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Nicole Thorp
I can't believe i am already on lesson 10, halfway through the program. It's been such a great journey so far, I've learned so much over the past three months and met so many awesome people including a ton of talented musicians and artists. Pierre has been so great to work with as well, he is always fun to be around and pushes me in the studio every time i am there to expand my knowledge in audio and by giving me tasks that i can learn from by doing. I think the biggest aspect i underestimated coming into the program was the amount of information that goes into learning how to be a recording engineer. From routing to digital audio to converters to microphone uses and placement to electronics to learning how to work with clients. There is an abundance of information but i am really surprised at just how well it has sunk in and how much i have been able to retain of all the information that has come my way these past several months. Re reading chapter notes and asking Pierre every question that comes to mind are two things that have really helped me advance on this journey. I am doing really well and all of this feels natural to me; being in the studio, learning everything about audio, and working and interacting with clients. I'm loving it.
This week in the studio Pierre went over with me plugins and processing. We talked about how different plugins work and how the formats of plugins have changed. I talked to him about his ProTools setup and the different plugin formats his system uses. We also talked about AudioSuite plugins and how they differ from the ProTools stock plugins. Pierre said that I'm progressing with ProTools really well and he gave me some more functions i could experiment with in ProTools to continue to get to know the program better. We also talked about musicianship and the music industry and how both have changed. Pierre is super smart and knowledgeable about the music industry and he has a lot of great stories. Something that he told me that really stuck with me and that happens to be very relevant in music today was that back in the days of recording to tape, musicians actually had to practice and perform well on their records because not much editing could be done other than splicing tapes together but nowadays musicians don't have to perform well or even perform at all on their records because every aspect of a song can be edited. It shows that even though the digital age has offered a lot of convenience , it has also developed lazy habits within the industry. I'm glad to see that real musicianship is still alive through a talented crop of musicians today, as long as there is originality, authenticity, and creativity music will always hold great value.
This week at the studio i sat in on a vocal tracking session of two very talented rappers who were working on their first joint album together. These guys stood out to me not only because they are extremely talented, but also because of how supportive they were of each other and with talking to them they seem to have a great team behind them who support them and the different aspects of their career. I would step out of the studio every so often to go de-oxidize chips on one of the channels for the console, i was really happy Pierre gave me this task and grateful that he trusted me to do it because those channels are not cheap! I also assisted with helping clean up the rehearsal rooms after the bands got done rehearsing at the Rehearsal Works facility. I also got go peak in on a live performance that was taking place in the live room as well. I really am having the time of my life with this learning process and I've never pushed myself as hard as i have. I'm so excited for what the future has in store for me, I'm gonna keep going and keep God, hard work, and determination at the center of my life.
