Day #18

The band Ten Times Gravity had been in the studio to work on their album. Typically Jim is the engineer, however, Jim allowed Chase to gain experience as an engineer during the session since Jim was hired to play drums. The bass guitar player, Brian, was playing in the control room. He played different notes and measures because they were trying to figure out the bass part to the song. Throughout this time, Jim stopped him when he noticed that the bass was off key. Therefore, Brian tuned his bass and checked if it was on pitch again. Hearing many notes that are out of tune can actually de-train someone's ear, I learned. I believe that there are many reasons for guitars to go out of pitch. For example, if the player uses the guitar for a long time or if the player strums too aggressively on the strings, the strings could loosen and change the sound. Jim listened back to the song to "punch in" a few parts. In order to get the sound that you want, it takes a lot of playing and listening back to recorded pieces of the song. I wasn't aware of this, but there are several ways you could hit a note on the guitar. It might sound different than what you desire if you hit it too hard or too soft. Brian hit a note in a way that was different than what Jim wanted so, Brian cut his nails. I thought that this was kind of funny, but I understand now that it could make a difference in the way he played a note. It was interesting to me to see that if Jim couldn't find the notes he wanted to hear, he would sing them. In return, Brian would play the note Jim was looking for on the bass.

Chase spent hours adjusting and adding microphones to the drum kit that they used the previous day when the entire band was in the studio. He also made files, which means he named all of the instruments that they would use in the session into the appropriate computer program. In addition, he made the mix for one song, and copied it as a template into all of the others. Chase also was the engineer for that day while they recorded. He explained to me that it can get frustrating because there were guests in the studio talking and observing the session, so sometimes it was difficult to hear Jim when he spoke behind the kit.

Jim clarified to Chase that in order to save time editing later, now Chase could be very precise with the "punch ins." The bass player continued to play and even when he messed up Jim allowed him to keep on playing to get the feel of what he wanted. Sometimes the musician will play parts that he thinks of on his own. Other times, he does things over until he gets the "right" sound. As I have mentioned before, in order to succeed here, you must be creative and unafraid of failure. A musician will never be able to please everyone, but you have to be persistent. In addition, I observed that you have to be responsible and aware while in a session, no matter if you are the musician, engineer, or producer. All through the session, Jim was alert of the constant key of the bass, it was "off" to him. In my opinion, he is very observant and notices small things that could ultimately affect the song in a negative way and tries to fix them immediately. However, it seemed that there was nothing they could do as of that moment that could fix the issue with the bass. Jim wouldn't add tuning and noise reduction to the song, because he doesn't like how it sounds and said it "doesn't sound right." Since there was a recurring problem with the bass, Jim and Brian decided not to continue on with the bass part, after working on it for many hours. Jim says all the time that the bass is the most important part of the song, so he wants it to be perfect. They both wanted to continue but they preferred a five string guitar and not a four string, which is what Brian was using for the session. It appears to be an exhausting process but the outcome is the significant reward! I enjoy watching the process, honestly. It truly makes me appreciate a song more just knowing how much dedication, hard work, and passion goes into it. I always knew that before coming to the studio. However, being able to view it in front of me gives me a whole different perception. I was expecting the part of the process where the artist writes the lyrics, comes up with the instrumental parts, including guitar, drums, vocals, back-up vocals and more. Yet, I knew very little about the actual recording process and how much work goes into that!

Day #17

Instead of recording in the studio like bands usually do, Jim recorded a mariachi band at a church. It was a completely different experience for me, but I thought it was so incredible! Even before arriving on the location, Jim, Joe, and Chase had to pack things they needed from the studio into their car to bring to the church. They packed microphone stands, chords, a laptop that has the recording programs on it, and headphones. First, everything was taken out and set up. I got to set up microphone stands and plug in the chords that connected them to the computer. Jim and Joe set up the laptop and made sure the microphones set up in front of them corresponded to the placement on the computer. There were specific placements for all of the microphones. They had to be positioned in a way that would be best to hear the sound of the specific instrument. Each section of instruments either had their own microphone or a shared one. For example, the violins in the band shared a pair of microphones, while the three types of guitars each had their own. It was so interesting to see them warm up and practice! They were an extremely talented band. Sometimes one person sang lead vocals, and sometimes they would all sing together. There were about ten people in the band altogether. While they readied themselves, Jim was doing a sound check. I stood at one microphone and said “check, 1, 2, 3, 4” over and over until he was satisfied with the sound levels. I wondered if they had to be the same for each microphone. Jim also set up two microphones toward the back of the room. The band wanted to record here in the first place because they like the sound they hear when they play in the church. It was such an exciting thing for me to see! I loved every part of that experience!

Day #16

A band that I had observed before, Mercury Transit, was in the studio. Jim was having them listen to the song to see if there was anything they wanted to fix or add. At the same time he put in effects and delays. He mentioned that there were two lead vocals and that she, the lead singer, must have sang it twice. Jim asked her what vocal she wanted. Her voice sounded distorted and she liked the way it sounded. Jim explained that he thought it was too loud because it “cuts through” easily. She loved the setting of her voice; however, she was concerned with the fact that maybe she only liked it. I wondered if this came up with many artists. Did they make a decision simply because they liked it and didn’t care about how it truly sounded? Maybe sometimes you have to make a decision like that because you like it and hope others do too. Jim brought some of her original voice back in and the decision was that they liked the way that sounded better. She was concerned that when she sings this song live, if it would not go with the rest of the album. This made me curious as to how artists sing their songs live when the songs have effects on them. How does the audience hear it? I have noticed at concerts and performances on television that the effects are played on the speakers so the audience can hear. And the artist usually sings lead vocals, however they might play with their band as well.

Once Jim archived the virtual instruments, he rendered the song. For the second song, Jim and Mercury Transit went through the song and made more changes. He put a setting on the drums and a delay on the guitar. Also, she wanted to hear a warm sound with the reverb, so Jim brought up the bass. At one point in the song, there was a certain effect that sounded too much like the other parts. I realized that you have to pay attention to the entire song, as well as focus on smaller, more specific parts. I wonder if it is ever hard, as the engineer and producer, to stray away from doing something that you like. I believe that Jim doesn’t do something just because he likes the way it sounds. I know that he expresses his opinion but wants his clients to produce their own sound. After they finished editing, Jim had them listen to the song. When they were happy with it, he rendered it and made a CD.

Day #15

Jim was in the process of mastering for a client, Robert. This means that he was making the songs the same volume, deciding how much time there was going to be between each song, the order of the songs, adding fades, maximizing levels, and he turned up the bass in one song. I wondered why it shows the song in blue above the same in red below on the mastering program that Jim uses. I imagine that there are probably many different types of software. As an engineer, do you have to be familiar with more than one program?

Jim explained to me that he has more of a mellow song of Robert’s so he physically made it a mellower volume on the CD. Jim made Robert two masters. There is only so much that Jim can do when he is not part of the tracking or mixing process. He said that Robert recorded in a home studio so the music image was very small. The band recorded the tracks and did the mixes elsewhere. Lastly, Jim printed the name of the band, the title of the record, the date, and Allusion studios on the CD with a CD labeler.

A lot of the music industry is about image and not about the music. Even though I wish that people liked music because they actually liked the music and not just the person singing it, I know it won’t ever change. However, it is cool to think about how each city pretty much has its own music scene. In Tucson, I think it has changed negatively. I wonder what influences the changes. I also wonder how the music scene in Tucson differs from a city in California.

Day #14

Jim, Joe, and Chase discussed major business ideas. I realized just how much Jim does with balancing his engineering career at Allusion Studios and managing Pure Wave Audio. It has to take up a lot of time, work, and energy in order to keep up with it all. It is motivating for me to witness Jim’s eagerness to always be moving forward and prospering in a positive way! I can’t imagine how complex thinking of business ideas could be, it definitely requires creativity. Something I have observed while interning at Allusion Studios is that Jim often says things are “a learning process.” I am comforted by that because I don’t feel as intimidated coming into a different environment. It makes me believe I can make mistakes and not be looked down upon for them. Jim states that he wants to progress and move forward to be the ultimate, but at the same time, he has to be cautious and think about what he is doing. For instance, money is always a burden on someone’s shoulders, and I bet even more when you own a business. However, when Jim believes in something, he says he will put money behind it. I am confident that he is a strong business owner and knows how to run a successful business.

Day #13

Jim was playing the drums in the live room with a guitar player and a bass guitar player. I wondered if it was ever distracting recording with multiple people rather than just playing by yourself. Chase informed me that sometimes it is actually easier because you have that “live feel” and the musicians can play off the other musicians. In some cases, the clients may want to play in the live room to get the sound and the dynamics of a “jam band”, which is a band that plays together for fun and because they love it. I made the assumption that they all had different mixes that they were listening to through the headphones. I questioned how Jim could control the actions he usually does in the control room if he was in the live room playing the drums. Chase explained that he was using something called a wireless transport controller which allowed him to have some control over what he did from the other room. Editing-wise, Jim doesn’t have as much control. The transport controller has a playback button, rewind, fast-forward, and record buttons. I understood that this was a convenient device for engineers who participate in the session as a musician like Jim did. Jim edited the tracks to make them sound the way he wanted them to. Fernando, the guitar player, did a solo at one point in the song. His amp was in the guitar room so that it was isolated from the other instruments. Jim mentioned he could “de-noise” the buzz of the guitar and I didn’t comprehend what he meant by that. Chase told me Jim could take the frequency of the buzz, and then figure out what it looked like then subtract it from the wave. That would be removing the noise from the signal. Also, when the bass player came in late on the intro, Jim could essentially fix that so that it was the correct timing. The bass player was Jim’s client and he wanted the one song burned audio CD.

Jim explained to me that all clients are different as are his relationships with them. Some book the studio for two weeks, some for only three to four hours, and some every two weeks. Inconsistency is something you have to be familiar with if you work in this business.

Later I decided to ask about everyone’s education levels. Chase said that he went to college and the types of courses he had to take included music theory, ear training, and music history. In addition, he took guitar lessons, music business, economics, accounting, and piano. It was very interesting to hear about the classes. It is something for me to consider when I think about pursuing audio engineering as my career. I know that I would be extremely fascinated in classes like music theory and music history! Joe explained that also went to college and took a lot of the same courses as Chase. His degree was in music composition but I notice that at the studio he also does a lot of web development and communications. Jim achieved his degree in electrical engineering. I suppose that I could choose from several areas in the music field as long as it is something I am passionate about.

Day #12

The project that Jim was working on when I got to the studio was for his client, Wes. The client was in the process of making a rock oriented album. Jim was starting the mix for the first song so when Wes came in to sing he would be able to do it. The song has a lot of guitar tracks and too much of it could be distracting or not what Wes wants to hear while he sings. While Jim edited the song and listened to the instruments on the program, he sometimes muted one instrument in order to hear another better. He did that to hear what it sounded like as a single instrument as opposed to hearing all of the instruments together. Perhaps he also did it to get it to sound exactly the way he wanted. There were timing issues with the guitar that was played and recorded on the song. There is a lot that Jim could do, but since the chords were “hanging over” he couldn’t do much to fix it. Jim prefers to re-record the musician in order to capture best performance, rather than having to do a lot of editing. That is a great thing, in my opinion. What he decided to do was create an effect by putting in a delay. There was a part in the song that was “dead” and “dry” so Jim decided to add reverb/delay to it. He explained to me that messing with multiple effects to mask issues was not his favorite part, but sometimes has to be done.

Jim explained to me that this was a nine song project that had not been worked on in a couple of months. In addition, it had taken a while to even do the guitar parts, which makes the editing process a bit more challenging. He says usually it is easy for him to remember exactly the style and sound the client is hoping to achieve, but it gets difficult when hasn’t worked on a project in a long time and works with other clients in between. I can definitely understand why that would be complicated. In the second song, Jim edited out the “noise”, when the guitar is not playing, by deleting it. After adding effects to the guitar parts and making sure they sounded the way he wanted them too, he rendered it. Next was the third song, and it sounded different than the others. Jim said that he used mixes from a different song as a template for this song. I didn’t know you could do that, but it seems like it would save time during the process. For two of Wes’ songs, he has raw vocals. That means he recorded a vocal track before the final and perfect one, so he could remember the melody and specific way he wanted to sing it. Wes now has to come in and record the vocals to complete the songs.

Another client, John, came in for an appointment. He talked about his background and let Jim, and the bass guitar player, Chris, know why he wanted to start a project possibly at Allusion Studios. He had made a few songs for his family in his home studio. What he wants to do now is take the original songs but make them more professional maybe even more modern sounding. It was interesting for me to see Jim and Chris interact with this new client. I had never seen a new client start at the studio before. I really enjoyed hearing how much this meant to John and why he wants to make his music better. When we listened to some of his songs, I noticed that they only had lead vocals and a limited number of instruments. What Jim discussed with him was prices, dates for the project to begin, and the number of musicians needed to help with the songs.

The last client to come in today was Alisha. This day really showed me how packed and crazy one day at the studio can be! Jim and Alisha went through all three of her songs and listened to them. I could see the positive changes from the beginning of the process to what it has become now! Both Jim and Alisha made final edits on the song while listening. For example, in the first song, Alisha noticed when she sang the word “face” you could not hear the “c” sound. Instead of having Alisha sing it back in, he went to the trash can, on his computer, and took out one of the old tracks that she sang from the same line. He edited in only the word “face”. Then Jim rendered all of the virtual stuff and the first song was complete!

For the second song, they listened all the way through and then make final touches to see if there was anything they wanted to change, just like they did for the first one. I saw how Jim is a fair and professional person. He allowed Alisha to have so much say in the decisions made for her songs. I was not surprised because he had done that during the entire process but it was just exciting for me to see someone close to my age accomplish this. Once they finished, Jim rendered the different parts of the song, and then the whole song.

Lastly, they edited the third song. For example, at one point Jim asked Alisha if she liked the vocal volumes and she did. Jim mentioned that he thought he heard a wrong chord in the song. It turned out that he didn’t, but I wonder what would happen if there really were any wrong chords. Would she have to re-record them? How often does that occur? There was a certain part in the song where Alisha kind of sing/screams, and after that she wanted to add an interesting wind sound. Jim went to a website online and typed in what sound he was looking for. Many options were available and some sounded a lot better than others. Jim saved the one they agreed on liking and added it into the song. It was added like any other track would be and Jim faded it in and out. I believe this is called cross fading. In order to hear the new sound better, Jim put on the headphones, which he does from time to time. Then he had to make sure he and Alisha liked the volume of it. Finally, Jim rendered the song and mastered the CD. When doing this, the artist has to consider the order of the songs, meaning how they will appear as a final product. Also, Alisha had a picture that was going to go on the CD. The songs were finished and they sounded great!

Day #11

Joe and I were in the office and he told me about a newsletter that is sent out every month. The recent newsletter contained information about the Grammy nominations of a few songs that Jim had been involved with. He wanted to sort of push them out for Grammy voters. While Joe worked on that project, I edited Jim’s Pure Wave Audio website. There were a few products that needed to be deleted from the website, so that is what I did. For the rest of the time, Joe gave me a second tour of the studio. We went through each room and he explained to me in detail of what each item did for the entire recording process. It was an extremely helpful thing because now that I know more about the industry, I could comprehend and better connect the words he was saying with what I had observed. It was a drastic difference of knowledge for me compared to the very first day when Jim did the same tour.

Day #10

Chris, a bass guitar player, was in the control room today to perform bass on some of Alisha’s songs. He plays a bass guitar with four strings. Chris and Jim explained to me that the bass plays more of the single notes while guitars play chords. Jim said the bass player makes the song. Also, it helps the recording process greatly when they are open to suggestions and can respectfully work with others involved. This was helpful because I was only familiar with guitars and could now understand better what the session was revolved around. I noticed that Chris’ bass guitar was plugged into a machine in the control room. I was not used to seeing this because typically, I saw someone playing their instrument in the vocal booth or the other room. Jim explained to me that Chris’ bass guitar was plugged into a preamplifier and he could be in the control room because his instrument didn’t bleed into anything. By doing this, the electronics does it for you and the sound goes through the wire, therefore you could play with other musicians too.

For the first song, Chris tuned his bass guitar and played different things until he and Jim heard something that they liked or felt would work with Alisha’s song. They recorded a few different parts and then went back through it and decided to keep some parts and change others. I wondered how frequent musicians come into the studio not fully sure of the music they want to record. When Alisha arrived to the studio, they asked her for her opinion on the part. She quickly approved and Chris played it so Jim could record it as the final piece, not as a trial anymore. They all agreed that this song had a lot of piano so they didn’t think the bass should be moving around as much.

For the second song, they added bass as well. After figuring out how Chris could play in this song, they were all satisfied. The bass didn’t draw attention to itself in this song, yet it was still important to have it. However, at the bridge, Chris was allowed to drive and draw more attention to the bass guitar to balance it with the tension of the song at this specific point.

Lastly, the third song required bass too. Chris said it was best to keep it simple and not add too much bass. Even though it can be tempting to fill it will a lot of bass, or any other instrument for that matter, it is best to know the sound that you want to achieve, and I observed that all of the people involved in this process definitely knew that. The whole time I am in this session, I can’t stop thinking about how badly I want the songs to be finished just so I can listen to them all the time! I wonder if Alisha’s songs are in the last stage of the process because all of the instruments have been recorded on the tracks and most of her vocals.

Day #9

The client in the studio today was Zia Aslamy, he is an engineer and said that making music was just his hobby. He spent time in the vocal booth singing in a language I was not familiar with; Afghanistan. I noticed Jim was correct when he said that the beats for the music change every measure so you can’t try to keep on the beat, it won’t work. This was obvious to me as I continued to listen. The effect that Jim had on his vocals sounded like an echo. It was an interesting sound and I hadn’t heard it before in the studio. I enjoyed the way it sounded. To me, it was truly exciting to see a song being recorded in a different language. It made me realize that no two sessions in the studio will ever be the same. There are so many different people in the world and they all have a unique way of expressing themselves through their music. Also, it takes each client a certain amount of time to correctly do what they want to a song depending on the song and the client’s ability.

A question I did have was if a client comes in the studio, like today, and records in a language you don’t speak, does it pose any problems during the process? It doesn’t seem to me that it does, in the session at least, especially considering the fact that both the client and Jim speak English. Zia decided he wanted to add harmony and Jim offered his opinion on it. I wonder how it would feel to know you influenced even a tiny part of a song and you loved it, or maybe it became really popular!

There was a part in the song where the client described as “empty.” Jim said this meant one instrument was dropped at this point and the client wanted to add a different one. So Jim copied the instrument the client preferred from a separate place in the song, into the “empty” part. Then, Zia was pleased with the way it sounded. The last step of the process was mastering the song. Jim explained that he used a program for making CD’s to do this. I believe that Jim controlled the volume and matched it for both of Zia’s songs. He made it consistent and balanced. Jim made the time between the tracks what he wanted. The other program that Jim used while recording and editing dealt with vocals and instruments. While the one for mastering dealt with each track that be would on the CD. Think of it this way, if one song was done in a home studio and one was done at a different studio, mastering would make them basically match in sound. If one song had too much bass, you could add bass to the other songs, or put less bass on that one.

In the office, I asked Joe about a few terms that were not easy for me to understand. He informed me that a fade-in fade-out was exactly what it sounded like. Also, that cross fades were used to smooth transitions so they were not audible to us. Compression, he clarified, was an audio process that takes a wave file, squishes it down and averages it out to the same level, then compensates the volume. For example, Joe stated that most pop music is over-compressed. And classical music actually has dynamic contrast, a difference in loudness and softness. He was truly insightful and opened my eyes to something he called volume wars, which is occurring today. A lot of people in the music business are competing for the loudest song on everyone’s iPod and radio. They are not focusing on the beauty of music, such as dynamics in the songs. It is kind of sad to me that music has gone down so much that they just want their songs to be the loudest, instead of simply trying to reach out and help others while sharing their love for music.

Day #8

I discovered today that in this industry you could have multiple tasks to complete at one time. Jim spent time in the office and in the control room while he worked on two different projects. The first was a digital audio tape and the second task was a DVD transfer. The digital audio tape goes in a machine called DA-45. Jim transferred it and made a CD and mp3s for the client. When we listened to what was on the tape, it was a women’s voice. I heard noises that she was making with her mouth while she talked. Jim explained to me that he can’t fix that sound, or get rid of it without an extensive amount of manual editing time. That is something that should have been fixed while it was being recorded, during the tracking process. For the CD and mp3s, Jim can choose a quality that is higher or better than the original while transferring. Also, he could have adjusted the volume if it needed to be louder or softer. He compressed the data via mp3 into 32 megabytes for 42 minutes of material. The video to DVD transfer has to go through an A/D process, in which it goes from the VCR to the computer into a video program. Jim took two songs from a DVD, then edited them by adjusting the volume, and put it back on a DVD. This is done by transferring to a video editing program, making the changes, then sending it to a DVD authoring program to make the final DVD. Jim told me that the way to tell if our media is a CD or DVD is that CD’s are usually green or blue on the bottom and DVD’s are usually purple. CD’s are only supposed to be burned once and if they were more than once, it could have glitches. I would be able to see gaps on the CD if I looked at it.

When Jim finished what he was asked to do for the clients, he called them to let them know. He didn’t waste any time, which showed me how professional you must be. While in the office, I see Jim discussing conflicts with gigs/sessions and making business decisions about Pure Wave Audio (the online pro audio retail store that Jim also runs out of the studio). This profession can be very demanding and some weeks could be more stressful and intense than others. But when you’re so busy, you still want to have a personal life. Balancing your personal life and career can be challenging. I may want to consider this as a minus when making a career choice. However, I believe that having a limited personal life mostly comes with any job! Especially in this industry, working a lot is appropriate and required if you want to succeed in it. It does not affect my decision to want to be in this industry at all.

For the remainder of the day, I talked to Joe. He filled me in on some of the things that I was confused about. For instance, one day when Jim was working with Alisha in the control room, he told her that he would make up some mixes. Joe explained that this meant Jim would create the sounds Alisha would hear through her headphones while she is singing in the vocal booth. If she wanted to hear the piano louder and less guitar, then Jim would do just that. These mixes are referred to as a headphone mix, and are to help Alisha sing on point. They are not necessarily going to be the final mix for the song.

Day #7

The same client as yesterday, Alisha was in the studio again today. I discovered that Alisha is extremely intelligent and didn’t seem as young as she really is. It was interesting for me to compare her to the older clients I have observed in the studio. I saw that Jim and Alisha were in sync. It was clear that Alisha knew exactly what she wanted to hear when she was creating her music. Jim explained to me that this client normally does piano, guitar, and strings on her songs and most, not all, of her songs have only those three parts. Fernando and Jim are trying to get Alisha to think out of the box and try different sounds. Alisha played on the piano for a bit while she tried to do what they asked of her. They changed the effect they put on the piano many times because the previous ones didn’t sound enough like strings. You could still hear the piano popping through. Jim, Alisha, and Fernando all wanted more of an ensemble sound. Jim stated that he needed to “flat line the velocity” so that every note was clear.

Alisha then went into the vocal room to record vocals for the song they had been working on. Jim had to make mixes for the songs before she could do any tracks. I was not fully able to understand what he meant by that. Jim was very polite and respectful of her before she started recording. He asked her many questions, for example, how loud she wanted her vocals, and if everything else, such as the guitar, was as loud or soft as she wanted. As the tracks were being recorded, Jim put something that looked like brackets underneath a certain sections. My guess was that they were to mark a precise part for some reason.

Alisha’s voice was breathtaking! I was amazed to hear how mature and powerful her voice sounded. After she finished the lead vocals, she added a lower harmony to some phrases in the song. Then they worked on the vocals for the second song. Jim had her sing all the way through but then he went back to phrases he wanted her to sing over. They agree that they want to add background vocals but just to “compliment”. This song has lead vocals and they both want to keep it that way.

Day #6

Jim and his client Alisha were in the control room when I arrived. Fernando, the guitar player, was recording in the vocal room with an acoustic guitar. When he played, the jagged lines appeared on the computer screens, just like when previous clients sang into a microphone and the lines appeared on the screens. The first song that they were working on sounded slow and like a folk song. I noticed that if the guitar player messed up by accident that Jim could fix that one little section without interfering with the other parts. He could do this by simply highlighting and deleting the segment on the computer. If you fix a part in the middle of a section recorded, Jim said you must match the volume and resonance. If it’s not the same volume, you will hear a clicking noise. The client and Jim decided to have Fernando record a second track, which would ultimately be played at the same time as the first one. Jim offered his opinion on how to play the guitar parts at different points in the song. For example, he determined whether Fernando should “finger pick” or use the guitar pick. Also, Jim clarified to me that the guitar player could do a variety of things on the guitar. He is not just really good at one thing, which is beneficial in case that one thing isn’t what the client wants. He is sort of a blank slate because he hasn’t heard much of the song. I believe that he is very talented because he is doing a great job while working with Jim and Alisha to achieve the sound they want. I recognize that if I were to make this my career, I would have to listen to both the client and the other musicians helping on the song.

Next, I began to focus a little more on the software on the computer that Jim was using because I was not very familiar with it. By software, I mean the program he uses to record the tracks and edit them on the computer. It has a multiple number of rows. Each row is used for a separate part of the entire song. For example, there is a row for bass, drums, vocals, guitar, and piano. In addition, there is even a place for multiple tracks in one category, which is called duplicating. To the left of each row, there is a box with multiple editing tools on it. Jim can press record, control the volume, and do many more things. But I am not positive what the others are. There is a vertical line on the screen that moves horizontally over the “jagged lines” of the song. It shows the person where the exact place is in the song that they are listening to.

After listening to the second song before the editing process, I realized her voice is very distinctive and strong. At this point, Jim and Alisha picked what instruments they wanted on the song. Alisha stated that she didn’t want too much guitar on this song. So she played on the piano and tried out different parts to see what she wanted to add. Jim used different effects on the piano so that it didn’t sound like a piano was being played, but perhaps a violin. Jim said he wanted to add strings and vibes on the song. Later he explained that when he said “vibes” he meant vibraphone, which would add a dream-like sound. They decided to add a guitar verse to make the song have a blues sound. Jim commented on how the volume difference completely changes the character of the song. It now sounds very U2, or at least the guitar part does and he wanted it to sound “dreamier”. Overall, I completely enjoyed my experience at the studio and realized that I could see myself very happy in the future if I did choose to work in this industry.

Day #5

Today I did much of the same work that I did on Friday. I see how significant it is to let people know of all of the features the studio has to offer. Marketing for any company in general can only be an advantage for them.

Day #4

I spent all of my time in the office today to view a completely separate part of the business. Mainly, I was focused on the marketing aspect of the job. Simply stated, I searched for local bands through a social networking site and sent them a message. Basically, it informed the band of Allusion Studios and its existence and for them to check out all of the specifics the studio offers. It was an excellent experience and a necessary one, I believe. Though I would rather watch the recording process, I still benefited from learning how to be successful in this industry.

Day #3

Today one of Jim’s clients named Alex was mixing multiple songs. The first was a rock song, and the vocals were softer than I expected but still very good. Alex found a place in the song where he wanted to add a piano part. Jim had an opinion about the piano addition but politely reassured Alex that the client speaks first. He went back and forth on the software seeing which editing trick, for lack of a better word, sounded best. I perceived that the client was more talkative than the ones I had seen on Friday. It seemed to me that he knew more about the technology part. He mentioned that he did 90% of the song which included vocals and piano. He only had one other guy perform the guitar solo. The second song was also a rock sounding song. He needed to add vocals to it, however. I was truly happy to find that he was going to be tracking. Alex went into the “vocal room”, and put the headphones on, which I anticipated he would. We could see him through the clear window that connected the control room and vocal room. There was a microphone set up on a stand with some sort of cover on it. I was not completely sure of its purpose or the exact term for it. However, my best guess is that it keeps the singer’s mouth from coming too close to the microphone and it possibly makes it sound clearer. He warmed up his voice before he began to sing. Normally, Jim said, you can’t hear the singer while he warms up because the system is not turned on. But, he was singing very loudly and we could hear him in the other room. Jim asked him how the headphones fit and if he knew when he was supposed to come in on the track. When he sang, it transferred to lines that looked crooked and showed up on the computer screen. This is what Jim taught me the first day, the analog to digital process. The client recorded many times until they were both satisfied with the way it sounded. Then Alex decided to add a harmony to the track as well. I realized that the tracking process is similar and different to the mixing process. Depending on the client, it could take longer to perfect each specific part of a song. From watching Jim, I note that it’s essential that I know how to make the client happy, while also doing what I think sounds good.

Day #2

There was a band in the control room today that, from what I saw, was in the studio to mixdown or “mix” a few of their songs. Jim was editing the first song which was pop, and at one point he turned the volume down to see what the vibe was like even when it wasn’t loud. Jim also put in a delay upon the request of the clients. I didn’t understand exactly how the delay affected the song. Later, I asked Jim and he explained that a delay created ambience, reverb, and made it more of a “wet” sound. I noticed that he asked the clients, Kristine and Michael, many questions. To me, he seemed extremely involved with them, like he knew precisely what they wanted their song to sound like. Also, he made some editing decisions on his own and then asked them if they liked them or not. At the end, Jim said he wasn’t sure of the full balance of the song yet. I didn’t fully comprehend what he meant by the “full balance”. Afterward, he clarified that it meant you could hear the drums, guitars, and vocals but not the bass. Therefore, he added more of the bass to the song. While observing, I tried to focus on the technology part of the job. However that proved a little challenging. Mostly, I found myself taking notes regarding my surroundings. I felt that important characteristics for this job are that you must be patient, have computer skills, and interpersonal skills. The atmosphere was incredibly focused and sometimes humorous, which I liked. For the second song, before editing began, the vocals sounded a little on the angry side. But her voice had depth, or a full sound, and it was edgy as well. After the editing process, the song sounded like a rock and roll song because of the drums and guitars. The vocals sounded more breathy and whiny but in a good way! I loved the way she sounded, it was not too harsh. The third and final song was softer. The vocals were almost like she was talk singing. I noticed that I concentrated a lot on the vocals because that is the part I have most knowledge of. Overall, I thought my first real watching of the entire mixing and editing process was exciting and intriguing!

First Day

Jim and I spent time working on a project for one of his clients today. He took me on a tour of the studio, which made me excited, and finally, we ended in the control room in which there were two enormous computer screens set up side by side. Underneath them was an overwhelming amount of controls with plugs and lights in columns and rows. I was extremely intimidated. This surprised me because I felt like that view would be the only part of this business that I would be used to seeing. On One Tree Hill, a television show, a character named Peyton owns her own record label. Also, she has a recording studio at her office. So I understood what a control room was and what it looked like, but seeing one on TV is entirely different from seeing one in real life. Jim continued to use the computer software programs while I tried to follow along and soak in some of the information he was explaining to me. He said that being a sound engineer involves understanding physics. I related this to the physics class that I took last year at my high school. Jim went on to explain all of the scary controls in front of us. Mostly, I understood that they were all similar units. However some buttons could make the editing process more precise than others could. There were knobs for volume, for something that I had never heard of called “EQ”, and more. At the top, there was a box that Jim said was called “A to D”, meaning analog to digital. Say perhaps you plug in a microphone and the cord transfers the actual vocals to digital lines on the computer. Mostly, when I left Allusion Studios, my brain felt fried. I believe that I tried so hard to contain all of the information Jim told me. At this point, I realize that interning at the studio is going to be a challenging but rewarding task.

Introduction

At my high school, I am enrolled in an Internship 101 class that requires me to work as an intern at a place of my desired career for at least four hours a week. For the past six years, I have had a passion for music. For the same amount of time, I have been singing in different show choirs. All of that time, I dreamed of becoming a famous singer. Not until recently was it that I realized I no longer yearned to be in the spotlight. However, I still knew I loved music and felt that I would enjoy working in the music business in another way. After researching many possible careers on the internet and watching several television programs, such as One Tree Hill, I imagined myself working at a recording studio. If that meant producing or being the sound engineer technician, I’m still not sure. Consequently, I looked on the internet for recording studios in Tucson, and called and asked Allusion Studios for an opportunity to be an intern. To my delight, Jim Pavett, the owner and operator, kindly agreed to be my mentor. Choosing this as a potential career means that I have much to learn when I come into the studio. I am completely jumping into this field with a blank slate. My eyes and ears have a lot to see and learn before I can make an accurate decision about how I feel about this business. I truly have no background knowledge of the technology portion and interpersonal aspects that factor into this career. So coming into this new environment, I am going to observe my surroundings carefully. I mostly do not know what to expect when I enter the studio. I think that I will struggle with the educational information I will receive in the beginning. Yet, I am hoping that I don’t feel too out of place.