Sound Design Live

Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer

Mixing the most difficult musical on Broadway: Rock of Ages

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In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast, I talk with Daryl Bornstein about Rock of Ages, the most difficult play he has ever mixed. We discuss:

  • How he first got work on Broadway.
  • How he got the gig with Rock of Ages.
  • The complicated setup procedure before every show.
  • The sound system design and tuning.
  • How to visualize sound in a room.
  • What it takes to learn an intense Broadway musical.
  • The moment of panic on every show.

People want to work with somebody who is a team player, who is going to do what they need to do to make sure their work isn’t compromised, but understands the big picture and approaches problems as a challenge as opposed to an annoyance.

Show notes:

  1. All music in this episode from Rock Of Ages (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
  2. Hardware/software: Avid Profile, LCS, Galileo, Sennheiser 5212 and HSP2 and MKE1, Ultimate Ears
  3. Quotes
    1. Think of it as light. How is it going to reflect off of walls and other surfaces?
    2. Rock of Ages is the most difficult show I’ve ever had to mix.
    3. It’s unlike any other show I’ve ever done, because you cannot make a mistake.
    4. The single most important decision I ever made was to approach a producer and lobby to be the production sound engineer on a musical…
    5. The only criteria [for hiring crew] was, “Is this somebody that you want to sit across from at dinner and have a fun time?” You want to be around people that you enjoy being around. And that’s probably what makes for success, aside from skills.
    6. This particular [Digidesign Profile] has more plugins on it than any other Profile in the world.

sound-design-live-podcast-mixing-musical-broadway-rock-of-ages-daryl-bornstein-set

Use Automation to Build Relationships with a Free CRM

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[iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/121795536?portrait=0″ width=”740″ height=”481″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen]

I was surprised to discover that the most popular topic we have discussed in Pro Audio Business Blueprint so far has been how to maintain great relationships with current and past clients. In fact, this is such an important part of running a service-based business that I want you to know about it, too.

Getting booked solid doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because you hustle for it.

In this video I walk you through the initial steps of using a paid app, Contactually, and a free app, Streak, to automate your hustle.

The Minimalist Guide to Budgeting (for Sound Engineers)

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how-i-stopped-going-broke-budgeting-sound-engineers-see-no-evilI used to go broke every year. To stay out of the red, I had to stop ignoring money.

Being a sound engineer or a freelancer of any kind can make budgeting difficult. Fortunately, difficult does not mean impossible! I’ve learned several powerful strategies in the last year that have completely changed my game.

The Big Shift

In March of last year I attended the Big Shift Experience seminar. It was my first real business seminar and I was struggling to keep up with all of the new ideas. They had us perform some great exercises, and one of my favorites targeted our relationships with money. I’ll describe it for you so that you can try it with a friend:

  1. sound-design-live-minimalist-guide-budgeting-hello-moneyPretend that your friend is money, in the flesh. Talk to them! What do you appreciate about Money? What has been been challenging for you? What do you want for the future? Take five minutes to get everything off of your chest.
  2. Next, let Money take five minutes to respond (using their imagination) about how they feel about you and the things you just said. They might explain the status quo and make some suggestions for the future, or they might try to help clarify the things you said to them. They don’t need to give you the secrets to success; the power is in hearing your words and intentions reflected back to you.

This may sound a little woo, but here’s what I discovered:

  • I had been mostly ignoring money my entire life. I only gave it attention when I was upset about my finances and forced to confront the situation.
  • To build a strong relationship, Money and I needed to hang out more regularly.

Action

So, what was the best way to integrate Money into my life? Slowly and steadily. I started simply, by taking ten minutes every day to review my finances.

  1. Check all accounts to record/confirm new income and expenses.
  2. Make budget adjustments as necessary. (The nice thing about checking in every day is that you see the small transactions and habits that can lead to bigger problems and catch them before they grow.)

Results

Super simple, but just that little action can make a big change in your finances. What you give attention to grows.

I was ignoring money because I didn’t want it to run my life. The result was that it ran my life. I’m not a millionaire (yet) but I know where my money is going and I no longer budget on faith, because I know:

  • How much my lifestyle costs.
  • How much money I need to make to maintain my lifestyle.
  • How much I need to charge for my services.
  • How much I can save for my future.
  • When I will be able to stop working for money (more on this in a future post!).
  • How much I can spend on food, travel, and lap dances.

Why You Need a Budget

Here are some common excuses people use to avoid writing a budget:

  • I don’t make enough money to use a budget.
  • Budgets don’t work.
  • I check my account balance before every purchase.

sound-design-live-minimalist-guide-budgeting-piggy-bankHow well have those worked for you? Have you gone broke?

I have. Many times.

If you are going to participate in modern society, you are going to spend money (or Bitcoin). Stop pretending like you can run it all from your head and write those numbers down.

NOTE: It’s not all about limiting spending. It’s about exercising control, and creating goals and a strategy for success.

The Solution

Create a budget. Update it daily with current information.

I recommend You Need A Budget (YNAB) software, but you can read their four-step method for free right now. Here’s a quick overview:

  1. Give every dollar a job: This is similar to the envelope technique, if you’ve ever tried that. One big mistake that I made over and over while trying to make a budget is that I would use “Monopoly money” (that is, fake money that I didn’t have yet). I would project into the future and try to guess the entire month, then be surprised when I came up short. A more realistic approach is to only budget money when you have it, and then use that real money only for the next most urgent items in your budget.
  2. Save for a rainy day: Last month I had to spend $500 to repair my car. Surprise! It sucked, but honestly, I can expect that happen at least once a year. As soon as I realized that, I created a Car Maintenance budget category where I save $42/month ($500/12months). Next time my car breaks down, I’ll be ready.
  3. Roll with the punches: Surprise expenses are a big problem that I struggle with when I’m budgeting. There are a few ways you can make them easier on yourself. Last month I needed a piece of software I had not budgeted for. It was fairly simple to move some money out of my Buffer and Marketing category and into the Software category. What’s a buffer?
  4. Live on last month’s income: A buffer is a safety net equal to at least one month’s income. Once you have a buffer saved, you can budget out an entire month in advance and be more flexible with surprise expenses.

If you don’t want to buy YNAB ($54, normally $60), you can still get started today with a simple spreadsheet.

* * *

Was it hard to change?

A friend wrote me with this question:

How hard was it for you to start using the software? Not in terms of learning the interface, but in terms of actually managing your money? I go through periods of ignoring it (like you described) because it gives me anxiety. Did this help change that mindset for you?

Yes, it was hard. Yes, using the software was helpful.

Since I had never really learned how to use a budget before, it was pretty tough to get started managing my money. One important point is that I work on it for about 10 minutes every morning. Some people work on it once a week, but I like to just do a little every day. That way I can see trends develop and fix problems before they get out of control.

It was also emotionally challenging. I had been lying to myself for a long time about how much money I spend and how much money I need to earn to pay the bills. I used to think it was $1,900/month. Turns out, it’s $2,800 minimum, usually a little more.

Years ago, after reading my first business book, I opened a bunch of different accounts because I thought that’s what you do in business. This ended up being really challenging because I wasn’t making much money and it was all spread out. It was a constant juggling act.

The YNAB approach works much better for me because almost all of my money is in my checking account, where the action is. I only move it out to go into my investment account at Vanguard. I’m a lot more flexible now. If a big expense comes up I can quickly move numbers around without making a bunch of bank transfers. Also, all of my numbers are backed up by real money now, which is a huge change for me. I’m not estimating my spending any more. I only budget money when I have it.

There is a big learning curve, but I am biased because I started from very little experience.

Frequency Coordination and Antenna Placement for a Rock-Solid Wireless Microphone System

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I interview Karl Winkler from Lectrosonics. We discuss the basics of frequency coordination, wireless microphone myths, and how the Super Bowl manages 1,000 channels of wireless devices. Karl also explains what a backup frequency is, whether bluetooth devices, microwaves and cell phones will cause interference, and how to prepare for rogue wireless devices.

sound-design-live-wireless-microphone-frequency-coordination-antenna-placement-karl-winklerNotes:

  1. Music in this episode by The Giovanni Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, The Bartok Quartet, and Brentano String Quartet.
  2. USC Recording Arts
  3. Karl’s principles for success in audio
    1. Have a good attitude. If your job is to roll tires from the back of the store to the front, you should be so good that people will pay to see you do it. Don’t be afraid of the work or think of it as being beneath you.
    2. The basics always matter. Every art and science requires you to know the fundamentals.
    3. Really listen. Learn to use use your ears as a troubleshooting tool. See Trouble-Shooting Audio Systems tutorial.
  4. SynAudCon – Making Wireless Work
  5. Wireless Workbench
  6. Myths
    1. Wireless mics are voodoo.
    2. A directional antenna is always better.
    3. I can get more range with boosted antennas.
    4. Lectrosonics is too expensive.
  7. Interview with Jim Venable from the Wireless Speaker Association
  8. Axient system from Shure
  9. Spectra Pulse from Audio Technica
  10. Lectrosonics Facebook Group and FAQ page
  11. Words
    1. sound-design-live-wireless-microphone-setupCavity Filter = Pass band filter. Blocks out bands of frequencies to focus only on the ones you want.
    2. Shark Fins = Directional antennas = LPDA (log periodic dipol arrays)
    3. Intermodulation distortion = Occurs when two or more signals mix within an active device and create phantom frequencies.
    4. Backup/spare frequencies = Pre-coordinated channels that you don’t need at the moment, but are already calculated to fit into your system design, preventing guess work.
  12. Big Mistakes
    1. Not separating your IEMs, comms, and mics into different bands.
    2. Bad antenna placement.
    3. Not calculating signal loss for long antenna cable.
  13. Quotes
    1. “Audio is a guilded career. You start as an apprentice. That’s how most people get their start.”
    2. “Your attitude is irreplaceable.”
    3. “There is something to learn from everything you do in life.”
    4. “Any time you add an active component, you are potentially raising the noise floor and increasing distortion. It can mix signals and create intermodulation products. You always want a net zero gain between antenna and receiver.”

wireless-microphone-frequency-coordination-antenna-placement-karl-winkler-life

Merlijn van Veen and Understandable Misunderstandings

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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.