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Issue #216 – Student Successes
by Liya Swift
Recording Connection graduate Nigel Dean
And even though you’re a multi-instrumentalist and have been writing songs all your life, you didn’t really know any of the DAWs when you signed up, right?
“Not really. I mean, I had Logic, and I knew a little bit through that. I had been messing with it for like three months. That was the whole reason I enrolled in Recording Connection…To me it was like, I could figure it all out myself or I could save myself a bunch of time, maybe spend a little money and learn from somebody and just cut that corner so that I could excel quicker. That’s basically what I ended up doing.
I did my whole apprenticeship (externship) so that I didn’t have to do this long studying by myself independently. If I was studying by myself, I could be learning something totally wrong instead of having Patrick there to say, ‘I know that the internet tells you that this is what you do, but it’s not.’
When I met Patrick what I lacked was the fundamental understanding of what mixing even was…I mean my tracks sounded great in terms of composition but in terms of sound, they sounded muddy. So he opened the door on how to clean everything up, how to make sure everything has its own space within the frequency spectrum, that everything is cohesive as a whole. Then, he really explained to me the technological aspects: how different types of microphones work, the essentials of certain equipment, and basically the fundamental components of what the equipment does.”
Ultimately you got hired but prior to that, Patrick asked you to come in to help on certain projects. Yes?
“Yeah. I got to sit on some projects where I was the assistant engineer and similar things where I helped produce. I even had some sessions where I was the session guitarist. I’ve gotten to work with some really amazing artists that I would never have dreamed about working with. Some of them were my idols growing up as a kid. Luckily, after the program was done, he continued to hit me up and say, ‘Hey man, I need help with this.’… Then finally one day he was like, ‘Hey man, you’re here enough. You might as well just be one of us.’”
In your opinion, what do students need to do to make the most of their experiences with Recording Connection?
“Number one, they have to have an exceptional work ethic. The mentors can guide you places but they can’t make you move your legs. For anybody who’s trying to enroll, one thing that they need to know in their head is that this is the hardest work ever, in my opinion, or one of the hardest. Any entertainment industry job, whether it be acting or standup comedy or whatever, it’s nonstop. The only time you really get time to yourself is when you’re sleeping at night. So I think any student needs to go into it knowing that this is going to be hard work.”
Okay, it’s hard work but you seem to love what you’re doing.
“Oh, totally… It’s some kind of euphoria. That’s what keeps me going, honestly.”
How does it feel to now be able to go home, play your guitar, record it, track the whole thing and mix it yourself?
“It’s an amazing feeling. There’s nothing I can’t do now, which is one of the greatest things ever, [to be] a musician and an engineer and all that. I’m confident that anything that I want to do musically, I can do it now. There’s no limitations.”
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