How do you get big if it’s your job to be transparent?
“How do I get into the big time?” was a question that was recently asked of me. How indeed? Although I understand the person’s desire for success, and seem to comprehend what is meant by “the big time,” I seriously have no absolute viable solution to the query. The good news is that for any neophyte seeking a job in the audio business there are many available avenues to “The big time.” The bad news, on the other hand, is that once you arrive at your destination it may not seem as glossy as “the big time” you once expected. Therefore, I must say that it’s not as much the destination as it is the journey, because if one keeps seeking the big gig just around the corner, then it becomes increasingly difficult to see that they may have finally arrived.
Most every live engineer I know is either a musician (of varying degrees) or a fan that wants to be as close as possible to the music they enjoy. Mixing a band, whether it be the front of house or monitor position, gives any engineer the enviable status of being part of the show. Just like the musician on stage, the engineer is there at that one singular moment in time, reveling in the glory and excitement of the live performance. You, as the engineer, are capable of making or breaking the show and yet the cheers are never really for you. Even though you may be appreciated for your talent you are never called back for an encore performance to once again show off your brilliant usage of effects or your mastery of compression and noise gates. No. Your amazing command of preamps and equalization will never be adored or cherished in the same way as the guitarist’s every lick, the vocalist’s soulful turn of a phrase or the drummer’s remarkable groove. No audience will ever show their appreciation for the sublime way in which you rang out the system or so perfectly set the delay stacks. This is it, you have finally arrived at the big time.
That’s right, you are toiling, unnoticed in the dark, just as you did in the “small time.” Nothing has changed except that now that you have reached “the big time” your coffers are being filled with gold and jewels instead of the meager pittance you were receiving in “the small time.” Yes, and you finally have a bunk on the bus. This is it!
But while I am able to describe “the big time” I have as yet to explain how to get there. There is, of course, the standard method such as going to school and learning how to be a studio engineer. After four years you graduate and get a job in a studio as an intern making nothing as you learn how to be a gofer. Realizing that everyone ahead of you will have to die before you get a chance to engineer you take a job in a small club doing live sound for the local bands that pass through. While the money isn’t great you are at least working at doing something you enjoy and before you know it you’re hooked. Pretty soon your reputation grows and the local band you’ve been working with gets a record deal and invites you to tour with them — you’re on your way.
In a parallel universe somewhere, some young bright kid, with dreams of being a famous musician, graduates high school and joins a band. The band is great and they are on their way, but unfortunately while they wait for the big deal to come through the kid needs to make a little cash to pay the rent, so he takes an entry-level job with a local sound company. He catches on quickly and before long he’s mixing small shows. One thing leads to another and the shows get better, the bands get bigger and the next thing he knows his band has broken up and he is mixing for a living in “the big time.”
No matter the scenario, most live engineers learn their trade by working in a club, a sound company or for a band, and more likely than not it’s a learn as you go situation. Gain structure, frequencies, Ohm’s law, delays, routing, signal flow, soldering and truck driving are all important skills that one must master to get to “the big time.” But, Grasshopper, the most important thing one needs to know and master if they are to make it to “the big time” is how to be invisible. Unlike the band on stage that needs to exude personality and to be bigger than life, the engineer needs to be transparent. His job is to open all the channels (literally and figuratively) and allow the energy to flow. Being transparent he lets the power of the performance pass through him and into the room without any distraction for the listener.
Performers, such as actors and musicians, need to make a statement with their personalities and are required to communicate with an audience by creating bigger than life characters that can dominate a stage or screen. Even a good lighting show needs personality, and the LD will still elicit “Oohs” and “Ahhs” even if only mediocre at best. Audio, on the other hand, is best felt and not heard (old Zen audio saying). Any audience, whether it is a theatre or concert crowd expects the sound to be perfect, and the only time they notice the engineer is when there are errant frequencies, feedback or lack of clarity in the mix. Once you have mastered the physics of sound then it is time to become invisible and translucent, put your ego aside and let the sound pass through you. Stop mixing and be one with the performance. Do not color the sound with what you think the sound should be, but instead allow the sound to dictate to you its own essence and then become invisible as the perfect sound passes through you to be consumed by a blissful audience. By quieting the inner voice, shutting down the ego and becoming invisible you will not ever need to seek “the big time ever again as you realize that “the big time” is within you, and not a destination to be sought after. Remember, Grasshopper, be invisible — and when you no longer seek it “the big time” will find you.
Make yourself visible to Baker at blee@fohonline.com.
