MEET THE ARTIST
Golden Preciado
Golden Preciado is Campus JAX’s lead audio engineer, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and the author of Soundcheck Diaries. She helps shape the sound audiences experience in the room and across JAXblast’s broadcasts—and has shared her own music from the Campus JAX stage.
Golden’s instrument is sometimes an acoustic guitar. More often, at Campus JAX, it is the relationship between the band and everyone listening. Her work connects the voice on stage, the musicians’ monitors and the broadcast reaching people elsewhere. Having stood on both sides of the console, she brings a performer’s sense of phrasing, balance and feeling to the engineer’s decisions. The result is a contribution you can hear even when the person making it remains out of sight.
Official artist site →
Campus JAX / MetaJAX
Just like our Artists, you too belong to our JAX family.
WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW THEM
Five ways Golden helps the music reach you.
01 · THE JAX SOUND
Her contribution reaches far beyond one performance.
Tim Ellis estimates Golden has mixed roughly 80% of Campus JAX shows, including broadcast mixes across the venue’s YouTube channels. Her lead-engineer role connects the experience in the room with the music heard at home.
02 · THE MUSICIAN
She understands the stage from inside it.
Golden sings, writes songs and plays multiple instruments. Her own experience performing informs how she listens to musicians, balances a band and responds to what artists need to hear.
03 · THE TEACHER
Good sound becomes knowledge worth sharing.
Her background includes QSC training and house-of-worship education. The same commitment to helping others learn now runs through her independent writing and mentoring.
04 · THE WRITER
Soundcheck Diaries turns real gigs into lessons.
From acoustic-guitar EQ to a hat that unexpectedly changes a vocal monitor’s behavior, Golden explains the reasoning behind the decisions. The stories make the craft accessible to engineers, musicians and curious listeners.
05 · THE MOMENTO
The person behind the mix has music of her own.
JAX Momento 010-A preserves Golden’s August 20, 2024 SongStage performance. It celebrates her as a performing artist alongside her essential work behind the console.
THE STORY
A musician’s ears. An engineer’s craft.
Golden’s musical life began around her father, Evan Williams, an audio engineer, producer, musician and longtime Golden West College instructor. Helping with his productions introduced her to the practical work behind a show. His emphasis on learning and passing knowledge to others would become central to her own work. Her performing career developed alongside that technical education. A vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose instruments include guitar, keyboards, bass and harmonica, she studied music at Golden West College and toured with The Continental Singers. In 1992, that tour brought her to the Olympic Games as a performer. Later she and her husband, Michael, traveled and made music together through worship and ministry work. Her musical background is part of what she brings to a mixing console: an understanding of what performers need to hear and how a song should feel. At Campus JAX, that experience meets the demands of live production. Golden’s responsibilities can encompass front-of-house sound for the audience, stage monitors for the musicians and a separate broadcast mix. Campus JAX co-owner Tim Ellis estimates that she has mixed roughly 80% of the venue’s shows, including broadcast mixes across its YouTube channels. Golden’s career also includes training and house-of-worship specialist work at QSC, where she developed educational material, taught audio fundamentals and shared practical knowledge with other engineers. Her 2026 biography describes her subsequent return to full-time freelance work. Her teaching continues through Soundcheck Diaries, where actual soundchecks, unexpected problems and decisions made during a show become lessons others can use. The Campus JAX archive reveals the performer as well as the engineer. Lunch with Golden and Music With Golden broadcasts from 2020 sit alongside her August 20, 2024 JAX SongStage appearance. That later performance is preserved in JAX Momento 010-A: a chance to recognize the musician whose work so often helps other artists be heard.
CAREER & COLLABORATIONS
On stage, in the room and across the broadcast.
Golden’s Campus JAX story includes both performing and engineering. The performance archive below documents her onstage appearances; the engineering examples here identify separate production credits.
THE PERFORMER · JAX SONGSTAGE
Her own songs. Her own voice.
The August 20, 2024 showcase lists Golden with Rob Gallas, Danny Beissell and Derek Day. Earlier Lunch with Golden and Music With Golden broadcasts document her continuing relationship with the stage.
See the original SongStage program →THE LIVE & BROADCAST ENGINEER
Different audiences. The same attention.
Golden’s engineering work can involve the room mix, musicians’ monitors and broadcast sound. On Raquel Rodriguez’s Campus JAX broadcast, Golden handled the broadcast mix while Jon Graves mixed the room.
Hear a credited broadcast mix →THE RECORDING & PRODUCTION WORK
Part of the JAX archive from its early chapters.
JAX’s 2020 Steamers Jazz at JAX production descriptions credit Golden for live audio and recording engineering. These credits document work behind the performance, distinct from her own appearances as a singer and musician.
Explore an early JAX production →THE EDUCATOR
A craft learned, practiced and passed on.
Through Golden Audio Mix, her QSC chapter and continuing educational work, Golden has connected professional audio practice with a commitment to teaching. PAMA’s July 2024 interview explores the mentorship and values behind that approach.
Read the PAMA interview →RECORDINGS & MEDIA
Read, listen and meet Golden.
Explore Golden’s own writing and biography, the history of her performing career, and Tim Ellis’s reflection on the engineer’s place in a live performance.
RIFFING · TIM ELLIS / JAXHIDEAWAY
The Music Is Completed in the Room
Tim’s May 23, 2026 essay explores how listeners, engineers and the room participate in a performance. Its cover features Golden at the console—a fitting expression of the often-unseen musical contribution this profile celebrates.
Read the Riffing essay →GOLDEN’S BLOG
Soundcheck Diaries
Golden’s independent blog shares practical lessons from live sound. Start with her introduction, then explore the problems, solutions and musical judgments behind the soundcheck.
Visit Soundcheck Diaries →IN HER OWN WORDS · ENGINEERING BIO
Behind Every Great Show
Golden’s August 2026 interview describes her path into live sound, her QSC teaching chapter, her freelance work and the musician’s perspective she brings to engineering.
Read Golden’s career interview →THE PERFORMER · CAREER BIO
A Passion to Serve
This 2021 ProSoundWeb profile traces Golden’s musical education, multi-instrumental performing life, touring and evolution into live and broadcast engineering.
Read the performing and engineering biography →LESSONS FROM CAMPUS JAX
Five Guitars. Five EQ Curves. One Stage.
A SongStage soundcheck becomes a practical lesson in listening to the particular instrument in front of you. Golden explains how different guitars call for different decisions.
Read the SongStage soundcheck story →QSC · EDUCATIONAL WRITING
Her teaching archive
Golden’s published articles cover EQ, monitors, microphones, broadcast mixing and working with musicians. They document a teaching career grounded in practical live-sound experience.
Explore Golden’s QSC articles →JAX MOMENTOS
Performances you can keep.
LIVE AT JAX
The Room Comes Alive.
START HERE · LIVE PERFORMANCE · JAX SONGSTAGE · Aug 20, 2024
JAX SONGSTAGE
JAX HISTORY
Golden Preciado at Campus JAX
A selective history of live performances and appearances, preserved across visits to the room.