Over a hundred footsteps echoed across the Sverdrup halls, unusual for the typically quiet Friday evenings. A hearty crew of students flew around, flagging down one another as they ensured everybody was on the same page about an event over eight months in the making — the world’s largest audio student summit.
CRASS, the Central Regional Audio Student Summit, is an annual, weekend-long event that aims to further the interests and education of young audio engineers. Hosted by Webster University’s Audio Engineering Society (AES) student section, 18 officers organized the event. Its most recent iteration, from March 28 to 30, had over 180 participants.
Featured at CRASS were networking opportunities, live studio demonstrations and educational experiences with 40 panelist speakers — including industry professionals like Toby Scott, an audio engineer who previously worked with Bruce Springsteen.
The event, however, is also powered by a unique force: volunteers. Professionals from around the world volunteer their time to educate the next generations of audio engineers.
“Pretty much everyone that we come through and ask about [their reason for volunteering], they’re doing it less for the money and more for the experience to educate whoever comes to the summit,” Mikail Sarich, AES chair, said. “It’s almost mutual, where they get the experience to talk about their accolades as an audio engineer and the young people, who are just starting out, get to talk about what they’re doing and trying to succeed at.”
Sarich first attended CRASS in 2022 as a high school senior. Since then, he’s cemented his passion in the audio industry, including working his way up into his current leadership role in AES.
With three days’ worth of opportunities, many found themselves leaving with a further understanding of audio engineering. But for a group of high school sophomores from Francis Howell High School, this was just the beginning.
“[CRASS] is a great place to meet people and just find out what the industry is about,” Caleb Eagan said.
Eagan, along with Zac Keeny and Colin Fowler, works with a larger group of friends to produce music. Beginning around August 2023, they’ve individually worked on dozens of tracks as they learn more and experiment with audio.
One of the panels they attended, “Making Your Own Music at Home,” included conversations and discussions that were helpful to these students. For Keeny, this included overcoming the paradox of choice.
“So, having all these different things sit out in front of you is awesome because you have all these different choices, but it’s like a paralysis because you don’t know what to do,” Keeny said. “And their kind of unanimous conclusion about that was inspiration and getting inspired by something was the main way out of it. I feel like it’s a pretty important takeaway.”
While the group doesn’t currently have any released works, they’re hoping to solidify more of their content within the next few months and apply what they learned at CRASS.
“Next year, I’m going to come back with a flash drive labeled ‘my super dope tracks’ and hand it out to everybody,” Eagan said.
Another session included in the summit is speed networking, a CRASS tradition that has been a hit for multiple years. Each participant pairs with one or more people sitting next to them. They get a few minutes together, sharing their stories, experiences and aspirations before rotating around the room to meet even more people.
“It’s a really cool event because, for one, you get to feel more comfortable talking with people that already have years of experience in the industry,” Sarich said. “And then … on [the professionals’] side, they get to see the next generation of people that want to do this stuff.”
Around 90 students, alumni and industry professionals attended this opening night event. It was so successful that an overflow area had to be created to accommodate the increased attendance.
The “Mental Health with the Audio Industry in Mind” panel opened up discussions relevant to those in — and entering into — the industry. The speakers included professor Daniel Ruder, alumnus Sean Pierce and Mariana Mejía Ahrens.
Topics of discussion included pay, gender inequalities, drugs, setting boundaries and the general environment surrounding audio work.
“The entire audio portion, a lot of a show, falls on you,” Pierce said. “In that immediate moment, if something goes down or goes wrong, that pressure is on you and it’s always in the back of your mind.”
For many in the audio engineering industry, they work as a singular employee among a group of musicians. The panelists described just how intimidating this pressure can be — the idea that you have “one shot” to make a positive impression. But for people like Ahrens, a Latina immigrant, there’s more than just that initial concern.
“I am a woman in audio and most of the musicians that come in are men,” Ahrens said. “And I come to a position where I’m ushering in 10 men that I don’t know into a venue where I’m the one responsible for everything… For people who live outside a male body, it can be quite challenging to be in that situation.”
Another part of the mental health struggle in audio comes from a somewhat workaholic mentality. It isn’t uncommon, especially in older generations, to compete over who can do the most work — including grueling hours and lifting heavy equipment.
“Taking a break in the studio is really important. When I was first learning how to do this, I was really bad about that,” Ruder said. ”You’re running on adrenaline and it’s fun to do and all that stuff, but the amount of times I did that literally made myself sick. I would come down with crazy psychosomatic stress stuff.”
While the mental health problems in the audio profession will likely continue, these panelists encouraged the audience to have their own dialogues and stay aware of these issues.
In just a couple of months, Webster students will begin planning CRASS all over again. Those interested in getting involved are encouraged to attend their weekly meetings on Tuesday at 3 p.m in the Sverdrup lobby.
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