My name is Ritchell, and I’m from Western Australia. I’m a musician, songwriter, vocalist, music producer, and audio engineer, and yes, I’m also vision impaired. The story of my vision impairment is an article in itself. Just for some background context, I was born prematurely in my home country of Indonesia, and due to excessive oxygen and medical neglect, I tragically lost my eyesight before I turned one. This could have been avoided, but I’m a big believer in the old saying, “Everything in life happens for a reason, “so I don’t believe this is just a sad coincidence.
A lot of what I do is self-explanatory. As a musician, songwriter and vocalist, I grew up playing the piano, writing songs every chance I got, performing live (including going on a few tours around Asia), and recording my compositions in recording studios in Australia and Asia. It got to the point where the studio became my second home, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Naturally, I started developing a fascination with sounds, the recording and mixing of musical and non-musical sounds, and the impact sounds have on the human brain and emotions. That was what led me to my current work as an audio engineer.
When an album of mine didn’t turn out as planned back in 2011, I became obsessed with figuring out why things went south. Why did things sound okay in the studio when the tracks were raw but sounded completely different after mixing and mastering? What happened during the mixing/mastering process that turned these “normal” sounding songs into a complete train wreck?
In high school, I participated in a class music project where I was part of a small band of several students. We wrote a song together, produced it, and then recorded it using an old-fashioned sixteen-track recorder. It was a chunky thing that looked like it came straight out of the 70s, with nothing much to catch the eye. When it came time to mix the song, the only way was to manually ride the faders as the music played, thereby recording in the mix engineer’s moves. If you made a mistake, you’d have to start again. Nobody in my group wanted to attempt this seemingly daunting task, so my teacher put me in the hot seat. It was an innocent moment when I didn’t know what I was doing. Still, after four minutes of sitting in a chair with a massive pair of headphones on my head, manually riding faders for 4 minutes, I came out of that experience realising how much I enjoyed working hands-on behind a mixer. I wondered whether audio engineering could be a viable career path for me, but my dreams shut down when people told me how impossible this field would be for a blind person like myself. Sure, sound mixing, as a craft, relies heavily on the use of one’s ears, but to properly operate the tools and equipment, both physical and digital, eyesight was a requirement, or so they said. This is it, I thought. This is the end. I’m never becoming an audio engineer. After high school, I continued my studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), where I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Music, majoring in voice. I received a piece of paper stating I’m a qualified singer.
But then, the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Everything turned upside-down. The world went into lockdown, and the tours stopped, and so did the local performances. I stopped writing songs and recording them, too. I figured, what’s the point in writing songs when I can’t go to a studio to record them? I had always wanted to have a home studio, but the thought of being unable to engineer my recordings due to my sight impairment made me give up on that dream, too. What’s the point? What was the point of everything?
But in 2022, things took an unexpected turn. It was just a typical day for me, and I was scrolling through YouTube when I came across an online audio engineering lecture. I doubted that I would understand half of it, but I figured, what the heck, I’ll watch it anyway. It’s not like I had anything better to do at that moment. Clicking on that video sent me down a road I’d never thought I would go down. In under two weeks, I had watched all the lectures in that video series, memorised my notes, and was about to start reading the second audio engineering textbook I had bought. Before I knew it, I had picked up a computer and taught myself to use a digital audio workstation (DAW) using only keyboard shortcuts and keystrokes (no mouse). The next thing I knew, I was experimenting with recording my own music and diving headfirst into mixing my fourth commercially released album.
That project was a lot of pressure for me. After the disaster of my third album, I was determined not to mess this one up, and I was ready and willing to personally make sure that this turned out just the way I envisioned. By that time, I was confident enough in my knowledge of audio theory – I felt like I knew how to avoid the common mistakes made by beginner audio engineers. That record turned out well, and not long after its release, I started showing an interest in learning live sound. Then, I applied for live sound jobs all over Perth. Imagine the shock on my face when one of the companies called me up to tell me they wanted to hire me. Here I was, a blind, completely self-taught audio engineer, about to start a new job with an audio company specialising in corporate gigs. This was insane! It’s been three years now since I started this journey into audio, exploring what it means to be a teller of stories through sound and music, and I’ve never looked back. I can’t now. The only way to go is forward from here on out, and I will continue scaling those mountains, jumping over those hurdles, and breaking those barriers, one challenge at a time.
It’s hard to pinpoint specific things that I find good about my job as a sound engineer. I love it all: the environments I get to work in, the people I get to interact and work with, the adrenalin rush of sitting at a mixing board, waiting for the “Go” command, so to speak, the challenges that come with learning a new desk, the nights I would lay awake, my mind running at a thousand miles a minute, thinking of creative workarounds and solutions, that feeling of satisfaction I get when I do a mix and it sounds incredible through the front-of-house speakers, the sense of euphoria as I ride the faders in real-time, feeling the atmosphere of the room change with every move… I wouldn’t want it any other way.
In my line of work, no “bad” or “worst” moments exist. Probably the closest thing to that is what I like to call challenging moments – moments that challenge my outlook, perspective, and creativity. So far, my biggest challenges revolve around accessibility, particularly when it comes to console accessibility in live sound. As technology advances and things become more compact, manufacturers are starting to move away from physical buttons and knobs, replacing them with touchscreen user interfaces that are a nightmare to use when one can’t see what they are doing. I’m continually striving to think of creative solutions to these problems. A one-size-fits-all solution would be amicable, but unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. The more solutions I come up with, the more significant problems present themselves to me, and I’m forced to think even more creatively. But as they say, what one considers a weakness, someone else will find a way to flip it and turn it into a strength.
With technological advancements making it more difficult for people like myself to do my job, the same advancements also provide a viable solution. I’m referring to AI here. Imagine this: A pair of high-tech glasses equipped with cameras, microphones, and an AI assistant that you can talk to, ask questions about the world around you, and get information about specific things you’re looking at. It sounds like something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie, right? Well, this ain’t no movie. Such technology does exist in the real world. It’s called the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Not only do they look stylish, but the AI assistant comes in handy when I’m looking at a sound board and need more information on the button(s) I’m pointing at and/or whether or not a particular button is lit. Talk about fighting technology with technology. Of course, the glasses aren’t the perfect solution. There are phone apps that can do similar things, but technology combined with tactile solutions seem to work well for me … for the most part.
Although I’m considered pretty new (or “green”) to the field, I’ve had many career highlights so far. Two massive ones for me occurred in Feb and June of 2024. In Feb 2024, I operated my first live mixing console at a church. It was a moment of pure, unadulterated joy for me as I rode those faders in real time, responding to the energy coming from the stage. In June 2024, I received Dante Levels 1 and 2 certification, possibly becoming the first blind person in history to do so. The Dante courses were a blind person’s worst accessibility nightmare.
It took me 13 hours to complete – thirteen hours of stubborn determination and sheer willpower. The rush I got as I downloaded my Level 2 certificate, nothing else has been able to make me feel that way. It’s an achievement I will forever be proud of.
Lucky for me, so far, I haven’t experienced any sexism at work, though I am aware that my so-called disability does come with certain preconceptions and stigmas that people tend to hold secretly. But to be honest, I don’t care. The more someone tells me that I can’t do something, the more inclined I feel to prove them wrong. Even now, I’m all about challenging the thoughts and beliefs of people regarding blind audio engineers.
My goal as an audio engineer is two-fold. First, I want to be a voice for the blind and disabled community – to advocate for equality and inclusivity in the audio industry to erase any preconceived notions about people with disabilities that society may hold. My second, more long-term goal is to be a teller of stories through music and sound, someone who can create unique sound experiences for people. And it’s not just my story that I want to bring to life through sound. Everyone has a story to tell–something they envision. My job is to realise that vision, turning it into an audio experience that will stick. I want to harness the power of sound, leveraging it and allowing it to penetrate the depths of the mind and human emotion.
In conclusion, if there’s one piece of advice I could offer other women looking to join the entertainment industry, it would be this: Have an open mind. Stay curious. Get creative. And never, ever lose sight of the “why” behind what you do. We’re all created uniquely, and we all have our own story to tell- a story specific to us as individuals. Every joy, highlight, frustration and struggle – embrace it. They are what shape you. Use your experiences to inspire others. And don’t dismiss something as impossible until you have exhausted every possibility. You might surprise yourself.
You can check out Ritchell’s latest album that she produced and mixed herself:
