour from start to finish, line check, and build show files. More importantly, I began to see and learn how to interact with clients, how to ask questions, and observe.

Career Now

How did you discover System Engineering?

I discovered systems engineering during my internship while working in the shop, learning what a drive rack is and what it does. That led to me asking about the position of the person using the gear and what all systems engineering entailed.

Why were you drawn to System Engineering?

I was drawn to systems engineering because, unlike so many other aspects of live audio engineering, it’s as much a science as an art. For me, it’s taking the challenge of making the show sound the same in every seat into the context of a new venue daily. I enjoy that I can measure the system, see how well I’ve done, and see what I need to improve. It’s fascinating that I can see a lot of how something sounds on an analyzer. My work is a specific, measurable process, and nothing is random. It’s all a series of decisions with measurable effects, and I can go back to the data and say this is why I made these choices, and that, to me, is something I love.

If someone wants to pursue this path, what advice do you have for them? Education and skills?

The advice I have for someone jumping into this specific role in the industry is to not only get a mentor but also to read a lot. Sound Systems Design and Optimization by Bob McCarthy is a book that I have learned a lot from. I recommend reading Between the Lines by Michael Lawrence as well.

What is a typical day like?

My typical day on tour begins by making a 3D model of our venue for the day (or verifying a pre-made model if I was given sufficient information in advance). Then I’ll design the PA and send the splay angles, trim heights, and all other necessary information to our fly techs. From there, I’ll build FOH, run snakes, and get our FOH engineer powered up and ready.

Once our FOH engineer completes the virtual sound check, we tune the PA, take a walk and listen to it. At that point, we will make any changes we see fit. Then we go onto line check and soundcheck with the band.

Additionally, I’ll usually sit with all the front-of-house engineers through their soundchecks and make any changes they ask for in the PA. I typically have some downtime from there to relax, and finally, we have a show.

During the show, I walk around the venue and listen to the PA. I will also make any changes asked for by the engineer or any specific changes needed to make all areas of coverage sound the same tonally across the venue. Last, we load out and do it again the next day.

How do you stay organized and focused?

I use several spreadsheets and keep notes on everything from the patch to show file changes.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

I enjoy the challenge of making every seat sound the same every day, regardless of the venue we are in. Some days we play in clubs, while others are in arenas. No matter the venue, my goal is to have every seat at every show sound as close to the same as possible.

What do you like least?

While I love doing tours in Europe,  what I dislike the most is the time change when I am there.  Tour life can be challenging to regulate and manage all aspects of your life, whether it be work, relationships, or simply trying to figure out how to have a functional schedule without burning yourself out. The time change simply adds another layer to the mix and makes talking to friends and family much more difficult.

If you tour, what do you like best?

I enjoy the people I meet and the travel.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

I go to the gym or run on days off to stay physically active. I also work on the next day’s gig, so I feel confident and prepared when I show up the following day.

What are your long-term goals?

Long term, I would love to become even better at my craft. I plan to eventually work on new technology or theory in research and development. I aim to contribute to the industry in a way that will outlast me. I plan to leave behind a better version of the industry than I found when I started.

What, if any, obstacles or barriers have you faced?

For me, the most challenging part of getting started was learning where to start asking questions. For a long time, I didn’t have enough knowledge to ask questions worth answering. Also, once I started learning about audio and its different aspects, there was a moment when it felt overwhelming to look at all the skills I needed to know.

How have you dealt with them?

I decided to deal with this by choosing one skill at a time to work on learning and then either further pursuing it if I was interested in it or moving on to the next one if I wasn’t. That’s how I gathered interest in systems engineering, leading me to my current job.

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

My advice for young women joining this field would be not to be intimidated or deterred by the people around them. Some of the nicest people I have ever met, I’ve met on tour. We’re all figuring it out as we go, and we’re all constantly learning. If someone won’t answer your questions, it’s a sign you should be asking someone else.

Must have skills?

My must-have skills are troubleshooting, organization and communication.

Favorite gear?

My favorite piece of gear I’ve used this year is the Meyer Galaxy 816 processor. I’ll put one in front of any system, and it’s been a game changer to have access to U-shaping for tuning PAs.

You Can Find Sam on The Signal to Noise Podcast

 

Fake It ‘till You Make It?

 

The live events industry can be hard to navigate. There isn’t a defined career pathway or educational framework that one needs to follow, no qualification that is necessary or will guarantee you a rewarding job once you have it. It can feel even more confusing if you’re a freelancer. You don’t have a boss to guide you or promotion options to pursue within a company. You are the only one who is responsible for your training and progression. When you then take into account the… creative and organic nature of live events and the current industry-wide shortage of experienced technicians caused (mainly) by the pandemic, it is quite common for people to be offered roles that don’t exactly match their skill set. Whether it’s an ad for a dream job that lists a bunch of skills or experience that you don’t have, or you’re getting offers of work that involves equipment that you’ve never touched, you may feel that there is a gap between your current skills and what potential clients are expecting of you. What should you do? The phrase “fake it ‘till you make it!” gets thrown about a lot, but is it really the solution? It is something I have struggled with throughout my whole career and I’m sorry to say I still don’t have the answer, but here are some things to consider so you can form your own conclusions.

Unfortunately, we’re a bit special

There are endless articles out there about whether you should fake it until you make it, but it is almost all aimed at employees in corporate jobs. There are definitely lessons to be learned from these sources, but there are a few things about our sector that mean the advice is not entirely applicable to us.

First of all, the proportion of workers in our field who are freelance is much higher than most. We have to advocate for ourselves and convince potential clients that we are a good choice and that our experience puts us in good stead to do the job well. This can be challenging when there isn’t an “industry standard” qualification and everyone’s experience history is unique. It is much easier to fire freelancers than employees, or simply not call them again if their work isn’t up to scratch. We are also up against untold numbers of other freelancers for each job, and in the absence of formalised, transparent hiring practises, it can be hard not to take hiring decisions personally. Paranoia and bitchiness about who gets what role can take hold in freelancer circles, similar to when there’s an opportunity for promotion in office-based sitcoms. All I can say is try to avoid questioning why this job went to that person, because it can eat you up inside, and trying to find logic, where there may be none, will drive you crazy.

Most jobs in live events, especially touring, are quite short in the grand scheme of things. Even if you land a role on a two-year global tour, that’s not much compared to potentially spending decades working for the same firm. This means we go through the stress of job hunting much more often than most people. There is also much less of an incentive for clients to invest in our professional growth or even put as much effort into recruitment as they would for a full-time position.

Lastly, our job is much more immediate than “normal” jobs. Of course, we can, and should, study and practise our craft as much as possible on our own time, but there is a lot that we can’t help but learn through experience. You can only deal with a quiet, unpredictable singer when you’re faced with one. You only find out what word clock slipping can sound like when you hear it (I’ve often thought that an audio library of what things sound like while being affected by different technical issues would be incredibly useful. If anyone has assembled one please let me know). Your live mixing will improve more with the experience of real musicians in real, crowded rooms than with any amount of practising with a multitrack. So if you are faking it until you make it and come up against something beyond your capacity, you will have to deal with that in real-time, potentially in front of thousands of booing fans and an angry client.

Keeping up with the fakers

In an ideal world, we would never have to fake it. Everyone would be offered jobs according to their abilities and everyone would be given opportunities to grow and progress along the way. Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately, that is rarely how it works. If you have an employer or client who takes an active role in your professional development, please recognise them for the rare gem that they are. That’s not to say that everyone else is evil, it’s just that most companies are swamped with work and they don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to training, appraisals, mentoring, etc. At the end of the day, if you’re a freelancer, that responsibility lies squarely with you anyway.

I used to turn down jobs if I wasn’t 100% comfortable with every piece of equipment that I would need to use. I would tell them that they should choose someone else, for the good of the gig. However, it took me far too long to realise that more often than not, they didn’t find someone better, they just found someone who had the chutzpah to say yes and give it a go. Those people did a good enough job most of the time to get away with it, and so kept getting offered more opportunities. I dread to think how much putting the gig’s success before my own career has held me back, particularly because the gig probably would have succeeded anyway.

This brings me to the difficult part: none of us would have to fake anything if no one else did. We would all get exactly the level of jobs we deserved. However, there are all sorts of people in this industry, and as I just alluded to, the way things work favours people who are full of… chutzpah. It’s understandable: if you’re a busy booker who has a lot on their plate, finding a freelancer who has reassuring confidence about them and says they can do anything you ask them to is a godsend. If you’re an event organiser who’s worried because there’s been a technical difficulty, someone who uses a few select pieces of jargon but tells you it’ll all be fine shortly is exactly the kind of person you want. Never mind whether the difficulty was caused by that person in the first place; you don’t have the time or specialist knowledge to find that out, you just want your gig to happen. People like to say that chutzpah-ers get found out and don’t last in the industry, but in my experience that isn’t true, and in fact, the opposite can be the case. It can be frustrating to have to work with these people and watch their careers skyrocket, but I still don’t think you should join them if you can’t beat them. We’re all on our own journey, comparing yourself to others is a recipe for misery. The road might be longer if you don’t take the “chutzpah” shortcut, but you learn much more and can be truly confident in your own competence as you progress.

To fake or not to fake?

It’s a bit of a catch-22 that knowing when to turn something down and when to go for it comes with experience. Experience that you might need to fake a little bit to get in the first place. Now that I’m older I’ve seen more of how the industry works: I know that no one knows everything about everything. New equipment and software updates come out all the time, and you get used to reading manuals or chatting to friends who have used it to get up to speed (on that note, if any manufacturers are reading this, can you please stop replacing your PDF manuals with endless video tutorials. They are useful as supporting material, but you can’t search for a keyword in a half-hour-long video and scan through the relevant paragraph on your phone while the client isn’t looking. Or even just browse it during a slow conference). You get used to the equipment list fundamentally changing at the last minute, so whether you’ve used a certain desk before might suddenly become irrelevant anyway. You see so many people being thrown in at the deep end that you start to wonder whether there is any type of baptism that isn’t of fire. So once you see that perfection isn’t always necessary, and once you become more certain of your own abilities, it is easier to make that judgment call.

Further, it is easier to have a frank conversation with the booker when you’re more established. I still flag gaps in my knowledge with my clients. Sometimes they’re happy for me to read the manual or spend extra time in the warehouse to fill those gaps, sometimes they have a more suitable candidate for that role that they go with instead. I’m lucky enough that I don’t need to take every single gig I’m offered, and admitting to my lack of experience in certain areas doesn’t affect my long-term relationship with my clients. In fact, they usually appreciate my honesty and trust my self-assessed competence in other roles more.

So what can you do if you aren’t that experienced yet? It’s a decision you have to make yourself, but I would suggest the following:

Some day we will all be able, to be honest about our abilities and even our insecurities with everyone, and everyone will get exactly the jobs they can handle and deserve. Until then, a little bit of “faking,” insofar as you’re coming across as confident and reassuring while taking on new, reasonable, challenges, can do wonders for your career. If you know that it’s just a little bit of a stretch for you, and you are competent in the basics, some chutzpah can get you closer to the point where you won’t need to fake it because you will have genuinely made it.

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