Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read our Quick Round-up!
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
Leslie Gaston-Bird is raising funds for her 50th birthday. Happy Birthday! She is raising funds for the “SoundGirls – Gaston-Bird Travel fund” which has been established to increase the presence of women and those that identify as women at audio trade conferences. Women who have been invited to speak, or sit on panels at audio related trade conferences are welcome to apply. More info at https://soundgirls.org/soundgirls-gaston-bird-travel-fund/
“The most common thing I hear from new engineers and those just getting started in live sound and mixing is how overwhelmed they are with how much there is to know. They focus on trying to learn all of the gear and keeping up with every new piece of equipment or plugin out there, instead of learning the underlying principles and techniques. This is why I created the eBook. There were so many other things I could have listed, but I tried to keep it to what I felt would help solve some of the biggest problems sound engineers face: Understanding how the system works together, being able to mix on any console, dealing with feedback, getting better quality sounds and mixes, and having more confidence in what they are doing.
The book covers these important concepts- Signal Flow, Proper Gain Structure. The eBook explains the importance of these, as well as proper EQ techniques, how to use a gate and compressor, choosing the right microphone, basic troubleshooting, and getting good sounds from the source.”
Congratulations to all our bloggers. The SoundGirls Blog is number 12 of the Top 30 Audio Engineering Blogs, News Websites & Newsletters To Follow in 2019.
Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read our Quick Round-up!
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
Learning how to be a great assistant is one of the best ways to put yourself on the path to mastery in commercial music production. As important as it is to know the technical and creative aspects of your craft, it’s equally important to understand how social and interpersonal dynamics function in the studio environment. Knowing how to operate equipment might get you in the room, but knowing how to deal with a multitude of needs, problems, and personalities will keep you there. No one cares whether or not you’ve got a degree in engineering if you don’t know basic, real-world studio etiquette.
Every studio and every recording session comes with its own culture. Make it a point to understand the culture of every session you’re involved. Being able to read the room is an invaluable skill. It imparts competency, attention to detail, pride in your work, and investment in your team.
Some sessions will be clear and to the point. There will likely be a professional team in place. Your job here is to help things run smoothly and make sure that everyone has what they need. In situations like this, you’ll defer directly to the lead engineer and probably won’t interact too much with the clients. This is the kind of session where you want to be “invisible”—wear basic clothing, try not to speak unless spoken to (with exception to polite greetings and the like), keep a low profile. Stay out of the way, but be hyper-present and ready to jump in when you’re needed to change out a mic or take a food order. If you become aware of a technical issue that no one else seems to notice, find an expedient but non-disruptive way to make the issue known to your lead engineer. Be prepared to take action on a moment’s notice.
Whether you’re working in a large, commercial facility or a small project studio, hospitality should be a top priority. Keep coffee hot and fresh. Have a kettle ready to fire up when a singer needs tea. Make sure artists’ riders have been satisfied to the best of your ability. Keep beverages, pens, paper, and other basic items plentifully stocked. Personally, I try to bring extra items with me just in case. Candy, aux cables, guitar accessories, adapters, phone chargers, tampons, and other such items can be a great door opener. For example, I had the chance to get friendly with super producer Don Was during a session because I was the only one in the building who had dental floss. The better you can anticipate and facilitate the needs of others, the more of an asset you will be in any production.
Of course, there will be sessions that test the limits of your patience and professionalism. The producer may be inexperienced or unable to communicate effectively. They may get angry or throw you under the bus when they make a mistake or are not able to properly manage a session. They may have an ego issue and feel the need to assert dominance to feel like they’re in control. This may be a genuine personality trait, or it may be what they think they need to do to impress or intimidate their clients (yes, this is an actual production tactic and you’d be surprised at how often it works). They may be dealing with a difficult artist and funneling that frustration your way because they have to remain in service of their client. Perhaps the artists themselves are inexperienced, egotistical, or unprofessional, and the whole room is suffering for it. There may be substance abuse or behavior that isn’t necessarily conducive to productivity. It’s your job to be prepared to navigate these challenges with patience, composure, and effectiveness. Stay solutions-minded and try to keep your feelings and judgments in check. If things escalate to the point of being abusive or dangerous, extract yourself from the situation and speak to a supervisor.
Some sessions will be relaxed, and you’ll become friendly with the artists and/or producer. In my experience, most artists prefer the kind of environment where they feel a sense of ease and camaraderie with the crew. The level of friendliness will depend on your ability to read the room and to adjust your personal levels accordingly.
Making a record can be an intensely bonding process. If you’re being invited to be a part of the bonding, you should participate! You just might forge relationships that will last throughout—or even advance your career! However, don’t lose sight of how important it is to stay professional while you’re on session. Studio etiquette should always be your default setting when you’re on the clock, and the artists/producers should be handled with a clear sense of priority and deference.
Additionally, understand that your friendly relationship with clients might not extend past the sessions themselves. Sometimes the spirited nature of relaxed, friendly sessions is just what the artist needs to get through their process. Don’t take it personally if a producer asks for your card but never calls, or if an artist talks about wanting to hear what you’ve worked on but doesn’t offer a clear opportunity for you to present it, or if you don’t get a follow back on Instagram, or whatever. Keep a sense of confidence and equanimity around you and stay centered on what’s most important—providing excellent service and doing what it takes to make a production successful.
Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read our Quick Round-up!
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read our Quick Round-up!
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
“I wasn’t a trained musician. But I did have ears and that’s what’s important.”
Catherine Basie, Hugues Panassie, Count Basie, Helen Oakley Dance, and Stanley Dance. Paris, 1956. From the Papers of Stanley Dance and Helen Oakley Dance Collection (Photographer unknown)
Helen Oakley Dance (born Helen Oakley) was the earliest female jazz record producer (and perhaps the earliest known female record producer of any genre). She was instrumental in the early days of jazz in America – writing about it, producing it (including many recordings with Duke Ellington), promoting it, and connecting artists with each other.
Helen was born in Toronto in 1913 to a wealthy Canadian family. Her great-grandfather started Joseph Simpson Knitting and Yarn Mills in 1865 and her father, John Oakley, was managing director of the company. Growing up, she wasn’t a musician (her parents weren’t musical) but her family would receive a batch of twelve records every month from the big record stores and they could decide which to keep. Helen was drawn to records the rest of her family wasn’t – the jazz ones (artists like Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five). In an interview with Monk Rowe, Helen said, “That’s all I wanted to know about and hear. I didn’t know what the instruments were or what I was listening to but I always knew what I was listening to.” She attended the University of Toronto and completed her schooling at Les Fougeres in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Meeting Duke Ellington
Helen realized living in Canada that jazz music wasn’t coming there. She was going to have to go to the music was and the closest place was Detroit. She moved in 1933 (with her family’s blessing) with the goal to be a jazz singer. While in Detroit, Helen saw Duke Ellington play a show at the Fox Theater (Helen had all his records). Helen forged a note from a music critic to Duke that said Duke would like Helen and he should invite her for afternoon tea. He invited her to tea the next day. When Helen saw Duke had the letter on his mirror, she fessed up to forging it. Duke suspected it but was still amused and the two became fast friends. In an interview with Mark Tucker Helen said of Duke, “I was family and for the rest of my life and as long as he lived I was family and that was the greatest thing to ever happen to me.”
Chicago Years
Helen moved to Chicago in 1934 where she was a freelance music journalist. She wrote a regular column for Downbeat (a small publication at the time) where she could write about whatever she wanted or what she was listening to. At the time, there were jazz critics writing abroad but none in the US. She (with Squirrel Ashcroft) helped organize performances of jazz performers like Billie Holiday. She helped put on the first jazz concert in Chicago (where the audience was sitting and listening and not with a dance floor): Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Teddy Wilson. It was also significant because it was an interracial trio playing publicly which was unheard of at the time. Helen helped persuade Benny to hire Teddy Wilson, who was a black pianist.
Duke Ellington, Chick Webb & Artie Shaw at a jam session (Brunswick Recording Studio, March 14, 1937). Helen is in the white dress and she arranged this jam session. From Jazzhouse.org
Helen stayed in touch with Duke and went with the band to Duke’s shows when he was in the region. Helen said she was Duke’s “protege” and the band manager “always had me under his wing,” (M. Tucker interview). In those days, as she described it, the band liked having someone in the front who was into what they were doing. She attended all their rehearsals, recording dates and also produced some recordings with Duke. Helen produced recording sessions with other artists such as Paul Mares and Charles Lavere. They were recording to vinyl so the recordings were three minutes max. The tempo of the song would determine some of the structure of the song (if there was time for two choruses, for example). The studio shook when the “L” train would come by so they would lose takes over it.
When asked how she went from wanting to record to actually doing it, Helen said, “I don’t really know. I just did. I went up in the studios and set up a time.” (Rowe interview) “You had to promote yourself. You just talked yourself into jobs,” Helen said to Mark Tucker.
January 1935 recording organized by Helen. Features Paul Mares, Santo Pecora, Omer Simeon, Jess Stacy, Marvin Saxbe, Pat Pattison, George Wettling.
New York
She moved to New York after Duke recommended her to Irving Mills (Duke’s manager at the time). According to Jim Prohaska,
After discussing his plans for a recording company, he insisted that Helen come back to New York with him. She agreed, as Irving had suggested that she should help arrange talent and organize recording sessions for him once the venture was finalized. He wanted her to visit his offices plus check out the music scene in New York first hand. Her short visit extended ultimately into a permanent stay. She initially assisted Mills in pleading his case during meetings with lawyers and investors. Once the legal issues were completed, and Master Records became a reality, Helen became a formal part of the company by the end of 1936. (Prohaska)
Irving had two record labels, Master and Variety. Master was more commercial recordings (which Helen wasn’t as interested in) so Mills had her produce the small group records for Variety. Helen decided who to hire and who to put together for recordings. “I very often was in the control room but most of the time would be in there with the band. They would say, ‘if she’s smiling that’s it – she’s ok.’” (Rowe interview).
Helen produced Duke Ellington’s small band recordings (with Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard, Rex Stewart and Cootie Williams). She said Duke would go into sessions with nothing prepared. She watched him compose Solitude in twelve minutes while the studio was busy with another session.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJiXBHhm_LQ
“Later on I produced them, you know. I produced his whole band once. But on my own things, I hired the guys and told them what I wanted them to play, and stood in the control room, and decided whether it was happening or not. And if it wasn’t happening, I’d have a good idea why it wasn’t, and what we should do.” (M. Tucker interview)
https://youtu.be/8qzCYDdxY_A?t=14
Helen speaking about producing (first 2 minutes)
Variety recordings sold for 35 cents (or 3 for $1.00) whereas Master label sold for 75 cents.
Variety issued 170 recordings from December 1936 – September 1937. The label collapsed shortly after (due to competition and inability to get distribution in Europe). Some of the Variety recordings were reissued on the label Vocalion (later revived as Okeh, a subsidiary of Columbia Records). Helen continued producing sessions for Mills (for release on the ARC label). Jazz collection Jim Prohaska writes:
“As for the material released during the short nine month existence for both labels, the recordings selected by Irving Mills and Helen Oakley allow us a wonderful glance at some of the finest jazz musicians of the period. I daresay that without Mills foresight and Oakley’s sense for quality talent, some great music would have been lost.”
In addition to doing A&R and operations for Mills, Helen was involved in the local jazz scene connecting people and helping planning events. When Benny Goodman played Carnegie Hall in 1938, she was one of the main organizers of the event. It was the first jazz concert at the event and is still considered one of the most significant concerts in jazz or popular music history.
Military Service
In 1942, Helen’s brother Rupert was killed in duty (during World War II), and as she put it, “my career in jazz ended.” Helen volunteered for the Women’s Army Corps and her sister, Cynthia, joined the Canadian Army. Helen was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, which later became the CIA. In Helen’s obituary (written by her son, Francis):
“She assisted in the disposition of US undercover operatives and radio technicians being sent to occupied countries. In December 1943, she rendezvoused in the recently declared open city of Rome with her sister, now Captain Cynthia Oakley, who headed the debarkation in Italy of the first female contingent. This event was featured worldwide on Pathe news. Helen was relocated to US headquarters in Leghorn, where renegade German soldiers were trained as spies. In March 1945 she was reassigned to act as an undercover courier between Paris and Berne after Germany’s surrender. These orders were quickly cancelled after President Truman’s edict disbanding the OSS.”
Post War
Helen returned to New York in 1946 to a very different jazz scene (big band swing had gone out of favor to bebop). She married Stanley Dance, a jazz music writer and music producer who she had met in 1937 at a recording session. They had four children and the two were married over 50 years. They worked together on writing assignments and stayed current in the jazz scene but their income came from other family businesses. They lived in England for some years but sold the businesses in 1959 so they could relocate to Connecticut and pursue their jazz interests in the US (and nearby New York). Helen was active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s (locally and nationally).
Stanley and Helen’s contributions to jazz were recognized at the highest level. They were invited to state dinners at the White House with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Clinton. Stanley won a Grammy for best liner notes and had five additional nominations. Helen published a book in 1987, “”Stormy Monday: the T-Bone Walker Story,” which was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001.
A collection with eight decades of Helen and Stanley’s writing, interviews and photos and sound recordings was donated to The Yale Music Library (The Helen Oakley Dance and Stanley Dance Papers). Stanley passed away in 1999 and Helen in 2001.
Citations:
Dance, Helen Oakley, interview by Mark Tucker. January 9, 1987, Oral History of American Music Collections Guide: Duke Ellington.
Dance, Helen Oakley, interview by Monk Rowe. February 12, 1998, Hamilton College Jazz Archive.
Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read our Quick Round-up!
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
SoundGirls is honored to be part of EIPMA.
SoundGirls wants to thank April Tucker and Jett Galindo (our EIPMA representatives) for all their hard work getting EIPMA off the ground!.
EIPMA is a national organization of experienced, working professionals offering career guidance for individuals seeking craft and technical careers in the entertainment industry. EIPMA is a collaboration between multiple entertainment industry organizations including: American Cinema Editors (ACE), Audio Engineering Society (Los Angeles Section) (AES), Avid, Cinema Audio Society (CAS), Hollywood Professional Association (HPA), Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), Recording Academy, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE),SoundGirls, Visual Effects Society (VES)
EIPMA’s opening event for teachers will be in May 2019 (in Los Angeles) with school events starting Fall 2019.
Missed this Week’s Top Stories? Read our Quick Round-up!
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
Women & The Grammy For “Producer of The Year, Classical”
The Grammy for Producer of the Year, Classical (originally Classical Producer of the Year) was introduced in 1979. This particular category distinguishes itself as the first technical award where a woman was nominated on the ground floor, during the category’s inaugural year.
That woman was Joanna Nickrenz.
Not only was Nickrenz the first woman to receive a nod in Production (Classical Producer of the Year – 1979), she’s also the first woman I’ve found on record to be nominated for a Grammy in Engineering (Best Engineered Recording, Classical for Edgard Varése’s “Percussion Music” – 1974).
A classically trained pianist, Ms. Nickrenz took a strong interest in the recording process during her first studio sessions. This led to her taking an assistant position at Elite Recordings, where she worked as an editor, producer, and eventually full partner to Elite founder, recording engineer Marc Aubort. Records made under the Aubort/Nickrenz umbrella carry a legacy among audiophiles as being some of the best orchestral recordings ever produced.
Affectionately dubbed “Miss Razor Ears,” Joanna was fiercely dedicated to preserving the integrity of the score. She was known to admonish musicians if they played any part of a work incorrectly or dared to improvise. When she passed away in 2002, her urn was humorously engraved with an oft-used corrective phrase: “What’s written is also nice.”
Ms. Nickrenz received 8 Producer of the Year, Classical nominations and won the award twice. In 1983, she shared the win with Aubort. In 1996, she was the sole recipient. She was additionally nominated in 1984, 1986, and 2001, but did not win during those years.
If she is indeed the first woman to break through the Grammy glass ceiling in both production and engineering, how is it that Joanna Nickrenz doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia page? Why can’t I find a single photograph of this pioneering lady?
Women account for around 14% of those nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical. A total of eight Grammys have been handed to women in the category’s 39-year history.
Five of these trophies have gone to Judith Sherman.
Nominated a whopping 12 times, Judith is a major contributor to the catalog of recorded classical music. She got her start as a broadcast engineer at WBAI-FM in New York City, working up to positions as a producer and musical director. She started her own production company, Judith Sherman Productions, in 1976. She is the second woman to be nominated for a Grammy in Engineering, receiving a Best Engineered Recording, Classical nod in 1990.
Though she’s established a long and fruitful legacy, Ms. Sherman remains a force to be reckoned with to this day. She has been nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical for the past five years in a row.
Being prolific seems almost a prerequisite when you look at the women in this category, most of whom have been nominated multiple times.
Robina G. Young has received ten nominations for Producer of the Year, Classical. Marina A. Ledin has received eight. Young and Ledin have not yet crossed the stage to collect a trophy, but they show no signs of slowing down. 2006 winner Elaine Martone has managed over 1500 projects and offers a staggering biography. Nominee Elizabeth Ostrow is still going strong on a career spanning over 40 years. Anna Barry, who has over 500 recordings in her discography, was recently tasked to be the official recordist for the Royal Wedding. The late Patti Laursen was another important trailblazer, producing the first digital recordings made by Capitol Records in 1979.
Women in production have fared much better in the Classical division than in the category’s Non-Classical equivalent, with the percentage of wins landing at about 20%. The percentage of women who’ve won Producer of the Year, Non-Classical is still zero.
Though popular music will always have better PR, some of the most crucial and groundbreaking work has been done by women operating under the Classical umbrella. Seeing that the Recording Academy is pushing #WomenInTheMix and that March is Women’s History Month, the accomplishments of these producers should be loudly celebrated.
I invite you to dive deeper into the stories of the women nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical. Personally, I’ll be ensuring that Ms. Nickrenz finally gets her Wiki page. If anyone out there can find a picture of her, I sure would be glad to finally see it.
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