Women in Audio

335 Pages·2019·31.536 MB·English

by  Leslie Gaston-Bird

Women in Audio
Women in Audio features almost 100 profiles and stories of audio engineers who are women
and have achieved success throughout the history of the trade. Beginning with a historical
view, the book covers the achievements of women in various audio professions and then
focuses on organizations that support and train women and girls in the industry. What follows
are eight chapters divided by discipline, highlighting accomplished women in various audio
fields: radio; sound for film and television; music recording and electronic music; hardware
and software design; acoustics; live sound and sound for theater; education; audio for games,
virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, as well as immersive sound.
Women in Audio is a valuable resource for professionals, educators, and students looking
to gain insight into the careers of trailblazing women in audio-related fields and represents
required reading for those looking to add diversity to their music technology programs.
Leslie Gaston-Bird (AMPS, MPSE) is an audio engineer, Governor-at-Large for the
Audio Engineering Society, and member of the Recording Academy. She has worked for
National Public Radio (Washington, D.C.), Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Symphony
Orchestra, Post Modern Company, and the University of Colorado Denver.
Audio Engineering Society Presents . . .
www.aes.org
Editorial Board
Chair: Francis Rumsey, Logophon Ltd.
Hyun Kook Lee, University of Huddersfield
Natanya Ford, University of West England
Kyle Snyder, University of Michigan
Handbook for Sound Engineers Hack Audio
Edited by Glen Ballou An Introduction to Computer Programming
and Digital Signal Processing in MATLAB
Audio Production and Critical Listening Eric Tarr
Jason Corey
Loudspeakers
Recording Orchestra and Other Classical For Music Recording and Reproduction
Music Ensembles Philip Newell and Keith Holland
Richard King
Beep to Boom
Recording Studio Design The Development of Advanced Runtime
Philip Newell Sound Systems for Games and Extended
Reality
Modern Recording Techniques Simon N Goodwin
David Miles Huber
Intelligent Music Production
Immersive Sound Brecht De Man, Ryan Stables, and Joshua D.
The Art and Science of Binaural and Reiss
Multi-Channel Audio
Edited by Agnieszka Roginska and Paul Women in Audio
Geluso Leslie Gaston-Bird
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Audio-Engineering-
Society-Presents/book-series/AES
Women in Audio
Leslie Gaston-Bird
First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Taylor & Francis
The right of Leslie Gaston-Bird to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-31601-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-31599-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45594-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Minion Pro
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Visit the companion website: WomenInAudioBook.com
I dedicate this book to everyone who has shared their story with me. Thank
you for your enthusiasm, spark, passion, and trust.
I would also like to dedicate this book to a number of people in my life:
To the loving memory of my mother, Frances Gaston.
To the memories of Joan Lowe, Marie Louise Killick, and Robin
Coxe-Yeldham.
To Kellie Gaston Dixon, my sister, and Ryan Dixon, my nephew.
To my father, Berdell Gaston, who taught me how to thread a tape machine
when I was a little girl.
To my mentors, Wayne Jackson, David Pickett, Pamela Laird, Judith Coe, the
late Rich Sanders, and the late Roy Pritts.
To my daughter, Kira, who wants to be a veterinarian and a ballerina, and to
my son, Zachary, who wants to be an automotive engineer, and who both have
my unending support in whatever career path they choose.
And finally to my loving husband, Andy, who provided me with encourage-
ment and watched the kids while I conducted interviews and finished the book.

Contents
ContentsContents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Introduction x
Preface xi
To the Young Reader xv
Acknowledgments xvii
CHAPTER 1 History 1
Women in Early Audio History 1
Women in Talking Pictures 12
The Emerging Record Industry 14
World War II 15
Postwar Women in Audio 19
The 1960s 26
1970s Second-Wave Feminism and Women’s Music 32
The 1980s 42
The 1990s 47
The 21st Century 52
CHAPTER 2 Outreach: Organizations and Current Initiatives 67
CHAPTER 3 Radio and Podcasts 93
CHAPTER 4 Sound for Television and Film 106
Careers in Sound for Film and Television 106
Women in Location Sound 110
Women in Post-Production 115
CHAPTER 5 Music Recording and Electronic Music 131
Defining Roles 131
Electronic Music 131
viii Contents
Producers 140
Mastering Engineers 153
Recording Engineers 166
Other Women in Music Recording 174
CHAPTER 6 Hardware and Software Design 177
CHAPTER 7 Acoustics and Design 209
CHAPTER 8 Live and Theater Sound 223
CHAPTER 9 Education 243
A Brief History of Audio Education 243
CHAPTER 10 Games, Immersive Sound, and Audio for Virtual, Augmented,
and Mixed Reality 260
About the Author 285
Glossary 288
Recommended Reading 292
Appendix 1 294
Appendix 2 299
Index 307
Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Percentage of women across three creative roles in the music industry 60
1.2 Number of women of color among women in creative music industry roles 60
3.1 Optimod broadcast processing signal flow 99
5.1 Average RMS levels of hottest pop music CDs 1980–2000 165
5.2 Percentage of adolescent females with HFHL by degree and year (1985–2008) 165
6.1 Geometrical harmonies in the perfect solids from Harmonices Mundi (1619) 180
6.2 A screenshot of a Kyma patch 185
6.3 List of films released with LC Concept sound 195
6.4 Diagram of the Sapphox stylus from the patent specification 201
7.1 A-, B-, C-, and D-weighting curves 211
7.2 Patent US2292387A “Secret communication system” 215
10.1 Visual representation of the Ambisonic B-format components up to
third order (starting with zero) 269
Tables
1.1 US Working Women Data 1,2. U. S. Working Women: A Databook 1950–1976,
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D. C., 1977 45
A2.1 List of organizations for girls and women in audio 299