Piper Payne, Neato Mastering – San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Terri Winston, Women’s Audio Mission – San Francisco, CA, USA
This Town Hall is meant to introduce the recently formed AES Diversity and Inclusion Committee and give AES members a chance to have a meaningful discussion about the committee’s purpose. The committee has stated a number of goals intended to strengthen the AES as a whole:
To work towards a membership of the AES that will best reflect the demographics of working audio professionals.
To increase AES membership and broader participation in the audio industry by helping the Society become more diverse and inclusive.
These efforts will include women and other underrepresented groups, as well as students and young audio professionals working in newer music genres and audio fields.
SoundGirls Executive Director Karrie Keyes will be at the mentoring session.
This event is especially suited for students, recent graduates, young professionals, and those interested in career advice. Hosted by SPARS in cooperation with the AES Education Committee, career-related Q&A sessions will be offered to participants in a speed group mentoring format. A dozen students will interact with 4–5 working professionals in specific audio engineering fields or categories every 20 minutes. Audio engineering fields/categories include gaming, live sound/live recording, audio manufacturer, mastering, sound for picture, and studio production.
Women’s International Music Network – Girls Night Out
The Cutting Room
44 E. 32nd St.
New York, NY
Join us to help support our friends at Women’s International Music Network for an evening of music featuring Grammy award-winning Lisa Loeb, The Command Sisters and Jenna Paone, and more. Info and tickets
October 20
EC10 – Education/Career Fair
Friday, October 20, 12:30 pm — 2:30 pm (Fairs)
SoundGirls will have a booth – come visit us.
The combined AES 143rd Education and Career Fair will match job seekers with companies and prospective students with schools.
SoundGirls Mentoring Session – SIR
Join us for a Mentoring Session with Women Leaders in Professional Audio
Oct. 20,2017
6:00 – 10 pm
SIR Studios Studio 4
520 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001, USA
AES Diversity and Inclusion Social: 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Mentoring Session: 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Networking and wrap up 9:00 to 10:00
You must be a member of SoundGirls.Org. (membership is free and open to all genders and non-binary people. You can sign up on our website). You must register for this event as space is limited.
We will also be available throughout the show to meet privately with members. If you wish to schedule an appointment, please email us at soundgirls@soundgirls.org.
The Best Response
This week I was once more asked a question that has been a recurring theme during my career. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked to comment on why there aren’t more women in the music business, and my answer has always been the same – I’m the wrong person to ask because I am a woman in the music business. I can’t comment on why someone wouldn’t want to be a part of this, for the very reason that I wanted it more than anything. I’m fortunate to be able to say that after 23 years in the industry I’ve done everything I set out to do and quite a few things that I didn’t. I’ve toured with numerous theatre, arena and stadium productions; mixed monitors for bands whose albums I had as a kid; run sound for the Queen at Buckingham Palace; been paid to travel the world; and been in charge of monitors at the world’s biggest greenfield festival. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but neither has it been the sexism-infused nightmare that some people seem to imagine. Indeed, some people seem almost disappointed when I tell them it really hasn’t been that bad, and it has me wondering: is it this idea of victimisation that puts some women off?
Now it’s possible that I walk around with my head in the clouds and don’t notice sexist behaviour, but I think it’s more likely that I’ve simply learnt to pick my battles. If I called a tribunal every time someone made a sexist crack I’d be in court for the rest of my life; but there’s a world of difference between sexist cracks and true misogyny. Tribes of people (i.e. a crew) naturally seek out what is different about a newcomer and zero in on that to test them. A smart newcomer will give as good as they get in return, show themselves to be a valuable commodity to the existing tribe, and in doing so establish common ground and become accepted. It would be a mistake to think that cracks are made simply because I’m a woman; anyone who’s heard crew banter will know that it can be brutal between guys, and the only reason gender is raised is because it’s the most obvious difference.
I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve encountered true misogyny. Whilst I did speak up for myself at the time, in every case, I also found that the best possible response is simply toprove them wrong.
One odious production manager told me I’d never make it unless I learnt to open my legs. My satisfaction upon seeing him at an industry event many years later, wearing a badge stating my position at the PA company I worked for and having very much made it without doing any such thing, was immense. I didn’t need to say anything – the look that passed between us said it all.
Not long ago I ran into someone who bullied me for a period of time in my early days. Back then he was senior to me (though not by much) and was fond of telling me how useless I was. But now, many years later, the status quo was reversed, and I was in a very much senior position to him. It made me realise just how far I’d come, and that bullies are, as we all know, just fearful cowards. I considered taking him to task in defence of my younger self but decided against it. He now cut such a pathetic figure that I felt no need to make explicit who was the winner here – it was obvious.
And the sorry behaviour from a couple of local crew whom I encountered in the States just seems laughable now, as it did then – how sad, to have to get your fun by trying to tear others down. I’ll bet their lives aren’t a barrel of laughs – after all, people who are secure in their own talents just don’t do that. How small they must feel, in their quieter moments. Not to mention having the entire visiting crew now think you’re a complete idiot. (Wait, you didn’t think I’d keep their nonsense to myself did you? Oh, their cracks were far too amusing not to share them with my compatriates – and the guys on a tour soon become like brothers who are very much on their sister’s side!)
So my point is this: if a young woman likes the idea of a career in live music, she shouldn’t worry too much about being in the gender minority, because she’ll quickly get used to it, and most guys are decent folk. The things for her to concern herself with are working hard; learning all she can about her chosen field; forging alliances; and yes, building resilience and comebacks to wisecracks. Learning to tell the difference between crew banter and abusive behaviour is important because the former is far more common than the latter. On the (hopefully) rare occasion that she does experience abusive or inappropriate behaviour she should always call it out, whilst also knowing this: that the best response she can ever give to her detractors is simply toprove them wrong.
Shout-Out to our Lighting Friends
I know we are all audio friends here, but I have to take a moment to talk about one of our counterparts, a counterpart who is always involved in live shows. The setup can be very simple or incredibly detailed, but they are often considered competitive or our frenemy in the field. Many times we are on the same timetable, with a lot to do and in a small space, working on top of each other to accomplish a show.
As part of opening a new building, I have had to face this counterpart head on. My least favorite activity to do in tech: lighting. I mean, seriously, I’m good with just hearing the show and not seeing it!
From recent firsthand experience, I can tell you lighting is a lot of work! For the first time, I had to work through spec-ing, ordering and, now, installing a full lighting system for two venues. To give you an idea of how much work this is, it took three loads just to get all that trash out!
In all seriousness though, I learned that our counterparts in lighting work just as hard to master their craft as we do. The diversity in lighting tasks resembles the variety in audio – except, instead of mic variations, different styles of speakers and tuning, it’s lamp differences, hundreds of fixture options and focusing.
As I have been working on this install, I have realized that I can’t imagine what it would be like to set it all up, wire, address, and program a rig like this every day on a large-scale tour. Let alone troubleshooting, with so many fail points and everything at least 20 ft. over my head, once it’s up. Just like audio, the details matter. There are endless options on how to do it, what it looks like, and how to please the audience. I’m happy to dead-hang some lights, make sure they work, and then let my students go to town.
Now that the products have begun arriving, it’s expected to take two weeks to complete the install, followed by spending time learning the new lighting board (which could take months to master). Major props to our counterparts, the lighting folk! I’m glad someone likes to do it.
P.S. I really did work with some lights – not just with a bunch of boxes.
Tour Manager Cheat Sheet
Cheat Sheet for Tour Managers
Feel Free to Post Your Tips and Advice and we will add them.
Venues:
Call or text the Production Manager and let them know when you’re 10min away. If you don’t get a response, no big deal. Load-in details should be advanced.
When you arrive, run in and tell them you’ve arrived. Ask them for some hands to help you unload. After getting all the gear in and locating the dressing rooms have them direct you to your parking spot.
Introduce yourself to everyone inside – find your key people – PM, house FOH, house MON, house LD, promoter rep, head of security, merch person and whoever is responsible for stocking the dressing rooms. Make best friends with this person! Merch person and promoter rep sometimes arrive at the venue later than everyone else. Attend the security meeting (if applicable.)
Once the band has a minute to get settled in the dressing room, have them get their gear pre-set off stage (ask the PM where to do this). This way they’ll be almost ready when (the headliner) finishes their check, and they can just move their gear into place. Otherwise, you’ll waste all your soundcheck time doing
Setup.
Ask them if soundcheck is running on time, and what time you should have your band ready to move onto the stage.
Check that the rider is in the dressing room, or on its way (everything you agreed during the advance). If you are an opener, you probably won’t get your full rider, but you should at least have what was agreed during the advance. At a bare minimum, make sure you have:
water
hand towels (preferably black) plus bath towels if there’s a shower
meals or buyout
Show Schedule:
Make sure there is a schedule for the day printed and hung on the wall by the door in the dressing room. The venue or headlining act usually handles this, but in case they don’t – do it yourself. Just the basics: day, date, venue name, address, doors, set times and length, changeover times and length, curfew and wifi info. In big type that’s easy to read. If your band has a logo, include it at the top and keep a template going.
Set List:
Try to get a jump on the setlist right after soundcheck. Keep all setlists in an accessible and sharable place (Dropbox for example) saved under their dates. You will often get asked for them after-the-fact for press, and sometimes the band will say ‘we want to do the same setlist we did in Portland.’ Once you have it, type it up as big as possible on one page, and print needed copies. Possible positions that need setlists will be: (modify as needed)
FOH
Monitors
Lighting
Backline Techs
Dressing Room
Each Band Member
Spares
Next up is the guest list:
Check with everyone (band, crew, press, management) and type it up, then give to contact that is handling the guest list (per advance.) If you need more than your allotted spots, charm the promoter. Make sure this is done before doors.
Merch:
Count-in, the merch with the merch person. Merch %s should be listed in the deal memos. If touring with a headline act see if their merch person is willing to take your remaining merch at the end of the night and bring it to the next city. (For example – If you are going to do this, get a large Tupperware container or something easy for them to travel with.)
Always give the band a heads up when:
Doors have opened
10 min before their set time
5 min before their set time – since you’re going to have to make it to FOH or MON, tell them you’re leaving them at that point, and make sure there is an appointed venue person to tell them it’s go-time.
Before you head to FOH or MON:
Make sure the stage is all ready, (lead vocals) knows where their mic is, and that each person has the following at their station on stage: (modify as needed)
Two black hand towels + Two waters
Setlist taped down where they can see it
After the show:
Help get the gear off the stage, packed up, and loaded out – the next band or headliner’s people will want you off their stage
Check in with the band backstage right after the gear is handled. See if they need anything, then tell them you’re going to settle, and what time they should be ready to leave. Only leave early if you have to leave to the next city. Otherwise, stick around to deal with merch.
Find the promoter rep and settle. Make sure they have the W9, and that you get a copy of the settlement.
Check in on merch:
see what they’ve sold so far
see if they need any more stock
make sure they have SoundScan/venue settlement sheets if you’re going to leave before the end of the night, and that there’s a plan
When it’s getting time to leave:
Give the band a 15 min heads up before departure time.
Load any dressing room hospitality into the van/sprinter/bus (typically unopened only). Ask the venue for a box or bags for this.
Hotels
When you arrive:
Go to the front desk and give them your group name (or everyone’s names if it’s not registered as a group).
Offer to take band’s credit cards for incidentals (if required), so they can get their bags out of the vehicle while you get their keys.
Make sure there is a copy of your rooming list and hotel information sheet in each envelope. This can be advanced with the hotel, so it is ready on arrival.
On checkout:
Leave extra time to deal with the front desk. It always takes longer than you think. Make sure everyone has paid their incidentals and has a copy of their ‘zero balance receipt.’
Ask for a copy of the master folio, and make sure that nothing except Rooms, Tax, and Internet has been charged to the tour cc.
If for some reason it’s taking too long at the desk, and it’s going to make you late, just leave. It can be sorted it out later.
Master Tour is the premier software solution for tour management and logistics. With Master Tour, you can organize your itinerary, travel, production, accounting and more in one application. Work on or offline and share critical information with your crew in real-time. Master Tour will help keep your entire organization in sync.
Global Access – Visa and Immigration: Global Access Immigration Services, Inc. has been providing worldwide entertainment visa services, consulate assistance and coordination for the Live Touring Industry for travel both inside and outside the United States.
Tour Supply Tour Supply Inc is THE One Stop Shop for Touring Professionals Worldwide.
Dropbox – Cloud-based file storage and management:
What are you going to stand up for this year?
There is a story in We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, from her childhood in Nigeria. Her teacher told her class that the student with the highest score on a particular test would become the class monitor. But when Adichie got the highest score, her teacher said the class monitor had to be a boy. So the job was given to a male student. At the end of the story, she says this:
“If we do something over and over again, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over again, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitor, then at some point we will all think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy. If we keep seeing only men as heads of corporations, it starts to seem “natural” that only men should be heads of corporations.”
Adichie’s words resonated with me, as I’m sure they resonate with many women working in sound. How many times have you experienced an automatic assumption that sound engineers are male? From the upfront “Oh, I thought you’d be a guy” when you arrive at a gig, to articles in industry publications that consistently use male pronouns when referring to sound engineers, to the lack of women on industry panels.
Last year I was invited to speak on the panel of an audio event. One of the questions put to me was why I thought there were so few women working in professional sound. I asked the audience to consider how visible women are in the industry. Open any industry magazine and count the number of women featured in it – that is to say, women interviewed or profiled, not just included in photographs (although that’s worth noting as well). Unless it’s a publication specifically aimed or about women working in music and sound, I can guarantee that there are significantly fewer women featured than men.
What message does that send to girls and young women wanting to explore a career in sound? Just as Adichie says, if we see something over and over again, it becomes normal. At the moment the industry reinforces the message that it doesn’t look “natural” for a woman to become a sound engineer. As I told the audience at this event, if a young person looks at a career path and they don’t see someone with whom they can identify, then they will be far less inclined to go after that career path.
After the panel, I chatted with organisers of the event, and we discussed the lack of women in the magazine published by their company. One of the organisers suggested that this was because their publication reflected the current makeup of the industry (mainly men) and that they’d include more women if there were more working in the industry. My response back to her was: it may be how the industry looks at the moment, but do you want it to look this way, always?
The turbulent political and social events that shaped last year served as a clear reminder to me that if I want more women to feel they have a place, in general, and in our industry specifically, I have to fight for it. I want to see more women in the sound industry, more active supporters of women working in sound, and more girls and young women actively pursuing careers in audio.
There are many forms of active support. You can speak up when you hear or read bigoted or divisive rhetoric. You can write to industry publications and conferences and ask them about their commitment to diversity. You can volunteer your services to your local SoundGirls chapter for community outreach programmes and be part of encouraging and educating the next generation of sound engineers. Show them that there is a place for them.
Whatever you choose to do, it’s important you act on it. Aim to be heard. The challenges that you see won’t change on their own. This year, what are you going to do about them? How are you going to stand up?
Megan Benavente – Passion for Music
Megan Benavente is a freelance engineer based in Los Angeles and is one of the FOH Engineers at the legendary Troubadour, one of the best rock clubs in Los Angeles. (more…)
A Life in Sound
GIL EVA CRAIG
Gil Eva Craig is an independent Audio Engineer and Music Producer working in professional audio for the last 18 years. Gil got her start as a recording engineer in 1996 and still owns and operates her own mixing and production studio, The Secret Beehive. This past May, she co-produced an album with Charlotte Yates and has done sound design and written original music for several theatre productions. Her passion though is live sound, and she currently is the FoH Engineer for The Wellington Ukulele Orchestra and works for the family business, Western Audio Engineering.
Gil’s interest in audio started in her teen years, as she would make ‘multi-track ‘ recordings using her brothers Walkman and the family boom box. Recording a guitar track first on the Walkman and then playing it back off the boom box, while recording a second track with the boom box, recording on the Walkman, and so on and so on. Reflecting back on this tracking technique Gil says “It didn’t take too many generations before my recordings turned to unintelligible satanic hiss”. Eventually, she was able to purchase a four-track cassette recorder, followed by a host of recording setups including; ½ inch 8 track, 1 inch 8 track, adats, 2 inch 16 track, and finally a 24 track hard disc recorder and Protools.
Gil spent the early years of her career recording and mixing demos for bands while trying to fund her studio. Initially, she was lured to live sound with the promise of fast cash to fund her studio. She started mixing bands at the local bar and quickly found that she not only enjoyed it but preferred it overworking in the studio. She has continued to work in both the studio and live environments. Gil has worked on several theatre productions, in which she has won awards for sound design.
Gil stumbled into sound design for theatre productions, as well as writing original music, when a mutual friend recommended her to a sound designer. She was hired to write music for a production of Penumbra that he was working on. At this point in time, the only theatre experience she had was as a musician in two amateur productions of Shakespeare. Tim Spite, a theatre director, attended the production, liked the music he heard, and hunted her down. He offered Gil the chance to compose and sound design on his next production. Gil continued to work on several of his productions, including a production of December Brother that she won a Chapman Tripp Theatre award for best sound design. The Chapmann Tripp Theatre Awards are New Zealand’s equivalent to the Tony Awards.
Sound Design for theatre productions encompasses two main disciplines; the technical design and the creative design. The technical design includes the speaker and playback system, programming the playback software and the digital consoles. The creative design is the sound effects, atmos, and music.
Gil was recently involved with the production for ‘360, A Theatre of Recollections. The production includes a surround sound and music design, and the audience is seated inside a circular stage, on swivel chairs. Gil programmed the show into a Q lab, and was able to run eight discrete outputs to six surround speakers, overheads, and subs. The sound designer, John Gibson, wrote the score utilizing surround sound to create the illusion of being surrounded by singers and players at key points in the score.
The Evening Post Onslow Brass Band.
Gil’s extensive music background has surely helped throughout her career. She was trained in classical guitar starting at the age of ten and took up the trumpet when she was fifteen. She briefly played the Soprano Cornet and Flugelhorn, before settling on the Tenor Horn. She played as a musician in several bands, including a “file-under-difficult-listening” art band that was mixed by her future husband. She also played in a Brass Band called The Evening Post Onslow Brass Band.
Playing in the Brass Band provided a brilliant musical education, Gil explains that “playing in an A grade brass band was demanding, as a big part of being in the band was playing in contests. The test music for the A grade is challenging, much of it sonically pushing the boundaries of what can be done with a large brass ensemble. The time spent in rehearsals pulling these amazing and complicated pieces of music apart and making sense of them, coupled with what I learned at university and a modern music course I took, was the best musical education I could have wished for”.
While Gil did not have formal training in sound engineering, as at the time there were not programs offered in New Zealand, she did embark on a degree in music. Eventually, her engineering work took priority and she did not complete her degree. She feels that the time spent on her music degree gave her a solid foundation for sound engineering. She was taught the basics of harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, acoustics, and ethnomusicology. As for the technical side of things, she learned by reading, observing, and hands-on experience.
Hands On – The Family Business
Gil’s husband, is a partner in Western Audio Engineering, a professional live sound production company. For over a decade, the couple lived in the PA workshop (warehouse), which also housed her studio. This allowed her free access to outboard gear and mics for her studio and live gigs, and she found herself surrounded by sound gear 24/7. Instead of flowers on the kitchen table, there was a soldering iron. Gil reflects on her time spent living in the workshop “It was awesome living in the workshop for nine of those years, then I started to hanker for vases of flowers on the kitchen table, and nice vintage glassware that wouldn’t get smashed in a week”.
Currently, Gil works mainly in live sound, and her job duties at Western Audio include whatever needs to be done; stage patching, show prep, loading trucks, equipment maintenance, FOH, and Monitors. Recent gigs at Western Audio have included; mixing the entertainment and anthems for an international netball match, mixing live elements for a wearable art show, a stage patch for a festival, and monitors for a small outdoor festival.
As an independent engineer, Gil mostly mixes FoH, and does a small amount of sound system and playback design for theatre. She tours as the FoH engineer for the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, who regularly tour New Zealand and occasionally Australia. She recently shared her experiences mixing them with SoundGirls.Org, you can check it out here: Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Gil does monitors for the Pink Floyd Experience, which regularly tours New Zealand and Australia and has done sessions in South Africa.
Gil explains what she enjoys the most about touring “I like that every day is different, but the same, as you are setting up the same rig (give or take a few variables) each day, but are in different places. It’s a perfect blend of routine and novelty. Also, being part of a team, but with a certain amount of independence. Both of these factors completely suits my nature”. She also loves to travel, which fuels her fascination with airplanes and her love of photography. Her days off usually include visiting galleries and museums and taking photographs. The thing she likes the least is finding food, being gluten intolerant is a challenge. Aftershow pizza is out.
Women in sound in New Zealand
New Zealand is a very small country, with only about 4 million people, so women in live sound are fairly scarce! I think I am the only woman who is currently touring. In all the years I have been doing live sound, I have met three New Zealand women working in a technical capacity. One is a good friend of mine and is head of audio for the New Zealand Festival of the Arts. A female engineer is definitely still a novelty to some house guys when I meet them for the first time. When last touring with the Pink Floyd Experience, I got the classic ‘so you sing backing vocals’ a couple of times.
Advice for Women starting out
It is important to learn at least one instrument and be able to read music. Learning to speak the language of musicians is invaluable. Invest in a professional set of earplugs and take steps to protect your hearing. Take time to learn and try out different areas of audio to see where your passion lies and what fits your personality.
Gil feels she would not last in today’s modern recording environment with its emphasis on computer-based recording and pro tools editing. She once worked on a film production and immediately knew that was not a good fit. At some point, you just gotta jump in. I have met two women who have gone through audio school, who have yet to mix a show because they are afraid. I’m still afraid! Just today I agreed to mix a monitor gig and now I’m thinking why the f*** did I say yes? Learn by osmosis and observing, but you have to observe and surround yourself with people who are really good at what they do!
Must Have Skills
Aside from the obvious technical ability, having diverse musical experiences both as a listener and player gives you a huge head start. I’m grateful for every second I spent playing in the brass band, orchestra, guitar and brass ensembles, various pop/rock bands and the howling I did in the file-under-difficult-listening performance art group. Human communication skills: basically really listening to what people say and knowing what questions to ask. Which means you can translate ‘my monitor sounds mongy’ into ‘its right on the edge of feeding back at 250.
Favorite Gear: I am mad about and completely obsessed with reverbs. My favorites are the Bricasti M7, AMS, lexicons 460 and 300. I am also very fond of the Sony R7, and have a soft spot for the Yamaha Rev 7. I just love them. I haul my Bricasti to all my shows. The one show last year I couldn’t take it to, as we were traveling on a plane so small it was basically a van with wings, I really missed it. The Sony M7 is an underrated treasure, possibly because it’s not easy to program. It’s got its own thing going on sonically.
While I don’t really get overly gooey over microphones, I do really like DPA 4061’s and 4099s. I think they sound great. I used 4099’s on a couple of trombones recently, fantastic. My favorite consoles are Midas digital consoles. I like how they sound and love the VCA and Pop group concept as you can program it so it’s under the fingers, very nice. I have done a few things on the pro 1 lately, which I call the kitten console because it’s impossibly little and cute. When coupled with a DL251 stage box to expand up to 40 channels, it’s amazing what you can do on it.
Album mixes:
Charlotte Yates’s Beggars Choice and ‘Archipelago’
Rosy Tin Tea Caddys All Mountains are MenChris Prowse’s Waterfront Collective’s Trouble on the Waterfront’ and The Shiner
Flea Bite’s – In Your Ear and Circus of Fleas
Fatcat and Fishface’s BirdBrain Theatre Sound Design:
-Sound design and music for several of Tim Spites Seeyd Theatre plays, 2006 – 2012, including the award -winning December Brother
-Sound design and music for Ginette MacDonald’s My Brilliant Divorce 2008
-Sound design for Centrepoint Theatres The Raft 2009
-Sound System Design for 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival show 360
-Sound system design for Chris Wards award winning sound design for The Lead Weight 2011Awards: Gil has been nominated for several Chapman Trip theatre awards, and won best sound design for The December Brother in 2010. She also mixed Tui award winning albums Trouble on the Waterfront by The Waterfront Collective, and Circus of Fleas by Fleabite and tracked another Tui winning album Dog Breath by FatCat and FishFace.Live Sound:
-Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – FOH engineer
-Pink Floyd Experience – Monitor engineer
-World of Wearable Arts – FOH engineer
-The Woolshed Sessions – FOH engineer
-Rosy Tin Tea Caddy – FOH engineer
-Claude Rains – FOH engineer
History of The English Brass Bands
The English Brass Bands got their start during England’s Industrial Revolution. They were originally organized and financed by mining and milling companies to keep the working classes from politically organizing. In 1860, there were around 750 brass bands in England. Today the English Brass Band tradition is found throughout New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and the United States. The Salvation Army has kept the tradition alive in the United States.
English Brass Bands are made up cornets, flugelhorn, tenor horns, baritones, trombones, euphoniums,B-flat and E-flat basses and percussion. The bands are made up of 28 to 30 members and their programs can include original music, traditional marching songs, hymns, and medleysBands in New Zealand are graded into four levels A grade to D grade. A grade being the top grade, and D being the equivalent of a beginner band. In Britain, the equivalent is 1st – 4th grade, with the addition of the Championship Section. The Championship Section is the best of the best and includes famous bands such as Black Dyke and Grimethorpe.
The contests in New Zealand consist of each band preparing a March, a Hymn, and an original piece. They are also given a set test piece. The A Grade is very competitive, and as the contest becomes closer; the bands practice several times a week, with extensive rehearsals on weekends. Each player is expected to continue practicing at home. Several bands have tempted top players from England by helping them relocate to New Zealand.
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We are excited to welcome members from around the globe that will be attending AES NY.
Megan Benavente is a freelance engineer based in Los Angeles and is one of the FOH Engineers at the legendary Troubadour, one of the best rock clubs in Los Angeles. 
