Recording Training For Musicians
Introduction
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Let’s face it, every musician loves to record his music. The music industry has seen vast changes, most driven by shifts in technology that make recording less expensive and superior quality available for do-it-yourself musicians. As the owner of a high quality studio I’ve watched musicians make the same types of mistakes we made in the recording process. Recording great music is about getting 3 things correct: product, performance, and presentation. Being a successful artist will require executing each of these components efficiently when selecting support personnel such as song writers, producers, session players, sound engineers, and recording studios. We fundamentally believe in high fidelity recordings and to gain acceptance from fans and recording labels, there can be no compromise on the quality of a recording, however many of the aspects of the recording process can be done by the musician himself. To that end, we’ve customized a cost effective training program designed specifically for musicians who want to be directly involved in the recording their music.
The Track Studio offers a unique training program designed specifically for musicians who enjoy recording some, or all of their music, in a “DIY” format. Though this program is not targeted towards individuals who seek a career in audio engineering, students will learn exactly the same techniques used by professional sound engineers. We firmly believe musicians should be just as capable of recording themselves as they are writing or performing their material. It’s not difficult at all and we’ll show you how!
Program
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To meet the busy schedules of our students the program is broken down into 1-hour segments, once per week, held at The Track Studio. The curriculum is segmented in 1 topic per month, which is covered in the 4 training sessions. Some competitors offer programs in “bootcamp” fashion whereby students must commit to successive full-day sessions of up to 10 days to complete their recording training. Again, these programs are mainly intended for students seeking a career as a sound engineer, but we believe transferring so much information in such a short period of time limits the retention of material presented. Further, many of these recording workshops train ONLY THE USE OF MIXING SOFTWARE, and fail to provide training in valuable live recording (often called “tracking”) techniques which an integral part of the recording process. We train all the aspects necessary for you to record your music, which include:
• Tracking: the aspect of recording the music performance and the tools used to complete the process, as well as, understanding the elements of the “live” room’s on the recording.
• Editing: lining up the various performing parts into proper timing & tempo.
• Mixing: use of panning techniques (left & right placement), equalization (accentuating frequencies), compression (louder & softer enhancements of signals), use of effects (delay, reverb, etc.), and positioning of players/instruments within a song.
• Mastering: the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device.
• Sampling: using software applications to replace aspects of recording otherwise performed by the musician.
Format
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Training sessions are conducted in small groups of approximately 8-10 persons at the recording studio. Each weekly session is one-hour in length with weekly homework requirements. Classes are conducted in a relaxed but structured format with each student getting hands on experience from seasoned instructors. Material is delivered at a pace whereby even beginners can ultimately learn how to record high quality music. Students who wish only to learn how to mix their music can opt for a “Pro Tools only” training program which focuses solely on use of the Pro Tools program and predominantly digital plug-in support software.
Prerequisites
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There are no requirements for having previous recording experience but students must be at least 8 years old, though we believe students of at least junior high school level most suited to grasp the full benefits of our training program. Further, the program requires that each student brings the following to each training session:
• Laptop computer capable of supporting required software.
• Pro Tools software version 8.0 or higher (preferably version 9).
• Required course manuals (2) which shall be communicated by the instructor.
• Midi board (required only for the sampling component).
Hours
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Courses will be established once a minimum of 5 persons sign up for a class. Class start times will generally be Monday through Friday from 5 pm to 10 pm. Weekend classes can be formed as well so long as the same class size requirements are met, though weekends are generally reserved for recording sessions.
Pricing
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The cost of the recording training program is $120 per month, per student, due at the beginning of each month. A one-time registration fee of $25 is required of all students payble at sign up prior to the first class.
