To keep you dancing at the "Pink Pony Club" or "Levitating" at ACL Fest this weekend, audio engineers have to consider the conditions that could affect the sound quality of the live event.
Jillian Masters, 22, is studying audio engineering and live sound at Austin Community College, and this past weekend she got a chance to help solve that puzzle as part of a new program.
She said there's a lot to consider, especially for an event like ACL that's outside. Things like humidity, she said, have to be taken into account.
“The temperature too affects how the sound travels,” she said. “It’s so fascinating.”
Masters is one of dozens of ACC students who recently got to see what their chosen career path might look like if they worked on large-scale, live music events. Through a partnership between ACC, C3 Presents and Jeff McClusky & Associates, students got the chance to shadow professionals during weekend one of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. C3 produces ACL and works with McClusky, who is a promoter.
Perry Crafton, the dean of arts and digital media at ACC, said the opportunity for students to get a hands-on learning experience at ACL is part of an initiative known as Festival University that began in 2018 when students at Belmont University in Nashville had the chance to get a backstage look at what it took to put on Bonnaroo. This effort was replicated in 2020 in Chicago with DePaul University students and Lollapalooza. Crafton said he spoke with McClusky in April about bringing this experience to ACC.
“We are so thrilled and so honored to be the inaugural school that launches this program at Austin City Limits Music Festival for this first year,” he said.
Crafton said about 70 ACC students participated in the program, focusing on three areas: music business, live sound engineering and event videography. He said while the students weren’t paid, they got to go to the festival for free. Crafton added the goal of this type of program is to help students make real-world connections for future jobs.
“I just hope this leads to a career. I hope it leads to meaningful, valuable, life-changing opportunities and employment for these students,” he said.
Crafton said, while the bulk of the educational opportunities were planned for the first weekend of the festival, there will be some activities for live sound students and event videography students during the second weekend. He also hopes student involvement will expand during future festivals.
“I think that we’re going to really be examining how we might make this not just a weekend event, but perhaps a weeklong event and provide our students some experiences during that off-week whenever there’s no traffic at the park to see if there’s anything that we can create for them that will give them even more insight into the behind the scenes look of what it takes to a run a major, nationally-renowned music festival,” he said.
For Masters, the program was a success. She said shadowing an audio engineer reinforced her excitement to get a job in the field after she graduates next year. The person she shadowed had nine years of experience and shared a lot of valuable information with her, she said.
“He went over the sound ordinance Austin has and how they use delay towers to keep the decibel levels at the legal limit while still having it loud enough for guests farther off the stage to be able to hear it clearly,” she said. “I had a great time working with and learning from him.”
Masters said it’s been a little hard to go back to her day job after the excitement of ACL, and she can’t wait to be an audio engineer.
“I totally picture myself doing this as a career in the very near future,” she said. “It’s so much fun and keeps me on my toes.”
