first day in the studio - Posted on 2014-11-21 by Ripley Jene

i had my first lesson with Zack Phillips today in Studio D and it was great! I learned so much in the 2 hours I spent with him that, along with the ebook’s Lesson 1, than I have learned about audio production in a long time. It had been raining pretty steadily all day, so i made sure I arrived early to be ready at noon. Zack showed just just 5 mins after the hour and we headed upstairs together. I sat down in the seat open next to his and he opened up Pro Tools. We discussed what I learned in Lesson 1 of the eBook, of which we were about to go more in-depth with. 

Zack showed me the ins-and-outs of Pro Tools for setting up tracks; how to use the oscillator generator and phase scope meter, how to analyze waveforms; and other things like what a comb filter is and how to troubleshoot it; we even went over the difference between decibel measurements and how to tell the line level on an analog VU meter verses a digital Peak meter. Other theoretical topics ranged from speaker setup and hearing directionality, to tuning a space using a pink noise print analysis.

We ended my lesson with a tour of the actual recording room. Zack took his time to share with me all the different types of characteristics of a successful recording space. There were lots of details that may not make sense to most ordinary people, however they serve vital functioning within a recording studio, such as: the room never being completely square, all of which allows the sound vibrations to bounce in multiple directions, rather than echo back on top of the original sound source; the drum set or drum set carpet are sometimes staged at an angle as opposed to lined up straight with the tiles on the floor. He also helped me discover the different materials and textures used in a recording space, like diffusers and resonators, to which materials to use for absorbtion.

I’m feeling really good about the education I’m getting from Recording Connection after just the first day!