Well, not what you would imagine, but over the last 400 days, I have been in training to become a Recording and Mix Audio Engineer.
I've been into music for a while now, all my life basically. When I make beats, I just get into a zone and I get lost in the music, there is no sense of time or other desires. More importantly, with my love and passion for music, I am entering a space where I am learning to love the control over how it sounds and how it all comes together, just as much as I do the composition of it. In fact, I can not see the two without each other now.
My schedule has been extremely crazy and my ears know fatigue very well, but I have been learning and growing like crazy everyday. I have live sound reinforcement, concerts and touring, studio recording, electronic music, and sound designing courses. I've been hired more often to work with artists and orgs for audio production or spoken word stuff. One of my teacher's got me a gig a local church out here, running live sound, and it is a paying gig, so I am glad to be taking progressive steps forward in my craft. Getting paid to do what you love is important and a valuable reminder of the possibilities that are still out there. The new knowledge has allowed me to progress in my personal music endeavors. With each project in school, I try my best to take it to the next level and push myself to see what I come up with. I carry my Tascam DR-40 in my bag and when I hear or think of good sounds or room tones, I try to capture it and I compile it on my Mac later.
I have so far to go, I still get tired late-night and have my days where I am not making beats or practicing my mixing. I still battle with applying the right amount of compression, getting the perfect EQ on a lead vocal, or just getting the kick and bass to love each other. As a young Engineer, I want the artists that I work with and work for to be able to trust me with the tracking process and/or the mixing process.
My goal is to engineer for the artists in our collective and create for us a unique sound. I'd also like to mix for others and some of my favorite artists. I am working to lock in a dope sound full of atmosphere, depth, and texture and a set of practices that will distinguish what I have to offer. For now, it is getting better each day, and as the experience stacks up, we will see what comes next for me.