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Reminder: Join us for this month's Mixer Mixer where we encourage each other to better mixes!! Meeting starts at 7:30pm, Tuesday, March 28 at the Rec Room Recording studio at the Arts Federation, 638 North St, Lafayette. Announcement: I'm really happy to announce that we are going to have a workshop from July 24th-29th at TAF. The workshop will feature Ronan Chris Murphy, Liz Redwing, and Steven Memel. We are really excited about bringing the three to Lafayette as they are all world class music business professionals from Los Angeles and they all have significant credits with artists you know and love. Ronan will be teaching recording and mixing. Liz is an expert on the music business. Steven is a vocal and performance coach. We still have more details to work out but we are working out several tracks for the workshop so you that you can tailor your experience to your interests.
Speaking of Ronan... Ronan was my first recording and mixing coach starting back in the day when I worked with my youngest daughter named Briagha. I first got to see Ronan teach at the Taxi Road Rally in Los Angeles. I was struck by his down to earth nature and really practical advice. He was all about making the best recordings and mixes that you can with the equipment you have available. So much of the advice I hear online is "buy this" or "buy that." So much BS. I mean, you do need to buy a Digital Audio Workstation like Logic, Pro Tools, Studio One, or whatever. You do need to have a computer. You do need to have decent monitors or headphones. And you do need a decent microphone or two and stands and cables, etc. But the key to the whole thing, to me, is to get started with what you have. And Ronan gave me common sense, practical tips that just work. Recording and mixing is a craft. It really is. And the more you practice the craft the better you get. It's as simple as that. Now Ronan has (had) some of the finest gear on the planet. But he won't mind telling you about AMAZING gear that is relatively cheap. He's not a gear snob. He will also give you great advice about things like backup software and keyboard templates that could increase your productivity better than any piece of gear could. I have learned so much from him. He really has a teacher's heart.
How People Used to Learn Mixing and Recording Back in the day of the labels and the great studios, budding recording engineers would learn their craft by interning and apprenticing at studios and then working their way up through the studio system or starting their own studio. Lafayette native and friend of Rec Room Recording, Matt Coles, interned for Chuck Ainlay in Nashville which would be a dream. Matt is now a legend himself! Check out his credits: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/matt-coles-mn0000555916 I have some friends who have worked with legends in the studios well and it is always great hearing stories of some of the legendary sessions they worked on. The whole system of producing music has changed now though. There aren't nearly as many high end recording studios now as people can produce a great record in a bedroom. It logically follows that the opportunities to apprentice with a studio great really are few and far between, although they do still exist. But you have to move to Nashville. Or New York. Or Los Angeles. And do the hustle.
The New Ways I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new when I say the new ways of learning recording are through online videos, forums, groups such as ours, formal schools like Musicians Institute, Berklee, Full Sail, Belmont, and other college programs, etc. Of these options, I have probably learned the most from videos. Initially the number of high quality instructional videos was pretty minimal but now it seems that many major recording engineers are releasing video training. It really is awesome. And the most cool thing to me is that you get to choose your own instructor! Back in the day, you'd apply to be their intern and they chose you. Or someone else. Now you can dial down and learn from the expert you want to learn from! It is so cool. And freeing. You don't have to move. You can learn from the best from wherever. At such a cheap cost. No hotel. No plane ticket. And since you are doing the "hiring" you don't have to go to interviews or network to get an internship with some studio rock star. You just buy their course!! And when you finish that course you take another one, by someone else. It truly is amazing. I know you know this but I just want you to understand how blessed we are. This is a truly recent turn of events. Internet video has changed the world!!! But it gets even better! Internet Marketing 101 says you give valuable video lessons away for free to build an audience of hopefully grateful viewers that will pony up to buy your course once you have one for sale. I really like this model because I can try before I buy. I can see if the personality of the instructor and their approach matches my style of learning. Is their sense of humor a plus or just annoying. You can really get to know the instructors because in many cases they may have dozens of outstanding, free videos for you to view. So, obviously, I would recommend that you take as many free video courses as you can, from a variety of teachers before buying courses. There will always be course sales. So don't fall for the "time limited offer" schtick. Play the field. And really study these videos and hear what these people have to offer. Sign up for their emails and you will have great, free videos delivered to your inbox every week.
A List of Great Stuff... To get you started, I'm going to give you a list of some great places to go for free courses. I have had experience with ALL of them listed here. No doubt there are many other courses that are awesome but I'm not going to list what I don't have any experience with. But this list will be more than enough to get you started. So here is the list in no particular order: What I do is I sign up for their email list. Often the signup will appear in a pop up window when you go to the home page. Then I'd start checking out the free videos. If the location of the freebie videos aren't readily apparent on their homepage then look for their social media links on the homepage, click on the YouTube link and voila, buffet of freebies!! But wait... There's one more video instructor I have to let you know about. It's my friend and coach Ronan, of course. You can check out his stuff at https://www.recordingbootcamp.com. Ronan has had tragedy strike. Fortunately, he is ok. But a 150' tree fell on his studio in the California mountains and completely destroyed it. Here's a picture.  Ronan was in his studio and house when the tree hit. Fortunately he had walked across the room as five minutes before he would have been killed. Ronan's house and contents are partially insured. I say partially because that's what he said. And he's too classy to give details. I know that I have just recently upped the insurance on my gear because the cost of pro gear has gone up tremendously since Covid. So Ronan has a heck of task ahead of him to get his home and studio back to what it was. One of Ronan's friends started a GoFundMe for him to help him get back on his feet. But in typical Ronan fashion, Ronan decided that the best way for him to generate cash to rebuild was to offer one of his premier online courses, his "Drum Recording Bootcamp," at name your own price. What a win, win, win that is!! So if you're broke, you can buy this course for an amount you can afford. Win. It helps out a fellow mixer who is going through a terrible time. Win. And you get 10 hours of instruction from an engineer that has worked with some of the greatest drummers in the world!! Win! I would call this an instructional video bargain of the century. And it gives you a clue as to Ronan's character. Amazing. So I highly encourage you to pay what you can to get this great course. It is awesome. He is a great teacher and it will give you a preview of the workshop in the summer. Here's the link: https://www.recordingbootcamp.online/store/EcqPsoMN
Thanks so much for being part of our group. I hope to see you at the Mixer Mixer. If you can't make it and you have a question for me just go ahead and shoot me an email. I'm always happy to help. All the best, Neil |