Don’t let the Drum Beat You!

As I arrived at the studio doors for my first day of work placement, I was surprised to feel quite confident and relaxed. I thought that it was due to my past education and experience studying audio engineering at my university, an audio engineering course I had taken previously online, and my continuous study of audio in my home studio. My first task was to assist Rocky (owner of Start Together Studios) in setting up a drumkit for recording a heavy metal band who were due to start recording the following day.

I will use Gibbs Reflective Cycle to structure my writing to reflect on my first task as an assistant audio engineer. “Gibbs’s cycle consists of six stages that guide you through the stages of the reflective process by asking a series of cue questions.” (Jasper, 2013, p. 80).

Description

When I arrived in the live room, Rocky had most of the drum kit set up and was in the middle of tuning the drumheads. We talked about the plan for the day, and I observed while taking notes as the rest of the drum kit was being set up. Once the drum kit was complete, we brought out a range of different microphones and microphone stands and began to place them around the drum kit, including the overheads and room microphones. Rocky then explained the order of each XLR cable to be connected to the microphones and then sent through the patch bay. Each patch had a particular analog pre-amplifier assigned in the control room before going into Protools on the computer. Finally, once everything in the live room was completed, we moved into the control room. Rocky then explained why each microphone was patched into each analog EQ or compressor, followed by safety precautions guidelines before being sent to Protools.

Feelings

Initially, I felt confident before I entered the live room. However, that soon began to change as I saw Rocky setting up the drumkit. I realised, being a guitarist, that the only thing I knew about drums was the names of each part of the kit and their characteristic sound. I was thinking I knew nothing about tuning drums, types of drumheads, snares, or drum choices for different genres of music. When I was asked, have I ever tuned drums for a metal band? I felt a little out of place and held back on answering. Considering I have never lifted a drum tuning key! When I told Rocky I haven’t worked with drum tuning before, he suggested I check out the drum tuning bible, a pdf I could download online. That’s when I began to think about taking notes of things I felt I needed to learn. After the drum kit was set up, I was mainly confident with the rest of the task because of my knowledge of microphones and their placement from my experiences at university. I could then communicate better when setting up the microphones and using the patch bay. Even though there were a few microphones I had never heard of, I was able to ask questions about what type of microphone was being used for safety precautions when using phantom power. When we moved into the control room, I was excited to learn about the analog pre-amplifiers and see them in action, as I have only worked with digital plugin versions. I was happy to finally get working with the real thing.

Evaluation

Overall, I think my first experience of working in a studio went well. I was able to maximize my learning by being aware of my weaknesses and taking notes on how I can improve for future practice. Furthermore, I enjoyed learning about the different microphones and pre-amplifiers that were used for the setup of recording a heavy metal band drum kit. The only bad thing I felt was that I could not help more during the drum setup with my knowledge gap about drum tuning and drum choice. However, I was able to learn what I needed to do for future tasks, and I was able to assist well with the rest of the tasks.

Analysis  

Another thing I assessed in the situation is that the next time the setup may be completely different. For example, the drums could be for a different genre, the patch bay may be used differently, or other unfamiliar microphones could be used. I think that research in different setups for different genres would help me be more useful when that time eventually arises. Not only for a drum recording context but also for recording any other musical instrument. 

Conclusion

I think the biggest thing to take away from my experience is that I can now be more prepared for future tasks. It was helpful to understand the two types of reflection before starting my first day at work placement. As Jasper (2003, p.7) suggests, “Reflection-in-action is the way that people think theorize about practice whilst doing it.” And, “Reflection-on-action involves consciously exploring an experience and thinking about your practice after it has occurred, discovering the knowledge used in that situation.” The reflection-in-action enabled me to be critical and take down notes as the day went on. The reflection-on-action helped me to critically reflect on my notes after the task was complete.

Action Plan

If the task arises again, I have written notes on the types of microphones and their placement that were used that day, A list of each patch bay assignment with their specific numbered pre-amplifiers, so that I could easily set them up right by myself without being prompted. In addition, I also plan to get practical experience tuning drumheads while studying the suggested PDF “The Drum Tuning Bible”. I will research drum setups online and study additional educational videos on YouTube to help me improve my drum engineering skills.

References:

Jasper, M. (2013) Beginning reflective practice.Melbourne & London: Cengage Learning.