Practice without equipment?

BrentOnTheSynth

BrentOnTheSynth

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Jul 18, 2012
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Hello Guys! It may sound like a silly question but I was wondering if there is anyway to practice or learn things about audio engineering without any equipment i.e. Audio Interface, Mics, DAW (full version) ect.

I do have a MicroKorg, a bass, and my Bro has a Schecter Omen as far as having instruments.

I have been trying to learn things for months now but I find it really hard to apply stuff i read without a need to apply it, for example, its hard to learn to EQ something if I don't have a track/mix that needs EQing so when I read things or watch videos I cant understand much of it.

I am really passionate about becoming an audio engineer but sadly I am on the poor side so I haven't been able to afford any equipment and Im really Happy about Graduating high school early :D so I can start a full time job and begin to buy some equipment. and since I live in North Carolina I cant really intern at a studio because they are hard to find especially when you live in the country like me (I plan to move) My plans were to graduate high school early, get a full time job, take a couple of lessons for recording at Guitar Center just to learn a good bit, and hopefully one day go to the SAE in Tennessee. but anyways...

Until all that I was wondering if there is anyway I could learn or practice audio engineering at home without equipment or is it just best to wait until I have a few thing and start getting a little hands on expierience? Because I've been stressing myself a bit with all the discouragement accompanying not understanding the things I read.

Thanks in advance!!! :D
 
^^reaper and then get a bunch of the free good plugins. ill make you a list of some of the important ones because im awesome.

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/website/home.htm
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5

i highly recommend buying something for drums because putting in free samples by hand or using a free drum replacer is tedious and will probably not sound great and just take a lot of work to make sound good.

here is a very cheap solution that can sound very good but will probably go back up after black friday is over
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOONTRACK-E...mputer_Recording_Software&hash=item53eefb48bf

and then very good cheap plugins here with a few freebies http://www.toneboosters.com/products/
 
yeah stilwell bombardier and the rocket especially! For cab impulses check out guitar hacks and catharsis. There is a bunch of good ones really. There are multi tracks on this site with just the raw files of a song for you to practice mixing on. You can definitely learn how to mix for free. It'll be hard learning how to record stuff though. But once you get some money, you can get some equipment for that for really cheap if you need.
 
wetpenny said:
GREAT price! but yeh: reaper & freeware/donationware (i'll add Stillwell into the pot)
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this. Stillwell, schwa, and the free sutff that voxengo give away are awesome. I end up using voxengo's SPAN plugin all the time.


http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=28

http://www.voxengo.com/group/free-vst-plugins/

http://www.airwindows.com/ (mac only)

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/ts-999-by-ignite-amps (Awesome overdrive I use in front of the lepou stuff infectdsniper linked you)

There's loads of free plug ins out there, combine those with reaper and you're set to go!

also type "mix practice" or something along those lines into the forum search ( http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=007593470310830667409:4qw46y8lnza ) and look around here - http://mixoff.org/ for plenty of mixing practice

Most of the links on mixoff are dead though sadly :(
 
Thanks for all the help guys! Tommorow I'll try to actually get on and check eveything out more and give you guys more feedback on the help you've given me!
 
Oh and also I was wondering, Can I still mix without headphones/monitors? I don't have studio headphones all I have is like JVC marshmallow headphones which I assume aren't that helpful.
 
BrentOnTheSynth said:
Oh and also I was wondering, Can I still mix without headphones/monitors? I don't have studio headphones all I have is like JVC marshmallow headphones which I assume aren't that helpful.
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Well you can use a lot of things for now to get by. I think it is more important that you know them well.

I reference mixes on a set of Koss SparkPlugs because I just know them so well from listening to them nearly EVERY DAY on the bus. Mixing on them is a pain since they sort of make everything sound good (big bass, slightly reduced mids, etc.). Or in the car is a good example.

So you will just have to reference a lot on different systems, the car, stereos, boomboxes. When I started in this I would go to Best Buy and listen to mixes on their stuff.

Just keep in mind it does take a long time to learn this, and making a living at it is difficult (most of us here have day jobs). So don't get frustrated and let your passion drive you. When you love it, that is your success.
 
aortizjr said:
Well you can use a lot of things for now to get by. I think it is more important that you know them well.

I reference mixes on a set of Koss SparkPlugs because I just know them so well from listening to them nearly EVERY DAY on the bus. Mixing on them is a pain since they sort of make everything sound good (big bass, slightly reduced mids, etc.). Or in the car is a good example.

So you will just have to reference a lot on different systems, the car, stereos, boomboxes. When I started in this I would go to Best Buy and listen to mixes on their stuff.

Just keep in mind it does take a long time to learn this, and making a living at it is difficult (most of us here have day jobs). So don't get frustrated and let your passion drive you. When you love it, that is your success.
Click to expand...

This this this and more this.

I don't have monitors, i'm way too poor, I use dre beats and reference with laptop speakers, partially because they're all i've got, but also because i'm so used to listening to them near enough every day :)
 
aortizjr said:
Just keep in mind it does take a long time to learn this, and making a living at it is difficult (most of us here have day jobs). So don't get frustrated and let your passion drive you. When you love it, that is your success.
Click to expand...

When you say day jobs do you mean like career type jobs that you went to college for or just like normal jobs? I only ask cause, I know about all the controversy on going to college for AE, and was just wondering.

And also I wanted to thank everyone for the help and advice! you guys are really great :tickled: I downloaded Reaper and was gonna start on a mix before I went to start driving for drivers ed. but every link I found was broken :(
 
link for what? The Multi track files for mixing? If so, I know that Torque song and scar symmetry cover song still has working links. There are plenty more as well. That keep looking and you will find stuff. I know I did and it was recent too.
 
I found one of the Torque songs (Enhance our Burial) only a few minutes left for the download can't wait to get started! :danceboy:
 
Yeah there's TONS of songs been put up here, gearslutz and other forums to mix practise on. Get stuck in. I recommend diving in and trying to mix a few songs on your own, then go back and re read some of the stuff you've read about mixing so you can understand more fully what they were talking about and the problems you yourself were having that you need to work on.

The trick is to get started using the gear you can afford and work on getting better stuff as you go along. No one starts out with top of the line gear but over time you'll get there. The important thing is to actually get out there and start recording and not just reading about it. Remember the guys who are really good at this are good because they do it all the time. You don't mix 10 tracks a year and be awesome at it, the more you do it the better you will get!

I was mixing on a set of Sony hi fi speakers for a long time - 3 or 4 years. They were alright, proper monitors were better but it didn't stop me from making demo's, E.P's and albums during that time. Don't let the gear you DON'T have be an excuse for not doing stuff. For mixing all you need to start is a set of earphones and computer. It's not ideal but it is all you need to start. You'll need mics and an audio interface to start recording, of which there are hundreds of different options all of which have been discussed and compared on the internet.

If you put 500$ into recording gear you can get enough to mic a kit with some cheap mics into a 2nd hand 8 input interface and go from there. Used gear is your friend! Find a friends band and use them to try out the things you're learning about. Do it for free/peanuts/make them buy you the gear so you can try recording them a few times so you learn from your mistakes and put out a solid first effort.

Also, while not for everyone but worked for me. Try your hand at some live sound. You'll learn TONS about the gear and how to work fast and you'll train your ear pretty quick. You'll also get paid and can put that into funding your studio gear. You don't have to do it forever but I'd highly recommend that you try it a few times. I've been a live engineer for a few years now and love it. You can experiment with all sorts of things at a gig that you simply wouldn't get away with on a recording session. Wanna try a different mic on the guitar, stick the mic on there and if it doesn't sound amazing it was only a gig.
 
BrentOnTheSynth said:
When you say day jobs do you mean like career type jobs that you went to college for or just like normal jobs? I only ask cause, I know about all the controversy on going to college for AE, and was just wondering.
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+1 to live sound. Learned a TON working in that environment. Talk about working fast and working with what you have. Plus it is a good way to make some extra cash.

Personally I think it is a mix of people with other careers and "regular" jobs. For me personally I have a degree in Computer Science and work a career. But I probably put MORE time than a full day job into music.

Other AE's I know work all sorts of jobs, from restaurants, retail stores, store managers, steel workers, taxi drivers, computers, teachers, sales rep etc. Some music related, some not. The thing is to be a good AE, you typically have other skills that are very marketable. Technical sensibility, project management, interpersonal skills, engineering and process oriented mindset, attention to detail, working under pressure and high stress, creativity, computer troubleshooting, etc. Some make a living being a musician from their band, writing, film placement, etc.

Going to school for AE is a tough call. I think the biggest thing you gain from any school is contacts and being immersed in the subject. I would try and pick one that has really good and possibly guaranteed internship placement. But most "school" curriculum I have looked at just cover really the basics like signal flow, XLR vs. 1/4", how to use protools, basic mic placement, how to use a console, etc. Just because you go to school doesn't mean you will come out some sort of master. Just means you spent a lot of money and you won't be a total noob in the studio. But if you can land an internship and make friends, that is worth it and will make you better.

Now there are a handful of AE's that make a living doing their style of music. But they are really pretty few in the grand scheme. Most AE's that really make a living are doing a lot of other similar studio gigs. They are doing tape transfers, voice overs, commercials, ALL styles of music (from spoken word to orchestras), ADR, teaching, live sound, forensics, etc. But there are plenty of AE's that are insanely talented, have done label work, etc. but still have to work a day job to pay the bills.

So you really have to do it because you love it. Because reality is, based on most measures of a "good job" it is one of the worst out there. Long and terrible hours (when everyone else is off), very little security, customer service is essential, high stress, subjectively based, mostly clean-up, and while you will know and probably get to hang with rock stars, it definitely doesn't make you one and it will definitely not get you girls.

BUT you are an essential person in helping an artist to achieve their vision and release their music. It is also an art and like any art you are proud of your work. And that is awesome and very rewarding.
 
man you guys give some great advice.. I think I'm going to start working much harder towards this. I know music is what I want to do with my life so I'm going to start making it happen. I'm going to take you guys advice and start applying it to music.

So get ready. Soon you guys are going to have a flood of questions and bad mixes coming from me ;)
 
Im no diffrent than you my man
i started mixing music about year ago. at that time i used to read a lot of articles in diffrent sites..
and got to know many things.... i started downloading tracks from this site..i got around 15gb of mixing tracks from Diff bands,artist
still i have only a desktop and a pair of Creative pc speaker's(which by now you can find it in a meuseum) ... i mixed more than 100 tracks
and in every track you will find a new problem to deal with.. by time you will gather the experience..
you will know the spot to hit in... some of my friends have 1000$ audio interface and 2500-3000$ monitor goods mics and other stuffs
i mix way better than them.. because i know where im going..but they dont..without knowing the proper use of a thing dont jump for it
and the last thing i can say is stick with this site... read the threads experiment on them..share your mix let ppl judge it
you get all good by time...
and the life of sound engineer is not easy :(
if you think about money...
Sorry for my bad English
 
Spend your first money in decent monitors and not in VST plugins. That would be my tip. If you keep on using Reaper for a while, you won't really need additional stuff at first (and you might not even know what you need or want for your sound, as you're just started gathering experience). It has everything required to get started with, like EQ, compressors etc. One exception is reverb, I think, but there are some nice freeware solutions out there, which are ok to start with.
 
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