Just what I Learned From My First Experience With Recording

I recorded my very first CD containing my original songs with the help of a friend who happens to own his own recording studio. As a way of attaining experience and “seat time”, he had invited me to take all the studio time I required for free, and he would record and mix the music for me.

I had recorded simple demos before using an older four-track cassette recorder, but this was my first official recording encounter. Digital recording was an innovative concept, and my friend had one of the first set-ups for recording direct to PC hard drive. It was an incredible learning encounter for me. I observed how my buddy did microphone placement for vocals, guitar amplifiers and drums; how he placed instrumentalists in different rooms so they could play live “together” and he could record several tracks without audio bleed-over; how he solved problems on the fly when things didn’t go as he’d planned. I paid close attention during the mixing procedure, as my friend would make the smallest modifications to the track volumes or equalization to enhance the sound. I kept asking queries about the procedure and my friend would patiently explain the whole process to me and at the same time answer all my queries. And together, we made a record we were both very pleased of.

I never thought my first recording encounter can be of great help until I was placed in a scenario where I need to use my know-how on digital recording. First, as a small-time musician that hosts events with no sound engineer I need to rely on myself in order to make the audio sound good. I was surprised at how I was able to figure out the existing sound equipment and adjust the mix, a little at a time, until it was at least presentable. My first recording experience provided me with all the basic knowledge that I need.

The other scenario that drew on my know-how was when I became the audio engineer and wrote the music score for two short movies my son wrote and directed. Not really being qualified (I thought), I felt overwhelmed and quite out of my element; but I had learned enough from that time in the studio to detect when an audio signal was too loud or too soft, and how to compensate; and in post-production, I was able to write and record multiple songs on a Mac computer, and I knew how to make the adjustments to balance the sound levels. I even discovered out how to remove unnecessary noise from the audio of the film itself, when background noise affected the quality.

In taking on these tasks (which at the time I thought were more than I could manage), I found out just how much that my first recording experience had taught me. I also realized from that encounter just how much we actually learn things by simply doing them.