No Fixed Mix

As far as I’m concerned 2021 will be the embodiment of ‘onwards and upwards’ and we’re hoping that No Fixed Mix will help bring a little extra light in the coming months as we move into brighter times. I have no intention of being a programme in ‘unprecedented times’, we come as we are, Zoom or no Zoom, pandemic or none, we must strive for equality across all platforms, under all circumstances.

The inaugural programme of No Fixed Mix was held in 2019 when we were delighted to welcome five aspiring sound engineers into our studios. It was a bigger success than we could have hoped for and the response to our call out for applicants was huge - it just shows that it’s not just men who want to apply for these roles and pursue these careers. We held three workshops on the industry, sound design and music which helped candidates develop pieces for their showreel. Since then many of these women have gone on to find jobs in their preferred sound-related fields. This can be accredited purely to their own efforts but we hope that our programme has given them some insights which have been useful in getting their foot in the door in the industry. Here are some thoughts from our inaugural course:

Amy Ho: "No Fixed Mix is such a unique programme, that provided a space for female aspiring sound designers to gain professional insight, connect and grow. I love the community and confidence it gave me."

Katie Seaton: "I found you all incredibly supportive and kind, and the insight into the industry was really interesting and informative."

We will be expanding the programme to reflect the growing variety of projects that String and Tins is working on, incorporating foley, field recording and longform into the updated course curriculum. We are also aiming to have more assignments (to help develop showreels) and a wider variety of lecturers/hosts. This is on top of our bread and butter; music and sound design.

In order to apply for this year’s programme, interested female or non-binary applicants must be of at least 18 years of age and are required to email their single-page CV along with a single piece of sound work that they have created to the email, [email protected]. The work submitted can consist of audio only sound design, a collage of interesting field recordings, sound design to a picture, or a piece of music with unusual instrumentation that should last between 10 seconds to 1 minute in duration. More details are here.

Eimear Ní Ghuaire

Production Manager - String and Tins

Thanks to the generous support of Avid, HHB, iZotope and NUGEN Audio, successful participants will be provided with a free 12 months subscription licence to Pro Tools, the industry standard DAW (worth £299), iZotope Stutteredit 2 (worth £171) and a copy of NUGEN Audio's the Focus Bundle (worth £139), so that they can continue to develop their audio post-production skills