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What is the biggest problem in audio recording today?  Is it harmonic distortion, non-flat frequency response? Is it the failure of large music corporations to understand trends in music use and the internet?  It’s a matter of opinion, but as opposed to years past, I don’t think the biggest problems in audio recording are technical design problems. 

Gear has been designed so well and digital technology has become so good and so inexpensive, that the barrier to entry is low.  Now everyone can afford to buy good recording gear that would have cost $40,000-$200,000 twenty years ago.  Everyone can record at home in their underwear if they want to, with a sandwich in their hand. 

But the biggest problem, I feel, is that it is so easy to record that everyone is doing it, yet they don’t know how to use their equipment, they don’t understand what it is designed for, they don’t know the history of recording and they don’t know why tools have evolved to their current state.  They don’t know what the features of the gear are and what uses they could serve. This is the biggest problem in recording today.

The music industry is glutted with inferior product. It is harder than ever to get noticed since everyone can post their music to the web.  No one knows how to distinguish themselves from the crowd if they are not already famous.  In some cases the music itself is inferior as well and gets recorded because it is so easy to do so.  The musical issues are very important, and that is a different problem that should be addressed before recording starts.

WHAT TO DO?

My focus is to help people understand the sophisticated audio recording gear of today that designers have made well for them and markets have made cheaply enough for them to afford.  Musicians and beginning audio engineers need theoretical and historical knowledge and training to use this gear. This knowledge was traditionally only learned by working as an intern in a professional recording studio. There one could see what an experienced engineer did and learn by helping, hands-on.

Nowadays, large studios are going belly up, professional studios are tending to become one person in a small room, which could even be a bedroom or office in a house.  Interest in audio recording has increased exponentially beyond the ability of the industry to support it with jobs and internships.  The industry has gone small and independent. This places much power in the hands of the everyday musician and creator, but there are no longer sufficient intern positions available for people to learn the skills as they did in the past.  Studios don’t have time and staffs are too small to train many people at once.  This is where Seattle Audio School comes in. 

We are here to provide the teaching, experience, theoretical knowledge and hands on training that traditionally was learned in a hard to find studio internship. If you learn to understand well the function of your gear and have a knowledge of acoustics, hearing, digital and analog design, you have a better chance of surviving in a tough industry and to create products that can survive ruthless and overwhelming competition.

We offer short inexpensive workshops to get your feet wet and learn about one aspect of recording, five day intensives, and a six month course of sequential study that prepares you to begin to be a professional audio engineer.