Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

Join Us

Kitzy – Independent Touring FOH Engineer and Production Manager

Kitzy is an independent touring FOH (Front of House) Engineer and Production Manager based in Philadelphia, has been immersed in the world of audio for over 20 years. In addition to owning a small audio production and rental company, Kitzy dabbles in studio work and podcasting.

Their journey began in the early 2000s, organizing punk shows in a firehall in central Pennsylvania, using a second-hand PA system. Reflecting on those days, Kitzy notes, “Audio wasn’t really the focus, but more of a means to an end. I thought I wanted to be a promoter, but in reality, I think I just wanted an excuse to put my band on shows.”

During the early to mid-2000s, Kitzy toured with various bands, experimenting with digital recording—again, primarily as a way to support their own band’s music rather than as a central career goal. However, in 2010, after their band dissolved, Kitzy found themselves at a crossroads. With family and personal pressure to find a “real job,” they set aside their musical ambitions, entering the tech industry and climbing the corporate ladder.

By 2015, Kitzy had relocated to San Francisco for work. While there, they reconnected with a former bandmate, reigniting their passion for music. This time, Kitzy delved deeply into recording and producing, benefiting from the wealth of free educational resources available on YouTube. “I realized how much I had been missing working on music,” Kitzy recalls. Despite their growing knowledge, the tech world and life in San Francisco left them unfulfilled, prompting thoughts of a new chapter.

In their search for inspiration, Kitzy discovered Weathervane Music and its Shaking Through series, which sparked their desire to return to music production. With Philadelphia’s vibrant music scene and proximity to family, Kitzy saw it as the ideal location to start over.

In 2017, Kitzy moved to Philadelphia, where they built connections within the local music scene, attending workshops, shows, and eventually forming a new band. They recorded and released an album, and things seemed to be falling into place. Kitzy also bought a house and built a home studio, intending to focus on producing records. But the pandemic in 2020 disrupted these plans.

Undeterred, Kitzy adapted by launching a podcast with a friend, centered on independent music. They also invited bands to perform live streams in their studio, which marked Kitzy’s first significant experience mixing live performances. This work sparked a new passion: capturing live music as an integral part of the performance. Kitzy found the dynamic immediacy of live mixing deeply fulfilling.

By 2022, with live events returning, a band that had participated in the live streams invited Kitzy to mix their shows on the road. Kitzy vividly remembers the thrill of their first live show: “The power under my fingertips was like nothing else I had ever felt before. When the band hit their first note, I knew that this was what I wanted to do more than anything else in the world.” Since that pivotal moment, Kitzy has been pursuing live sound engineering with an unrelenting passion, rediscovering their love for live music with every performance.

Early Life

When did you discover audio as a career path?

It’s really only the last couple years I’ve been taking it seriously as a career path. I spent my whole life being told that I can’t make a living in music and that I need to get a “real” job.

Did music and audio interest you while you were growing up?

I’ve been obsessed with music, and by extension audio, ever since I can remember. A lot of my early music taste was a direct result of the stuff my mom was listening to, like R.E.M., The B-52s, Yes, James Taylor – stuff like that. My grandmother also had an influence on my music taste early on. She would play stuff like The Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffet, and Cliff Richard.

My mom would take me to the local video rental store once a week and we’d rent a movie to watch together. They had a small shelf of music related videos, and there were two that I made my mom rent so many times that she probably could have bought them several times over: R.E.M.’s Road Movie and Yes’ 9012Live. If you’ve never seen 9012Live, I highly suggest you track down a copy. The concert footage is inexplicably intercut with colorized footage from a 1950’s Edison Electric film for some reason and the visuals are truly bizarre.

I remember getting a karaoke machine one year for Christmas. It had a pair of microphones, and two tape decks. I think the intention was that you could play the karaoke version of a song and record yourself singing over it, but I quickly figured out that I could record my own music and then overdub myself playing and singing along with it. I was convinced I had invented this and that no one else knew this incredible secret.

In high school, I graduated to a Tascam 4 track tape machine, and I remember being amazed that I could change the volume of the things I was overdubbing AFTER I recorded them. With the karaoke machine, I had to get the volume balance right while I was recording. But now, I had the power to get the mix just right. It felt like magic.

Career Start

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

Brian McTear was a great mentor when I moved to Philly and thought my future was purely studio work, and continues to be a sounding board for me to this day.

I never really had a live sound mentor, but I’ve been lucky enough to form friendships with some other up and coming live engineers who are an amazing support system.

Career Now

What is a typical day like?

Every tour is a little different, but I’ll use my most recent tour as an example.

Wake up in a hotel room around 8AM, pack up my stuff and head to the van for an 8:30 van call. I’m sharing driving duties with the tour manager on this run, and she prefers driving later in the day, so I’ll typically take the first shift. We stop for breakfast somewhere and then it’s anywhere between a 3 and 5 hour drive to the next city.

Halfway through the drive, I switch off with the TM. I’ll use this time to catch up on a little more sleep, review the parking and load in instructions for the venue we’re heading to, read over their tech pack, etc. I’ll also bounce the recording from last night’s show and upload it to Google Drive for the band to review if they want. As I’m listening through, I’ll make myself a few notes of things I want to try differently tonight.

We get to the venue early afternoon and unload the trailer. It’s a self-contained tour, so we’re carrying backline, our own console, IEMs, and mic package, and a lighting ground package. We also have a few set pieces. As the FOH engineer and defacto Production Manager on this tour, I’m responsible for all of it. I get my big items placed on stage first, and then work on setting up FOH while the band sets up their backline.

If I have time, I’ll put up a few measurement mics and verify the PA with Smaart, and try to get the tonality of the PA close to my target curve. Then I walk the room with my reference playlist and make sure it sounds good.

If I don’t have time, I throw on some music and EQ the system by ear.

Then I move on to micing and patching the stage, and I’ll do a line check with my iPad. If I have time, I’ll pull up the multitracks from last night’s show in a virtual soundcheck and see how the room sounds. I’ll also go on stage and listen to each musician’s IEM mix while standing/sitting in their spot to see how it sounds for them. I might make some minor adjustments to their mix here if something obvious sticks out to me.

Then I bring the band on stage for sound check. My FOH mix is pretty dialed at this point, and the room is going to sound different once we fill it up with people anyway, so my main focus here is to make sure everything is working (i.e., that the timecode from the playback rig is firing our lighting cues and console automation) and that the band is comfortable with their IEM mixes. Once the band is happy, I bring the principal artist out and we run through whatever she wants to run through. Once she’s happy, we end sound check.

We have an opener on this tour that I’m not handling production for, so I’ll strike our front line to make room for the opener and hand things off to the house crew. At this point, I swap the batteries in all of our IEMs and RF mics/packs with freshly charged batteries. I deliver the IEM packs to the green rooms so that the band knows where to find them before the show.

I’ll use the time between sound check and our set to eat dinner, take a nap, answer emails, and if the venue has a shower I will probably take a shower. At the very least I’ll put on a fresh pair of socks. Something about a fresh pair of socks really makes a world of difference.

In the changeover before our set, I re-set our front line, tune the principal artist’s guitar, and line check EVERYTHING. I send the console’s listen bus to my IEM pack, and I use my iPad PFL each channel one by one with my IEMs in and make sure I’m getting the sound that I expect. I even check that the timecode channel sounds like timecode. I always do this from the stage so that if there’s an issue that needs to be addressed, I’m already there.

Then it’s showtime. Perhaps counterintuitively, I’m doing the least amount of work during the actual show. This is a pop tour with backing tracks, so the same things happen at the same time every night. I’ve automated most of my moves throughout the show, like muting the acoustic guitar when it’s not being played, and boosting the electric guitar during the big solo. I’m just there to make sure nothing catches on fire, and I get to enjoy the show.

Once the show is over, I’m in a race with our merch manager to see if I can get all of our production packed up and loaded into the trailer before she has merch packed and loaded. I do not know if she is aware of this race.

Once the trailer is packed, we head for the hotel for the night and get ready to start the process all over again.

How do you stay organized and focused?

Early on, I would get super overwhelmed with everything that I had to do, especially during set up and strike. I’ve found that the best way to combat this is to just focus on the next thing I need to do. I don’t worry about needing to strike the entire stage, I just focus on collecting all of the microphones and putting them in their case. Once that case is packed, I move on to the next one. Rinse and repeat until I look up and everything is packed.

Whenever I’m in the moment, I’m only focusing on the next thing that I need to do. I trust my planning, my prep work, and my team around me, that things won’t go too off the rails if I’m not constantly stressing over every little thing that hasn’t happened yet.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

I love when a band is really locked in and playing well to a room full of people who are enjoying every moment. I love knowing that I’m a small part of making that happen.

What do you like least?

Chasing people down to pay my invoices.

If you tour what do you like best?

I love traveling and seeing new cities every day. I love working in new venues with new people. I love seeing how a show changes and develops over the course of a tour.

What do you like least?

How long the days are, how little sleep I get, and when house crews are shitty to me because I don’t fit their expectations of who a sound engineer should be. I also hate the grind of always having to figure out what my next tour is.

Oh and being away from my dog.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

Sleep.

What are your long term goals

I’d love to have a long, sustainable career with a small handful of artists who are doing well, where I’m making enough money that I don’t have to stress about it.

I’d also love to get to a point where I’m not driving, and have enough of a production budget to hire a crew so I’m not doing everything alone. That sounds really nice.

I’d still like to work on records in my downtime between tours as well.

Oh, and I really want to mix a show at Red Rocks.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

Being both transgender and autistic has been a barrier, not in my ability to do my job well, but in other people’s ability to see my value. That said, I have been coming across a lot more neurodivergent people in the industry lately and it’s been so refreshing to be around other people with brains like mine.

I think the biggest obstacle I’ve faced has just been finding consistent work. All of the artists I work with are on really tight budgets, so even if I do a tour with an artist and they want to work with me again, there’s no guarantee that they’ll have the budget to hire me on the next tour.

I think I’m in a weird spot since I started my live sound journey so late in life. Because my live sound resume only goes back a few years, I get a lot of absurd offers like $500-700/wk, which would be fine if it was 2005 and I lived with my parents and was on their health insurance, but that’s not my reality. I know that this is an industry where you need to grind and work your way up, but I’m still trying to figure out how to survive while doing that.

How have you dealt with them?

I’m still figuring that out. I’ve been focusing on networking, making as many connections as possible, and putting myself out there as much as I can.

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

If you love it, do it. Keep doing it. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t. Find your tribe and then hold on for dear life.

Must have skills?

In my opinion, the actual audio engineering skills are only like 10% of it. They’re important, and you need them if you want to work in this industry, but I think that people skills, communication, organization, planning, delegation, and a positive attitude are more important and will take you a lot further than being the best mixer. At the end of the day, nobody cares what ratio your compressor is set to or what your reverb decay time is.

The people skills are probably the most important. The grumpy, bitter, and jaded sound tech stereotype exists for a reason. I don’t care how good of an engineer someone is, if they’re an asshole, I don’t want to work with them.

Favorite gear?

The Beyerdynamic M 201 is the GOAT on snare.

Starting a Podcast on a Budget

DIY from one novice to another!

Passion is something that needs to be shared. Well, at least in my experience. And two things I am passionate about, are mental health and music. I also love exploring ideas, having conversations, and getting curious about anything I can get my hands on. I felt so blessed when I got my audio engineering qualification – because it set the ball rolling for me to start my podcast around a topic that ties in with my primary work (mental health and eating disorder/addiction coaching).

Now, for those of you who are seasoned podcasters and engineers, you may read this or listen to my podcast and be able to quickly highlight all the errors I have made along the way, but I am totally okay with that, as I am happy to admit I am still learning!

The purpose of this blog post, however, is to inspire those who might feel as if they don’t have “all the necessary skills/tools” to follow their passion. I am here to say: Start where you are at, and only growth will follow!

So, I will take you through the way I approached starting my podcast called “Curious About Recovery – Diving into Eating Disorders” available on Spotify and Anchor.fm and hopefully it will help you wherever you’re at on your podcast journey.

Finding a theme

This was relatively easy for me as I am already a recovery coach with lived experience of having an eating disorder, so it’s pretty much the topic I know the most about. What I had to decide was how to structure the podcast. I decided to make it three-fold in format.

  1. Interviewing professionals in the mental health and eating disorder community. (Expert episodes)
  2. Sharing my lived experience/insights into my eating disorder recovery. (Solo episodes)
  3. Interviewing people who have their own lived experience in recovery from disordered eating (People episodes)

This way I can learn and expand my reach through others as well as share messages that I might never have thought to share, worldwide! The trick here is to be confident and ask whoever you can, even if you think they might say no – you have nothing to lose!

Recording equipment and software

Audio Interface: Behringer UMC404HD

This nifty little 4 channel audio interface is all I needed! Compatible with the M1 which was super important for me! You will want to work with an AI to get a better quality recording than what is available in your PC/laptop.

Mic: Shure SM58

Okay, condensers are the preferred type of microphone for podcast recording, but hey it does the trick! You want to try to use ANYTHING but your laptop mic or your headphone mic – unless you have a super fancy headset of course. I coupled this mic with a small mobile vocal booth and pop filter just to remove some of the room’s sound (I do everything in my bedroom).

Headphones: Sennheiser HD280 Pro

These are SUCH good closed-back cans for those who are wanting quality audio and are working on a budget. I got mine for around R2200 at the time (about $130). A good set of headphones is important so that you don’t get any sound coming in from your speakers and then back into your mic. It allows for a clean feed from each podcast guest and keeps your audio in check. It also picks up little nuances from the guest’s side so that you can ask them to make any changes before you record.

PC: Mac Mini M1

I just put this here because I got it as a birthday gift from my sister and it makes me tingly all over with joy. But any good laptop will do. (Thanks Louise!)

Where To Record: ZENCASTR

I use Zencastr for recordings. Why? Because of a few things:

  1. It records each user’s audio as a separate track.
  2. It records directly from the source (so it doesn’t matter if your WIFI acts sketchy, you will still get their clean feed.
  3. It’s super easy to use and you can host up to 10 guests for FREE!
  4. There are options to record video and to produce your episode on the site (some costs are involved) but that is if you don’t have any audio editing software.
  5. The audio quality is 10 x better than using something like Zoom.

Software: Rx Audio Editor Advanced, iZotope Elements, Da Vinci Resolve / Logic:

I am fortunate enough to have the incredible RX9 Advanced Audio Editor (previous versions are not compatible with M1 yet – I think). This does wonders in my ability to clean up my guest’s poorly recorded feed as well as help match EQ, remove reverb and noise, and all the fun things RX allows for. I am a HUGE fan of all my iZotope plugins as well which help me along this process. I use Da Vinci Fairlight (SUPER powerful and FREE) for basic audio and video editing and other times I’ll switch to logic for a more refined approach.

Getting it onto a streaming platform (without a budget):

Now, the first thing I realized when starting my podcast was that to stream it on any platform, you first must upload your show onto a host site (missions, right?). I searched all over for a host site that was affordable for me and was disappointed at every turn. Then I stumbled upon Anchor.fm and man was I impressed.

On this site, you can upload your episode for free (yes, free) and it acts as the host site for automatic streaming onto Spotify. With one or two clicks, your show is live! What a blessing! You also have the option of converting your episode into a blog post directly onto WordPress! The only thing here is that I am not profiting from these episodes YET, which doesn’t mean it’s not possible to do so on this site. I think once the show gains traction I might venture into that avenue, but for now, I am happy with my show simply being a way of spreading the message I am passionate about (again, purpose first, right!)

Here your show will be available on Spotify and Anchor.fm itself. It does not stream to other platforms, so if you are okay with this then no problem!

Challenges and how to overcome them:

Having to keep track of time zones with guests abroad. I use Timanddate.com to make sure all my bookings are accurate.

Setting deadlines is important. Make sure you know how many shows you want to release per month and work consistently over time to make it happen. Communicate with your guests as to when their interview will be, and prep them beforehand with a welcome letter, preparation questions, and a time and date of their episode release so that they can coordinate with their marketing team. Time management is key!

Legalities!!! Believe it or not, there are laws about podcasting. You will need to do some research here but the most important one I have found so far is to get your guests to sign a release form, telling them exactly how you intend to use their recording, what compensation plan you have (if any), and ownership rights. Very important!

Getting your podcast “out there”. If you are doing this solo, it means you will need to make the time and effort to get it out to your audience. Start by creating an Instagram page dedicated solely to the show – look at creating cover art, images, branding that aligns with your personal or professional brand, and your brand voice. Then post to other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or wherever you have people following you. Also, ask friends and family to go give your show a listen and a rating. The more the merrier!

Biggest takeaways:

Remember what the purpose of your podcast is. Are you wanting to make money or share your passion? Whichever it is, you will need to approach it differently. For me, right now it’s about sharing a message, so I have been happy to put in the time and not profit from it yet.

Be consistent. Plan ahead of time. Make sure you always have at least 5 episodes ready to edit/release at any given time, so that you never feel as if you are falling behind on those weeks you decide to take time off or are involved in a time-consuming project.

Have fun! Don’t get too serious about this. The more you strain yourself about getting things perfect, the less enjoyable this process will be. If you have something worth sharing, I promise you the process will feel fluid and free. Keep looking to others for additional support and advice should you need it.

So, there you have it! My novice experience with starting a podcast. I have had SUCH fun and am loving this phase of my life. If you feel like taking a listen, head on over to Spotify by following this link:

https://open.spotify.com/show/1TwaZ2ID4FRQthckqfjR0h

And my Instagram page: @curiousaboutrecovery

If you know anyone struggling with disordered eating or if anyone wants to pick my brain about my podcasting experience thus far (still in the infancy stage), then feel free to reach out to me!

Podcasting Gear on a Teacher’s Budget

Last year my colleagues and I had a super fun podcast and were hoping to expand to a live radio setup. Unfortunately for reasons beyond our control, the entire radio program was canceled! We invested in some equipment, which I do not regret purchasing as we have repurposed it for video blogging. The next adventure is learning live video broadcasting (with live switching??) on a teacher’s budget. For now, I am sharing our budget-but-still-nice setup. Altogether we’re looking at under $1000. I do not suggest buying a bunch of equipment if you’re just starting out, or have no idea on which preferences you have or what you will need. You can rent, borrow, record on your phone using your headset, etc. until you figure out what you want. My local library in Downtown Orlando has a fantastic set up with full recording studio & small vocal booths that are entirely free to use as a resident! Check your local library, seriously!

Equipment

We chose an interface with more inputs than we needed & one that had iPad compatibility (with adapter). It was more expensive than the Focusrite Scarlet, but worth the extra inputs. This interface has two built-in headphone outputs, perfect for a two-person setup. If we had more than two people, we used a headphone amplifier we already owned and borrowed an extra microphone. We purchased two hard cases (technically gun cases but whatever) with foam inserts for $20 each! Our kit also includes XLRs, which came with our mic kit plus some we already owned. You can make your own XLRs as well, which will almost definitely be nicer than the cheap ones you can purchase locally.

Ingesting/Edits

My personal preference is Adobe Audition, although my partner uses ProTools and Logic for ingesting as well. I have always preferred Audition, as I have been using it since it was called Cool Edit Pro. I did a lot of editing for our podcasts, as you can see in the screenshot. Use an automixer to avoid the need to do a lot of automation later in life.

One of the mistakes that I made early on was not having the preproduction solid enough before recording. This meant a lot of editing in post, and that was a significant undertaking. I was an editor in another part of life, but I knew there had to be a better way. Editing everything in post was an actual nightmare.

To quote Bill O’Reilly, “Fuck it, we’ll do it live!!”

Please don’t judge my automation, if we were to continue with multiple users, I would integrate an automixer or the newer “https://larryjordan.com/articles/adobe-audition-cc-2018-auto-ducking-is-magic/”Auto-Ducking feature in Audition CC 2018.’

 

i-Jingle Pro workspace for a podcast on an iPad

There are a lot of options for playback. You can use whatever DAW you feel comfortable with and set up all of your playback from there. Qlab has a free (2 channel) version. Soundcue ($14.99) is one that I’ve used for kids’ theatre production when I had to program an iPod for playback. If you have one of those DJ sound effects pads, that would be a cool choice. For our podcast, we used i-Jingle pro ($10.99) for the iPad. We made our own imaging using the garage band app on our phones (yes, seriously). We’re not musicians, and it turned out hilarious, and I still love it.

Have a solid rundown and play any pre-recorded interviews, imaging, sound effects, music, etc. LIVE. This will save you so much time, treat it like a live radio broadcast, and only clean up what you need to in postproduction. When we figure out the live video blogging (budget version, because teachers) I will share that as well, so stay tuned.

 

 

Creating a Podcast

I started listening to podcasts properly at the beginning of 2018 in my final year at the University of Exeter, to inform and/or entertain myself when walking to campus. I listened to some business podcasts such as ‘Ctrl Alt Delete,’ by author Emma Gannon and ‘The Diary Of A CEO’ by Steven Bartlett. I also enjoyed ‘Keeping it Candid,’ by Sophie Milner and Millie Cotton, who discuss the behind-the-scenes of the blogging and influencer industry. In terms of comedy podcasts, I was inspired by Jamie Laing and Francis Boulle’s ‘Private Parts’ where they read their diaries, and of course, the world-famous ‘My Dad Wrote A Porno,’ fabulously executed by Alice Levine, Jamie Morton, and James Cooper.

Podcasting is a very oversaturated market at the moment, providing copious amounts of content. The amount of listening you could do is endless, similar to YouTube videos. I found that podcasts offer inspiration, ideas and help to make business and life decisions. Perhaps the power of audio can be even more influential than video? You feel connected to a person through headphones, carrying out active listening such as nodding your head or verbally agreeing, to someone that is not even there. It is more productive than mindlessly watching TV whilst scrolling on your phone, as you are listening to a story.

As a member of student radio with an interest in all thing’s media, I knew I wanted to start a podcast for myself, to learn new skills and to document some of my own life. But, what on earth could I do a podcast about? What will make it different from my radio show? I was hugely inspired by the ‘My Dad Wrote A Porno’ podcast, as my own Dad has a literary creative streak. He writes comedic poetry. I thought I was the only one with a slightly odd, yet creative father, but it turns out there is a whole community of us. In his spare time, since at least 1996, my Dad has written poems, both hilarious and emotional about life, news events, and special occasions. Luckily my dad is not writing graphic novels, just poems. So, there I had it, ‘My Dad Wrote A Poem.’ (I did bump into Alice Levine at Edinburgh Festival last summer and told her I had ripped off their brand/title!)

I am always an advocate of creating something that will leave a more positive effect on people’s lives. I truly believe audio podcasting brings people closer than TV, film or YouTube ever has. It is an exciting time to be involved with a new wave of creative entrepreneurs that are using a simple medium to build global connections around the world. My Dad’s poetry covers a vast range of subjects from politics, to the weather, to house-moving drama. I believe that comedy brings people together. People can relate if they have a slightly odd family. Full of typos and grammatical errors, further comedic value is added to the poems. The quick and easy listening style leaves people wanting more. This content is personal to me because I am reading out loud the creative work of my Dad. I am reminded of family and life situations. For example, my brother losing his phone in the Alps and my Mum breaking her ACL. A few example titles include:

Seasons to be cheerful

The Homecoming

Pollution and Inclusion

Scandinavia

I created the short ident using my voice and the musician Dodie’s instrumental intro to her song ‘In The Middle.’ It is short, sharp and catches the attention of an audience. Everyone is looking for relatability and humour in a world full of negative news. My Dad sees the funny side and irony in everything, from Brexit to Trump. The poetic content also includes sentimental poems and readings from funerals. The poems capture emotional thoughts and make them palatable, sincere and easier to digest, to remember the good times. The editing I do is simple; I only edit out long pauses or background noise. I want the content to sound authentic and like a real conversation. I recorded multiple in a row and have since had to take a break as it is difficult to continue now I am no longer at university with all the audio equipment. I definitely wish to pick it up again at some point, as my Dad certainly hasn’t stopped writing poems!

WHERE ELSE TO FIND ME:

X