Lesson/week 6 - Posted on 2013-11-06 by Nathan Baker

The pace that I'm learning in the studio is definitely out of sync with the weeks and chapters of the book, but in a good way. This weeks lesson is microphone placement, and I have been actively learning a little more for at least 4 weeks now. I have also been supplementing my reading with The Recording Engineers Handbook by Bobby Owsinski, as well as doing various Internet research. I've also purchased The Mixing Engineers Handbook. The more reading I do for now the better. The actual experience can only come in time, but book knowledge can be at a more rapid pace.

I really had to squeeze information out of Abel regarding microphone placement. All he said at first was "wherever it's sounds good". And as I know that is the ultimate truth, its also kind of a smart ass lazy response. I know he has a lot of knowledge on the subject that he instinctually goes by when he works, and it does come down to wherever it sounds good, but I pried and got him to talk about loads of instruments individually and various things he's done and why. I knew there was a lot of goodies bouncing around in his head. Sometime soon we are going to spend some time just experimenting with mics on one source just to get a better feel and more intimate knowledge of all the mics and how they sound where. It's a realm of infinite variables, but you have to start with generalities. 

He is going to have me start running the show at these Thursday sessions when the young kids come to jam and work on stuff. In excited! This week would have been the first one but it ended up being a low turnout and no one stayed long so recording never happened. This next week it will. 

Weve done another editing session, and there's not much to report there. Tedious stuff, but it really helps to train the ear for details. I've missed a few times that he has gone in simply because my work schedule as minimal as it is (2-3 days a week) can't get any less, and the open days at the studio keep falling when I have to work. It's kind of frustrating because I need and want to spend as much time as I can in the studio, but I also need to eat. Abel doesn't work on weekends or evenings very often because of his venue gigs, and that's when I have the most time available. I asked him if it would be cool if I worked with the other engineers if they ever needed help, but one isn't very busy, and the other has an assistant. So that probably won't happen. In the next few weeks when I get protools and a new laptop, I intend to see when I can go into the studio on my own and really get busy experimenting with mic placement and recording of various instruments. They have a vibraphone in there, a grand piano, a couple xylophones, a rhodes, a wurlitzer, all the rock instruments, and 70 microphones. And I can play them all good enough to get proper tone out of them!