Dear music makers, I've just completed a year of happy home recording on a 16 bit soundcard with crappy mic and hi-fi speakers for monitors! I'm not being sarcastic. I have enjoyed it immensely and learned some.
I'm one of those ridiculous people who is actually seriously and a bit secretly working toward some form of commercial return for my music making efforts though the road is long and windy and many fall by the wayside!
My delema at this point is, is US$2225 (cost of course) and a "full time" work effort better put into humming along in the same fashion - ie self learning with help from forums like this and info websites, upgrading gear so I can get better sound OR, the big OR - spending all that time and material resource doing a hands on studio course?
I can't see myself actually working in commercial studios (ie recording my music in them) for some time - and hopefully never - partly because of cost but importantly also because recording to me is a very personal experience which I prefer to do in my own home if this is not too much of a fanciful dream considering the advantages of a full blown commercial studio.
Looking from the negative perspective which is interesting, if I did a course like this I'd be a bit afraid it would be teaching me to use equipment I would not be using at home anyway and would be giving me info that was generally too far outside what I could really use at home. And I would be bitching to myself about the time I was losing figuring out my latest software better and getting first hand home-recorder dialogue with you guys on this forum not to mention the preamp and speakers I could afford or nearly afford if I didn't do the course.
If I did not do the course I'd be thinking....Well there could be all this mysterious "engineering" technical stuff and technique that really requires a hands on learning environment to pick up.
I don't need to know how to record bands or live drums. I only have myself, my keyboard and my guitars and voice to record (which is a bit like a band I suppose).
I've talked to two teachers at the college on these matters and when they understood I'm not out to get a job as a recording engineer but I just want to record myself they fall back into a dilema too and then we're all in a dilema (I don't think I'm spelling that correctly?).
Anyway, if there are any people who could give me the benefit of hindsight on decisions they'd made on this college/self learning theme I'd really appreciate it.
I've read the thread sent out by someone who couldn't decide whether to do a prestigious degree of sound engineering in the US (was that on this forum?) but that was different - he did want to be a recording engineer for bands etc. To be honest I'd prefer not to go to college. I feel it would be a nuisance to my current flow and momentum but there are those nagging questions about whether I'm missing out on some serious short-tracking in my musical life path if I don't jump in now, early on in the piece, and get all that sound recording learn'un under my belt so I can draw from it and experiment with it in all the years ahead.
Thankyou anyone. This is a biggish decision because for me my love and enthusiasm for music is fuelled by a feeling I'm getting somewhere and my heart can close over a bit to it all when I feel obstacles or diversions are getting too frustrating. Anyway we could all tell a story about that I'm sure.
Thankyou all very much,
Nigel from an Island called Tasmania - it's actually part of Australia but some may like to disagree.
I'm one of those ridiculous people who is actually seriously and a bit secretly working toward some form of commercial return for my music making efforts though the road is long and windy and many fall by the wayside!
My delema at this point is, is US$2225 (cost of course) and a "full time" work effort better put into humming along in the same fashion - ie self learning with help from forums like this and info websites, upgrading gear so I can get better sound OR, the big OR - spending all that time and material resource doing a hands on studio course?
I can't see myself actually working in commercial studios (ie recording my music in them) for some time - and hopefully never - partly because of cost but importantly also because recording to me is a very personal experience which I prefer to do in my own home if this is not too much of a fanciful dream considering the advantages of a full blown commercial studio.
Looking from the negative perspective which is interesting, if I did a course like this I'd be a bit afraid it would be teaching me to use equipment I would not be using at home anyway and would be giving me info that was generally too far outside what I could really use at home. And I would be bitching to myself about the time I was losing figuring out my latest software better and getting first hand home-recorder dialogue with you guys on this forum not to mention the preamp and speakers I could afford or nearly afford if I didn't do the course.
If I did not do the course I'd be thinking....Well there could be all this mysterious "engineering" technical stuff and technique that really requires a hands on learning environment to pick up.
I don't need to know how to record bands or live drums. I only have myself, my keyboard and my guitars and voice to record (which is a bit like a band I suppose).
I've talked to two teachers at the college on these matters and when they understood I'm not out to get a job as a recording engineer but I just want to record myself they fall back into a dilema too and then we're all in a dilema (I don't think I'm spelling that correctly?).
Anyway, if there are any people who could give me the benefit of hindsight on decisions they'd made on this college/self learning theme I'd really appreciate it.
I've read the thread sent out by someone who couldn't decide whether to do a prestigious degree of sound engineering in the US (was that on this forum?) but that was different - he did want to be a recording engineer for bands etc. To be honest I'd prefer not to go to college. I feel it would be a nuisance to my current flow and momentum but there are those nagging questions about whether I'm missing out on some serious short-tracking in my musical life path if I don't jump in now, early on in the piece, and get all that sound recording learn'un under my belt so I can draw from it and experiment with it in all the years ahead.
Thankyou anyone. This is a biggish decision because for me my love and enthusiasm for music is fuelled by a feeling I'm getting somewhere and my heart can close over a bit to it all when I feel obstacles or diversions are getting too frustrating. Anyway we could all tell a story about that I'm sure.
Thankyou all very much,
Nigel from an Island called Tasmania - it's actually part of Australia but some may like to disagree.
. also, when you go to a college course, youll be working with the best studio equipment, probably a 56 channel console, with both options of adat, or pro tools. With 200 mics to work with, and a HI FI studio room. Now you work on that for 2 years and spend all your money doing that. Now what happens when you are done? Probably you will either get a loan, or get a job and work for 2 and live with your parents to get enough money to buy what, probably a 16 track recorder, with 2-4 microphones, few processers, and probably a pretty poor room to work with. Of course maybe 10-20 years down the road you will have the same stuff that college had, but thats a maybe. See my point?
