Audeze interviews audio engineer Carolina Antón

Audeze interviews audio engineer Carolina Antón

Mobius photos by @tatoarce

LCD-X photos by @dacast77

"With Audeze headphones I get the perfect surrounding atmosphere, is very difficult to have a good sound and immersive sensation but when I use this headphones I just get this immediately."  - Carolina Antón

Here's our talk with Carolina:

Can you pick out any favorites from your work that you're particularly proud of?

In live sound- I have mixed for artists such as Kool & The Gang, Gloria Gaynor, Natalia Lafourcade, Mon Laferte, Leon Larregui, among many others.
 
In 2019, my professional career was mentioned in the book "Women In Audio" presented by the Audio Engineering Society - London, written by the renowned sound engineer Leslie Gaston-Bird.
 
I am very happy to be Soundgirls.Org Mexico chapter head.
 
I have mixed several tracks in immersive formats, I love it!

How would you define your main role on most of the projects you work on these days?

FOH/MON (Front Of House/Monitor) Engineer & Studio Engineer

How did you get started in music? What kind of music did you listen to while growing up and how has that progressed?

I started as musician playing drums, I love to hear all kind of music but my favorite is jazz, R&B, Indie.

I played jazz and also had my band (rock pop). When I decided to do sound, I started working with rock and indie artists. I started to like it, I think it is my preferred genre, although I have mixed and worked with many other musical genres.

Can you name any factors that influenced the course of your musical life? Heroes, role models, moments, interactions, etc?

Being musician and actually be on stage changed my mentality and the way I hear music, I am sure that to be musician is a very important fact that helped me to be better on my mixes.
My family is a very important support in my whole career.
It was very difficult as a woman to be sound engineer, in Mexico (and the world) are very few women on this field. That prompted me to support more women in the industry, so now I am soundgirls.org chapter head in Mexico.

Can you briefly describe a moment of frustration from your past work, and what you may have done to overcome the obstacles? Would you approach it differently now?

I remember many obstacles, I think the best response to pass this is to be humble, disciplined and professional at all times.

Is there any gear you find yourself turning to most when working on a project? What are some of your favorite tools/instruments recently?

When I am touring, to have a good mixer is basic. I love some brands as: SSL, Digico and AVID, also a good PA as Martin Audio or D&B, but the most important is to work with a good crew and a nice and professional band with good energy.
 
Right now, because of the pandemic I have been mixing a lot of immersive formats such as Dolby Atmos, so it is essential to have very good monitoring such as good speakers and headphones as my reference, also I realize that people are listening more and more in headphones, so I always hear my mixes on my headphones.

Goro Goro IL is a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 Studio with Genelec The Ones monitoring, for my mixing I use Dear Reality and Waves plugins. I love doing Mastering using Shadow Hills. I am always trying new gear and plugins to make the sound that I like.

Do you have any words of wisdom for people who might aspire toward a similar path for their own careers?

Always pay attention to what you feel, be tenacious, humble and never doubt yourself.

How long have you been working with headphones, and how do you typically use them in your workflow?

I have been mixing using headphones many years, maybe 10… As Monitor engineer, most of the times I mix using IEMs.
I have been mixing immersive sound with headphones since many years ago, and I love it!

Do you have any additional comments or stories you want to share?

I have so many stories to tell, during pandemic I did the mix for my friends of Mexfutura and this was so fun, to create other universe, and imagine all the sounds all around your body, this was the best thing that could happened to me on this difficult time, I enjoy to be in touch with this artists (by zoom) and to reinvent our world creating different experiences with music.

How have your Audeze headphones affected your work?

I characterize myself as a creative person who loves to experience new technologies. It has been difficult to find tools that match exactly what I need, especially mixing spatial sound. With Audeze headphones I get the perfect surrounding atmosphere, is very difficult to have a good sound and immersive sensation but when I use this headphones I just get this immediately. These headphones have an amazing precision that I have only experienced in monitors, I have found the possibility to be inspired, to create, and to share new experiences to everyone! 

Using LCD-X headphones has given me the confidence to really convey my emotions and sensations through my mixes.

I am very careful when choosing the monitors and / or headphones to make my mixes but with Mobius I have been surprised and very happy, the dynamic range and versatility that these headphones have are incredible.

All the tools that Mobius hedphones have are amazing, the one that I enjoy the most is that I can use them with my interface they give you 8 discrete channels, they also have the NX head tracker included and an option of audio in 3D. They have an amazing definition; I just love them.

Can you tell us what you've been working on with them recently?

I had the pleasure to mix the first song of Merengue in Dolby Atmos Music – El Jala Jala by Olga Tañón in my studio Goro Goro Immersive Labs and I use Mobius headphones as reference, they help me to understand the specialty and the definition for those people that hear in headphones. Now days most of the people hear in headphones so is very important to have a very good reference.

I mix a lot of music and audiovisual content using immersive sound and now I am sure that these headphones are one of my best reference.

I enjoy doing several immersive mixes in Dolby Atmos & Ambisonics, of course I mixed on traditional way too, using this headphones helped me to understand better the space, balance and to get very clear sound.