Week 1 through 3 - Posted on 2014-09-01 by Elaine Broiles

I am so excited to have started my audio engineering program. I started on Tuesday the 12th of August. There is so much information. I am learning so many new things but everything seems to make sense so I haven't found it overwhelming.

At "Hyland Recording", where I am learning from Ted Hyland, There is a analog mixing console from the 80's, as well as Pro Tools. I am enjoying learning about both, and look forward to diving into Pro Tools more in future weeks. I find the analog soundboard facinating. The are 40 channels, and I am trying to remember the funtions of the pots that Ted has shown me so far.

The second week I recorded one of my own songs in the vocal sound booth. Ted talk to me about XLR microphones. He explained the 3 pins, positive, negative and ground. We also talked about microphone placement and he showed me how to set up for my acoustic guitar and vocals before recording my song.

The third week was excited because Ted had me set up my own PA system with a small 10 channel mixing console. He gave me the instructions but I did all the work. I plugged in two power amps, two speakers and two mics. I also hooked up a CD player to play around with adjusting the pots on the soundboard and hearing how the diferent frequencies effect the overall sound. I then sang with the mics that I had hooked up and placed on my own.

The next day I performed at a local outdoor music event called Rockin' on the River in Troy NY. A number of students from the Troy Music Academy where I take voice opened for a Led Zepplin cover band. Because of what I learned over the past few weeks I knew that I had to adjust my guitar mic a little, and not only knew what the monitor was, but knew to ask for the sound crew to turn it up so I could hear myself better. It was a really good week.