My first real understanding of digital recording actually occurred when I purchased a Roland VS 1680.
I didn’t understand crap; having spent weeks in front of my old PC, scratching my head, staring at a Cakewalk Software program I had down loaded from CD-Rom. I would execute commands and sigh in disbelief as nothing would happen. I could not wrap my head around the technology.
I broke down and visited my good and trusted friends at Seattle’s American Music.
I explained my challenges and it was suggested to me to purchase a hard drive recorder; not necessarily for ease of use, but for it’s functionality. I was warned there would be a lot of squinting involved, but with persistence would come the reward of fathoming the recording process. No truer words spoken.
I applied myself and made innumerable horrible to mediocre tracks. Thank God for my mentors, who had had decades of recording experience. I asked questions, asked them to review and critique my work, took all their suggestions to heart. After a year and a half of of diligence, eating a lot of humble pie, I started to grasp concepts and applications needed to create some decent work.
Then on to Protools. Utilizing all the previous months education, with some help from tech support, I was up and running, relatively fluent in six weeks.
I held on to that VS 1680 for many, many years. It never failed, drove like a Mack Truck, and took huge abuse. It traveled well, recorded many rehearsals and did live shows, with amazing results. It is one piece of equipment I look back on with nostalgia.
Is there any thing we can do to help?
One response to “Revelation”
[…] The same goes for plenty of other artists. Sometimes, the lack of endless options is the very thing that pushes you toward a breakthrough. No fancy plug-ins? You’ll learn to shape sound differently. No high-end studio? You’ll figure out how to make a bedroom recording feel stripped-down and honest. […]