AMP Graduate Interview: Freyja Lawson

Q) What is your job title and where do you work?

I'm currently working for Britannia Row Productions (BRP). There are two parts to my job...

I'm employed day-to-day in BRP HQ in Twickenham, where I basically work with a team to service, prep., build and de-prep. all the equipment we own for shows, tours and corporate events.

I am also a Crew member, meaning BRP employ me to work on the events that they provide sound re-enforcement for. There are a few different roles on these events (depending on the nature of the job) and so as a crew member you have to have a skill set wide enough to take you from one end of the multicore to the other.

I'm focusing on becoming a System Engineer so I normally get put on a gig as a System Tech to help the (more senior) Engineer. Most of the crew we employ are freelance engineers who work for several different companies/bands etc. and I too am aiming to gain the valuable knowledge and experience needed to join them.

Q) When did you start working there?

A) I started at BRP in November 2012 & have been there ever since!

Q) In a typical day, what do you do?

A) Day to day in the warehouse it can be anything from rigging inspection to looming cables! Because we are a relatively large PA hire company, we can provide anything from speakers to microphones and everything in between. Our warehouse is split up into several different departments; Analogue, Digital, Cables, Speakers (& Rigging), Amps and Maintenance and as part of my job I have to get to know the ins and outs of every area including all the equipment. This means testing, maintaining and building takes up most of my day in the warehouse. Along with that I am also a rigging inspector for all the kit that we send out with our PA systems. I am also one of the people responsible for PAT testing our electronic equipment and repairing any faulty items.

I also worked for some time in our operations department where I was an assistant to our Operations Manager. This job involved retrieving quotes for the hire of equipment and transport for tours, assigning equipment to jobs and liaising with the warehouse staff and crew to ensure all prep was completed on time and all the kit fitted in the trucks!

On a gig, as a System Tech, my job is pretty much anything that needs doing! Firstly unloading the trucks (normally a 45 ft. arctic, or 2 or 3!) and loading it into the venue. Depending on the nature of the gig, there may be limitations as to when we can start to set up certain things but for the most part, the cables are normally run first. These will be the multicores from FOH to stage. There are normally at least 2 or 3 depending on the kind of consoles that are being used. We also run a returns multi for the drive system where we control the PA and amps from. The amps are also set up early on. Again, depending on the type of gig and how many amps you have, the set up may vary. Sometimes they are flown with the PA, sometimes they are built in huge racks called MeatRacks and sometimes they are in really awkward positions away from the stage or on a balcony. Their favourite place (and ours!) to be, is on either side of the stage, on the ground. From then on, it is my job to help get the PA in the air (if its being flown) or ground stacked. I'm also responsible for setting up side fills, lip fills and delays. I have to rig the speakers with the appropriate hardware (rigging, angle straps, ratchets, inclinometers etc.!) and ensure that they are in the optimum position to cover the venue sufficiently. The angles and positioning are worked out by the Engineer who uses specific software to plot the room and design the system around it.

Once speakers are in place it is time to cable up and patch the amps so that the correct signal goes to the correct parts of the PA (sub to subs etc!) Then we "pink" the system to make sure we have everything present and correct. We may also have to time align the system if its a larger venue and especially if we have delay hangs. Once the Engineer is happy, he/she will normally play a few tracks of songs they know the frequency range of very well and walk the room to make sure all areas are covered and no phasing is occurring. Once we are happy with the PA and the amps, it is time to make sure the rest of the crew are ok and help out with any remaining tasks. This whole process can take many hours and this is all before the main act arrives for their load in. Once they headliners are in, they usually soundcheck for at least an hour by which time the support/s will be ready for their soundcheck/s too. This takes us up to opening time and straight into the gig itself. Once the main event is over we then have to pack down and load out all the equipment and get it back on the truck/s!

  

Q) How did you get the job?

A) I was offered the opportunity through a lecturer at BUCKS to volunteer as an audio assistant for the 2012 Olympics. I went for an interview and was asked to cover the gymnastics at the O2 arena where I worked with some BRP crew. After graduating I was looking to pursue a career in live audio and decided to take a chance and contact BRP once the Olympics were over. The next day I got a call from the HR manager asking if I wanted to go in for a few days and I have been there ever since!

Q) What are the best bits of what you do?

A) There are loads of awesome things about this job. The obvious stuff like being backstage all the time and meeting lots of amazing artists is fantastic and I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it! But, there is nothing like going to work everyday with your best friends…sounds really lame I know but the live industry, especially my company, is like one big family and everyone knows everyone. Being on a tour with a brilliant crew and making an incredible show happen is the best feeling in the world. That and all the free stuff!!

Q) What are the worst bits?

A) We work VERY unsociable hours. This is not a typical 9-5 job and you have to be prepared to work seriously hard if you want to make it out there. Sometimes it is also a very high-pressure environment, especially when dealing with high-profile clients. Also, touring means long periods of time away from home, friends and family.

Q) What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into the same line of work?

A) Keep at it and don't give up. This industry is incredibly tough and you have to be prepared to get your hands dirty and earn respect. Don't expect just to waltz up to a console on your first day and be thrown out on tour as a FOH engineer just like that. No matter what your background, you will start at the very bottom just like everyone else did. Listen to everyone you work with and take advice from the ones who have made this their career. Also, be nice to everyone!!! There is nothing worse than Engineers/Techs who are rude to venue staff/local crew/anyone they think is below them. At the end of the day, people aren't paying for tickets to see you!

Q) Anything else you’d like to add?

A) I think I could go on about this forever!! I guess, you get out of this what you put into it. There are no shortcuts and you never stop learning.

Sennheiser UK Ltd presents scholarship to AMP student

Leading audio manufacturer Sennheiser UK Ltd has presented its second annual scholarship award of £1,500 to Audio and Music Production student Callum Paxton.

The scholarship is presented to students based on their academic performance in the first year and is part of an education partnership agreement between Bucks and Sennheiser.

It was presented following interviews between six shortlisted students and Phil Cummings, Sennheiser’s Marketing Projects Manager, where the students were asked a series of questions.

Callum said: “The money will help pay for recording equipment and to help set up a covers band I am playing with to finance my university studies. I also plan to use the money to finance high-quality and innovative sounds for a website for the covers band.

“It is great that the University has this partnership with a manufacturer of the calibre of Sennheiser and is one of the reasons I feel the university stands out.”

Phil Cummings said: “All of the candidates interviewed well and it was a tough choice to give the scholarship to Callum over the other students.

“Sennheiser is committed to developing the future of audio music production and is proud to be associated with Bucks New University.”

Mr Cummings was assisted by singer Nellie Bell, who is sponsored by Sennheiser, and will be recording in the audio production suites at Bucks New University next month.

She added: “I am extremely impressed by the facilities at Bucks New University and the standard of students. All were enthusiastic and answered the questions well.”

Runners-up Rob Cadman, James Collet, Jim Mitchell, Elliott Newman and Mark Timms each received a pair of Sennheiser HD25 headphones.   

BPI invites you to the big music project, London.

The Big Music Project is one of the most exciting and ambitious youth music projects the BPI has ever supported.  Throughout the course of the project we will aim to reach more than 4.5 million young music lovers aged 14 to 24 to give them the chance to pick up an instrument, learn about the music business and make the right moves towards turning their creativity into their career.  We’ve joined forces with Global Radio’s Capital FM and youth work charity UK Youth to help youngsters from every corner of the UK take a step closer to their dream career.  The Big Music Project is funded by The Big Lottery Fund to the tune of £4 million.  You can check out the project at www.thebigmusicproject.co.uk

Following on from The Big Music Project Live in Glasgow where 900 young people came down to see us, we will be making our way toThe Brewery in London on Saturday 4^th October from 11.00am – 7.30pm.  The day will be packed with live music, big name speakers, first class advice from industry experts, information on work opportunities in the local area, the chance to find out how this project can make a difference in the local community and performances from Becky Hill, Chase & Status, Eliza Doolittle, MNEK and more.

We’d love it if you could join us to see the project in action!  Please RSVP to thebigmusicproject@capitalfm.com

Recording Rooney

One part of recording that is increasingly in demand and yet often overlooked is that of the voiceover.
Its can mean long dull (yet often lucrative) days of simply pressing record with little or no creative input at all. Conversely if directing as well it can be very enjoyable.

I have a lot of experience in voice direction and recording dialogue for computer games. Each game has a standard of four languages in addition to English, commonly referred to as FIGS - French Italian, German and Spanish. so 4/5s of the dialogue you record and then edit isn't even in English.

Its not not uncommon for games to have upwards of 11,000 lines in each language. You can imagine the monotony of recording editing and managing 55,000 wav files, most of which aren't even in English.

However, sometimes there are terribly exciting days. Much like my Monday. M'colleague, Hugh Edwards, "renowned" voice director, and I packed up the car and headed to Old Trafford to record three Manchester United players for a gambling application.

We took two mobile rigs with us consisting of a mobile booth (or sound boards) Macbook Pros running ProTools, Focusrite 2i2s and a Sennheiser MK4 mics along with various cables and baffles etc.

The players we were to record were Rooney, Fletcher and Rafael. We had a limited amount of time and there was a Motion Capture set-up which had to film some facial movements. Once we were set Hugh decided the easiest way was to cue the players with their lines as opposed to letting them simply read the script.

This entailed Hugh reading each line and the players then repeating (almost) exactly what Hugh had said and how he had said it. We ran two lines for level for each player and ran the whole script twice for each.

Once set we were done within an hour - Audio Ninjas!!!

Hattie Brigg's First Single Release

2014 BBC2 Folk Award Nominee Hattie Briggs has her first single out now from her debut album Red and Gold which will be released in 2015. Produced and Co-written by Associate Lecturer Peter Waterman and Mixed by Audio/Music Production Lecturer Warren Bassett.

Pictures and stories from the Pre-Production, Recording process at Monnow Valley Studios and the Mixing stage will be added to the blog later on in the year.

Work Experience & beyond! Adam Whalley @ Team Rock

In the summer of 2013, in between second and third year - my favourite DJ from the only major national rock radio station (planet rock) left, to join a new station that was forming, Team Rock. Upon initial listens to the test transmissions I could tell there were some issues with the sound - and I decided I’d send an email to the head of radio, a guy called Moose. I told him the issue, and then proceeded to get a bit of work experience largely on my basis of my great knowledge of broadcast audio (lie) and my expert skills in making cups of tea (bigger lie). He then enquired about my degree and asked about what I do and invited me in to meet them all, so expecting nothing but an insight into a radio station - I headed off to London and was met by Moose who proceeded to show me the little studios in the basement of a palatial building in London. I was then showed their spare audio studios, where they wanted to record sessions. They asked can I do it? Of course I said yes, and from there I was taken to the roof garden to discuss an equipment list that needed to be bought.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working for a growing company, and working in a great team of people who really think outside the box and try and do things differently. At Team Rock Radio, there are no adverts and that means we can play whatever we like, whenever we like and provide listeners with a variety that really hasn’t been seen in ‘commerical’ radio for a very long time! Since I joined the company, they’ve won awards and established a fan base which is ever growing - as well as syndicated some of the shows abroad meaning some of the sessions I produce are played in varying countries to potential audiences above 10 million! It’s something I’m massively proud to be a part of.

There is also the small matter of the artists I’ve been privileged enough to work with, and the list is ever growing, but headed by massive names such as Slash, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Joe Bonamassa, Alter Bridge, Scott Stapp, Black Star Riders (the current carnation of Thin Lizzy), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) and many more. I’ve met other great artists, and really learnt that the music business isn’t such a scary place full of cut-throat and evil people - although that’s not to say I haven’t met a few unsavoury characters who I’d rather not meet again! I've learnt tonnes of new music, been to gigs and got albums that I never would of bought off my own back - and it's led to me getting some new favourite bands

From an audio point of view - I entered the job wanting to do it slightly differently. I didn’t want to constantly just chuck an SM58 on a voice and plug a guitar into a DI. We have such great equipment and potential in our studios here, I’ve tried to treat each session with a studio feel. Recording through great pre amps and converters into Pro Tools, and using professional and high end studio microphones to get that great sound! It’s great fun, and as a one man team I’ve had to learn and adapt extremely quickly, but It’s probably been some of the best experiences I’ve ever had! 

Yellow Fish Mobile Studio visit to Bucks: 24th October 2014

As part of the Induction Week activity within the Department of Media Production we will be visited by Yellow Fish (http://www.yellowfishmusicgroup.com), who will bring their mobile recording studio for students to take a look around before taking part in a Q&A with the team that runs the facility.

The unit will park on the concourse at the High Wycombe campus from mid-morning on Wednesday 24th, with the Q&A in the event to follow in Gateway Lecture Theatre from 13.00. Anyone from Bucks would be very welcome to attend.

The unit has been used by many noteworthy performers, with recent clients including Chris De Burgh, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson, The Strypes (UK album chart number 5, iTunes blues chart number 1), The Pretty Things and Brian Eno. The mobile also worked on the One Direction movie last year.

Recording Uriah Heep's 2014 album, Outsider + Jack Savoretti

Whats amazing for me now is being in the studio with some of these guys that have been doing this longer than I’ve been alive. Its amazing how much you can learn just from sitting on the sofa all day at the back of the room, just watching and listening. I’m still not great at playing it cool and sometimes I think I’m way too honest but the guys know this is my 1st gig and are very supportive of it. Producer Mike Paxman keeps giving me killer advice and its these words of wisdom that I think takes an aspiring engineer or producer to the next level. People like Mike can sum up situations you’ve taken a year to work out in just over a sentence. Things the books don’t really push across, even when its written down in front of you. You can be the best at Pro Tools or at using a particular analogue desk but if you can’t relate to the music or the project, it’s just not going to happen.

The gear is obviously top notch stuff with these guys. For bass, we run an Ampeg SVT-2 through a cab with an MD41 mic. The bass really sounds good, makes such a difference when you spend a lot of money on the back line, as oppose to just relying on a DI and some emulation software. 

Something thats surprising is the drum mics aren’t what I’m used to, thanks to Bucks Uni having a tremendous range of well known brands. We are using brands like Audix which I’ve never used before but heard great things about. It’s always refreshing when it still sounds great as originally I wasn’t sure what it would sound like. I think it all reverts back to that ‘recording chain’. It starts with the musicians and the instruments first of all and Russ is such a great great drummer that it almost doesn’t matter. 

I think overall, Neve 1066 and 1073 Preamps make a great difference. I’ve also hardly come across them before but had a quick practice with them recording a session for Jack Savoretti. You play with the EQ until it sounds good, boosting obviously. Once your used to it, if you bypass it, you suddenly make a horrible face and quickly switch it back on again. It's amazing the difference, you can put any mic anywhere with these Pre’s and I bet you wouldn’t be able to tell what mic it was.

Jack Savoretti's session was great fun. I hope it leads to other things, it might not but that doesn’t matter. Its amazing who is saying yes to me now compared to 1-2 years ago today. It’s not like a lot has changed, It doesn’t feel like I’ve got much better than when I was 23 just out of Uni but It’s just the names you can use in your emails to the management or record companies. It’s turning into a game for me now.

On another note, I’m surprised the difference Analogue summing has made to the overall sound. We are only using an old DDA desk or something I’ve never heard of before but, sending the drums down a stereo pair of faders and then everything else through the rest makes a big big big difference. Summing was never anything that came up at Uni, It doesn’t surprise me because not a lot of people feel the need to do it. Now though, I’m eyeing up Neve 5060’s when a few months ago I didn’t even know why anyone would bother. Interesting.

Congratulations to our 2014 graduates!

Graduation week for Bucks students was last week (8^th – 12^th) September. It was a time for caps and gowns; suits; impressively vertiginous heels; pomp and ceremony. But, above all, it was a time for celebration (with maybe a smidge of alcohol).

In addition to all our graduates receiving their well-earned degrees, a few were also awarded special prizes.

Firstly, receiving the “Best Sound Design Production” award from Sennheiser was Mark Rowles. Mark graduated from AMP with a First Class honours degree and received the award for his final year sound design work on a collaborative film called ‘Immerse’. The film was part of Mark’s Showreel, of which Mark said: "I worked with students from other courses at the University including Film and Television Production, Animation and Visual Effects, and Advertising: so it was a real team effort.”

Mark is currently working as a freelance location sound recordist but hopes ultimately to work in audio post-production for television and film.

Also awarded special prizes were Roy Bates and Ian Bonner. Both graduated on Tuesday with 2:1s in Audio and Music Production. They received the annual “Focusrite Prize for Best Music Production” for their work recording, mixing and mastering a two-track EP for Colourshop; a singer/songwriter music project created by brothers Alfredo and Diego Salvati, from London.

Roy is now working as an Audio Technician at Bucks and Ian is a trainee live audio technician and operator at Moonlite Productions in Southern Road, Aylesbury.

Roy, Ian and fellow graduate George Belben have also set up a music production company called Fiermente Productions. Its website is at www.fiermente.co.uk. Fiermente Productions has worked with artists including Telpha and Misha and his Merry Men. The team is about to work on Colourshop's next EP.

Other award recipients were Adam Whalley, who received the JAMES (Joint Audio Media Education Support) award for 2014 (read more about what Adam is up to now here), and Nick Lucas who was awarded the Richer Sounds award for his achievements in production and recording throughout his degree.