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Get On Tour – Download FREE for 1 week

By Nathan Lively

 

This is your textbook on how to get into touring. –Darryn De La Soul

  • 🗣12 Authors
  • 💪🏼272 Years of combined experience
  • 🚨Free until Sep23 at midnight

get on tour 3DIn this ebook you will discover:

  • The many paths available to getting on tour.
  • Best and worst parts of the job.
  • How much touring engineers make.

And you can download it for free until Sep23 at midnight!

The most common career-related question I get is how to get on tour. There are some questions that deserve nuanced answers from multiple viewpoints, and this is one of them.

Instead of trying to answer the question directly (e.g., work hard, get lucky, sacrifice a lamb) the best thing I can do is gather compelling stories. The career paths outlined in these stories will give you ideas for actions and next steps in creating your own path. The only rule is that you must take action or the ideas will be forgotten.

I have attempted to order the chapters by experience so that you can first hear from someone who may only be a few years ahead of you and later from people who have been touring for 30 years or more. This is an experimental project and you will notice that the format and style varies between contributors. Don’t worry about the form: the content is paramount.

All of the contributors to this book are sharing their stories in an effort to help you, the reader. Visit their websites, connect with them online, and reach out to them with any follow up questions you might have or experiences you’d like to share.

Why Touring Sound Engineers Are Getting Paid Less

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-touring-sound-engineers-getting-paid-less-dave-swallow-erasure-featured

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with touring FOH sound engineer, author, and fashion entrepreneur, Dave Swallow, during his stop in Minneapolis on tour with Erasure. We discuss using timecode to trigger scenes on a Venue Profile console, starting a clothing line, why touring sound engineers are working more, but getting paid less, and what to do about it. I ask:

      • How did you get the job touring with Erasure?
      • How do you use the wireless Lake controller to tune the sound system?
      • What are some ways you used plugins to recreate specific sounds from the album?
      • What did you want to start a clothing brand?
      • Why should I care about the speed of sound?

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-dave-swallowOur wages haven’t gone up in 10-15 year in some cases and there are less shows. When you think about the future of the industry, there is a big question mark.

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Meathook and Butler Boyz.
  2. Dave’s clothing line – Audio Architect Apparel
  3. Software: Waves H-Delay, True Verb, C6 Multi-band Compressor
  4. Hardware: Venue Profile, D&B B2, FunktionOne 221, D&B Y system
  5. Books: Live Audio
  6.  Quotes
    1. What [triggering the scenes with timecode] has allowed me to do is focus on sonically how they are sitting in the room. This is especially important when you are stuck mixing at the back of the room.
    2. The problem with putting big reverbs into big rooms, is they are twice as big. One of the things that is quite helpful is using the pre-delay. Getting it up to somewhere between 70-100ms, you give the vocal time to form the words and then you have the extension.
    3. One of the biggest problems with theatres in the US is that they lack bottom end.
    4. My self and my contemporaries are probably the first generation of touring sound engineers that have had to think about having another career. [When you set out on this path] you just think, “Let’s have fun!” But there comes that point when you think, actually, I don’t want to be 60 and living by myself in a rented flat somewhere in north London.
    5. To earn a decent living you need to be out of the house [on tour] for the whole year, to pay for the house that you’re not living in.
    6. You’re losing out to gigs because there is someone younger and cheaper than you are. Experience doesn’t seem to count for as much as it used to because it’s all budget controlled.
    7. When my son was born I only worked six months and we weren’t struggling for cash. These days, if I only work six months, we’ll have a bit of a problem.

sound-design-live-touring-sound-engineers-getting-paid-less-dave-swallow-erasure-stage sound-design-live-touring-sound-engineers-getting-paid-less-dave-swallow-erasure-mixing sound-design-live-touring-sound-engineers-getting-paid-less-dave-swallow-erasure-bus

 

 

How To Become A Sound Engineer

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-how-to-become-a-sound-engineer-featured-image

sound-design-live-how-to-become-a-sound-engineerThe truth is, anyone can become a sound engineer.

Getting your foot in the door feels like the easy part because if you show up at the right time you could get a job immediately with no prior experience. The hard part is sticking with it and moving up.

Being a sound engineer is hard; lots of people want to mix the biggest festivals, but only a small number make it to that high level. You could say that those people are naturally better engineers than the rest of us, and maybe they are, but I think a bigger truth is that they have superior emotional intelligence and work ethic.

So how do you harness your own emotional intelligence and work ethic to set professional goals and find success? Let’s take look at Dave Swallow’s article How To Become A Sound Engineer, which asks these two questions: 1) Why do you want this job?; and 2) What do you crave?

Why do you want to become a sound engineer?

You need to work out why you want to do this job. If you are after fame and fortune, you are in the wrong job. If you want to hang around and be friends with famous people, you are in the wrong job. If you want and crave credit for the work you are doing, you are in the wrong job. If it sounds great, the band gets the credit. If it sounds terrible, you get the credit. However, if you love music and understand how it works to its core, then maybe you’ll just make it. This is a hard industry full of people who will try and stab you in the back just to get your gig because they don’t have one. And unfortunately this is the reality. -Dave Swallow

More specifically, if you love live music and crave the emotional thrill of experiencing it with a group of people, then you might make it. But those moments of musical euphoria can be few and far between. You’ll work with bands you dislike. You’ll work on corporate events with no music. In our interview, Swallow says that he doesn’t even go out to shows anymore. I’m the same way. Even when you start out with the craving, it weakens over time and your interests change. How do you maintain that drive?

Answer: Through an interest in technical proficiency and the pride of a job well done.

Part of the reason I currently take lots of corporate work that I would have declined in the past is that my craving shifted; where I used to want emotionally satisfying music, I now crave the personal satisfaction of a job well done. Even if from the outside it appears that the event is falling apart, I pride myself in remaining calm and not losing my shit. This is both a necessity for maintaining sanity and also creative problem solving.

I’ll argue with Swallow on his second point though. I’ve never had anything but respect and support from my colleagues. We look out for each other and help each other out. That being said, I’ve never worked on a top-tier concert tour, so I believe him if he says that the competition is bloodthirsty.

sound-design-live-how-to-become-a-sound-engineer-live-sound-meme

What do you crave?

The key to my own success is already written in the prelude and introduction in the book. And what you will find in there is only that I had a dream, and I believed I could do it. I wasn’t always able to get a job as a sound engineer at either end of the multicore. I had many different jobs in the industry including tour and production managing, driver, and merchandiser, and most of the time these jobs were doubled up even tripled up. I’d do anything, just as long as I met people. -Dave Swallow

A lot of people get depressed on tour. I know, I’ve been there. Being deprived of your normal network of relationships and habits is a great emotional challenge and that no one thinks about. While I was battering Dave Swallow with questions about how he deals with the shitty parts of being a sound engineer, the most important (and understated) thing he said to me was: “You can get stuck up your own ass, but as a sound engineer your job is to make it sound as good as you can. What are you going to do? Moan about it or get on with the job. I don’t see any point in getting stressed about it. It is what it is. These things happen and it’s part and parcel of being on the road. Things will go wrong. If you stress about them, you’re not really doing yourself any favors or anyone around you any favors, so just chill.”

That didn’t really sink in until the second time I listened to his interview, but it’s so important. I often get upset about the conditions of the job and the state of the industry, but getting upset doesn’t help anyone, and it’s a killer if you want to keep doing show. Anyone can get a job as a sound engineer, I promise you. Getting your foot in the door is the easy part. It can happen by accident. Sticking around is the hard part.

I really like this thought: “I’d do anything, just as long as I met people.” Swallow’s first tour was six months of unpaid work. Are you crazy?! Yes and no. Networking is the most important thing in our industry. Swallow repeats several times in our interview how important it was that he “got on” with his colleagues, both crew and artists. Swallow got that first tour after working at a music venue for six years because a local band liked him. I got my first concert tour with the band O’QueStrada because they liked me (and the fact that I would let them do crazy things with microphones like distance group miking in a tiny venue).

sound-design-live-how-to-become-a-sound-engineer-john-mclaughlinThe “I’ll do anything” mentality does not just mean painting floors and making coffee, it’s also staying open to opportunities in live audio. In concert sound there are a lot more sound engineers at work than just the FOH engineer. The stage monitor engineer, the microphone tech, the stage hands, the system tech, the audio production manager, and the live recording engineer are all equal contributors to high production quality, and each position has its own set of challenges and benefits. For example, the stage monitor engineer has a far more personal relationship with the artists during the show than the FOH mixer. Once I had the opportunity to mix monitors for John McLaughlin and his band. Imagine how cool it was that everyone on stage, including McLaughlin, had to learn my name!

Every time I go to see my favorite band, Sigur Rós, I go up to the FOH engineer after the show and ask him how he got his job. He always says the same thing: “Oh, they just knew about me from other work I had done.” In college I used to read every TapeOp Magazine from cover to cover, desperate to deconstruct the sound engineer’s career path. It was always a let down, because there is no step-by-step method. Why? My guess is that the industry just isn’t that developed yet. Think about professions with well-defined career paths and guidelines. They are older and more organized, like the medical and legal industries.

This industry is still very young and, as such, is constantly changing. Just remember that if you want to make a career out of it, you must be professional, responsible, and courteous at all times. -Dave Swallow

Swallow’s career story isn’t complicated. He met someone with connections, asked for help, did well, and one thing led to another. The impressive part is that he stuck with it through all of the shitty parts of the job. Sure, he works with celebrities and great artists, but that shine wears off after about 500 miles of touring. Hear Swallow’s career path starting at 35m40s in the interview below.

Hey you, yeah, you there reading this. What drives you to continue to be a sound engineer? Comment below.

For more on career paths, read the Education chapter of Sound Design Live: Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer.

Do you want a job as a touring FOH sound engineer? You need to hear this.

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-featured

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast, I talk to Dave Swallow, Merlijn van Veen, Bob McCarthy, Darryn de la Soul, and Michelle Pettinato about their best tips to find a touring FOH sound engineer job.

  • With whom should I build relationships to get international touring gigs?
  • Should I work for free to get my foot in the door?
  • Who are the best people to cold call to find touring jobs?
  • Should I approach bands who are on tour about working with them?
  • Should I work for free to get experience?
  • Where is the best place to work to get picked up for a tour?
  • How do I get my name out there for a touring FOH sound engineer job?

Show notes:

  1. All music in this episode by Steve Knots.

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-dave-swallowDave Swallow

The less money you charge, the more work you have to do.

  • Find out which local bands are touring internationally and reach out to their management.
  • Don’t poach gigs/clients.
  • Be friendly with sound engineers, tour managers, and production managers. Keep up regular email correspondence. You have to be able to stick in their minds. But if you are cold calling, go through management.
  • Don’t work for free. Instead, do multiple jobs (driver + tour manager + merchandise).

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-Merlijn_van_VeenMerlijn Van Veen

There’s no way to tell if it will do you any good, but if you never try, you can be sure it won’t do you any good.

  • Get involved with local production companies that do international tours.
  • Last minute calls on FB groups.
  • There’s no harm in making yourself known. The worst thing they can do is say no.
  • If an artist or client says something positive about your work, ask if you can put it on your website.

sound-design-live-bob-mccarthy-headshotBob McCarthy

The number one thing [the artist] wants is trust. That this person can listen to them and interpret their music to the people. They’re much more looking for that than super hot shot technical chops.

  • Get a job on an international music festival.
  • Knock on the door of a big international touring company.

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-darryn-de-la-soulDarryn De La Soul

  1. Don’t poach gigs/clients.
  2. Work with a rental company. Get on a small tour. Help the supporting bands that don’t have a sound engineer of their own.

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-michelle-sabolchick-pettinatoMichelle Pettinato

The people who succeed are the ones who are trying to tap out every single avenue they can think of.

  • Meet production managers and tour managers. They do the hiring.
  • Work anywhere where touring bands come through, and give your contact information to everyone. You have to make a personal connection and build a connection. Check in with them a week later. Do that on a regular basis. Ask for more connections. “I’m just trying to build my contact base. Can you introduce me to someone on this tour?”
  • Research the trade magazines to learn the names of production managers and tour managers. Use LinkedIn to find contact info.
  • Tell everyone that you meet what you want and what your goals are. You never know where that connection is going to come from.

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-networking-twitter

sound-design-live-touring-foh-sound-engineer-job-michelle-sabolchick-pettinato-facebook

 

 

Growth Hack 2016: 13-Day Career Building Challenge

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-pro-audio-growth-hack-career-challenge-2016

sound-design-live-pro-audio-growth-hack-career-challenge-2016Are you ready to blast into 2016 with new energy and ideas?

Start the year off right with this 13-day career building challenge. Commit to professional growth this year as a sound engineer and as an entrepreneur.

You’ll receive a short lesson and action step each day from such industry leaders as Bob McCarthy, Darryn de la Soul, Dave Swallow, Merlijn Van Veen, Moldover, Larry Crane, Josh Srago, Ken “Pooch” Van Druten, Björgvin Benediktsson, Harry Mack, and Steve Knots.

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