The Wisdom I Learned From The Recording Studio

An audio engineer, who is a buddy of mine made me an offer that no aspiring musician can say no to.. My friend said: " Why don't you visit recording studio and let's make a record." "We'll tackle on it until you're satisfied with it. You can take all the time you need to make the record." As a thankful gesture we decided on a sales cut after I get the record printed. This gift was a result of friendship and at the same time a desire for more experience.

For two days at a month every month I spend two hours driving to his studio and spend my evenings there sleeping on his makeshift bed while I record during the day. During the off times in the facility, I spent it writing songs for the record. While recording I paid attention on how he placed the microphones and experimented on different things like switching gears when they fail. I watched him during the mixing procedure, and I watched him resolve problems on the fly. As he worked with the recording he would explain to me the whole process and patiently answered my queries.

Unfortunately, the record didn't do well in the market. Nonetheless, the lessons I've learned from that experience I was able to use it in my line of work. In those moments when I don't have a sound tech handy, I am no longer completely lost; I can deal with the equipment on hand to figure out what I need at the point in time. Furthermore, my ear was prepared during that experience to hear when a set of recorded tracks is not blended well, and even more importantly, what I can do about it. Rather than just realizing something is wrong with an audio mix, I can hear more clearly what is incorrect with it.

I'm not a sound engineer, and have no aspirations to be one. The essential point, though, is that what I learned in the recording studio was learned by doing-through a combination of mentorship and experience. The reason lies on the details that in order to learn and understand audio engineering you need someone who will show and explain to you the whole process along with practice and experience.

My friend with the recording facility had actually been to school, and he had learned a lot of techniques he probably wouldn't have picked up on his own. However, I find it interesting that even after obtaining that education, my friend was compelled to offer me unlimited free studio time so he could gain experience running his own studio-even after going to school for it. Despite the advantage he got from his education, my friend still finds it insufficient and he wanted more experience.

The results are more important regardless of where you earned your education. That is what I realized from my experience in the recording studio.