Starting an independent recording studio has been a dream and a long process. Since a long time ago, I can remember I had been interested in music. Not knowing exactly what part of the process, or why, but it just kind of took over a major part of my everyday. Spending nights after school in the basement listening to my dads records, fading songs in and out between two record players like I was a radio DJ. From there I graduated to a small cassette deck that had a record button on it. Wait a minute! Record? Thats when Recording started to take over my life. First off, I was amazed that it even worked. I didn’t know how, but it did. Second, I was more amazed at how you could alter the sounds being recorded, or even after by playing them back in different ways. I started experimenting with different things like on a dual tape deck I cut a hole in one of the tape doors so I could slow down the “play” tape with a pencil eraser while the “record” tape captured at normal speed to make a slowed, drone sound. Or using a paper cup over a speaker and playing a song while recording onto a handheld dictation recorder with the little microphone. At the time I didn’t know why the sounds changed but it was cool that they did. Every once in a while its still fun to play with those old handheld recorders. Sure they don’t sound that great, but sometimes thats what you want. You might find a little magic, or at least some nostalgia.
This took me through a few years. Also learning to play some instruments, mainly the guitar, but anything I could get my hands on. Sometimes even make an instrument if there was a sound I wanted to try. Then on either a birthday or Christmas, my parents got me a used computer and a two channel interface. Oh baby! I was hot stuff now. Digital recording, just getting into high school where anyone who was anyone was in a band, and what do bands do? Thats right, record. Every free second I had was spent learning how to use preamps or set up a microphone on a drum or guitar, or even stranger to me the use of EQ, or compression. I figured if I could learn the theory behind how and why this process works then I’d be able to figure out the rest as i go, so all I could do was read any piece of information I could find. I read the instruction manuals for interfaces and microphones, I read magazines about music, most had nothing to do with recording, and I was able to find a ton of books as the years went on. To look at modern recording now and see how far the computers and programs have come, and to realize how limitless recording actually is, blows my mind at times. What is even more mind blowing to think is where does it go from here?
Now the big problem was that I didn’t have enough inputs. I couldn’t record a whole band with two inputs. So, save some money and upgrade to eight inputs, ok well now I need eight microphones and eight cables. When thats not enough, get eight more. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but when you’re fifteen or sixteen, going to school, and taking any job possible to make extra cash for your recording addiction, it becomes a little stressful. There never seemed, or seems still, to be enough gear. Always wanting a new mic preamp, or checking pawn shops and yard sales for that chance encounter with a vintage piece of gear or microphone or just a mic stand. It becomes a problem if you let it I guess. I’ll be the first to admit I have a problem, but more than finding gear and buying stuff, my addiction lies with the process. the theory behind how sound can be captured from a microphone, through a wire, into an amplification circuit, through more wires, then converted from an analog signal into a digital signal, then written to a computer drive and translator into a waveform image on a screen at the same time its sounding through speakers exactly how its being played into the microphone. Well hopefully it sounds exactly the same, but thats part of the learning process too. Which brings me to another part, maybe the biggest part of the recording process, that still gives me headaches which is simply setting up a microphone. Everything needs to be considered. The type of microphone, the type of pre amp. What is the sound source? Too close, too far away, what angle should the mic be at? Where are you recording this sound? Is it a small closed room with sound insulation? Or is it a garage with cement walls and shelves of boxes and someones golf clubs that will rattle? The good thing now is that I have a live room that I do most of my recording in, whether its a five piece band setting up to record live, or a singer songwriter using studio musicians on different days, I use the room a lot and know how most of my microphones are going to react in it. Just like anything else, if you practice enough, eventually it wont be that hard for you. I have used the same microphones in the same room for a few years so its pretty easy to decide what mic for what instrument and where to place it in the room.
Thankfully throughout my journey from records and tapes in my parents basement, to now having my own small studio, I have had helpful and very understanding people supporting my dream, which to me is key. Its tough to get anywhere without support,and its real hard to stay focused and determined if someone is putting down what you work so hard for. My biggest problem now is that there are infinite sounds in this world, and I want to record them all.