Women in Audio
Early Women of Audio: A New Analysis
When I first started looking for the earliest women in sound recording history, I really didn’t think I would find anyone prior to 1950. If the culture of recording studios wasn’t welcoming of women in the 1970s, why would it be in the 1950s or 1920s? I’ve been surprised how many women I have found … Read More
Early Women of Audio: Ursula Greville & Gloria Chandler
I recently connected with a couple who are also looking at early women in recording history and I learned of two women I hadn’t come across before: Ursula Greville and Gloria Chandler. Ursula Greville Leslie Gaston-Bird (of Mix Messiah Productions) told me about Ursula Greville. Ursula now holds the title of earliest female recording engineer … Read More
Timeline of Women in Early Sound Recording History (1895-1959)
Timeline of Female Engineers Timeline of Female Producers Timeline of Female-Owned Record Labels Miscellaneous History Female Engineers 1895 – Ethnomusicologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher recorded the music of Native American tribes in addition to her study of culture and history. She was one of the first women in her field and spent some time in Nebraska … Read More
Researching the early women of audio
After researching Marion Keisker last year, I became really interested in learning more about early women in audio. How many were there? What roles did they have in recordings? How early were women recording? I found a number of women by digging through Wikipedia – women like Wilma Cozart Fine, a record producer in the … Read More
Male And Female Audio Settings? No Thanks.
A microphone company recently posed the question to the audience, ” Should microphones have ‘male’ and ‘female’ settings? There are many reasons male and female settings don’t exist… and shouldn’t exist. The most obvious reason is not all men have low voices and not all women have high voices. Beyond that, what about using these … Read More
Did Marion Keisker Record Elvis? A Female Audio Engineer’s Perspective
I recently researched Marion Keisker, a woman known for helping Elvis Presley early in his career while she worked at Sun Records/Memphis Recording Service. Marion is sometimes credited for recording Elvis for the first time (which is what caught my interest in her story). Her boss, Sam Phillips, also claims to have done the first … Read More