The View from 2005: Since this was written, I’ve been using these techniques a LOT in my day to day production work, both classical and multitrack, and finding them increasingly valuable. I can’t recommend them highly enough! Go for it!!!
PS: Thanks, Tom!

Even Old Dogs Should Learn New Tricks

No matter how old and gray you get (trust me on this – I speak from personal experience), you gotta keep your mind open to fresh ideas. I’ve been doing audio since 1968, and I’ve taught it for almost that long. I’ve got things down. Right? Read on.

About a year ago, Mark Parsons (Parsons Audio, www.paudio.com), Tom Bates and I decided to get a little more serious about audio education for adult professionals, so we started our own little school, the Parsons Center for Audio Studies, originally based on an array of courses I designed, and growing from there.

Tom Bates was to be our star recording engineer/producer, because, well, he’s got the credits and a level of experience that is almost unique in the business. But he’d never taught before, so we started him off with something easy: “Growing Your Home Studio” – a course about the primary operational aspects of recording engineering for people working on their own. In order to help him along with “the teaching thing,” I sat in. And did I learn some cool stuff!

So Who Is Tom Bates?

Tom Bates is a neighbor, for which I thank my truly lucky stars! He's also a recording engineer’s recording engineer. His credits include the Metropolitan Opera and most major American orchestras, people like Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler and on and on, and television shows such as Live From Lincoln Center, Live from the Met, and Saturday Night Live. He co-founded TimeLine (a leading manufacturer of synchronizers). He even tried to retire once! Huh! Fat chance he had!!

Anyway, I sat in on Tom’s classes, made notes about teaching strategies for him, helped him with class prep, and was generally supportive. Then we got to EQ.