My Initial Recording Experience, and What It Made clear to Me
I recorded my very first CD containing my original songs with the help of a friend who happens to own his own recording studio. As a way of attaining experience and “seat time”, he had invited me to take all the studio time I required for free, and he would record and mix the music for me.
This is actually my first official recording experience despite that fact that I’ve recorded a few demos years back using a rather vintage four track cassette recorder. My friend was one of the few individuals who got their hands first on the innovative concept called digital recording and this friend of mind had one of the first sets ups used for recording straight into the computer hard drive. It absolutely was an amazing experience. I observed how my buddy did microphone placement for vocals, guitar amplifiers and drums; how he placed instrumentalists in different rooms so they could play live “together” and he could record several tracks without audio bleed-over; how he solved problems on the fly when things didn’t go as he’d planned. While my friend is engrossed with the mixing and editing I observed and paid interest to what he is doing. I kept asking queries about the procedure and my friend would patiently explain the whole process to me and at the same time answer all my queries. And together, we made a record we were both very pleased of.
I never thought my first recording encounter can be of great help until I was placed in a scenario where I need to use my know-how on digital recording. First, as a small-time musician that hosts events with no sound engineer I need to rely on myself in order to make the audio sound good. I was surprised at how I was able to figure out the existing sound equipment and adjust the mix, a little at a time, until it was at least presentable. My first recording experience provided me with all the basic knowledge that I need.
The second situation where I was needed to use my basic knowledge was when I was hired as an sound engineer and was tasked to write musical scores for two short movies filmed by my son. Not really being qualified (I thought), I felt overwhelmed and quite out of my element; but I had learned enough from that time in the studio to detect when an audio signal was too loud or too soft, and how to compensate; and in post-production, I was able to write and record multiple songs on a Mac computer, and I knew how to make the adjustments to balance the sound levels. I even discovered out how to remove unnecessary noise from the audio of the film itself, when background noise affected the quality.
In taking on these tasks (which at the time I thought were more than I could manage), I found out just how much that my first recording experience had taught me. With that experience I was able to conclude that you actually learn a lot when you start applying what you’ve learned in real life setting.
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