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Hi, I'm link (I'm a girl by the way) And I will be starting my sound engineering/music production degree at uni this march. I was wondering how many other musers out there are sound engineers/students. And i though it would be nice to have a spot to discuss any tips and tricks of the trade and all things engineering related. Cheers, Link

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I have a music tech degree that's utterly useless. There is a recording thread, and a mixing thread somewhere, although I don't think there's a live sound thread.

 

If you can keep your mouth shut, i'd go to your local venues and ask the sound engineers if you can watch them do a couple of gigs. The fact you're a girl means it's highly likely they'll say yes, although if they're not an arse-hole (a lot of sound men are) they would be glad to help. Anyway, yeh, I learned almost everything I know from experience around sound men in studios and at gigs.

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I have a music tech degree that's utterly useless. There is a recording thread, and a mixing thread somewhere, although I don't think there's a live sound thread.

 

If you can keep your mouth shut, i'd go to your local venues and ask the sound engineers if you can watch them do a couple of gigs. The fact you're a girl means it's highly likely they'll say yes, although if they're not an arse-hole (a lot of sound men are) they would be glad to help. Anyway, yeh, I learned almost everything I know from experience around sound men in studios and at gigs.

 

Hi, I'm link (I'm a girl by the way) And I will be starting my sound engineering/music production degree at uni this march. I was wondering how many other musers out there are sound engineers/students. And i though it would be nice to have a spot to discuss any tips and tricks of the trade and all things engineering related. Cheers, Link

 

where did you both go to do your courses?

im doing a form of mustech degree in september...i hope

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I went to Staffs 'cos it was local (for my band), and they had the best equipped studios at the time I started. If they'd told us that we wouldn't actually get to use the studios i'd probably have done a different subject - I wanted to stay local for the band.

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well, the course was called "music tech". The 1st year was acoustic theory, science of sound, how to make a website, how to manage a band, some maths. 2nd year was sound effects for films, synths (basically reason and some lectures), how to put on a gig, and then a 1 hour tutorial on how to mic a drum kit by an ex student who had literally no idea how. 3rd year was more sound effects for films and some copyright law and then a final project.

 

You could book the studios out of lesson times, but with 4 studios (1 pro tools, the others ADAT) / 150 students x 3 years ... it doesn't leave much room.

 

The main reason I went to uni was to get experience recording bands, and to learn from some people who actually knew how to do it. I came away with a massive addiction to weed and recording equipment, and taught myself how to record bands. It's not going too badly.

 

That was a long post!! I don't want people to get a bad impression of staffs uni, but if you want to record bands, don't go there.

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I've been a professional Broadcast Audio and Video engineer for 17 years. TV and Radio have provided my best paychecks, particularly sports broadcasting. I'm not a senior engineer specializing in remote broadcasts and technical coordination for one of the biggest radio stations in the United States. It's a tough business, you better be smart and have teflon underware.

 

PS I owned my own ADAT based mobile recording rig for many years and paid for it by recording classical music at live venues. I worked for a symphony orchestra as a contractor for a couple of years and did all of their Classical, Pops and Chamber concerts. It paid much better than recording rock bands. You have to look for openings that will allow you find work that pays. Everyone I know who tried to make a living solely from rock music failed and now works outside the field entirely.

 

PPS You, by the very nature of the business, have to get in over your head. Then you'll have to swim for your life, if you pull it off and no one notices you might have a future.

 

JT

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Got a First Class Honours degree in Audio Technology BSc in 2009...went on to be a monitor engineer and then front of house engineer for 16 months at Butlins in Skegness.

 

Got to work with various X Factor and Britains Got Talent stars and the occasional chart-topping celebs (N Dubz, Professor Green etc)

 

Was pretty cool. I've left now tho! lol

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btw i think this is the best topic to ask this.

 

how the fuck compressors can add punch? the only way i can imagine this is by punch they mean attack so the signal is compressed with a slow attack time and then make up gain applied to make up for the compression, so the uncompressed "beginning" of the signal gets louder because it was not compressed at all cos of the slow attack time.

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btw i think this is the best topic to ask this.

 

how the fuck compressors can add punch? the only way i can imagine this is by punch they mean attack so the signal is compressed with a slow attack time and then make up gain applied to make up for the compression, so the uncompressed "beginning" of the signal gets louder because it was not compressed at all cos of the slow attack time.

 

InOneEarAndOutTheOther.jpg

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btw i think this is the best topic to ask this.

 

how the fuck compressors can add punch? the only way i can imagine this is by punch they mean attack so the signal is compressed with a slow attack time and then make up gain applied to make up for the compression, so the uncompressed "beginning" of the signal gets louder because it was not compressed at all cos of the slow attack time.

 

yes pretty much. and the release on the compressor causing pumping sound. compressors can just be used to make things sound more beefy

 

i've a degree related to sound engineering, though it was an interdisciplinary between electronic engineering (so did lots of electronics theory and maths.. including building my own analogue synth) and music (the easier more creative stuff like the sound engineering and max/msp etc)

 

it was pretty fun, some parts were pretty hard due to the electrical engineering side of things. worked in IT support for a bit and after getting my sql chops am working as an application support analyst now.

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