The weirdest gig yet

I've been lately doing live sound for about six years now. And seriously, the gig I have every Friday morning (not evening) until October has got to be the strangest one yet.

it's a concert series called window on the world, put on by the Columbus dispatch, and it features a local artist from Columbus every week. And when I say that it's put on by the dispatch, it actually takes place right at the dispatches office. Not exactly a venue conducive to live sound. The best part though, is that the concert is live streamed on Facebook. 

So this environment means I have to provide 3 to 4 different mixes depending on the band, The live stream, the outdoor speakers, and monitor mixes. And because I can't really monitor the livestream mix directly (because reasons), I have to watch the actual broadcast on my laptop, has a very long 15 second delay.

Despite the odd situation, I've been doing pretty well and everybody seems to be happy, only a couple minor hiccup so far. You can listen to the broadcasts yourself, since they are all saved on the Columbus dispatch Facebook page. Even better, you can listen to last year's broadcasts and this year's and see if there's any difference in the audio quality. 

FINALLY IN A STUDIO

Finally started work in Oranjudio, one of Columbus's best recording studios. 

Something different this time around from my years in past studios was that within 3 days of being there, I had all the routing figured out. (except for this one self-made unlabeled orange panel. No idea there.)

I put the perks immediately to work as well, with the Groove U studios out of commission, the guys were kind enough to give me a door code and letting me use the studio as a mix space, something I was starting to get desperate for.

Anyway, Summer's going great. I'm currently taking my vacation in Florida (why in the world did I leave 70 degree weather for the hot mess of the swamps??), then I'll be right back at Oranjudio with a jazz band.

How to Edit a Podcast

With my internship with In The Record Store, I get to edit a fairly large number of podcast episodes. Since I already know how to edit things pretty intuitively, what I'm learning is really my own process for this kind of thing.
Starting out, I spent way too much time simply listening to the podcast, and when the episodes can max out around an hour and a half, that can take a lot of time. I've gotten way better at eyeballing where conversation threads start and end by looking at the waveforms, and speeding up the playback always helps.

But what's interesting about this internship is this is the first time, interning or otherwise that I'm having a creative input on someone else's content. Editing a podcast, while most of the time you make people simply sound better, you have the power to potentially change what a person is saying by cutting things. There's a fine line to walk here, and I hope Vince and I are able to agree with each other from the get-go.