Climbing the ladder - Posted on 2016-04-27 by Nicole Thorp

This week was all about learning dynamic signal processing: compressors, gates, and how to use them. I have to admit that this chapter was the most difficult just because of how much information was involved but Pierre did a good job of guiding me through it and showing me examples of when and where you would apply a compressor or a gate and what parameters work best for each application.

At this point in the program I'm gaining a bit of momentum and actually starting to put into action the concepts that i have been learning about in the chapters previous. Of course, there is a huge difference between reading about a technique or piece of gear and actually using it. Tutorials are great but when you can actually feel out the gear and plugins for yourself, that exploration makes a huge difference. One thing that is so important and that I've been conscious of since the start has been to develop my ear, the ear picks up such subtle nuances and as an engineer it's important to be able to hear those subtle changes like the difference between a compressed snare or a kick drum that hasn't had a gate applied to it yet. The difference between a good recording and a great recording is in the details that the ear picks up.

So for the lesson, Pierre demoed for me compressors, limiters, expanders, gates, and all of their parameters. Pierre is so good that he just knows what a track needs and can pinpoint exactly how much an element needs to affect the sound so it was helpful for him to show me how compressors and gates work and real time examples of when they would be used and how they would be applied. We also talked about different types of compression and how they are used. After that i actually got mixing time on the console. Pierre gave me a session to work on and i got to pull up my own mix on the console and i experimented with levels, compression, and gates. This was huge for me because this was the first time i got to actually use the Harrison analog console and better than that i had a basic understanding of how to use. So i put the mix theory steps into action and pulled up the mix and then added basic compression to the snare bottom and a gate to bring down the noise floor a bit more. It was super fun for me because it was cool to take everything i had learned so far and apply it to that console. Amazing.

I also got to assist with a tracking session of a single guitar which turned out great. It was a super chill session and about a third of it was just spent having good conversation which is also great. I also spent some time after the session interning at the facility. I love being at the studio and the rehearsal facility so it's no big deal to me to spend a few hours there helping out. It's such a great environment to be in especially since most of the musicians are super nice and respectful. I actually met a few more good people that day so it turned out really good. Now I'm starting to bring my attention to actually practicing how to record and of course you can't record without clients so in the coming weeks i hope to get a client that would be gracious enough to let a student record them. The only way to get good at this is to actually do it and practice. We all have to start somewhere and there is nothing wrong with the bottom just as long as you take steps to get to the top, I'll take it!