Meet our newest audio expert, Sara Landeau, as she guides us through her favorite gear, how-to’s , and interviews with her some of her fellow musicians in the new Adorama Learning Center series, InSound.
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For this series, I’ll be talking about the ever-evolving field of recorded and live sound, and the gear, both new and used, that I use. I currently run “Brooklyn Music Studio for Women and Girls” where I produce bands – everything from kids and singer-songwriters, to rock, punk and electronic musicians – amateurs and pros. The aptly named studio’s mission is to help encourage women and girls to get involved in learning music, audio engineering, producing, or sound arts. I’ve also been a private music teacher for 15 years, mainly guitar, bass, and drums, and am part of the staff of Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in NYC where I’ve been a band coach and guitar instructor since 2005. When I’m not doing all this stuff, or DJing, I’m recording or touring with my band, The Julie Ruin (Hardly Art Records).
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One facet of being a musician is learning to deal with amps, guitars, quick repairs, cables, pedal boards, electronics, sound issues, and anything thrown at you, in real time. Everything needs to work seemingly effortlessly on stage before hundreds of people all the while staying musical…and entertaining! This may sound stressful, and it is, but it’s also rewarding when you’re prepared and rigged properly. I now go to each venue faced with a challenge. What is the capacity of this room we’re about to play? How loud does my amp need to be? Why is my tuner not working? What sound problems are in store for me and my gear tonight and how do I prepare? Hopefully, I’ll be able to answer these questions in my series, InSound, as well as review new gear for this year’s tour, test out a brand new in-ear monitor kit on the band and refrain from blowing up any more pedals on European outlets.
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I LOVE NEW GEAR. And like all freelancers, I go through spurts of saving some money, to having very little to, well, none. The audio gear I purchase depends on the year(s) I’m having. So, inevitably, there are times where I’ll have to record with beat up old cables or deal with an interface that has more buzzy inputs than I’d like. Things break. Cheap gear gets older. Or maybe I discover my new recording software isn’t compatible with last year’s hardware. Sometimes it’s the artist who’s on a shoe string budget and we need to work with whatever she has, in a very limited amount of time. How do we still get the exact sound she’s looking for? I don’t think it necessarily takes a mathematical mind – I’m certainly not someone with advanced math skills. But I believe that creative troubleshooting is everything in recording. Also, reading manuals doesn’t hurt. There’s always more than one way to get to the end result. And, ideally, a few great pieces of gear will help.
My newest obsession is my portable Focusrite Scarlett 1818 interface. I admit, I’m a sucker for a candy apple red, in any form. So yeah, it’s stylish to boot. It has four preamp equipped mic/line inputs in the front and four line level balanced TRS inputs in the back, MIDI in/out, along with an ADAT optical input, for a further eight inputs. The unit also has twin headphone outs with individual level control, which is perfect for recording and monitoring in a single room, which is what I do. The current band I’m recording, called Massacara, consists of a duo of drums and a singer/guitarist. After recording all the drums and scratch guitar a year ago, the singer/guitarist and I have finally been able to sit down and record her guitar and vocal parts in chunks, a few hours here and there, maybe once or twice a week. The Focusrite interface has allowed me to set her up in minutes, therefore using the limited amount of time she has to work out her parts. I often take the interface home with me after sessions and record my own ideas using it set up right on my kitchen table.
The exciting part of the recording process is the constant morphing of technology, the endless opportunities to try something new digitally and marry it to the vintage gear, or just to experiment and explore new results. It doesn’t matter if it’s for the other musicians I’m recording or my own band, there’s always something new to learn and play with.
What’s in Sara’s Gear Bag?
