Lesson 1 June 12 2013 - Posted on 2013-06-12 by Robert Ballejos

Today I met with David. We almost instantly began talking shop! He introduced me to his live room where he has his 16 channel snake that runs through tand patched to some of the hardware in the console room. This 16 channel snake gives a lot of room for extra mics and instruments. We touched briefly on mics and how he likes to always have "Over Head" mics to catch the feel and the ambience of the room. (This is familiar to me as I try to do the same at my own gigs) 

We talked a little bit about soundproofing a room. Where he has his bass traps hanging. David explained how some studios use sand and raise the flooring up about 4 inches. 

Back in the console room we sat down and began a conversation about deicbles and how the ear has little hairs in them that actually play a key roll in hearing. He told me that he uses ear plugs whenever possible around live events. "Its my job to hear" he swears by a good pair of ear plugs. And hes right, this is our job and our career so we need to be able to hear everything. We can also do ear excersize. Where he gave an example of turning my monitors as low as I can until i can barely barely hear the music and the cut off point. This will help restore and strengthen my ear muscles again. 

David played me a few examples music he has tracked and a few that he has mastered or in the process of mastering. Was great to see protools in action with his different preferred plug ins and vst's. We talked about headphones and that he prefers his Shure (model unknown) phones, but im thinking im going to stay with my Sony 7506's as ive been using them since the mid 1990's. 

Start on Lesson 2 and Im going to start looking at protools vids on youtube to start getting a feel for the software. Great day at "the studio"