Intro

You’re the kind of person who loves audio, recording, mixing, producing, sound, gear, technology, staying up late and eating pizza, etc.  So based on your skills and passion, you’ve decided to attend audio school.  You’re stoked, you’re ready, and you can already feel the wind blowing through you hair.  The thought of recording big-named artists and bands is giving you enough tissue-aliveness to power a city!

But, before you hand over your credit card, student loans or hard earned cash for audio school tuition, have you asked these three questions?

• What’s the risk? 
  
• What’s the return on investment (ROI)?
  
• What are the rewards?

In this three-part series, I’m going to answer these questions, beginning today with:

“I’m looking to have a mix done, and I don’t have a huge budget.  But it doesn’t have to take a lot of time, cause I need by tomorrow.  An agent is asking for it.  Oh, and he needs it to be really great quality.  Are you cool with that?”

If anyone has ever said this to you, you'll love this video:

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Gearslave872
Hey guys, I’m looking to upgrade my sound card to a nice usb or firewire audio interface.  I’ve been using Audacity and Garage Band, but I’m thinking I should buy Logic.  Any recommendations?  Thanks!

As I write this latest blog entry, I’m listening to Alison Krauss’ DVD recording ‘A Hundred Miles or More: Live From the Tracking Room’.  

I first heard this one day while sitting in my studio space.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day and a gentle breeze came through the open window.  I sat in the sweet spot as the sun warmed my skin, and listened to what I felt was probably the best recording I had ever heard.  

Looking at the video I see:

The Source: A studio full of amazing musicians and great gear  ✓

Acoustics: The Tracking Room in Nashville  ✓

Preamps: Neve, API, SSL, GML  ✓

Microphones: the Microphone as the next important link in the recording chain!  And it looks like engineer Greg Paczosa knows that, too.  ✓

Witnessing an Event

Think of a microphone as a person witnessing an event.   Each person present will experience the event in a different way and translate that verbally.  Likewise, a microphone “hears” the source in a certain way and relates that to your monitors or headphones.  The difference between one mic and another can be night and day.  

It’s important to pick the right mic for the job both technically and artistically.

Some would say that the next item in the recording chain hierarchy should be the microphone.  While I can understand why they would think so, my opinion is that the preamplifier (preamp for short, and aka pre) is the next item of importance . . . 

There have been at least a couple of occasions where something in the space in which I was recording came back to bite me.  If it’s true that “there is no failure, only feedback,” then the square room with drywall was certainly trying to tell me something!

Recently I had the opportunity to help out a friend with a recording he and a couple of friends did.  These are your average amateur musicians who love music, know a little about recording, and have consumer grade gear.  My friend uploaded his mix for me to listen to and I could tell it needed a lot of help to get it up to snuff.  I offered to help him out by mixing it for him and then show him what I did.

I received the files from him and loaded them into Pro Tools and got to work . . . 

Oh . . . .

Yikes . . . .

<sigh>

LOL!

Let me tell you what was wrong.  No it wasn’t the mic., it wasn’t the preamp, and wasn’t even the DAW; surprisingly enough.  It was the source.

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Gearslave872
Hey dudes, I’m lookin’ 4 a really good preamp.  It has to be clean, have vibe, but I can’t spend more than a 100 bucks.  Any recommendations?  Thanks!

After a lot of education, work experience, reading and self-reflection, I’ve come to take my first solo flight into the skies of blogging.

So much has changed in the music industry.  I’m standing at the edge looking back and looking forward.  Behind me many people are saying, “This is the way it’s done and the way we’ve always done it.”  But ahead, others have jumped off the edge hoping, or maybe even knowing, that a net would appear.  What is it they saw? Was it a hunch?  Whatever it was, they stepped out . . . they jumped . . . and spread their wings into the unknown.

Seatbelt is fastened . . . on runway One Six Left, just past the threshold markers . . . engines are revving up as the throttle levers are set to full... and I’m looking forward toward the “new” music industry.