The more I learn, the less I know

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VTgreen81

VTgreen81

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Please tell me all "Newbies" go through this. For example, If I study up on mic'ing drums to find out about placement, I realize I'm not even mentally equipped to select the right mics.

There's tons of teriffic info here, thanks to all of you who provide it, but with no structure for progressive learning my brains frying from info overload. So..............I've done it again, 39 again and goin' back to school. Part time of course, I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions once I learn enough to know what to ask.

So thanks in advance.
Dan
 
dan. DONT OVERLOAD on info. my BEST ADVICE.
just engineer as many tracks as make you happy.
i'm still learning after 25 yrs. your simply asking too much of yourself. just do what i do, and have FUN while your doing it.
its impossible to cram all the knowledge into a few weeks.
also over time try and develope your OWN engineering style.
 
You can only learn so much from research and asking questions. The rest must come from experience, which usually includes a lot of trial and error.
 
VTgreen81 said:
Please tell me all "Newbies" go through this. For example, If I study up on mic'ing drums to find out about placement, I realize I'm not even mentally equipped to select the right mics.

There's tons of teriffic info here, thanks to all of you who provide it, but with no structure for progressive learning my brains frying from info overload. So..............I've done it again, 39 again and goin' back to school. Part time of course, I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions once I learn enough to know what to ask.

So thanks in advance.
Dan
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It seems overwhelming at times because quite frankly it is. You really have to take into account that when you come to a site like this you are hearing perspectives from hundreds of different people who all do things differently. From placement to selection of mics/pres, signal path choices, monitor selection on down the line to mixdown and mastering, everyone has there own take on recording.

Sometimes having too wide of a pallete makes choosing a chore in and of itself. The best thing I could suggest is to get comfortable with just a few things at a time. Work with them in different scenarios, learn their strengths and weaknesses and get to know their nuances in a multitude of different applications. Once you are comfortable with their sound you can know what to expect from them and that will add to your mental database of sounds.
 
Are you having wierd dreams about gear yet? I think, for me at least, that's a sure sign you've reached a saturation point.
 
EddieRay said:
Are you having wierd dreams about gear yet? I think, for me at least, that's a sure sign you've reached a saturation point.
Click to expand...

Yeah, It had to do with an aural exiter and a can of finger ease.
 
hi,

i approach this as a hard working lead guitar player first and a recording engineer second. it has to be this way for the band and myself or songwriting suffers, my minimum of 3 hrs. per day guitar work suffers, and so on.

when gear and computer setup, drivers that don't work right, and so many ideas begin to get in the way of the music, I take the accumulated pile of problems off of my shoulders and put them in a straight row of importance tackling one or two at a time, when I have the time.

people like me are prone to obsesion with tech and things tech and so can get on a path fixing and improving this and that, more gear, better soundcard, on and on, until the goal you are tring to achieve is lost in the rubble. I think it was about then when jerry garcia came to me in a dream and said "whats wrong?? run out of talent?" and I remembered...I was back on the path of what I was doing to begin with. Thank You Jerry!! ( strange things happin in these her' hollars ) LOL

try to keep it simple in the beginning with the best gear you can afford in the right places and a lot of experimenting.

baba
 
Dreams!?!?! I can't even sleep! I think i need to take Manning's advice and basically lighten up a bit. I'm excited to get moving forward but cautious,esspecially when investing in equipment. We've scratch tracks for all of our 1st CD laid on analog four track, transfered to our PC via the cheesy soundmax card and mixed in Audacity(shareware). They came out better than I expected. The songs are really good(but I may be biased) and it's time to do it for real now, but it's gotta be done right, and the equipment purchases have to be right the first time or I'll go broke too fast buying gear twice.



Watch out for "BLIND CHAUFFEUR" driving into your town in the fall of 2004 (I hope)
 
i see, but if time is a factor to record these songs the right way, it may pay to have them recorded in a pro studio now and reap the rewards of a professional cd to go with your bands promo.

if your band is tight and your songs well rehearsed, your studio cost would not be that great and the money that may result in having good songs on a pro sounding cd may pay for much of the equipment you want to purchase.

all this new stuff has setup problems much of the time and learning curves so there is no real shortcut

just an idea. many do this around here.

BTW, manning1 has much golden advice!
 
No real rush, just my own anticipation. The main reason for doing it ourselves is to learn the art. Eventually our studio will grow into something real that our daughter, now 7 and already writing (I gave her one of my lyrics to amuse herself and she wrote the melody that became the main hook for one our best tunes) can use.
 
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