photo credit: Artemis Evlogimenou
Grace Banks is an independent studio engineer based in London, UK. She has worn many hats in the field including recording engineer, mix engineer, musician, producer, and composer. She is a multi-instrumentalist and has toured as a session musician in many bands. She plays keys, guitar, electric bass, percussion, and sings. She has also worked for the music label, Nonclassical, and Help Musicians UK, a charity that researches musicians’ needs, gives grants, and organizes competitions.
Banks grew up with a musical ear. She started studying classical piano at the age of four, classical violin at the age of ten, and taught herself guitar. She studied music theory through grade 8, too.
When I was a kid, I would make my dad play the piano so that I could record it on my tape machine, or I would get my toddler brother to perform into the mic. I was fascinated by music and by capturing performance.
As she grew older, Grace would record guitar and vocal harmonies on a four-track tape recorder. She began to perform at seventeen and was offered a place to study music production at eighteen. Although she had the passion to succeed and her mentors recognized her gift, the adults in her life steered her away from pursuing a career in music. And like many aspiring musicians, Grace was encouraged to try a different field. Grace began to work at an engineering firm having won a place to study Civil Engineering at university.
So, a month before Grace was supposed to begin university, she persuaded the music department to offer her a place. She concentrated on composition, orchestration, and theory and graduated with first-class honours.
She wanted to pursue studio work or a Masters’s in Composition after graduation but was unable to afford the education. So she moved to London where she thought there might be more opportunities.
I wrote to recording studios but got zero responses. I played gigs but, while the gigs I had done outside of London paid half a week’s rent, the ones in London wouldn’t give a free drink, let alone a fee. I busked on the underground until, one day, a man stole my money. I did a plethora of bitty jobs, before finding an office-based nine-to-five.
While working in an office by day, Grace was seeking out and studying with mentors in the evenings.
At gigs, I would head to the sound desk and ask to shadow the engineer. A couple of them agreed, and I am indebted to them for their patience and encouragement. At this stage, I was too terrified to touch the desk – so I would just watch and offer endless bar runs in the hope that they would invite me back. A year or so later, I got hired to tour as an instrumentalist. I would hover behind the sound engineer and pester him with questions. On my return, I set up a residency, booking singer-songwriters for a small basement bar – partly because I wanted a ‘safe’ place to get my hands on a PA and try mixing.
Then, one day in a rehearsal studio, a member of staff saw that Grace knew how to setup and troubleshoot audio gear and offered her a job. After a few months at the studio, Grace moved house and heard rumors about a recording studio on the same street. She sent a curriculum vitae (C.V), otherwise known as a resume, and coincidentally, the studio was looking to hire staff. The recording studio was interested in her background in classical music mainly, her ability to read scores and experience as a multi-instrumentalist – had stood out and impressed them. However, her primary asset was proximity to the studio, which meant she could (and did) come in at five minutes’ notice and lock up at any hour of the night.
Having begun applying for studio runner positions at 21, Grace finally got her foot in the door at 28.
People starting out in studios are often expected to work for free
One of the studios I first applied to wanted someone who could be available, unpaid, seven days a week – in London, especially, that is not an option for some. This kind of expectation precludes many from entry into this career
While dealing with these financial challenges, Grace often forfeited stability, relationships, comfort, and safety and she learnt to live on a shoestring budget.
I was homeless for a while – mostly couch-surfing with friends; government benefits tided me over. There can be a lot of shame attached to benefits, but they are essential for social mobility and are the unofficial arts grants.
When I eventually got work at a recording studio, the pay was about half of the living wage; also, the work was piecemeal, and there were no contracts. I found part-time, flexible jobs that I could fit around the studio. Needless to say, I had almost no social life for a couple of years.
Grace took responsibility for her education, writing regular ‘study’ periods into her diary, using books, YouTube tutorials, online articles, and real-life mentors. She made a list of skills she wanted to prioritize, such as drum-teching, guitar-teching, and mixing, with a sub-list of people who could help her improve each of them. Once she figured out her game plan, she would introduce herself to those on the list and ask if she could shadow them.
Grace has experienced both the touring artist and the studio engineering lifestyle and said that she loves both. With touring, she enjoys the sense of camaraderie, the excitement of seeing new places and not knowing what’s going to happen from day to day. On the technical side, she enjoys logical thinking and the goal-based nature of the work. Unpredictability can be exciting, too; she could be called to Manchester one week, Portugal the week after. She also loves how she is continuously learning.
Every session I do and everyone I work with teaches me something.
Best of all, she loves working with amazing artists and having the opportunity to capture their performances so that the magic can be witnessed by others.
It feels like finding a beautiful gem and holding it up to the light.
I have just acquired a MoogerFooger 12-stage phaser which I am really excited about. The UA 6176 is my home workhorse. I have been doing a series of vocal mic shoot-outs with a friend who is also an engineer, which has been fun. Also, the Roland RE-501 Chorus Echo: it’s another world, and you can get lost in it.
In order to survive as a freelancer, Grace attends networking, technological, and industry events. She has also built good relationships with studios that give her regular work. Additionally, Grace pursues engineering along with other jobs. She still works as a session guitarist, which helps her recording work in many ways:
such as meeting musicians who might want a studio or engineer down the line, and improving my understanding of what musicians go through under pressure, how they communicate, and so on.
We asked Grace for tips for those SoundGirls and SoundWomen who wish to enter the field:
Grace’s long-term goals include more writing for and with other artists.
More on Grace – SoundGirls Spotlight Series
Profile By: Michelle Naziri (“Miche”) is a Liberal Arts-Engineering Studies student at California Polytechnic State University, concentrating in Electrical Engineering and Sound Design. Over the summer Michelle worked as an intern for VUE Audiotechnik under VP Operations and SoundGirl, Sara Elliott. As an intern, she got to help with prototype experiments, reverse engineer speakers, fix amplifiers, and help assemble and test loudspeakers and subs for the Kendrick Lamar, DAMN tour. Most recently, Michelle received an internship with RagHouse Radio as an audio technician for SoundGirl April Duran for her show on Authentic Culture Network in Sunset Gower Studios. RagHouse Radio, empowering women in music, sports, and entertainment.
In the future, Michelle hopes to continue working in radio, speaker production, and live mix for bands at concerts and festivals.
Every room has its sound. Your speaker monitors should be placed at the center of the room, right next to a wall, with a small distance from it. The positions of the speakers and your ears should be at an equal distance and form a perfect triangle. The next thing you should do is adding some acoustic treatment to the room. There are plenty of ways to do that. Check online for more detailed acoustic treatment solutions.
You should have several different songs that you have listened to on pretty much every playback device, and you know how it sounds in every type of environment. This will help you understand how the room that you work in sounds and should put you on the right track toward your desired mix.
I know that you want to hear that beefy low end and sizzling highs. And that’s fine I do too. There is time for that. But in order to make quick progress, first in order is to put the right sounds at the right spots. Mixing at SPL around 79dB to 82db is more than enough. After 8 hours spent on mixing at around 82dB to 85dB our ears became useless and with every increment by 3dB, you shorten your ears’ work hours by double.
Mixing is a time-consuming job. We often spend time listening to the same 3-4 minutes for hours. And guess what happens… Our ears adapt to the sounds we tend to make better. We are getting unable to hear the things we wanted to fix or change back when we started. I cannot stress enough how important is to take frequent breaks. Trust me on this; you don’t want to start all over again the next day.
Every Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) platform has built-in plug-ins. Most often they are not the best but will help you understand how compression, EQ, reverb, limiter and other components (depending on the DAW) are working. Spend some time working and understand what they do and how they do it before investing in some expensive 3rd party plug-ins.
Those are the mistakes every beginner does. Often I hear tracks with ear-piercing highs and with squashed dynamics at the most complex parts of the songs. So my first advice is to find what stops the high frequencies from standing out in the mix. Most often you will find that the problem is in the low end. Maybe you should first try to decrease the low end, and if that doesn’t do the trick, then you should try to increase the top end.
My second piece of advice is when you want to add compression to your music, always start from the loudest part of the track. Select it and play it on repeat. Start adding compression depending on the volume, speed, and complexity of that part. And once again be gentle. For the quiet parts, automatization could work just fine.
You should listen to your mixes thru various playback devices. Of course, the first thing that you are going to listen thru your mixes are your monitor speakers or headphones. My advice at the beginning is to go switch frequently between them. Because those are the referent devices with the flattest frequency response and are build to pinpoint every unwanted sound. Then you should move to the consumer playback devices such as laptops, phones, earbuds, cars, etc.
If what you hear satisfies your expectations then you can try to enjoy your work on some audiophile equipment. I prefer valve amplified speakers or a good pair of planar magnetic headphones.
Now you are finished with your mix. You are happy how it sounds. You have listened to the same track for more than a hundred times. All you have to do now is to depart from it for 24 hours. Give your brain a chance to forget what exactly happening in the track. After 24 hours come back at it. It’s very much possible that you will need to make some final adjustments. Now you are done. Play it to everyone.
Back in the day when mixing first came up, it was referred to “balancing.” In my opinion, that is a much more appropriate term to describe our job as mixing engineers. Our job is a form of art, and our obligation is to put every sound right where it belongs.
Guest author: Paul Schoff from SoundMaximum. An audiophile from Detroit.
SoundGirls Presents NAMM Mentoring Session
Join us for a Mentoring Session with Women Leaders in Professional Audio
You must be a member of SoundGirls, and you must register for the event. Space is Extremely Limited. You will receive venue address (venue is in Anaheim) with your confirmation.
This event will be a casual mentoring session – where you can get advice and answers to your questions. Groups will rotate between leaders specializing in Live Sound, Recording and Mastering, Broadcast Engineering and Professional Audio Sales.
Jeri Palumbo, a broadcast engineer, audio mixer and RF (radio frequency) tech
Jeri is a broadcast engineer, audio mixer and RF (radio frequency) tech who, for the past 25 years, has specialized in working on high-profile sports shows. Jeri is a technical whiz and a regular on the frontlines of events like the Super Bowl, NBA, NHL playoffs and most recently the World Series. Jeri is part of the RF Coordination Team each year for the Rose Bowl. She has also worked entertainment broadcasts including The Oscars, The Tonight Show, American Idol and others.
Karrie Keyes – Monitor Engineer for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder – Executive Director and Co-Founder of SoundGirls.Org
Karrie has spent the last 25 plus years as the monitor engineer for Pearl Jam. Karrie started out doing sound for punk bands in Los Angeles in 1986 under the tutelage of Dave Rat of Rat Sound, where she spent twenty years helping to establish the company. She was able to gain an immense amount of hands-on experience and technical knowledge at Rat, which eventually led to her becoming the monitor engineer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers from 1990-2000. She first met and started working with Pearl Jam who opened for RHCP on their 1991-1992 Blood Sugar Sex Magic Tour. She has worked with Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and Neil Young.
Erika Earl – Director of Hardware Engineering for Slate Digital and Slate Media Technology
From pulling out the soldering iron to setting up microphones around a drum kit, Erika Earl brings experience from all sides of the professional audio business. Her understanding of audio electronics was earned through more than a decade of experience repairing, servicing, and performing quality control for a wide range of top manufacturers, including Tube-Tech, Drawmer, Focusrite, Daking, Bock Audio, Avid, Little Labs, and many others.
She has also engineered for studios and run FOH throughout Arizona and California. Erika served as Head of Technology and Chief Technician for LA’s landmark studio The Village. When she’s not thinking through a schematic or evaluating the subtleties of a tube compressor, you’re likely to find her sifting through her collection of vintage records and rare books.
Leslie Gaston-Bird Vice President for the Audio Engineering Society’s Western Region & Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver
Leslie Gaston-Bird Vice President for the Audio Engineering Society’s Western Region & Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver. Leslie is also proud to chair the AES’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She has almost 30 years of experience in audio for film and video, music recording, and radio. She graduated from the Audio Technology program at Indiana University in 1989. She also holds a BA in telecommunications and an MS in recording arts. She has worked for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., Colorado Public Radio in Denver, as recording engineer for the Colorado Symphony and as a sound editor for Post Modern Company in Denver. She has performed soundtrack restoration on films from the Sony/Columbia Pictures archives and is one of the pioneers of a music video production style she calls “Music Video Vérité”. She runs her own freelance audio post-production company, Mix Messiah Productions, LLC. She is also a Fulbright Scholar.
Katy Templeman-Holmes is the Director of Marketing for Professional, at HARMAN
At Harman, she has held several roles including; as a Product Manager based in Switzerland, running US Sales for Recording & Broadcast, training FOH & monitor engineers taking consoles on tour, running product development for a handful of different industries, and Director of Solutions and Marketing for Hospitality and Broadcast.
Grace Royse – Live Sound Engineer and Production Manager
Grace Royse is a Live Sound Engineer and Production Manager with 11 years of experience in world touring.Clients include Sublime with Rome, Fitz and the Tantrums, Maintaining a background in studio productions, business management, and artist development, she has mentored several young men and women over the years, all successfully working within the industry today.”
Vanessa Silberman is a National DIY Touring Singer (playing over 330 shows in 2015-2017), Guitarist, Songwriter, Record Producer-Engineer-Mixer, Independent A&R and has an Artist Development Label called A Diamond Heart Production (Down & Outlaws, The Punch) from Los Angeles. She was also the founding member of the LA band Diamonds Under Fire (2002-2013).
Jett Galindo Audio and Vinyl Mastering Engineer at The Bakery
Jett Galindo is an audio & vinyl mastering engineer from The Bakery, located on the Sony Pictures Lot in Culver City. With credits spanning different genres and legendary artists (Bette Midler, Nile Rodgers, Colbie Caillat, to name a few), Jett carries on the legacy left behind by her late mentor, mastering legend Doug Sax of The Mastering Lab.
A GRAMMY Voting Member (P&E Wing) & Latin GRAMMY nominee, Jett is also an accomplished soprano who specializes in choral ensemble music. Jett also devotes part of her time writing for SoundGirls and volunteering for Berklee College of Music as an Alumni Ambassador.
Ali “A MAC” McGuire has worked worldwide on albums, International/ US Tours, and charity projects alongside internationally recognized artists. Ali required recording, mixing, production, and live sound skills through a combination of experience and certification. Ali has worked with such artist as Fetty Wap, Post Malone, Hed PE, Big Daddy Kane, Dick Van Dyke, Whitney Peyton and more. Ali recently moved from Philadelphia to LA to take her business, Amaculent Entertainment LLC, to the next level. Ali is currently working out of a few great studio’s and venues in LA; recording, mixing and producing for the next generation of artists and more.
Sara Elliot VP of Operations and CoFounder of VUE Audiotechnik
With more than 20 years of experience in professional audio, Sara has held strategic marketing and operational positions with numerous sound production companies including Burns Audio, A-1 Audio, and PRG. Sara also served as Director of Marketing and Sales for Live Sound International Magazine and ProSoundweb.com, two of the industry’s most respected news and technical information sources. Sara brings to VUE Audiotechnik a wealth of industry relationships and a deep understanding of business operations.
Fela Davis Sound Engineer and Owner of 23db Productions
Fela Davis is a co-owner at 23db Productions based out of New York City. She’s a graduate of Full Sail University and has over a decade of experience in audio engineering. Her past experiences include working with industry powerhouses Clair Broadcast and House of Blues. When she’s not mixing or mastering songs for 23db Productions, she’s mixing front of house engineer for the 5-time Grammy award winning jazz artist Christian McBride, and Grammy-nominated Ottmar Liebert.
Claire holds a Bachelors degree in Music Technology from Hertfordshire University in the UK. She has 8 years of professional touring experience as both guitar/backline tech and as Tour Manager. She now lives in Los Angeles, having relocated from London and tours exclusively as a guitar tech. She has a business in the UK providing storage for bands and local companies in London, and previously provided rental sprinter vans.
Catharine Wood Recording – Mix Engineer – Owner Planetwood Studios – Catharine is a Los Angeles-based composer/producer/engineer with a recording studio in Los Angeles. With a background in audio post-production for commercials, Catharine engineered on the first iPhone commercial among hundreds of national and international campaigns – including the Geico Caveman and Priceline Negotiator spots. As a mix and mastering engineer, she has engineered on over 300 commercially released songs – including her own custom compositions which have aired on NBC, ABC, BBC, ESPN and more – both nationally and abroad. She is a GRAMMY® Voting Member and Producers & Engineers Wing member. Catharine currently holds a position on the LA Recording School’s Recording Arts Program Advisory Committee and is the former Director of Southern California for the West Coast Songwriters organization. She is a voting member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists, a Board Member of the California Copyright Conference and longtime professional member of NARIP and AIMP. Her company, Planetwood Studios, LLC (parent company of Planetwood Productions, established 2002) specializes in producing singer-songwriters and providing engineering, production and composition services to the TV, Film and Recording industries.
Tiffany Hendren Live Sound FOH and Monitor Engineer
Tiffany Hendren is a monitor engineer at The Pageant in St. Louis and the House Engineer for the Del Mar. She tours as the FOH Engineer for “A Silent Film.” She has been involved in sound professionally for around seven years, full-time about five. Tiffany is the Co-Director of SoundGirls.Org.
Jessica Berg – Tour Manager and Live Sound Engineer
Jessica is a freelance TM/FOH/MON engineer and is currently touring as the TM for Phoebe Ryan. Jessica is SoundGirls.Org’s Director of Development. She is honored and excited to be volunteering with a growing organization and community that is achieving its mission – to help empower the next generation of women in audio, expanding opportunities for girls and women in the audio and music production fields, and sharing resources and knowledge through cooperation, collaboration, and diversity.
Daniella Peters – Head of Sales and Management Team at Rat Sound Systems
Daniella has been with Rat Sound for over 15 years building their sales dept from a concept to a multi-million dollar part of their business. She started off her career working for an international cosmetics company doing their live event production. She then transitioned to HHB Audio and Ashdown Music, Emap Performance (Kerrang and Q magazines) in London and now with Rat Sound.
She is passionate about women’s issues and spends a good portion of her spare time using her production skills to produce and host music and fashion fundraising events for various women’s non-profits.
Mary Broadbent is a Tour Manager and Backline Tech. Mary is the Tour Manager and Backline/Guitar Tech for The Mowgli’s and The Staves. She’s also worked with Chris Isaak, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Most recently she jumped behind the soundboard for the first time on tour with Wrabel as TM/FOH.
Darcy Proper became the first woman engineer to win the GRAMMY for the Best Surround Sound Album category in 2008 for Donald Fagen’s “Morph the Cat” album. Darcy not only achieved these despite being a minority in her field, but she also accomplished these while she lived thousands of miles away from the center of the American music scene. Unlike many engineers based in New York or Hollywood, Darcy Proper’s mastering headquarters was located in Belgium and The Netherlands for three of her four Grammy wins. She has just recently returned to the U.S. and is currently based in central New York.
Studies have shown that there are less than 10% of women working in the audio engineering field. With the world of sound encompassing a vastly wide array of disciplines, this could range from working in a commercial studio as a recording engineer, doing post-production for film/TV, to touring with artists as a live sound reinforcement engineer, among others. Not often discussed, however, is this small specialized field called Mastering.
Working within the confines of an acoustically precise studio, fitted with top-of-the-line monitoring speakers ranging from stereo to a 5.1 surround setup (or more), mastering engineers are responsible for the final crucial step in the audio post-production process. Often considered an elusive discipline, mastering is distinctly nuanced in both the technical and creative aspect of sound. With this–coupled with the low women-in-audio statistic–one can say that women in mastering may be deemed as unicorns–a rarity in an already male-dominated career path.
This, however, did not prevent mastering engineer Darcy Proper from winning multiple GRAMMY awards in various engineering categories (3 wins & 9 nominations to be exact). Most notably, Darcy Proper became the first female engineer to win the GRAMMY for the Best Surround Sound Album category in 2008 for Donald Fagen’s “Morph the Cat” album. Darcy not only achieved these despite being a minority in her field, she accomplished these while she lived thousands of miles away from the center of the American music scene. Unlike many engineers who are based in New York or Hollywood, Darcy Proper’s current mastering headquarters is located in the Netherlands at Wisseloord Studios.
One may ask how Darcy Proper ever got into the world of mastering in the first place. Here we take a rare glimpse into the world of mastering engineers as seen through Darcy Proper’s own experiences, from her beginnings to the present day.
Like many sound engineers, Darcy grew up with a passion for music. Wanting to be surrounded by it as much as she could, Darcy spent her childhood in a small town in upstate New York performing with the church and school choirs in addition to her school’s concert band and jazz ensemble. But unlike many aspiring performers, Darcy didn’t yearn for the spotlight. Instead, she preferred to remain in the background with the ensemble, where her stage fright couldn’t get in the way of her love for performing.
Darcy had the makings of a mastering engineer even in her early childhood years, as she would often go through her parents’ entire record collection just listening to music with her headphones all day. “A quick escape from reality”, Darcy shares.
Furthermore, Darcy has always taken pride in her love for learning. Consistently excelling in academics, she was an avid bookworm with a knack for both math and science. This love for learning and music finally came head-to-head when her school hosted a local fundraising concert featuring student-led rock bands. It was during this fundraising concert at the age of 14 when she encountered her first mixing desk–a 12-channel Soundcraft used to run PA for the show. Darcy found that modest mixing board fascinating and it was the catalyst that prompted her to explore this seemingly uncharted world of “audio engineering”. In short, she was hooked and the rest became history.
Knowing full well that she wanted to pursue audio engineering in college, Darcy narrowed her search down to a choice between two schools: Fredonia State University of New York, or New York University (NYU). Fredonia because it offered one of the oldest Sound Recording Technology programs in the state, and NYU because although it had a younger music technology program compared to Fredonia’s, it was situated right in the heart of Manhattan.
Growing up in a small town outside of New York City, Darcy was attracted to life in the Big Apple, much to the dismay of her parents who forbade her from going there to attend NYU. Though her hometown was only a few hours away, it wasn’t unusual for people living there to have never visited the city. To Darcy’s family, New York City was simply an “other”–a gritty foreign place that’s not suitable for a young college student.
Fortunately for Darcy, she was awarded a generous scholarship to pursue her audio engineering studies at NYU. The scholarship easily outweighed the savings of attending college in Fredonia. Ultimately, this was what allowed her to move to New York City and start studying in NYU’s Music Business & Technology program.
When Darcy began her studies in NYU’s Music Technology program at the age of 17, the program admitted a total of roughly 150 students, with only three of them being women. Despite this large gender gap, Darcy did not feel she was treated any differently.
“It didn’t cross my mind [that I was different]. This was something I wanted to do, it was possible to do it, and so I did it…I had more of an issue with my parents not wanting me to go to NYU just because of where it was located. For me, then, that was a bigger hurdle to overcome.”
Starting out with a blank slate going into the Music Technology program, Darcy absorbed all the information she could get her hands on. At this point, Darcy wasn’t aware of all the possible career paths in sound. Being most familiar with live sound reinforcement, she took on a part-time job as an assistant to a live sound engineer. She would assist in shows held in NYU and around various venues in the New York/New Jersey area. Darcy thought then that live sound would be the career path for her. But it didn’t take long for her to discover other career possibilities in sound that seemed to suit her better.
Upon leaving the academe, Darcy landed her first job as an Assistant Studio Maintenance Technician for Sound Works on West 54th Street. At this point in her career, it finally dawned on her how there truly were not very many women in the audio engineering workforce. But despite the low numbers, the few women Darcy did meet all seemed to do very well in their field.
Being one of the few female sound engineers at this time, Darcy was fortunate enough to have not faced discrimination on a daily basis. She attributes this to several factors, including:
“The low point of the totem pole doesn’t discriminate.”
To Darcy, we all have to start at the beginning. And while you’re at the low end of this totem pole, you’re simply so busy trying to figure out what you’re doing, there isn’t a lot of time to dwell on grander issues besides doing the job well. Darcy was too determined to do her best and was so focused on making it through the day without doing anything stupid (not always successfully, she adds), that this helped thwart any concern of hers about people’s criticisms.
“I was lucky enough to end up in places where my colleagues and employers didn’t have an issue with [my gender]. I suppose if they had, they wouldn’t have hired me in the first place. In any case, when you’re the “newbie,” it’s important to remember that, for the most part, if someone criticizes your work or asks you to fetch coffee, or clean toilets, or whatever, it’s generally because you’re the newbie – you’re young, inexperienced, have a lot to learn about the job. The fact is, the mundane tasks fall to the low person on the totem pole. Gender discrimination certainly does exist, but when you’re new, it’s important not to confuse constructive criticism and “paying your dues” with gender bias. You’ll waste a lot of energy that could have been better spent learning and enjoying the job.”
Darcy is keen to observe how the music industry seems to be a generally more open-minded community when it comes to gender roles in the workforce. And not just with gender. In fact, Darcy feels that there is tolerance in many respects–from religious affiliation to race to sexual orientation. Truly creative people tend to not be close-minded, and it’s this supportive community that gave Darcy the atmosphere necessary to thrive in a male-dominated workplace.
It wasn’t always a walk in the park, however. Although not too serious, Darcy has encountered her share of unpleasant experiences on the job. In one instance during her early live sound days, a band manager refused to acknowledge her as the “sound man” and demanded to work with “a man” on the day of the show. She took control of the situation by gracefully yet matter-of-factly pointing out that if she left, they wouldn’t have a sound system. And with the band on her side, the gig went smoothly afterward.
There were moments when people were surprised that their assistant or sound engineer was a woman, but it was often an honest surprise reaction with no negative intent. However, on the rare occasions when a client would make a pass at her, she was quick to shut down any advances. Particularly for these delicate situations, Darcy believes in the value of a subtle, graceful exit in the interest of keeping the work atmosphere relaxed and professional.
“I found it important in those situations that you give the guy a way to keep his pride (and ego) intact. I generally used the excuse that I would be fired if I got involved romantically with a client and that I was flattered, but really wanted to keep my job. Receiving this sort of unwanted attention is a fact of life which can be intensified by a studio setting. You kinda have to figure it out how you’re going to handle it [along the way].”
Based on her experience, Darcy feels it was easier to take control of these situations in a studio environment as opposed to being on location. Therefore, she has a tremendous amount of respect for women in live sound who may have to cope with these situations more often in a much more stressful environment. At the end of the day, what’s kept Darcy going is the determination to do a good job every step of the way and to not spend too much time focusing on the difference between herself and her colleagues.
© Katja Rupp
Typical with many mastering engineers in the industry, Darcy didn’t become one overnight. For her, it started with a gradual transition from being a studio maintenance technician in Sound Works to working as a QC (Quality Control) Engineer at Sony Classical in New York. Knowing that Sony Classical was looking for an engineer that could learn Sonic Solutions, she jumped at that opportunity and became adept at operating the DAW. Known mostly for its great crossfading capabilities, Sonic Solutions was the mastering platform of choice for classical music back then.
As part of her QC work in Sony Classical, Darcy relied heavily on her adept listening skills and attention to detail. Her work entailed listening to multiple production copies of a master, many times over, to ensure that no technical errors made it past the final production stage and into the final product.
This might sound like an arduous task to the average person, but Darcy enjoyed it. because it meant the opportunity to listen to the works of many engineers and in a wide variety of genres. The discipline she gained from years of critical listening would continue to benefit her for years to come.
It didn’t take long for her to finally take the mastering seat, beginning with album reissues. Working alongside a producer who, while very technically adept, wasn’t interested in making the leap to digital audio workstations. Darcy stepped in and took on a sort of assistant mastering engineer role. This led to working with other less technical clients on reissues of historic pop standards (Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, to name a few), and several Broadway cast recordings.
Ultimately, Darcy’s engineering credits expanded beyond the classical genre, eventually outgrowing her original mastering toolset that was more equipped for classical music. She decided to make the official jump to joining the ranks of the mastering team at Sony, rather than remaining in the classical department. Darcy continued her ever-growing work on album reissues, while at the same time, learning to expand her workflow to include high resolution surround mastering. Surround sound was slowly becoming part of the music scene. Not minding the extra channels to work with, and loving the surround listening experience, Darcy took on this challenge and mastered it.
In late 2005, Galaxy Studios, a renowned studio in Belgium, was looking for a mastering engineer and was eager to hire Darcy for the coveted position. Being rooted in New York, working anywhere else was something that did not initially occur to Darcy. But due to a personal crisis at the time, the offer to work abroad as a mastering engineer came at an opportune moment. She took the job with the intention of working in Belgium for a few years and then returning back to the US, but so often happens, fate had other plans. Along the way, she met her eventual future husband, renowned Dutch recording & mixing engineer, Ronald Prent, and her stay in Europe was extended.
After five years at Galaxy Studios, Darcy moved to Holland and together with Ronald, they played a crucial role in the rebuilding of Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands. Darcy has continued to achieve success basing her mastering work there and staking her claim as being one of the leading experts in surround sound mastering.
Guided tour through the new Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, Holland, The Netherlands with Joey DeMaio (Manowar) on March 12, 2012
Photographer: Klaus Bergmann | imBlickFeld.de for Magic Circle Music
One of the more common misconceptions about mastering is the focus on gear more than the ears, the art of critical listening and the artist’s intention. A crucial part of mastering is maintaining fidelity in one’s signal chain. The more gear you put in your chain, the more you potentially increase the distance between the artist and the listener. Therefore, it’s important to have a specific reason to add a piece of new gear to the mastering chain. Ultimately, the objective to use as many cool tools as possible. The goal is to deliver the artist’s message across to the listener the best way possible. And for that, less is often more.
“I’m not so much a gearhead. I’m fascinated with gear because it gets you from one place to another. But being a serious gearhead shifts your focus. Musicians don’t sit behind their instruments and think about how they play them. They think about the music they want to create, the note they want to play, and through years of long practice and intuition, it just happens. Of course, you want the right instrument to get the sound that you want and you spend the necessary time to maintain the instrument. In my opinion, this is what gear is for an audio engineer. It’s your instrument. Gear is not the focus, but the means to an end. Using your gear to achieve the sound you are looking for becomes as intuitive as a musician playing the desired/right notes on his/her instrument.”
Darcy continues to innovate in the world of mastering. Many of her most recent projects involved mastering work with height channels in various immersive audio formats. Asking her about recent innovations on cloud-based automated mastering services, Darcy believes that although their existence is logical with the current technology, there are nuances that the human element can provide that can’t be replaced with automated services. Music is emotion, and it takes a human being to understand and convey that emotion to the listener.
Though mastering remains one of the less common career paths in the audio engineering world, Darcy remains grateful to have been given the opportunity to work and thrive in this field. As an avid listener, she enjoys the variety of music she gets to work with as a mastering engineer. It changes from one day to the next and it forces her to approach each project with fresh ears and a fresh perspective. And with each fresh perspective, the learning never ends.
“At first, I thought it was my ‘job’ to fix things to a certain extent. I thought that was my purpose. Now, I focus more on what seems unique and special about [the music] and how I can bring it forward. I focus on the positive things and enhancing those naturally minimizes the flaws. This approach allows me to be open and ready for new and unusual kinds of sounds and characters. And when you’re always listening to what’s special about the music you’re working on, that’s a nice place to be.”
More on Darcy
Preparing your music for mastering by Darcy Proper
Darcy Proper on the changing perception of mastering in the industry
First Time Mastering Your Music? 17 Tips from Industry Pros
When I was 17 and an intern at Interscope Records in New York City, my boss, head of radio promotions, said to me, “Don’t get into this business. The music business is a terrible business.”
I can handle it. I thought to myself. I looked at the photos on the shelf next to her desk. “Haha, yeah, it seems pretty crazy. Hey is that you and Eminem?”
“We’ve been together since the beginning. He is a true artist.”
I sort of listened. And I sort of knew what she meant. Mostly I was thinking about how badly I wanted to prove, mostly to myself, that I could handle it.
When I was 11, I learned to play finger style blues guitar from the guitar teacher and music store owner in my town. He is now one of my closest friends, but at the time we barely knew each other (also I was 11, and he was a man who owned a music store so…yeah). One fall day he hosted an open mic at our community center. We never had stuff like that going on in town, so I didn’t even know what an open mic was. He encouraged me to perform, and I ended up playing “Foolish Games” and “Save Your Soul” by Jewel, and an old swing number called “Believe.” I was so nervous I was shaking. My dad filmed the whole thing on our camcorder, which my little brother recorded over a week later when he and his friends wanted to document their backyard dinosaur-bone excavations.
1991 – me and my older brother Ariel in 1991 in East Chatham, New York
For my 12th birthday, my dad took me to see Ani Difranco headlining the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in nearby Hillsdale, New York. He bought me a pentagram—I was really into Wicca at the time—and sat on the grass hill with me, surrounded by RV hippies and babies on boobs, and watched Ani give herself to us. Her body was a channel, and her voice and guitar were the message. She hit the strings so hard that the buzzing and the sliding out of tune became part of her songs. She roared her lyrics like a lion, completely free of all fear. It felt like the first time she’d ever been in this moment, and simultaneously like she’d always been in this moment. She was her, and she was us. And yet she was beyond herself and us. I don’t know how or why, but I wanted to do that, and I felt like maybe I could. So I decided to try.
A few days later I performed a song I’d written for my dad and grandparents. It was called “I Am A Puzzle, ” and the guitar part was inspired by Ani’s playing. The lyrics were:
I am a puzzle
I am hard to complete
it’s hard to find the whole thing
and then put it all together
but I have a missing piece
I have a part of me missing
if you have a puzzle
and you wanna see
the whole damn thing
you’re gonna need
that last piece
I don’t remember exactly how 12 year old me felt at the time. But I do feel like those lyrics, however silly, bore an uncanny resemblance to my life that came later.
There are so many pieces to this puzzle.
I spent my teen years performing songs like “I Am A Puzzle” and “Tears On My Pillow,” and “Crying and Cold” to farmers, bikers and any friends and parents I could get to come out to whatever Columbia County bar and cafe would let me play. I took great pride in my ability to make bikers cry when I sang the sad songs.
2012 – Setting up Ableton for a show in Bushwick, Brooklyn
That summer at Interscope was the only summer since I was 14 that I didn’t have a paying job, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was living off the student loan I’d taken out earlier that year. I mostly stayed at home and worked out acoustic covers of my favorite songs by The Knife.
For my birthday in July, my then-boyfriend gifted me a Focusrite audio interface and a pair of AKG headphones. He’d given me a bootleg version of Logic 9 and was adamant it was going to be my “new favorite thing.” My grandparents gave me an SM58, which I’d asked them for. In my spare time between school and work, I would play in Logic. Over the next year or so my boyfriend and I collaborated quite a bit. But we ran into issues because he didn’t have to work and I did. I would get frustrated that he was making more than me, and he would want me to sing the things that he’d written. But I wanted to write and produce too. Was I territorial and stubborn? Or was I just in a different position than him?
Writing good songs was one piece of the puzzle. Producing was another. And yet another was the balance of work (for money to live) and art. It was becoming painfully obvious that the cards I’d been dealt in that regard were not the most generous.
2017 – Rehearsing with my live band this past summer, Los Angeles, CA
In the years since then, I have experienced all kinds of resentment toward those that have more cushion/support/time/money/etc. But resentment is a heavy thing to carry around, and I decided at some point to stop carrying mine. Perhaps it was when I realized that, even though I’d spent most of my life working on music, I still had many many pieces of the puzzle to find and put together before I was going to have a career.
Ten years later, I wonder where I would be if I’d heeded the advice to stay out of the music business. I have never truly considered another path aside from that of a musician and artist. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the complexity of it all. But mostly I still feel like I want to prove, mostly to myself, that I can handle it.
Any of these sound familiar? I saw one of them on Facebook today. One of them is something a friend said to me a few days ago.
Up until recently, I got annoyed when someone described me as “lucky.” I would have said, that where I am in my career today has very little to do with the vagaries of fate, and everything do to with hard work. But recently I was reminded of the well-known quote attributed to Seneca the Younger: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” And I realised, I am pretty lucky.
I have spent the past twenty years preparing for my current career and creating opportunities. I invested in training and qualifications. I moved to the other side of the world on a one-way ticket where there were more chances for work. I learned how to run a business as well as configure a console. I joined organisations, I went to events, and talked to everyone I could. I learned from other people’s experiences and my mistakes. I built up my skills and my portfolio, and then when the opportunities arose, I took them. According to Seneca, I am lucky. And I know – at the risk of sounding like a motivational speaker – you can be too.
If your dream sound job came up tomorrow, would you have all the skills and experience you need to take it? What do you have to do to be ready for that job? You need to be prepared not just for when opportunity knocks, but for everything leading up to it – those smaller jobs which will gradually take you to a place where you feel capable of doing the more prestigious jobs.
Back in June 2004 I really wanted to be a radio sound engineer, ideally working in radio drama. I’d got as far as the practical test round of interviews for a trainee sound engineer position at the BBC in London. It was my third application for a trainee position, and the feedback from the previous one was to get more hands-on experience. A colleague in my department suggested trying a local arts radio station, as they were always looking for volunteers. I didn’t follow it up. On the day, the test went fine, but I didn’t get the job. The feedback they gave me was that they were looking for people with practical radio experience. I had the opportunity to get a job that would put me on the path to my chosen career – but when it came to it, I wasn’t prepared.
If you’re relying on opportunities coming from one or only a few sources, you need to broaden your horizons. Think about the people who could recommend you for jobs, not just within sound people who work in adjacent fields. Venue owners, studio owners, production managers, tour managers, producers, directors, lighting designers, other sound engineers. Make connections offline and online and maintain those connections – relationships take time to develop. Make sure you’ve got a consistent, professional profile online, whether that’s a personal website, or an online professional directory like the Directory of Women in Professional Audio and Production (sign up if you haven’t already). The adage “you never know where your next job is coming from” is a persistent one for a good reason: it’s true. And the people who might be the ticket to your next step on the career ladder can’t give you anything if they don’t know you’re out there.
Getting up and doing it is the first real step – no one gets lucky by waiting for the world to come to them. But what if you’ve done all the preparation you feel you need, you’ve busted a gut creating opportunities, and you’ve yet to feel that magic “lucky” moment? Keep at it. Look at learning the kinds of skills that will attract not just the jobs you’re looking at now, but the ones in the future. Reconnect with contacts who’ve dropped off your radar and tell them about the latest brilliant show, album, or project on which you worked. The more prepared you can be, and the more opportunities you can make, the luckier you will become.
Whatever your goals for the future, in every possible way, I wish you good luck in achieving them.
So you’ve gone to the studio to record your guitar tracks but the output seems off. It may not sound like the way you’ve envisioned, or there seems to be something lacking in your recording. Whatever the case may be, you know you can do better–but how? We’ve rounded up some tips to help you make better guitar recordings in the studio to get you on your way to becoming a pro!
Every guitar model has a different sound because of its size, make and strings, so it’s important to pick the right guitar. One guitar may be better than another depending on the situation, and while you may not be able to take your pick of guitars at the beginning of your career, it’s still important to be aware of this. If the recording studio has other guitars available, you can ask if you can borrow them to see which can give you the sound you’re aiming for.
Always make sure your guitar is perfectly tuned before each recording session. Use an electronic tuner if you haven’t learned to tune by ear.
It’s advisable to change out all your strings every recording session. Old strings tend to sound lifeless and dull–they may not sound that way to your ears since you’ve become accustomed to the sound, but trust us on this–you’ll get a better guitar track with new strings. Acoustic guitars will sound brighter and electric guitars will sound fuller.
The rule of thumb is the higher the action, the more “open” the guitar sounds and the greater sustain and resonance.
Strap buttons, jacks, pickup wires and washer tuners can come loose and create unwanted noise that can be picked up during a recording session, so make sure everything is stable and in place.
When the pickups are too close to the strings, they can reduce sustain. When they’re too far away, the output decreases and high frequencies are dulled. Find that sweet spot first before hitting the record button.
Make sure these are in working condition and not scratchy.
Try all of your mics to see which ones work best for the sound you’re going for. Different mics and where they’re positioned can impact the character and quality of the recording. Top tip: don’t use mics that might exaggerate the lows, mids or highs in a guitar that’s already too dark, middy or bright. If the guitar already sounds bright, use a dark-sounding mic to balance the sound. Also, Keep in mind that the closer a mic is to an instrument, the greater the proximity effect, or an exaggerated low-frequency boost, will be.
As mentioned, mic placement is crucial. Depending on where you put the mic you can get plenty of different EQ responses. It may make you feel like Goldilocks, but your efforts will pay off once you get things just right. Take time to listen to the tonal changes in each part when you position the mic.
It’s rare to perform and record a guitar track perfectly in one pass. Accept this and have patience with yourself, and your gear as well. Making adjustments a little bit at a time and taking note of which setup works will make things easier for you later on.
About the Author
Nicky Patterson is a music blogger and has written many articles related to acoustic and electric guitars. Nicky has been a keen acoustic guitar player for the past ten years and has been playing the electric guitar for five. She has also played in a number of bands and continues to play in her spare time.
As a non-male* songwriter, performer, and producer, I am always grappling with the concept of ability and credibility. In press on artists that I admire and follow, I see unconscious sexism. Figures like Grimes base their entire brand and music around “doing it all” themselves, while powerhouses like Kendrick Lamar call their producer-artist relationships “collaborations” in spite of the fact that Lamar is decidedly unfamiliar with music technology, i.e., while he never touches a computer making a record.
Where is the line? When can non-male take ownership of what they have created? When can a non-male artist become a figure like Kendrick Lamar without being criticized for not doing everything, from writing to engineering to playing to producing to performing? It makes me angry. It makes me feel like I have a lot of teaching and showing to do. In an effort to do that, I have given some thought to what I know that I didn’t know before I was producing. Here are some of the most important things I have learned thus far that I would like to pass on to anyone who is just starting or needs a pick me up.
When I first started recording and producing myself, I thought that what I was making was sounding pretty good. I was always reading up on engineering and different production techniques. I even went against the wishes of my pride and would show other producers my sessions so they could give me feedback. Since I was aware of how to make something sound pretty good, I thought that I was already doing it. But there is no substitute for time and practice. Your ears will get better at their job the more that you use them. Engage with the sounds and arrangements you are working with. Ask other producers how they are hearing something. Get a perspective. Make decisions. Play. Wear earplugs for loud shows! You will find that your ears get better with practice.
This point is related to the first one in some ways. I think that when I first started, I was so enamored with my voice just being recorded and effected that I didn’t think about all the ways to produce it even further. Eventually, I will do a whole post about vocal production, but beyond your chain (mic, preamp, compressor, etc.) being as good as your budget can afford, there is the physicality of vocal production as well. You have to ask yourself, what kind of record are we making? What kind of performance are we aiming to capture here from this vocalist? What are they capable of? Now how can I get that to come out of them and into the mic? Are they excited or turned off by the idea of being in a vocal booth?
Once the performance is done, then you get to work comping—the best bits of each take in a composite—though there are exceptions. Beyond the main vocal comp, you can also make use of doubles, harmonies, ad libs to create the perfect vocal for your record. The possibilities are endless. But it’s your job to make the decisions about how to get the best vocal audio into your DAW so you can continue to make it into an incredible record.
Silverlake kitchen studio – one of my many makeshift home studios
This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you haven’t experienced this firsthand, it may seem like an oxymoron. But it’s not. Trust me.
If you have the opportunity to write with other writers/producers, especially if they are more experienced than you, take it. If you don’t have that opportunity, seek it out. You will learn something, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment. Sometimes co-writing sessions can be tedious. Sometimes they feel like all you are learning is what you don’t like. But that’s very good to know! On the flip side, sometimes you make great new friends that blossom into much bigger relationships.
Co-writes are big in the music business right now. It’s an easy way for publishers, labels, and managers to make their clients feel like they are doing something for them, with minimal commitment and cost. At a certain point, it can start to feel like if you don’t do it a lot, then you’re doing something wrong. But that’s just the status quo that the big businesses created to have more control over their creative people. At the end of the day, YOU are the creator of the music, and it’s up to YOU to figure out how YOU make the best music YOU can make. If that means lots of co-writes and co-productions, then that’s awesome! If that means producing your friend’s bands out of your bedroom studio, alone, then that’s awesome! If that means making beats all day long in your friend’s studio that they let you use, then awesome! Your talent is your business, and you need to constantly be thinking about the things that affect your talent and business.
This statement is made so often I think we have stopped listening. But try listening to yourself say this out loud: You are strongly affected by the company you keep. If you are not genuinely challenged—creatively and professionally and personally—by the people around you, then go somewhere else.
I was surrounded by lifelong friends and some great musicians when I lived in New York City a few years ago. But when I wanted to take my music to the next level, I felt like there was nowhere for me to go. My immediate circle was too comfortable for me to feel like I could take chances, and as a result, I wasn’t meeting new people or trying new things. Eventually, I met ONE professional songwriter, and I decided to move to Los Angeles when they moved out there. I left all of my closest friends and collaborators on the east coast and hoped for the best out west. I almost immediately found myself surrounded by people who were similar to me, but 10, 20, 30 years into their careers. I had found the challenge I had been missing. This new perspective motivated me to try new things and start putting together my skillset in ways I’d never imagined. I also started to take better care of my mind and body, another essential habit to have.
No matter where you are on your path, there are always going to be ups and downs. Always. And sometimes your path can feel especially winding and long. But if you keep your heart and your mind open, you will see that everything happens for a reason. Every dumb day job, every bad partnership, every mistake, every ditch you dig for yourself, every delay—there is something to be learned and built upon from each of these, and that is a beautiful thing. You will never stop having ups and downs. Ever. Get used to it. Learn from it. Build on it. See the beauty in it.
Unless you are extremely lucky, are going to be points in your career where you are limited on time and resources. During these times you might find yourself compromising and eliminating things that you maybe shouldn’t. For me, those things were producing and guitar playing.
When I first moved to Los Angeles to pursue music professionally, at some point along the way I stopped producing and playing guitar. Mostly it was because the settings I was in just didn’t call for it. I’d go into a session with a producer and another writer, and I would be the person to write and sing the demo. I had a day job as well, so with everything going on I wasn’t playing or producing much when I got home at night. I felt like maybe I was never really going to be that good anyway, and this negativity toward things I had previously loved made me feel very disconnected from myself. At the same time, I was gaining writing and singing chops. By putting down my guitar and taking a break from the computer, I was definitely opening my mind up to new techniques and genres that I had not previously delved into.
But boy did it feel good to pick them back up again!
Beatz By Girlz – some students in a Beats by Girlz class I subbed last year
I encourage you to find a way to keep in touch with yourself and the things that inspire you, no matter what seems to get in the way.
In conclusion: as my good friend Rob Caldwell always says to his guitar students when they ask him how much they should practice: you get good at what you do.
So let’s go and do it.
*I use the term “non-male” to include anyone that does not identify as male. Gender is a social construct, and supported by science, and backed up in legal rulings. I believe sexism frequently oppresses people who identify as non-male, especially in tech-oriented industries.
Too Queer for Your Binary: Everything You Need to Know and More About Non-Binary Identities
Join us for a moderated discussion, Q&A, and Ariel Rechtshaid will be breaking down his production process with a surprise mix.
Ariel Rechtshaid is a record producer, audio engineer, mixing engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. His production, songwriting, and mixing credits include Adele, Solange Knowles, Brandon Flowers, HAIM, Vampire Weekend, Madonna, and more.