String and Tins Launches ‘No Fixed Mix’ for Women Considering Careers in Sound Design

In celebration of International Women’s Day on Friday 8th March, award-winning, independent music and sound design company String and Tins is launching a new workshop programme called No Fixed Mix. The series, which opens to applicants today, aims to encourage women to consider a career in the sound design industry.

String and Tins’ ambition is to provide a number of women, who are just starting out in the audio industry, with a toolkit to boost their profile. The workshops will give attendees a snapshot of the audio-post industry from String and Tins’ unique perspective along with tips, tools and resources.

Audio producer at String and Tins Eimear Ní Ghuaire is the brains behind the new No Fixed Mix programme. She comments: “These workshops are for any woman seeking a career in sound design. The three workshops will focus on: the audio industry + production, sound design and music. Every day I am surrounded by talented and generous individuals who listen, advise and help turn small ideas into big realities. I wanted to share that with a new wave of female sound designers.” 

Taking place on weekday evenings, No Fixed Mix will be held at String and Tins’ studio facility located in Fitzrovia, London. Applicants selected for the programme will work across three sessions and will end up with a finished piece of work to add to (or begin) their own personal showreel.

Mike Bamford, co-founder of String and Tins says: “When Eimear came to us with the idea for No Fixed Mix, we said yes on the spot. Despite actively encouraging women in the field, we rarely receive female applicants for jobs. Whilst we recognise things won’t change overnight, we believe that a more balanced future will be a more creative one and these workshops are the first step in reaching out to women who are interested in sound design.”

In order to apply, interested female 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, nfm@stringandtins.com. 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.

Thanks to the generous support of Avid and HHB, successful participants will be provided with a free 12 months subscription licence to Pro Tools, the industry standard DAW (worth £299) so that they can continue to develop their audio post-production skills.

The deadline for applications for No Fixed Mix is midnight on March 24th, 2019.

(Photo: Delia Derbyshire @ The BBC Radiophonic Workshop 1965)