Live Sound Bootcamp is on our Podcast network and hosted by Ryan O John, Brendan Dreaper, and Joe Santarpia. In this episode, the hosts catch up with Michael Lawrence, a freelance audio engineer well known for his work with the Signal to Noise podcast, as well as his incredibly geeky articles for Live Sound International and ProSoundWeb, Smaart webinars, and of course, his work as a systems engineer. He discusses his career path, provides some great tips on reading and reference material, and offers valuable hints and suggestions for people looking to get into systems engineering and design. He also talks about how to communicate effectively with system engineers.

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Live Sound Bootcamp is sponsored by Rational Acoustics.

About The Hosts:

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.