Access

it's only been one class and i'm already really excited about it. i've never taken a class that is so focussed on something i'm really interested in. i wish college had been like this. i wish i had known what i wanted to do in college! had i been smart i would have double majored in computer science and music production. hindsight. but learning is awesome always and this class has major potential.

all the students in class were invited to help out with a private show that 2 of the Death Cab for Cutie guys were going to do for a local music station at Lola's Room. i showed up and Jonathon was the recording engineer for the session. it felt special being invited to help out. we didn't get to do much, but i still learned a lot from the session. the setup was a bit different from the studio recording we'd done the night before. here we were recording a live band that was playing to a house. so the mics (one pencil, one DI for each guitar, one vocal mic each, and a house mic) were sent to the board for house sound. the board had a direct out that was pre-fader (post gain/pad, pre everything else on the channel). these were plugged into the mobile recording unit the MS guys had brought. basically a pro tools rig (HD3? Digi 003?). i think there was a rack of pre-amps in between.

it was informative to talk to McMenamin's house sound guy. he gave us some good pointers. Ben and Chris had their own sound guy (who actually rang Ben's headphones accidentally!).

access to all the studios and venues and seeing all this done in real time is an eye opener. i don't know if it's portland, but everyone involved is really good people. they're willing to share and friendly. they talk about horror stories of working with asshole sound guys and musicians, but so far i've been impressed with everyone i've met.