Chris Thompson is a very talented acoustic guitar player releasing his first LP. All recording, mixing, mastering, photography and album design was done by Feedback Audio. It’s been a pleasure working with Chris and I’ll be posting some clips soon! Stay tuned… masters are this week!

Or at least I did think that.

Until I had the opportunity to start building a client base of karaoke singers. That’s right, people actually do come to me to record themselves singing karaoke. Prior to my first session, I was ready for a laugh fest. What surprised me is many of the people are good. Really good.

As time has gone on and my client base has grown of people who record these projects, my appreciation for the art has grown in turn. In fact, lots of them are better singers than the many lead singers for “normal” bands. Check out this sample, recorded by a gentleman named Buzz who I’ve worked with over the last couple months. One take:

Buzz Clip – Karaoke – Sinatra

On a given night, Buzz records 8-15 songs, one take each. He doesn’t need autotune, and doesn’t warm up. He has no proffessional vocal coaching. He just loves karaoke. And he’s a contractor.

Never let your preconceptions fool you. There are some really talented people out there. It’s been my priveledge to work with Buzz and some of his friends. Are (some) people who do karaoke talented? You better believe it.

If you visited recently and found some problems accessing the site I apologize. I recently had some problems with the firm with whom I had registered my domain, www.feedbackaudio.ca. The good news? At the exact same time, the domain www.feedbackaudio.com, came up for grabs! I purchased it and quickly moved the site over. Mostly everything is the same, we’re just under a new domain. Over the next bit as things get sorted out with the previous company I dealt with I will set the old page to automatically forward to this one.

Also, thanks to Pat Dryburgh for all the help. He is a stellar web designer who will always go above and beyond for you! Check him out at http://www.patdryburgh.com

Stay tuned for more..

Bumper package put together for the “Fuse” worship event at Connexus Community Church.

Photography by Michael Steingard

Stock Data – Revostock.com

This week I’ve been listening to this:

The album “Go” by Jónsi, is awesome. The first solo release from the lead singer of Sigur Rós is chock full of inspiration. Originality and aural bliss are pretty well encapsulated within this piece of art. Give it a listen, all the way through. I promise at the end you’ll be ready to create.

You can even listen to the whole album online for free, here.

What has inspired you this week?

I first got a handle on this leadership tidbit in the book 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones. It may sound counter intuitive, but bringing up people behind you will benefit you in a number of ways:

• You’ll learn things through them. We have something to learn from everyone, and the more people you have running in your direction the more you’ll learn.
• You’ll sharpen your own skills through teaching.
• You’ll add margin to your position which will allow you to 1) Work on moving forward, optimizing and imagining, and 2) Allow you to move into positions of greater responsibility.
• You’ll most likely gain a few really good friends and peers.

If you’re behind an audio desk, guaranteed there are at least a few young, eager would-be students chomping at the bit to work beside you, most of them are probably too shy to ask. So, keep an eye out and when you see someone who is constantly keeping an eye on what you’re doing have a conversation. See if they would like to be involved. You might not have the authority, or budget, to offer pay, but 95% who want to get involved will do so on a volunteer basis.

Notice I haven’t yet mentioned anything in this series on gear, mixing, or procedures. That’s because I believe all these things are secondary compared to the points we’ve already talked about. If you can nail down your communication, troubleshooting, temperament, and leadership skills you’ll be setting yourself up for success before you even turn up a single fader.

Being able  to stay level headed and not lose your cool or get flustered is essential if you are going to thrive as an engineer. It’s a high pressure, high expectation position where things are bound to go wrong. If you lose your cool, the whole production is going to start going off the rails. Guaranteed.

Let’s be honest for a minute here:

• 30-90% of your physical and mental energy is going to be spent on troubleshooting. This will vary depending on the complexity of your production and whether you are mobile or static, but one way or another you are going to end up fixing things that aren’t working the way they should. From re-routing signals to amplifiers fried mid-set, at some point you’ll come up against it all.
• You will be balancing the needs of multiple people at any one time. The band, the speaker, the producer, the video director and so on are all going to be needing to connect and network with you. During crunch time they’ll all be trying to do this with you at the same time, and very often while you’re troubleshooting something else.
• You will very often be under insane time restrictions. The idiom “The Show Must Go On” is very true. Don’t let the ticking clock affect your troubleshooting or conflict resolution.
• There will be moments when the production seems as if it’s falling to pieces around you. If you’re going to get it on track, you need to stay calm.

It’s easy to be chill when everything is going smoothly and you have an awesome mix, the true test of your character will be in the crazy times. As a key figure your frame of mind will trickle down through the whole team.

When you get hit with a situation, take a deep breath, then take a few seconds and prioritze. Start fixing the things you need to immediately. When the communication comes flooding in, don’t let someone take you off track of the quickest solution. Respond quickly and succinctly, but keep your primary focus on what you are doing. As FOH engineer you are the expert, so you should be able to identify the best and fastest course of action in response to a sticky situation.

If you can stay calm, fix problems quickly and efficiently, focus, and keep a level head when things go haywire  you will not only be able to resolve the things you need to quicker, but you will also grow in esteem of the whole crew and put on a better production as a result.

If you want to be a really great front of house engineer, the very first step is to look beyond what’s in front of you. Mixers, microphones, DI boxes are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.

Give yourself a goal.

I’ve seen many good engineers (some of them very good), been kept from becoming great engineers simply because they couldn’t look beyond what was right in front of their face. Whether you’re experienced or just starting out, remember that the gear and the mix isn’t the end goal. It’s audience experience. At the end of the day, it’s your job to make sure the people in the audience leave with a great experience.

The mix and the gear you use are certainly an important component to this, but not by far the only component. If you want to become really great, take your head out of the game and evaluate the situation around you. How is everyone you’re working with feeling? Is the band able to perform to their best? Is the environment tidy? Did that guest just trip on that cable? Is what you’re physically doing transparent or distracting? Are you being a catalyst to an amazing production or simply a step between the experience and the end user.

If you step back and consider the world going on around you, odds are you’ll catch a few things that were creating roadblocks to a great experience for your guests and/or your talent.

Here’s some specific pointers to look for:

• Is the talent you’re working with happy? If they’re not in their groove then they won’t do their best. This is the same both with musical talent and guest speakers. The bottom line is, if there is any barrier in their concentration, their performance is going to be left lacking, reducing the quality of experience for your guests. Make sure they have everything they need. Work on their monitor mix quickly after only getting the roughest FOH (Front of House) mix. Also, many engineers consider it below them to serve the talent. If you do, then relations with them will make the performance all the better. It’s an easy temptation to duck these responsibilities off on an assistant, but the extra mile of getting them that bottle of water yourself (time permitting) will go far.
• Is the environment clean? You can construct an awesome mix, but if everyone trips over that power cable on the way in you can be sure they’ll remember. Keep your cables tidy and out of sight. You want the audience to watch the production, not your rat’s nest in front of the stage. If you’re mobile/portable, duck away your gear and instrument cases. Make sure pedestrian walkways are well lit and that any production gear isn’t protruding on the physical space.
• What are you doing? Just as it’s your job to make sure all the cues get hit transparently, it’s also your job to make sure you yourself are transparent. Check your audio coverage during soundcheck, not during the production. Limit washroom/coffee breaks to intermissions or pre/post production. If you nail all your cues but everyone hears the door shut on your way out to the can once the speaker hits the stage you haven’t done your job. Just as what you do on the board should be invisible to the audience if you do it right, make yourself physically invisible as well.
• Communicate, just as you should make sure the talent has everything they need, it isn’t just you and the talent making up the show, you’ll have visuals/video operators, camera people, lighting operators etc, that you’lll be working with. Identify quickly who you need to be tight with in order to make solid cues. Communicate with them extensively during pre production as well as during production. If you’re within earshot of the audience during production develop hand signals to nail your cues. Maintain  regular eye contact. Do whatever it takes to be sure you are on the same page with the people you are working with.

The list could go on and on. The takeaway is, before you dive into the gear you’re working with, there are a whole other host of things that deserve your consideration first. Get your head out of the game and give the production the attention it will take to make it excellent for your audience.

Stay tuned for Part 2…

Audio engineering and reinforcement is the dream playground of many young (and also not so young) musicians and technical types. Most who are not already plugged in are plagued by this very question. The world is so vast and filled with such specialized knowledge that it’s easy to get lost and ultimately give up before even getting an honest crack at it. It’s just not an easy world to break into, unless you have a leg up.

Where do you start? How do you learn? Find an education? Get better? Develop your ear? Learn the gear? Learn the people? The list goes on. If this sounds like you, or if you have your foot in the door but seem to be hitting the wall, then the next series of posts is for you.

Stay tuned!

I’ve started a new project with a close friend. I’m very excited for the release, happening later this year. Stay tuned, I think you will be too…..