The Journey of the Engineer. I want to hear YOUR story.

**LeeRosario** · 02-20-2012

I gotta say...

It's been a long time since I've been in hear and it's pretty bizarre how things evolve over the course of just a few short years. As a fan of the music production process and an ever so avid seeker of "perfect sonics" in a mix, its amazing how the vibe in this place has helped me develop my inner geek in the past.

Having gone from musician, to bedroom engineer, to dedicated student, to amateur freelance engineer, to professional engineer, to studio head engineer/manager, to finally end up working in a professional world-class studio fit enough for multi-platinum kings...it's pretty bizarre how you just sort of "end up" as something. But I don't care about my story. I'm curious to hear yours.

I'm curious to hear about what drives you. What fantastic session you had lately. What ground breaking technique you feel will have the world on the edge of their seats 10 years from now. I want to get back to why you do this in the first place and what you aim to accomplish as the engineer that you are. Then I'd love to stay in touch with you. I'm all about fresh starts and new beginnings. What do you say?

Lee

**Bobbsy** · 02-21-2012

Okay, I'll bite because I've had a bit of a circuitous journey too.

First off, I'm old (60 this year) and have taken early retirement so, except for a few shifts doing live sound at the local theatre and sometimes earning a bit of beer money in my home "studio" (bedrooms 3 and 4 of our house) I'm now just a hobbyist.

My dad had a reel to reel tape recording which I latched onto and practised recording and editing from about age 10 onwards--I loved doing things like that!

In university, I actually studied TV and Film production in the department of Drama. I thought I wanted to be a TV director at the time and went to work at a series of local TV stations in Western Canada. As with all small and mid market stations, I did everything from camera to Master Control to tape editing....to sound. I discovered I really enjoyed sound. I think my "eureka" moment (or moments) was when we had various musicians come through promoting concerts and, when on sound, I'd get to mix (live) their "and will you play us a song to see us out" segments. I still have a quarter inch tape of Gordon Lightfoot doing Canadian Railroad Trilogy in Calgary that I think sounds okay after all these years (especially as my mic choice was 635As and SM61s). Hmmm, I wonder if I should admit to having that tape!

Anyway, in the mid 70s I decided to move to London (the UK one, not the Ontario one) for a year or two's adventure. I found that in London (at least at that stage) TV engineers were a lot more specialised--no jacks of all trades. If I wanted to do audio, I had to have a lot more experience and training so I worked hard to get that and managed to stay employed. I was lucky to get work with a smallish company (doing mainly news) and was there when they announced a major expansion. It was a case of "right place, right time" and (partly because I did have the jack of all trades experience from Canada) they offered me the job of Technical Manager, my first job being to design a new facility.

Years went on and, by the early 90s we moved and expanded again and I ended up on the board as "Vice President Operations and Engineering". This was good news but removed me too far from actually recording and mixing. However, along came Cool Edit 96 and I found that, at home, I could do the same things I was using a quarter of a million's worth of hardware to do.

I also rediscovered live sound when I was roped in by a friend to help with a musical at a local theatre. After that, between home recording and live stuff, I kept as busy outside work as I was in the office.

Come 1999, corporate politics came to play and the company I'd worked for since 1976 was bought out. I didn't like the new owners so I took as cash settlement (well, took it after suing them) and invested it with four other friends to build a small production company...little studio, video studio, a couple of edit suites. I had a management title but we were small enough that everybody did everything...great fun. However, three years in, a home shopping channel made us an offer we couldn't refuse and we sold out. For a a year or so I made a point of freelancing but, come 2004 a mix of arthritis and a pension fund that would pay me a living came together so I retired formally, moved to the sun of Australia (that's a joke--we have heavy rain and thunder as I type this) and now spend my time having fun in the studio, picking and choosing projects.

And that, as they say, is that.

**gecko zzed** · 02-21-2012

I started a few years later than Bobbsy; when I was about 13. That was when I heard The Beatles on the radio. That seemed to fire a musical synapse in my brain, and I was hooked from then on. Like Bobbsy, my dad had a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and I messed around with that for hours. I made myself an electric 'guitar' by hammering some nails into either end of a plank of wood, stringing wire along the length, and using the tape recorder's mike as a bridge. Electronically it worked a treat . . . but it had no frets, only a couple of strings, and I couldn't keep the strings taut.

I had about two piano lessons a half-dozen years earlier, but they failed to capture my interest. I taught myself guitar when I was about 14 or 15, and I had in mind to develop a musical career and become famous (like The Beatles). This, I discovered in later years, was a mistake.

From about sixteen years onwards, I played in an assortment of bands: folk, blues, rock, cabaret, and occasionally doing solo stuff. This musical adventure lasted about 34 years . . . from about 1966 to around the turn of the century. Commercial success was elusive . . . alas, no hit singles, and not lucrative enough to give up a conventional job, but I enjoyed it all. During this period I was continually messing around with sound and technology. I spent endless hours with a Sony TC250 reel to reel, which had a fantastic 'simul-sync' option for doing sound-on-sound. I was also the one that seemed to get landed with the technical jobs: setting up and running the PA, for example. I was forever encouraging whichever band I was in to record material.

In the late eighties I switch from R2R to four-track cassette (an awesome Yamaha MT3X), and embarked on a project to record all the material I had written over the previous years. In the late nineties, I entered the digital world. My first interface was the ISIS soundcard, with its eight input breakout box, and ran Logic on a 400mhz PC with about 250mb of RAM and a 16gb hard disk, running on Windows 98. This, for me, was the pathway to heaven, and at the age of 50, embraced enthusiastically the real of digital recording.

At the time of this transition to digital, I was playing in a band that specialised in playing Celtic, Cajun and Zydeco, doing a lot of gigs at folk festivals. Here I found myself spending more and more time hanging around my friends who were doing sound, and eventually found myself running the desk at assorted gigs. Shortly after the turn of the century, another synapse fired in my brain. Quite suddenly my enthusiasm for performing vanished. In early years I could never have imagined this happening, but it did, and was like almost overnight. From then on I switched my focus to recording and doing live sound. I had accumulated enough gear for a respectable live rig, and enough to run a modest studio at home, and I have been doing both since I retired from a regular job (when I was 56).

The mistake I made was this: Part of my brain had, since my teen years, pushed me into a musical performing direction. That was what, for about 30 odd years, I had thought I wanted to do. The clues to what I really wanted to do were scattered along the way, plainly visible now, but ignored then. My interest in the production of music, rather than the performance, was always there, but not recognised for its importance. From time-to-time (like, when writing this) I wonder what I might have achieved had I recognised and heeded those clues earlier. At 61, I am fit . . . but there's only so many years of carting PA gear around left in me.

There are no famous names in this history; but there has been a huge amount of pleasure. I have even taken to do a spot of performing every now and again. I'm not quite sure when I'll be slowing down.

**Steenamaroo** · 02-21-2012

Originally Posted by LeeRosario

Having gone from musician, to bedroom engineer, to dedicated student, to amateur freelance engineer.

Great thread.
I'd be interested to see how my story reads in a few years.
I seem to be stuck at stage four.lol.

**Capt Hair** · 02-21-2012

Still in the beginning stages, just now 21

. I've been playing music since I was 8, but around 13 after a year or so of learning the guitar is when recording caught my interests. Had myself a little tascam interface and cubase LE I messed with and would just record riffs, and that was pretty much the limit until 2 years ago.

I went through my first 3 semesters of college and absolutely hated it. Couldn't find any enjoyment out of it, seems kind of cliche but I only enjoy music and it's what I'm really good at and it's the only thing I've stuck with and never quit after so many year. I was long past the point of thinking I could become a rock star lol, but I knew I wanted to involved in some way in the music business. That's where the interest in recording kind of remerged, I found out that my local CC actually did a AE certification program through the college where are the classes were actually done at the main studio in Columbia. That really sparked my interest because I hate classroom settings and this program would be soooo cheap to find out for sure if it's something I want to pursue. Needless to say I loved it! I really learned a lot after the load of classes there and a few internships around town from live sound, to booking, to recording.

I'm currently in the process of starting up a multimedia studio with a long time friend and new business partner of mine, I've been planning this for close to a year now. And am actually going to be going back to school in Charleston, SC this fall to get a degree in "computing in the arts" essentially a form computer science, a very wide degree with field of studies from music, to design, to theatre and then a minor in business management since I'm only a few credits away from what I did a few years ago. I'll use that to become more rounded in other aspects of what were trying to accomplish, graphic design, movie applications, etc. And will allow me to live down there for next to nothing and will at least give me a back up plan.

We're setting up shop in downtown Charleston and are going through some of the planning phases right now as well as the acquisition of gear for me

. Will be a "home studio" at it's finest. Live and mixing room, photography studio, and a graphics room. I'll be on a sleeper sofa in the mixing room

. It's going to be a fun next couple of years. Gear > real bed

**guitaristic** · 02-21-2012

Originally Posted by Steenamaroo

Great thread.
I'd be interested to see how my story reads in a few years.
I seem to be stuck at stage four.lol.

Better than me...I'm stuck at stage 2.5!

**MrWrenchey** · 02-22-2012

Originally Posted by guitaristic

Better than me...I'm stuck at stage 2.5!

Haha, I'm with you.
4 years of studying on my own, and now I'm trying to apply for Belmont... Here's hoping we make it big as musicians or engineers. Cheers. =]

**guitaristic** · 02-22-2012

Originally Posted by MrWrenchey

Haha, I'm with you.
4 years of studying on my own, and now I'm trying to apply for Belmont... Here's hoping we make it big as musicians or engineers. Cheers. =]

Cool! Good luck! I was actually just looking at Belmont the other day because I'm scoping out graduate programs. They've got a nice MBA with a specialization in music and entertainment business.

But I digress

**Guitargodgt** · 02-23-2012

I started 7 years ago with a simple interface, a powerbook, and a SM57, headphones, 1 mic cable and a stand.

Over time just added more home studio gear. Then did an internship a couple years ago at subcat (SubCat Music Studios - Welcome to Subcat Studios).

I now get to occasionally freelace out of their place. 95% of what I do is still out of my house though.

Drum tracking video I did recently (I'm behind the glass so I'm out of site):

The place is really nice:

All professionally tuned and decoupled rooms

Studio B control room:

Studio A control room (there is a little sit down area where the camera is taking a picture as well):

These windows fog white with a flip of a switch if you don't want street walkers looking in.

Cafe next door, have some boss ass local beer and crepes.:

Video walkthrough.
Viral Video Player