From tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow......
I'm not sure where in the world you are, but here in London and South east England there has been an absolute explosion in these kind of one on one or group 'tutorials' by people with expertise in the various recording programmes. I found loads on the internet.
Midway through last year I was having trouble connecting my 'new' laptop {XP} to my keyboard {I was using Cubase SE} and no one was able to help me. One thing led to another and much to my surprize I discovered all these men and women that do these tutorials.
Should you choose to go this route and find a class, be aware though that their use to you might vary and that some people are fantastic teachers and some, well, aren't. I went for a Cubase tutorial and I explained to the guy that all I wanted was to get my keyboard connected - anything else would be a bonus that I'd file to the back of my head as I use a standalone {I use Cubase mainly to house my VSTis}. Anyway, the guy was a engineer/producer with a fancilly decked out studio and the upshot was that after 2 hours, £46 and much frustration, I left no better off than when I'd turned up ! He tried everything and couldn't connect me up. He offered me a crack copy of the Cubase he had and showed me how to make drum beats, add bass and utilize some of my organs - but he went so fast {and naturally to him} that I couldn't pick it up. Had I been interested, I would've got him to go slower but that's not the way I record. I found the whole episode a frustrating waste of my evening. I guess it was, as I often say, the price of an education.
But I say that only because I wanted my controller keyboard connected and that was the understanding before I booked the session. Had I been ready to go in that vein and just wanted to know how Cubase SE worked, I think it would have been a really good thing. Over here, you have to book at least two hours {they say that it makes it worth their while} and I'd say the rates were fairly reasonable and you can do it as many times as you want and although you can be part of a small group, the main option is one on one, which is, in my view, the far better road to travel.
I don't know if this ramble has been of any use or not but maybe it's given you something to think on.
An interesting postscript is that as soon as I got home that night, I bought Cubase 5 essentials as I figured something between the laptop and the Cubase SE just wasn't working {it had worked on my other computer and it was a new keyboard too}. More adventures followed but I got the whole kaboodle to work in the end. And as I was looking for Cubase forums to see if anyone out there on planet earth had had a similar problem, I was directed to Home recording .com ! I'd actually joined back in 2005 {mainly to be part of the Tascam forum as I use a 488 portastudio too} but had forgotten all about it until December of last year.
