Girls Twiddling Knobs

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode we’re jumping into the fascinating, complex and playful world of theatre sound design with Tony Award winning Broadway sound designer, Jessica Paz. With years of experience under her belt designing complex sound systems, sound effects and audio experiences for acclaimed productions like Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen and Little Shop of Horrors,...

Send us Fan Mail Never one to take the conventional path, UK experimental electronic composer and producer, Elizabeth Bernholz, AKA Gazelle Twin’s back catalogue plays with and subverts a variety of identities. Inside this episode, Isobel has the chance to hear all about her journey into music making so far, her evolution as an artist, where she’s at now (including being a fulltime musician and mo...

Send us Fan Mail Many musicians think they need all the ‘right’ gear before they can start recording and producing from home, which can massively stunt their skills and careers. But guess what?  You DON’T need fancy gear to get started! The thing you really need to invest in costs hardly anything and you probably have it all at home already. This week's episode dives into acoustic treatment a...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to another season of Girls Twiddling Knobs! At 20 years old, our first guest of the season, Emily Nash, is perhaps the youngest guest we’ve ever had on the podcast. But don’t let that fool you because this DJ & producer is currently setting the EDM world on fire. When she didn’t get the grades she needed at school, she was encouraged to do a Music Production cours...

Send us Fan Mail Inside this very special 50th episode of the podcast and the Season 02 finale, Isobel takes a trip to the most famous recording studios in the world, Abbey Road, to celebrate their 90th Birthday. Join her and in-house Assistant Engineer, Marta Di Nozzi, for a binaural walking tour of this historic building’s three main studios and the amazing music that’s been recorded there. Whet...

Send us Fan Mail Delay is one of those plugins that can be deceptively tricky in music production: use too much and it can sound gimmicky; use it without knowing what you're trying to achieve and it can sound silly, and;, not understanding all it's capabilities beyond something that makes things sound... 'echoey' 🤷‍♀️ can mean you miss a music production trick. But have no fea...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode Isobel chats with the fascinating artist Nour Sokhon about how she uses sound as a medium to share and witness memories of Beirut, the city where she lives and works. Beirut has a troubled recent past with sectarian violence making ‘normal’ life feel increasingly difficult. Nour was born in this vibrant city, and upon returning to Lebanon’s capital city, som...

Send us Fan Mail Inside this week’s episode, Isobel examines the fascinating process of sound synthesis, including what it is, how it was developed, the women who have played a vital role in this technology and then, lastly, how you can start incorporating it into your own music too. Isobel also highlights two contemporary female artists doing interesting things with sound synthesis right now, and...

Send us Fan Mail Inside this week’s episode, Isobel explores how to make a change of direction with your sound. There’s lots of reasons we might hit this fork in the road with our music but how can we get clear on the new direction to take moving forward? Isobel draws from contemporary artists who have made big changes in their music and looks at what’s worked for them and also when there’s been s...

Send us Fan Mail Inside this week’s episode, Isobel is joined by experimental artist and producer, Kayla Painter, who’s immersive, ever-evolving AV performances figure into the earliest stages of her music and have taken her to stages, such as The Great Escape, Camp Elsewhere, Bluedot, and the inaugural edition of Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here festival. Isobel got to sit down with Kayla and hear a...

Send us Fan Mail Chances are, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 years, social media has become a massive part of your life, including your music. But, many musicians say that if it weren’t for needing to stay visible online for their music, they’d probably jack it in. Why? Well, it’ll come as no surprise that there’s mounting research into how social media has as many negative...

Send us Fan Mail An Exclusive Module-by-Module Sneak Peek Into My Signature Program In all my months of making this podcast, I have never done this. I’ve NEVER revealed, detail by detail, what’s inside my very special signature programme, Home Recording Academy, to my podcast listeners…until now. In this extra special, I walk you through my totally unique, female-focussed music tech course — modul...

Send us Fan Mail Every now and then as a teacher, one of your students shares something with you that truly takes your breath away. That’s exactly what Isobel felt when she first heard multi-instrumentalist Asha McCarthy’s new album Epitaph, which she recorded, produced and mixed from home after completing Isobel’s digital course, Home Recording Academy. But it wasn’t just the fact that Asha had p...

Send us Fan Mail EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS {00:00} Intro {05:07} ‘Experts’ are great, aren’t they? {07:37} Understanding the ‘expert myth’ {10:01} The no. 1 limiting belief that holds women back from becoming their own expert {10:53} How Carol Dweck’s powerful mindset research can flip the ‘expert myth’ on its head {15:07} The question you need to ask instead {16:37} The essential first step you should b...

Send us Fan Mail Inside this episode, Isobel is joined by The Anchoress, AKA Catherine Anne Davies, as she candidly shares the experiences that led her to seriously invest in the skills, gear and home recording space necessary to take ownership of how, and with whom, she makes music. In fact, having her own home recording set up and knowledge of how to record and produce has meant that her latest...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Girls Twiddling Knobs I'm joined by musician, mother, small business owner and Home Recording Academy alumni student, Cat Lawless, who, despite being suuuuper busy, learnt to record her music from home. Maybe you're reading this thinking, "That's alright for Cat but I literally don't have a minute in the day - I'll NEVER find time to do t...

Send us Fan Mail Technophobia is one of the biggest reasons so many women fail to record and release their music, especially on their own terms. Even though it’s so commonplace, very few of us are truly aware of what it is, the REAL underlying triggers and how to fix it. But, by getting a handle on the key concepts Isobel shares in this episode it is possible to gain the tools and confidence to st...

Send us Fan Mail Are you ready to follow the journey of a sound wave and expand the horizons of your audio knowledge? If so, boy is this a corker of an episode to kick off Season 2 of the podcast as Isobel takes you on a virtual tour of the National Science and Media Museum’s new exhibition series SONIC, BOOM. Inside, Curator of Sound Technologies, Annie Jamieson, shares her personal take on all t...

Send us Fan Mail Music production isn't just about expensive gear and nerding out on the latest plug-in. It’s as much, if not more, about your ability to translate emotion through sound.  But this process is often difficult to pin down or articulate and rarely gets talked about on your average music tech course or YouTube video. So inside this week’s episode, Isobel is diving into the intangi...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wanted to start your own recording studio? One where you can pick all your favourite gear, get the mood just right and work with artists you truly believe in too? Well, that’s exactly what this week’s guest, Majelen, did with her fiance Courtney… during lockdown… while they already have two other businesses! #lifegoals. But, as you’ll hear when Isobel sits down with...

Send us Fan Mail Computer coding can often feel like a totally foreign language to newbies or even just anyone who isn’t a coding wizard. But today’s podcast guest, musician, artist and coder Melody Loveless is here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be. Melody uses live coding in live performance, music composition and sound installation and teaches MAX/MSP both privately and to groups. Inside t...

Send us Fan Mail If the thought of self-releasing your music feels a tad overwhelming, you’re not alone. It’s a daunting prospect for many DIY artists. But, as Isobel shares in this week’s episode, even veteran DIY musicians can have their own self-releasing wobbles because there are many disruptive factors that have changed the process of releasing music over the last 10 years. Isobel explores ex...

Send us Fan Mail How well are mothers supported in the music industry, how does it change a woman’s music career and how can it affect your creativity? These are all questions that Isobel explored with three musician mothers, Olga Fitzroy, Ruby Colley, Abigail Smith during a Live panel discussion at Belfast’s Women’s Work Festival on June 17th, 2021 and boy was there a massive response from women...

Send us Fan Mail Music is a blend of many things, but perhaps one of the most important elements is the ability to craft sound? Inside this week’s episode, Isobel is joined by composer, producer and performer Caro C and hears about why musicians who are truly dedicated to their craft have shaped her music so profoundly. This fascination led her to founding the Delia Derbyshire Day in 2013, which i...

Send us Fan Mail There’s not many people, musicians included, who have had quite as varied and exciting a career as BISHI. From the age of 15, she was putting on LGBT club nights in Soho, performing in some of East London’s most influential electronic music venues, not to mention having had a classical Indian and classical Western musical training growing up. Inside this week’s episode, BISHI shar...