String and Tins Launches 2024 No Fixed Mix Programme

Image: NFM Class of 2023 and String and Tins Producers (L-R): Mya PB, Olivia Endersby, Laura-Leigh Smith, Keri Mason, Abbie Dinsdale, Eimear Ní Ghuaire, Ioana Selaru, Tanya Matthews

It’s String and Tins' birthday! This year No Fixed Mix is turning five, but before the team don its party hats and have a slice of cake, its jumping on the nostalgia trend and taking a look at all that’s happened over the last five years.

We begin in 2019 when the question of ‘why are there so few female sound designers?’ was all too familiar and thus we launched No Fixed Mix - a programme to encourage women and non-binary people to consider a career in sound design.

A year later in 2020, everyone had to quickly adapt to live and work differently. Hybrid working, dialling in for meetings and even remote audio sessions became the new norm. Technology has continually advanced, from the quality of the camera on our phone, to Dolby Atmos immersive sound mixing for our music. Our industry in particular has shown just how adaptable we can be and how initial challenges have led to some positive outcomes. String and Tins now work with more women including female composers, and the hiring of our new Technical Assistant, Livy, and continue to champion this. We have proudly watched the progression of many NFM graduates who are now working successfully in the industry - some of whom we collaborate with frequently. We hope that by giving women and non-binary people access to training and experience at the start of their careers, they stand a better chance of working their way up, diversifying the industry and becoming the role models for female and non-binary sound engineers of the future.

In 2023 we welcomed five new protégés to the No Fixed Mix programme, where String and Tins' engineers and producers presented their own interactive workshops. We also had the privilege of BAFTA and AMPS awards winning Natasha Haycocks, Dubbing Mixer at Formosa Group holding a guest lecture and a NFM first with the esteemed team at Dolby running a brilliant studio tour for our applicants. Here are some thoughts from a couple of last year’s participants:

Ioana Selaru - I found the programme to be one of the most well-structured and balanced programmes I've been part of. I loved the way it sparked my curiosity to explore different areas of the industry, such as radio, sound and music editing, sound design and music composition. Not only did I gain up-to-date information about the industry, but the shared materials were also a valuable resource to refer to when in doubt.

Mya PB - No Fixed Mix was great. I feel like I learnt a lot about the general overview of the industry and the kinds of jobs that come in. I had a really great time doing the sound design for the projects [in the workshops], and I managed to land a job [in the industry] which I'm sure I got, in part, because of my participation in the programme.

This year’s workshops will include an overview of the audio post industry, sound design insights, composing to picture and mixing for the big-screen. We are thrilled to have Hannah Webster, Sound Designer at UNIT as this year’s guest lecturer. Hannah’s recent work includes Nike / Vogue ‘Forces For Change’, Tennent’s ‘Offt’, and St Mungo’s ‘Last Night On The Streets’ which she was shortlisted for a 2023 Young Arrows for Best Sound Design. We are also very grateful to Dolby for inviting us into their flagship central London studio again for another immersive audio tour. Four workshops will take place on weekday evenings throughout April to June and assignments will be set to be completed between sessions. Sessions will be held in-person at our Fitzrovia studios.

In order to apply for this year’s programme, interested female or non-binary applicants must be of at least 18 years of age and are required to email their single-page CV along with a single piece of sound work that they have created to the email, nfm@stringandtins.com. The work submitted can consist of audio only sound design, a collage of interesting field recordings, sound design to a picture, or a piece of music with unusual instrumentation that should last between 10 seconds to one minute in duration.

More details can be found here.

Now... where’s that slice of cake?

Thanks to the generous support of HHB Communications, Avid, NUGEN Audio, Native Instruments and Krotos, successful applicants will be provided with a free 12-month subscription licence to Avid Pro Tools Studio™, the industry standard DAW (worth £299), NUGEN’s Focus Bundle (worth £139), iZotope Music Production Suite 6 (£579) and one year subscription for Krotos Studio (worth £119.88) so that they can continue to develop their audio post-production skills. 

Thanks also to Dolby studios for their support and opening their doors to us for the second year running with their brilliant immersive studio tour.