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Dillon Abell
Wow, I cannot believe that my final blog has already arrived! It is true what they say, time flies when you're having fun, and I definately had some fun!
To touch on the last lesson, mastering, this is an area of audio production similar to mixing that is very ambiguous. There are a few right and wrong things you can do while mastering, but it is very much up to the engineer to decide what they want to do with it. Many things such as relative loudness, signal processing, and high and low frequency attenuation come in to play while mastering. Anything you can do to give your tracks that final boost n polish. Although Protools is unable to complete some of this on it's own, there is also a more technical side to mastering. This includes the song order, PQ coding, and achieving redbook standard (44.1k sample rate and 16 bit depth). All things necessary before being able to print your album to CDs or for online distribution. Mastering is its own art and being able to master it takes time.
Since this is sadly my last blog I would very much like to thank the people who helped me follow the career path that I love. Of course a big shoutout to the ones that helped me directly; Jim Pavett, my mentor who took the time to teach me and explain things I didnt understand with no sign of frustration, and also for allowing me into his extremely expensive studio and letting me use his amazing equipment at Allusion Studios! Also to Chase Welsh, assistant engineer at Allusion for working with me and giving me very helpful tips for the up and coming audio engineer, and for being a blast to hang out with! Of course I'd like to thank the Recording Connection for allowing me the opportunity to follow my dreams without sending me into a spiraling pit of debt! The whole staff was friendly and helpful, and a direct credit to Liya Swift for featuring me in the Nation-wide newsletter!
I am currently working on honing in my mixing and mastering skills, looking for anything and everything that I can practice on. I am using all of the tracks that the program provided as well as recording my own tracks at home from scratch and mixing those! It is a blast and I love doing it. I am also currently looking for local artist to record in order to keep refining my skills as an audio engineer. My home studio is amazing and I spend most of my free time in it.
For the future of course the possiblilities are endless, but I would like to look around local studios and find if anywhere has an opening for a young sound engineer. Although I am not opposed to looking in other cities as well! Anywhere I can do what I love is the place for me. I would love to be able to record bands and work professionally on that, but I would also love going down the composing route and working with T.V., movies, and things of that nature. All of this is possible thanks to this program, and I am extrememly grateful! My name is Dillon Abell, and I am looking forward to hearing from anyone on this subject, thank you!
