Podcast
Live Sound Bootcamp
Hosted by Ryan John · EN
Hosted by a trio of touring engineers, Live Sound Bootcamp (LSBC) is meant to help new engineers to learn live sound from the ground up, and also maybe provide some insight and humor to seasoned professionals. It is a primer on all topics in live sound.
Ryan O John is a musician turned engineer, turned product designer, turned podcast host. He was playing instruments by 5 years old, with his first shows at age 12, recording his own albums by 13, and touring by 16 -- he leans heavily toward the geeky side of sound. From small local clubs to international stadiums, metal to pop, Ryan's career in live sound mixing has covered a lot of ground traveling the world with a ton of artists including Jessie J, Andy Grammer, Tove Lo, Banks, Liam Payne, Capital Cities and many more. Beyond just touring with pop and rock acts, he also designs audio consoles and software, mix records, and race cars.
After Brendan Dreaper picked up the drums in middle school, live music became an important part of his life. With a number of diversions under his belt, which included studying economics and working as a professional glassblower, he returned to music and found his footing behind the mixing console. Working from bar gigs to local festivals and eventually to touring with Magic! and Snoh Aalegra, Brendan has had the pleasure of making live music happen. Outside of geeking out about live sound on a podcast, he likes to play drums with the band vverevvolf, produce music and get real nerdy about anything Lord of the Rings related.
The third member of the trio, Joe Santarpia, is a live sound and recording/mixing engineer of 15 years, Tour Manager, Musician and Producer. His touring resume includes Mac Demarco, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Connan Mockasin, Best Coast, Surfer Blood, Inner Circle and others. Joe was a former staff engineer at Circle House Studios in Miami, FL and Faultline Studios (RIP) in San Francisco. during his free time he is an electronics hobbyist and recreational ice hockey player.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ep 6 Moving On Up: How to Work on Bigger and Better Things Pt 2
Dec 801:03:05Tap to summarizeThis question has come up over and over again through the years, and it seems to land in a topic that isn't discussed widely. How does one move from small clubs, to big clubs, to festivals, to arenas, and sheds to stadiums? Not just how do you get the gig, but also what changes in your daily workflow, in how you communicate, in who's on the team, and how you manage succeeding in that transition. Welcome guest Josh Benton as we talk through the process of progression in your career. One would think this would be a simple episode, but nope, as usual, we go on and on, and this is part two of this two part series.
Transcribe →Ep 5 Moving On Up: How to Work on Bigger and Better Things Pt 1
Dec 100:53:23Tap to summarizeThis question has come up over and over again through the years, and it seems to land in a topic that isn't discussed widely. How does one move from small clubs, to big clubs, to festivals, to arenas, and sheds to stadiums? Not just how do you get the gig, but also what changes in your daily workflow, in how you communicate, in who's on the team, and how you manage succeeding in that transition. Welcome guest Josh Benton as we talk through the process of progression in your career. One would think this would be a simple episode, but nope, as usual, we go on and on, and this is part one of this two part series.
Transcribe →Ep 4 Orchestras and Classical Instruments in Bigger Mixes
Oct 1601:14:44Tap to summarizeRemember last episode when we said we would land in the concept of Season 3, answering listener questions, well we screwed that up. In this episode we answer a question that we had, about how best to go about capturing and mixing orchestral instruments, in classical environments, and also in the context of adding strings to a pop or rock act. One would think this would be a short and simple episode, but nope, as usual, we go on and on. This Episode features guest host Aram Piligian.
Transcribe →Ep3 Dialogue, Talking Heads, the "Simple Stuff"
Oct 24, 202300:53:59Tap to summarizeSo finally we fall into the concept of Season 3, answering listener questions. In this episode we answer a question that digs into dialogue, corporate events, house of worship, expectations, auto mixing, noise reduction, how to make a talking human sound like what the audience expects. One would think this would be a short and simple episode, but nope, as usual, we go on and on.
Transcribe →Ep2 Being Efficient When Doing Shows
Sep 12, 202301:25:21Tap to summarizeLies and lies, we told you that we would have shorter episodes, and we told you that Season three would be dedicated to digging directly into listener questions, but this episode ended up being the very long answer to some in-person questions that we had run into recently. In this episode we talk about how to start your day when arriving at a new venue, all the way through how to get through your load out. There are quite a few interesting tidbits on how to move through your daily checklist faster, more accurately and more efficiently
Transcribe →Ep1 Troubleshooting
Aug 8, 202300:48:45Tap to summarizeAs we enter season three of this podcast, we've decided it makes sense to finally really dig directly into listener questions. We also had realized that while we had touched on this in many other episodes, we didn't actually ever make an episode dedicated to one of the most important skills in live audio: Troubleshooting. We knock on a few of the most common issues one may come across, and some of the most likely fixes!
Transcribe →Ep14 Strings
Jul 25, 202300:45:51Tap to summarizeSticking to the "wall of sound" instruments we chat about strings and some of the various methods for getting them to sound cohesive, or stick out as solo instruments. While this may not be the most common input an average live sound engineer may come across, the methods for achieving natural sounds with unnatural micing are somewhat easy to transfer to other similar instrument types. We chat about how to best capture strings, and we dig into monitoring, equalization, dynamics processing, and more!
Transcribe →Ep13 Choirs
Jul 13, 202301:19:09Tap to summarizeWe gave up on the idea that we would cover multiple topics in this one episode, but in this extra-long episode we knock out one! Choirs and background vocalists, why did we even think that this was similar to horns and strings? Because the goal is often a "wall of sound." We chat about how to best capture groups of singers, and we dig into monitoring, equalization, dynamics processing, and more!
Transcribe →Ep12 Horns and Brass
Apr 6, 202300:57:06Tap to summarizeWe really really did think that we would cover multiple topics in this one episode, but in this extra-long episode we barely covered one! Not the most common input but brass instruments can be challenging to get right. We chat about how to best capture live various brass instruments, and we dig into equalization, dynamics processing, isolation, effects and a lot more.
Transcribe →Ep11 Pianos, Keyboards and Synths
Mar 17, 202300:59:36Tap to summarizeSince it's been ages since we've done an episode, in this extra-long episode we try to make up for lost time! Continuing down the path of the channel by channel season, we spend a lot of time chatting about how to best capture live pianos, how to set up patches in pianos and synths, and we dig into equalization, dynamics processing, saturation, effects and a lot more.
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