AUS230 Post Production

How to keep skills relevant in the audio world as tecnology progresses is sort of a broad question but also something easy enough to answer in short. My short answer is YouTube. I fully understand that is an appalling answer that you might hate but I'll attempt to justify it. I would not know half as much as I do if it weren't for YouTube. This relates not only to mixing techniques but also technology, concepts, ideas, standard practice, behaviour. I learned how to change the starter motor on my car from YouTube. So many different aspects of the audio world get discussed on YouTube because it's actually a really great way to share and demonstrate ideas. Not only that, it creates dialogue in a public sphere. So a lot of the users that view this content are able to talk and ask questions. I know the YouTube comments section is for the most part an absolute mess of idiots, but scattered amongst the garbage are some genuine questions that help to inform the content creators about what might be lacking out there in world and what other people want to hear. When looking specifically at the audio technology world all of the NAMM and AES shows are filmed by Sound on Sound and sent to YouTube. Which is an amazing way for me to stay up to date about emerging technology that I may have a hard time finding out about. It also allows me to see and hear a demonstration of gear that I might have trouble getting access to. So as both an engineer and a consumer this is incredibly helpful.

In years past obviously people would talk amongst themselves when it comes to mix tips and tricks. Look at Glyn Johns, a guy that has a drum mic'ing technique named after him. At some point he showed that to someone, who told someone else, that showed someone that mic'd a drum kit. The point is that sharing of ideas in audio is important and also very normal. I just think that YouTube so happens to be a very modern way of doing this. Like anything that happens online though, the one major draw back is that anyone can have a voice and some times not everyone needs to have a voice when it comes to these things. I don't see this as being a bad thing though because you can generally find out quite quickly whether or not something is going to be bad or unhelpful. One thing a lot of people say that I talk to is that generally speaking there is no write or wrong, and if it sounds good, it is good. As long as you understand why you are doing things. I definitely know that when I was learning mixing early on I did so many different things without having a real purpose or understanding why and then couldn't really pin down why my mixes didn't sound the way I wanted.

The other thing that needs to be touched on here is books. They're the equivalent of hens teeth now but learning from books was not uncommon in the past and it seems to have been regular practice for engineers to write and release books that delved into their production methodologies. So often when I am watching something online, some engineer will drop that what they just demonstrated is a trick they learned from reading producer X's book back in 19diggity. Chances are who ever is interviewing them will chime in with a "Oh yeah, great book. Read that myself blah blah blah" The point here is that conveying of information has always existed it's just the that medium is changing. Warren Huart Here Hope You're Doing Marvellously Well from Produce Like A Pro runs a good channel and so often has really great, interesting guests. I have learned so much about synthesis from Tom Holkenberg and his Junkie XL channel. When I went away on my film shoot earlier in the tri I spent so many hours on YouTube learning as much as I possibly could about location sound and how to become part of a film crew. We have never learned any of that as part of the audio program at SAE.

I think a lot of this also comes down to the fact that I am a visual learner. I will happily read manuals for things and I think it's flat out amazing that Waves includes a manual that you can access from the GUI of all their plug ins. However, a demonstration of someone using a piece of gear in a practical way is better for me. Video content has the benefit of audio, so being able to hear as well as see is incredibly beneficial.

I know that this has not specifically related to post production itself but given that audio post is a small part part of what we learn at SAE, if that is an aspect of our skills that we want to keep up on in the future and use to earn an income, then we have to be willing to self educate. That applies to any industry too. There will always be technological changes and those that opt not to get with the times or at the very least understand how the times are changing, get left behind. A draftsman that can draw an entire house's blueprint by hand has an amazing skill but it's not much use if he didn't learn how to use a computer aided drawing program all those years ago so he can email his plan off to a client. We have the benefit of working in a media and technology industry so in reality we should be excited for all the changes that are coming because they allow us to create new and interesting work. Find me a person that thinks digital reverb units were bad for music and wishes we still had mixes that are as dry as a nuns proverbial.