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Cause aint nobody got time for Amateur's
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You're listening to local programming produced in K, u and v studios. The content of this program
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does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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This is talking with the pro professional. This is talking with the pros with me just be I speak to the professionals in the world of audio to gain an insight into what it takes to become a pro talking with the pros. All right, and Welcome to Season Two of talking with the pros. NEW SEASON new year new me one, we got a new co host here on the show. His name is Polly and I'm super excited for this new season. New Year New season. Welcome back to Season Two of talking with the pros. It's a new year, a new semester, a new season really. And with all of the new, special new co host Joining us now for talking with the pros. Why don't you introduce yourself,
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I am a professional audio engineer. I work in live sound and studio sessions on occasion, I absolutely love my job,
Unknown Speaker 1:18
you gotta love what you're doing. It just makes work that more exciting to be in a field where you're really using your skills and your passion helping drive that mission forward. Super excited to have you here. Of course, you were number one on my mind in terms of the new season. And what could we do to add to this podcast? Well Paulie is what we can do and adding Polly we're gonna have a whole new lineup coming into this new semester of professionals working in the world of audio. Also, we're going to talk more on a professional level about getting this mission of audio accomplished and in our personal lives, too. And we have a lot to share and give to you. So Polly, why don't you just dive more into those
Unknown Speaker 2:06
audio engineers specifically take on a lot of stress similar to commercial pilots, flying commercial planes. It's a lot we have equipment in front of us that is responsible for everyone's hearing media getting understood, clearly heard and out there in this world. And it's a lot of stress on engineers getting into the personal aspects of the job, as well as the nitty and the gritty of audio getting into the topics of what it's really like to be an audio engineer behind an audio console what that feeling is like you're the only person behind that particular console in that particular role. How can you provide value, doing your job being the sole operator of a console, everyone's hearing is responsible, where you're you're taking on the responsibility of everyone's what everyone is hearing. So a lot audio professionals
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take on a huge role in the experience of music, the experience of entertainment, and it's such a vital role here in Las Vegas, the capital of entertainment, we're going to talk to locals in the industry get a glimpse into what it takes to be an audio engineer specifically and dive into their personal work and their own experiences in the professional world. Yeah, it
Unknown Speaker 3:22
takes a team to get a mix done, right? Although there's a lot of components that lead up to a mix a lead up to what people hear as an end product. But ultimately, it does come down to the one person behind the console,
Unknown Speaker 3:35
right? Because there's so much invested like you said beforehand, not even with musicians per se, their time and efforts. And then it comes down to you you on the day you in that venue in that sound. And what that experience is like, right,
Unknown Speaker 3:48
whether it's a room of 10 people, or broadcast for millions of people, it's usually one person behind that console that's making a decision. Even though you may have a producer that will ask you to turn things up, turn things down. It's how you turn things up, how you turn things down, your decisions in EQ your decisions in compression your decisions and balancing a mix. For example, when we watch the Super Bowl, Super Bowl is coming up soon. Broadcast engineer has multiple things coming at him in a truck and he has to know okay, what's going to be the right call for television, a mastering engineer taking on the stress of an album right and how does that impact their approach to getting the final mix done? There's so much that happens in the world of audio. It's exciting. I'm excited to go down this rabbit hole actually, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, and
Unknown Speaker 4:38
as you mentioned, this is a rabbit hole because there are different aspects in the world of audio. There's that music producer happening behind the console when the artist is in the booth recording just as there is in live shows.
Unknown Speaker 4:51
Yeah, audio takes many forms. You can be a professional in your bedroom. You can be a professional in a stadium. You can be a professional in a church. You can be a professional in a small lounge, there's so many worlds of audio, there's so many different facets, you can make money and be a professional in in the audio world. It's just how you want to approach it doing the work that's necessary to do it. There's just so many ways to be a pro in the world of audio. recognizing how you want to live your life as an audio engineer is extremely important. Do you want to be traveling all the time? Do you want to see the world do you want to eventually do audio for the President? Or do you want to do audio for a small lounge and do that for the rest of your life, you have so many options, all of it encompasses this thing, which is people want to hear the words, the music, literally, it takes a great set of years to do it. If you're interested in becoming an audio engineer, I highly suggest tuning in to this talk show, there's a lot of value from the guests that we're gonna bring on in this
Unknown Speaker 5:50
world of audio, we're really going to touch aspects on small venues medium size, large anywhere an audio engineer has been we're gonna dive into those and see what it's like firsthand and then see about what makes an audio engineer, an audio engineer, it takes a certain breed, I believe to want to perfect in tune in especially having that ear for audio that everybody's going to be experiencing it's different level of sensory and problem solving under the gun and being able to operate in those almost like a black and white A to B situation because when a problem arises, you have to know the chain in which you need to attack first. And time is of the essence. Because people pay for the shows people pay for studio time, people are expecting the quality to be right all the time. 100% of the time,
Unknown Speaker 6:44
also building the right habits, if you want to make money in this industry, a lot of those money making gigs and shows the clients are investing millions, potentially billions of dollars into a project. And there's only a small hand of engineers involved in a project, like the Super Bowl, for example, will have multiple engineers, but there's only one guy behind the console doing most of the work is just a lot of stress. It can be very, very stressful, because you have not just inputs coming in different audio sources coming in. But you have people coming in and talking to you and you're having to balance not only audio signals, but personalities dealing with different human beings and different environments all the time, you just have to adjust, you have to be someone who is willing to take in information and be the balance of that information, be the be the mitigator be the be a mixer of not just audio, but also people being
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that middleman that medium between what's on the stage, what the audience is experiencing. And knowing you're in the driver's seat also takes another level. And we haven't even touched on equipment. Oh, we haven't No, like you were talking about ethics and personal like how you conduct yourself and dealing with different personalities. But we're talking like the care that needs to go into equipment as well. So that on the day on the show, you know, well, I know that cable is going to be reliable. Well, that cable had a kink in it because we're not doing our best practices.
Unknown Speaker 8:16
My This is now my opinion on audio specifically, the gear doesn't matter, including the quality per se. There's a lot of great audio equipment out there. And there's a lot of terrible equipment out there. There's situations where somebody bought a client will buy or a producer, whoever's making the show won't get the best of equipment because they'll cheap out on certain things, consoles, speakers, whatever. It's not the gear that defines the engineer. It is the engineer himself or herself. It is who is operating that equipment, their personality, their work ethic, their diligence, their attention to detail, and how far are they willing to go in their career? That's why talking about your personal endeavors. Why do you want to be in this field is so important, because you are a human being you are not a robot that is leveling things. And to be honest with you with this push of AI in our industry with artificial intelligence, general intelligence trying to produce music on its own and trying to take over the industry it's it's not going to happen because people trust people we do trust robots for automation, but something in our world things in our world can't be automated humans have an ability to react to things that robots they can't like for example feedback and in a sense we have tools that can actually take out certain frequencies but then it makes the mix it is it makes the mix suffer right and who is the end consumer of our product. Its people not robots are a profession is going to have a lot of longevity. It's never going to be something where robots take over our industry because you have to have the human element always present as an audio engineer, you have to have a connection to people. So that way, when you get a mix down is translating, right. And
Unknown Speaker 10:08
with automation and giving AI a chance, it just really when it comes down to this is a live show with live people involved, you have to consider the timing just right, you have to consider, well, maybe this is a human element. And this isn't something a computer can navigate. Because sometimes what can a computer do when it comes to it? Well, did you flip the switch? Right, and that's a human element and computer can't really see that or navigate that, you know, when it comes down to people and timing. That's the great thing about production, even though my favorite thing about production is timing and being on schedule and hitting the marks. And so yeah, that's great when it when a computer can do it, and we can keep time. But when there's a human problem that presents itself, we need a human to present a solution, oh,
Unknown Speaker 10:53
man, I am fascinated by this to our ears, mixing engineers, anybody who is behind a console in a studio or behind a crowd of 40,000 plus people, whatever the situation is, I find it fascinating that our ears are the ears of many. So when you are mixing, when you decide to make a decision in a mix, you are being trusted by so many people you don't even know by complete strangers to make the right decision. And that decision makes or breaks the reputation and the difference of an entire organization. For example, you're doing audio for a convention, let's say you're working with a big brand like Coca Cola, and Coca Cola comes in and they asked you Hey, they asked your company or a production company, hey, we want you guys to supply the audio and visual equipment for the show, we have our general session, it will take place at this time and audio engineers that you have, please supply them, that company is going to select one or two people to do that show but they're going to be the a one in the A to responsible for all the communications responsible for the mix itself in the general session, they'll hire a broadcast engineer to potentially you know, mix the broadcast and those decisions made by those individuals are what potentially millions of people will listen to. So that's what's fascinating about the audio industry. If the video cuts out, you can still listen to the content and get value from it. If the audio cuts out. I mean, people complain, where's the audio? What do I care to hear the speech, I need to hear what the person is saying, or I need to experience what I want to experience I pay money to listen to a band perform, and I pay money to listen to a speech. But that's the thing is you have to be a one not just on the console, but a one in your life. I firmly believe this because the stress of doing this job, you have to take on a lot. It's
Unknown Speaker 12:42
a great segue into personal achievements, you know, really care attention to detail really valuing that like anybody could show up for a job, you can teach somebody how to manage equipment, but it comes down to the care the different approaches, because that person cares and wants the best you can have an engineer or you can have the best engineer or the guy versus us just another engineer who may or may not know the full scope of the position. And we're just now in trusting him at that moment of need in a scenario where we need a solution wanting to have a problem presented itself with the professional engineer or the guy. But when it comes down to it, can he execute? Yes. And solve? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 13:30
Well get excited, because we are going to bring the best in this industry to this talk show talking with the pros. Yeah, I'm very honored to be here. I'm very excited to be here. And I'm also very excited to bring on the guests, engineers that have worked with celebrities that work in stadiums that work in churches, genuine professionals the best in what they do, and they are just amazing people to get value from and we want to expose you people that are living the life of an audio engineer at a very high level.
Unknown Speaker 14:01
And that's what it comes down to professionals. We want to hone our craft that's kind of who we are and speaking with the people that are doing it. People that have the expertise that can bring any kind of words of wisdom to the profession is what we're striving to do here. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 14:16
I'm excited about this. We can talk about gear specifically, we could talk about EQ, the principles of EQ and getting into the nitty gritty of all of that compression and how to make a vocal pop and a mix. What are the most important things in a mix the vocal. So everything coming through depending on your mix situation, depending on what situation you're thrown into, like what's asked and required of you to be an audio engineer. We will cover all those topics so that way you are the best sound engineer that you can be if you want to mix and be an audio engineer. This show is going to be your key to success we have in Las Vegas, the best engineers. I even met an engineer here once he's like the guy that mixes the super Double live, like, it's so cool, it'd be cool to get people like that on we have conventions we have, we have, we're gonna have the super bowl here, actually. So that's the kind of value that I want to bring and prepare you for the industry will bring the bus. And
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we'll also talk more about our goals or achievements, what we need and supporting each other, get these results, because life is not a solo experience. We all have a journey. And we're all collaborating with each other those on the stage, but managers, producers, and just those different elements of being able to navigate those situations, and even on a personal level, what it's like for the professionals, and what they do to better themselves and what they do to strive for excellence.
Unknown Speaker 15:46
Yeah, engineers, producers, anyone who is involved in the world of audio, there are many different facets of that. So there's even engineers that specifically deal with radio, they deal with making sure that communications are up to standard in a show or in a recording environment for I mean, there's so many different facets of our industry, it would be absolutely fantastic to bring those people on and get those perspectives thinking about audio engineers is no one really cares what the audio engineer, right?
Unknown Speaker 16:17
Yeah. Until it goes wrong. Flip their heads around what is happening, there's no like gonna fix this. And right now,
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exactly. Nobody cares what the what what you're going through. Like, it's not
Unknown Speaker 16:28
where is not how is the audio engineers? Right? It's the audio engineer,
Unknown Speaker 16:33
very, very, very similar to pilots. Like, we don't care what the pilot who the pilot is, or what's what's going on, we just want to get to our destination safely and soundly. Same with an audio engineer, you have to have that we now have an opportunity to share what's really, really like what's going through our brain when someone's yelling at us, hey, my mic needs more volume, or I need to hear this more. And how do you handle that situation? How do you handle that situation in a small lounge versus a stadium? Or a live broadcast? How do you deal with that situation? In a studio, at your church, with your pastor in any situation that you're in? It varies. There's no class or course you can take you learn a lot of this on the job.
Unknown Speaker 17:17
Yeah, we're gonna ask all those questions that you want answers to, we're going to talk to them and get more of an insight to what makes this happen in the professional sense and personal sense, we're gonna get into the inner workings dive into the world of audio to help succeed in this profession.
Unknown Speaker 17:35
I'm excited about this. This is this is 2024. This is a an exciting year, there's a lot going on, we're here to talk about audio, we're here to make strides in the world of audio, this is our opportunity to grow as an industry, I think every industry is is looking to grow. Because right now, there's so many different things happening right in our world that bringing people together, especially with audio is the first step in achieving a world that's peaceful and a place I get to cite it. And I see this actually on my work when I when I get a mix sounding great at work, people's moods change, like the energy of the room and the people change we we actually influence people's psychology, oh,
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let's talk about waves and vibrations. And
Unknown Speaker 18:24
it is it is. So it is so exciting to be an audio engineer, because not only are you in charge of a mix, but you're in charge of how people feel, I can influence a room based on the way it's EQ. Wow, I like just based on how the sound waves are coming through a room. I can influence how people respond to each other. I can make people angry if I want to, or I can make people really happy and euphoric. I can make people vibing. Exactly. And it's also enhancing what the source material is. So if we're going to a metal show, you're going to hear really heavy music anyway. But it's how that music sounds through the speakers. It's the presentation. It's the approach to that sound coming out of a speaker. It is truly amazing. It's like the missing link. People don't talk about it. They always talk about the source material, which is the artist or the speaker, our job is to take the best presentation and put that out there of that person of that source, whatever the source is, even if it's a computer playing back, even if it's DJ electronic music presenting that in the best way possible is the difference between making somebody feel and that makes us okay, or they don't even think that people just walk into a room. They're like, Oh,
Unknown Speaker 19:39
how was the show? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 19:40
they walk in and they're just like, oh, like it kind of sounds okay, I'll just have my beer and just walk away. I don't really think much of it versus you get the mix sounding really good. People want to stay people want to stick around. They're like, Oh my god, this is amazing. I want to hear more of the artist. I want to hear more of what the speaker is saying. It is It's
Unknown Speaker 20:00
one of the greatest things to experience, live mix, sound, the artists, you're going because you love this artist you're going because you want to hear the speaker and then experience the takeaways and the moment it's been lived in, you know, even if it's recorded, it's an experience that can be played over and over, not
Unknown Speaker 20:18
just audio, but video, lighting, lasers, anybody that that that works in the industry, not an audio engineer, anybody who's in production stuff, who's on a stage or crew, anyone that that is involved in the mixing and the creative aspect of it, and the production aspect of it. We don't get a voice. But on this show we do. It'd be great to bring those voices on, of course,
Unknown Speaker 20:40
yeah. Professionals in the audio industry professionals in productions. You know, we're really behind the scenes, we're really in the dark by nature, we love wearing black, we thrive in that it's not like we don't inherently want the spotlight on us. So giving this opportunity to those who want to contribute to the conversation. Definitely,
Unknown Speaker 21:01
man it just points a spotlight to people that deserve it. They don't sound engineers, lighting engineers, people that you don't see they never get talked about eyes are focused on the talent which is great that we're we're doing our job exactly when we're doing that there's just so much behind the artists I
Unknown Speaker 21:18
love the behind the scenes, the inner workings into the details go into that world that not many know about not many people see not many people understand giving a platform to the world of audio is going to be really great, really expand. Those who may not even know about the industry now are being educated. Okay, so this new segment we're going to introduce this season is about personal excellence and mental toughness, inspirational, motivational, we're gonna talk about something that I think we can all benefit from,
Unknown Speaker 21:52
well, to be a professional to be a pro, it takes personal excellence, not just excellence at your job. Specifically, it takes excellence in your personal life, because everything talks to everything in life. Let me explain. Like your the way you get up in the morning, you take shower, you get ready for the day, your time it takes to travel to work, what you're eating, what you're doing in your day, you know, your family life, your intimate life, whatever is going on, it can affect the way you live your life. And it does. Sometimes we don't see it, we tried to block it out. When we're at work, we're in work mode. And we're when we're conducting our lives in our personal lives, it's separate, we think but a lot of it actually ties in to who you are as a person and your personality, who you are as a human being. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 22:39
we can compartmentalize, we can really just separate personal from professional, but at the end of the day, everything your whole life, your journey, internal narrative is all connected into who you present on a daily basis who you present in your professional realm and whether or not that's reflecting in the different aspects of your life. So being motivated and really willing to pick up that weight and go after your goals. Give some motivation to that, you know, whether it's a quote of the day but more like what we've been learning in our personal lives to bring to you and share with you. What is your personal journey currently, right now, Paulie that we can speak on?
Unknown Speaker 23:25
I am implementing a program in my personal life. It's called 75. Hard hashtag, hashtag. Right. Well, people think it's a hashtag. People think it's a tick tock challenge. They think it's just a trendy, oh, 75 hard, you just stick to a diet you workout twice a day, okay. It's those are easy things I can do that people do it every day. It's not a problem. Well, well, the way the program is actually designed the designer of this program, he is an American businessman. His name is Andy for Sela undeniably, he has a very special saying and that saying is personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion, rebellion against what rebellion against, you know, not executing at your job, for example, rebellion against it can go to any part of your life, right? But it's about taking personal responsibility over your entire life. How do you handle that? You handle that through the way you conduct yourself and your personal life, like what you do at home directly affects how you are in the real world that takes a key thing into consideration which is mental toughness. For me, my year 2024 is all about building mental toughness. It's all about taking accountability and responsibility over my actions, how I am as a person, how I am building relationships this year, and especially handle adversity. How I handle the cold, hard truth of life very difficult for a lot of people, understandably so because it's embarrassing to face the facts
Unknown Speaker 24:56
right. It's uncomfortable taking a moment for some Have a valuation in responsibilities and what you've committed to being willing to recognize that on a daily basis and evaluate your day and evaluate, am I moving closer to my goal posts just a little bit better today than I was yesterday? And can I strive to be better the next day responsibility and accountability are going by the wayside? Well, people
Unknown Speaker 25:21
are comfortable with just being, you know, not growing, when people get comfortable at a job, they get complacent. And that complacency can lead to problems down the road data signal chain, or, you know, data chain of command where Oh, I'm not going to load the road case in that way, in the in the truck, all of a sudden, you get your equipment out of the truck, and it's broken, there's no excuse for it's very easy to do that. Even for skilled engineers, people that know what they're doing. There's a level of complacency because it's easy. It's easy to be comfortable. Though, becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable is the key to success is the key to longevity, and is the key to survival. Because if you're doing this, if you're doing any job, any job, anything even doing, you're running your own business, doing your own thing, if you're comfortable with being comfortable, chances are the person that is comfortable with being uncomfortable, facing the uncomfortable truth, learning from it, and overcoming it, they will take your position, they will take your job, they will seriously they will impress the entrepreneur or the person involved in the organization responsible for hiring, they'll just they'll select the people that are willing to step up to the plate and bring more value than is required. Or that it's just a shock value to to to an entrepreneur, somebody that is or a client, right? If the client sees you just behind the console, and you're not getting up and introducing yourself to them, or you're just interacting in a certain way. That's just it. Like I said before with Andy for sellers, quote, personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion against just complacency. It's it's so important to become someone who is driven to learn and driven to overcome obstacles. Because that is audio, you have to face a challenge. And you're doing it and you're getting paid for it. Now, it's fun when you're by yourself, you're wondering the equipment, the learning process, and being involved with it's so much fun, never lose that. And also never lose sight of the responsibility you face. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 27:35
always learning, gaining knowledge from those who've done it before, people that have experience, wanting to constantly learn and curious about the equipment and curious about people's experiences and open to hearing them out. So that you can gain something more that you didn't know before. But with all of that said, it's uncomfortable, it's hard, just like music doesn't just happen, there's practice, you're gonna sock, and then you're gonna get a little better than then you're gonna get a little better. And it's at the end of the day when you finish and learn that song that you have the light at the end and excitement in that joy and what's going to fuel you to learn a new song, to experience that moment, again, wanting the best for the group, because at the end of the day, it's not about us, it's about everybody in their experience. So 2024 is a year where not only personal excellence, but self care. I mean, you take care of yourself at the end of the day, stay hydrated and stay healthy. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 28:39
you don't have to do 75 hard if you don't want to. I'm doing it because in my in my endeavors outside of audio, I am, you know, very passionate about music itself. I'm a producer, so I want to grow as a producer and grow as a musician. Still, I still have a crazy passion for it. And I don't suck. I mean, people I've talked to they, they like yeah, they're like when I when I perform when I do stuff. So I'm I'm looking forward to growing in that. And that is ultimately where I want to be. Right like I am an audio engineer right now and I'm passionate about that. But ultimately I want to be on stage jumping around like like a chicken with my head cut off because I love that stuff. I'll be jumping out of planes and doing crazy things like that. Like that's, that's my true ambition. Excited
Unknown Speaker 29:27
Yeah, I'm excited to keep on listening. You're gonna care
Unknown Speaker 29:38
I want to thank you so much for tuning in. And if you missed any of today's episode, you can find this anywhere podcasts are available like Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts. Thank you for listening to today's episode of talking with the pros with me. Just be I love you and I'll catch you in the next one. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai