How did you get started in audio engineering?

[volsball]

How did any of you get started in audio engineering? Did you just teach yourself or did someone teach you? Most of the people I know that do this kind of stuff learned from others who were already doing it.

[brandondrury]

I'm probably a lot different than other people. I can feel when I have a drive / calling to do something. I knew I wanted to record music. So, I got a $6,000 loan and then maxed out 2 more credit cards. I was about $14,000 give or take in the hole.

Then I started recording. After I learned the software, I started inviting bands to record for free. The studio took off and got booked to the max.

Up until about a year ago EVERYTHING I knew came from internet forums and being in the trenches.

The rest is history.

Brandon

[richiebee]

I used an Atari STE with Cubase 2 for a couple of years, then I went to college two nights a week with one of my buddies (we were in a band together). It was a sixty mile round trip, which after a long day at work wasn't really appreciated! Anyway, I studied Music Technology for one year. It became clear that most of the people in the class had no interest in the whole course and simply wanted to spend every night sequencing on these Mac's. We didn't really learn much, but the profs really appreciated us because we wanted to learn how to run a real studio. I did some assignments that blew them away (mostly sequencing), and we had a good time, but it wasn't worth going back for the second year to complete the course - we just weren't getting enough out of it to be worthwhile. This was in 1996.

After finishing the first year, I spent what I would have on the second year course fees, plus a bunch more on a new computer - a PC with Cubase VST 3.5. Changed my bedroom into a control room, and spent hours upon hours writing stuff. Not much of any value came outl, but I learned a lot.

In 1999 I moved from Bristol England to Newfoundland Canada. After the immigration process was complete, I scoured the newspaper for jobs. My dream job came up at the university music school. It was a real mixup job - Events manager. I got to do some recording and stuff, and some office work (which is where my skills lie). In Bristol I worked for an insurance office as a supervisor - it was incredibly boring! This was great because I got to do what I was skilled at, but also get out of the office and do some manual work too!

In 2005, I was asked to apply for a new position as Music Technology Specialist. I didn't want to. I didn't feel I was qualified for the position, and wasn't looking forward to the first assignment, but seeing as only one other person applied, I was kind of pushed into applying. I did, and got the job. That's where I am now. Running an A/V suite, video conferencing, web casting, recommending technology purchases, upgrading computers, tinkering and some basic teaching of recording technologies... the freedom I have is hard to get used to after holding down office jobs for so long, and the lack of understanding by anyone means that no one gives me challenging assignments to do (I have to find my own). The older generation tend to switch off from wanting to learn new technologies (which I find odd for university faculty, but I guess I shouldn't!). The realization that after initial equipment purchases, money for upgrades is hard to come by is also challenging. But it's a good job to have (especially for someone with nothing more than high school education and 1 year at evening school), and has plenty of perks.

I was very honest when I was interviewed for the job in what my weaknesses and lack of knowledge were. They not only hired me anyway, but gave me all the freedom I needed to teach myself the stuff (which was what I told them was the way I preferred to learn).

Rich

[volsball]

That's really cool that you could get a job at the university doing this stuff and you got to use their equipment. That was my favorite part of college when I went for photography (using the lab for free).

[TimRP]

I went to college in 1990 to get a degree in broadcasting, I got side tracked by landing a job in the colleges main auditorium running sound and doing backstage work. I worked 20-65hours a week there, classes sufferd, but I was learning what I realy wanted to do. Did that for 5 years, during which I went on tours. Did christian rock/pop concerts, did major classical concerts with the college choir and band. etc etc. After college I landed a job with Billy Graham, I was an engineer for recording voice overs for a major video project that aired world wide. (for the techies out there, we used DA-88s synced to betacam sp run through mackie boards and behringer compressors, yes a low budget operation but it was fun recording dozens of different languages) After that I did nothing with sound/recording because of my bipolar illness. Took me up to 2002 to get properly diagnosed. And since then I have just been trying to stay alive and not drown babies in bath tubs or not to run off planes screaming I have a bomb. : Not all bipolars are like that, . Anyways, around september of last year I propose to my wife that hay maybe we should make a CD for Christmas...so we did. And that is why you will find me here on the forums.

[Wassgob]

i started with being in a band and in calgary, we have two choices
1: pay 300 bucks an hour for top notch multi track recording
or
2:go to some basement studio in some guys house ( no offense to those of you who have home studios) and not get the quality!

So i took some traingin here in calgary at "the" studio in town. from there on i just basically learned as much as possible with both digital and analog recording! i am now opening a studio that is targeted to local bands who want good product but cant afford to go to a multi million doller facility

[fndrbndr]

I started out in the late 1980's doing 4-track cassette demos of our original songs with some musician buddies when I was like 15 years old.

I also hung out at the local 24-track pro studio in my hometown as often as they would let me in and just helped with stuff (fetching drinks, wrapping up cables, loading 2-inch tape on the recorders, etc). Those guys had 2 of the really big Kurzweil keyboards that were all the rage when they came out...they actually let me borrow one for free & take it back to my 4-track buddy studio at home! I still don't know why they trusted a 15 year old kid with a $20,000 sampler...if I would've broke it, I would still be paying for it today.

I was also lucky enough to go with a friend into a pro recording studio as a guest to do his project. I just sat their and clowned with the studio musicians (I was basically a big distraction & did not get invited back the next day), but it was cool to see how the actual sessions went down, play with all the equipment, witness the creative process, etc.

I did basement/bedroom-style demos for a long time after that. I got into digital recording about 3 years ago & bought a Fostex MR-8 8-track unit. I used Kristal Audio Engine, N-Track & Audacity to edit & mix my tracks, using the Fostex only as a fancy front-end to my laptop. I sold that and picked up an M-Audio Black Box & a copy of Ableton Live last Christmas. That was a huge step forward.

Since then, my focus has switched from being a performing artist to more of an engineer/producer (some day). I took the money I was going to spend on a full-blown recording project ($7,000), recorded only 2 songs with a local producer/engineer (for the additional learning experience) and bought my own studio equipment instead. I'm using a Mac G5, M-Audio 1814, ProTools M-Powered, various mics & plug-ins, etc. etc. etc. now & it rocks.

I still have a lot to learn, but I learned everything I know now from Googling, books/DVD's, pestering people who are smarter than me and trial/error.

[Bigbird]

Hello,fndrbndr just read ur post and was wonderijng wat dvds did u learn from can you recomend any dvd tutorials on recording techniques,thanks Bigbird.

[fndrbndr]

I got "Mix It Like A Record"...that Charles Dye DVD. It's really good, especially if you are using ProTools. The video production is a little cheesy, but the info is great.

Digidesign also has a DVD called "ProTools Method One" that looks good.

[FergusVoice]

I worked for many years with an audio engineer friend. We built our own equipment and used great speakers to listen to awesome music. My ear got a lot of training! About 12 years ago I started making my own recordings of spoken voice material and the listening to classical top notch recordings had trained me to being able to hear how crap my recordings were!

The only answer was to learn how to do it better - and that is a path I am still on.
About 6 years ago I joined an internet radio station as a presenter and ended up mixing the promos for a lot of the other presenters. Great learning curve.

Now, I record podcasts for the Professional Speakers Association and make my own spoken voice training CDs, do voiceover work for websites and companies, record books and indulge my greatest passion - making quality recordings