My Thoughts on Music Technology #1

Music Technology has been a very different class for me, so far. I've learned a lot about live sounds, such as micing things, running a sound board, and recording live sound. I have really enjoyed recording things, not necessarily stereo recording through the board, but recording multiple tracks, like we did with Heavily Broken, I really enjoyed the precision it offered when mastering it. You could get more or less of a certain thing, such as the guitar or lead vocals, with separate tracks. I also enjoy setting up in the stage setting, using the snake, having to match up the mic ports on the snake to the board. When the board was over next to the keyboard, I really felt in the way, I didn't enjoy it. I find, well, these blogs really easy, it's familiar to me, so that's probably why. One of the most challenging things for me, is to get a decent mix once the band has already started doing their own little jam session. Everyone wants to just play, and its hard to keep it all together and do a decent sound check and get the levels just right. Also hard to accomplish is mastering a track. Not the fact that it's difficult using the program, it's just that everyone else wants to be using the office, whether it be for a song or tabs, and we can't seem to get much time in edgewise. I'd like to see us getting more days like today where we had to the office all to ourselves, we accomplish a lot more that way. The only thing I don't really enjoy is setting up. I like setting up when it's just us techs out there setting up, but once the band is set up, it's a lot harder to communicate and place everything where it needs to go. Some things I'd like to see in this class is learning more about using the EQ and also the highs/mids/lows on each channel, trying to accommodate to what is on that channel. I'd also like to try out some effects on the board. All in all it's been fun so far, but sometimes I feel left out of the whole experience. It seems we're just sitting on the sidelines - we could be doing something, but everyone would just rather jam, than take the time to let us do our thing. To not end on a sour note I will say that when I do feel part of the experience, it is very entertaining, I love the whole rock band atmosphere.