Huge influx of idiots to the forum? or just me?

[Harvey Gerst]

Not all "newbies" are inexperienced in the recording field.

Maybe the better answer is to have an "advanced" section where the people that feel they are above helping people that are newer to this could hang out with others that have forgotten what it was like when they started out, due to the fact that their mind is now full of SO MUCH information and experience.

Then the people here would know where to go when they come here to help us less experienced, "lower class", simple minded newbies that make up the other 90% of the people here.

I'm not sure where the ""lower class, simple minded newbies" rant is from. Answers can come from anywhere, but how valid is the information in that answer? If a person has only owned a cheap condensor mic for 3 months, is his recommendations as valid as a person who has used dozens of condensor mics for decades? Whose answers should you trust? That's always the question, and the problem.

I don't feel like I'm an "elitist" nor am I "above helping people that are newer to this" than I am, but your comments certainly don't help. If you don't feel I've been of any assistance to you or anyone else here, feel free to ignore my posts.

 

[Toker41]

Wow, took that a little personally, huh? Harvey, that wasn't aimed at you. It just happened to fall after yours. If you don't feel it applies to you, feel free to ignore my post. However, there were a few somewhat brutal statements about newbies and "dumb" questions on this thread before your post, which was a little better thought out than some others. Although I might differ with a fellow hobbiest, I would never argue with someone on the level which you stated above. I can understand your intolorance to the ignorance. The site you speak of is of much more professional level, unlike this site which is really set up more for the hobbiest (again, many are in denial of this).

I never stated that anyone here was guilty of not being helpful. I'm simply saying that it seems that 90% of the people here are hobbiest (even if they are in denial). If you feel that thier questions are below you (and I don't mean YOU, I'm addressing anyone that complained about newbie's dumb questions on THIS site. If you didn't do that, then please do not defend yourself), then maybe there should be a "professional" page.

Along with working in bigger studios, I have worked in samller ones as well, so... I have owned a cheap condeser mic for only a few months, however I have used dozens of them for years.....where do I fall?

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Along with working in bigger studios, I have worked in samller ones as well, so... I have owned a cheap condeser mic for only a few months, however I have used dozens of them for years.....where do I fall?

As I said earlier, "If a person has only owned a cheap condensor mic for 3 months, is his recommendations as valid as a person who has used dozens of condensor mics for decades?"

Sounds like you would fall into the description of "using dozens of condensor mics for years".

 

[noisewreck]

Mr. Gerst, first let me say that I have the utmost respect for you, and can't thank you enough as I've learned a lot from your posts. The manner of your replies have always been very helpful w/o any hint of superiority, and I don't ever remember you sneering at anyone for being an idiot.

The point of the two examples you give are well taken. Their attitudes and replies were most certainly in poor taste. However, in the case of Mr. Massenburg's reply, you're ignoring one important point. The person had asked about emulations. Yes, his reply is full of great advice, and I'm glad I read it, as it's something that i'm sure will come in handy at one point, although I'm almost strictly electronic in what I do at the moment, barring the odd vocals that I record here and there.

However, he didn't really answer the person's question... There are some reasons that I think are important to pick up on when someone asks about emulations. See, his advice is great, when you're in a studio, have a nice amp and mics. No question about it... but what if you don't? What if you live in an apartment, with neighbors who are dying to call the cops on you every opportunity they get (I've had neighbors call the cops on me at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon!!!)? Add to that less than ideal acoustics (OK, maybe not that important in close micing situations, but still, not ideal). Emulations, at least in some circumstances give people freedom from those restraints. And that was an important point, that had missed Mr. Massenburg. Had he said something like "well, you could do blah, blah with Guitar Rig, with such and such combination you can get close to blah blah setup, however if you at all have a chance, it would still be preferable to use an actual amp and this is how you'd set it up", I'm sure the person would be more than gratified. Please understand, I'm not saying the newb was right in the manner in which he replied, and obviously he didn't even recognise the great advice given, all i'm saying is that I can also see the newbs point of view, which is hard to do for someone like Mr. Massenburg who doesn't have to deal with such circumstances, but can just walk into the studio, and have the setup that he wants and needs.

The newbs are guilty of not recognising the level of their ignorance.
The experts are guilty of taking certain things for granted.

 

[fraserhutch]

Mr. Gerst, first let me say that I have the utmost respect for you, and can't thank you enough as I've learned a lot from your posts. The manner of your replies have always been very helpful w/o any hint of superiority, and I don't ever remember you sneering at anyone for being an idiot.

The point of the two examples you give are well taken. Their attitudes and replies were most certainly in poor taste. However, in the case of Mr. Massenburg's reply, you're ignoring one important point. The person had asked about emulations. Yes, his reply is full of great advice, and I'm glad I read it, as it's something that i'm sure will come in handy at one point, although I'm almost strictly electronic in what I do at the moment, barring the odd vocals that I record here and there.

However, he didn't really answer the person's question... There are some reasons that I think are important to pick up on when someone asks about emulations. See, his advice is great, when you're in a studio, have a nice amp and mics. No question about it... but what if you don't? What if you live in an apartment, with neighbors who are dying to call the cops on you every opportunity they get (I've had neighbors call the cops on me at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon!!!)? Add to that less than ideal acoustics (OK, maybe not that important in close micing situations, but still, not ideal). Emulations, at least in some circumstances give people freedom from those restraints. And that was an important point, that had missed Mr. Massenburg. Had he said something like "well, you could do blah, blah with Guitar Rig, with such and such combination you can get close to blah blah setup, however if you at all have a chance, it would still be preferable to use an actual amp and this is how you'd set it up", I'm sure the person would be more than gratified. Please understand, I'm not saying the newb was right in the manner in which he replied, and obviously he didn't even recognise the great advice given, all i'm saying is that I can also see the newbs point of view, which is hard to do for someone like Mr. Massenburg who doesn't have to deal with such circumstances, but can just walk into the studio, and have the setup that he wants and needs.

The newbs are guilty of not recognising the level of their ignorance.
The experts are guilty of taking certain things for granted.

There are times when people don't catch everything they read. there was still no need for the attitude.

This is particularily true when people don;t break huge blocks of text into paragraphs

It's highly likely that George missed or glanced over the emulation part. Still no reason at ALL for the attitude, imho.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

The times they are a changin'

unlike this site which is really set up more for the hobbiest (again, many are in denial of this).
...
I'm simply saying that it seems that 90% of the people here are hobbiest (even if they are in denial). If you feel that thier questions are below you (and I don't mean YOU, I'm addressing anyone that complained about newbie's dumb questions on THIS site. If you didn't do that, then please do not defend yourself), then maybe there should be a "professional" page.

I think this is the big battleground where a lot of the casualities are happening. The problem is that as each day goes by, the line between "hobbiest" and "professional" gets blurrier. The old definitions of whether one is doing it for money or for fun, or whether one has a little gear or a lot of gear just aren't litmus tests that give a definite red or blue result anymore.

In this day of project studios in the home that can and are had for a hundredth of the cost yet a hundred times the horsepower of your average Big Boy recording studio of just a generation or two ago, whether used for "hobby" or "professional" purposes, "Home Recording" has a whole added dimension of complexity to it's meaning and target audience than it used to.

Just 20 years ago (which may literally be a lifetime to some members, but really is just a clock tick in the scheme of things) "home recording" mostly meant somebody who hybrided some decent consumer stereo gear with maybe a sound-on-sound open-reel deck of two or (for the lucky or rich ones) four tracks and added a couple of slightly-better-than-Radio-Shack-quality microphones. The envied top end-ers actually had a 10-band graphic EQ - maybe even with seperate sliders for the left and right signals - and a "high-end consumer" dbx noise reduction box. Practically no one outside of a "pro studio" had compressors or limiters, or knew how to use them even if they did, unless maybe they were in the form of cheapo guitar stomp boxes. The only reverbs for the home were $200 spring reverbs that sounded awful in all but the most select applications. A total hot-rod rig like this set them back maybe $2K to $4K total... at a time when that was a full 10% or more of a really decent yearly salary.

Nowdays "lay people" have the full range of digital and analog processing from multi-band compression to vocal pitch correction - along with a small locker of Chinese LDCs and full mixing control surfaces - available to them for a full 24 tracks or more for about the same price, at a time when the average salary is twice what it was 20 years ago. The home project studio is quickly making the Big Boy studios real anachronisms that are being quickly mothballed right next to the USS Missouri.

In these times "home recording" takes on a whole new meaning, and the words "hobbiest" and "engineer" are rapidly becoming truely interchangable. More and more people are jumping into the "home recording" game with less and less command of the gear available to them or the techniques required to actually use the gear to it's best effect.

So, we have a signifigant segment of the general population with professional-level gear (in application, if not always in sound quality) making up the "home recording" population today. An even more signifigant number of these folks have no more knowledge of what it's all really about than folks did back in the Stone Age, 20 years ago. It's not their fault, they're newbies. Evrybody has to start out a newbie.

But it's like giving a machine gun to a child. OK, recording isn't as important; over-compression isn't going to get anyone killed. But this is all sophisticated gear than takes sophisticated knowledge and responsible technique to work properly. If one wants their home-recorded CD-R to sound as loud and as clean as the MP3 they grab off of iTunes every day, they gotta understand that it doesn't happen by pusing a button.

Like it or lump it, the "hobby" of "home recording" has gotten a whole lot more complicated - not easier - because of the advance of technology.

This is not a pleasant thing for many newbs to hear. Those of us who tell them otherwise are only the messinger. Don't blame us for telling you that compression presets are mostly crap or that a Berhinger mic pre is not going to give you an LA sound. It's not our fault.

If you want your stuff to sound like a "pro" recording, it's gonna take time, understanding, work, and, yes, some gear. If you don't want to mess with all that and just want to play with your hobby that's fine too. But it ain't gonna meet your expectations for sound quality if you base those on what you have in your iPod playlist. You can't have it both ways, and it's unfair to blame those with experience for telling them that.

G.

 

[noisewreck]

This is particularily true when people don;t break huge blocks of text into paragraphs

It's highly likely that George missed or glanced over the emulation part. Still no reason at ALL for the attitude, imho.

Well, I agree, like I said it was in poor taste. The rest of my rambling was in hopes of bringing some points to the attention of the seasoned pros that might elude them

 

[CoolCat]

Like it or lump it, the "hobby" of "home recording" has gotten a whole lot more complicated - not easier - because of the advance of technology.

yeah..its crazy...
we have cellphones, 10 remotes, SuperSpeed Internet and pagers and dishwashers and gizmo-gadgets...

but instead of getting this "promised freetime" this new technology is to give us..
....we wind up busier because we now do 15 things at once!

as far as home recording being non-exsistent, interesting article.
no one i'm aware of had any studio stuff...it wasn't even talked about...everything was around playing live and lights and sht.

i recall alot of talk about Beatles break-up and McCartney's first solo was a Microphone & a 4-track Reel/reel.... raw.... that was the first i'd really given any thought to Home Recording really.
then you start learning, reading...Les Paul overdubs..balh,blah,beezboobbyyy wanng toink!!

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

but instead of getting this "promised freetime" this new technology is to give us..
....we wind up busier because we now do 15 things at once!

Ain't it the truth. And computers also were supposed to bring about the "paperless office" until laser and inkjet printers came along and actually created more paper than ever before.

G.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Very well said, Glen - I couldn't agree more!

I think this is the big battleground where a lot of the casualities are happening. The problem is that as each day goes by, the line between "hobbiest" and "professional" gets blurrier. The old definitions of whether one is doing it for money or for fun, or whether one has a little gear or a lot of gear just aren't litmus tests that give a definite red or blue result anymore.

In this day of project studios in the home that can and are had for a hundredth of the cost yet a hundred times the horsepower of your average Big Boy recording studio of just a generation or two ago, whether used for "hobby" or "professional" purposes, "Home Recording" has a whole added dimension of complexity to it's meaning and target audience than it used to.

Just 20 years ago (which may literally be a lifetime to some members, but really is just a clock tick in the scheme of things) "home recording" mostly meant somebody who hybrided some decent consumer stereo gear with maybe a sound-on-sound open-reel deck of two or (for the lucky or rich ones) four tracks and added a couple of slightly-better-than-Radio-Shack-quality microphones. The envied top end-ers actually had a 10-band graphic EQ - maybe even with seperate sliders for the left and right signals - and a "high-end consumer" dbx noise reduction box. Practically no one outside of a "pro studio" had compressors or limiters, or knew how to use them even if they did, unless maybe they were in the form of cheapo guitar stomp boxes. The only reverbs for the home were $200 spring reverbs that sounded awful in all but the most select applications. A total hot-rod rig like this set them back maybe $2K to $4K total... at a time when that was a full 10% or more of a really decent yearly salary.

Nowdays "lay people" have the full range of digital and analog processing from multi-band compression to vocal pitch correction - along with a small locker of Chinese LDCs and full mixing control surfaces - available to them for a full 24 tracks or more for about the same price, at a time when the average salary is twice what it was 20 years ago. The home project studio is quickly making the Big Boy studios real anachronisms that are being quickly mothballed right next to the USS Missouri.

In these times "home recording" takes on a whole new meaning, and the words "hobbiest" and "engineer" are rapidly becoming truely interchangable. More and more people are jumping into the "home recording" game with less and less command of the gear available to them or the techniques required to actually use the gear to it's best effect.

So, we have a signifigant segment of the general population with professional-level gear (in application, if not always in sound quality) making up the "home recording" population today. An even more signifigant number of these folks have no more knowledge of what it's all really about than folks did back in the Stone Age, 20 years ago. It's not their fault, they're newbies. Evrybody has to start out a newbie.

But it's like giving a machine gun to a child. OK, recording isn't as important; over-compression isn't going to get anyone killed. But this is all sophisticated gear than takes sophisticated knowledge and responsible technique to work properly. If one wants their home-recorded CD-R to sound as loud and as clean as the MP3 they grab off of iTunes every day, they gotta understand that it doesn't happen by pusing a button.

Like it or lump it, the "hobby" of "home recording" has gotten a whole lot more complicated - not easier - because of the advance of technology.

This is not a pleasant thing for many newbs to hear. Those of us who tell them otherwise are only the messinger. Don't blame us for telling you that compression presets are mostly crap or that a Berhinger mic pre is not going to give you an LA sound. It's not our fault.

If you want your stuff to sound like a "pro" recording, it's gonna take time, understanding, work, and, yes, some gear. If you don't want to mess with all that and just want to play with your hobby that's fine too. But it ain't gonna meet your expectations for sound quality if you base those on what you have in your iPod playlist. You can't have it both ways, and it's unfair to blame those with experience for telling them that.

G.

 

[SonicAlbert]

I think this is the big battleground where a lot of the casualities are happening. The problem is that as each day goes by, the line between "hobbiest" and "professional" gets blurrier. The old definitions of whether one is doing it for money or for fun, or whether one has a little gear or a lot of gear just aren't litmus tests that give a definite red or blue result anymore.

I don't agree with this at all, the line is very clear. The definition of professional is dictionary simple: do you make your living doing music? If the answer is "yes" then you are doing it professionally. We have to keep going back to this. If you are making a living as an accountant and doing music on the side you are a hobbiest. A quick look at your tax return will tell you whether you are a professional or hobbiest.

Which is not to say that part-timers and hobbiests aren't very talented people or couldn't do it given the right circumstances, just that the ultimate definition of "professional" goes back to whether you make your living at it. Very black and white in my opinion.

I personally don't know a single person that is doing this "for fun" and making a living at it, although I know many professionals that have a great deal of fun with what they do. I know I enjoy my work. But with the concept of doing music professionally comes the concept of deadlines, working jobs that you might not want to in order to make ends meet, etc. Many, many musicians and recording people make sacrifices in terms of lifestyle and money in order to keep doing what they love doing. I've known a number of hobbiests who maybe have the talent but want the big house, the lifestyle, etc., and are not willing or able to make the sacrifices they need to to do music full time.

The issue of the amount of gear is almost irrelevant, in my opinion. You certainly need the gear you need to get the job done, but that depends on the job. I personally need a fair amount of gear because of the scoring work I do. But I know plenty of other people I work with on a regular basis that don't need the amount of gear I have. They do however have all the tool sthey need for their work. You don't need super-fancy tools or mountains of tools, just the right tools.

If you want your stuff to sound like a "pro" recording, it's gonna take time, understanding, work, and, yes, some gear. If you don't want to mess with all that and just want to play with your hobby that's fine too. But it ain't gonna meet your expectations for sound quality if you base those on what you have in your iPod playlist. You can't have it both ways, and it's unfair to blame those with experience for telling them that.

The thing that gets overlooked by hobbiests is that when you do this full time you get a lot more practice and experience at it. You are working with other professionals, many of whom have a lot to teach you just from working with them, and they have picked up a lot from those they've worked with. So you get better simply by doing it over time, and by who you are working with. You get better from the standards that are required of you and the deadlines that are demanded of you. You get better because all your eggs are in one basket and you don't have a fall-back plan or a job that pays the bills to go to on Monday morning. I can't stress enough what these kinds of motivations do for you.

I also can't imagine trying to do this and maintain a full-time job. There simply aren't the hours in the day, the days in the week, or the personal energy. I admire anyone who puts all or most of their spare time into music/recording, it takes such a commitment to something you love to do that. I'm not sure I could, it's hard enough to do it full time. I have incredible respect for those that love music enough to keep it going and hold down a regular job.

I think the home studio revolution is great, and the tools available now are far better than they were 20 years ago. The idea that someone can record with excellent quality in their home and potentially end up doing what they love for a living is a great thing.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I don't agree with this at all, the line is very clear. The definition of professional is dictionary simple: do you make your living doing music? If the answer is "yes" then you are doing it professionally. We have to keep going back to this. If you are making a living as an accountant and doing music on the side you are a hobbiest. A quick look at your tax return will tell you whether you are a professional or hobbiest.

Perhaps I should have emphasized the word "engineer" instead of "professional" at this point in my post. The theme I was setting up was that while the tools available to the home recordist today are indeed better than they were 20 years ago, they are also far more sophisticated, far more numerous, and require a much larger knowledge base to use properly than the simpler tools and times of yore. What it comes down to is that the "hobbiest" of today needs what would once be referred to as "pro audio engineering" skills to be able to use this stuff even for "fun".

When a rookie purchases a 16x4 mixing board (brand is irrelevant), a handful of mixed dynamics and condensers, a multi-channel audio interface for their 2GHz computer and a copy of Sonar with a multitude of dynamic processing plug-ins, and they come on ths board and - in so many words - ask The Two Big Questions:

1) OK, I have this stuff, now how do I use it?

and

2) OK, I spent a couple of grand on this stuff but my results still sound like crap next to the latest U2 CD I have playing in my headphones right now. Why is that?

Just how is one supposed to answer those questions without saying that they have to learn the basics of audio engineering, which takes books of several hundred pages each to teach?

This is what I meant by "professional". The required knowledge base to use the gear that eveyone with a minimum amount of gear has and to use it to the effect that they expect from it is a "professional" level of lnowledge.

People don't want to hear that. They want to know that by throwing a a bit of money at it that they can have a system that will do what they want it to do by selecting a couple of presets on a couple of magic boxes. And when someone who literally knows better tells them that that's not how it works, they get angry because they are (at least temporarily) in over their head. And they kill the messenger for it.

G.

 

[chessrock]

What if you live in an apartment, with neighbors who are dying to call the cops on you every opportunity they get (I've had neighbors call the cops on me at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon!!!)? Add to that less than ideal acoustics (OK, maybe not that important in close micing situations, but still, not ideal).

Move .

 

[noisewreck]

^^^ Easier said than done

 

[XLR]

The definition of professional is dictionary simple: do you make your living doing music?

I agree as far as literal meaning. Profession = career w/particular standards and a means to pay the mortgage. But "professional" is also an adjective, and the common use of the word, in both its adjective and adverb (professionally) forms as I most often hear it relates to quality of - and attitude about - work, not source of income. For example: "The finish on that table looks professional." "That's a professional sound." "Do you play professionally?". "You can trust her, she's a true professional."

Don't you think the problem at HR re "influx of idiots" is one common to the web in general? Bad behavior through anonymity. The HR forum though is pretty good, IMO, at exposing idiots/jerks in the mid and long term, remarkable since it's essentially an unmoderated (well, maybe self-moderated) forum. Being that there are many more readers than posters, even when a newbie responds in bad form to an excellent answer hundreds of future readers may still come away thinking, "Wow, that's just the info I was looking for." That was my own experience when I first discovered this forum years ago. They may also come away with a practical example of what is and isn’t OK to do here if responders don’t also sink to the idiot’s own manner in retaliation.

Some of the newbie questions on HR are hilarious though, no different really than "Why am I so fat? Tell me how to be thin like [insert thin celebrity's name here] when I wake up tomorrow. What kind of pills do I need and can you send them to me?" Then they post 10 minutes later, "No answers? [stamping feet, giving finger] guess nobody knows anything here ...you lazy self-centered *ssholes!" God help you if you advise that they eat less.

Tim

 

[chessrock]

Easier said than done

Well, I suppose you could just start playing Neil Diamond, Air Suply or Carpenters cover songs. That shouldn't bother anyone.

C'mon, man. Are you hardcore or what? ? Cuz you're not harcore unless you live hardcore ! ! F%$k the neighbors ! ! There are people out there willing to DIE for the sake of rock, and you are letting them all down. You are a traitor to all things metal.

 

[SonicAlbert]

Perhaps I should have emphasized the word "engineer" instead of "professional" at this point in my post. The theme I was setting up was that while the tools available to the home recordist today are indeed better than they were 20 years ago, they are also far more sophisticated, far more numerous, and require a much larger knowledge base to use properly than the simpler tools and times of yore. What it comes down to is that the "hobbiest" of today needs what would once be referred to as "pro audio engineering" skills to be able to use this stuff even for "fun".

I feel a little bad, because I am picking one little section from your posts to dispute, when in fact I find most of your ideas absolutely on the mark.

While I agree that today's pro-sumer audio gear products are better than the pro-sumer gear of yesteryear, I think that today's gear is designed to be operated by people that *don't* have even basic engineering skills. The gear comes with presets built in with descriptive names that suggest their use, and from there the user simply fiddles with knobs and menus until they come up with something that they think is good. Or just use the preset.

So I think that the user of today needs *less* of a knowledge base than the hobbyists of before. I look at my digital synths and rack fx and I see easy to read displays with clearly labelled patches telling me exactly what they are to be used for. When I was in school I had to learn to get sound out of an analog synthesizer by using patch cables, how to modify the sound using oscillators. Just getting *any* sound out of the beast was a challenge until you developed some basic skills.

Engineers of old could fix the gear they used, could upgrade it, modify it, take it apart and put it back together, and understood how it worked beyond twiddling the dials on the front panel. That to me is "pro audio engineering". Even hobbyists were accustomed to building gear from scratch and modifying gear. While there are certainly people doing that now, I think there is a whole different mentality at work, for the most part.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I feel a little bad, because I am picking one little section from your posts to dispute, when in fact I find most of your ideas absolutely on the mark.

While I agree that today's pro-sumer audio gear products are better than the pro-sumer gear of yesteryear, I think that today's gear is designed to be operated by people that *don't* have even basic engineering skills. The gear comes with presets built in with descriptive names that suggest their use, and from there the user simply fiddles with knobs and menus until they come up with something that they think is good. Or just use the preset.

So I think that the user of today needs *less* of a knowledge base than the hobbyists of before. I look at my digital synths and rack fx and I see easy to read displays with clearly labelled patches telling me exactly what they are to be used for. When I was in school I had to learn to get sound out of an analog synthesizer by using patch cables, how to modify the sound using oscillators. Just getting *any* sound out of the beast was a challenge until you developed some basic skills.

Engineers of old could fix the gear they used, could upgrade it, modify it, take it apart and put it back together, and understood how it worked beyond twiddling the dials on the front panel. That to me is "pro audio engineering". Even hobbyists were accustomed to building gear from scratch and modifying gear. While there are certainly people doing that now, I think there is a whole different mentality at work, for the most part.

I cut my teeth on an ARP 2600 with a Sequential Circuits 800 sequencer, so I'm with you on the synth part.

I'm also with you on the old guys knowing how to actually use a soldering iron and being actually willing to. *That* is hobbiest engineering at it's best, and again I was right there in building Emu synth modules from kits and replacing capstan motors on the open reel. But don't you see that's part of my point? Back then the hobbiests *knew* this stuff going in, and what they didn't know they were eager to learn. They couldn't get enough reading material, and seemed to do quite well, thank you very much, without Internet forums that hadn't even been invented yet.

Today it's just the opposite. No learning desired, just give me a couple of presets on a couple of magic boxes and I'll be the next Lou Albini cum Leonard Bernstein. Baloney.

Your point about people needing less of a knowldege base is by my math, I'm sorry to say, WAAAAY off mark.

The fact is that the more parameters and variables you give a user control over or at least access to, the more they have to know or learn to use them properly. It's as simple as that.

I know that this is going to stir up a lot of anger here, but I firmly believe this to my core: Presets are the enemy of knowledge and the enemy of good technique. If there's a device that one needs to use presets for, that person should not be using that device yet. The use of presets should come AFTER one learns how use the device well without them, not before.

G.

 

[acidrock]

Speaking as a person who only records as a hobby

I appreciate being able to get advice from people who've done this for a living...but as a hobby you don't have the time to learn soldering,synth modules and all that other groovy stuff.
If you write the songs,play all the instruments and and take care of the "engineering duties" plus have a family and a job somethings got to give.
Speaking for myself,I'm just looking for tips on how to get better or closer to professional sounding.

A lot of us are musicians who use recording as a tool to stimulate the creative process,not music as a raw material to get better at recording.

So everybody puts different values on different aspects of the recording chain.Also everybody has different goals.

We all have something in common,but sometimes we get a little too uptight.
The real answer is if you don't like the question,don't reply.
If you do reply and the person is unappreciative or a jerk,don't help them again.
The fact is,there are a lot of people,including myself who have gotten w-a-y better by visiting this forum and really do appreciate the help.In fact...


THANKS AGAIN!

 

[cellardweller]

I have to agree/align myself with acidrocks post.

Myself, I simply do not have time (nor the capacity) to learn and retain all of the information available here. Of late, I don't even have time to get in here and research the things that are of vital interest to me that week.
Five kids, a wife, two cats, a dog, not to mention work will do that to you. I'm just a guy with limited time and money who loves this shit!

If I had to start naming all of the good folks here who have helped me, I'm sure I'd neglect 10-20 deserving individuals.

So I'll just say thanks and....

THANKS AGAIN! (you know who you are )