the audio engineer

In graduate school (late 1990s to early 2000s), I had the privilege of meeting a real legend in my industry. He is most unassuming, also much older than myself but taking the same classes in communication and broadcasting. He should be teaching those classes and yet there he was. He had all the credentials but wanted the matching degrees. Apparently, he'd started on the program years back and didn't get to finish, so he came back and started over. In his words, he was a former part-owner, program director and idea guy for several radio stations. A lot of consulting, but I think his day job is actually acoustic engineer. His niche appears to be acoustic design for houses of worship. He's also a musician with a lovely collection of guitars. Seriously, this guy is everything and is just so, so nice. Lately, he's been offering free advice to anyone writing their thesis if it's in his area of expertise (acoustics and other areas of sound). Very pro-education. At this point, I thought, I have nothing to lose if I hit him up for some advice regarding this "blower" that a colleague was hearing in my test recordings. I told him what I'd wanted to achieve and he had some very specific suggestions which led me to go the dynamic mic route. Still working on the interface/DAW switch though.

Let's call him Mr. P. So, the legendary Mr. P. has been posting all these nuggets of info on Facebook. I'm loving the anecdotes and the information is really nice to have. One of the things he'd posted some days ago was a short piece about the difference between a sound engineer and an audio engineer. I'll translate and paraphrase a little because it's easier than a direct quote. Basically, he says that a sound engineer frequently works with live sound, including setting up the sound reinforcement system, laying down and connecting the live sound system and microphones, testing the sound and mixing. This is the person who makes sure that everything sounds good live, typically for larger venues such as concert stages. While we can use the terms interchangeably, as we frequently do, the audio engineer is really the guy in the recording studio, involved in the making of records. The people who work in broadcasting, whether radio or television, even when they work with live programs, are also considered audio engineers. Put this way, I get it but it's still a little hard to get used to saying audio engineer. If I think about it, what I'm trying to learn is really everything. Little bits of sound engineer as I'm trying to lay the foundation for a lovely live performance but at the same time, I'm the audio engineer because I'm the one recording it and I will be the one sitting down to edit and mix. On top of all that, I'm the talent. HAHAHA. Just look at how far we've come. 

As part of this process, I've taken to switching DAWs and I've immersed myself in all the tutorials I can find on Reaper. There was definitely temptation to go back to the old school software but it's 2025, man. I am determined to learn something new. Well, as far as Reaper goes, it's this interesting setup where you can get the 60 day trial and after that, they allow you to continue using the software to evaluate further. You just have to deal with the pop-up asking you to buy it, every time you open it. I don't mind this. After all, if the software has proven itself most useful and compatible with my equipment and my methodology, I would happily shell out the $60 for my personal project. If you think about it, that's the cost of one Nintendo Switch game. It's really not bad at all. 

What's coming up is Black Friday and there are already sales, left and right. I've come across some interesting Yamaha mixers and a podcasting interface that is really quite inexpensive. I kind of wonder if any of these will work for my little project, so I can replace the Mbox. My other "adviser" is really making a case for the Tascam X8 and if not for the fact that it's $400, and I'm not entirely sure if I will still be doing all this when the one year project is over, I feel like I need to keep looking. In the meantime, I had a hankering for Eataly yesterday and I thought I'd share this really cute picture I took of the giant wheels of cheese with little pumpkins on them. I almost forgot, Happy Halloween!

Playlist Recommendation: Like A Stone, Audioslave