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How an improperly connected motor cable arced up the chain and almost ended in disaster

By Nathan Lively

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with the touring FOH sound engineer for Godsmack, Erik Rogers. We discuss how he dealt with various SPL limits while on tour, console setup, and why safety is never a compromise.

I ask:

  • What’s one of the biggest things you’ve learned while working with Godsmack?
  • Tell us about the biggest or maybe most painful mistake you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
  • From FB
    • Sam: Ask him what kind of issues does he face on the road besides the difference in venues.
    • Andreas: His Routing in his Desk (Input- Groups – Matrix etc)
    • Chris: Always interested in rock vocal chains, and mixing them with an up front guitar sound. It can be difficult to separate them at times. Tips or tricks?
    • Alfons: Does he use gates on all vocals & drums? Does he use peak or RMS compression?
    • Rob: What beard cream is best?
    • David: Compression: heavy or light? Pre or post EQ? What console are you on, what are you doing with bus compression?
    • Mark: Can I train under him ?
    • Jonathan: What tricks does he use to get that epic kick sound?

Safety is never a compromise.

Erik Rogers

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Godsmack.
  2. Hardware: isemcon 7150, calibrator, never portico 2, shure 91, audix d6, kelly shoe,
  3. workbag: iSEMcon emx7150, calibrator, focusrite scarlet preamp, flashlight, incense, headphones
  4. Books: The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
  5. Podcasts: How I built this, Joe Rogan, Serial Killers
  6. Quotes
    1. I don’t have the same direction I did when I was 20.
    2. Sometimes you need to get hit in the face with a brick in order to focus.
    3. I guess that’s the difference between me and a monitor guy; my customer service has a barricade in between us.
    4. You’re an American and you look at 100dB and you’re like, that’s fuck’n crazy.
    5. I calibrate one microphone every day for SPL measurement and then my roaming microphone for system tuning is not calibrated.
    6. Safety is never a compromise.
    7. Anybody who’s motivated to succeed can as long as you don’t give up, and can take a shit load of criticism.

I made sure every sound engineer, tour manager, and production manager knew I wanted to tour

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-engineer-production-manager-knew-i-wanted-tour-Michelle-Sabolchick-Pettinato-featured

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with FOH mixer for artists such as Spin Doctors, Indigo Girls, Styx, Melissa Etheridge, Gwen Stefani, Kesha, Jewel, Mr. Big, Goo Goo Dolls, Christina Aguilera, and Adam Lambert, Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, about how she went from mixing local bands to international tours. I ask:

  • In the book Get On Tour you write, “For several years before I started touring I worked at a local sound company, in the A/V department at an entertainment complex, as a stagehand, at a nightclub, mixing local bands, and occasionally as an assistant at a recording studio.” How did that happen?
    • The milestone in this story is that a friend of yours called to offer you the tour with The Spin Doctors and you credit that to simple word of mouth marketing. You say, “I made sure everyone knew that I wanted to be on tour. I talked constantly with friends and colleagues about touring, and when I worked with visiting bands and engineers I would pick their brain about how they got started. When the opportunity came, I seized it.” Could you talk in a bit more detail about what that looked like in practice? How did you make sure that everyone knew that you wanted to be on tour?
  • Can you explain the hiring process to me? From the initial idea where a production company or artist says, “I want to go on tour,” what are the chain of events and people that then lead to you or someone else getting hired for a tour?
  • Let’s talk about the Mr. Big tour. Could you give me an overview of the inputs you are mixing?
  • What’s in your work bag?
  • What is one book that has been helpful to you?

It’s always someone who knows someone.

Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato

Notes

  1. All music in this podcast by Niklas Harju.
  2. Books: Get On Tour, Illusions by Richard Bock
  3. Hardware: Beyer M88, RE20, EV ND76, Telefunken M80, kettlebell
  4. Michelle’s workbag: headphones Sony MD7506, flashlight, sharpies, tuning CD, karaoke mic, iPod to XLR cable, cool towel, batteries, adapters, ear plugs Sensaphonics, Gerber multi tool, e-tape, Purell
  5. Quotes
    1. That came from a classmate who I was friends with and remembered always saying that this is what I want to do and he gave me a shot.
    2. Meet the crew, production managers, tour managers, stage managers, and other crew members and build connections with them because they are the people who are going to refer you for a job.
    3. It’s always someone who knows someone.
    4. I love the kettlebell because it’s the only workout where I feel like, Wow, I just did something.

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

 

 

Merlijn van Veen and Understandable Misunderstandings

By Nathan Lively

Merlijn_van_Veen

 

Merlijn van Veen is a sound engineer and system tuning expert in the Netherlands.

He has been with Harlekijn Holland, the company of renowned European singer Herman van Veen, for the last 8 years and mixes more than 150 performances a year, both indoor and outdoor.

sound-design-live-quick-announcement

NATHAN LIVELY: What’s your favorite thing to do in Soest (Netherlands) when you’re not working?

Merlijn_van_VeenMERLIJN VAN VEEN: I love to watch blockbuster movies and television series. I also like to play games (board and computer) and have a profound passion for making various calculators to aide me in my educational endeavors.

Since the arrival of my 15-month-old daughter, it has become a challenge to find free time between her, my wife, and work. Being on the road a lot is a blessing in disguise. There’s lots of time to kill and this is where I made most of my calculators.

How did you get your first job in audio?

I quit the Art of Sound (studio recording) education at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague before graduating, arguably for misguided reasons. I’m never sure whether to regret it or not. It’s funny if you think about it because 15 years later, they invited me to teach system design and optimization over there. 😉

When I dropped out of school, the department head at the time gave me a contact at the Dutch Broadcast Company, something I’m still humbled by today. One week later I was doing sound for the worldwide first edition of the reality show Big Brother. I worked on that show and various others for the next 5 years.

I know you are on tour right now. Walk us through a day in your life.

Correct. We literally just started our national tour in the Netherlands, which will continue until summer 2015.

Our country is an exception to many European standards when it comes to installed sound systems. We have little over 450 theaters and pretty much all of them come with decent sound systems that are included in the package so to speak. That being said, there’s still room left for improvement IMHO.

Even today I run into a lot of what I like to think of as understandable misunderstandings. By that I mean poorly-informed decisions caused by a lack of understanding with regard to physics that lead to over- or under-coverage and poor time alignment and level management. This is one of the reasons I started teaching. Today I primarily listen to raw pink noise on untuned systems. I have my preferred tracks that I like to listen to but only after I tuned the system and have plausible reason what to expect.

In the past when a given system was supposedly designed and tuned by a renowned engineer, I’d be intimidated and automatically assume that it would work out fine only to find out that he or she apparently had a different application in mind.

On tour, we start at 1PM with the load-in. After the desks and multicores have been put in place I’ll request access to the system, preferably a direct connection, respecting their speaker protection. I carry a Dolby Lake Processor with me which I prefer 9 out of 10 times over the house DSP as it will save me some propagation delay and AD-DA conversions.

I’ll spend anywhere from 1 to 3 hours (depending on the complexity of the system) tuning the system using Smaart v7 and four microphones. This might seem like a lot of time but I know from experience that I’ll be thankful for it by sound check because I will have provided myself with a white canvas, a frame of reference. This way of working has allowed me to produce consistent results from venue to venue with the exception of natural reverberation, which is inherent to each venue.

Around 4PM we do a brief line check, about 40 channels, and 5PM is dinner time. Sound check starts at 6:30PM and lasts till doors. The show starts at 8PM. Two sets, each an hour long, and as much as one hour of encores.

Load out takes an hour and on most days I’m home between 1AM and 3AM. When we’re doing a international tour, say Germany, Austria, Switzerland or Belgium, we bring our own system and start one hour earlier (noon).

sound-design-live-sound-system-tuning-tour-Smaart-7-merlijn-van-veem

You’ve created some great audio calculators to aid in system design for free on your site. Are they primarily for education or do you use them in the field?

With the exception of the Subwoofer Array Designer most of my calculators are developed for educational purposes. However, I do consult the air absorption, floor-bounce, and delay study calculators for confirmation when I’m in doubt.

What’s in the measurement rig that you take out on the road?

I use a Macbook Pro running Smaart v7 in combination with a RME fireface 800 audio interface. I’ve got five microphones: four Audix TM-1s and one DPA 4091. The Audix mics have been calibrated by me (see my post at the Rational Acoustics forum for the procedure), thanks to Smaart’s microphone correction curve feature, to match the DPA within 0.5 dB (both level and tonality). I’ve been fortunate to have my DPA compared to an official Meyer Sound SIM3 DPA (B&K) 4007 and stay within 0.5 dB. Close enough for me.

The mics are connected by means of 25-meter cables on drums, and everything is color-coded using shrink tube and tape to match the color of the traces in Smaart. This way I can instantly deduce which trace belongs to what microphone and position.

sound-design-live-sound-system-tuning-tour-Smaart-7-traces

Give us an overview of your procedure for verifying a sound system before sound check, once everything is set up.

When I arrive at a venue the first thing I do is evaluate the design and decide for myself which speaker(s) or array(s) are best suited to cover the macro shape. This will be my starting point and I’ll subdivide from there, making use of the available speakers.

I always carry front-fills with me ’cause there are always too few that are spaced too wide, or they’re mounted in the stage lip and have no chance of reaching the second row once the audience arrives.

Next I verify that the various speaker configurations and/or arrays are actually optimizable; this is not always the case. Then it’s all about proper speaker positioning, rotation, and aiming using laser pointers, protractors, inclinometers, levels, and both tape measures and laser distance range finders.

The latter is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of system design. It determines what is covered, how much of it is covered, and where the seams will end up.

Finally, I’ll measure at carefully chosen positions that will provide me with way more valuable information than arbitrary sampling the room in order to map system behavior. The data will guide me through the process of equalizing and time alignment.

Provided I have “good” gear to start with, I’m mainly managing:

  • low frequency coupling (between other speakers and/or the room)
  • buildup in the back of the venue
  • high frequency absorption by air

A great deal of time is also spent phase aligning the subwoofers to the main system.

During sound check I’ll walk the room making minor (1 to 2 dB at most) changes to (sub)systems, tweaking by ear whilst keeping the above in mind.

What is the most exciting advancement in audio technology for you right now?

Education, education, and education.

IMHO there are few industries that are so drenched with voodoo, superstition, and understandable misunderstandings as live audio.

There’s also a lot of valuable information and experience kept secret, through which some people become successful, that could benefit us all. Struggling to become a respectable engineer and making all the mistakes our predecessors have made before us seems un-pragmatic and doesn’t benefit the industry, the artists, and most important the (paying) audience.

I like to teach and am not afraid of creating new competition with my students. I couldn’t have achieved any of this without the help of others who feel the same way, even if I had to pay a fair price for it. I’m a big fan of the pay-it-forward approach. Besides, I’ll always be 15 years ahead of them. 😉

Where is the best place for people to follow your work online?

My website and Facebook page. This is where I publish my calculators and post articles that I feel could benefit the industry, as well as other stuff.

How to Be a Remarkable Sound Engineer by Being Honest

By Nathan Lively

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with Kenneth ‘Pooch’ Van Druten, the FOH sound engineer for Linkin Park, Alice and Chains, Kid Rock, and System of a Down. We discuss:

  1. How Van Druten got his first job in audio.
  2. The number one skill that gets him in the door for every job.
  3. The value of microphone placement.
  4. Why speaker coverage is important beyond anything else.
  5. How to set gates using side-chains and virtual sound check.
  6. Results and trends from Van Druten’s annual hearing health check.
  7. Mixing monitors for Pantera.
  8. Van Druten’s SPL strategy for Linkin Park.
  9. How Van Druten managed to record and mix every Linkin Park show for two years solid.
  10. Whether mixing live show recordings is a viable second income stream?
  11. Good plugins for vocals.

sound-design-live-linkin-park-kenneth-pooch-van-druten-spl-speaker-coverage-gatesDetails from the podcast:

  1. All music by Linkin Park
  2. Van Druten on Twitter and Facebook
  3. Linkin Park community forum
  4. Berklee College of Music in Boston
  5. Smaart school
  6. RTA = real time analyzer
  7. Interview with John Huntington
  8. Waves Max Volume plugin, Waves 1176 compresser
  9. Miles Kennedy
  10. 808
  11. LEQ = a single decibel value which takes into account the total sound energy over the period of time of interest
  12. Quotes:
    1. “One of the things that you have to do to break into this industry is be willing to do anything.”
    2. “Often someone will ask me, ‘How’d you do that?’ And I’ll say, ‘I have no idea.'”
    3. “I worked with an engineer that made me spend an entire day moving an SM57 microphone centimeters around a guitar amp.”
    4. “The only kind of relationship I can have with an artist is an honest one.”
    5. “Being a great system engineer is a different skill set than the one I have.”
    6. “Coverage is important beyond anything else.”
    7. “The entire drum kit is an instrument. Not just the tom or the snare.”
    8. “There are situations when you just can’t win.”
    9. “I listen to 200 shows a year. It’s important to me not to listen to those at 106dB A-weighted.”
    10. “You mix at 100dB? That doesn’t mean anything.”
    11. “I don’t know if you’ve measured crowds recently. At a Linkin Park show, if there are 11 songs, there are 11 times where it goes to 107 dB A-weighted no problem.”
    12. “I feel responsible not only for my own hearing, but for the hearing of people that come to my shows.”

Takeaways:

  • Don’t wait till after college to get an internship. Van Druten started as a studio intern at a local recording studio when he entered school and by the time he graduated he was the head engineer.
  • Learn social intelligence and empathy (i.e., how to talk to crazy people) because you have to be able to get along with them before you can get the job.
  • Mic placement is important. Time spent learning it now will benefit you for the rest of your career.
  • People can sniff bullshit, don’t just say what you think people want you to hear. In a world of yes-men, you can be remarkable by being honest.
  • When talking to artists about making changes, remind them of the big picture of production quality.
  • Be precise and referential when talking sound level. E.g., “I mix at 102dB SPL A-weighted 10min LEQ at FOH 100ft from the downstage edge.”
  • The audience at a loud rock concert like Linkin Park can be louder than the show itself.
  • Mixing the live shows of the band you are working with is fun, but you won’t make much more money and it is a lot more work than you expect it to be.
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