The Wisdom I Discovered From The Recording Studio

A buddy of mine who was an audio engineer once offered me what could easily be every aspiring musician’s desire. “Come to my recording studio and make a record,” he said. “We’ll tackle on it until you’re satisfied with it. Take all the studio time you need.” In return, we decided that after I printed the record, I’d give him a part of the sales. This gift was a result of friendship and at the same time a desire for more experience.

So for a couple of days at a time, every month or so, I’d drive two hours to his studio, sleep there nights in a bed he’d set up, and record during the day. During the off times in the studio, I used it writing songs for the record. During those recording periods, I’d watch how he set up the microphones, how he would try different things, and switch gears if they didn’t work. I watched as he went through the mixing procedure and as he made remedies for problems that come up at random. As he toiled with the recording he would describe to me the whole process and patiently answered my questions.

Unfortunately, the record didn’t do well in the market. However, what I mastered during that experience and others like it has carried me through many different jobs and projects since that time. In those moments when I do not have a sound tech handy, I am no longer completely lost; I can work with the equipment on hand to figure out what I need at the moment. Additionally, my ear was prepared during that experience to hear when a set of recorded tracks is not blended well, and even more significantly, what I can do about it. Rather than just realizing something is wrong with an audio mix, I can hear more distinctly what is incorrect with it.

Wanting to be a sound engineer is the last thing on my mind and I have no desire to become one. What is important though is the truth that I mastered both from experience and from mentorship in a recording studio. This is because audio engineering is largely learned exactly that way – by someone displaying you the ropes, and through practice and experience.

My friend with the recording studio had in fact been to school, and he had learned a lot of methods he probably would not have picked up on his own. Nevertheless, I find it interesting that even after obtaining that education, my friend was compelled to offer me unlimited free studio time so he could gain experience running his own studio – even after going to school for it. Despite the advantage he got from his education, my friend still finds it insufficient and he wanted more experience.

Whether you gain your education through schooling, through mentoring, through practice or through a combination of these, what really matters in this industry is whether you can generate results. This is what I realized in the recording studio.