subject: Audio School - Your Passport To The Festival Circuit [print this page] Everybody knows that summer is festival season, but where some see only fun and games, others, namely students in audio school, see opportunity. Whether your dream is to mix for a small rural bluegrass festival like the Palmer Rapids Twin Music Festival in Eastern Ontario, or to go overseas, to Englands legendary Glastonbury performing arts festival, which can attract as many as 150,000 attendees at one time, audio engineering school can teach you what you need to know.
Graduates of audio school who do make it on the festival circuit may find themselves accomplishing the following tasks:
- arranging transport for equipment (for audio engineering school graduates who work at the aforementioned Glastonbury festival, this can mean arranging for heavy equipment to be airlifted in to the farmers fields that play host to the massive event)
- determining the optimal angle for loudspeakers
- working in conjunction with noise monitoring specialists to make sure that the audience gets as good a sound as possible, with minimal disturbance to the neighbours (Noise monitoring specialist may be another career option to consider after completing a sound engineering program. At the very least, it is a related discipline.) One aspect of this task: refining the sub-bass, a task most students will be familiar with from their courses in audio school.
- assuring that the sound evenly reaches the entire audience - again, a task that is quite a feat when it comes to Glastonbury
- graduates of audio engineering school who work during the events themselves may have to do damage control, dealing with problems of noise spillage as they arise, by turning down some of the speakers without impacting the audiences enjoyment of the show
- equipping and manning the stage monitor system
A common final requirement at audio school is for students to put together a plan for their ideal studio. This kind of training comes in handy for those who go on to work the festival circuit, where a large part of the job depends on the sound engineering school grads knowledge of the available technology.
Audio engineering school grads who do work the festival circuit need to be able to answer the following kinds of questions:
- what is the available technology
- what technology can the festival afford to use
- what is the optimal way to arrange equipment (e.g., in Glastonbury, the audio school grads who work on the stage monitor system appreciate that the stage is protected from the noon-day sun, suggesting that theres more to knowing how to position equipment beyond the theory taught in sound engineering school. There is an intuitive, common sense aspect. Audio engineering school graduates who choose the outdoor festival circuit must be ready to solve problems on the spot.)
