Zines are a Riot

Originating from the word magazine, and the concept of a fanzine (fan magazine), zines are the do-it-yourself version of their mass-produced counterpart. Most zines have a small editorial team (sometimes only consisting of one person) and rely on office photocopiers (if they are lucky). Hand-penned sketches and counter-culture commentary fill their few pages. Advertising and distribution depend heavily on word-of-mouth, a downside on the one hand, but a powerful marketing tool for a generation that thrives on discovering the next viral hit. This small-scale approach gives zines the power to cover any topic, no matter how personal or controversial, and are therefore closely tied to alternative and fringe cultural movements.

The modern origins of zines stem from the Science Fiction fanzines of the 1930s and ’40s. A few decades later zines would branch out as creators found other shared interests in comics, horror, and rock music. As rock zines like Crawdaddy! (created by Paul Williams in 1966) matured and became professional, the underground punk scene took to zines aided by the increasing access to photocopiers. Punk zines and subculture then became the breeding grounds for LGBTQ and Riot Grrrl zines. Zines are still kicking today, finding their way to readers via local bookstores, Etsy, and on blogs and websites.

My exploration of zines is only just beginning, but I found a text that helped introduce me to the overall history and philosophy of zines with an emphasis on women/non-binary folk and music. DIY: The Rise of Lo-fi Culture by Amy Spencer provides an anthology as well as a timeline of the various zine movements. With each zine mentioned there is a description of how the progression of technology-aided manufacturing and distribution, and why the creator needed to publish. In addition to focusing on the creators, Spencer highlights the communities that because of their hunger for representation nurtured zines. Blogs, pirate radio stations, and DIY labels are all tied into the thesis by way of shared ethos. While I would not use it as my sole manual, this book acts as a guide to start your zine.

One zine that caught my fancy is Filter Sweep. This one-off publication follows Jade Payne on tour as Front of House engineer. Through the zine, she gives you a diary of her triumphs and headaches, complete with pictures and diagrams. The way she pours her heart out and shares her wisdom makes it a perfect companion to a young engineer. Filter Sweep is zines at their most raw: photographs are replaced by hand-drawn sketches, and each entry is written in frantic scrawl reflecting the bustle of tour life. And while you have to contact Jade directly to acquire a copy, I cannot emphasize enough how much one can learn from reading it.

A more polished zine is Women in Sound by Madeline Campbell. I feel Women in Sound is essentially a written companion of SoundGirls. The majority of its pages are filled with interviews with amazing women and non-binary folk who work in audio and music, but there are sections devoted to past greats and helpful guides. The interviews focus on the careers of each person and how they got there, as well as their personal philosophies. They feel inclusive and insightful. Each issue is its own powerful seminar. Maggie Negrete tailored the design, and the work found within is clean and bold. Even with the staple-bound 8 ½” by 5 ½” packaging (a standard sheet of paper folded in half), the stories inside are more fulfilling than most music glossies.

In finding ways to support your siblings in arms do not forget the humble zine. From birth to now, it has been the voice of those without power. It can be a low-cost and personal way to share your and others’ stories. Within the convergence of writing, art, and music, zines can be a way to say “I see you,” and “I hear you.” Like the mixtape, all you need to start is a sharpie and an idea.

Winter Carnival at Michigan Tech

Introduction

In the remote upper peninsula of Michigan lies my alma mater Michigan Technological

University (Michigan Tech). When the weather is at its snowiest is when the year’s biggest event takes place: Winter Carnival. Unofficially the carnival is a month-long event with broomball tournaments and highly ambitious snow statues, but the majority of the events occur within a week in February. My favorite memories were of the All-Nighter, an outdoor party throughout campus that accompanied the building of the smaller snow statues. Our student Audio Engineering Society chapter would DJ the whole event with a set of snow speakers. Well, the Winter Carnival spirit continues with the current generation of students, and the SoundGirls of Michigan Tech wanted to share their experiences.

Stage Revue:

Michigan Technological University’s SoundGirls student chapter recently took part in the production of this year’s Stage Revue. Stage Revue is a theatre event that takes place during Winter Carnival, a mid-winter break that is a significant part of the Michigan Tech experience. There were four designers that helped design the sound and music of five teams that each put on an original ten-minute play. The sound team was comprised of four students.

Sarah Calvert is the president of the SoundGirls student chapter at Michigan Tech. She is studying Sound Design major and Music Composition minor who is set to graduate in the Fall 2019. She has a passion for design work, especially in theatrical entertainment and video games. What she loved most about working on Stage Revue was the opportunity to foster future opportunities and collaborations for future members of SoundGirls at Michigan Tech. She is looking forward to creating more of these opportunities throughout her final semesters and is enthusiastic about what these opportunities and events mean for passionate students.

Tyler Quinn is a 4th year sound design major and music composition minor. He enjoyed the apparent freedom that the groups were given to write their plays for stage revue. He also appreciated that they ranged from fearlessly madcap to gleefully offensive, making for an entertaining night of theater. His work for Stage Revue ended up being a pretty even mixture of background ambiences that I made with either some of my personal field recordings or various industrial machinery recordings layered on top of each other and some sci-fi effects made with synthesizers.

Marie Zgurich is a first-year Software Engineering student at Michigan Technological university. Her dream job is to create and promote software which can be used for audio production. While she claims she may not have as much experience as some of her peers, helping out with audio for Stage Revue and the chapter of SoundGirls was a fantastic learning experience. She learned that knowing your audience is important, as well as becoming familiar with the unique array of tools used by audio producers. Being able to incorporate the amusement and humor delivered by Stage Revue into the work made the environment much more fun and welcoming!

Moira Van Loon is a first-year Audio Production and Technology major. Stage Revue was the production she has done sound design work for. Her favorite part was watching the performances and getting to hear everyone’s work come together. What Moira likes best about sound design is that it blends both the creative and technical, which is important to her.

photo credit: Michigan Tech AES

Afterward, I asked Sarah Calvert what she thought of the event:

“Well, we did five, ten-minute plays. Each one was different, but they all had to do with STEM courses in some way. Not all of the groups gave us the scripts that they wrote, so what the teams sent us as well as fun because they were fairly relaxed and grateful for whatever we designed for them. They liked everything we made. We learned that it is challenging working with students, as well as people who are not use to directing or giving specifics to designers. I know we all enjoyed the creative opportunity to design sounds for the shows. They were small shows, and I thought it was a great opportunity for younger designers to get their feet wet, which is something that I enjoyed and felt was an important opportunity for our younger members.”

More info on the snow speakers

Snow Bound Sound Rocks MTU

Michigan Tech students craft 20,000 watt snow horn

Co-Written by: Sarah Calvert the president of the SoundGirls student chapter at Michigan Tech. She is studying Sound Design major and Music Composition minor

Editing SoundGirls into Wikipedia

Why is editing a Wikipedia article so important?

First of all, Wikipedia is the modern equivalent of an encyclopedia; it is the first stop in finding an answer. With over 5.6 million articles in the English language, it is one of the most comprehensive collections of knowledge available. Currently, there are very few female Wikipedia editors and a very small percentage of female-related articles. Art+Feminism is looking to change that by training new Wikipedia editors (it could be you or me or anyone). They are not the only ones either. Wikipedia has its own group of Wikiprojects dedicated to providing female-related articles.

Editing an Article

While I had not formally edited a Wikipedia article before, I was vaguely familiar with their style and guidelines, so I thought I would try my hand in becoming a Wikipedia editor and share my experiences with SoundGirls. I had some knowledge of formatting and citing in the Wikipedia style, but I also made sure to keep several tabs open of Wikipedia’s helpful tutorials.

Wikipedia requires strict standards in sources, citations, and sentence structure. There is a lot to keep in mind when writing an article, and so Wikipedia has tutorials and templates to copy from. Self-promotion is not permitted when creating an article. Therefore, sources cannot be a personal website or an IMDB page. Bias is also frowned upon, which means many controversial articles are locked from the fledgling editor.

Often new editors are guided to almost complete topics, ones that only need cleanup in citations or a couple of extra facts. Many niche articles are plagued with improper citation and writing flags. From there, an editor can build up their chops before turning to a completely new article. Focusing on pre-existing articles also helps with the moderating backlog that is a constant problem for Wikipedia.

Creating an Article

Even knowing all of this, I still decided to create a completely new article. I wrote about Karen Lam, a female film director, and producer, known for her horror short films and for promoting other women in film. While I did meet her briefly, I have no professional association with her, and therefore I had no conflict of interest with which to color the tone of my article. She had been interviewed several times in local and national magazines, and her films had won several awards. This meant that she was relevant and documented enough to have an article based on her. I, the lowly blog writer, still early in my career, do not have the right credentials to have a Wikipedia article, and so it goes. As an added bonus, a film directed by Karen had its own article already and therefore referenced my subject. An article that is not referenced by anything else is an orphan, which often suggests the irrelevance of the topic.

Not including the time it took to research her, I was able to write my article and submit it for the first time during the Art+Feminism event, and within minutes I received my first error flag. I had cited IMDB for awards won by my subject, and so I updated the article, took out a few awards that were only listed on IMDB, and put a new award mentioned in a reputable press release. I did not hear back for a month and a half. My article was then finally approved.

Wikipedia Advice

When first delving into the land of editing, start with a pre-existing article or your “personal sandbox.”
Take your time, and learn the ropes of syntax and citation.
If you do desire to write a new topic, then find several print sources as well as reliable internet sources.
An image is nice, but not necessary.
Conflicting facts between reliable interviews do happen, if you are unsure of a fact, then do not include it.
Avoid topics that you are connected to, either with heavy emotional bias or professionally.
Know that errors get noticed quickly, but positive responses are slow.
Errors are not permanent but instead are a learning experience.
Finally, your article is always open to change and grow, so if you want to update anything, give it a shot.

Wikipedia was made to be edited by the public, and it can be another tool to grow the influence of women in media and to break the glass fader.

Where to Start

In my prior article on Wikipedia editing, I focused on the basics of choosing a Wikipedia article topic and the reason for writing them. Through this article, my goal is to give you a few definitions and resources in other ways to make women more present in the online encyclopedia. For further tips and ideas, you can view my Wikipedia profile (Lyrelyrebird), which I formatted as a hub for SoundGirls looking to start their Wikipedia journey.

Green Articles and Red Articles

When a Wikipedia article already exists, any link to the article is blue in color while any link to a non-existent article is red.

It is tempting to search for these “red” articles and start a page from scratch, and many people do, but Wikipedia is littered with pages that have only the bare minimum of word count and are lacking in proper sources. Internally, Wikipedia rates articles based on their quality with green designating a “good” article. It takes time and effort to turn an article “green.” New articles and major edits must be approved by veteran editors, and any mistakes or errors are flagged for fixing. Once everything is finally up to snuff, then the article is slated for a final review and approval before the green designation is assigned. Even then, if the article is about a living person, the article might need babysitting for updates as time passes.

Green articles are great examples for templates and guides in editing articles needing TLC. One cannot feasibly memorize every code trick that Wikipedia has available, so use others’ insight to your advantage. For example, when working on an article about a sound designer, find a page of a more well-known designer or even a cinematographer and see how that article formatted things like filmography and career highlights. I use copy and paste frequently, and Wikipedia encourages it. Consistency is part of why Wikipedia is a respected first stop in researching any topic.

This is also a good approach when working on a “stub” article (one that is too short or needs more verified information) or working on a poorly written articles.

What will you see on a pre-existing article?

Once you are logged in, the top of every Wikipedia article will show several tabs such as “Edit” (where the magic happens), “View History” (an edit log), and on the other side is “Talk.”

Talk Pages

The talk page is a mini-forum where collaborating editors can communicate page plans and goals. This is also where error flags are discussed in more detail. More established articles often have many notes on edit histories and unverified content. If one is not respectful of the talk page, then an edit war may occur. An edit war happens when a segment of an article is repeatedly changed by two or more editors. If changes to the article are malicious, the article gets locked. Many of the most popular articles in Wikipedia are locked to prevent these occurrences. The best way out of an edit war is to step back from the article and reevaluate it again through the talk page at a later date, but there are ways to request dispute resolutions if one of the feuding editors is acting in bad faith.

Lists

Lists can be confused for Categories, but they have one large difference. Categories apply to every article they can be used for, but Lists are reserved for the best examples of a subject matter. Another difference is that Lists are a type of article (it can be edited like a page), while a Category is not an article.

I would also caution that due to their formating, Lists inherently cannot be “good” articles, and should be deemed as a lower priority. I have mentioned both Lists and Categories in my user page as edit ideas, but please prioritize the existing ones before making new ones, and use my talk page if you have any questions or ideas.

User Page

A user page is your personal page, similar to a profile page (but functions like an article where you have to build it yourself). Not every user page look the same, and some users ignore their pages altogether. There are a few rules on what should and should not go on a user page:

Do write your interests and possible affiliations (if you have them)
Don’t self-promote, antagonize, or copy copyrighted/wiki article content.

If you are unsure about having a user page, then ignore it, you are not required to edit it.

Sandbox

After you create your Wikipedia account, you get space for both a user page and a sandbox page. Like a sandbox in real life, the sandbox is where you can play/practice using Wikipedia and get familiar with how it works. Wikipedia encourages you to create and test your new article ideas in the sandbox before adding it to the main encyclopedia.

A note on languages

While I and the majority of the rest of Wikipedia editors are English speakers, Wikipedia is an international encyclopedia. Nearly every language is represented, and many popular articles are written in all languages. That means there are editors for those languages, and resources for those editors to follow language-specific styles. If you are comfortable in a language and want to edit in that language, go for it. Be aware that some articles may not exist in English, and your sources should be in the language you are editing in.

WikiProjects

WikiProjects are groups of like-minded editors who have a passion for a particular subject matter. The broader a subject matter, the more editors working together and the more resources the project has to work on specific articles. Often the WikiProject pages are full of templates and tips for turning articles green and are great places to frequent as a new editor. My favorite resource is their list of high-priority articles, or articles that are either close to completion or are of more prominent subjects. I suggest Women in Red and Women in Green but have links to other WikiProjects on my user page.

Sonic Tourism

Have you ever planned a vacation around your ears? As in a location with something unique to offer in aural pleasure instead of gastronomic or visual? If you have not, it is time to become an epicurean for your ears. Many places host ear-pleasing experiences, but some are local secrets. Here are a variety of options to kickstart your listening adventure.

If you are tight on vacation time, Soundwalking is a simple way to reward your ears. According to Dr. Andra McCartney, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Concordia University, “Soundwalking is a creative and research practice that involves listening and sometimes recording while moving through a place at a walking pace.” It is to observe, rather than participate in the surrounding environmental ambience.

Soundwalking can happen anywhere. Urban centers are full of industrial symphonies for people watchers. Cars and machines can lay a rhythmic background for melodies from sirens and conversations. City parks are a quieter option, full of birds and trees. During certain seasons birds migrate and bring with them a variety of songs. When I visited the Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello, Washington, I was fine with not using binoculars, because I heard the calls of cranes, hawks, harriers, and my favorite redwing and yellowwing blackbirds (metalheads of the bird world). Next time I will bring an audio recorder in addition to a camera.

More remote parks and wildlife refuges reward listeners with isolation from mechanical sounds. In the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, there exists one square inch of silence. Other old growth forests might be hiding similar pockets of stillness as well.

Hoh Rainforest

Big Trees at Hoh Rainforest

When planning a metropolitan vacation, add a multipurpose experience. Architecture is not just designed around the eyes, and older buildings are full of creative pockets of reverberation. Cincinnati’s Union Terminal, a train station turned museum is not alone in its whisper arch, as an arched channel will do. Whisper arches are perfect for private conversations between two opposite ends of a crowded room. In Europe, there is a garden that you can have a discussion with your echo. The delay time of the reflecting sounds allows them to respond to your initial spoken message. Complex words can become full discourse as the word’s beginning decays with each successive reflection.

The Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City has gorgeous acoustics purpose-built for the choir and a massive pipe organ. While the modern trend is to create multi-purpose performance halls, venues from the early 20th century (or even earlier) are awe-inspiring locations for the bold and beautiful verb.

Mormon Tabernacle

An ambitious sonic tourist should start with The Sound Book by Trevor Cox to create their travel plans. Cox chronicles the weird and the unique in the sonic realm. Abandoned cisterns in the UK boast insane sustain times, sand dunes in Death Valley sing and boom, and Australia has a little bird that can copy whatever sound it hears. Also explored in the book is a silent retreat, where Cox does not speak at the monastery and instead learns to meditate and listen. After reading about his experiences, I started paying attention to other sonic peculiarities in the news. Detroit has a fascinating little island with a mysterious hum of possible sinister origin, and Siberia has an old mining pit that emits an eerie noise. Otherwise otherworldly intermittent sounds, like ultra-low frequencies, occur in ways similar to UFO sightings and inspired The X-files.

No matter your vacation goals and budget, there is an audio experience for you. Treat your ears to sounds that vary from peaceful, luxurious, strange, to intriguing. There are places to participate or spectate in the sonic wonders, and there are places to be introspective. Enjoy the world with a new perspective and add a new dimension to your memories. Go forth and explore with your ears.

Prepping Your Studio for a Hurricane

As you may know, I am currently based out of coastal North Carolina and it was the epicenter of Hurricane Florence. Luckily Florence lost steam before hitting land and I evacuated safely.

Clean-up is still happening, and I thought I would share some tips in case anyone else finds themselves in the same boat. This list is not exhaustive, and emergency numbers are based on where you live, so be sure to do extra research on what is unique to where you live.

Start thinking about the storm season at least a month out.

Update your studio insurance, include hurricane and flood insurance if possible
Be knowledgeable of the flood plains in your area and how often they flood
Keep your roof in good repair and trim all dead and overhanging branches from nearby trees
Check your generator for any maintenance
Create an emergency plan for both your studio and your family
Take pictures and video of your studio, be sure to include serial numbers for insurance purposes
Meet your neighbors, communities rely on each other in times of emergencies, if your building is fit it could help the recovery or evacuation process

One week out while the storm trajectory includes your area start planning for the worst.

Get your supplies now while everything is in stock and reasonably priced. Supplies should include boards for windows, extra gas for the generator, bottled water, sandbags, non-perishable food, walkie talkies and flashlights, fresh batteries, a life jacket
Organize what gear stays or goes in case of evacuation and prepare it to make evacuation faster and simpler
Pack emergency kits like paperwork and backed up hard drives in case of rapid evacuation
Confirm with clients with rescheduling and backup plans for worst-case scenarios
Confirm with your emergency contacts your emergency plans, and have any employees do the same
Find out where your nearest evacuation shelter is and any emergency contact information or apps 2 to 3 days out with the storm being imminent be ready on a moment's notice.
Book hotel if storm is increasing and you are within the cone of uncertainty
Prep studio for the impact, board up windows, place sandbags, bring in any outdoor furniture or things that could become projectiles, generators stay outside
Keep everything rapid deploy ready
Call clients and execute cancellations or rescheduling

Day of decision, it is time for action.

Execute decision to stay or go
Mandatory evacuation means no or delayed emergency services
If you go, drive safe watch for trailers, ditches and shoulders
Follow your local department of transportation, electrical department and others for updates
Have emergency numbers handy
If you stay, know that resources are scarce and rescue is slow
Follow your local department of transportation, electrical department and others for updates both on social media and the radio
Help out neighbors with final prep and get their contact information, and be patient

Day of hurricane, it is too late to do much.

Hunker down, stay calm, stay safe
Stay away from windows
If floodwaters rise make sure you can exit if you move to higher floors, i.e. a sledgehammer or go to the roof
Report any outages and calls for rescue as they occur, be patient
1-2 days after the storm passes, assess your damage and slowly start the recovery process.
Follow emergency personnel instructions
Do not return until the “all clear” is given
Flooding may still occur even a week after
Electricity and roads take time to repair
Help neighbors only if you have the resources to do so
Follow news and social media for updated photos and videos
Stay safe, avoid floodwater, downed power lines, and bridges

Afterwards tie up any loose ends.

Follow up with insurance
Document property damage with pictures and video
Apply for FEMA assistance, there are many programs available and not all are income dependant
Follow up with clients and employees
Volunteer if you have the resources
Blood drives, community debris removal, community rebuild or fundraising projects

While you cannot predict every disaster, you can prepare for some. Use this list as a starting point to help you and your studio survive whatever storm Mother Nature throws at it. Mix safe everyone.

: Hurricane benefit Photo Credit Tracey Stones

: #NewBernStrong Photo Credit Tracey Stones

: #NewBernStrong Photo Credit Tracey Stones

GEM Productions, Folks Journal, City Stage, the TinyTornado and Local Music Makers Join Together For the Celebration of Community #NewBernStrong

SoundGirls at Mix Sound for Film

Every year in the fall Mix Magazine presents a Sound For Film and TV conference. Hosted at Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California, it is a congruence of the many different facets of film and television sound. This year SoundGirls had a good showing, there was an energetic group of volunteers that braved the morning rain to register and greet the attendees. SoundGirls were attendees and even presenters.

: SoundGirls Volunteers

: SoundGirls Volunteers

New member Kristina Morss was excited about the wide variety of panels. She lamented that the Animation and First Man panels were at the same time, which meant she could not go to both. Coming from a video editing background, Kristina wanted to learn more about the sound side of post-production. She had heard of the event from the Soundworks Collection, which also records some of the panels and hosts them on their website.

I too struggled to narrow my itinerary. Beginning with the keynote Scott Gershin, who focused on the possibilities of immersive sound, I made sure to see a sampler of different sound niches. The Parade of Carts presented by Cinema Audio Society is always a must-see for me because each Mixer’s cart is a master class in problem-solving on set.

Parade of Carts

At the Animation Panel presented by Motion Picture Sound Editors panelist Eileen Horta promoted being bold, while she and the other panelists warned the differences between animation and live action.

Karol Urban moderated the Mixing Dialog: Audio Pipeline Panel, which followed the dialog process from location recording to final mix. You can listen to the panel Karol moderated here

To round off my day I attended the Future is Female Panel. This was the only panel with only women presenters, but that was not the focus of the talk. Each panelist is a respected composer in the industry, and each one presented a sample of their work and an explanation of their creative process. Other panels that I missed included Composing for Video-games, The Sound of A Star is Born, Ambisonic Recording, and hands-on Dolby Atmos demonstrations.

Future is Female Panel

At the cocktail hour, there was finally time for networking. Breakfast and lunch held similar opportunities but within a shorter time frame. It was in these brief moments that I connected with another new SoundGirl Julie Keller, a former choreographer who is pursuing her new love of sound editing. She told me about the panel on The Sound and Music of Black Panther, and how the design balanced between the cultural (African drums) and the futuristic. Afterward, I went to the local SoundGirls meeting and met even more amazing people in the industry.

This was my third time attending the Sound For Film and TV conference, and it keeps getting better. The panels and talks are always insightful, and they cover many aspects of sound for film. I feel that there is almost not enough time to see all of the panels I was interested in, and there’s a lack of networking time. I would also like to see more booths and vendors. Overall, however, I just want to see this event continue and grow. Let’s get more SoundGirls there next year!

Editors’ note: Althought SoundGirls was not involved with Mix for Film & TV Sound, we hosted an event at Sony Studios in September. You can view our panel discussion here. Moderated by Anne Marie Slack – Panelists: Karol Urban, Kate Finan, Onnalee Blank, and April Tucker

Teaching the Next Generation of Audio Engineers

Life hardly ever takes the simplest route. Many in the field of Audio embody this sentiment. When I first moved to the Nashville area from the West Coast (I live in neither location now), I joined the Nashville Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society on Facebook, and as soon my request to join was approved I received a friend request. I am no social butterfly and was surprised by the notification. Audio Instructor and Engineer Jill Courtney noticed that another female Sound Engineer had joined her beat, and that was reason enough for her to connect. However, in getting to know Jill, I learned that it is natural for her to mentor and support her sisters in arms. In the spirit of #breakingtheglassfader, I thought I would get Jill to share some of her secrets of teaching the next generation of SoundGirls.

What is your current job title?

Audio/Video Producer/Educator of JCreative Multimedia at www.jillcourtney.com

What subjects and grade levels have you taught? Any preference?

I have taught K-12 and college, and I think I prefer college, with middle school being a close second. High school would be third, and elementary fourth. I love all my students, though. I just relate to college and middle school students the most. Both college and middle school are defining periods in a student’s life.

What got you into teaching audio?

My first truly entrepreneurial adventure was a partnership called Sharkbait Studios, which originated in NYC. When my partner and I relocated the company to Nashville, we were networking among the local universities, of which there are many. During a networking meeting with the Chair of the Music and Performing Arts department at Tennessee State University, the Chair asked for my resume, and I happened to have it handy. Right then and there, he asked if I would teach TSU’s audio production classes, and he even utilized me as an applied voice instructor and the Director of the vocal jazz ensemble.

I was newly out of my Master’s program at New York University and had only taught music, voice, Spanish, and other K-12 topics. Once I taught at TSU for a year, I was in demand as an adjunct (ha!). I ended up working for Belmont University, The Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville, and Nashville Film Institute, along with a 2-year out-of-state residency at Lamar State College-Port Arthur, where I taught Commercial Applied Voice, Songwriting, Piano, Music Theory, etc. Once back in Nashville, Sharkbait Studios was closed and JCreative Multimedia, my sole/soul venture was established.

What skills (both audio and life skills) do you focus on in your classroom?

I teach my students to listen to details in the music at hand, do their best in building the sound from the ground up, if that is their task, editing when the materials are flawed, and polishing a song into a finished product for online, CD or video applications. I teach them to keep the end goal in mind from the start, to plan too much, protect the quality of sound at every stage, and be a life-long learner without ego. Once you think you are a badass, you are finished. The most revered artists are the ones who are never good enough for their own standards and strive to be better than their former selves with every new project. I believe each new project should reflect an evolution of growth, and personally, I don’t believe in stagnating. So my skill set is constantly being added to or refined. A growth mindset is where it is at, and I hope that conveys amongst my students.

Equally important, I teach them that they must be prepared, punctual, professional, persistent and passionate about their work. If one of those elements slips, then the commitment won’t be present enough to find continued success over time, unless they luck upon a hit or a really fortunate employment scenario. I teach them to be twice as good and half as difficult as their competitors. In addition, I think it is important to paint a picture of reality for them on the job, because I would be doing my students a great disservice if I made it seem easy or glamorous because it takes a lot of years of hard work for the ease and glamour to show up, if ever it does.

I also teach my students the importance of beating deadlines. If a song or project is due on Tuesday, to have it done completely on Sunday to allow for tech glitches, tweaks or a buffer time for life to mess with you. Inevitably, life WILL mess with you, so having the peace of mind and a happy client is worth the extra effort. I love to under-promise and over-deliver with my clients. Often, the only pat on the back I get is a return client and a recommendation, and that is how I know I am doing well. This business isn’t for those who need verbal praise.

My students hear me preach about the importance of knowing the business side of the industry (music or film) as much as the technical/creative side. This is how you can be forever employable and indispensable to a company, team, or client.

What is generally your first lesson?

All lessons begin with the ear. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am an excellent talker. However, it is my listening ability that keeps me working. Learning about the craft of sound in relation to spaces, the tools you utilize, and the subjects you wish to preserve through video and/or sound are crucial. But learning how to listen and reiterate what a client is seeking is perhaps equally crucial. If they come to you for a country track and leave with one that is a little too rock-like, they may love it, but will feel unheard or manipulated on some level. If the client makes those decisions along the way, that is one thing. But the client needs to steer that ship, and as professionals, it is our job to facilitate that vision and only inject our creativity or opinions if requested. There is such nuance in human communication, especially these days. Being a great listener and an effective communicator is arguably as important as having well-refined artistry.

What have you learned from teaching?

Teaching had refined my own skill set immensely. I wouldn’t know my craft as well if I didn’t have the pressure of being on top of my game so I don’t make a fool of myself in front of a room full of students. Especially in audio, being a minority, I have to know my subject well, or inevitably, it will become a reason why a student is disrespectful or discards my authority or knowledge. Teaching has also highlighted where my strengths and weaknesses exist. It has allotted me a second chance at fully learning the parts in which I was deficient, so I can parlay that effectively, and has given me practice and a platform for showing off my strengths, conveying my secrets to success with the true joy for teaching and helping others. It has given me as much as I have given to the world over the last 20 years of teaching. I have also connected with the next generations in a way that I never would have otherwise. I love kids and young adults, but I never wanted to be a mom. In this way, I get to leave a legacy in the minds of the masses, which better serves humanity, in my opinion,/circumstance.

Why is it important to include Arts (and STEM) in the general curriculum?

Funny you should ask this, as it is so very timely. My current research for my graduate Ed.S. program in Educational Leadership through Lipscomb University is focused on this very subject. The title of my research is “Promoting gender equity in audio and other STEM subjects.” I think that audio fields, specifically, are a perfect merge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and with the new STEAM initiatives that are trending, the Arts portion is also covered. With STEM skills, it allows students to be versatile, and ultimately more successful in their future adult endeavors, which translates into more economic security, which translates into less hardship.
The more skills you have, the less you will starve. I am a walking advertisement for that fact, cause this body hasn’t missed a meal in 42 years. Ha!

What makes audio a unique subject to teach?

Audio/Sound is a trade or skill that at its root seems simplistic in nature. However, as you peel back the variables, the other factors around it become more vital. The space, the tools chosen, the subject, the mood, the health of the individual… there are so many variables that can distinguish one moment in time from another. And yet, it is also an art form. Some pay little attention to the process with a sole focus on the product, but audio must consider both as equally crucial. To further investigate, the business side, legalities, personal relationships, niche markets, and self-concept/limitations can all play into the final scope of one’s career in audio. It is unpredictable, beautiful and an immense challenge. It can be a dream come true or a total nightmare, and everything in between. Teaching this subject is as subjective as each individual in the class. It is constant differentiation.
Not everyone has an equally musical ear. Not everyone has gumption. Not everyone is healthy. Not everyone is intrinsically motivated. The best I can do is find out more about my students (by listening) and then cater to their strengths and enhance any identified weaknesses or lack of knowledge, provided that they are open to allowing me to do so.

I know you started a girl’s club in one of your schools, what was your goal in implementing it? How did your students respond? Do you have an interesting story from the group?

First, Nashville Audio Women Facebook group is an online place of connection for the few women who are studying and/or working in audio/sound in Nashville. The other was a girls’ club that I began at the middle school where I was teaching last year. My main mission for this club was girls’ empowerment because the middle school years are perhaps the most crucial for a growing girl in so many ways. Many of my students from that school, a Title 1 school, don’t have strong role models in their lives. Many had never met a woman like me.

Developing relationships based upon trust and respect was my primary goal. My secondary goal was to allow them to observe me as a strong female in this world, and once they knew me, they paid attention to how I interacted with the world. Another goal was to give them a person whom they could come to with all the questions they might have about being a female, kind of like an open-minded big sister. I think in this way, I was able to act as a role model that is unique – one that teaches because she digs helping kids, but also goes out and makes movies and recordings, sings with a rock band, pursues more academic degrees, and obsesses over animal photography in her non-teaching time. I wanted them to see that all of this is possible so that they might internalize it. My bottom line with my girls was to instill confidence and parlay life lessons. While they picked up on all of these things, they also wanted a space (in my classroom) where they could play touch football without boys. They wanted a place to paint their nails and video fake-fights for Snapchat. They wanted to ask me about boys and about periods and how to handle dramas with “haters.” I provided the space for all of that, as much as I could. I let the students direct how their club would go, largely, because I wanted them to build their own capacity as leaders and give them an honored voice.

How is mentorship important for young audio students?

I have many mentors. Many have been men, but I have found some incredible women too in more recent years. I believe they are crucial to growth and can help guide your career and provide you with a reality check and advice as you navigate the workplace. Mine are nothing short of lifesavers. For young audio students, I think one thing they don’t realize is that if all are successful, the audio instructor will eventually become a colleague, so the relationship they build with teachers is ever the more crucial. The teachers can help them find employment, write recommendation letters, and help them create lifelong connections. The reach of the teacher is often the potential reach of the student if the student proves her/himself to be worthy of such extensions of help and resources.

Any advice for the next generation?

Oh my, where do I begin? Well, I would highly suggest that any interested potential audio/sound student be as crystal clear as possible on the economic realities of this industry right now. I would encourage them to build an arsenal of skills that they can utilize in a variety of related industries. I would recommend focusing on the parts of the industry with the most jobs and welcoming atmospheres, and to be open-minded to all styles of music and sound jobs. I would also advise that they interview as many people as they possibly can along the way so that they can make informed decisions about how they want to paint their lives. Education has been key for me in remaining relevant and employed, both in the industry and beyond, and while I probably take it to an extreme that not everyone can handle, I recommend being a life-long learner. I am like a sponge with information, and am wholly unafraid to admit that I am uneducated in certain areas, but these are often the areas that arouse my curiosity. My former boss called me the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of the department, which is flattering and probably a bit accurate. I want my students to be similar so that they can survive in their chosen industry for as long as it makes sense for them.

In addition, I always thought my career would be linear. We are always taught this as we grow up. But my career has taken the most unpredictable zigzags, and I have finally come to understand that in some cases, this is the norm. This business rarely sees someone graduate with a college degree, go into the field, stay at the same company and retire with a pension. So creative thinking, a diverse skill set and a willingness to change it up when necessary are crucial for forward motion

Basic Sound Circuit Glossary

Have you ever read the spec sheet on your favorite piece of gear and wondered what the terms mean? Are you interested in modifying your gear, but are intimidated by the jargon? Now you can have a cheat sheet for those little components that work hard to make electricity into music.

Active device – A component that uses an outside electrical signal to control current. Transistors are generally active devices.

Attenuator – A signal dampening device that is often in the form of a potentiometer (pot), a variable resistor like a volume knob or fader, but can be as simple as a single resistor.

Capacitor – A passive component that stores charge, and is often used in the circuit like a temporary battery. It is also used to remove unwanted DC electricity from a circuit. When repairing circuits this is the little demon that can cause harm even when the power is off. It also has a tendency to short, and is generally the first component to go bad.

Diode – A component that only allows current to pass one way. It is used in voltage rectifying (turning AC into DC). Light emitting diodes (LED) are another common application for these components.

Inductor – A passive component that stores magnetic charge, and resist changes in current. It can be used to block AC electricity while allowing DC to pass through.

Load – Any device that you plug into your designed circuit. It is the catchall term, especially when the circuit is in the designing stage.

Operational Amplifier – A voltage amplifier that uses an external DC voltage to produce a high gain output. It often takes the difference between two input signals and outputs a single amplified signal. They are a key component in analog circuits, and have a variety of useful functions when combined.

Oscillator – A circuit that creates a periodic signal, often sound when energized, usually by a DC signal. There are a variety of ways to build an oscillation circuit, but many of them function on the principle of creating a feedback cycle that self-sustains.

Passive device – A component that does not control the electrical current by means of an outside electrical signal.

Resistor – The simplest, passive component on your circuit board. It attenuates or dampens the signal. Every circuit has a resistor in some form, and a circuit without any resistance is a short.

Transformer – A device that transfers electricity to another circuit using magnetically coupled inductors. They can be used to step-up or step-down the voltage from one circuit to the next.

Transistor – An active device that can amplify or switch electric signals. It is one of the key components in electronics. They are used in analog and digital circuits, and can be found in tube or chip form.

Editing Sound Girls into Wikipedia

This March I unofficially participated in Kickstarter’s Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. An edit-a-thon is an event where the attendees edit and update Wikipedia articles. Often these events have a specified purpose, and with Art+Feminism it was about women and the arts. While it generally happens in March, the Art+Feminism banner has hosted over 500 events almost every week across the globe since 2014. Events have occurred in places like the Ivory Coast, New Zealand, Uruguay, United States, and Germany.