As audio engineers, we spend hours of our time learning and mastering the technical aspects of how to create the perfect mix. We seek out and apply new technologies to enhance the sound in any given space as we experiment with innovative techniques of taking sound where it often does not belong.
We enjoy the challenges presented to us – whether it is making sure a 50-piece orchestra can all hear what they need in their individual headphones, or ensuring that thousands of people can hear their favorite American Idol for two blocks in Herald Square. We wrestle to subdue a hall with a five-second decay, and we struggle to bring a wispy vocal above a loud band. We watch, we read and we converse with other engineers in our quest for bigger and better sound. In search of clarity and nuance, we employ new tricks and new tools in our quest for perfection.
From speakers to consoles, from microphones to microphone placement and from preamps to plug-ins, we are collectively striving to find the best of the best and to utilize it to bring an ideal audio experience to the listener, be it a personal monitor mix or a front of house mix. Great gear makes everything a bit better, but is great gear enough?
The Car or the Driver?
Great gear and a competent engineer will probably get the job done, but can we take it one step further and actually learn life lessons from what we do as audio engineers? Can we get an emotional mix? Is there even such a thing as an emotional mix? I think so, but it's often hard to discern, since the audio is so integrally tied to the performance itself. For example, lights stand alone, but without an on-stage performance, there is no audio. Therefore, if the audio is merely adequate, the performance itself will be the emotional charge…or not. I have seen light shows where the design was great, the colors were lush, but the operator left much to be desired. Similar in fashion to the musician who is technically great and plays flurries of rapid licks, though never quite connects with the audience on an emotional level. One can admire the technique and still walk away cold. Quite possibly the musician didn't have enough "soul," or maybe it was the lack of life lessons that allowed for a technical, but unemotional experience.
I'm not saying that every mix and every show should be an emotional epiphany, but if this is a profession of our choosing, then we best approach it with a passion at least equal, if not superior to, our skill. After the artist masters the techniques of their chosen discipline, then they can truly start to express themselves and literally start putting themselves into their work. If our perceptions change the world around us, then our energy can change everything with which we come in contact. Like electricity, our energy can travel through the copper wire, the digital circuit boards and even the wireless RF transmissions to create and communicate a poignant experience that will enable us to connect the audio to the artist and audience, not only on a technical level, but with an emotional intensity as well. This type of occurrence can only happen as we learn our life lessons and actually have some of our own personal electricity to transmit through the circuits and cables.
Correction and Repair
Conversely, we should all take a step back and try to understand what we are trying to express through our work. I, for one, enjoy making harmony from chaos, a perfect blend of cacophonous sound to create a symphony of dulcet tones. My work brings to mind a phrase, Tikkune Olam, which is a Jewish expression that translates into "Repairing the world." Our job, according to the tradition, is to put together the many splintered pieces of our world to create harmony and unity, thereby wresting the balance of power from the negative side to bring light to an otherwise dark existence.
Tikkune Hanefesh translates into "Repairing the soul," and it is each individual's job to repair their soul as well as the world. Tikkune can also be looked upon as correction. Unlike karma, which implies a cause and effect, or retribution for some deed done, Tikkune implies a correction. For example, if one is to send the signal from a microphone into a speaker system, there may be various frequencies that start to take off and squeal. In karmic terms, one might say, "That's what you get for turning it up, bad karma." The lesson then learned is that turning up the microphone is "bad karma" as it will lead to a horrible consequence. Tikkune, on the other hand, can be looked at as a repair or correction of a situation, and therefore, if the microphone is turned up to the point of feedback in the speakers, we then adjust the graphic equalizer and notch out the offending frequencies, thus restoring balance and harmony to the situation. Tikkune requires one to take responsibility for one's actions and control the outcome, whereas karma implies that one will get what they deserve for their actions.
The point is that we are always in need of some correction or another, be it a small correction or a large one. Balance and symmetry must be restored to our individual self and the world around us. While chaos is a natural state of being, entropy does not have to be a final destination if we approach what we do, professionally and personally, with the concept of Tikkune. In literal and possibly metaphorical terms, our job as engineers is to maintain balance and harmony, which sometimes includes having an emotional existence as well as a technical life.
Be it through audio or any other discipline, we live in a delicately poised world of balance, and the equilibrium must be maintained at all costs. Quite possibly, being an engineer is your Tikkune, or if you like, your karma. Practice Tikkune, or your actions may come back to you as your karma.
It's your perception – it's the way you approach not only the job of audio, but everything else that is your life. Love, money, anger, sloth, greed, pride and all the other deadly sins will all come into play and need some correction at some point or other between or during gigs. While it may be more comfortable to concentrate upon technical issues, such as which equalizer is best to balance the sound, you may just realize that the balance needing correction is internal, not external.
