Jimmy McNally recording Holly Jolly
Just added a new client, The Instagators, a Grand Junction favorite rock group. These guys are for real. Jimmy McNally is a very talented guitarist, singer, composer, keyboard player, you name it. With Mike Williams on bass and Robb Lasater on drums, they rock downtown GJ on a weekly basis. I have played with them on occasion and enjoy their energy and musicianship.
So a few weeks ago I get a call from Jimmy. He wants to make a CD of tunes that they play regularly at their gigs. So we get started recording 10 tunes. You can see some pics from the studio work in the slide show. The CD should be finished sometime in early 2015. I posted the first complete song, Holly Jolly Christmas, on the playlist on the home page. Holly Jolly is a favorite with the locals, especially when played on a hot summer night in July! You may be hearing it on the local community radio station, KAFM.
More to come….
Robb Lasater in the drum room
Mike Williams on Fender Bass
Mastering Audio Through Adult Education
Yes you can teach an old dog new “tracks”. These days many if not most independent engineers and producers are self taught. We learn to mix by accident, mostly. We buy exotic gear, trendy plugins for our DAW’s (“Digital Audio Workstations”), haunt the music and gear forums looking for tips and tricks.
20 or 30 years ago an aspiring audio engineer interned for a local music studio, making coffee, cleaning toilets, and maybe after a few months got to mount tape, set up mics, or push a few faders on the console. Eventually that (young) person was asked to record an entire session, often with a critical senior engineer watching and listening. If you did a good job you got to work with major talent, maybe even get some credits on an album.
Well those days are mostly gone. Yes it still happens but you need to be willing to put in the time for free or low pay and earn your bones. Woof! Not my style.
So how does an old dog continue to hone his chops? One way is through on-line audio education. Another is through workshops and recording “boot camps”. I have done both. So far the most rigorous and rewarding school has been the Audio Master Class courses offered by David Mellor (Oxford School of Audio) out of Thame, England. I have completed the professional courses in Mixing and Equalization, and am currently working through the course on Compression.
These are certificate-track courses that take a minimum of 6 months to complete. You download professionally recorded tracks with the assignment to make them sound a certain way. One recent assignment in the EQ class was to remove hum, buzz, and broadband noise using just EQ filters (no fancy noise removal plugins allowed). This is the hard way, but it is a great learning experience.
So far I am doing quite well, and will continue taking these “adult education” courses because I am serious about improving my skills. Next up will be courses in reverb and mastering. Of course, I already “knew” how to apply EQ, compression, and reverb, but there is always more to learn, often those unexpected things you did not know you did not know.
The feedback I get from Mr. Mellor is the next best thing to “being there” in the role of intern. Highly recommended, if you are interested check out www.audiomasterclass.com.