The Wisdom I Discovered From The Recording Studio
A buddy of mine who was an audio engineer once offered me what could easily be every aspiring musician’s desire. “Come to my recording studio and make a record,” he said. “We can work on it up to the point that you find it acceptable. Take all the studio time you need.” In return, we decided that after I printed the record, I’d give him a part of the sales. This gift was a result of friendship and at the same time a desire for more experience.
So for a couple of days at a time, every month or so, I’d drive two hours to his studio, sleep there nights in a bed he’d set up, and record during the day. During the off times in the studio, I used it writing songs for the record. During those recording periods, I’d watch how he set up the microphones, how he would try different things, and switch gears if they didn’t work. I watched as he went through the mixing procedure and as he made remedies for problems that come up at random. As he toiled with the recording he would describe to me the whole process and patiently answered my questions.
The record by itself actually did not go anywhere. However, what I mastered during that experience and others like it has carried me through many different jobs and projects since that time. At times when a sound technician isn’t available, I no longer worry because I know I can handle the equipment personally and get the results that I want. Additionally, my ear was prepared during that experience to hear when a set of recorded tracks is not blended well, and even more significantly, what I can do about it. Rather than just realizing something is wrong with an audio mix, I can hear more distinctly what is incorrect with it.
I’m not a sound engineer, and have no dreams to be one. What is important though is the truth that I mastered both from experience and from mentorship in a recording studio. The reason lies on the facts that in order to learn and comprehend audio engineering you need someone who will show and clarify to you the whole process along with practice and experience.
My friend would have learned it from somebody despite that fact that he went to school and studied the recording studio craft. Nonetheless, I found his motion of offering me unlimited studio time in order to gain more experience on how to run his studio compelling because this is regardless of the fact that he spent years studying this particular line of work. He benefited from his scholastic experience, but he didn’t trust it enough to carry him after; he wanted more.
Whether you gain your education through schooling, through mentoring, through practice or through a combination of these, what really matters in this industry is whether you can generate results. This is what I realized in the recording studio.
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