It is my firm belief that many people are struggling to find sound engineering jobs because they simply don’t know how to ask nicely!
Trade Shows are great places to network and get ideas - go whenever you can!
Within minutes of walking into the Soulsound seminar on Calibration and Design Techniques for Modern Sound Systems I was totally relaxed and engaged.
In the run up to Christmas, Gianluca and I were very busy working on the mixes of the new Iamthemorning record.
Tonight we are recording vocal parts with Iamthemorning singer Marjana Semkina.
Last weekend Gianluca Capacchione and I were working with Hattie Webb . We recorded a very special song for Hattie's upcoming album. Hattie's brother Brad Webb joined us also to play some fantastic percussion parts and he also provided the backing vocals for this song. Wow, what an amazingly talented family these kids come from…
On day one of the current tour I cracked a tooth. Leaving breakfast I had that uncomfortable feeling that something felt wrong in my mouth. Having only had Bircher muesli I feel a bit annoyed, I mean it is pretty soft! Luckily though I had renewed my travel insurance just a few days before. Specialist travel insurance is a must if you work abroad. I use one of the specialist brokers for our industry and it’s about £150 a year.
To whom is a sound engineer responsible when creating a mix? Thanks again to all who turned up at PLASA to hear me rant on about stuff. Apologies for running out of time and for having to shout over some very rude speaker demonstrations from just outside the lecture area! For those who missed it, I was exploring the idea of creative input in a mix. My personal opinion is that it is an essential part of the process.
Gaining the Three C's is a sure path to success - but you might need to give up some of your time to get there.
Speaker coverage angle is a loudspeaker specification that, when understood, will make you better than 80%* of the other sound engineers out there.
Well, what do you do when disaster strikes? In audio terms this is usually when everything suddenly goes dead for no apparent reason. Usually this doesn’t happen too often, but sure enough last week in front of 60,000 people I had the full on silent treatment from the festival PA. To be honest no matter how many people there are, the feeling is just as bad.
I have a new addition to my bodge-it tool kit! It was something I didn’t need until I had to solve a problem I had never had before.
I am currently out doing festivals with my trusty analogue mixing desk. As we are doing lots of shows I am using locally-supplied multicores at each festival. This is problematical but we have a nice split system and as long as we take the mains for FOH from the same place as monitors it is not normally an issue.
In the last two weekends I have visited about 6 countries. The festival season brings with it long hours and lots of travel. As festivals take place all over the world, and in the Northern hemisphere all around the same time, the distances are only limited by how far you can fly between shows.
That was a weekend of extremes. I spent Saturday night at one of the most well organised festivals in the world. Werchter is a dream to work at. A huge stage with lots of space. Great catering and a really well designed backstage area. It doesn't get better than this.