"I'm currently a junior in high school, and I have a lot of interest in recording and how a studio and the equipment in a studio works — I'd even like to open my own studio one day. There's only one problem: I'm totally lost. I would like to take classes in college, if I can find a college that offers a sound engineering course, but my major problem is I really have no experience in recording. I just don't have the money to even buy simple equipment to start with. My major fear is that if I get into a college that offers the classes I'm looking for, I'm going to be totally lost while the rest of the students in class know more than me because they've had more experience than me. Can you maybe give me some pointers on where to start?" -Eric M.
All apologies to Eric M. above, but I get letters like the one above all the time. Sometimes they're far worse, with people who want someone else (me) to do all the thinking for them and tell them exactly what to do.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with contacting folks and asking questions — the same as, 'there's no such thing as a stupid question' (but there are plenty of stupid answers). I learned many things on the way to building my own studio and career by asking others. The engineers I had worked with as a musician, people that sold used gear, friends that were building home studios — they all got questions for a while. But that wasn't my only way to learn.
Let's say you are just getting into the concept of recording music as a hobby and want to do a decent job of it. This is how I started — the idea of making ANY money at this sounded like science fiction.
I can't stress often enough that if one wants to be a recording engineer that they must record and record a lot. As a teenager I learned my basics with two 2-track cassette decks, a 4-channel Radio Shack mixer and a pair of battery-powered omni condenser Radio Shack mics. I recorded me, my friends, my sister, etc. I did overdubbing by bouncing from deck to deck while adding new instruments. I 'discovered' flanging while playing two copies of a song at the same time. I even learned about tape hiss buildup! Now you can pick up 4-track cassette recorders that do all of this and sound better, and the used ones are CHEAP — I've seen them go for $45 on eBay. There's no excuse. If you have a computer (or access to one) chances are you can get free software to do multitracking on it. Buy one crummy mic and learn placement and overdubbing skills. Record your friends and learn how hard it is to please people.
Go the library. Now. Type in "music recording", "record production" and "home recording" in their search engine. Borrow and read every book they have. I exhausted the books on these subjects at Multnomah County Library. Every one I could find I read. No shit. This was all pre-Internet (at least for most of us). Now you bastards have the entire world of information on your computer. Don't have a computer? Go to the library and use theirs. Bring some cash to print out pages. Write down URLs of important sites. There are pages up that are solely links to even more hardcore information just on recording. I've found piles of articles on subjects so specific books just touch on them. Anything you might want to know is out there. Do you have questions that you can't find any answers to? Go to any of the forum websites, like the Tape Op Messageboard, prosoundweb.com or many others. Beware of "flames", where people with nothing better to do poke at each other and pretend they know a lot, and watch out for the 'stupid answers', when people who have never even been in a room with a certain piece of gear offer all sorts of insights that they've only gleaned from others (who might not have ever used said gear either). But ask away and you will be amazed when people who actually make many records or record very cool music are helping others get a leg up. It's pretty cool. What about magazines, like the one in your hands right now? There are 39 more issues of this magazine you might not have read yet, or could re-read! Plus there's Mix, EQ, Recording, Sound On Sound, Electronic Musician, Resolution and many more. Do you read them all? Have you even seen them all? What about old copies of Recording Engineer/Producer? Even if you don't care for any of these mags, or even this one, there's still lots of information in every issue that relates to recording. Subscriptions are not that expensive and some can be had for free (just attend an AES conference).