RID Recording Institute of Detroit

[Adzzz]

You won't believe this shit...

I signed up for the online audio training certificate from RID. They have online mini exams you must pass at the end of each study module before you can go on and study the next one. ***I have found 2 incorrect answers to their questions in the first 5 exams. An email to the Director, Bob Dennis, informing him of these errors has produced no response in over 2 weeks....let alone an apology and correcting the online exam questions.***

Makes you wonder how "educational institutions" (LMFAO) like this are allowed to continue operating. Once bitten, twice shy....

Just thought you'd all like to know... especially a warning to anyone considering signing up for their "online training certificate". What a joke...

Adzzz

 

[Nik D]

Actually I go to the RID myself! Yeah their website is fairly crappy, but the in person school is fairly good. I avoid the website myself because it's a jungle of links and I can't ever find what I'm looking for. The courses they teach are really easy too, at least so far, but you get lots of not very smart guys from detroit that think they can take the classes and be puff daddy after. At least after the program they help you find a job somewhere.

 

[Son of Mixerman]

It may take Bob a few week to get the email. Then if your correct that the answers are incorect Bob will probably have to have a webmaster fix it. I hope you don't expect to get a web degree in Audio Engineering. The Certificate I believes comes after you have completed an Internship in which your paying a local studio who has agreed to teach you through special agreements. It part of the networking the biz. Bob Dennis is one of the God Fathers of AE. Bob Olhsson trained under him as well as many others. Keep trying, Im sure it will all work out.

SoMm

 

[Adzzz]

It may take Bob a few week to get the email.

Why? Why will it take a few weeks for him to get the email?!? Even snail mail would be there in a few days, or does that now take years to arrive? If you're trying to tell me that Bob Dennis only checks his emails once every 2 or 3 weeks then how professional is that??? Great customer service, no?

Then if your correct that the answers are incorect Bob will probably have to have a webmaster fix it. I hope you don't expect to get a web degree in Audio Engineering. The Certificate I believes comes after you have completed an Internship in which your paying a local studio who has agreed to teach you through special agreements. It part of the networking the biz

You can be assured that I am correct and have found these errors. They are surprisingly elementary mistakes.

Bob Dennis is one of the God Fathers of AE. Bob Olhsson trained under him as well as many others. Keep trying, Im sure it will all work out.

Bob Dennis may or may not be one of the god fathers of Audio Engineering, that's open to personal opinion. But if that's true, then he's also one of the Godfathers (i.e. mafia) of running a business. I wrote him an email for his benefit, to point out these mistakes and hopefully save him from further embarassment, and save any students from learning something that's incorrect, and damaging the reputation of RID. He hasn't had the decency to even answer, or correct the errors for almost 3 weeks now. That, my friend is simply incompetant, and BAD BUSINESS. You think he's such a wonderful business person then go visit www.recordingforums.com and read some of the crap the recording website.com has been going through since Bob Dennis became involved. They're also feeling once bitten, twice shy....

I never said or even implied he was a bad engineer. I'm saying he's either a shockingly bad businessman, with little or no morals, who doesn't give a flying f*ck about his students/paying customers....or he's just simply a shonky incompetant business manager, who has set his priorities on making lots of dollars, rather than being an exceptional educational institution.

A.

 

[DJL]

Ouch.

 

[Son of Mixerman]

I took the online stuff when they first started doing that web thing, I remember getting some questions wrong too, but I never got emotional about it. Try to breath a little more and not take things personally.

Why?

Simply answered by he get more email than most of us.
I once asked a simple question and gave up. Since they decided to start the internet classes, the number of emails jumped a huge amount. In the order of 10,000 emails a month. Its takes awhile to sort through that kind of load. If you don't believe me, sell or give away your email address to a a couple of spam servers and get back to me when you have read, and personally addressed each and every one. I been in that situation, so Im less judgemental about someone's motives.

As far as the mistakes go at his website, give them time to fix it. I personally, don't care whether you are right or not. It doesn't change my life for an instant. If Bob is a bad business person then write the BBB and lodge your complaint there. Airing out your dirty laundry here is a waste of time.

If you feel you've been sheisted or have a personal beef with him take it somewhere else, this is the "microphone forum" and you had absolutely nothing to say about microphones. It sounds like your harbouring alot of hostility about the whole situation. Its ok to vent, just needs to be in another forum.

Just curious, what were the questions and what were the correct answers verses the incorrect answers?


SoMm

 

[DJL]

And the microphone question of the day was... ?

 

[Son of Mixerman]

And the microphone question of the day was... ?

Obviously the question is how I remove it from my arse after having it inserted by Adzzz! LOL


SoMm

 

[Adzzz]

How sad...

Funny how no-one complained about this being off-topic until they were so soundly thrashed that they ended up with a micrpohone in their arse. Sorry 'bout that....I'll use vaseline next time and give you a reach-around...

I can totally understand that you didn't get emotional when YOU answered incorrectly. The difference here is that I answered correctly, yet was given a false result. I certainly take things personally when I pay hard earned cash for a course that contains elemetary errors that to date have not yet been fixed, or even addressed. The fact that you "personally don't care" who's right or not just goes to prove what little seriousness you give to formal training. How much can you possibilty value your RID certificate (I assume you passed?) if you don't even care if some of the exam questions were marked incorrectly? More importantly, how much value can a potential employer put in such a certificate?

"Airing out my dirty laundry here" is not a waste of time if I can warn other potentail RID students of exactly the sort of unprofessional company they'd be dealing with if they sign up. It's very interesting that Bob Dennis/RID took less than 24 hours to respond to my email questions regarding signing up, and less than 12 hours to charge my credit card when I finally did take the plunge, yet when there's a problem, one receives asolutely no email response whatsoever.

Finally, to satisfy your burning curiousity, the questions were:

* The hypercardioid has less output in the back than the cardioid
TRUE or FALSE?

* A delay time of 40ms could be used for a ___?___ effect
SLAP ECHO or DOUBLE?

Now we play a game where you have the chance to get that microphone taken out of your plughole. Answer both correctly and a pretty nurse from the NHS (male or female, your choice) will be sent to your place to gently remove the offending microphone. But get one wrong and you get to enjoy the pleasures of two vintage U47's inserted sideways in an X-Y formation (no vaseline), plus the additional pleasure of refunding me double the course fee I wasted with Bob Dennis/RID.

Deal?

A.

 

[DJL]

Is it show time? Wait until I get back... I've gotta go get some popcorn.

 

[Son of Mixerman]

Re: How sad...

Funny how no-one complained about this being off-topic until they were so soundly thrashed that they ended up with a micrpohone in their arse. Sorry 'bout that....I'll use vaseline next time and give you a reach-around...A.

I was trying to lighten up the threa with some red Herring...

I can totally understand that you didn't get emotional when YOU answered incorrectly. The difference here is that I answered correctly, yet was given a false result. I certainly take things personally when I pay hard earned cash for a course that contains elemetary errors that to date have not yet been fixed, or even addressed.

Whoa, you didn't say you were putting out money, that definitely is not the samething. If I had paid money I would have gotten emotional. That changes everything. I was under the impression you were taking the free section "classes".

The fact that you "personally don't care" who's right or not just goes to prove what little seriousness you give to formal training. How much can you possibilty value your RID certificate (I assume you passed?) if you don't even care if some of the exam questions were marked incorrectly? More importantly, how much value can a potential employer put in such a certificate?

Again, I wasn't aware you were talking about "Formal" education. When I read "education on the internet" I take everything with a grain of salt. But information that is "text book" whilst being formally educated should be right, but sometimes its not. Ive seen lots of college books with pages dedicated to "corrections".

"Airing out my dirty laundry here" is not a waste of time if I can warn other potentail RID students of exactly the sort of unprofessional company they'd be dealing with if they sign up. It's very interesting that Bob Dennis/RID took less than 24 hours to respond to my email questions regarding signing up, and less than 12 hours to charge my credit card when I finally did take the plunge, yet when there's a problem, one receives asolutely no email response whatsoever.A.

Its the money thing....my expectations are completely different when money is involved. You are entirely correct that people should be warned about scams that remove money from their pockets. Seriously, I thought you were talking about the free online courses that they offer occasionally, and it just seemed pointless because of the freeness. If someone gives me something free and it breaks, I would would feel alot different than if I apid a large sum of money for it and it broke.

Finally, to satisfy your burning curiousity, the questions were:

* The hypercardioid has less output in the back than the cardioid
TRUE or FALSE?

Im not sure the wording of this question gives a person the correct idea in the first place. Cardioid mics will always have more rejection off the back, but there really isn't any output because its a single diaphragm, element or ribbon mic. Unlike the Figure 8 attern where there are two individual capsules and 2 output sections.
Most dynamic hyperc mics have a response that is worse towards the rear of the mic capsule. How can a single output mic have a output differential? If we are talking about output differences between a cardioid mic and a hypercardioid mic, it could go either way depending on the type of casule, dynamic, condensor, transformerless output.. toob.etc...
Hypercardioid falls under "directional" vs "omnidirectional"
so by the nature of the beast...Hypercardioids will always have more sensitivity in the back than a cardioid. Now Im not sure if the freq. response differences usually found between cardioiod and hyperc changes the mic's overall output spec?

* A delay time of 40ms could be used for a ___?___ effect
SLAP ECHO or DOUBLE?

Slap Echo Or Slap Back, varies from 35ms up near 250 ms depending on what you want, thickening vocals etc..

Now we play a game where you have the chance to get that microphone taken out of your plughole. Answer both correctly and a pretty nurse from the NHS (male or female, your choice) will be sent to your place to gently remove the offending microphone. But get one wrong and you get to enjoy the pleasures of two vintage U47's inserted sideways in an X-Y formation (no vaseline), plus the additional pleasure of refunding me double the course fee I wasted with Bob Dennis/RID.

Deal?

A.

You said 2 vintage U47's...Can I keep them if I have them removed surgically?
How much money did you pay RID? If its in the order of $1400 or more...You really have to visit the BBB website and let them know...because that hurts them more than you know..If its rampant fraud, RID could lose their business license.

I feel for you, as soon as I read you payed my heart just sank. I did an internship for 18 months, then the studio went under and a got left with scars. My affiliation with the studio pretty much killed me. I also lost several hundred hours of tracking time that was part of the internship compensation.

I hope those U47's don't have the PSU's still attached.

SoMm

 

[Adzzz]

no worries...

Yeah listen mate, no hard feelings from my side. I'm just obviously fairly f*cked off that I've invested my cash into a *supposedly* reputable company with the intention of bettering myself and my knowledge, only to find that the whole course is basically a joke, riddled with errors and, as you pointed out, bad wording too. The whole study module section seems like it was rushed and simply slapped together willy-nilly...it's just not good enough. And from someone like Bob Dennis, I expected something a whole lot more professional. Unfortunately, it's not to be... :-(

Like I said, I've certainly learnt my lesson, and I hope any potential students condiering the course will read this and at least be aware of the problems that could occur.

If I actually had a couple of vintage U47's, I wouldn't really waste them by shoving them up your poo-shute sideways. If it came to that I'd probably use Behringers or a SP B1, about the same size but much cheaper LOL

Adzzz

 

[Herm]

Mics like that sound like shit.

 

[oldbob]

This thread is old as, and cold as, ice. I'm the "Bob" you are referring to. Without trying in any way to "justify," I thought an explanation could be nice.

Amazingly we are still around after more than 4 decades which is the only justification to our approaches. I personally apologize for being less than professional in all of our web postings. I think what we have up today, although very basic, is pretty much error free, having had a major rework a few years ago. 90% of the hundreds of articles of mine that have been posted over the years have been taken down because of small, but too frequent, errors.

Maybe the biggest compliment paid to me by Adzzz is that I am not a very good businessman. Businessmen are concerned with profit first and ruled by the dollar. As the "Good Book" says, "the love of money is the root of many evils" and we've never succumbed to this way of thinking. We were, and always will be, engineers and teachers, not businessmen.

As for the poor response time, the problem was from un-capitalized drive to provide information. At the time of this post I was putting out 6 short articles a week and an average of 3 long ones each month. Although there were a few errors, literally thousands of users were happy to receive and use the information from these postings. One person can't do all of that, typing with two fingers, and maintain perfection. We got into business as a result of an economic downturn coupled with the stubbornness of refusing to stop working in the field we loved and drive taxicabs to feed our families, not because we had any drive to be "in business." Even today at RID we are 90%+ concerned with imparting our knowledge to students and maybe 10% concerned about business and it's finances. Don't expect us to make a change in this approach anytime during your lifetime.

Some users (literally a handful) were more concerned with the delivery than the information being delivered. Case in point from the posts on this thread:

A "Double" is considered to be a delay, mixed with the original signal, between about 20 - 60 ms. An "echo" or "slap" setting is considered to be a delay, mixed with the original signal that is above 60 ms. These settings work well for a midrange instrument (like a voice or guitar) that doesn't have a lot of transients. Higher frequency percussion will give two distinct images at a much lower delay setting (even down to 4 ms.) So this discussion of delay ranges is a discussion of guidelines, not absolutes.

Personally I'm moving all of my teaching to the web in a format where perfection is less critical. If interested, search me or us out on the web for cutting-edge technology & techniques in mixing and mastering which almost always will be free of charge (90% of our content has always been free). For "new" collections that we have to charge for, there will be very reasonable fees and perfection (or up front warnings of anything less).

I'm not upset by the original statements about the imperfections in the postings or lack of effective communication. Totally wrong is the assumption that this would result in swelled bank accounts or that this is our motivation. If I (we) wanted money we would release very glossy, perfect, presentations with watered-down information and riddled with misinformation, like what a double is, and like so many others do.

Peace

OldBob

 

[miroslav]

As for the poor response time...

Well, don't be too surprised if you get razzed some...as your post and answers to the questions, are a response to an 8-year old thread.

I'm not even sure why this thread is in the Mic Forum...so I will move it.

 

[grimtraveller]

That was weird.
But then, on the other hand, though I believe 'closure' is often overrated and doesn't bring lasting satisfaction.........sometimes it does !

 

[Chili]

Welcome to the site, OldBob.

I bet people wouldn't mind some experienced ears on their mixes over in the MP3 clinic... if you're up for it. I know I wouldn't; though you'd have to dig down a few pages to find my last one.

 

[oldbob]

Welcome to the site, OldBob.

I bet people wouldn't mind some experienced ears on their mixes over in the MP3 clinic... if you're up for it. I know I wouldn't; though you'd have to dig down a few pages to find my last one.

Thanks for the suggestion

If you search out your submission and give me a link, on this thread, I'll be happy to critique.

I listened to your Texas tune on the "other music" link you supplied. I couldn't hear the kick drum or bass and the vocals (bkg I believe) were so swamped with reverb I couldn'tunderstand them.

Couple of things to keep in mind for mixing, as taught at RID

1. The most basic definition of a "good" mix is that all of the instruments are heard.
2. Start with the drums and no reverb and make sure all of the components of the traps are heard, more or less evenly. This is an important step because the various parts of the set give you the beat, the 1-2-3-4 of the bar. Usually the foot drum defines 1&3, with the snare the 2&4 and the high hat the eighth notes. The additional soundings, the crash and toms give you accents. All of this is under the heading of guidelines, not absolutes.
3. Add rhythm instruments (rym guitar, bass and any other instrument giving you the main rhythm of the song). Get each of these sounding at the same level as much as possible, mixing so the kick drum is part of the rhythm (hint: Start with the bass and make sure it has equal weight with the kick). Again, you are doing this without reverb.
4. Add your lead instruments, such as vocals, lead guitar, etc. so they have more weight than the rhythm instruments. Get all of these working together without reverb.
5. Your reverb is your "distance" control. More reverb = more distance. Don't treat the reverb as an effect on one thing (like the vocals). Reverb gives you the sence of the instruments being played in a room (rather than all in your lap)

Think of mixing as painting an audio picture of a performance.

After you get the basics, as explained, you can vary things according to taste.

Hope this is helpfull to you.

oldbob

 

[oldbob]

Well, don't be too surprised if you get razzed some...as your post and answers to the questions, are a response to an 8-year old thread.

I'm not even sure why this thread is in the Mic Forum...so I will move it.

Don't mind

Does this forum have the ability to send an email if there is an answer to a post? Any way to quickly search out recent answers to your posts? Sorry, I'm new here, but I will keep an eye on this thread and answer posts here anyway.

oldbob

 

[miroslav]

At the bottom of thread pages is a Quick Navigation pull-down...choose Settings...then General Settings from the left side menu...then go to the Subscription options and choose to get email notifications.