How much recording have you done?

[NeglectedFred]

Hmmm, where do you begin counting? I've been recording on anything from boom box's, radio shack mixers and mics, and cheap sound blaster cards from the time I was 11 years old (no kidding).

I made a giant leap to ADAT's somewhere around '97, and have been upgrading and recording fairly regularly since - mainly myself and projects I'm involved with, with occasional jobs on the side. I was also the sound guy at a club for a few short months, just to get more experience.

I guess if you start the counter at the ADAT's, about 8 years.. But I'm still not a real engineer

[Wild Bill]

Hmmmm.....

I didn't mean to start a thread about "being a real engineer" at all.

Just wanted to get an idea about whether or not I am too obcessed with recording. This is just a creative release for me. My "real engineering" is done on my day job, where I work on CT's MRI's and other such medical electronic gear. It's what pays for my recording activities.

I think you should count that time when " one wastes their time not knowing what to do". That is the road to becoming profiecient.

I came up with my figures, not to brag, but just as a matter of curiousity. (sp?) When I was finished I couldn't believe how much of my time and tape had been used without my really being aware of it. I'm lucky my wife is so tolerant of my "hobby".

I also makes me feel like I'm at least getting my moneys worth out of my gear investments. Just about everything I make on paying recording gigs is rolled directly into new gear.

Well push that record button and do some more.

I'd like to think that we are all getting better with each session. I just wish I had a better room. I should never have sold my house after I became an empty nester, dammit !!!! Hindsight is alwways 20/20.

[standup]

Record? I don't record. I just buy the best condensor microphones under $200 and post here...

Might have been 20 years ago I got a cassette 4 track. Couple of years fooling with it, then some years dormant. Demos here and there, casual stuff for bands I was in.

I started getting more interested in recording when a band I was in did a some recording at Reflection in Charlotte, NC, a "real" studio. Then married a singer songwriter and did more recording more in earnest. 8 track 1/4 inch, 16 track 1/2 inch, then the hard disk. Then divorced her and started getting more seriuos about what I was writing.

I heard a CD I recorded in a bar with bad acoustics and the "loudness" button on, and it sounded like shit. I have a lot more to learn.

[neve1073]

About 22 years, with a five year hiatus in there somewhere.

[JGriffin]

Not sure I want to get into total hours, but the timeline seems to be as follows:

1982-'84 (high school): various experiments including the usual cassette-to-cassette bounces and a thing for cable TV doing sound effecs for a sci-fi show, running voice through my Phaser onto a Wollensak R/R to make a "computer" voice.

1985-'86 (high school): Got a Yamaha MT1X 4-track cassette recorder. Recorded a cassette demo where I played everything but the drums and my god did it suck.

1986-1991 (College): continued using the MT1X for demo'ing songs, and started using Otari 5050 2-tracks and 8-tracks in my audio classes. Became known in the video department as the only guy who wasn't afraid of the mixing board, and was given a plaque that read "most likely to use the patchbay for personal reasons." Still don't know how to take that. Mixed a bunch of TV shows and a few bands for classes and a student organization called "MSU Telecasters." Did a very small amount of 24-track recording and a bunch of stereo recording for classes.

1991-1992: Lots of playing with the band, and more 4-track demos.

1992-1994: Got a job at the in-house studio of a major ad agency, worked on 24-track and edited a shitload of tape, recorded bands at night at the agency. Averaged 70 hrs. a week for two years and got really burned out. Began using a Sonic Solutions DAW which replaced the 24-track for ad work.

1994-1996: worked at a theatre running their small stage audio, overnights restoring Old-Time Radio shows (again using Sonic DAW), and finally landed a job at a studio that did industrials, ads and bands--though I never got any band clients as I was low man on the totem pole. Edited about 150 miles of tape, though! Up until about 1998 I also had a basement studio with a Tascam 1/2" 8-track and recorded my band and other local bands down there.

1996-present: Got another ad agency job--another Sonic Solutions room, which went to ProTools three years ago. Did all my day-job work as well as some outside projects at the agency as I pretty much had the run of the place. Currently have no basement, but I do have a Tascam 8-track sitting in my fireplace, and a ProTools LE rig in my dining room. Since 1996 I'd imagine my weeks have included between 20-60 hours of recording, sometimes more, since I do so much in the way of sound design and music outside the day job.


Quick scan with the calculator puts me over 30,000 hours since 1992. Can that be right?!? My math must be wrong.

[Tim Casey]

I was 20 in 1978 when I recorded my first album. I've done 53 more since then on my label. About 35 of them were my albums, and the rest were ones that I engineered or at least mastered for friends. I've been doing the home studio thing the whole time.

[bourzia]

I have been recording professionaly for about 6 years.

[bigtoe]

since 1986 witha 4 track...94-96 svaed to buy studio gear and did classical stuff- full-on nuts since 96 with a few months off here and there...right now i'd say 40 hours a week since october...but when it gets this busy it usually slows down.

"how many hours you've wasted not knowing what the hell you're doing..."

agreed...this is what i'm talking about above...

Mike