2. Audio engineers and live music…don’t necessarily go together (yeah, I’ll explain that one)

3. Everybody loves free stuff!

As mentioned in my previous blog, I came up to San Francisco to play at the Performer Magazine booth at the Audio Engineering Society conference today. Mike and I have been to San Francisco a few times, now, so we’re feeling oddly in between tourists and people who truly know where they’re going. Today we took the bus for the first time, and the 12:22 bus came right at 12:22! The bus ride back from the conference site to our friend’s apartment was not as smooth, because traffic had really picked up, but nonetheless, I’d certainly give San Francisco high marks for public transit. Not that they asked me to rate it…

We got to the AES conference ahead of schedule (thanks, Muni!) and met Katherine, Regional Editor for West Coast Performer Magazine, just outside the conference. I spotted her right away because…she’s a woman. I laughed to myself when I saw her, “oh, that must be her, because that’s the only girl I’ve seen” and I hoisted up my guitar a bit to get her attention so she’d know I was the musician she was looking for. And, funny or not, it was her. We got our fancy badges – I do love a conference badge – and walked on in to the exhibit hall, where nary a woman was to be seen among the towering exhibits of cool-looking gear. She wasn’t the only one, but throughout the afternoon I saw maybe 10 women, so that the ratio of men to women had to be something like 100:1. The upside is that in that kind of crowd it’s not too hard to stand out as a female performer. But it makes me wonder why there aren’t more ladies in the field of audio engineering, and why more women don’t seem to be into gadgets and gear the way men are.  I suppose there is some answer in the way we’re socialized; what girls are told we’re good at or what we should like (the whole Barbie, “math is hard” thing), but I wonder if there’s something deeper. Kind of makes me want to start learning how to use Mike’s stuff.

But I digress – onto the next lesson! (see #2). I have to say that my set went really well. True, a conference is not the ideal performance situation. It’s totally awkward to sing your heart out while random people walk by looking quizically at you and/or strain to hear you, but it’s “this is funny” awkward, not “I want to sink through the floor” awkward. Actually, I love the challenge of taking a less-than-ideal performance environment and turning it into something that feels like some sort of accomplishment. And what I received were a lot of smiles and actually quite a few thumbs-up signs from the dudes who passed by (and sometimes, stopped to listen). It’s a mobile crowd, so being able to catch someone’s attention even for a moment feels like they just gave you a high-five. I think that several people stopped by the Performer Magazine booth and signed up for their mailing list, and I’d like to think that some were drawn there by my performance, but you never can tell.

Now, Katherine had told me, when I asked her how things had been going at the booth, that everyone “seemed really into it…well, maybe except for the booth across from us,” and then she laughed. She said that Performer Magazine’s was the only booth that actually had live music (though I did hear some random guitar being played when I entered the hall. Kind of like at Guitar Center). It certainly seems appropriate to have live music at a recording conference!

But back to the booth across the way. I started playing, and the young guy sitting dead across from me kept giving me “I like your music” kind of smiles, so I was a little startled when an older woman from the same booth came over in the middle of my set and said, “Um, could you turn your microphone away from us?” I didn’t know how to respond, mostly because turning the microphone won’t do anything…except maybe create some feedback if it’s pointed right at the speaker…so I said, “Um, I could, but I don’t think that will make it softer.” I could have put my guitar down for a moment and turned the PA down, but I was sort of frozen to my spot. The sound guy for the booth returned just then and was told by the woman that our booth was exceeding the decibel level allowed and we were making it impossible to hear her clients. (Though I don’t know about the decibel rule, because I could hear strains of The Doors from the speaker company behind me and guitar riffing on behalf of some amp company from across the hall…). Ah well, what can you do, except smile and then…try not to project so much. She did tell me my voice was lovely, though. And later the “I like your music” smiling guy gave me a t-shirt. I think he felt bad.

Oh, and finally, on the freebie thing, this is not a new lesson. Everyone knows that you leave a conference laden with crap you don’t need, several plastic bags to put it in, and magazines you intend to read but never will. But free stuff sitting on a table is just too darn tempting. While I was playing, I put down a few CDs, meaning for them just to be a display – I wasn’t really going to try to sell them, but it didn’t occur to me that I should give them away. Mike planned to just watch the little pile while I played…but by the time I was done, they were gone, taken by people who just grabbed ‘em. True, they might go the way of the magazines, but for me the taken CDs represent a successful day. :)