If you haven't met me, I'd like to take a moment and introduce myself.
My name is Samantha Becker.
I grew up in a small Wyoming town equipped with just three stop lights. My mother says I starting singing before I could talk. Music was always something I loved and participated in: church choir, school band and choir, piano lessons, musical theater. Anything involving music and I was there. I graduated high school and immediately enrolled as a music major at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. I completed the Music A.A. in two years, studying vocal jazz, and decided to stay for a third year and complete the Music Technology A.A.S. degree. About halfway through my third year, I found that Music Tech was where my heart belonged. I never felt comfortable on the stage. The pressure and having all eyes on me always made me a little queasy. But standing in the back, looking at the stage or the studio, watching the musicians and reading their faces and their body language, I felt so at home. I felt like I was still an important part of the making of music, and there was still pressure, but it was a different kind: a quieter kind with less attention. We'll come back to that eventually.
Two degrees in three years did me well and after graduation I moved a little farther north to Billings, MT. The music scene was thriving and that seemed as good a place as any to start my new audio engineering career. There was music almost every night in town and I found a job at a brewery running sound for their Saturday night shows. I met another audio engineer named Mike Tutaj while working there who got some freelance sound jobs for me. I think I owe the majority of my audio engineering career to Mike. Because of him, I was able to run sound at two county fairs, two songwriter festivals, a Beer run and Music festival, a summer outdoor concert, and I got a job. I was approached by a venue he worked for; one of the biggest music venues in town. They offered me a job and I was stunned. I happily accepted and I began training with them, doing live sound alongside the traveling "sound guy" of many a touring artist. I hesitate to say it but... I was in the big leagues now.
And you're caught up! I wanted to start this little blog to tell of my adventures in the world of audio engineering. It's been quite a road to get here and I am excited you're here with me. I'll be writing about a few of my previous adventures soon enough and then we'll get to the newer ones. Thank you for reading and remember: if you're in need of an audio engineer, I know one.
-Samantha
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