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 | | | | Jun30Written by:Bill Park
Friday, June 30, 2000 6:00 PM  Greg Reierson
Greg Reierson has worked in radio, audio and video duplication as a tech and a mastering engineer, location recording, studio tracking and mixing. Greg has been exclusively mastering for the past eleven years. He has been an officer of the AES for four years and is very active in his local music scene as a performer and service provider.
I suggest that the desire of any individual to learn is more important than the educational facility itself.
I attended a state university where I studied mass communications and broadcasting. The neighboring school offered a recording program so I juggle two schools. I spent most of my waking hours working at the local NPR affiliate as the production manager, recording jazz and classical gigs on location, and experimenting in the studio.
We didn't have much gear to speak of, but we learned tons about what could be done with next to nothing. That experience has made me a much better engineer than if I had always had top of the line gear. Now that I do, I have the skills to exploit it to its full potential. Education and skill is much more important than any piece of hardware of software.
I tell students that how much they learn is a product of their willingness to make an effort to go beyond the classroom and absorb as much information as they can wherever they can get it. The more energy invested in learning, the more that will be learned. Great facilities are nice, but even modest facilities and a hunger to learn can lead to great results. Most of us learned in the trenches. DAT machines and DAWs didn't exist when we where learning our craft. They're just tools like anything else.
Until about five years ago my primary source of information in the recording industry was direct contact with clients and peers locally and at national events and reading trades such as REP (now defunct) and Mix.
Then the internet hit me. I now subscribe to eight professional e-mail lists with members numbering in the thousands. On a daily basis I read: the Mastering list, Pro-Audio, Surround Sound list, DVD list, Sonic Solutions User Group, Watermarking list, Theater Sound list, and the Preservation lists. These lists are generally populated by individuals who are very motivated to stay educated in their respective disciplines.
I find that I only browse the printed trades these days. Their mass-market appeal is much less attractive when such a great alternative exists on-line. And there are no ads or paid endorsements on these lists.
BP: You say that "the desire of any individual to learn is more important than the educational facility itself. " That's obviously true, but they have to be given acurate info, and the American trades aren't doing it. I spend a lot of time on the net, too. But the problem for the newbee is that they don't know what is crap and what isn't, and there is a lot of crap on the internet.
Boy, that's true. I make sure I know who is posting before I put too much trust in the statements. Joe ADAT doesn't usually get my attention; Glenn Meadows and Jim Johnston do. A recent thread went around the pro audio list about properly identifying oneself when posting so that the readers might have a better idea of the credibility of the source.
Certainly some of the specific gear lists (Roland, Yamaha, etc.) are less likely to be objective, and maybe the more generic lists like mastering bring out more useful info simply because of the built in checks and balances system. If a questionable statement is made in large well informed group, it gets questioned. Often this leads to a better understanding for all.
I'm a drummer / percussionist (and yes I wear earplugs!). I gave up trying to be a professional musician many years ago. I do it as a hobby and focus on mastering as a career. With my particular combination of interests, I see a fairly broad slice of musician life. Many of my clients are professional musicians trying to make a living playing music. They come to me because they understand where my expertise is, and I leave the professional music scene to them for the same reasons.
Gordon ReidGordon Reid is the Managing Director of CEDAR Audio, a world leader in audio restoration technology. An active musician, he is considered both a collector of and authority on synthesiser technology, and has been a freelance writer and consultant for many industry publications. Formerly an Astrophysicist who worked briefly at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, he also has several audio engineering credits. His first solo CD "Aliens" was released earlier this year. Gordon's latest article in the June issue of Studio Sound is worth a look.
How'd I get my education?
Oh, you know... the usual stuff... writing software for a radio telescope during the day, playing a half-ton keyboard rig through the night.
Doesn't everybody?
Article Continues in Part Four >>>
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