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Jesse Kirkwood
My name is Jesse Kirkwood. I am twenty-two years old and I am from Longview, Washington (yes, Washington state). I have been passionate about music for as long as I can remember. I grew up playing praise and worship music for various churches in my community and I have been crazy about music ever since. I love pretty much all genres out there and I can appreciate all styles of music. Except for country. Just kidding; I even appreciate country...sometimes. Anyway, I have been playing drums for about nine years and I also play a little bit of acoustic, bass, and piano. For the past few years I have fallen in love with almost any and all forms of electronic music. I have even tried making a few songs myself. I love listening to music critically and trying to envision what makes the music sound the way it does and what sets it apart from other music. I have realized that I love to try and make music sound good, but I don't have the professional knowledge to do so. I had never been inside of a professional studio to see what goes on behind the scenes of a finished track. In search of following my passions and wanting to learn more, I stumbled accross the Recording Connection and learned that they have connections with studios all accross the United States. I figured that now is the time to follow my calling and gain the knowledge and experience that I need to be excellent in the field of audio production. I also have wanted to experience the east coast and the south for a very long time. I decided it was time to take a trip. I moved to Norfolk, Virginia one month ago and since then the people at Recording Connection have connected me with Maurice Melvin who is the owner of The Cut Recording Studio in Virginia Beach. My meeting with Maurice went great and he agreed to take me on as an apprentice! Now that you know a little bit about me, here is the gist of my first professional studio experience at the Cut Recording Studio.
My first recording studio experience was a little different than I was expecting, but it taught me that in the music industry, you need to know how to think on your feet and go with the flow. I came to The Cut Recording Studio expecting to sit in for a tracking session with a local R&B/Reggae band. In fact, I think everyone at the studio thought that was the case. The band's manager, Mario, arrived a few minutes before the band and informed engineer Brian Jones that they were not intending to use the studio for tracking, but rather, for a space to film a Q and A interview with the band. We switched gears from preparing to track, to offering whatever services the band needed. More importantly, we gave band space to do their thing. At first, I was bummed out that I wasn't able to sit in on any tracking because we were basically waiting for the band to finish their four hour rented studio time. But, the time at the studio prooved to be quite fruitful and inspirational after all. Since the band needed space, and engineer Brian Jones had to be at the studio until closing, it allowed me to have a lot of one-on-one talk with the him and Maurice Jones, who is also in the Recording Connection apprentice program(not to be confused with Maurice Melvin, who is the studio owner, and not to be confused with Brian Jones, the hired engineer).
Brian is a professional audio engineer and a studio drummer who works out of his home along with various recording studios around the Virginia Beach area. Being able to talk to him about his history in the music industry was a big inspiration to me. We were able to go over some basics on Pro Tools and take a look at how the mixing window is layed out. He explained how the plug-ins work and the advantage of using busses. Brian was also eager to talk about his mixing techniques and which frequencies are key to certain instruments. He shared with Maurice and I that when mixing, and particularly panning drums, he does mixes with a drummer's perspective. Being that I am a drummer, what he told me made sense, meaning that he pans the drums the way that they are set up. For example, if he has two toms he will generall pan the high tom 25° to the left, the floor tom 25° right, the snare drum 10°-15° left, overheads 60° left and right, etc. He also said a good trick is to pan the kick drum 1° right and the bass 1° left so that they do not conflict with eachother. He said as far as equilazation goes, a lot of what he knows has come from experience. But, where he started is a book called Magic Mixing Frequencies. This book gives you quick tips for adjusting frequencies for the most common instruments. It explains things like enhancing the kick drum at 100Hz and doing a slight bell subtractive eq at 80Hz, then performing the opposite eq on the bass, is a good technique to ensure punch and clarity. He also mentioned to check out audio/production/tips.com and look up mixing strategies. I have taken a quick look at the web site and I'm excited to dive deeper into all of this. He also mentioned a fun Youtube channel to gain knowledge of how the big name producers mix and record today. The channel is called Pensado's Place. They interview big name producers and engineers and even show you some of their techniques on how they got their sound on certain albums. Another thing that Brian shared with us were a few links to free plug-ins and how to get good deals on Waves plug-ins. I'll post them below for those who are interested.
Again, my first experience in the studio was not what I was expecting, but it turned out to be pretty awesome despite my pre conceived ideas. Connecting with engineer Brian Jones, Maurice Melvin(The Cut Recording Studio Owner), and Maurice Jones(apprentice), was great! It made me excited to dig deep and find out what audio production is all about. I am looking forward to learn and work with all of these super cool guys.
http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/
http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/bittersweet-v3
http://www.voxengo.com/group/free-vst-plugins/
http://www.waves.com/specials/
