The Life of a Sound Guy...

Well, this is my fourth attempt at an inaugural post for the MCA blog. That sentence is about as far as I got with my first three. (Many poor sentences were harmed in the making of this post). First impressions are everything, and not only is this my first post to the Modlin blog, but it is in fact my first post to any blog ever. I'm feeling a lot of pressure! I am confident, however, that this is going to be the one.

I am coming to you live from the orchestra seats in Camp Concert Hall where the final rehearsal for Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre (performed by Dawn Upshaw and several other incredibly talented musicians) is about to begin. For many other shows I would be tucked away in my little corner of the hall behind the audience by now, at the helm of our Soundcraft Series Two audio console. That is where I stand, carefully twisting knobs, riding faders and doing my best to bring you a subtle yet pleasing aural experience. But this show (and a few others every season) is complicated enough to tour with their own audio engineer, relegating me to a supporting role in which I mainly make sure all of our equipment is behaving and that their sound guy understands the unique acoustic characteristics of our spaces. (And laying down the law if they don't).

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mike Burns. I am the newest member of the Modlin crew, hired in July of 2007. My official title (too big to fit on my official Modlin stationary) is Production Associate/Audio Specialist. The description above is only part of what I do here (although it is my favorite); in addition to live sound engineering, I also assist Bill Luhrs (production manager) and Matt Land (assistant production manager) with all technical aspects of the hundreds of shows, lectures, forums, etc. that grace our stages each year. Together we make up the production crew, headquartered in the production suite, second floor of Booker Hall. We're working on getting an official "production crew signal" spotlight installed on the roof here. It will be on constantly, I'm sure.

I think I'm going to go out with that. The rehearsal is drawing to a close and I have to get back to work resetting the stage for tonights performance. A production associate/audio specialists work is never done here at the MCA...