Thoughts on Music Technology #1

I have to say at the start of the year I was a bit scared. I didn't know anything and didn't know what to expect. (But that's typical Caitlin! Worry!) But now, I am really enjoying the class! Basically, the more I learned, the more comfortable I felt in class. I don't think I could have been put in a class with better people. Everyone is friendly and I know that if I need help with something I can always count on my classmates.
To start, I enjoy the routine we've worked ourselves into at the beginning of class, when setting up. (Minus hurting myself with the mic stands, not good!) I like how Mr. Jones decided to start using the snake once we got the new soundboard. It was a way to turn up the difficulty notch for setting up, compared to how we would at the beginning of the year. This way we communicate more with one another, when we need to know what a certain channel is labeled as. But it's quite hard to do that when it is SUPER CRAZY loud! It's frustrating at times, trying to yell across the room to get a person's attention, if we need to match up mics to channels or try to start a sound check.
Next, I'm glad to say I don't find the soundboard as confusing as I once did. I understand the main concepts, such as the input/gain, monitors, pan, speaker levels, and individual channel levels. But there as still a few things I'm not totally sure about. I get what the EQs (and frequencies as well, or are they the same?) are used for, it's just that we haven't altered them much. I think in future classes I will strive to work with them more, experimenting, to see its impact on the overall sound of the band.
Again, recording is much simpler than I thought it would be. The Zoom H4 is easy to use and it's cool how we can hook it up to the soundboard. The trouble I have when recording is being able to tell whether the sound is good or not. I may feel like it is good, but when I hand the headphones over to someone else, they may feel differently. That's an area where I'm still somewhat nervous. We haven't used Cubase a lot yet, and I'm having a hard time understanding it. There are many different controls and I don't really know how to use the majority of them. This again ties in with what I think sounds good and what may not. When changing the levels of a file, I'm uneasy, because I'm not sure that I'm doing the right thing. Sometimes it's hard to work as well because the band that isn't playing is in there doing random things. That's the only computer in the entire school that we are able to work on, and they are playing and goofing off while we are trying to listen and edit music. We eventually get them out, but 15 minutes later they're back in there doing the same thing. (AH!) I found it to be tough when I was doing my first acoustic mastering, because everyone was off watching Kyle's rockumentary and I was all by myself. (But I think it turned out okay anyways.)

I have to say that I really love our blogs! It's allowing me to express and share things that I probably wouldn't have revealed to others. I'm actually having lots of fun as I write these, especially when I listen to music at the same time! I also love reading what everyone else posts, it's very exciting! I'm looking forward to starting our websites, I have never really made one before, so it will be another new experience!
I am usually the type of person who quits something when I get scared, but I am really glad I took this class. It's cool to learn about something new, it's really interesting, and this is helping me grow as a person. It's bringing me out of my shell. Music Technology has definitely been a surprise, that is, a good one!