Day #26

Today Jim held a training session for the employees/engineers at Allusion Studios. We began in the live room where Jim talked about how to tune a drum kit. He showed us all of the steps and we each got to tune a drum by ourselves. It was so helpful for me to actually be able to physically do. I feel like I learned it better and retained the knowledge for the future. We also cut a hole in the front head of the kick drum so a microphone could be placed inside for a different sound. Before miking each individual drum, Jim taught us about the specific polar patterns a microphone can have. As well, he explained which microphone would be a better sound for a certain instrument. As an experiment, we set up two different types of microphones on a single drum to see how they would sound in comparison. Once that was completed, we went to the control room to set up a new file in Nuendo and created new tracks for each specific part of the drum kit we just miked. We recorded Jim playing the drum kit so that we could listen to how the mics sounded. For the drums with two microphones, we decided which ones sounded better in quality. I realized that the more expensive mic doesn't always sound better. It depends on what instrument it is being used for and where it is positioned. Additionally, Jim explained in detail about how the patch bay works and how to use it. I really dreaded this part because last time I tried to learn how to use it I was confused. After listening again and successfully completing a signal chain scenario, I was thrilled! I love that Jim gives his employees and interns an opportunity to try things because it is exceptionally beneficial. For extra practice and to become more familiar with the patch bay, Jim let us take home a copy of the patch bay map, which is basically a labeled diagram of the patch bay. I learned a lot at the training day and felt more comfortable being at the studio knowing I could apply the things I have been studying to the process of an actual recording session.