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Women's Audio Mission is a non-profit organization and recording studio complex based in San Francisco and Oakland, California, whose mission is to promote "the advancement of women and gender-diverse people in music production and the recording arts."
Women's Audio Mission (WAM) was founded by Terri Winston in 2003 to combat chronic gender inequity in the music and sound industries (fewer than 5% of the people creating everyday sounds and media are women or gender-diverse) [1] and "change the face of sound." [2] Winston, who got a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, [3] is a multi-instrumentalist who toured with P.J. Harvey, The Pixies, and The Flaming Lips. Winston started with a career in recording and engineering. Her father was an engineer and she "grew up in research labs around engineers that were always pulling pranks" on her; as a result, she said, she developed the thick skin necessary for a woman to succeed "in male-dominated careers". [4] In the early 2000s Winston was a tenured recording engineer professor and Director of the Sound Recording Arts program at City College of San Francisco, when she founded WAM. She has served as Executive Director since.
WAM runs the only professional recording studios in the world specifically built and run by all women and gender-diverse staff, [5] world-class facilities located in downtown San Francisco, in the former SF Soundworks studio, and in Fruitvale, Oakland. They are home to projects by Beyonce's Band, Toro y Moi, Alanis Morissette, Denise Perrier, Radiohead, R.E.M., and Timbaland with much of the equipment donated by various manufacturers. [3] [6]
A training and mentoring after-school program that provides 2,000+/year Bay Area girls and gender-diverse youth from under-resourced communities (96% low income, 93% BIPOC, ages 11–18) with free music/audio production, recording arts, and creative technology training in a professional studio environment. [13]
WAM also organizes online classes; their Sound Channel program contains "animated, interactive e-textbooks that include audio examples, video demonstrations, DIY projects and quizzes" and was, according to Winston, used by 6,900 students in more than 131 countries. [3]
These adult education classes provide music/audio production and recording arts certification training to 1,000+ women/gender-diverse individuals a year and include courses such as: Live Sound 101, Podcasting, Introduction to Mastering, and Protools 101. [14]
This internal internship provides a paid position, professional skills training, mentoring, direct connections to corporate recruiters/mentors and job placement to 30-40 women/gender-diverse individuals a year. WAM has placed over 1,000 interns in paid positions in the industry through this program.
These national music production/recording technology conferences have reached 1,500+ aspiring women and gender-diverse producers/engineers with award-winning female and gender-diverse audio professional mentors that have worked with everyone from Beyonce to Alicia Keys - in cities across the US (Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Boston). [15]
These studio residencies provide 5 -10 local BIPOC female and gender-diverse artists a year with free recording services and mentoring, all while providing work experience and professional credits to female and gender-diverse music producers and engineers. [16]
A free, quarterly performance series that promotes Bay Area women and gender-diverse artists and ensembles and has historically reached Bay Area audiences of 2,000+ per year.
A record producer is a music recording project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions: ensuring artists deliver acceptable and quality performances, supervising the technical engineering of the recording, and coordinating the production team and process. The producer's involvement in a musical project can vary in depth and scope. Sometimes in popular genres the producer may create the recording's entire sound and structure. However, in classical music recording, for example, the producer serves as more of a liaison between the conductor and the engineering team. The role is often likened to that of a film director though there are important differences. It is distinct from the role of an executive producer, who is mostly involved in the recording project on an administrative level, and from the audio engineer who operates the recording technology.
FL Studio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different editions for Microsoft Windows and macOS.
Other Minds is an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. It was founded In 1992 by Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman. According to their mission statement, the organization is dedicated to the "encouragement and propagation of contemporary music."
Fred Catero was an American record producer and engineer. Catero was originally from New York City, where he worked for CBS Records/Columbia, recording artists such as Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Invited by producer Roy Halee, Catero moved in the 1960s to San Francisco to work for Columbia Records there. In San Francisco, Catero worked on albums by Bob Dylan, Al Kooper, Tower of Power and Santana, many of these under producer David Rubinson at the Automatt. He also produced and engineered recordings with Aaron Copland, Janis Joplin, Linda Ronstadt and Mel Tormé. He also worked for the Automatt Studios, recording musicians such as Herbie Hancock and Santana.
Leslie Ann Jones is a multiple Grammy Award-winning recording engineer working as Director of Music Recording and Scoring at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm, Ltd. company. She is a past Chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Board of Trustees, the organization that awards Grammys, and in 2018 was inducted into the TEC Awards Hall of Fame. She is the daughter of novelty drummer, percussionist and bandleader Spike Jones and his wife, singer Helen Grayco.
The Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology (OIART) is a private career college in London, Ontario, Canada. The institute trains audio engineers for a variety of careers in music production, recording arts, audio engineering, sound recording and related fields. Founded in 1983 by engineer and producer Paul Steenhuis, the college focuses solely on sound. Graduates of the OIART program receive a Diploma in Audio Recording Technology.
Universal Recording Corporation was a recording studio in Chicago founded by Bill Putnam, Sr. for the purpose of investigating new recording techniques and the development of specialized recording equipment.
Sweetwater is an American musical instrument retailer. Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sweetwater is the largest online retailer of musical instruments and pro audio equipment in the United States.
The TEC Awards is an annual program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. The awards are given to honor technically innovative products as well as companies and individuals who have excelled in sound for television, film, recordings, and concerts. TEC is an acronym for Technical Excellence and Creativity.
Renee Grant-Williams was an American vocal coach living in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. She is also an active classical singer, conductor, communication skills expert, and published author. Grant-Williams is considered one of the most effective voice coaches in the business and has been a consultant to nearly every major record label. Her client roster includes Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Miley Cyrus, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney, Bob Weir, Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Dixie Chicks, Carrie Underwood, Linda Ronstadt, and more.
An audio engineer helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer… the nuts and bolts."
Audient is a British company based in Herriard, Hampshire, England that designs, manufactures, and markets mixing consoles, audio interfaces, microphone preamplifiers, monitor controllers and signal processors.
Metalworks Institute is a post-secondary institution based in Mississauga, Ontario. Metalworks Institute offers certificates, diplomas, and advanced diplomas, on-campus and online, educating students for direct entry into careers in the entertainment industry or for articulation into undergraduate degrees. The institute was founded by Gil Moore of the Canadian rock band Triumph, and is the educational extension of Metalworks Studios, Canada's largest music recording studio, and Metalworks Production Group. Metalworks Institute delivers programs in four core streams: Live Music, Recorded Music, Entertainment Business and Music Performance, at the flagship Mississauga campus and at the Fredericton campus.
Karrie Keyes is an American audio engineer and the executive director of SoundGirls, a non-profit organization that supports women in the sound industry. She has been the monitor engineer for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder for over 25 years and has toured with Soundgarden, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Neil Young, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Keyes was one of very few women working as a live sound engineer in the 1980s and is recognized for her contributions to helping women in the sound industry. She was a 2017 honoree of the She Rocks Awards.
Lenise Diane Bent is an American audio engineer who has worked in both the music and film industry. She was one of a handful of women working in the Hollywood recording studio business in a technical role during the 1970s, and was the first woman to receive an RIAA Platinum album for her engineering of AutoAmerican by Blondie.
SoundGirls is a professional advocacy organization aiming to empower women working in the audio industry. It was co-founded in 2013 by Pearl Jam’s monitor engineer Karrie Keyes, and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, Front of house mixer for Styx, Mr. Big and Elvis Costello. The organization's mission is "empowering the next generation of women in audio" and increasing the number of women in the workforce, which is currently under 5% in some disciplines of the industry.
Anna Laverty is a music producer who has been active in London and Australia since 2008. In 2018 she won the Studio Production Award at the Australian Women in Music Awards.
Australian Women in Music Awards is a not for profit charity which delivers an annual award ceremony and conference program to recognise the vast contributions of women across all areas of the Australian Music industry. The two-day program includes forums, a show case event and networking.
Stuart White is a recording and mix engineer. He is best known for his work with Beyoncé, namely on studio albums Beyoncé, Lemonade, and Renaissance. White has three Grammy awards and has been nominated ten times.
Catharine Wood is an American composer, songwriter, musician, producer, audio engineer and studio owner associated with both popular music and music for picture. Her work is primarily influenced by folk, rock, pop and soul music. In addition to being a vocal activist for songwriters, Wood is recognized for her contributions as a recording arts leader and mentor by AES and NAMM presenting alongside Grammy winning Leslie Ann Jones and Lenise Bent. She has been highlighted in two UK published Routledge academic books as a trailblazer in the professional music engineering and producer community: “Women in Audio” and “Gender in Music Production” in Chapters 4 and 13 respectively. In 2022, Wood was elected to The Recording Academy Los Angeles Chapter Board of Governors.
