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In Search of the Perfect Whoosh: 5 Great Sound Effects Resources

As a sound designer, my sound effects library is one of my most significant resources. It is slightly insane how much time I devote to finding the perfect whoosh, drone, hit or random squishy sound for my sound design work. I can demo hundreds of versions of the same type of sound for hours, looking for one that’s got just a bit more HF or is half a second longer or is a touch more organic than electronic.

I’ve built up my sound effects library with love and care over the years and like most designers, I have my favourite places to find new sounds. Here’s a few:

Pro Sound Effects 

There are two reasons I love ProSoundEffects. One, the single-downloads library is comprehensive, well-organised and the sounds are high-quality. Two, the PSE Hybrid Sound Effects Library is one of the best investments I have ever made as a sound designer and my starting point for creation or inspiration for almost every project. The number of sounds is staggering (tens of thousands), the audio quality is excellent, and it has a good range of more specific sounds not included in a lot of other libraries, underwater, subwoofer, and surround recordings in particular. The Hybrid Library isn’t cheap but you can get a significant discount through the Freelancer Program.

Sonniss 

Sonniss is a great place to find more creative sound effects. I mainly use it to source sound design elements like hits, tones and rises and for interesting atmospheric ambiences and textures for gaming demos. You have to purchase sounds by collection, which can be a little annoying if you’re only after one or two files, but the prices are reasonable, and they do regular sales and giveaways.

A Sound Effect 

A Sound Effect offers libraries from independent sound designers, which means their content is always pretty unique, even if it’s not as comprehensive as some of the other larger websites. It’s also great as a central resource for content that’s otherwise scattered across individual websites. Keep an eye on their social media feeds for sales and free stuff, in particular, the free downloads, which are great for discovering new designers and libraries that you can then explore in more detail.

Freesound 

Freesound is a hidden treasure trove of audio recordings and created sounds. Free to join, it describes itself as a “collaborative database” and as such, although the amount of content is vast, the quality is vastly variable. I use Freesound to find the everyday and the exotic, particularly location recordings of various countries. I’ve found great recordings of medieval battles, Antarctic penguin colonies, Japanese markets and African villages all on Freesound. All sounds are available under a Creative Commons License, so be mindful of this when using the sounds and always attribute as required.

Foley It Up!kirsty-gillmore-aug-2016-pic3

When you can’t find what you’re looking for, record it yourself! It’s fun, free (once you have the kit) and you’re adding to your own FX library. Some of my favourite sounds are ones I created myself and after hours of robotically demo-ing hundreds of sounds, you’ll probably be glad of the fresh air, or at least the blood flowing back into your legs. I created the sound of a girl drowned in a bath with me, my partner, our bathroom, a Zoom H4 out of splash range and well-rehearsed safety signals. Who says sound design isn’t edgy?

There’s a great list of suggestions to get your Foley juices flowing here 

There are tons of sound effects libraries out there, and I’m sure you have your own favourites to add to this list. Once you start building up a collection, the next step is organisation. It’s not as exciting as the sounds themselves, but just as important if you want to avoid hours of trawling to find a precise sound in your database. Expect a future blog post about my journey into audio asset management, but until then, happy whooshing.

 

SoundGirls Workshops – Rat Sound Systems

Soundgirls.Org Workshops – Dec. 2016 and Jan. 2017

All Seminars are held at

Rat Sound Systems

486 Constitution Ave

Camarillo, CA 93012

Seminars taught by Ivan Ortiz

10 am to 2 pm

Cost per seminar $40

20% discount for two or more seminars

Financial Assistance Available

Dec. 10 – Workshop on Best Practice for Throw and Go FOH and MONs

Seminar will cover:

Venue Limitations (Stage dims, proximity effect, House gear)

Priority in dialing a mix

Foldback mixing

Microphone selection and placement

File Storage

Digital console file management

What size USB, Virus protection

Festival file management for guest engineers (output patching, global, scenes, etc.)

Overview on different consoles – Hands on

Digico

Midas

Avid

Soundcraft

 

Dec. 17 – Power / Networking – Workshop on Best Practice for Power

Seminar will cover:

3 phase power vs. single phase

Clean power source

Isolating transformers

Battery backups

What you must know

Multi-meter

Dynamic Load

Generator power

Load Balancing

Networking

TCP/IP and the dot whatevers

Audio via Cat5 (Dante, AVB, etc.)

 

Jan 18th – What skills You Must Have

Seminar will include:

Listening/Mixing

Technical

Bring your many hats

People Skills

Communication

Know your place in a production

Working with Stage Crew

What are Sound Companies looking for in a technician

Qualities

Knowledge

Personality

 

Jan 14 – Understanding RF

Seminar will include

Transmission

Antennae

Cables and Impedance

FCC regulations

Active / Passive / Helical

Best Practice

Ideal and not so ideal scenarios

What not to do

Having a plan of action

Coordination

US Major cities

Tools / Software

Reality check

Limited Spectrum

 

Registration – Space is limited

If you would like to register for these seminars – please email soundgirls@soundgirls.org with the following info.  We will send you an invoice to pay for the seminars. You will not be registered until payment is made. We will send you confirmation of registration.

Please include

Name:

 

Phone:

 

Email:

 

Seminars you would like to register for:

Dec. 10 – Workshop on Best Practice for Throw and Go FOH and MONs

Dec. 17 – Power / Networking – Workshop on Best Practice for Power

Jan 18 – What skills You Must Have

Jan 14 – Understanding RF

All seminars are $40, there is a 20% discount if you register for two or more seminars.

Financial Aid is available.

 

Training Your Ears

If you’ve been in this business for more than a week, you know how important training your ears can be. Training keeps your senses sharp and out of any ruts. Our hearing is very sensitive and in addition to protecting it, you need to keep it in shape.

Focus

An important ability for sound mixers of all kinds is the ability to focus your hearing onto individual sounds within a larger mix. This allows you to do a sort of zoom-in, analyze, and zoom back out, and analyze again. Another way to think about this is selecting “solo” on your console, without all the show-stopping awkwardness of actually solo-ing the channel in the middle of an event. It takes some practice but once you get it down, you should exercise it frequently. Your goal is to be able to focus in on something to make slight adjustments and then re-add them into the mix to finish making adjustments. This assures that you’re able to find issues deep in the mix, while still mixing the entire image. Another metaphor for this would be a magnifying glass to a painting; the smaller details matter, but we mustn’t forget the larger picture. Being able to focus your hearing will also let you hear whether not every instrument is audible. One of my top 3 mixing must-have’s is being able to hear every single instrument. A good training for this would be to listen to some of your favorite songs to try and find the quietest instrumental part. Focus on that and be sure you are able to recognize what rhythm they are performing to truly know that you have focused in on them. When you start to get comfortable, try going in and out of that instrument as quickly as you can.

EQ

Knowing your frequency ranges, and where common instruments fall on it, is a necessity. You should always know where to start when something going through your board needs to be EQed. You should also be able to identify at least the octave an issue is occurring in and the octave on either side. This gives you a 3 octave variance to find an issue. That’s significantly smaller than the entire spectrum. Then you don’t have to try to wildly sweep around and attack the problem. This can expedite the sound check process, as well as the process we as engineers go through in the heat of an error mid-show.

There are a few different ways you can go about training your ears for EQ

Pick out one of your favorite songs that you won’t mind listening to 300 more times. Import it into your favorite recording software or play it through your desk console. Apply a graphic EQ and set a 10dB or 15dB attenuation starting at 20hz. Bypass the EQ and listen to the song as it normally is, then turn the EQ back on. Listen carefully. Toggle between the bypass of the EQ and see if you can hear the difference. Then double the frequency on the band to go up an octave and do the same thing. Begin to learn what each one sounds like. Try to find identifying characteristics about each octave. Be sure to take frequent breaks to keep your ears fresh. When you don’t rest up, your ears get fatigued and try to enter into homeostasis. If homeostasis occurs, the differences will be skewed and all of the sudden you aren’t hearing any differences at all. If you start to get really good at hearing differences in a 15dB attenuation, make it 5dB, or even increase octaves of frequencies. When that gets boring, I recommend trying a program called Golden Ears. It’s a quality program that can blindly quiz you to really stretch you to the limits. Another great option that I tell my interns to use is SoundGym. It’s a free website that gives some great training on not only EQ, but sound quality, dynamics, and even sound location. It’s going to be tiring and it’s going to take some time, but doesn’t all training?

Recovery

For all those in training, for as hard as you go in practice, there needs to be a recovery period where your body can repair the damage to build muscle. The same thing goes for hearing training. Protect your ears and like I mentioned before, you need to rest. I also recommend not overthinking. If you let your mind get clouded or distracted, you won’t be able to focus, or to train. There are times when I need to stop multitasking, close my eyes, and focus on 1 event, and 1 event only. I should also take a moment to remind all of you reading this that you need to protect your hearing. That rock band does not need to be 120dB. Get some molds for custom ear plugs and protect your most valuable asset. Consider it insurance.

So if you’re brand new to the field, or you’ve had 15 years behind the board, you should really keep your ears as fresh as possible, and as sharp as possible. Come up with brand new training to push yourself. If you care about your career, you’ll want to be great at it as possible. Training breeds greatness. Go, train.

 

Kirsty Gillmore – A Diverse and Rewarding Career

kirsty3Kirsty Gillmore is a London-based sound designer, sound engineer, voice demo producer, and voice actor. She started working as a sound engineer in 2000 in her home country of New Zealand. She has had a diverse career since that start, working across a variety of fields including music, post-production, broadcasting, theatre, opera, and live sound.

Musical since the age of five Kirsty was always part of the choir and orchestras at school. As she grew up, she played around with recording technology using cassette players and her mum’s record player. One of her favourite toys was a Casio PT-1 Synth and Kirsty credit’s this with an endearing love of vintage synths! After secondary school, she applied to study for two degrees in music and arts at the University of Auckland in New Zealand because it seemed like the logical choice. At this time. Kirsty wasn’t aware that studying sound engineering was an option until the second year of her degrees.

While playing viola in an outdoor production of Macbeth she struck up a conversation with the composer about a gig they had both been to and how it could have been improved by changing the mix. It was the first time she had thought about what went into making that music and sound happen, and it grabbed her. It was around this time that Kirsty decided that she didn’t have the talent to make it as a solo musician and the only other career option that seemed to have a clear path for music graduates was teaching. Kirsty was already teaching and didn’t consider this to be a lifelong career at this stage of her life. Being a sound engineer gave her an entirely different career path and a way of using her musical training without being a musician.

After that conversation in the mid-1990s, Kirsty spoke to a lot of sound techs and sound engineers, all had learned on the job by attaching themselves to particular bands. At the time, it was a pretty closed shop, exclusively male, and Kirsty couldn’t see a way in. She started looking into courses when her composer friend suggested a course that a friend of his had done. In the ’90s in New Zealand, there were only two institutions that offered sound engineering courses, so Kirsty applied to the one with the best reputation, the Music and Audio Institution of New Zealand. She almost had to decide on studying stage management and technical theatre, as she had been involved with theatre all the way through university, but the only technical theatre course in the country was brand new and didn’t cover sound. She spent two years training as a sound engineer, mostly in music production and also synthesis, live sound, post-production, radio sound, electronics, and sequencing. In her second year, Kirsty did a placement at a post-production studio and was offered a trainee role, which then led to a freelance position.

Her first job after graduating from the Music and Audio Institution of New Zealand was as a freelance ADR & Dubbing Engineer at Native Audio in Auckland, New Zealand. One of Kirsty’s jobs as a dubbing engineer was for a series of English-speaking children’s programmes that were dubbed into Maori. At the time in New Zealand, there weren’t many opportunities to work in sound and in 2002 Kirsty made the decision to move to London, UK. She threw herself into the local scene and applied for any audio job she could find and surprised herself by getting a job within the first month as an audio archivist at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

For the next eight years, Kirsty built her experience working in various roles at the BBC where she learned about sound for speech-based radio, TV and online.  By 2010 her job had somehow become entirely administrative, and she was pretty unhappy, so when the opportunity for a redundancy came along, Kirsty took it and went back into freelance work.

By the end of 2010, Kirsty had set up her company, Sounds Wilde and spent the next year doing various freelance sound jobs in post-production, live sound and theatre before deciding to focus on theatre, voice acting, and voice production. Currently, Kirsty is looking to expand into sound design for games, which works well alongside voice acting work and directing for voice acting. She is also interested in more composition work.

Kirsty is a big believer and advocate of educating yourself both formally and with ongoing training. Her initial formal training gave her a solid understanding of the basic concepts and a common language for sound, but she finds that since she has been working in sound, she has consolidated these concepts, and it’s allowed her to build and expand her knowledge. Kirsty says there are topics she covered in her formal training which she only now really understands. In the past few years, Kirsty has done short courses on mixing for musicals, radio production and various aspects of theatre sound.

Through the early years of Kirsty’s career, she didn’t have much support, in fact, asking for support was actively discouraged in the jobs she held in the first five or so years of her career. Kirsty found that everyone was just expected to get on with their jobs and learn through mistakes. While Kirsty never had a mentor, (though she would have really loved one) there were people whose work she admired like Nigel Godrich, an English record producer, recording engineer and musician best known for his work with Radiohead, Butch Vig, an American musician and record producer, who is the drummer and co-producer of Garbage and also Sylvia Massy who, at the time was the only female producer, mixer and engineer Kirsty knew of. Massy is recognized for her work on Los Angeles’s alternative metal band Tool. When Kirsty started to specialise in post-production, she found she definitely admired the work and career of Leslie Ann Jones.

In her studio, Kirsty has Focal CMS50s as monitors, (which she loves). Kirsty does all her mixing in the box and in doing it this way – she doesn’t need a console.  Her main go-to mic for voice-overs currently is an AKGC414 and for software, she uses ProTools for most of the recording and mixing she does, Ableton is used for looping and Qlab and Ableton are used for the theatre sound design work. For theatre sound, Kirsty prefers DiGiCo desks (with the theatre sound “T” software) and definitely DPA mics!

kirsty2Kirsty has had her share of discrimination and is a prime example of self-belief and determination to come out the other side. Discussing how she has been accepted in a male-dominated field, Kirsty will tell you she has been discriminated against too many times to count.

Thankfully, the more experienced Kirsty became, the discrimination issues seem to be fewer. She is not sure if the climate is changing or if her body of work speaks for itself but says it’s nice not to have to deal with it as frequently.

Looking at what’s ahead for Kirsty seems pretty exciting. In her studio, Kirsty is looking to invest in more mics. She is interested in what Advanced Audio can offer as alternatives to the Neumann U47 and U87. She is also looking at replacing her soundcard soon and is hoping to trial a Focusrite Claret with Thunderbolt, and the equivalent from Apogee as well.

Hopefully, there will be more international opportunities. After years of working in London Kirsty is looking forward to working at least a few months next year in her home country of New Zealand both as a sound designer and sound design tutor. She would also like to expand into game sound design and develop a composition portfolio, as well as taking on more voice-over directing opportunities.

Kirsty’s message is about being consistent, persistent, and open to opportunities.  She says “It’s great to have your heart set on a particular career in sound but don’t be put off if that doesn’t pan out at first. Once you know the fundamentals of sound, you can apply them to lots of different career paths as long as you’re willing to learn and take the time to meet people and build relationships. Technical skills are obviously imperative, but it’s your people skills that will get you the job. You’ve got to be prepared to hustle and find the opportunities; the jobs won’t come to you. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself, be proud of your achievements and confident in your skills while being open to learning from others”.

By Toni Venditti

 

Professional Social Media

I like to read a lot of articles via sites like AV Nation, Inc. , Pro Sound Web, Forbes, etc. I read each platform for different reasons. Inspiration, motivation, to learn about new products, business storylines, and all in all to stay in the know. One key factor that is consistent across each of these platforms is the topic of millennials. 10 mistakes millennials need to stop making, what millennials want from the workplace, millennials, and how we use social media trends.

All kinds of titles leaving all generations kind of divided. We have a handful of industry leaders voicing their opinions, “they (millennials) feel entitled to things. They’re lazy.” On another hand, you have a group of industry leaders embracing us millennials and all the different aspects we have to bring to the workspace. They’re willing to teach us what we have yet to learn and guide us through situations we haven’t to fully experienced. Both of these groups are a blessing to all of us millennials. We might not like or agree with the boxes they try to fit us all into. But this group of wise industry leaders keep us sharp and on our toes if you take a minute to listen to what they’re really saying.

How does any of this tell you how to create an awesome portfolio on social media? It doesn’t, not yet anyway. But the point is, I want all of us to reap the benefits of utilizing social media outlets to build awesome portfolios no matter what generation. No matter what age, whether you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur, employee. Personal branding online is important in each circumstance and when your passion is reflected throughout your social media properly, it can create one beautiful portfolio and great opportunities to push you forward within your career. On social media not only do you need to remain professional, but you need to showcase your personality across all platforms.

Most millennials love social media and most of our elders are not fans of too many social sites. But in this day in age employers and clients are looking for you online before they even ask you to come in for an interview or to discuss a project. Here are some social platforms we all can utilize to create an awesome portfolio on social media.

Instagram 

Instagram is a great place to showcase your work for one reason that is pretty obvious. You can display visuals. Pictures and videos are one the best ways to show prospective clients and employers the gear you’ve worked with, the types of training you’ve participated in or even the school you’ve attended.  It’s living proof of you working with a particular console or at a specific gig. When utilized correctly, Instagram can be a visual resume of what you can do, how you do it, with a hint of personality to give a little sense of who you are. As a freelancer or entrepreneur, you will possibly have more freedom in posting what you want from the gig. But always be sure to have social media postings cleared in a contract or have final approval from the overall facilitator of the event. Do not overdo the picture-taking. Remember, you’re working so you will have other important things taking place. Find the right time and prioritize accordingly. Maybe before soundcheck, or after the show get a few pictures of the board and some behind-the-scenes footage of the band showing their gratitude toward all your hard work that night. Get creative but do it within the right time frame.

Twitter 

My favorite platform of them all. There is so much you can do with Twitter to showcase your passions and interests. The best thing you can do on Twitter is engaged in a Twitter chat. Twitter chats allow you to connect with like-minded individuals in the industry. It also allows you to become a part of a community where you can share your knowledge, collaborate and learn from others. This will show you know at least minimum information about audio or production. Or it will show that you are beyond proficient in the subject matter. If you don’t give a lot of feedback or information, still participate. Ask questions to show you want to grow, have a strong passion and are willing to learn. Another great way to take advantage of Twitter is to post about your work. Share tips on how you EQ a particular instrument or share a blog post about a console and incorporate a known hashtag to correspond with the post. For example, below I share an article. I tag the company or person it is in relation to. I then use hashtags to connect my post to the community.

You can also use Twitter to post pictures and videos. When you post pictures and videos on Twitter it will create more engagement. This is exactly what you want, you want to be active so people have a reason to follow and connect with you. If you’re not active why would anyone want to follow you? Of course, you must continue to be professional on this platform as well. Don’t tweet about how unorganized a client is or how difficult a band was during a show. Your public timeline is not the place. Your professionalism and personality have to equally shine and reflect you in the same light across every social media outlet.

LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is the social platform created for professionals. This is the place where you always want to remain professional no matter what, this is not the place to post too many pictures or add videos. It’s very direct and straight to the point. On your profile you create a resume, make sure you keep your profile up to date, and keep any gaps in your work history to a minimum. After you have created your profile make sure you fill out every section in its entirety. Especially the skills section. This will allow people within your network to endorse your skillset.

For example, as a sound engineer, you would list skills like audio engineer, audio, sound, pro tools, music, etc. Over time as you build your network people will begin to endorse you and vouch for you in your particular skill sets. The skills listed on your profile will also lead you into groups that represent your skillset. There you will meet possible employers and other engineers looking to connect and build genuine relations that can lead to greater opportunities in a community of your peers.

Now, this platform is professional, but you still have to find a way to incorporate a hint of personality. You can do this but publishing articles on LinkedIn. Here you can write about audio and anything else you have a passion for. This way anyone looking at your profile for the first time gets your work history, schooling and a little taste of who you are as a person. You must stay active on LinkedIn so you don’t miss any job opportunities or a chance to connect with influencers and shot callers. LinkedIn is not the place to down-talk your previous employer or talk about any other personal business. Your colleagues within your network will become very annoyed if you do this and it will turn off any future leads.

Website 

This is the place where you bring it all together. Yes, websites can be expensive but there are a lot of ways to get a nice presentation of yourself up and running. Here are a few free sites where you can have a bio, a display of your work history, showcase your mixed content, and have the links to all your social media outlets in one place. Utilizing anyone of these free website developers will give you a specific online address and help people connect with you. There are many more free builders I’m sure, but find which one displays you and your work best and create your online address.

Some of the industry leaders that have paved the way for us say there is no place for social media in the workplace. But there is and it can possibly help advance your career if done in a proper way. Social media can generate clients and a variety of different gigs. Creating more revenue, more experience, and greater opportunities. Social platforms allow us to connect with community more than anything, the SoundGirls platform is living proof of that. If it was not for the SoundGirls Facebook group and website, I wouldn’t have connected with all you awesome people. We wouldn’t be learning from each other and sharing experiences and how to handle situations in the moment. If you are using any of these social platforms to create an awesome portfolio, please share below so we can all follow you and see how you’re building your portfolio.  

 

Alesia Hendley is an AV professional that found her passion at a young age as a sound engineer with her Father’s church. In the early stages of the church’s foundation, they couldn’t afford musicians. By utilizing audio and technology she and her Father found creative ways to go higher both musically and spiritually, taking the congregation with them. Now you can find her operating/installing audiovisual systems or executing creative ventures. As a young professional she’s finding ways to bring AV, creatives, and creative visions together in the effort to leave her mark by making an impact and not just an impression.

 

Los Angeles Intern Needed

PrintTime: Every Sunday

Call time: 7am

Band sound check: 9:30am

Service: 11am

Place: Paul Revere Charter Middle School

1450 Allenford Ave. Los Angeles. CA 90049

Console: Behringer X32

You will be assisting SoundGirl Member and Head of Audio Kate Lee. You will gain work experience setting up and tearing down backline and sound for the services working alongside Kate.

Candidates should have basic audio knowledge – signal flow, mic placement, wrapping cables, etc. This is not a paid internship – but you will gain work experience. Candidates should plan on interning for at least six weeks.

If interested please send cover letter and resume to soundgirls@soundgirls.org

 

Theatre Sound Heroes: Overview of the role of a Production Engineer

 

There’s an unsung hero in the world of theatre sound: the production engineer (PE).

As shows get bigger, sound systems become ever-more complex. Someone on your team has to make it all work together, and that person is the production engineer.

Put simply, the production engineer “works with the sound designer to physically and logistically realise the entire sound system from the microphones to the speakers and the kilometres of cable in-between” (Gareth Fry, Theatre Sound: Who Does What?, Lighting and Sound International, April 2015).

Every designer will approach a show from a unique perspective. Some designers focus on the creative aspect; others have a more practical hands-on approach. Most designers will have a definite idea of the speakers and other equipment they want to use and where. The PE makes this happen to the best of their ability and also suggests modifications to make it reliable, effective and adaptable enough to handle every quirky requirement that may come up during tech.

As with sound designers, PEs have different specialties, so it’s important to choose one that suits your show and the way you work as a sound designer. If networking is a crucial element of your show, it won’t make sense to hire a PE who is a master rigger but less knowledgeable when it comes to media networking technology.

Ideally, the PE should get involved with a show at the same time as the sound designer so that the sound design process can be as open as possible with all the creative team. Discussions with the production manager about the budget and integration of the speakers (and associated cabling) within a set are of particular importance.  Involving the PE early on in the process can also help pre-empt tricky situations down the line, for example, when a speaker position doesn’t work for the lighting designer.

The first job for a PE after initial discussions with the sound designer is to look at the size of the venue or space where the show will be staged. They’ll consider what the show needs, what the sound designer wants, how much it will cost, and build a system spec from this. As well as evaluating potential speaker positions, the PE also has to factor in whether the venue can physically support and accommodate the system. Where will racks and radio worlds be stationed? Is there enough power available where it’s needed? Where can cable runs go? Is the proscenium arch stable enough to support the hangs – an important consideration when you’re dealing with theatres that can be 100+ years old, as is quite common in the UK.

Once a system spec has been drawn up, it goes to the production manager to tender out to hire companies.

Having solid technical sound know-how is an indispensable part of a PE’s job. Just as important is their ability to manage relationships with three key stakeholders: the sound designer, the hire company, and the manufacturer(s).

The ideal relationship between a sound designer and PE is two-way. The sound designer needs to communicate their requirements so that the PE understands the show from the creative aspect as well as from a technical perspective. This way they can make informed decisions about the system without involving the sound designer at every stage. Is imaging or coverage more important for the show, for example? Does the design need to allow for high SPL, or is it more important for the speakers to be discretely integrated into the set? The better the PE understands the show, the more trust the sound designer will have in their ability to realise the design with the hire company.

The relationship between the hire company and the PE is important, as a lot of what the PE does is dictated by how the hire company works. Production engineers will, therefore, prefer to work with hire companies they know. Often a single hire company won’t be able to offer the exact system spec, in which case the spec will be redrawn and hire companies will suggest alternatives. It’s a balancing act: the PE needs to include all sound (and related AV and stage) elements of the show within the spec, and they also want to work within the resources of the hire company.Kirsty-Gillmore-Aug2016-pic2

At this point, a PE may want to involve different manufacturers to find alternative solutions for aspects of the design outside of the resources of the hire company. Keeping clear lines of communication with manufacturers is important. They can offer product-specific support as well as solutions to problems, based on their in-depth knowledge of their products. A PE may like to involve a particular manufacturer in the system spec to help them create a kit list before it’s sent to hire companies.

Of course, everything revolves around the budget. One of the central roles of the PE is to make practical decisions given the resources they have at their disposal. They may need to negotiate a compromise with the sound designer, convincing the sound designer of an effective alternative approach.

Once the spec is approved, the next step is for the PE to build the kit: stage racks, fly racks, multis, looms, the Deputy Stage Manager (DSM) post,  radio worlds and more. As well as realising the agreed spec, the PE must allow for changes that will invariably happen during the technical rehearsals, e.g. extra runs in the multicore for additional speakers. Then there’s evaluation, testing, and installation in the space, which may take days or even weeks for a large show. Followed by more testing, modifications, expansions and problem solving during the tech and dress rehearsals and previews, and finally, sign off when the show is up and running.

As you may have gathered, a great production engineer is worth their weight in gold. So if you’re a current or aspiring production engineer, let me know! I may have a job for you in the future.

 

 

Good Foundations – Part One

As a new monitor engineer, it can feel intimidating when the band turns up in front of you for the first time. Here’s a bunch of people who probably all know each other, who might be considerably older than you, and who all seem super-chilled and confident. And here’s you, about to play a major part in how they experience their gig, probably not knowing any of them and maybe feeling a little nervous. I’ve worked with a lot of different musicians in my 20+ years in the business, and in that time I’ve refined an ‘order of proceedings’ that has never let me down. Like so many things in live production, it mostly boils down to preparation, common sense and being methodical, and I’d like to share it with you in this two-part post.

This month we’ll look at the foundations you need to lay BEFORE you set eyes on your musos, and next month I’ll talk about how to proceed once you’re all in a room together and it’s time to make some noise. If you’re new to live work this should give you a good guide to getting started – and if you’ve been around the block a few times, I hope you’ll still find something of use here!

Step 1 – Get in Touch

So you’ve got a new gig – congratulations! Whilst it might be weeks or even months away, the work begins now – you need to get in touch with the people who can tell you the details. Depending on the scale of the show, that’s either the production manager, tour manager, PA company project manager, musical director or a member of the band. Good things to ask at this stage are the ‘W-H’ questions – who, what, where, when, how.

– Where do you need to be and when?

– Do you get to spec what gear you’d like, or are you using in-house?

– Where’s the gear coming from?

– How much prep / programming time is there, if any?

– How many people are in the band?

– What inputs are there?

– Do the band want in-ears, wedges, or a combination?

– Who’s mixing front of house?

And so on. Talking to the FOH engineer is a great idea at this stage – if they’re already working with the band, you can get most of the information you need about the stage set-up from them. If they’re new too, you can put your heads together and figure it out as a team. You need to think about what gear you want to use, and having one or two alternatives is a good idea – for example, I’ll always prefer a Digico, but a Yamaha PM5D is my second choice because you can get them anywhere in the world and they’re pretty much bomb-proof. And whilst I’d LIKE an SD7, I have to be sensible about budgets for artists with less money to spend – will an SD8, 9 or 10 do the job instead? For mics, I have my preferences but I’ll usually defer to the FOH engineer unless I feel strongly about something, because they have to cope with a far less controlled environment than I do.

Step 2 – Collate your info

When you have answers to your questions, start to get your paperwork together. It’s the dullest part of any gig, but being professional means being organised, and I promise you’ll thank yourself for it later! So make an input/output list if one doesn’t already exist, likewise a stage plot and spec (especially if you’re going places where you’re using local equipment) – Word and Excel are your friends. If you’re not sure what that all looks like, here are some examples: 

Example AUDIO RIDER – July 2016

Soundgirls example patch 2016

Soundgirls Stage plot example 2016

Be very clear and use the simplest, least ‘wordy’ language you can, especially if you’re going overseas. Think about little things like batteries – how many do you need per show? What about console software versions, which version will you be running? Don’t be shy about spec’ing things that might seem obvious, like comms and shout systems – the best gig in the world will fall over if you can’t communicate, and assumption is the mother of all f*** ups!

If there’s not much prep time, it’s a good idea to make yourself a template session file for your desk using the relevant offline editing software. Even if you just label and patch your inputs and outputs, punch in high pass filters, and set up some basic reverbs, it’s all-time saved on the day.

Step 3 – Share your info

Send your paperwork to the relevant people – FOH engineers, supply companies, production managers, house engineers (if you’re doing festivals for example). You need to know if there’s anything that can’t be supplied, any problems – it’s better to know now than find out later. Send that session file to the supply company or house engineer so they can load it up and linecheck the system. Print out a couple of copies of all the paperwork and have your session on a USB key. Get your toolkit together – if I’m doing a fly-gig where I can’t have my whole kit, I take a mini-kit with things I know I’ll need – black and white electrical tape, Sharpies, scissors, a Leatherman, RF scanner, multimeter, my in-ears, wipes and so on. If you’re prepping your gear, label everything to within an inch of its life – the simpler you can make things to set up, the quicker it will be – and labelling is priceless when things go wrong and you need to fault-find in a hurry.

Once you’ve done all that, you’re in good shape to load in and make some noise! Next month I’ll talk you through how I run things for soundchecking and getting the band’s mixes dialled in. Happy gigging!

A Teaching Guide to Monitors

This month we welcome a new Omani team member to our department. With only a few weeks left until the beginning of the season, we are focusing on desk training. In particular, programming for monitor engineering. This article can be used as a tried and tested teaching aid for those new to monitors.

We usually use our Digico SC9 or our Venue SC48 for monitors. This step-by-step guide can be used for any desk.

1. Get a copy of the rider. Check all the stage plans are clear and that you have enough information about who needs what mix and where. It is best to clear up any ambiguity at this stage so that your programming can be as ready as possible for when the band arrives. At the opera house, we always have a senior member of the department in charge of a show who is in communication with the visiting band. This can be an extremely difficult job as quite often English isn’t the first language of the visitors. We also have at least two members of the department assigned to the stage.

2. Use a template or set up a new show file to save your work to! Sounds obvious but during the season quick load-ins and outs can often mean that files are not saved accurately. We aim to back everything up to a USB stick too. Sometimes we may need to access files after a company has departed so this is important! Good practice is also crucial to our teaching objectives for the Omanisation programme.

3. If necessary ensure that the desk is set up in the correct configuration for inputs and outputs. Both our desks can be changed during programming but it is good to think these things through before you start. Using the stage plan and rider information, label all the inputs. Don’t forget the talk-back mic and FX returns. Check your gain structure and that all EQ’s are flat and compressors and gates are switched off. It is worth doing this now rather than trying to troubleshoot later.

4. Now label all the auxes. We like to add an extra two or three auxes for effects. Depending on the desk you will also need your own monitor aux – (cue).

5. Patching next. Depending on your set up check your desk patch. We have an optocore system so the desk is fed by madi. This should be nice and straightforward!

6. Now go back to your auxes. Referring to your rider you can feed a few inputs to mix auxes in preparation. For example, the drummer will probably want some kick in his sub. Less is best at this point.

7. Set up your FX auxes. We go for a couple of different reverbs. In most cases, the internal effects in the desks are quite ample. Sometimes bands ask for specific effects units. The set up is exactly the same procedure.

8. Use the FX return channels that you labeled on your inputs earlier. Remember not to send the FX back to itself (awful, awful feedback… just don’t do it).

9. Check and save!

Other things to consider:

– Digico (and other desks) have an iPad app so that you can control the desk remotely. This is useful after the soundcheck. You can walk around and make adjustments as the band are playing.

– In conjunction with this, consider having the monitor mix on a wireless belt-pack so that as you walk around you can solo mixes and actually hear what the musicians are hearing. This is especially useful to us when there is a language barrier! Up can surprisingly often be misconstrued as down!

– You might also want to insert a graphic EQ over each aux send. This will give you a bit of fine control if needed.

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