Great idea Ben.

Here's my info:

Name: Jeremy Cucco
Company Name: Sight and Sound Studios (and Sublyme Records)
Background:
-Classical musician (13 years on violin starting at age 7 and too many years to count of F. horn - notice, I said "F horn" and not "French horn." We hornists get very bent out of shape about that incorrect terminology. No disrespect meant towards the French of course. :) )
-Computer nerd - hey, I had to put myself through music school somehow!
-Military Intel. - not sure how this happened, but backgrounds in acoustical physics and computers pays off sometimes.
Specialty: Classical music engineering, production and mastering - I've never had the patience for live sound, so I don't do it.

I've been in the Northern Virginia area now for 7 years and actively recording here the entire time. Prior to that, I spent many years in Arkansas before I decided I had to either commit suicide or move. While in Arkansas, I had the pleasure of recording for several years under the tuteledge (sp) of some very interesting recordists. I believe this is where I learned the majority of what NOT to do. :D

Thanks all!
J...

Hi,
I´ll share in here.

Name is Gunnar Hellquist. I live in Stockholm, Sweden.

Daytime job is as business controller at an insurance corporation, in the IT department. My professional history includes 8 years in software design, mainly process control, as well as a number of years in computer sales.

Hobby is playing the bass trombone at an amateur level (ie, not much to listen to). Mostly classical nowadays, used to be a lot more big-band. Does a bit of fiddling with arranging music, has done a bit of plugin programming for the notation program Sibelius. Summertime I keep my private flying certificate current by towing glide planes (no cost for me, a week away from family)

Started recording in earnest a few years ago as a means to save the memory of the performances I was in. This hobby is slowly evolving into something a bit deeper, does not know where it will end up.

Gunnar.

I’m honored and thrilled to be part of this great group of intelligent and savvy “acoustic music recording people”. (Hope that covers everyone!)

About me: I am part of a unique minority group; I do professional digital audio on a PC, I am self employed, left handed, below average height (5’6”), single parent (ok, the kid is almost 23 now…) divorced, Irish-Catholic white male. I’m thinking of starting a support group, but I’m not sure I want to be a member of some group with ME in charge. J

But seriously , I was classically trained on the piano since the second grade, and about that time witnessed the Beatles on Ed Sullivan three Sunday nights in a row in 1963, and it’s been a wild, wonderful ride ever since. The rest of the 60’s and 70’s were a great time to learn everything I could and soak up the music all around me, from Dylan to Creedence to prog rock (and ELP!) to the Who, to Fleetwood Mac, and countless other wonderful artists, both acoustic and electric. (I’ll never forget seeing Andre Watts and the Philly O at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in live performance, either.) From about ‘74 onward, I played keyboards & earned a living at nights in bands and clubs, and worked daytimes usually in studios and/or live sound situations.

For about five years, I did live sound for the City of Philadelphia in an outdoor amphitheater gig, with a diverse ethnic crowd, from Gospel nights to Scottish bagpiper Festivals to Jazz shows with many big band greats (most of them still alive at the time – Basie, Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Joe Williams, and many many more, until about 1980.) First real live gig (baptism of fire!) was Ray Charles and a sold out crowd of 10,000 in ‘76.

Somehow, I managed get through college as well; I went to Temple University and decided I did NOT want to be a performance or education major so I switched to Theory and Composition and got out of there ASAP with a BA and my sanity somewhat intact, in 1978.

By mid 1980’s, I got serious about recording as a career and went full time with Magnetik Productions here in Philadelphia, a studio/remote facility catering mostly to classical clients and radio broadcasts with a fully equipped remote truck. (We made VINYL records back then, too!) With my classical background, I felt right at home, and found my niche. Magnetik was owned and operated by WFLN 95.7 FM, the area’s only full time commercial classical music station. I worked up from a service tech to a producer there and went from ½ track and 1” 8-track MCI JH-110 analog machines to early F1 digital, and then DAT. In 1988 the station was sold for the first time. I was “outsourced” by the new owners, and hired back as an independent contractor and began my own company - Weston Sound – servicing the radio station and all the subsequent clients set adrift from Magnetik’s dissolution.

Somehow ten busy years flew by and digital recording took over everywhere. By 1998, WFLN was sold (again) to Greater Media, and (idiots they are), they soon pulled the plug forever on one of the last great commercial classical stations in the Eastern USA. Fortunately mostly everyone (announcers, staff, etc.) moved intact over to WRTI, Temple University’s long-running Jazz/NPR station, and split the format to 12 hrs Classical, 12hrs Jazz. We’ve had a symbiotic relationship with them ever since, and handle just about all of their live broadcasts, for both classical, opera, jazz, etc.

Thanks to that and the arts scene in Philadelphia in general, I’ve been busy, due to the good people here who still appreciate their orchestras, operas and choral music, not to mention a pretty healthy Jazz scene as well.

Philly has managed to save their dying main center city corridor (South Broad St.) by reinventing it as “The Avenue of the Arts”. With the opening of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts right there, in late 2001, the arts are doing ok (and so are most of my clients; but finding the ones with a recording budget is always the tricky part!). Even so, it’s kept me fairly busy with remote recording in “Center City” and suburbs, and post production back at the studio. (You can see the rest of the whole boring story – esp what we’re doing now – at my website: http://www.westonsound.com. we do try to keep it current, so please stop in once in a while and see what we’re up to, I’d be flattered if you do.)

And again, I’m really thrilled to be in such good company; this is a really fine group, and I hope to give as much as I get from interacting with everyone here.

I hold a degree in jazz studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where I studied classical voice and sang with the university's Opera, Jazz Ensemble and Black Music Ensembles. The latter ensembles were under the direction of renowned bassist, Richard Davis. In addition to classical performances and jazz combo work on piano and voice, I freelance as a jazz vocalist with the 18-piece Jazz Martini and Jazz Works Big Bands. Both bands are comprised of area professionals, college professors, writers, arrangers and staff members of music publishers, Heritage Music Press.and the Milwaukee based Hal Leonard Corporation.

I am in my 14th year as choral director and music department chair at Brookfield Central High School in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The choirs have performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City and have appeared in some of the finest invitational choral festivals in the country including San Francisco, Chicago and in New York's Lincoln Center where we'll be performing again in April for some of the greatest college directors alive. I also do much of the arranging for the school's vocal jazz groups who have been fortunate to work with Steve Zegree, Laurel Masse and Kurt Elling in recent years.

As a recording hobbyist, I've learned basic techniques in college and beyond (we learned electronic music on a modular MOOG 9000!) and purchased equipment to allow the school to make regular recordings for learning purposes and fund-raising. In addition to the choirs, I'm currently teaching an "Intro to Music Technology and Composition" class in a regular PC based computer lab, which I hope to eventually publish as a resource for other high schools interested in fostering creativity in their music departments. I am also in my 15th consecutive year of working on a self-produced CD that may or may not ever be finished.

I too am glad that RO could make this forum happen. I'm looking to learn and offer whatever I can to the mix

Hi Everyone!
My name is John Stafford.
I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1966.
At the age of 29 I decided to get a degree, so I studied music at Trinity College Dublin, and graduated in 1999.

My current academic interest is computerised composition and musical analysis from a linguistic perspective. I also study resurrected dead languages of the Middle East, especially Akkadian and Sumerian, as well as other languages from the region that is now Iraq. I'm also interested in the development and subsequent evolution of Ancient Egyptian grammar, and I'm studying Classic Arabic. I see parallels in the breakdown of certain linguistic theories when confronted with undeciphered texts, and the limitations of some generally accepted analytical techniques in music, and I'm currently attempting to develop these ideas as the basis of a PhD.

I spent several years studying the piano, but my main interest is composition. The only major composition I've had performed publicly was a choral setting of a five-thousand-year-old Sumerian exorcistic incantation in the Chapel of my former college.

I wouldn't describe my recording experience as professional -more of an obsessive hobby! I don't earn a living from it, but it's something I take very seriously, and every aspect of it provides me with endless fascination. There's nothing I enjoy more than setting up my equipment and just recording whatever sounds happen to come along. I love trying to improve the way I capture sounds -any sounds.

I believe recording is as relevant to one's musical development/knowledge as any other aspect of our vast discipline.

I have great admiration for the people on this site who are more than willing to share their expertise, and who have the generosity of spirit and patience to assist those like myself who pester them for every morsel of information we can possibly sueeze out of them :wink:

John

I just discovered this forum a few days ago even though I have been looking for one like this for quite awhile.

I write music around both acoustic and sampled instruments. Actually, most often I will write with samples and sequence a mock-up and then print the score to finally record real instruments. For my current project, I generally write for piano, ac. guitar, cello, ac. bass and clarinet.

So this is just great to have found this site. It's easy to find forums that deal with the challenges of rock music and amplification issues.
But this is the first I've found dedicated to Acoustic Music.
So thanks and I look forward to coming here often.

Jim McCarthy
Ojai, CA

My name is Xavier Calvera and I have been a mod in RO for a little over a year. I was born in Cuba but came to the USA at age 14. I’ve been in the LA area since then and I have played and sang for a number of local bands over the years. I have a master’s degree in musicology, my master’s thesis done on the history of Cuban Music. I have excerpts of it on my website and curiously enough its gather a bit of attention from Cuban music enthusiasts. here is a link if you want to know more on the subject:
http://www.lordtiger.com/historyofcubanmusic.html
. My main passion is songwriting and I do so in many styles, from Cuban to jazz to rock’n’roll. I owned a recording studio in the LA area, Lord Tiger, for several years, mostly recording local bands. I sold the studio in 2003 and since I have kept busy writing, recording and producing in my home studio. Curiously enough I seem to have gone back to my roots lately and have been recording, playing and writing Cuban music, which means I have been recording a lot of acoustic instruments. I already got a number of good pointers on the subject from some of the members of the Acoustic forum, which is really cool. Besides the Cuban music project, I have also been working on a musical dance production which I hope sees the light of day later on this year. I have also completed a demo for a film I am trying to hook, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for that one. Sometimes I think I have too much to do and too little time to do it in, but most of the time I like it fine that way.

Bruce Patterson here. I am trained as a pianist - mostly accompanying. I have a MMus in accompanying/chamber music from Univ. of Mich.

Currently I do quite a bit of studio work [playing] as well as composing/arranging. I am also a church musician. I never owned a computer until a little over 3 years ago when I bought one to run music notation software. I then bought a better soundcard which came bundled with audio/MIDI software [incomplete] which got me interested so I bought a sound module and learned a bit about MIDI sequencing. This made me aware of my need for better software so I bought Sonar 2XL which was wonderful. Things continued and are still continuing! I currently use a Lynx soundcard, a small assortment of mics, and 4 channels of decent pre amps and record into Samplitude. I enjoy recording and, though I haven't turned a profit, my gear has just about payed for itself.

My skills are improving and this year I will engineer and produce a cd of various music for the church where I work. It will be to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the building and will include a variety of genres including solo piano, choir, organ, handbells, guitar, praise band, childrens groups, and hopefully more. I will learn a lot.

I am grateful to Ben, Joe, and Jeremy for helping to add this forum to the recording.org group and feel that many such as myself will benefit from their expertise. 8-) :D

Bonjour,

Jean-Marie Mathieu. I am 45 now... I live in Toulouse, France (sorry for my poor english).

I recorded my first concert when I was 12 years old. It was an organ concert in Chartres's cathedral. My recording gear was quite simple : my father's Philips cassette recorder with the poor dynamic mic. Then I met my future brother in law. He is a flutist and was recording on a Revox B77 with Calrec mics. I was impressed with his chamber music recordings. I was 18, I bought a Teac cassette recorder (I couldn't afford a Revox and the tapes...) and Primo mics and I began recording as a hobbyist all the concerts organized by a classic concert organizer in Marseille for his sound archives. I met a lot of great local musicians and learned to listen before recording. But the cassettes were so bad on the female voices ! I baught my first DAT in 1992. But then I had to change the mics. I had an opportunity for two MBHO mics. Then I tried the Jecklin Disk witch is so good to capture the concerts ambience in good sounding rooms. Now I record with CD-RW700 Tascam recorder and I really regret the DAT...

My real job is computer engineer... So I don't have a computer at home (yes, only an old and minimum laptop). Actually I see too much computer crash to entrust my precious live recordings to these machines. But...

As live performances recordist my goal is to find again at home the concert tonality, balance and ambience (Yes, when I record in bad sounding rooms, I try to have a better recording sound than in the real world). So I only record with one stereo pair. It's often not easy, mostly with large orchestras and choirs. But I don't record to make CD but as a witness for me and the musicians and they are always happy with my natural recordings.

As a musician I am a choir singer and gregorian chant conductor and teacher.

There are a lot of recording forums but I am happy to find here the first one dedicated to acoustic and classical recording. Thank you.

Jean-Marie

Wow, some great people here!

My name is Greg Simmons, I'll be 44 years old in March, and I make many more bad recordings than good ones. If someone doesn't stop me I'll keep writing for ever or until there is no more phosphor left on the screen. Here's a lot about myself:

*I'm an electronics technician by trade, but it is the most boring job in the world. As soon as you fix something, there's the next thing to fix. Where's the satisfaction in that?

*Started playing with home-made synths and so on in the late '70s, while still in high school. Learnt at least 100 stupid things you must never do with mains power. Also discovered that spiders cannot be magnetised, but the scientific world wasn't listening.

*While working as an electronics technician in the late '70s/early '80s, in my spare time I started doing recordings and live sound for bands formed by guys I went to school with. Also enjoyed exploding large electrolytic caps under my apprentice's seat during lunchtime, watching him jump 10 feet and spill his chips.

*My first recording system was a Teac 3440 4-track open reel recorder and Teac Model 6A mixer (6 in, 4 out). I carried it around in the back of a Toyota Corolla 1977 model panel van, and jokingly called it Reels-On-Wheels (an obvious name that has been used by many others, I believe).

*Designed and built my first recording studio in the early '80s. Learnt an awful lot about acoustics the hard way - pull it apart and build it again. And again.

*And again...

*Soon found myself working in 24-track studios in the mid '80s.

*Made lots of recordings (demos, albums, singles) for independent Melbourne bands during the '80s. Virtually all of the albums were released on vinyl only.

*Gave my first lectures in audio in 1985. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

*Got quite ill from a lifestyle that involved teaching, working in studios, doing live sound and abusing my body to stay awake all night. Got an impressive collection of venereal diseases from a groupie.

*In 1987 I moved to Sydney to get away from it all and get healthy, took up a job with a publishing company working on a magazine for sound engineers and musicians called Sonics. Rid myself of venereal diseases, totaly clear.

*Reviewed a pair of ATC SCM20 studio monitors and got introduced to high quality sound and audiophilia. I was hooked.

*Got more heavily involved in teaching audio throughout the '90s. Enjoyed it even more.

*In 1998 I published the first issue of my own magazine, called AudioTechnology. A 50/50 partnership with Philip Spencer (a great guy, by the way). It included the first of a 3-part interview I did with the great Rupert Neve, which really helped to put us on the map.

*After a couple of years I realised that being a magazine publisher was not the life I wanted. Good money, but no time to yourself and you never end up getting to play with any of the equipment! Instead, I spent all day on the phone arranging couriers to send it to the other writers.

*My interest in audiophilia continued to grow, and I eventually put together a rig for recording acoustic music. By the year 2000 it consisted of a Studer 169 console, a custom-made stereo microphone preamplifier, a Prism Sound AD124 24-bit AD converter, a Tascam DA45HR 24-bit DAT, a Marantz CDR640 CD recorder, a pair of ATC SCM20A SL Pro monitors, a Royer SF12 and numerous other microphones. Some volunteer assistants hidden among it all, too.

*I soon got sick and tired of schlepping all that stuff around and wanted to simplify my life. I was making a decent living from magazine writing and teaching, so recording was (and still is) a passion, rather than a form of survival. If it's not fun or interesting, I don't want to do it.

*I met with David Spearritt via email, to discuss the pros and cons of the Royer SF12 (pre-SF24). Turned out we had similar ideas. I recommended he buy the SF12, he recommended I buy the Nagra V.

*Bought the Nagra V and said goodbye to 8RU of stuff that weighed about 30kg, was always anchored to a power point, and required a car to move anywhere. David bought the Royer SF12 and said goodbye to reason.

*Realised that the Nagra V allowed me to record anything, anywhere. So I sold everything I owned, moved out of home, and for the last three months I've been traveling around Nepal and Tibet recording whatever takes my fancy. (I'm writing this in an internet cafe in Kathmandu, where I've bunkered down while waiting/hoping for an ear infection to clear. Fingers crossed...)

*I intend to spend about three or four months of every year, for the next few years at least, traveling around the world recording things. Any objections?

*I enjoy arguing/debating with Mr Spearritt (one of the smartest audio guys I know) over the right microphone choice/technique for a particular situation.

*I continue to do a lot of teaching and writing about audio.

*I enjoy doing the occasional challenging large recording, such as being the Australian contact for the wonderful Hall Choir recording that Ben Maas made at the Sydney Opera House.

*I can type at about 110 words per minute with a tail wind, but I prefer to cruise at about 70 over most terrain.

*I cannot see those Magic Eye 3D images on the posters, no matter how I cross my eyes, stare off into the distance, or do Marty Feldman impersonations. I'm an audio guy.

*My last wishes/instructions are: 1) don't bury me in a suit, and 2) don't bury me in Melbourne. I would prefer a Tibetan Sky Burial, if it's an option, but please make sure I am really dead first.

Nice to be here...

- Greg Simmons

P.S. They say that when you die your entire life flashes before your eyes in an instant. Well, if mine flashes before my eyes in an instant I'm going to feel very ripped off, so I'm jamming as much into it as possible. I want a 3-hour epic movie a la Titanic, or perhaps even a mini-series, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing me. We look nothing alike, but that's how I'd like to see myself at that defining moment and I'm doing the casting around here...

Greg, so far I think you win for the "most interesting" post in this category to date. I really enjoyed your story (so far), and can't wait to hear more about you recording/travels. (You could be the Lomax of this generation...)

It's fascinating to read how each of us has ended up on the paths we're on.

Great to see EVERYONE who's posting here.

I will put my name into this hat I guess. I am mostly a Pop/Rock guy but I do a lot of high school band recordings lately and have learned a lot from that. My name is Dave Runyan and I am in Northern Michigan. Traverse City area actually. I am 41 years old.

Started playing bass at 14.

Started playing in bars at 16 (not a good idea by the way)

Went to Recording Workshop at age 19 (Uh....yeah)

I had such a good time there that I became an Iron Worker for the next few years.

Got married, had kids stayed in construction until 2 years ago.

Anyway I have kept playing bass and learned keyboards and midi along he way. I worked on several local recording projects in the area over the years and decided to start my own project recording outfit in 2004. (Runyan Media)

I have a portable 24 track 24 bit set up with decent mics and pres. I spend a lot of time helping local songwriters get their songs sequenced and layed out for demos and copyright stuff.

I love recording acoustic music and have read the post in this section looking for clues to make these high school recordings shine as bright as they can.

Thanks for all of the good information that has been posted.

Dave

For what its worth, here is my biog.

Come from a musical family, father was an associate prof at University of Queensland, expert in ethnomusicology, PNG music, mother amateur cellist, now, brother in law in Berlin Phil, sister cellist. As a young child, was fed a diet of Victoria de los Angeles singing exquisite Spanish songs exquisitely and choral music, as Dad conducted many university and intervarsity choirs, even at our home.

Went to UQ, studied Mechanical Engineering, graduated with major in Acoustics, left Brisbane for Melbourne and Sydney (big smoke/smog) to become a consulting engineer in industrial sound and vibration with a small amount of architectural acoustics, mainly silencing pub noise.

In my spare time, I studied classical guitar seriously for awhile, to advance my James Taylor fingerpicking technique, met some wonderful musicians from the Sydney School of guitar, and got completely hooked on fine classical music, recordings and performance, mainly influenced by my fantastic guitar teacher, intellectual and mentor, Stephen Snook.

After 10 years of consulting, where I got mainly interested in sound intensity analysis and writing software for processing of machine vibration signals, I went back to uni, while I worked out what I really wanted to do. Studied flexible structure vibration and wrote a masters thesis on damping torsional vibration in very flexible tubes by wrapping piezo film around them and exciting it with antiphase signals.

Again, stupidly, went back to work as a consulting engineer, spent all my time down central Queensland coal mines, when the Moura mine blew up killing 11 poor bastards. Decided it was time to leave engineering for good and become a computer geek. This was 1995.

All this time I was obsessed with classical music and during this period, in particular, I started recording opera students with sound level meters from my engineering firm. I remember one hilarious "session" where the left channel was a B&K 2209 and the right channel was a Larson Davis portable spectrum analyser. The absurdity of that, and a decent salary, prompted me to buy my own kit, so I purchased a Mackie 1202, two Neumann KM130's and a Tascam DA30 DAT recorder.

Signed up to the local community classical radio station, 4MBS, and joined the concert recording team, met fellow consulting engineer, great sound engineer and all round great guy, David Starr, and formed our present recording company together. We now record many concerts, session CD's and auditions and love every minute of it. Dumped the Mackie, and the Tascam and replaced them with a Nagra V, my father took Nagras into the jungle of PNG to record the indigenous music, so I knew they were works of art and engineering. Kept the Neumanns of course and started building a mic collection.

Became passionately interested in Blumlein, ribbons and stereo techniques and theory, got some sensational results in our new theatre, trying these developments. Met Simmo and John Smyth from emails and JS in person. Immensly enjoy healthy and sometimes abrupt conversations with these guys re all things acoustical. Enjoy Simmo's writings in particular, and think he should become a travel writer.

During the day I work for a web development company and write database software. At all other times I am listening to music, going to concerts, recording music, mastering on the PC and arguing on internet forums.

JoeH wrote: Greg, so far I think you win for the "most interesting" post in this category to date.

Thanks Joe, but it's probably because I left out all the boring bits. If I was allowed to do the same with my music recordings, that'd be really cool...

...can't wait to hear more about you recording/travels. (You could be the Lomax of this generation...)

Those are big boots to fill, and I've got small feet. My chances of being a Lomax are pretty slim, especially with my current ear infection - I can't hear a damn thing in my right ear...

Back to mono!

Lomax was a legend, as is Lewiston. Perhaps we can pursuade him (er, Lewiston, not Lomax) to join this group?

- Greg Simmons

I got started in audio in Junior High in 1957. This was after my Mom and Dad bought me a used tape recorder for my birthday when I was in 7th grade.

I have been doing Audio related work ever since.

I graduated from Ohio University (no not that one- the one in Athens. Ohio) with a BFA in Radio TV Producing and Directing. (I was hoping to get a degree in audio but at that time (mid 60's) there were no audio recording degrees being given out in this country). I majored in R-TV since I was bored with my first choice which was EE and since I was already building all my own audio equipment I though it a bit much when the EE professor started off with Ohm's law and Hole Theory which I had learned in my High School Electronics and Physics class three years earlier. While at OU I started the first dormitory radio station that used AM carrier current broadcasting to reach all the radios within the dorm.

I spent two years in the Army as a Broadcast Specialist doing a five minute radio show and home town interviews. While in the Army, in my "spare time", I redid the local hospital's bedside radio network (actually a multichannel headphone network) that had been off the air for 15 years. I also set up the station so we could send and receive audio over the phone lines. The tape decks we used were a Magnecord PT6 Mono machine and a Uher 4000L Reporter for on location recordings. I was the weekend news director for a local radio station where I earned my spending money. I also learned to fly fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft thanks to a really nice Warrant Officer who I worked with and did all the photography for the Information Office. I never had to go to the "jolly green jungle (Viet Nam).

My next job was doing audio for a PBS station in Cleveland. I learned a lot about TV audio and remote recordings. Everything was still in Mono at the time (early 70's)

A year later I got a job at Oberlin College as Director of Audio Services and Concert Sound, (working with World Class faculty, students and guest performers was a real ear opening experience). which I kept until 1995 when I started my own mastering and restoration business.

Most of the work we do at Acoustik Musik, Ltd. is for local clients and we are active in mastering, restoration, reclamation (taking fire and water damaged tapes and other media and cleaning them and transferring them to contemporary media) live on location recording and video/film transfers and small run CD production.

I have one part time intern working for me at the present time but have had as many as three working part time in the past.

When I am not behind the mastering console I enjoy sailing, hiking, biking and photography. I also enjoy reading and traveling.

This is my life until now but who knows what is in the offing in the future.

Hi I'm ptr,

I've been on and of the foras of recording.org for a few years, mostly just enjoying the posibility of snapping up intersting information, learning and confirming stuff I tought I knew. I seem to be the second Swede on AM, I'm located in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden.

My history, is that I've always been keen on music, not one of my family, prior to me, have shown any what so ever talent for it, music that is. In third grade i got two classes of guitar lessons and concluded that I did not have the patience to learn an instrument in a classroom with ten others. Subsequently I tought myself and has been playing ever since.

I was pop and rock untill my late teens when my best friend said that because I was working class I'd never understand classical music. Stubborn as I am, I decided to prove him wrong! So I started to read stuff, bough loads of record and emerged myself in this culture. A long time passed whilst I got educated in the second passion of my life; Cabinet making. In 1990 the cabinet making business I had established failed miserably forcing me to sit down to reconsider my life.

Having done that, I took the local equivalent to the S.A.T's, two years of Adult High School and headed for University. Majoring in Musicology, whilst at University I befriended lot of students at the music department (not least becuse Music and Musicology departments at that time chared the same building). Showing my Masters degree in Musicology to my teenage best friend was a real triumph!

In the begining of my university tenure, almost as by chance, someone needed a recordist for a concert on short notice and I was asked, the day before I read what little books there where at the local libraries covering this subject. Somehow, unbeknownst to me, the recording made with mostly borrowed tools (a Pearl TL-44 Stereo mic and two MBHO MBP 648/KA 100 DK omnis, a Mackie mixer and my trusty old B77) sounded good enough to impress the brass band that where involved. five years on, the year was 2004, and the keen hobby had turned in to a more or less full time self owning business.

I'll record just about anything in an acoustic enviroment, my attitude to recording is that I always let my ears decide, but I will always start with "less is more."

I'm still building up a basic stock of equipment, wich is one of the main reasons to indulge in a forum like this. My english is probably quite inventive, but that's only because I see life as an endless journey of learning! Hence, I expect to ask more questions then I will generate answers, mostly tho, I'll be sitting here at the back of the class room listening in.

btw : I'm about to turn 40

Hey all,

Another newbie here, and was really glad to find this forum!

My name is Michael Hughes. By day, I am a statistician and consultant at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, but my true love is and has always been serious music. I was a symphonic/marching percussionist for about 20 years and recently put that to bed, but have fed a passion for pipe organs since I was a college freshman about, oh, a hundred years ago (1981 to be exact).

I have collected thousands of classical recordings over the years and got started doing my own stuff in a very small way about 10 years ago with Core Sound binaurals and a Sony D7. About 4 years ago, I started up a small side business called TTL Audio Productions to satisfy my desires to capture the sounds of real musicians in real spaces, investing in good Neumann and Earthworks mics and preamps and a couple of Alesis Masterlinks. (My next purchase is likely to be a serious A/D upgrade.) I have gotten several gigs and am gaining some local contacts, and my clients have been happy with the stuff I've done to date.

I live near the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and have done several jobs with advanced students there, and have recorded local orchestras and choruses. But, my real passion is recording the pipe organ: I really get around doing that, and my wife has a DMA in organ perf from Indiana, so I get lots of opportunities to experiment.

Glad to be a part of this forum. As others have said, it's long overdue.

Cheers,
Mike

Set out to be a USAF fighter pilot but discovered at age 6 that i was near-sighted-- end of that story, but then discovered that an organ console looked as much fun.

My family was musical, so I began piano at age 7 and organ at 13. I was an organ major for the first two years of college, then jumped to bass trombone-- it looked like much more fun! Practiced like a madman and landed my first professional orchestra job a year out of college. Proceeded to play in three orchestras on a fulltime basis, most recently 11 years in the Nasvhille Symphony, where I also played many sessions. In there somewhere I spent 4 years studying and freelancing in Chicago where I met my wife, was a member of Civic Orchestra of Chicago (the training orchestra of the CSO) and got to play some with the CSO and work for WFMT in the "glory days" doing the Milwaukee Symphony. I also had many small church organist-choir director jobs along the way. Finally realized (a bit late) that church work was more rewarding than the music factory that is a major orchestra. Quit 6 years ago to take a fulltime organist/choirmaster position here in Savannah.

What, you wonder, does all this have to do with recording?

Started recording things in high school thanks to my Dad's background in broadcast. In my first orchestra job I bought a Revox and a pair of AKG 451s which I quickly learned to hate and then got KM-84s (which I STUPIDLY sold later for very little before they became "classics" in the minds of some). Things began to snowball with Dolby SR, Studer, Schoeps, etc. In Nashville it occurred to me that 1) i could rent any recording gear ever made from several places that operate 24/7 and 2) we needed a down payment for a house. No one there understands classical recording anyway-- you're not serious with less than 48 tracks!

Sold it all but later got a pair of SM80 omnis (real sleepers) and a little portable DAT.

When coming to Savannah I fell into the job of recording the now-deceased but musically superb Savannah Symphony--- thus began a gradually escalating gear addiction. Along the way parted company with the fulltime church gig and now do recording fulltime while maintaining the musical side as an assistant organist/choirmaster. I describe myself as a "recovering bass trombonist" but still beat the face into shape a few times a year.

I have figured out that recording is mainly low-key sales calls and client relations interspersed with projects. The work is out there but lucky is the man who doesn't need to look for it!

Rich

Oh my... this is such a classy crowd. It's great to find so many like-minded souls. Thanks for all the fine stories. Here's mine:

In the early 1950's my first experience recording was watching my father, a college physics professor, operate a reel-to-reel deck with a magic eye level indicator. He would coax us to talk and sing songs into the microphone (ceramic) while we watched the magic eye wink. I'm still looking for and intend to restore that tape, hopefully before it's dust.

Early musical training included a few years of piano (gave it up too soon), and then many years of performing in choral groups starting in Middle School.

High School included membership in group of nerds who were responsible for PA sound and recording services for events including pep rallies, concerts, musicals, and football games. We used mostly EV gear (664, 55S, 641 etc) but always had to scrounge to get enough stuff to do big concerts/shows.

In college I did sound reinforcement and recording for a number of summer musicals, however my BA degree is in TV/Film production. No recording program in the early 1970's.

Beyond school there were years of freelance video production and post production, then burn-out and a shift to programming computers. This was the early 1980s; the IBM had just been introduced. During this time I spent a few years building graphics software (before PC's really did graphics), including a one-of-a-kind TV Graphics and Character Generator System for the Korean Broadcasting System (it did Roman, Korean & Chinese Char had a 1Kx1K 24 bits-RGB display)

More years working for a large Japanese Electronics Co. doing a variety of projects, including designing video production rooms for large screen video display systems (Diamond Vision).

For the past 10 years, I've worked as an Broadcast TV and Media Engineering Consultant. My resume includes many large-scale projects for the likes of Fox, DirecTV, ABC, WB, Optus Vision, etc. Up until recently, video people tended to ignore the audio, so it's been interesting watching things change as the industry gets a handle on 5.1.

In 1999 I re-kindled my passion for choral music and recording. Presently I produce concert and studio recordings for the Angel City Chorale: http://www.angelcitychorale.com. The group of 120 performs an eclectic mix, often with a band and multiple soloists (gospel, doo-wap, classical, etc). The latest CD was released in Nov 2004. In the near future, I'm looking to do more choral work and "retire" from the broadcast game.

With no wife or kids, I've become a bit of a gearslut, which is OK. The mic locker has grown to include numerous Schoeps, Neumann, Sankan (CU41x3), Josephson, AKG, Shure, EV, AEA, and soon to be a Royer Mics. (In the past I found rental gear was deficient, so I decided to own what I use). Generally we record direct to PC (Samplitude 24-ch) from an O2R96, monitor and mix on Genelec, and have a great time in the process experimenting and solving sonic puzzles. And when it all comes together: performance, acoustic, technology.... what a thrill.

Thanks for listening. I look forward to more interesting conversations.

News from Chicago

Greetings Felllow "Freaks of the Indushtry!"
My name is Hudson Fair and I'm in Chicago.

I've been giving people "da bidniz" for 24 years in the classical recording field as an engineer and producer. I run my own small recording company here in Chicago comprised of a tight cadre of other engineers and agreeable working companions.

We record records, programs for radio and also work for music publishing companies who require a lot of recording.
We are fortunate to have a heavy schedule of high quality recording with something different almost every day.

We are a house of Neve, Nagra and Schoeps--meat and potatos.

My most recent project, other than orchestra recording, was as a
"psychedelic guitar effects" engineer for a Robert Cray record recently completed at a Rolling Stones affiliated mix room in the Hell-A area.
This venture, a little off the path for me, was a total turn on. I love trashy Hollywood! (Actually I hate it)

I'm a firm believer that the music must be served and although I like good equipment, I would never say that it is the key ingredient in acoustic recording. The players and the arrangement, the room and the preparation are the key ingredients. Still, experience in recording does add to make a better result.

In former days, while getting started in recording and building a client base, I worked for Stellavox S.A. as their US importer and later worked for Nagra Magnetic Recorders, Inc. in NYC.

I still carry a fondness for analog recording and will often run a 1/4" Stellavox or 1/2" 4-track Studer along with a hi-res digital recorder. Although I'm a vigorous proponent of good sound, I have no love for SACD or DSD or its variants. In fact I think it's a joke and have worked against adoption of these new flavors.

I'm pleased to join in discussion on this forum and I'm glad I have found you all.

Best from Chicago,

HR Fair

:mrgreen:

Great to see you here Hudson, and you're another Nagra V user as well.

Although I'm a vigorous proponent of good sound, I have no love for SACD or DSD or its variants. In fact I think it's a joke and have worked against adoption of these new flavors.

We are going to get on well. :twisted:

I started playing classical violin at age 7 and gave up 7 years later. Played oboe for a couple of years after that and bassoon for a couple of weeks. Haven't played anything since (well, a tiny bit of cajon) and can't even remember how to read music any more--but I can still follow a score, sort of.

I started buying old tube gear at garage sales in the '70s and built my own speakers, amps and mixer in high school. Worked in theatre sound during high school and college, started in radio during college. (UCSB, EE.) Worked in Hollywood building edit bays and other industrial/broadcast stuff during the mid-'80s, rewired and/or built several studios during that period. Taught video editing for awhile, helped USC spend the money Spielberg & Lucas gave them in '84. Spent several years in TV production sound, mostly news & sports--building and running Olympics stuff for NBC, ABC Radio Networks, several years of work on the Grammy and Emmy awards, anything for money as long as I didn't have to build bombs.

After the '88 Olympics I made enough to get out of LA and move back to Santa Barbara, where I bought a high end audio retail store (Audio Research, Thiel, Magnepan, McIntosh, Linn, etc.) Lost my shirt on that one bigtime.

About this time (mid-'90s), the whole Internet thing started to blossom and my skills (early Arpanet experience, communications networks, etc.) suddenly became valuable, and I noticed I didn't have a dime in the bank while my friends had condos, retirement plans, etc. So I took a job with a telephone company and worked a few startups on the side. Income and benefits--what a concept!

Fast forward a few years and I'm in Reno, NV running the engineering operations for a small telephone company. Over the past few years, I've returned to recording as an avocation and I have to say it's a lot more fun when I don't have to work for people I don't like. Getting ready to move to a little town in New Mexico where my wife & I have just bought an old hotel, which will consume all our time & money for the next five years or so. It has a nice ballroom where I plan to host all manner of music.

Some may remember me...

I'm Ken Morgan, aslo know as MidlandMorgan or Wireline, depending on how long I've been hanging at the sites...I was a regular here, but left about a year ago due to some ... stressful... events and issues here (which look to be cleared up)...

Anyway, full time engineer/musician...running both a small inhouse studio and a couple of portable rigs, all based on Samplitude.

Happily married, 2 bigass dogs, 1 very petite wife, homeowner, active in local city government....

I dabble with ideas on how to make my job easier, with the usual result that any attempts to act on the idea results in some sort of disaster, whether its financial (break it), medical (the local emergency room is on a 1st name basis with me...) or emotional (things I can't make work seem to devastate me...and yes, I take pills for that :) )

Ben, looks like you're holding down the fort pretty good here, amigo.

Welcome (back?) Ken! (I DO indeed remember Wireline.)

Good to see you posting again.

Hey!
Thanx for a great forum!

My name is Øivind Solberg (28 years of age) and Im one of the few guys in here from Norway. I have a small studio in Oslo, Norway's Capitol, were I mostly record acoustic guitars, brass and vocals. Im in the folk, singer songwriter biz, but Im also a big fan of classical music, espessially the high quality sound produced is this recording tradition....

Im in here to learn more about mic, compress and eq tech for acoustic music!... and hopefully give some good advise!

Setup; Pc, Cubase SX2, KRK and Alesis monitors, MOTU828MK2, Focusrite Voicemaster pro, Røde K2, SM MC02, Shure 57/58, AKG Emotion 500 etc. Wish I could say Avalon, but I can't..... yet :oops:

See you around!

Sunhill

Producer
Sunhill Productions
Norway

Hi All,

I joined the forum yesterday, got advices within hours. Very nice,
many thanks. Since I think to stick around, I'll give my info too.

My day job is a scientist, known to colleagues as Dr. K. Lukashin,
PhD (Physics). I'm a NASA contractor, work for Earth Observing
System project. Before that I was in academic research, High
Energy (or Particle) physics. Because of the job, I moved around
some (Russia, France, Italy, USA), currently live in Newport News,
Virginia.
I like scientific work, but I also liked music as long as remember
myself. Here I'll skip very exciting (but musically not productive)
childhood and college years. On music scene these days I'm known
as Costy L, an indie musician of sorts. I do the writing, playing,
recording, producing ecc. Until recently I was working only my own
projects, now have some recording gigs. Here're my releases:
Three Ravens (1996), The Iron Mask (2002), Dirty Sky (2003),
Pagan Tales (2004). The music style is so-called roots-rock. It has
world music influences, lots of acoustic instruments: guitars, Irish
bouzouki, various percussion. Good or bad ? Judge yourselves,
the samples are on my web, iTunes, downloads on the Amazon,
the CDs are there too.
My production style, in a manner of speaking, is maximizing the
quality/cost ratio: preproduction in my home studio, production
and post production in some A-rated studio. I love to work with
SSL, but the last project I moved over to the ProTools for editing
and mixing. Now I have Mac G5 and ProTools gear at home as well.
Ultimately, the best music gear-pieces I have are the head and
ears (not sure which one goes first).
Peace,

Costy.

Weclome to all the new viewers/visitors; it's great reading about everyone's history, careers, and locations.

And after reading Costy's history, I guess there won't be any wise cracks that start with: "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to...." :twisted:

Good to see everyone, indeed!

Hi all,

Pete North, age 33, British, joined the forums about an hour ago, and here I am with my life story....
actually I'm too shy for a life story so a brief summary is as follows:

Make my living as a Big Band/session Bass Trombonist (+ £income), studying Audio engineering/production 3 days a week (£0 income) , and have recently started a jazz record label (- £income).

I live in London with my wife and mini-dachsund (the two are separate beings), but intend to move to 'the country' in 2 years time to run B&B/residential studio specialising in classical/jazz/voice recording and mastering.

Currently on a fast upward leaning curve, trying to avoid a tumble!

Loving the forums; what are the chances of 3 bass trombonists in the same group!? How about a Sub-group, Gunnar & Rich?

divingduck wrote:
Loving the forums; what are the chances of 3 bass trombonists in the same group!? How about a Sub-group, Gunnar & Rich?

As Ben the clarinetist goes running for cover... Heck, one bass-bone is usually plenty enough, but three?!!! :? :P

Seriously, though, welcome to all the new folks that have taken the time to post!

--Ben

my name

Well Duncan...

This is a start, but lets hear more about you. There must be more than just a name. This thread was composed to introduce ourselves to the other members and provide background information to the rest of the community.

--Ben

Paul De Mond - been lurking the Mastering forums for a while. I just got to this one.

I can't hold a candle to the impressive list of musician credentials here. Amazing! I'm looking forward to hanging out with all of you.

I'm an Electrical Engineer by training, and a Program Manager by trade. Part time, I'm the Studio Engineer at the local NPR affiliate. So, I know and understand a lot of the technical side of things (or, at least I think I do...). I suck at the classical guitar, even after 12 years of lessons.

My background has been from the audiophile side of things over the past 25-30 years and when I grow up I want to be a recording engineer. My heroes are 'Professor' Keith O. Johnson and Bob Katz.

Fortunately, my station has a small recording studio, and I designed and installed the control room for it. Most of our work is acoustic: folk, some jazz, occaisionally classical. Small groups of 2 - 5 (room isn't too large). ProTools TDM system. Small, but nice selection of mics.

I'm hoping to pick up some advice on mic techniques to augment all the articles I've been reading over the years. I hope to make just one great recording some day.

Good to see you, dpd; sounds like you're in a good spot there in Indiana, and working for NPR too!

Welcome aboard, along with all the other recent posters.

[WARNING: The following may contain copious amounts of waffling]

Paraphrasing a character on the BBC series “The Fast Show”…”Hi, I’m Thomas Grubb”.

I’m an organist and producer from Melbourne Australia, 34 years old and usually get to browse this forum only late at night and after too many glasses of red.

I undertook undergraduate organ and composition studies in Melbourne and postgraduate organ studies in Stuttgart with Ludger Lohmann. While in Stuttgart I met my wife Sonja and had her transported to the colonies where we have two boys aged 5 and 2.

My interest in audio comes from my dad who, when I was young, used to lug along reel-to-reel recorders to various venues to record my playing.

While at Uni. I was part of a group who recorded the “not so serious” style of music. We were frowned upon by our compositional peers, but at least one of the group has gone on to write the chorus of a worldwide No.1 hit. I also had access to vrs 1.1 of ProTools, plus learnt the joys of splicing tape.

This all seemed like a lot of fun, so I did a one-year course in audio engineering. The school is not around anymore as they had a policy of refunding the fees if the student dropped out – needless to say, only 25% of students got to the end on the year and the school didn’t survive long. I had a good teacher, access to a good studio, and armed with a vague knowledge of how mathematics worked managed to pass the year.

In 1993, having finished my courses and thinking it was really time to seek greener pastures, I applied for and got a place in Stuttgart studying organ. I supported myself teaching remedial aural training to (mostly) singers and playing organ and later piano at the American army barracks (“Praise be the Lord, for Jesus is touching my soul…Alleluia”…that sort of thing).

I also became a member of the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister and visited many meetings and conferences. At one conference I heard a producer Ted Diehl from Channel Classics talk and liked what he said. I wrote him a letter and he invited me to visit him in Holland. This was really the turning point that inspired me to try and follow the path of classical producer. We had conversations about what made a good recording, and he introduced me to Rens Heijnis, maker of the Sonodore range of products.

After 5 years in Germany, I decided to return to Melbourne. The position of Assistant Organist at St Patrick’s Cathedral (a wonderful neo-gothic building with around 7-seconds of reverb – great for Reger and Vierne) was offered to me, and through a friend I found out that a local classical label was looking for a recording engineer.

The recording job turned out to be poorly paid with a terrible attitude towards producing (ie. “Was that take ok?”…”Well, you’ve already done it 4 times, that’s enough”), but it did provide me with plenty of contacts. After 2 years of working with ProTools (a most unsuitable program for classical editing) and having received a number of scoldings from the owner about recording too many takes (he had to do the backups after all!) I left and set up my own company, Mano Musica.

Luckily I picked up some editing work for ABC Classics, and since then have regular editing and producing work for them and other private clients.

My wisest choice was to get some Sonodore mics and preamps – people just seem to love the sound. I’ve been using Wavelab 5 for editing, but am waiting to receive Sequoia 8.2.

My aim is to be recording and mastering SACD (I don’t care what anyone says, if the front end it right, then you DO hear the difference) – the closest I’ve come is 24/96 in surround.

I’m still at the Cathedral (we just performed the Faure Requiem for the Pope to 4000 people). Perhaps we’ll go back to Europe some day. The classical scene seems to be rather fickle over there at the moment, but I do so miss not being able to wander into a church and play an organ from 1700…

It’s great to have found a forum with such a interesting mix of people. I’m always interested in hearing other points of view, and I hope I can be of some help to someone, sometime.

Cheers,
Tom

ps. personally I wouldn‘t mind being buried in Melbourne, just not in the western suburbs please.

:P

Hi
I'm Rhydian. It's a Welsh name. I'm Welsh. It's also a male name for those who haven't heard it before.

I started playing guitar and keys when aged about 9 years old. Ditched the keys at about 12. Did my first gig in a local "pub" aged 17 yrs and gigged lots until aged 30yrs, also recording as an artist in a London-based band called the Lazy Days (ie someone else did the engineering and mixing).

About 4yrs ago, got into the concept of audio engineering. Currently I'm engineering and producing an album for a London-based company, Innocent Music. Predominantly working with overtly christian artists at the present (I investigated the gospel about 4 yrs ago and decided it was all true and very important, as opposed to untrue and therefore insignificant).

Range of music I enjoy is wide. Recording rock/pop at present, but aim to diversify.

The two things I love most are my PRS custom guitar and my Pod XT pro. I'm growing to love protools almost as much (controvertial or what!).

Rhydian :o

Welcome Rhydian and Tom.

Rhydian - My favorite sounding guitars are the Paul Reed Smiths - their custom work is some of the finest work on guitars since Amati made violins.

Tom - I think you and I will get along great. I like your comments on SACD/DSD and your choice of equipment!

8-)
Jeremy

Greg -

I actually went to recording engineer school back in the early 90's (2 year program). Had a job in a studio, decided it made a better hobby than career....just didn't like the LA entertainment industry. Of course, there's other types of audio work, but....Ended up getting a degree in Biology instead....now I work with computers...go figure....

Anyway...I've been playing instruments for most of my life. Took some piano lessons for a year or two when I was 7 or 8, then started playing bass when I was 11 in the school jazz band...continued that all the way through high school. Picked up guitar along the way...

Now I play a lot of tenor banjo, octave mandolin and some tin whistle as well. I'm big into traditional Irish music...though I can't get enough of more "punk" bands like The Pogues either. My musical tastes are all over the spectrum...Zappa-XTC-Bartok-The Bothy Band-Ornette Coleman-Hank Williams III-The Residents-Tom Waits ... and on and on... I'm just not much into radio pop music.... (couldn't have guessed, right?)

I used to do a lot of home recording as well as with my various old bands (boy do I have a lot of old 4-track tapes)...but lots of moving around in the past few years (California>Germany>back to California and then some...), etc, has been keeping music (& recording) to a minimum. I'm finally getting back into things...building a home studio...playing with other musicians again. And now I've even lined up a session to record in a few months (once I get my portable laptop based digital studio going)...a bluegrass band up in San Francisco.

Amazing though...haven't looked into things like mixers, mics and signal processors in quite some time (8 years?)...now I feel lost. Rode? Studio Projects? Never heard of them! ....until a few weeks ago.

So I work at this really large computer company...and they have a small A/V production studio in the very building I'm in...I keep thinking of asking them if they're dept is hiring... ;-)

So, I've got my Mac laptop with 1.2GB RAM, and external 200Gig firewire drive, a few mics, various outboard signal processors, buying an FW audio interface this weekend.... I'm just working on getting a couple more mics. I need a good all-purpose vocal mic & a pair of mics to stereo record live sessions...which I've posted questions about on the corresponding forums.

My name is Brian Altenhofel. I started getting into music when I was 7 with Carcassi-Block Classical Guitar Method. When I was 11, I picked up the F Horn (I know what you mean Cucco about getting bent out of shape when people say "FRENCH HORN"!!!) for our school band. It seemed I was the only student brave enough to do it without being forced to later in high school.

Anyway, I got into mixing live sound when I was 9 at our church on Sunday nights. They told me to "make sure the fader doesn't move and don't touch anything" (basically, it was something to keep my hyper self occupied). Being a negatively reinforced person, I did the exact opposite. I tweaked with things during the services and figured out what they did. By the time I was 12, I was working both Sunday morning and Sunday evening. I volunteered there every Sunday until I moved for college a few months ago. I still work in a rotation every third month (they want to save my gas since they can't really pay it), but I get calls many weekends for rehearsals with those doing music performances because I "know how to make them sound like part of the CD". (I just leave a diagram of the settings for the guy who does the sound that Sunday. Oh yeah, the performer usually pays me to come and do that.)

About the same time I started working every Sunday at the church, I started thinking about recording. I knew the basics of how things worked, but still wanted more. I bought a reel-to-reel recorder and a small mixer (I can't remember the brands) and a couple of SM57s. I remember when I noticed that I had gotten off just a tad on a take of a song I had written and I thought about just punching in. However, I also noticed that I stayed on after I got off if you get what I mean. That was my first experience with the razorblade.

When I was 16, my grandparents died and left me a few thousand dollars inheritance. I bought a small PA system consisting of budget items. I also bought many different types of lights and a controller. I started DJ'ing dances for our high school for a very low $50 per dance. I viewed it mostly as a service. However, it really opened me up to the musical styles I hated. I had always been an 80's metal, punk, grunge, rap, emo, and classical type of person, but in small towns all anyone can dance to seems to be rap and country. The former rap is RunDMC; the latter is Ying-Yang Twins.

After I graduated high school (A year early, I might add.) I sold all of my PA system in favor of acquiring equipment to later start my own studio. I've always been a business minded person. From actually buying KoolAid in bulk quantities during my childhood summers so I could sell cups of KoolAid at $.50 with a $.49 profit margin to running my own webservers throughout junior high and high school to DJ'ing dances in high school (I didn't count spending the inheritance as losing money. That was free money to me.) I always tried to find the best way to increase my profit margin. I want to settle as a recording engineer, preferably also owning my own studio. By the way, I kept the lights as part of my vibe gear. For some reason, I work best with lights, candles, and fog.

I enjoy working with tape. I bought an Otari 24-track off of eBay as one of my first purchase. To me, editing is fun. Its that risk of no undo key. I've been around computers since I was 5. I built my first computer out of components when I was 8. I broke through a security system on a computer for the first time when I was 10 (Without a program, I might add. Also, that got boring at 15.). I am totally in the digital age, but to me, audio still fits better in the analog format. I'm not saying I'm opposed to digital gear, its just I don't like the DAWs. Its not that I don't know how to use them either. I've troubleshooted problems with ProTools over the phone. I just don't like the way DAWs sound. Until computer power catches up with the theory behind DAWs, I probably won't use them unless I absolutely have to. (Just in case I run into a situation where I HAVE to use ProTools, I take courses every 6 months to keep things fresh so I am at least prepared.)

Yes, I do most of my work out of an apartment. But you should really see the look on people's faces around here when they see a 24-track 2" tape machine and NO COMPUTER in sight when you say "this is what we're recording on". I hate the "so where's ProTools?" question that ALWAYS comes up.

Anyway, I'll be 19 on May 10, so I think I'm a little ahead of where I need to be and this place is only helping me. I've seen more progress in my skill advancement since I joined than I did before. I have a really quick learning curve so these discussions combined with my experimental mindset switches my thought process into high gear.

Welcome, Brian; (Welcome to alllllll the newcomers, indeed!)

It's literally breath-taking and truly gratifying to see so many new folks on here, and to read/hear about what you've been through to get where you are now.

I hope it'll mean a lot of new posts and ideas from one and all.

Hey everybody! Let me into your warm company, please. :)

It was really interesting to read all the stories. I was reading this forum a lot but so far it's my first post.
My name is Sergey and I'm from Russia, just happened to come to LA 2 years ago. So there might be a lot of poor english from my side. :oops: To say that I was in music all my life would be a lie. I started to LISTEN to pop music when I was about 16... Next few years I spent trying to get decent hi-fi system. All those years I was pretty active HAM radio guy at the club station. Worked at advertisement agency until my classmate at Telecommunications University took me to his father's company for a part-time job as a tech for conferences, simultaneous translation etc. That was in 1997. Year before I met a girl, and she just pushed me one night to the theatre. That was it, I was hooked. By that time my audiophilia ended since I couldn't afford even cables, but it transformed to the interest for professional audio. My job as a tech also helped a lot. So one perfect day I got a calls from that girl and from my friend separately talking about the same thing: one theatre needed in-house sound engineer asap. I called them and got an invitation for this very evening. I got there 1 hour before the curtain, talked to the sound dept chief, director of the theatre and stayed for the show. I didn't expect to run the second half of it... But I did. That was March 01 1999... In 2 weeks I learned that guy who was my boss has quit. So I became this way a chief of sound dept. :D I quit just 6 months later, with the beginning of a new year at University.
But already in a month I was working in the Opera House as a Stage Light dept guy... I hooked again. And still hooked to opera, ballet and classical music as crazy. There I spent about 1.5 years. Some time later I noticed some strange activity going on in the theatre and found out that there is construction of recording studio taking place. Somehow I found a guy who will be my teacher in a future and managed to talk to him. Our conversation was interrupted by another guy was a head of whole dept there. 20 mins and I was named as a head of recording studio... :D just nominal term though. And we've started... First year we recorded nearly every performance (and there it's alsmost every day), mixing last night show next morning and recording at night again. We did live open air opera shows with PA, broadcasting and recording at the same time... I mean, just two of us were responsible for the sound. Then we did some cooperative work with couple foreign crews, that enriched our experience immensely. And so on...
And one more day I won a Green Card Lottery and decided to try to move to States. So here I work at small studio so far. Desperately want to do classical recordings again. As to a gear - I don't have much. Just a couple of Schoeps mics and Samplitude DAW. 8)

Sorry if that was too long!
Cheers!