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The ABCs of Women in Theatre

Maybe it’s the quarantine getting to me, or maybe it’s the fact that two of my quarantine cellmates are six and eleven years old, but for this month’s blog, I decided to go a little Dr. Seuss on you!  I’ve given you the name of a woman of theatre you should definitely know of for (almost) every letter of the alphabet.  I’ll give you just a taste of the genius that each and every one of these women were and are, but if I were you, I’d take these names straight to Google to soak up every bit of info you can after you read this blog.  Enjoy!

A is for Aphra Behn to start this off right.  She was a seventeenth-century woman playwright.  It seems she was a leader in feminism too and wrote on hot topics, arranged marriage, to boot.

B is for Bradley, Lillian Trimble’s last name.  Being America’s first woman director is what gave her fame.  She loved Melodrama.  To her, it was the best.  She broke into the scene with her play, The Woman On The Index.

C is for Cheryl (and her last name) Crawford, too.  She was a producer when for women, it was new.  She founded Group Theater and Actors Studio when she moved to New York from Akron, Ohio.

D is for Dianne, her last name is Glancy.  She’s a Native American Playwright, specifically, Cherokee.  She’s published over ten plays and written even more.  She also writes literature and poetry galore.

E is for Eugenia Rosenthal, she went by Jean, for short.  She pioneered a path of the technical sort.  Born in 1912, she was always a climber, she paved the way for women lighting designers.

F is for Frances Goodrich, you want to know her.  She’s a 1956 Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner.  She and her husband, and this takes the cake, won those two prizes for their Diary of Anne Frank. 

G is for Georgia, in this case, Georgia Stitt.  She’s an American composer, and she’s the real sh*%!

H is for Hrotsvitha, a very FIRST first.  To leave her unmentioned would be just the worst.  She’s probably the very first woman playwright, a tenth-century nun, her art was a sight.

J Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron are the first women writing team to win the best score for Fun Home.  Another first definitely not to be missed, this musical featured the first lesbian protagonist.

K is for Kitty Clive, a diva of her era, she was one of the first to play the lead in The Beggar’s Opera.

L is for Lorraine Hansberry and remember this one.  The first black woman produced play on Broadway was hers: Raisin in the Sun.

M is for Micki Grant, she helped pave the way.  She’s one of the first women composers of Broadway.

N is for Nell Gwynne, 1650 English born.  At 14 she hit the stage, acting, of course.

P is for Peg, Peg Woffington of England.  She pioneered “breeches” roles, cross-dressing women.

R is for Rebecca.  Can you say Lenkiewicz?  Have you heard of her 2008 play, Naked Skin?  It was produced at National Theatre on the Mainstage, a first for a woman playwright during that day and age.

S is for Sara Barielles, we all love this queen.  She led the all-women creative team for Waitress in 2016.

T is for Tony (Antoniette) Perry.  You’ve heard of the Tony Awards, right?  Same Person.  That’s scary.

V is for Vinette Carroll, she directed on Broadway.  The first black woman to do so, by the way.

Z is for Zelda Fichandler.  In 1950, she founded Arena Stage in Washington DC.  Arena Stage won the first regional Tony in 1976 and was the first to move to Broadway a show of their pick.

These women are heroes, bad-ass superstars.  Let’s always make history remember who they are.  Through pandemic ramblings, or word-press, or pen, keep spreading the word of these powerful women.

 

Minimalist Mixing Techniques 

Hi SoundGirls! Back in January, I wrote about the recording process for a 16 song album I was working on at the time. Although I promised that my next blog would be about the mixing process, that took a pause because my last blog ended up being about my friend Tangela’s new podcast, “Women in Audio”. I was lucky enough to be her first guest, so for my March blog, I broke down some essential topics we talked about in the podcast, and provided links to it at the end. If you haven’t listened to the Women in Audio podcast yet- I suggest you do. She has multiple interviews streaming now, plus the conversations are fun and intriguing! You’ll definitely enjoy them.

With all that being said, we are circling back to the album I just wrapped and today’s blog will be about the mixing process, (YAY!).

You might’ve noticed the title for this month’s blog is called “Minimalist Mixing Techniques”, so you already know what I’m about to dive into…the art of NOT using 10,000 plug-ins on ONE song! Now, there is nothing wrong with that at all! If the song is calling for production, or if you want to just be creative with plug-ins…do it. There are certain artists or bands I work with that I like to get very creative with plug-ins, but in this instance- we didn’t go that route, and I wanted to talk about the steps I used to get the band their final product.

Here is the list of steps I would take from when I would first open up the session to when I sent them their first mix of the song:

Clean up your session

What I mean by “clean up your session” is- get rid of tracks you don’t need. Not using that DI track you captured? Hide and make inactive. If you have two tracks that could become 1 (ex. two mono overhead mic tracks)- create it as a stereo track. Make your starting base simple, so you can move through it seamlessly.

Set up your effects

Now that you’ve gotten rid of things you don’t need. Start adding in things you do need to create some depth in the mix. I would recommend only 2 (maybe 3) effects tracks since we are keeping this mix minimal. A reverb, delay, and a slap delay are pretty effective for any mix.

Start with the drums

The way I mix is I start with the drums soloed and then I move through the mix adding in each instrument at a time. For the drums, I would recommend bussing together the things that are the same (kick in/kick out, snare top/ snare bottom, etc), but don’t get too “bus” happy. One of the reasons I sometimes like to mix minimally is because it’s easy to have control over your mix when you don’t have too many things bussing into one another (aka phase issues, and your mix could get muddy if you lose control of the low end).

EQ

Eq is always incredibly important in any mixing process. I think it’s usually best to eq minimally, and if you’re capturing things well in the studio you shouldn’t have to do TOO much of it on the back end anyways. With this, I would recommend practicing using pro-tools stock eq so you can focus on using your ears instead of your eyes. You’ll question the eq moves you make more than you would vice versa (which results in minimalist eq techniques). That will also help you avoid phases that you may create yourself by eq-ing too much.

Compression

When mixing minimally, compression is key. You want to keep the dynamics of the song, but you don’t want things poking out of the mix when they shouldn’t be! I think the most prevalent two things to compress in a minimal mix are the snare and the bass. Obviously, compress the kick, guitars, vocals, as need be, but I’d say the snare and the bass you will want to focus on most. Since we are keeping it simple, keep a small ratio, set your attack/release (all dependent on the instrument), and slowly add in the threshold. Keep it on the lighter side though. Remember, we want those dynamics there!

Bussing

I kind of went over this in the “drums” paragraph, but to go into more detail, I will say- bus together with the things that make sense and make the mixing process easier for you. The reason I would bus the kick in/kick out together is that I have more control over the total sound of the kick through eq AND compression. It would be the same thought process for two guitar mics on the same amp, and so on.

That’s the gist of mixing minimally. I hope this blog helps you go outside of your comfort zone, and trust your ears a bit more. That’s what mixing this way has done for me!

I hope everyone is staying safe, healthy, and creative out there! No matter what, never stop making music or doing what you love.

Until next time SoundGirls, and as always- feel free to email me at virginia@backbeat365.com.

 

 

Basic Networking For Live Sound Engineers 

Part One: Defining A Network

The World of Audio Over IP

There is a certain sense of security that comes from physically plugging a cable made of copper from one device to another. On some level my engineer brain finds comfort believing that, “As long as I patch this end to that end correctly and the integrity of the cable itself has not been compromised, the signal will get from Point A to Point B.”  I believe one of the most daunting aspects of understanding networked audio, and audio-over-IP in general, stems from the feeling of self-induced, psychological uncertainty in one’s ability to “physically” route one thing to another. I mean, after all these years consoles still have faders, buttons, and knobs because people enjoy the tactile feedback of performing a move related to their task in audio.

The psychological hurdle that must be overcome is that a network can be much like a copper multicore snake, sending multiple signals all over the place. The beauty and power of it is that it has so much more adaptability than our old copper friend. We can send larger quantities of high-quality signal around the world: a task that would be financially and physically impractical for a single project using physical wires. In this first blog, part 1 of a 3 part series, I will attempt to overview a basic understanding of what a network is and how we can create and connect to a network.

What Is A Network?

A network can refer to any group of things that interconnect to transfer data: think of a “social network” where a group of individuals exchange ideas in person or over the Internet. Cisco Systems (one of the biggest juggernauts of the industrial networking world) defines a network as “two or more connected computers that can share resources such as data, a printer, and Internet connection, applications, or a combination of these resources” (Cisco, 2006 [1]). We commonly see networks created using wired systems, Wi-Fi, or a combination of these. Wired systems build a network using physical Ethernet connections (Cat5e/Cat6 cabling) or fiber, while Wi-Fi uses radio frequencies to carry signals from device to device. “Wi-Fi” is a marketing term for the technology that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) define in standards 802.11, and we could dedicate an entire blog just to discussing this topic [2].

 

Unicast vs. Multicast

In a given network using the TCP/IP protocol, which stands for “Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol”, devices exchange packets of data by requesting and responding to messages sent to one another. In a unicast message, one device talks directly to another as a point-to-point transmission. In a multicast message, one device can broadcast a message to multiple devices at once. To understand how devices exchange messages to one another, we must understand how IP and MAC addresses work.

I like to think of a data network like a department in a tour: there are the audio, lighting, video, and other departments, and each department has its own participants who communicate with each other within their own department. Let’s look at the analogy of a network compared to the audio department. Each individual, (the monitor engineer, PA techs, systems engineer, FOH Engineer, etc.), act as discrete hosts performing tasks like a computer or amplifier talking to one another on a data network. Every device has a unique MAC address, which stands for “Media Access Control” Address and, like the name of each person on a crew (except 48-bit and written in hexadecimal [3]), is unique to the hardware of a device on a network. An IP address is a 32-bit number written as 4 octets (if translated into binary) and is specific to devices within the same network [4]. Think of an IP address as different from a MAC address like a nickname is to a given name. There may be several folks nicknamed “Jay” on a crew, maybe Jennifer in Audio and John in Lighting, but as long as “Jay” is talking to people locally in the same department, the other hosts will know who “Jay” is being referred to.

These two networks (or tour departments) are not local to the same network

MAC addresses are specific to hardware, but IP addresses can be “reused” as long as there are no conflicts with another device of the same address within the same local network. A group of devices in the same IP range is called a LAN or Local Area Network. LANs can vary from basic to complex networks and are seen everywhere from the Wi-Fi network in our homes to a network of in-ear monitor transmitters and wireless microphone receivers connected to a laptop. So how do these devices talk to each other within a LAN?

IP Addresses and Subnet Masks within a LAN:

Let’s create a simple LAN of a laptop and a network-capable wireless microphone receiver and dive deep into understanding what composes an IP address. The computer has an IP address that is associated with it via its MAC address and the same goes for the receiver. In Figure A the two devices are directly connected from the network adapter of one to the other with an Ethernet Cat 6 cable.

Figure A

The IP address of the laptop is 192.168.1.1 and the IP address of the receiver is 192.168.1.20. Each of the four numbers separated by a period actually translates to an octet (8 bits) of binary. This is important because both devices are on the same subnet 192.168.1.XXX. A subnet is a way of dividing a network by having devices only look at other devices that are within their same network as defined by their subnet mask. There are 254 addresses available on the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. According to a Microsoft article, “Understanding TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics”, XXX.XXX.XXX.0 is used to specify a network “without specifying a host” and XXX.XXX.XXX.255 is used to “broadcast a message to every host on the network” [5]. So, in this network example, neither the computer nor the receiver can use the IP addresses 192.168.1.0 or 192.168.1.255 because those addresses are reserved for the network and for broadcast. But how does the computer know to look for the receiver in the 192.168.1.XXX IP address range? Why doesn’t it look at 10.0.0.20? This has to do with the subnet mask of each device.

Let me give you a little history about these numbers: believe it or not, but there is an organization whose main gig is to assign IP addresses in the public Internet. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages IP addresses that connect you and your Internet Service provider (ISP) to the World Wide Web. In order to prevent conflicts with the IP addresses that connect with the Internet, the IANA enforces a set of standards created by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). One set of standards referred to as RFC 1918 [6] reserves a specific set of IP ranges for private networks, like the example 192.168.1.XXX. That means that anyone can use them within their own LAN, as long as it does not connect to the Internet. To understand more about how our computers connect to the Internet, we have to talk about DNS and gateways, which is beyond the scope of this blog. The key for our laptop and receiver to determine whether another device is local to their LAN lies in the subnet mask. Both devices in Figure A have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Each set of numbers, like the IP address, corresponds to an octet of binary. The difference is that instead of indicating a specific number, it indicates the number of available values for addresses in that range. The subnet mask becomes a lot easier to understand once you think about it in its true binary form. But trust me, once you understand what a subnet mask ACTUALLY refers to in binary, you will better understand how it refers to available IP addresses in the subnet.

A subnet mask is composed of 4 octets in binary. If we filled every bit in each octet except for the last and translated it to its true binary form we would get a subnet mask that looks like this:

255.255.255.0 can also be written as 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000

Binary is base two and reflects an “on” or “off” value, which means that each position of each bit in the octet, whether it is zero or one, can mathematically equal 2^n (2 to the nth power) until you get to the 8th position.

The octet XXXXXXXX (value X in octet of either 1 or 0) can also be written as:

(2^7)+(2^6)+(2^5)+(2^4)+(2^3)+(2^2)+(2^1)+(2^0)

Binary math is simply done by “filling in” the position of the bit in the octet with a “true” value and then calculating the math from there. In other words, a binary octet of 11000000 (underlines added for emphasis) can be interpreted as

(2^7)+(2^6)+(0^5)+(0^4)+(0^3)+(0^2)+(0^1)+(0^0)=192

OK, OK, roll with me here. So if we do the binary math for all values in the octet being “true” or 1 then in the previous example,

11111111=(2^7)+(2^6)+(2^5)+(2^4)+(2^3)+(2^2)+(2^1)+(2^0)=255

So if we refer back to the first subnet mask example, we can discern based on the binary math that:

11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000=255.255.255.0

When a value is “true” or 1 in a bit in an octet, that position has been “filled” and no other values can be placed there. Think of each octet like a highway: each highway has 8 lanes that can fit up to 254 cars/hosts total on the highway (remember it is base 2 math and the values of 0 and 255 are accounted for). A value of 1 means that the lane has been filled by 2^n cars/hosts where n=lane position on the highway and the lanes count starting at 0 (because it is a computer). So to add another car, it must move to the next lane to the left or bit position. For example, if you climb up from 00000011 to 00000111 each 1 acts like cars filling up a lane, and if the lane is filled, the next bit moves on to the next left lane.

 

Each position of a bit is like a lane on a highway (top), when the value of the lowest bit is “filled” or True (remember this is an analogy, really it’s either binary On or Off), the ascending value “spills” over to the next bit (bottom) 

So why do we care about this? Well if a device has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 or 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 that means that all the binary values of the first 3 octets must match with the other devices in order for them to be considered to be “local” to the same local network. The only values or lanes “available” for hosts are in the last octet (hence the zeroes). So going back to Figure A our computer and wireless network both have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 which indicates that the first 3 octets of the IP address on both devices MUST be the same on both devices for them to talk to each other AND there are only 254 available IP addresses for hosts on the network (192.168.1-254). Indeed both the laptop and receiver are local because they both are on the 192.168.1.XXX subnet, and the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 only “allows” them to talk to devices within that local network.

In this example, we talked about devices given static IP addresses as opposed to addresses created using DHCP. In a static IP address, the user or network administrator defines the IP address for the device whereas a device set to DHCP, or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, looks to the network to determine what is the current available address for the device and assigns it to that device on a lease basis [7]. In the world of audio, the type of network addressing you choose for your system may vary from application to application, but static IP addressing is commonly preferred due to the ability for the operator to specify the exact range they want the devices to operate in as opposed to leaving it up to the network to decide. Returning to our earlier analogy of the audio department on a tour, each host needs a way to communicate with one another and also to other departments. What if the PA tech needs to talk to someone in the outside network of the lighting department? This is where routers and switches come into play.

A switch and a router often get referred to interchangeably when in fact they perform two different functions. A switch is a device that allows for data packets to be sent between devices on the same network. Switches have tables of MAC addresses on the same local network that they use to reference when sending data packets between devices. A router works by identifying IP addresses of different devices, and “directing traffic” by acting as a way to connect devices over separate networks. Routers do this by creating a “routing table” of IP addresses and when a device makes a request to talk to another device, it can reference its table to find the corresponding device to forward that message [8]. Routers are kind of like department crew chiefs where you can give them a message to be delivered to another department.

 

Routers can connect separate networks to allow them to talk to one another

Routers often get confused with their close relative the access point, and though you can use a router to function similarly to an access point, an access point cannot be a router. Routers and access points come up often in wireless applications as a way to remotely get into a network. The difference is that access points allow you to get into a specific local network or expand the current network. Unlike a router, access points do not have the capability to send messages to another network outside the LAN.

So now let’s say we want to add another device to our network in Figure A and we don’t need to cross into another network. For example, we want to add an in-ear monitor transmitter. One method we can use is to add a switch to connect all the devices.

Network from Figure A with an IEM transmitter added, all talking via a switch

The switch connects the three devices all on the same local network of 192.168.1.XXX. You can tell that they are all local to this network because they have the subnet mask 255.255.255.0, therefore all devices are only looking to “talk” to messages on 192.168.1.XXX since only the values in the last octet are available for host IP addresses. Voilà! We have created our first LAN!

It may seem daunting at first, but understanding the binary behind the numbering in IP addresses and subnet masks are the key to understanding how devices know what other hosts are considered to be on their local network or LAN. With the help of switches and access points, we can expand this local network and with the addition of routers, we can include other networks. Using these expanding devices allows us to divide our network further into different topologies. In the next blog, this concept will be expanded further in Basic Networking For Live Sound Part 2: Dividing A Network. Stay tuned!

If you want to learn more about networking, there are some GREAT resources available to you online! Check out training from companies such as:

https://www.audinate.com/learning/training-certification

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications.html

https://avnu.org/training/

And more!

Endnotes

[1]https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/global/fi_fi/assets/docs/SMB_University_120307_Networking_Fundamentals.pdf

[2] https://www.cisco.com/c/en_ca/products/wireless/what-is-wifi.html

[3] https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource_library/files/89301711029b9788/networking_fundamentals_for_dante.pdf

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/164015/understanding-tcp-ip-addressing-and-subnetting-basics

[6] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918

[7] https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/faq/firewall/what-is-dhcp-and-what-does-it-do

[8] https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business/resource-center/networking/how-does-a-router-work.html#~what-does-a-router-do

Resources:

Audinate. (n.d.). Dante Certification Program. https://www.audinate.com/learning/training-certification/dante-certification-program

Audio Technica U.S., Inc. (2014, November 5). Networking Fundamentals for Dante. https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource_library/files/89301711029b9788/networking_fundamentals_for_dante.pdf

Cisco. (n.d.) How Does a Router Work? https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business/resource-center/networking/how-does-a-router-work.html

Cisco. (2006). Networking Fundamentals. In SMB University: Selling Cisco SMB Foundation Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/global/fi_fi/assets/docs/SMB_University_120307_Networking_Fundamentals.pdf

Cisco. (n.d.) What Is Wi-Fi? https://www.cisco.com/c/en_ca/products/wireless/what-is-wifi.html

D-Link. (2012-2018). What is DHCP and what does it do? https://eu.dlink.com/uk/en/support/faq/firewall/what-is-dhcp-and-what-does-it-do

Encyclopedia Brittanica. (n.d.). TCP/IP Internet Protocols. In Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/technology/domain-name

Generate Random MAC Addresses. (2020). Browserling. https://www.browserling.com/tools/random-mac

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. (2020, April 21). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority

Internet Engineering Task Force. (1996). Address Allocation for Private Internets (RFC 1918). Retrieved from https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918

Microsoft Support. (2019, December 19). Understanding TCP/IP addressing and subnetting basics. https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/164015/understanding-tcp-ip-addressing-and-subnetting-basics

Thomas, Jajish. (n.d.).What are Routing and Switching | Difference between Routing and Switching. OmniSecu.com. https://www.omnisecu.com/cisco-certified-network-associate-ccna/what-are-routing-and-switching.php

Fernanda Starling- Staying Versatile

From the mountains of Brazil to the hills of Los Angeles, Fernanda Starling has come a long way in her career in audio.

Fernanda was raised in Belo Horizonte (or “beautiful horizon” in English), the capital city of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. Surrounded by mountains, “Beagá”– as it is known to locals – is a cultural capital. It is particularly known for giving birth to the progressive-jazz-folk musician collective Clube da Esquina, who are regarded as the founders of one of the most important Brazilian musical movements. In the shadows of this popular music scene, a number of heavy metal bands were founded, including the legendary Sepultura.

Fernanda spent her teenage years going to a variety of concerts and eventually started learning how to play bass. In 2002, she formed her first original band with two other musicians. They recorded their demo with André Cabelo, a well-known local audio engineer and owner of Estúdio Engenho. This was her introduction to the world of professional audio. “For the following one-and-a-half to two years, I kept bumping into André at live concerts,” she recalls. “One of those nights, he mentioned that his studio was so busy that he was thinking about getting an intern. Even though I was already working as a journalist full-time, I didn’t think twice about taking the opportunity.”

She immediately immersed herself in the process of studio recording and editing for music. At the end of 2004, after several months of assisting on recordings and mixings, Fernanda was hired by Cabelo: “his studio became my audio school.  It was a non-stop recording environment: we often did three sessions per day, generally with three different artists, of all genres”.

Her proven studio recording abilities also led her to receive a federal grant to work as the main Audio Engineer for the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) School of Music. There, she was responsible for recording and mixing classical albums as a member of an all-women research group between 2007 and 2009. This particular recording project was noteworthy, as it catalogued, recorded, and published more than 250 classical songs written by Brazilian composers for the first time.

As an avid learner, Fernanda also chose to complete an intensive certificate course called “Fundamentals in Audio and Acoustics” at the Institute of Audio and Video in São Paulo.

In the Heart of the Music Industry

In 2010, Fernanda moved to Los Angeles to continue pursuing her education in music production. She completed a certificate in Independent Music Production at UCLA Extension in 2012 and then started an Optional Practical Training program right after graduation, which allowed her to pursue work in her field.  Although some might think going back to school later in life would be difficult, Fernanda speaks highly of the experience: “I don’t regret going back to school full-time. It gave me the opportunity to immerse myself into a different culture and meet important industry professionals who still influence my life to this day.”

One of those key people is a music producer and audio engineer Peter Barker. Barker is the co-owner of Threshold Sound + Vision, where Fernanda interned. Under his guidance, she started working as a post-production sound editor and mixer assistant. By the end of 2016, Fernanda had worked alongside Barker on the 5.1 mixes for numerous DVD/Blu-ray projects, such as Dio’s “Finding the Sacred Heart – Live In Philly 1986”, Alan Jackson’s “Keepin’ It Country Tour!”, and Heart’s “Live at the Royal Albert Hall”.

Gradually, Fernanda found herself gravitating from studio recording to film and television audio, where there were more job opportunities. She invested in a full production sound kit and owns all the equipment that is needed to record professional audio on film sets. Since 2013, she has worked as a “one-man band”, providing field recording and mixing for independent short and feature films, commercials, TV shows, and documentaries.

Breaking into Live TV 

On the Broadcast side, Fernanda stays busy as a Pro Tools Operator/Recordist for live and live-to-tape productions. Her credits include big shows such as Celebrity Family Feud, Grease Live!, MTV Video and Music Awards, The Christmas Story Live! and The Oscars. Typically, she works from remote TV units: “besides the audio broadcast truck, responsible for the mixing of the production elements, music and concert productions also require an additional truck – or even two, depending on the complexity – to handle the music mix of the live performances.”

Fernanda in the Mojave Desert recording sound for the tv series “Big Red: The Original Outlaw Race” (NBC Sports).

Since 2016, she has also worked with Music Mix Mobile West (M3W), an award-winning remote facility company that specializes in recording and mixing music for broadcast. M3W regularly handles audio for award shows and live music performances on television, such as The MTV Movie & TV Awards, the Grammy Legends Award, iHeartRadio Music Festival, iHeartRadio Jingle Ball and KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas. Asked why she likes broadcast audio, Fernanda states: “the complexity and live element make it both a challenging and fascinating environment. These types of television productions typically encompass 160 inputs (and up to 192!) and feature numerous live performances with quick changeovers, so the multi-track recording plays a crucial role. What you hear on air is always a live mix, but the mix settings are prepared in advance.”

In the lead-up to the event, she records the soundchecks & rehearsals. Once the act leaves the stage, she plays back the captured audio so the music mixer can revisit the songs, fine-tune the mix and create snapshots for the live show. Alongside M3W’s co-owners, the renowned audio engineers’ Bob Wartinbee and Mark Linett, Fernanda has recorded countless A-list acts such as John Mayer, Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Beck, Lady Gaga, and Alicia Keys.

Her credits also include working as an assistant and audio engineer for the multi-Emmy Award-winning sound engineer/ playback mixer Pablo Munguia, who she met while studying at UCLA.  She has worked alongside him in music playback mixing for The Grammy Awards, The American Music Awards, The Oscars, and The Emmy Awards, amongst others. For these award shows, Fernanda is responsible for building and testing the playback systems at the shop and then assisting Munguia on whatever he needs during the production.

A multi-talented engineer, Fernanda is grateful for all the opportunities she has had in the entertainment industry: “being able to stay true to my musical roots and working with legendary audio engineers is definitely one of the best parts of the job!”

You studied journalism at university. Do you wish you had had the opportunity to study audio engineering first?

Is audio engineering school really worth it? This is a common question and I have always wondered that myself. To be sincere with you, after I had finished high school and had to pick a career, I didn’t even know that audio was an option… The reality in Brazil is different from North America.  I became more familiar with the audio world while working as a journalist.

Back when I started my post-secondary education, there were no universities offering a bachelor’s degree in audio. There are a few private audio schools in Brazil, most of them in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, but they just offered short-term certificate programs. Today, if I am correct, there is actually one university in Brazil offering a degree in audio engineering.

The way I’ve always tried to compensate for the lack of having an audio diploma is taking multiple short-term courses and classes to fill specific gaps in my knowledge as I advanced in my career.

It seems that the audio industry is much different in Brazil then what we experience in North America. Can you speak to the differences? 

Like I mentioned above, there is little access to formal education in audio. Besides that, the limited access to professional high-end gear may be one of the biggest differences. Brazil’s tariff regime is ridiculous! Imported manufactured products are subject to a wide range of taxes at all stages of the chain. Because of that, the final price of an audiovisual product is two to three times more expensive than it would be in the US. Therefore, independent studios in Brazil are not as well equipped as the American ones. One of the first lessons I learned from my first studio mentor, André Cabelo, was that gear is not the most important thing in the business: neither for making a good mix or to build and keep your clientele. What counts most is mastering the craft, having a relationship of trust between artist and the engineer, and creating a welcoming environment.

Another difference is that federal government incentives play a big role in the Brazilian audiovisual and music production world, particularly in the independent scene. Maybe because of that and other cultural aspects, independent Brazilian artists get more of a chance to perceive music as more of an art then as a product?

Can you explain what you mean by these federal government incentives? 

There are numerous kinds of tax relief, i.e. tax benefits and incentives at all levels of government (federal, state, and local) in Brazil. Some grants, for example, are based on fiscal incentives that allow for companies or individuals to invest a share of their income in cultural projects in exchange for a tax reduction. Those benefits not only help to promote and democratize the access to culture but also directly supports independent artists. When an artist receives a grant, they can dedicate themselves to their craft, record & promote their album without worrying about working multiple jobs to fund their musical career. Besides helping musicians directly, these policies also benefit studio owners, audio engineers, and other professionals involved in the Brazilian music industry.

I will say I was shocked when I arrived in the US in 2010. I was used to a non-stop recording environment back in Brazil and it seemed that here, very few independent artists had the budget or opportunity to go to the studio and record full albums.

What about the TV Broadcast and film Industries? What are the biggest differences between America & Brazil? 

When we talk about TV programmers and filmmaking, it is almost unfair to compare the production capabilities of both countries. This is because of the difference in the size of their populations, and the difference in the ability to recover production costs domestically. It is often cheaper for Brazilian media companies to buy series & films from the US than to produce their own. In Brazil, the content produced outside the TV broadcasters, including film, is reduced and depends on government incentives.

Another difference is that broadcast TV is an extremely concentrated sector in Brazil, dominated by Rede Globo. They are one of the largest commercial television corporations outside of the United States and the largest producer of telenovelas (soap operas) in the world. Generally speaking, the US is famous for producing and exporting film, while Brazil is famous for producing and exporting telenovelas. It’s actually really impressive what the Brazilian TV industry has managed to create:  there are three original soaps going out every evening, and each series lasts approximately 200 episodes.

Can you tell us more about your experiences as a musician?

The FuDogs at the “Venice Beach Music Festival

Although music is my passion, I also had to focus on my careers, which were first journalist and then audio engineer. The best bands I played in were the ska ones. I Brazil I had a 7-piece ska band called Os Inflamáveis (The Inflammables). We had tons of fun playing together in small venues and festivals. Before I left Brazil, we were playing every Sunday at a local pub. I used to say that playing ska is my therapy: the bass lines are interesting to play, and the music lifts you up! I also joined other bands while I lived in Béaga and played as a hired musician for an artist called Makely Ka, but Os Inflamáveis was by far my favorite experience.

When I moved to LA, I really missed playing in bands. One day, out of curiosity, I checked the musician section on Craigslist and I couldn’t believe my eyes! There was a post about an opening for a bass player in a local ska band and went to audition.  I passed the audition and joined the Fu Dogs, we played together for five years at several special events in Santa Monica and Venice, as well as well-known venues like The Roxy.  I also played briefly with an original power trio called Bombay Beach Revival, and with FEMZeppelin, a female Led Zeppelin cover band.

It seems that Belo Horizonte had a vivid independent music scene. Besides playing in bands, is there anything else you miss? 

I would say that it’s quite easy to become a workaholic when you live in LA, especially when you love what you do. I definitely miss Beagá’s nightlife and the social life I used to have… There was always something to do! If I wasn’t going to my friends’ concert, I was bumping into them at cultural events or festivals or we were enjoying a good conversation at the bar. This popular local saying perfectly sums up life in my hometown: “se não tem mar, vamos pro bar” (we have no sea, let’s go the bar).

What is your favorite piece of gear?

I don’t have a particular one any recording device fascinates me for its capacity of capturing the uniqueness of a specific moment and then being able to play it back later!

I do use redundant Pro Tools Systems for broadcast recordings and Sound Device’s 633 mixer/recorder for my one-band-man field recording. At M3W’s studio truck, I oversee running a redundant Pro Tools MADI System (up to 196 inputs each) for audio recording (one as backup) and a satellite system for video playback locked to either of the recorders. I also like combining a flying pack of Pro Tools Madi and Sound Devices 970 when I have a gig that requires redundancy and a high track count below 64 inputs.

What advice would you give to young women looking to get into the audio field?

Try to learn from other people’s experiences. Surround yourself with those who know more than you. Read manuals. Be open to changes. Be professional. Understand the psychological aspect of working with artists… And remember that there is no right or wrong path, just keep working on your skills, take care of your emotional health, be worthy of trust, and be patient.

The SoundGirls Podcast Fernanda Starling: Live sound broadcast mixer, post-production, SKA bassist

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent – Profiles of Women in Audio

 

SoundGirls Secondary Skills Series – Tour Managing

Working in professional audio is tough in the best of circumstances, COVID-19 has made this much more difficult and impossible in live events and the filming side. (We expect this will start trickling down to the post-production side soon)

SoundGirls is launching a series of webinars to help you develop secondary skills that can help you become more versatile in the types of gigs you can take.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Wearing Two Hats.

Zoom Webinars

May 11 Basic Intro to Tour Managing

May 18 – Pre-Tour Organization, Creating a Budget and Advancing

May 25 – Day of Show

6 PM to 8 PM EST

Register Here – a link to the webinar will be emailed to you

When starting out as a Live Sound Engineer, you will encounter gigs that require you to wear two hats. The Tour Manager or Production Manager and Sound Engineer are the most common dual roles you will encounter. Being able to handle both roles effectively will make you more valuable, increase your skillset, and allow you to gain the experience you need to tour solely as a Sound Engineer or Tour Manager.

What do you need to know to tour manage? Tour managing is similar to herding cats. Why would anyone want to herd cats? It’s difficult, time-consuming, and the cats don’t like it. These days touring budgets are shrinking and the crews are often smaller. This means when you are starting your career in live sound, you will be required to do more than one job. Engineer/TM/PM is a favorite combination.  If you gain the skills to TM/Engineer, you will be paid more and make yourself more valuable.

 

Moderated by Misty Roberts – A veteran Tour Manager and Coordinator of 20+ years, Misty has been pivotal in opening up the conversation regarding Mental Health in touring.  As a leading member of Show Maker Symposium, she is helping to develop content in these times of need to assist her industry peers.  As the founding member of the Women In Touring Summit, she continues to advocate for change in the touring industry on behalf of the 1,800 members of the group.

In addition to guiding the conversation with mental health and substance abuse professionals on the I’m With the Crew weekly webinar which addresses mental resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic, Misty also hosts the Tales From Seat 4A podcast- providing interviews with industry heavy hitters in the creative fields of comedy, music touring and movie production.  Slowly she’s finding her comfortable spot being in front of the camera instead of behind it.

 

Dana Wachs is a Brooklyn based Audio Engineer, Tour Manager, and Composer/Musician. Dana started her career in music in 1994, as bass player for the Dischord band Holy Rollers, which ignited her interest in live sound, after a national tour supporting 7 Year Bitch. Her first foray into the practice of live sound began after that at the Black Cat DC, and later the infamous 9:30 club.

Dana’s first national tour was as TM/FOH for Peaches supporting Queens of the Stone Age in 2002.  Her first International tour quickly followed in 2003 with Cat Power.  Since then, touring has kept her on the road 9 to 11 months out of the year with bands such as MGMT, St. Vincent, M.I.A., Grizzly Bear, Foster the People, Nils Frahm, Deerhunter, and Jon Hopkins to name a few.

Outside of touring, Dana composes and performs under the name Vorhees, with two releases on Styles Upon Styles (Brooklyn), and is currently composing her first feature film score.

Mary Broadbent is a Tour Manager, Production Manager, and Guitar-Backline Tech who’s been in the music touring industry for 16+ years. She’s tour managed for artists such as The Mowglis, The Staves, Loote, Wrabel, Plain White T’s, and production managed/stage-managed the festival Girlschool and She Rocks Awards 2018 & 2020. In 2015 she added Guitar-Backline teching to her skillset working for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Mowglis, The Staves, Plain White T’s, and Tegan and Sara. She serves as a TM/PM mainly but pulls double duty Tour Managing & Teching when tours require it. She finished off 2019 Tour Managing for Clairo on her Immunity Tour in the US & Europe and started off 2020 Guitar Teching for Against Me!  when the industry was put on pause by Covid-19. She lives in Los Angeles, and is using this ‘ pause ‘ in the touring world to take a Mixing Live Sound Course and advancing her on-going guitar lessons.

Maxime Brunet is a Canadian freelance FOH engineer and has worked as a Tour Manager. She has toured internationally with artists such as Wolf Parade, and Operators, amongst others. She has also developed an intro to live sound class aimed at women and non-binary musicians, which she has taught in multiple cities across Canada.

Tiffany Hendren - Dedication, Hard Work and EmotionTiffany Hendren is a full-time sound engineer and head audio tech at Del Mar Hall in St. Louis. She has toured as FOH Engineer and Tour Manager for Betty Who. She is also a co-director of SoundGirls.

 

Beginner Speaker Design 

A mix is only as good as the speakers that it is played on. That is a phrase that I have heard many times. The current global situation regarding COVID-19 has many individuals turning to crafts and DIY trends to keep from going insane. Depending upon what kind of tools and materials you have access to, this could be a helpful guide or just something enjoyable to read to pass the time.

When I built my speakers last year, I vastly underestimated the amount of woodworking experience I would need to construct the unique shape of my cabinets. It is incredibly important to be safe when working with power tools and to avoid working alone. Let someone know what you are doing and where you will be. Please, stay safe.

That being said, there are many things to know before construction. Designing speakers is a whole other beast. Before I started to design, I needed to answer questions like, what is their purpose, what kind of room they would be in, and what I would like them to look like. This allowed me to form a basis to work off of and led me to more technical specifications.

This is before I even decided between a sealed or ported/reflex enclosure. For those who may not know the difference, ported speakers have a port that provides a boost in the lower frequencies while sealed speakers do not have a port. Sealed enclosures have a better transient response and are preferred as reference speakers. You might prefer one over the other, depending upon what you plan to use your speakers for. It is also a good idea to do some testing and gathering of data about your own listening preferences to help infer your decision-making process. Good information to have maybe your preference on SPL range, a frequency response that you might need for the work you do, or even how much weight you can carry since you will be the one transporting them.

I performed simple SPL tests throughout my day while working. I noticed that I liked things quieter in the morning with a peak of around 90dB by late afternoon. As for size and weight, I lived on the top floor of an elevator-less building. I did not want to haul huge, floor-standing speakers up any steps. So I settled for some smaller desk monitors in the 25-45lb range. This brings us to my favorite part, frequency response.

This part of my technical preproduction did influence a large part of my design. I was firm about my goals regarding frequency and transient response. I designed these to be reference speakers. This means I wanted the sound that came out of the speakers to be as accurate as possible to the original source, without any coloration. I wanted a maximum frequency range for the size that they were with a tight transient response for detail work and mixing. What more could one ask for?

Well, bass. I would later come to realize you will always want more low frequency.

There was another goal that I was set on and that was cabinet shape. I wasn’t satisfied with the conventional rectangular enclosure shape. While doing research, I came across a paper by H.F. Olson titled Direct Radiator Loudspeaker Enclosures. This was what cemented my decision to construct a unique cabinet shape.

Olson called it a rectangular truncated pyramid or parallelepiped combination. My professor at the time called them the Superman badge shape. They looked a little bit like coffins to me. All of this being said, this is where I made things extremely difficult for myself.

I am proud to say that I may be an intermediate woodworker now, but before I built these cabinets I was absolutely a beginner. Special tools were needed to create the shape of these speakers and I was constantly working with small angles and precision. The somewhat curved or angled front of the enclosure is what gives the speaker a wide stereo image and smooth off-axis response. Having a smooth off-axis response allows for easy listening in many different positions in front of the speaker, not just center. I do a lot of work with spatial and immersive audio and it was crucial that I had a wide stereo image. It also minimized beaming effects that many typical rectangular cabinets have.

 

Photo Credit Christopher Plummer

I am not going to forget to mention how I chose what drivers to use. I looked over many frequency response charts, paired woofers and tweeters to see which would be the best potential matches, modeled woofers, all in preparation for the final decision. This part of the design process is difficult because you can’t get a clear understanding of what the driver is going to sound like until it is in the enclosure. It was also tough, because of the cost. Drivers can be really expensive and for the average undergrad, this was not a fun decision.

The name of my speakers are the Kitten Koffins. For anyone who doesn’t know me, I am a proud, crazy cat lady. Their coffin-like shape combined with my personal touch suited them well. They are sealed reference speakers with an F3 of about 70 Hz. This refers to the point at which the signal from the loudspeaker drops 3 dB its normal SPL output. The speakers have a flat frequency response with a few places being +2/-2 dB. There is a slight 2 dB bump from 80 to 200 Hz which I am keeping until I can build a sub for the system. The low end was something I had to compromise on, but I had a plan to later add on to my set up so that it wouldn’t be such a big issue.

There is a two-inch-thick binder full of research, papers, and notes on the Kitten Koffins. I am attempting to put several month’s worth of work and information into a short article in hopes that it sheds some light on the subject for amateur speaker designers. It is a fascinating subject that can feel daunting. I promise you though, if done right the outcome is a sweet one.

If you would like to know more about Kitten Koffins, please feel free to email me at sjcalver@mtu.edu. I would be more than happy to share juicier details. Some of the reference materials I used when designing were books such as Loudspeakers for Music Recording and Reproduction by Philip Newell and Keith Holland, Introduction to Loudspeaker Design by John L. Murphy, and Sound Reproduction Loudspeakers and Rooms by Floyd E. Toole. The H.F. Olson article is titled Direct Radiator Loudspeaker Enclosures and is also referenced in the Philip Newell book. And lastly, special thanks to my professor and advisor Christopher Plummer for all the help during the design and tuning of these speakers. He is a wealth of information.

 

Meet Liina of LNA Does Audio Stuff

Liina Turtonen is an independent music producer and educator. She also runs YouTube channel LNA Does Audio Stuff. She also co-owns an organization called Equalize Music Production, where they teach Ableton Live and production for women.

Liina got interested in audio seven years ago while traveling around Europe. She ended up in Glasgow where she says it changed her life “ at that point I wanted to be an actress but got sucked into the electronic music world and music production through my new Glaswegian friends. At that time I worked in a club and every night after work, when I couldn’t sleep, I started to make funny songs for my friends back in Finland with GarageBand and a £1 microphone from Poundland.”

She grew up around music, most of her family are musicians and she went to a music orientated school, as well as conservatoire since she was five playing violin and piano. She says during her teen years she says “ I started to hate all music as I never felt it was my way to express myself (although I have always written my own songs and never stopped). But finding this new way of making music in Glasgow gave me freedom from classical music and allowed me to play sound in my own terms. I got in to study Commercial Music in Ayr, where I was introduced to proper music studios and after that, I never looked back. I still live in the UK, did my masters in production and now work as a professional music producer.”

Liina plays violin, piano, and guitar, and also sings and writes her own songs. Her debut album, which she produced and everyone involved were women, was published in 2017 and since then she has released two singles and an EP. New EP should be coming out in 2020. She works under her artist name LNA.

Liina started her YouTube Channel LNA Does Audio Stuff in February of 2019. The channel has given her visibility where people can view her portfolio and see who she is. Liina says in the beginning “ it worked mostly as a portfolio when I was searching for work, but after a while, people started contacting me for production, teaching, and workshops because they saw my channel or someone shared it with them. The job opportunities I managed to gain were all in many different areas: festival workshops, panel discussions, sound design for a dance company, etc. I feel that I am still in early career but the network of people I have gained in past years is growing and giving me faith in the future.”

LNA Does Audio Stuff now has over two thousand subscribers and features tutorials, reviews, vlogs, and fun audio challenges. The channel also aims to give a platform to minorities in the audio industry and show diversity on social media, to inspire more girls and young women into technical industries. SoundGirls recommends checking out LNA Does Audio Stuff.

We talked Liina about her career path so far.

What is a typical day like?

I really don’t have a typical day as my work changes so much each day. I make myself a list of things I need to do in that week or day and work through that. Only things I have a strict schedule for Youtube videos (I post every single Sunday) and teaching. Most days I might have meetings in the morning and then I film, plan, edit or produce/mix the rest of the day. Yoga is part of my day as well because sitting by a computer all day would otherwise kill my back.

How do you stay organized and focused? 

I like making lists and time schedules/ deadlines for myself. If something is on the list I need to do it. Also deciding to post every Sunday was really good for me as it gives me a goal that I need to obey and even if I don’t feel like filming, as soon as I start doing it I feel much happier and proud of myself.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy the freedom of doing what I want and the feeling of accomplishment when I hit the targets. The best thing is to get messages and feedback from people and especially girls and women, who have seen my videos and have started music production because of it. That is why I do it, and those messages encourage me to work harder and make more content.

What do you like least?

Editing. It is so painful to go through hours of film of you trying to articulate something to the camera. After the rough edit, the editing becomes more fun when I can put down effects and all funny clips that can make the video entertaining.

What is your favorite day off activity? 

I love planning and filming my videos. Usually, I plan my video first step by step. Then I get ready (yoga, shower, make up) and go to my studio to film. Mostly I film alone, but sometimes I have guests in the studio. At first, I was really tense in front of the camera but doing this over a year, every single week, it started to get easier and I really have fun now doing the clips.

What are your long-term goals?

I would love to grow my channel and make more interactive content to support women in music and get more girls and women into production. I have a documentary coming out this year (done together with Music Production for Women), where we follow the journey of a female singer-songwriter to learn to produce her owns songs. This is the content I want to concentrate more on, but also make more fun and inspirational films about music production. Other dreams include producing a song for a Drag Queen and owning my own women-led studio.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced? 

I would say my own confidence is the biggest barrier sometimes. I don’t like the moments when I feel that nothing is working and I am doubting the whole Youtube idea. I am so glad to have a partner to encourage me in those moments of doubt. In the beginning, I thought all the sexist and nasty comments under my videos would be a barrier for me, but now I think they are just ridiculously funny, and to be honest, I think they encourage me to make more and more content. Also, with more comments under a video, the better algorithm Youtube gives the video, so surely I should thank them for helping me to get more visibility.

How have you dealt with them? 

Keep on working. I give myself the time to rest and be sad sometimes, but the next day I start working again. Also giving myself deadlines make me work harder and realising that feeling like a failure sometimes is ok, as it makes me work harder, and then success feels much nicer.

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

Every idea is a good idea. You might not succeed with all the ideas, but if you don’t try you won’t know. Don’t sit and wait for the opportunities to come to you, but create your own opportunities. Then when someone gives you an opportunity, you will be ready to show what you got. Also, don’t ask for validation from people (especially your family) if you believe in your idea/dream then go and do it. As you are in charge of your own success. These are the things I have learned recently and when I started applying these ideas to my life, things actually started to happen in my career.

Must have skills? 

It’s a bit cheesy, but I think the best skill is to believe in your own skills. But if talking about audio, then I would say: become a master in using the audio manipulation features in your DAW, so that you could make a whole song just by using one sample. This skill will take you far.

Favorite gear? 

Absolutely Ableton Push 2. On my channel, I have so many videos on it and when you watch then you will know why it is my favourite. It’s just so powerful and great for everything.

Anything else you want to add or contribute

Here is a list of female and gender minority-run audio YouTube Channels, feel free to add anyone you might know.

To showcase how many amazing women and gender minority people there are running audio YouTube channels, I have created a list of all the ones I know and I’ll update it when I discover new ones: https://lnamusic.com/2020/04/15/female-audio-youtubers-you-need-to-follow/

Please let me know if you know anyone who was not on the list!

Find More Profiles on The Five Percent

Profiles of Women in Audio

You are not a unicorn: The transferable skills you already have

I have written before about the need to have a back-up plan for when times are tough What’s Your Plan B. We literally work in a gig economy and there are plenty of reasons why you might not be able to make ends meet solely through audio. Whether it’s an injury, family illness, recession or global pandemic keeping you from working, or you simply want a bit of a change for a while, knowing you have an alternative job you can fall back on (preferably one you can do in any health, from anywhere) can be invaluable.

Unfortunately, we in the live music industry like to think we’re a totally unique, ragtag bunch of misfits, who’ll never be able to stick a “normal” job. I’ve been told many times that the only way out of live audio is to move into a less physically demanding role that is still in the industry, like production management or an office job with a hire company (or death!), because our talents are so idiosyncratic and we just don’t fit in anywhere else. This exceptionalist mentality can even extend to calling people outside the industry “muggles” or even “civilians” like we’re a band of magical Navy SEALs. The bad and good news is we are not as special as we like to think. If you’re considering an alternative career or just supplementing your income, there is hope. You already have plenty of transferable skills that you can use to your advantage. Here are just a few of them:

You’re self-motivated: If you’re a freelancer, you know you need to hustle for every gig. You organise your own education and training, network like your life depends on it and keep up to date with industry news. Even if you’re a full-time employee you will still do most of these things. At work you are task-orientated, managing your time and prioritising your workflow without direct supervision so everything is ready for doors.

You’re hard-working: You work long hours in a job that is both physically and mentally demanding and you take it in your stride. Have you ever had to sympathise with a friend who complained about having to do a nine-hour shift in retail? Or someone who had to stay in their office until 8 pm to finish paperwork? All the while thinking about the forty-five hours you had put in over the previous three days? Of course, every job has its own challenges, but long hours are not something you shy away from. Neither is lugging heavy flight cases across a field or literally getting your hands dirty pulling cables.

You’re a team-player: While you can be trusted to get on with working by yourself, you also have plenty of experience as part of a team. You’ve probably worked with difficult colleagues, in tough circumstances, and still made the show a success. If you’ve led an audio crew or worked with stagehands, you have evidence of leadership and delegation.

You’re flexible: When was the last time you did a gig where everything was exactly as you expected it to be? Channel list updates, technical faults, late arrivals, and spontaneous changes to the schedule are part of our everyday lives. Similarly, you might be patching a festival stage one day, doing FOH for a conference the next, and fitting mics for a musical the day after that. We are used to change and know how to adapt to each situation.

You’re smart!: Even if, like me, you don’t have a formal qualification in audio, you have a massive working knowledge of acoustics, electronics, and software management. If you can read a console manual and stay awake through the whole thing, let alone understand it, you’re doing better than a big chunk of the general population. It’s easy to forget that we deal with some pretty complicated topics, but we do, and often in very challenging and time-constrained circumstances.

You’re an experienced troubleshooter: This is where all that frustration over technical issues was worth it. If you can look at a setup, imagine the signal flow in your head and work through each potential point of failure, you can look at the big picture in any situation and think about potential solutions to problems. Attempting fixes in a calm, logical, and methodical way, and keeping track of what does and doesn’t work, can be a highly useful but surprisingly rare skill in many work environments.

You’re multilingual: You are so fluent in tech-speak you don’t even notice it anymore. However, perhaps, more importantly, you can also talk like a normal human and can speak client. Good communication skills are paramount in any job, and they don’t solely involve talking. Effectively listening and truly understanding what’s being said is just as important, if not more, as making yourself understood. Being able to interpret and respond to nerd-speak or a musician’s complaint that their monitors sound a bit too.. you know… green… or floooshy…, or effectively and diplomatically translating what the issue is to the non-technical end client, is an incredibly valuable talent that can be applied to countless work scenarios.

You’re calm under pressure: Gigs are some of the most stressful work environments in the world: extremely tight time constraints, expensive and complicated equipment that could ruin the whole gig if any failure occurs, and rooms full of intoxicated and excitable crowds. It’s like if someone had an hour to prepare their big presentation for corporate while being jostled by drunk people who keep spilling their beers on the keyboard. We deal with that level of acute stress on a daily basis, and we’ve learned to remain calm and think clearly throughout.

According to this Forbes article, The 7 Transferable Skills To Help You Change Careers, the seven most sought-after traits in job postings are technical skills, communication, critical thinking, multi-tasking, teamwork, creativity, and leadership. If you can solve a technical issue, work with your department to fix it, and keep your client updated on your progress while keeping soundcheck rolling, you’ve just demonstrated all seven of those traits without even thinking about it.

Whether you’re looking to change career or just diversify a little, you already have a solid skillset to help you. Listing your strengths accompanied by real-life examples can show potential employers how you’re a better fit for the position than they might think from simply seeing your job history. This article from the UK job site Indeed has good guidelines for how to adapt your resume (CV) for a change of direction. Our industry might be very unusual, but that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to become institutionalised. Of course, we’re all special and as unique as snowflakes, just like everybody else, but we can be rehabilitated to adapt to “normal” jobs. Find something that interests you and give it a go. You can always re-enlist in the magical Navy SEALs if it doesn’t work out.

Using OBS for Content Creation

OBS

I wanted to share some of my tips and setup for digital video recording since I have been utilizing it a lot in the past couple of months. My students have been moved online for the past couple of months, and I had to find a way to still have them produce content with what they had available, usually just a laptop, interface, and a microphone at best.

OBS Studio – Open Broadcaster Software – is free open-source software that I have been using heavily for both recording my desktop and cameras as well as live streaming to YouTube. I have been using it on my MacBook Pro, but it works for PC as well. It has allowed me to set up many scenes, similar to how I would TD something with a video switcher. Graphics, video playback, transitions are all supported within the platform. You can use this to generate so much content, especially if you want to voiceover while working with software and don’t want to do extensive editing later on – this allows you to live switch or simply set up a picture in picture scene.

When you download OBS, it will walk you through an auto-configuration wizard that finds the best settings that will work for your computer. If you are working on a Mac, you will also need to download drivers that allow you to capture the computer sound.

Once configured, you will have a blank slate – just 1 scene without any sources. Work through your signal flow, you will need to add each source individually to start.  Once you have a few that always work together, you can group them or make a scene with your standard setup.

 

Scene 1

Click on the + under sources to add your first source – this will be your microphone.

Click on the + under sources to add your second source – your Display Capture. This is how you will capture the keynote, website, software, whatever it is that you will want to capture for your recording. You will need to grab the red edges of the screen capture to resize it.

Scene 2

Create Scene 2. Select the Audio Source from the first scene and paste it into your Sources for Scene 2. Add a different video source – your camera. This can be your built-in FaceTime camera or any webcam. Resize it.

 

 

Scene 3

Create Scene 3. Select your audio & video sources from Scene 2 and paste them into Scene 3. Copy and paste the Display Capture from Scene 1 into Scene 3. You should have 3 sources now! Resize your Display Capture to make room for your camera, this will be your Picture In Picture scene!

Switching Between Scenes

In the bottom right, select STUDIO MODE. This will allow you to preview what scene is coming up next. You can set up shortcut keys, or just use your UP/DOWN arrows to switch between the scenes. Leave it on the PIP if you want to keep it simple. Select Start Recording, notice the record time in the bottom. Full-Screen your presentation, software, whatever you are using, and do your thing. You may need to trim the beginning and end off, but you can do that easily within Quicktime or even within Youtube.

There are a lot of amazing controls within this software, including graphics and transitions. I hope this tutorial helps clear up any confusion when first getting started with OBS. I would love to create more tutorials in the coming months once you’ve gotten aquatinted and are ready for the advanced features.

 

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