May 18, 2005
Teaching in the Studio
As the owner of SCM (S.O.L.O. Creative Media, Inc.), I participate in a program called the “Brevard Career Shadowing Program.” (Cocoa, FL is part of Brevard County)
As their material about this program states:
“This program gives young people (their words, not mine…I call them “kids”) an opportunity to spend time in the workplace where they receive a first-hand look at what a ‘real’ job is like.”
I like the quotation marks they put wound the word “real.” A “real” job as opposed to what? A “fake” job?
Anyway, I hosted two young men who were interested in the recording process. Actually, they were both interested in starting bands, getting record deals and generally becoming famous. I had those same goals when I was their age. The fact that at the time I couldn’t sing or write songs didn’t discourage me a bit.
Actually, one of the students ending up recording one of his songs, so that he could get some first-time experience with the recording process. His song wasn’t bad, certainly a lot better than anything I tried to write when I was 17. Like most first time studio singers, he didn’t like the sound of his own voice, but I thought that with a little training, he could be a good singer.
As part of their day with me, they were supposed to ask questions about what I did in my studio. Since they weren’t asking, I decided to jump in and ask them, “Hey, you got any questions?” They proceeded to stare at the floor, as if the questions were written there. Finally one of them said, “It is hard?”
Is it hard?!
OK, short answer: no. Long answer: No, but sometimes yes; it depends on what aspect of project studio work you are referring to.
Dealing with the technical part of recording someone is not that hard. I’ve been working in recording studios since the Carter administration as a player and / or an engineer, so I’ve pretty much learned where to put mics, and how to press the right buttons and move the right faders. (I suspect that what he meant by his question; is it hard to run all this equipment?)
Dealing with difficult musicians can be hard, but over the years I’ve gotten better at it, and have developed a pretty deep well of patience. I could say a lot more about it, and probably will as we go along.
http://www.solocreativemedia.com
Posted by leon at 06:01 PM | Comments (1)
May 17, 2005
Allow Myself to Introduce Myself
That’s me. I’m the project studio guy!
I own and operate my recording studio here in Cocoa, FL.
I was a musician before I was a recording engineer, and now I do both.
I’ve arranged, recorded, and produced albums in every style of music except heavy metal.
My wife Sheryl and I have been working with musicians for over 15 years now. When I say “working with,” what am I talking about?
It’s hard to describe what we do in a few pithy sentences. I can start by saying “we have a recording studio.” You might be thinking “Great. You have a studio? 10,000 other guys have studios.”
We love making music in our studio; we love the whole recording process. The folks we’ve worked with range from accomplished performing songwriters who are looking to produce the next in a long line of professional and successful recordings, to absolute beginners who needed to learn that a full-length CD took more than a week to produce.
Let me start off by saying that we are both musicians. Sheryl is a guitarist and vocalist, and I (Leon) am a keyboard player. Sheryl is also a computer expert, and I…well, I can move a mouse pretty well. Our project studio is set up for ProTools based recording. And so are hundreds of other studios.
We’re musicians, we’re recording engineers, but what else?
Sometimes we end up being counselors: We’ve had artists pour out their life stories to us…tell us their dreams and hopes. We must be easy to talk to. They ask us what we think about their plans.
Sometimes we end up being coaches. Helping someone re-write a song, punch up a lyric, add a harmony part, form a marketing plan.
A few times we’ve even become arbitrators for disagreeing musicians. We’ve helped solve disagreements, reach productive compromises.
Overall, we are facilitators. We bring musical dreams to life.
I’ll be telling you about our day-to-day experiences working with would-be stars, crazy songwriters, and some true artists.
Stay tuned!
http://www.solocreativemedia.com
Posted by leon at 01:42 PM | Comments (1)