Hey guys, I just completed the "Music Production For Beginners" course and something I noticed was how he kept mentioning "A lifetime learning journey" making me wonder if at 52 years old, I'm kind of in the minority of members who are mostly young people here just starting out in the recording industry. A little bit about me. Back in 1991 I went to I.A.R. (Institute of Audio Research) a now defunct Audio Engineering trade school here in NYC. Being about 18 at the time I was too busy goofing off with friends to put in the serious effort to actually study hard and retain the information I was being taught, thinking I would just "wing it" and learn as I went along, some of which I did during my time interning at a professional music studio in Manhattan. However I didn't stay in the industry and went on to work a series of soul crushing office and manual labor jobs instead because they paid better and were more steady work. During I've always maintained a deep interest in Music making, teaching myself to play Bass guitar and playing in several local bands just for the love of the game. Later on I learned a little piano/keyboard but never really bothered to learn music theory because the internet as it exists today and all the wonderful courses available, such as those on Mastering.com weren't available back then. Now I am medically disabled and have a lot of free time and have decided to really put the effort into learning as much as I can about recording/mixing/mastering and creating music with the small digital home studio I put together. I was wondering what the general age consensus of the other members was and maybe a few of your own personal stories as to why you joined the site.

inMusic is the parent company behind AKAI, Moog, M-Audio, and many others. The companies have an existing working partnership with the recent integration of NKS into AKAI and M-Audio hardware. Now, with the acquisition of Native Instruments, which entered insolvency in January of this year, inMusic will also own: - Native Instruments - iZotope - Brainworx - Plugin Alliance Comment with your thoughts below! Image credit: inMusic

So I just visited the Ear Doctor on SoundGym and got these high frequency test results. From a mixing and mastering perspective, should these results be of concern?

Hello! I find it difficult to do a volume balance when the effects are disabled. I mix only my own instrumentals so I always put some effects etc. during the production stage because I don't like the dry sound because it's uninspiring to me during writing. Then I disable the effects, convert MIDI to Audio, and keep the effects disabled for the volume balance, because I see everyone doing volume balances before adding affects. I would prefer to do the volume balance with the effects on though, as it sounds better. Is there a reason I should not do this?

I finally did an inventory of all the plugins I own… and the number is around 300 🤯 But they are useless if I don’t truly know them. So I’m starting a long-term journey of studying and testing each plugin, beginning with the most important ones. My plan: - 2 plugins per week - 3 days study per plugin - at least 1 hour each day - Sunday review of both plugins That means 8 plugins per month and so 96 plugins per year. I’m committing to some understanding how each plugins shapes tone, dynamics, color, and workflow. It’s going to take time and patience. But honestly… there’s no other way. Is there? Gotta do it!