learnin’ producin'

Rip It Up, Issue 57, 1 April 1982, Page 8

learnin’ producin'

Ann Louise Martin

Over 60 people recently paid SBSO each to complete a course in audio engineering run at Harlequin Studios in conjunction with the QE II Arts Council. The cost was partly due to the importing of expertise; producer Roy Thomas Baker, his engineer lan Taylor, and Kent Duncan, a California based studio designer. Duncan took the acoustics and disc mastering session, rebuilding Harlequin's master control room in the process. Roy Thomas Baker, and lan Taylor worked with the Blams, Garage Crawlers, and D.D. Smash for the recording and mixing sessions. The participants included musicians, live engineers, radio, TV, film, and other interested people. Three courses ran over 10 weeks, one day a week, finishing up last month, while there was another ten day block course in January. "It was a lot more work than we anticipated," Doug Rogers comments. "But it was valuable,

materializing out of need. I'd been getting letters and personal visits from people wanting jobs in the industry who were obviously without any experience! and without experience you don't get a job." Doug expects only half a dozen people, if that, will be placed directly in recording. But there are opportunities in related fields on the road with live sound, in dubbing and mastering facilities, radio, film, ad production.

"As a creative medium not everyone is going to be suited to it. The emphasis at the school was on being a recording engineer in the practical sense, and it was left to their own intuition to take it from there."

Working with Roy Thomas Baker was summed up by Martin Williams (Garage Crawlers). "If someone asked him a question, he'd answer it but there was no step by step rundown on what he was doing." Doug Rogers was disappointed in Baker's ability as a communicator.

"He approached it from the point of view of an everyday recording session. If someone is good at a job, it doesn't automatically make them a good teacher.

"He didn't give away as much as he could have f-j perhaps for commercial reasons. But I think the most important aspect to emerge from his visit was /hat there are two sides to the story/If you’re a creative person,/ and know the basics, you can put it all behind you and, do something unique, which he does. On the other hand, Kent for example, had very methodical techniques, but both systems are valid." "Without their two million dollar studios, and 64 harmonizers

they just seemed to be lost," says engineer Steve Kennedy. ; "Having them here was valuable, in that Doug and I could spend hours explaining technique and methods, and they'd walk in and do the exact opposite. Their technique was totally unconventional, and yet it-worked. They know the ,rules so they know how to break them."

| Peter 1 Rodder (D.D. Smash) enjoyed recording with Baker. 'fA"lt was great. He put you at ease with his eccentricity and he worked fast. All the sounds were together within 1 ' half an hour of us going into the studio. It only took five minuses" to'get he right drum sound, and if something wasn't right he'd come through to • the ! studio and talk about SxS/j, The next course is in June, this time for 5500. Harlequin personnel are doing tuition themselves, and it extends over nine day blocks.