How did you start out?

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

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JamesHE
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Post by JamesHE » Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:04 pm

My first recording happened when I was 15. I "broke" a pair of headphones, taped them to the grill on my BOSS MG-10, and plugged it into the mic in on my stereo. I made a recording of a song I had written. I turned it in for some creative project that I had to do in English class. I made a few recordings after that, made a bunch of dupes and a cover and gave it away to the other kids in my school. I was a "preppy" kid, glasses, never in trouble, but was a metalhead wannabe at heart. So some kid with a Metallica t-shirt heard I played guitar and was good, so asked me to join his band. So there I am some preppy kid in some Garage, hanging out playing Metal and AC / DC tunes with a bunch of kids my mother defintly wouldn't approve of - man that was the shit. I was listening a lot to The Screaming Trees, and that influenced a lot of my playing away from the Metallica/ Megadeath stuff I had been trying to play. And I started writing more and more tunes - and wearing flannel shirts... lol. Then Nirvanna hits. I fit right in. lol.
I bought a four track cassette when I was 16, and started recording my band. I had a few crappy radio shack mics, and a radio shack mic/ line mixer with sliders. I graduated up to a 57 and a ATM41HE at some point.
Started recording on computers in 2000. I had just graduated from Art school (sculpture at VCU) and moved back to my parents farm, where I set up a studio in a cold ass barn - and I had access to the shop where I could weld and make art - man that year was great all I did was record and make art. Had to go out and get a job though, so I ended up back in Richmond, and fell into doing construction. I rented a rehersal space and tried to put a band together. I used that space to record a few albums of other bands, and of course myself with various incarnations of bands and solo. I'm defintly not a "real" engineer. I haven't put anything of myself out there... yet. That's where I am now. 2 months from turning 30 - time to focus on my music and get it out there. It's hard being a contractor, a Artist, a Musician, and a f-ing engineer. Keeps me busy though.
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TA
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Post by TA » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:29 am

I used to use the ol dual cassette deck that had a mic input to record my stuff and bounce>bounce>bounce.....drum machine, guitar and bass parts. Plus messing around with stuff...cutting up tape (I thought I read someone else on this thread or another doing that as well...I remember doing that) Messing with my dads old 8 tracks and record players...etc. But I really became interested when I first recorded in a pro studio, I was just blown away by the engineer and gear and never looked back. Like others, I`ve played in bands as well.

Then in my late 20`s I found myself working my ass off for some company and doing something I cared nothing about, just sucking more and more time away from what I really wanted to be doing. My wake up call! So I bought some new gear, quite my lame job, went back to school (Institute of Audio Research in NYC) and fell into some seriose dept.... After school did an internship for a post house that was in the middle of moving, so did lots of painting and handy man work.... boy was that ugly!.... worked a lot of odd jobs to get back on my feet and slowly acquired gear along the way. I`ve always had to work a day job thought, working for free just wasnt going to feed me, or my wife...definatly not my daugher!

Finally! I landed a pretty cool gig working full time for a audio rental house, pays the bills. I work in the office in a god for saking cubicle though, drives me nuts sometime. A side from it being mostly office stuff, I do get to work on some big interesting project.

I do record bands part time out side of my 9-5 cube as much as I can still pluging away, would love to do it fulltime though. I had a studio partner for 4 years...thats now recenty gone...but I have retained a few bands that call me now and then that i`ve worked with from there. I dont have a room anymore (right now), but my rig is portable enough to bring to them and record.
Ive considered getting some gear and going at it myself
IMO; Invest in some gear. At the very least it will keep you working on stuff and learning on your own when you dont have access to gear. IE; a job at a studio...etc.

I`m still not were I want to be but I keep pluging away.... one project at a time.

JASIII
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Post by JASIII » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:55 am

My story is not nearly as entertaining as the rest here, but what the hell. I did not come from a particularly musically talented family. My Dad has a great vinyl collection that was a great resource as a teenager, everything from classical to folk to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, Elton John, The Who, etc etc . My Mom forced my sister and I to go to church every Sunday from the time I was 6 until 8th grade. I hated it, but luckily for me it was a Lutheran church, and for anyone who doesn't know, Lutherans sing A LOT!!! So, I learned how to sing, how to hit notes, would sing weird harmonies or in all sorts of octaves just to amuse myself. I developed a strong voice and a good ear. So when junior high came around I decided I wanted to play guitar. My uncle had an original Danelectro 6 string that he "loaned" me (i just never gave it back), and started hanging out with people who played guitar.

Played and sang all through high school, dabbled on bass a little, played in some high school bands. I was always the singer/rhythm giutarist because I was th eonly one whop could sing and the other guitar players were better than me. We used to record ourselves in our parents basements, usually by plugging a shitty mic directly into the home stereo and recorded onto the cassette deck. Sounded pretty bad as you might expect. Played in college bands throughout the 90's. Rarely did any sort of recording, I was into gigging!!

Fast forward to 2003, I'm living in an apartment, playing mostly acoustic, concentrating more on songwriting. I'm not a prolific writer by any means, it's actually kind of hard for me to write lyrics. I had a batch of pretty good song ideas, no lyrics. So I decide that recording demos of my stuff to get the musical ideas down is a good idea, I could always listen back to write lyrics. I had read an old article in a guitar magazine about Primus recording themselves and I thought Les Claypool was talking about a cool all-in-one tape machine I had seen one used at a music store, so I researched and found out it was a Tascam 388. HAD to have one, sounded perfect for me. A friend of a friend who was in the know told me to check out a magazine called "Tapeop", so I looked on the web and lo and behold, found THIS!!!! After immersing myself in the TOMB, I quickly found out that analog was cool, yet time consuming digital sounds bad (jk), and forget the 388, I needed a REAL tape machine! I needed an OTARI! So after that things went downhill quickly, social life disappeared, exposure to sunlight lessened. And now about $15,000 worth of gear later, I have a nice, yet modest 2 room home studio, tape and digital, lots of mics, pres, comps, etc. and I'm finally beginning to record other people's bands.
The End
"If you will starve unless you become a rock star, then you have bigger problems than whether or not you are a rock star. " - Steve Albini

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Brian
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Post by Brian » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:07 pm

That's a cool story!
Harumph!

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Theron D
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Post by Theron D » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:10 pm

after high school attended a local community college in the Electronics Technology department. Learned how to solder and basic circuitry, got inspired, went to get my Electrical Engineering degree. 4 years later after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, mission accomplished, got my BS in EE. Moved to Washington DC worked day as a phone technician, and aspired to be a singer/songwriter in a band, did that for three years, played Whiskey, Arlenes, CGGB's ect, hit 30, went solo, won song writing award in DC, quit phone job, applied for Acoustical engineering job for govt, by stroke of luck got that, opened recording studio (Porckchop studios) at home for nights and weekends.....

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Post by TomBackus » Sat Dec 31, 2005 3:47 pm

Started playing drums at age 4. When I got in to high school I built a room in the basement of our house to help keep the peace in our family from all my practicing. Borrowed my neighbors roberts 4 track recorder and stole some Sony mics from the high school band room, started recording my buddies playing guitar, etc.
Graduated high school and two days later got a job at Ashly Audio, was thier first real employee. Learned all about electronics and audio there, got to build large consoles and hang out with the sound guys and the major name acts that used our gear.
Left there after a few years and went to Berklee, this was back before they had the MP&E program. Got out of there after a few years and went back to Ashly and went to Eastman School of Music's recording institute, until I moved to LA. Talked to the owners of Larabee Studios for a while but they didnt hire me. Back to NY, where I started working as a radio engineer, travelling and building radio stations. All the while playing in a pretty good band. We toured with and opened for The Go-Go's on their first outing, opened a bunch for The Ramones as well as Joan Jett. One day, a friend in the local TV biz tells me about the local audio/video production company and says they were looking for somebody. I go there and get hired as a staff engineer. We are doing big orchestral dates cutting the themes for HBO Feature Movies, all the major network Movie of the Week themes, more HBO/Cinemax themes, lots of big huge jingle packages. Working with musicians like Steve Gadd, Mark Manetta, Tony Levin, and Chuck Mangione.
I worked there for something like eight years, left in 1991 to head back to LA. Had a lead on a job at Fox working on the Simpsons, get out there and they hire the producers boy. Called my friend Mick Guzauski and he puts me in touch with Lighthouse Recording in Burbank. I start assisting there, filling in for Kevin Becka (it's a one room studio). Working with Micheal Omartian, Quincy Jones, Ted Templeman....life is good. Started freelancing around town at Lion Share Recording, Paramount Recorders. Stayed out there a year, left just before the earthquake hit.
Back to NY, freelancing doing location sound, etc. HAd some personal things happen to me so I left town and came to TN. Been here ever since. i am Chief Engineer at a place that produces TV programming dooing shows for A&E,History Channel,etc.
I handle all the audio needs as well, mixing,sound designing, scoring,composing, and fixing all the audio video stuff that breaks. It keeps me very busy. Still playing and recording, doing more producing also.

I think it was easier back then to get a job in the biz. I saw the home recording thing come in to view and start wiping out the commercial studios. When I started there wasnt any MIDI or computers or digital. It's funny how things are now, we have more recording schools than ever turning out people that want jobs in recording, but very few jobs to be had. I saw alot of studios resort to becoming schools when all the work dried up and was being done in someones bedroom.

Happy New Year All.

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Post by yourmomsp » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:44 pm

started playing piano and violin when i was 6. played in orchestras through junior high and high school. learned a little about how composers orchestrated their music, which i would employ later on in my own music. picked up the guitar when i was 16. started to play and write stuff. couldn't sing at all. got a cassette 4-track in my first year of college. began to dabble with recording demos of songs i wrote. later moved on to digital recording. jammed with people throughout college. got better at singing and playing guitar. shedded some of my classical training and learned how to improvise. took a computer music class and music theory class which proved helpful. started a band in my last year of college. started to feel confident about the songs i was writing. decided to record an album with the band. recorded the album myself, didn't really know what i was doing but it was a good learning experience and the album turned out decent. had the album professionally mixed and mastered. released the album, played a bunch of shows. band broke up. decided to record a solo album (had accumuluted some better mics/preamps). really developed my production skills during the recording of that album. mixed and mastered professionally. got a dedicated recording space, am finishing up on my 3rd album, have gotten better at using my ears during the course of this album. I still feel like I can work on better utilizing room sounds in my recording. will have it mixed and mastered professionally. i still don't feel confident nor do i have the skills to mix my own material. Nor do i really have any outboard gear to do so. It is something I would like to learn. I've decided that I will try to mix the next record I make. I would like to record other's people's music, but i'm currenlty too busy with my own at the moment.

mpedrummer
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Post by mpedrummer » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:53 pm

To be honest, I'd still describe myself as "starting out", but here goes anyway.

My mom was a band director, so when I got to third grade, she told me I had to at least try music. I chose drums, figuring that was the best way to piss her off, since I didn't want to. Turned out I was pretty good at it, and by high school, music was pretty much life. I was one of the better drummers in Harrisburg (and fortunately for me, an even better one was in my grade, at my school, and we drove each other to improve). I played in a few bands, did musical theatre pit for a while, played professionally at an amusement park for two summers, just had a blast. My favorite theater experience was flying home from college because my old drum teacher's friend died, so he needed me to stand in, and sight-reading a show (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) about 30 minutes after I got off the plane. On opening night. The rest of the pit (all at least 10 years older) looked TERRIFIED, but it went really well.

Anyway, I went to Berklee for performance, but quickly found out that being one of the better drummers in Harrisburg didn't mean much at that level. I wasn't too happy with the performance thing, and was trying to figure out what to do when my roomate's band tried recording a demo in the practice rooms. They sucked (at recording) and asked if I'd help. The next semester I declared Music Production and Engineering my major, and spent the next 3 years immersed in the studios. Between classes, sessions, and working for the office, I was generally in the studios 50-60 hours per week. To anyone thinking of Berklee, here's a tip - work in the studio office. You get to work with the visiting artists when they come in (Eddie Kramer, Chuck Ainley, Bob Clearmountain, etc) which is a heck of a learning experience.

After college, I moved back to Harrisburg, supposedly temporarily, to wait for my band to graduate so we could all move to LA together. It never happened...the band split up, and I got very jaded with the music scene. I played with a few bands, but nothing ever worked, so I just stopped for a while.

Then about 2 years ago, a friend from college called. He was doing an album with a friend's band, and it wasn't a style he was used to, and asked if I'd come help. I did, and that album stunk. But the band was happy with my production suggesttions (in a too little too late kind of way) and eventually called me to do another album, this time with more input on the front end. I had a blast doing it, and it really opened my eyes to how much I was missing the recording life.

Now, my wife and I have moved to Pittsburgh, I've started playing again (and loving it) and we're looking to buy some warehouse space to build a condo and studios in.

So, it's been an interesting couple years, but I think the next few will be even better. Once I've finished the 'starting out' phase, I'll have a better answer to this question.

MPEDrummer

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digital eagle audio
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Post by digital eagle audio » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:58 pm

JamesHE wrote: I had just graduated from Art school (sculpture at VCU) and moved back to my parents farm, where I set up a studio in a cold ass barn - and I had access to the shop where I could weld and make art - man that year was great all I did was record and make art. Had to go out and get a job though, so I ended up back in Richmond
RVA engineers represent!!!

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nick_a
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Post by nick_a » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:45 am

it's really interesting to read these stories, because it seems that most of you are in steady long-term situations where everything's kinda worked itself out, but I myself am in an interesting in-between situation.

i played in a band in high school. when we wanted to make our first cd, we went to this guy in the suburbs who had a house studio with ADATS and a mackie. We weren't a good band, but the recording was also bad, and we thought the CD sucked. For our next cd we got a tip about a studio downtown. By that time i was 16 and thought i knew that "analog" would sound better, so we went and recorded at this studio with a trident console and a 3M M79 2" 16 track. Our band was still not very good, but for some reason the cd sounded a lot better than our first one. Not to mention the studio was in a warehouse space with a freight elevator and exposed brick and the vibe was amazing. Recording there and seeing the cool dudes that made records there made me want to do that and be one of those guys. That was the first time i had ever gotten the recording itch.

So for the next two years i did some reading, found TAPE OP, did a lot of deep listening, and landed an internship the summer after my senior year at a fairly well-known local studio. I ended up doing nothing but sitting and watching, but learned so much in those two months alone that i expected to learn assloads when i went to college for music industry that following fall. I soon realized that i had made a mistake in allowing someone else to determine how much i was to learn, and moved back home and got a job. I started recording bands at the studio where i had interned, and i still work there today. Except now i know more and have my own little studio and have made tons of friends in the business. I by no means have my life laid out for me, but I hopefully am on my way and things have only been going better and better and i have only gotten busier and busier.

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I'm Painting Again
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Post by I'm Painting Again » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:18 am

I had some technical schooling in audio via my film and video education and practice..in 2003ish I decided to involve myself in music and recording..joined a band because they needed someone and i thought they were doing something different and pretty damn great, bought some budget gear, picked up a guitar..both myself and my girlfriend at the same time..we made it our thing..we always were into our music as fans..I used to go to shows when i was in high school and see all the musicians having so much fun..I though I could never be any good at playing an instrument..it took 10 years to get over that..I'm 28 now..playing in bands somehow all the friends let me record them and over time you get better..TOMB and the internet has been pretty influential in my education imo as well(I have a talent for memory and reading between the lines as its also dangerous to take advice)..I've never worked anyplace but my basement so far..I've been to "real" studios with my band though..I might be assisting someone for the first time this month and I'm excited about that..I never thought I would actually be on a tour with a band or recording cool music with nice gear..nevermind having records I made come out on labels and playing shows with musicians i have looked up to for years..Its been a really weird and crazy experience and I'm sure its going to get weirder..I think it just goes to show that trying your best and working hard is really important..and if I can do these things anyone can..

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AnalogElectric
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Post by AnalogElectric » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:00 pm

In a nut-shell:

Played around with recording and instruments since I was 5... was in a band that tried to "make-it-big"... bought a house where we had a practice space in the basement with a nice PA... the band broke up and moved out... a friend of mine told me to record bands out of the basement.... I started buying my own gear.... figured the stuff out as I went along.... and it's gone on from there.

Basically, yeah, I bought my own gear and invited my friends to record with me for some booze and smokes. It steamrolled in to buying a building, building a studio, getting better gear, and advertising. Then I got sick of the overhead and I've been back working out of my home for several years now, with better results.

It probably, mostly, due to experience but also less-pressured stress. I had to take some mighty large leaps and risks in order to feel comfortable with where I am now.

-- Adam Lazlo
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