Attn: Recording Teachers (of teens)

[logancircle]

I teach classes in mixing our big public library's studio, and so I stick to the SUPER basics: quick history of recording, trends in listening tech and how it changed mixing, and then right into the basics of EQ, panning, reverb. We don't even get into creating submixes or sends and aux tracks.

Now I'm being asked to do a Recording 101 class in the same vein. I was thinking I'd mimic how I learned: everything recorded with the same cheap mic (or two), in non-optimal space, with limited number of tracks mixed on headphones or home stereo speakers. But now that beginners start with an unlimited number of tracks and sound-shaping tools from the get-go, I'm wondering if I need to change my approach. A mixing 101 class needs to include a quick background on recording, and vice versa (IMHO). As many of you will agree, being limited to 4 or 8 tracks can really help you learn how to economize arrangements and trim out superfluous ideas. But is that different now that there are less limitations?

Any teachers out there?

[psinglet]

By all means limit their options in the beginning. I find that when they see a multitude of options, they think they have to use all of them all the time (to the detriment of the project). They won't like it, but limit their first mixes to maybe eight tracks with real instruments (drums, guitars, etc.) and a minimum of effects (EQ, reverb, and maybe a compressor and/or delay). Hundreds of tracks and unlimited effects gives them just too many options. They need to know how to make simple work before things get too complicated. My two cents.

[logancircle]

But still, if kids coming up aren't learning on four-tracks, just a laptop and no limits, I wonder if it's affecting how they make music. I always try to arrange demo sessions to recreate the experience of a live band with a finite number of performers/tracks, but maybe that's too old school?

[winky dinglehoffer]

Several things:
1. Too much info=glazed-over eyes & full or partial learning shutdown. It happens to me as a student, and I've watched it happen to others when I've been teaching them. Limiting choices allows you to stay focused on a narrower field of knowledge.
2. Limiting mics can help to emphasize things like the importance of mic placement and the strengths and weaknesses of particular mics. If you've got 10 mics to choose from, you're less likely to pick up on the subtleties of each one, as well as the differences that mic placement can make.
3. If you don't know how to mix 8 tracks, how the heck are you going to learn to mix 80?
4. I would bet, even with fairly strict limitations, you'll end up going outside your constrictions from time to time. The positive of doing it that way is that you're introducing the new concepts to complete a particular task, not just saying, "Hey! Here are a hundred different things you might possibly want to do at some unknown point in the future!"

[Gregg Juke]

Yes. Limits. They make us all better.

GJ

[drumsound]

Part of what you need to think about is how long the class lasts, both in terms of class periods and length of term. You're trying to give as much information as possible, to cover many bases, and to make sure they leave with a certain knowledge and understanding.

I teach a 2 hour once a week, one semester Intro to Recording class at a university. Its in the music department, so I wanted to cover band and orchestra instruments, as well as typical rock and pop sessions. After covering signal flow, we did a lot of listening to a lot of mics on the same source, full drumset micing, vocal recording and comping, signal processing and then mix tutorial and their final project was to mix something I recorded that was short and had somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 tracks.

[Magnetic Services]

A fun and simple exercise could be to give everyone (or pairs of people) a mic and a guitar/drum/electronic toy/hand percussion and all record some noodling at the same time, trying to get good isolation from the rest of the class. First try it with an SM57, then (if you have the budget) multi-pattern condensers, or let them choose from a variety of mics (if you're willing to bring your own collection?).

Then record the room and have an awesome track of total cacophony/avant-garde composition!