Audrey Martinovich

Audrey Martinovich

Audrey Martinovich is a Chief Engineer and Co-Owner at Audio for the Arts, a recording studio in Madison, Wisconsin. Audrey works with clients as varied as Comedy Central and Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, and in 2017 she became Production Expert’s first female contributor. She is a member of SoundGirls and Women’s Audio Mission, and she has presented clinics for Empowering Women In Audio. Audrey spoke to us recently about her journey from soprano opera singer to recording engineer, and shared some comments about a couple of her favourite NUGEN plug-ins.

"I was the only woman in all of my classes for the entire program, and it motivated me to work harder than the guys in my class because I felt like I had to prove myself."

I studied classical singing in high school, and during lessons and recitals it’s common to record yourself in order to hear how you sound from an audience perspective. When I started doing that, I fell in love, and I started to concentrate more on improving the recordings than improving my actual singing! Soon after that, I enrolled in school to learn more about audio and music production.

I was the only woman in all of my classes for the entire program, and it motivated me to work harder than the guys in my class because I felt like I had to prove myself. I stayed late after classes to work on projects until the building closed each night, and I recorded local bands for free so I could get some extra practice. Recording those bands turned out to be pretty valuable for networking - I gained a lot of experience running live sound for some of those same bands, and nothing sharpens your chops quite like running sound for small festivals all by yourself!

"Nothing sharpens your chops quite like running sound for small festivals all by yourself!"

But what I really wanted was to be in the studio, so I contacted several studios in my hometown and practically begged for an internship. Thankfully, one of them invited me in for an interview, and I got it! That was almost 8 years ago, and I’m still at the same studio today. Although now I am not only one of the chief engineers, but also an owner alongside my business partner, Buzz - the person who first interviewed me for the internship!

Two years ago we started a series of live streamed concerts called Acoustic Moose. A ton of amazing artists have performed for us, but one of my favourites was when I had the pleasure of producing three-time GRAMMY-winner Bill Miller. Compared with some sessions, the input list was pretty simple - acoustic guitar, Native American flute and vocal - so I was able to really dial in each element, and then just sit back and get sucked in. It was one of those intimate performances which gives you goosebumps, and at the time I knew it would stick with me.

"I also love SEQ-S, I’ve found it to be one of the most flexible and responsive EQs I’ve ever used."

I first heard about NUGEN Audio through my colleagues at Production Expert. I was immediately intrigued by MasterCheck, and the ability to audition masters through different streaming codecs in order to get a picture of how the final master will sound for the end user. Having previously been a victim of having a loud song turned down by an online streaming service, I had to try it out. And now I use it on every master! I also love SEQ-S, I’ve found it to be one of the most flexible and responsive EQs I’ve ever used, and the layout is very intuitive. It allows me to do surgical notching and broad tone shaping within one plugin, rather than having to layer EQs.

You can find Audrey on Audio for the Arts, Production Expert, IMDB and Warm Audio.

Follow the rest of our Women In Audio series here.