MY SUU CAPSTONE LITERATURE REVIEW
(link to relevant music at the bottom)
PREMISE
With the rise of music recording, broadcasting, production, live sound and staggering bursts of discovery in audio technology throughout the 20th century came a slew of complex issues to be resolved. These issues ranged from performing rights, copyright and licensing to difficulties surrounding originality, fraud, moral responsibilities of music professionals, and legal ramifications of ownership vs. access since neither music itself nor the creation of it are physical products (Waldfogel, 6-8; Kilgore, 65-72; Drott, 207-211). The benefits of these issues arising has included increased attention to the professional nature of music careers, increasing respect in cultural perspective regarding the financial value of music services and products with more federal and independent organizations that work for the fair compensation of music professionals (Waldfogel, 15-23).
Some of the resulting downfalls include a sharp spike of music piracy with the rise and fall of Napster in the 2000's, increased confusion about legal gray area with how much songwriters can draw inspiration from others before committing fraud, and more ambiguity surrounding how much artists should be paid for their music to be broadcasted or performed (Waldfogel, 197). My increased understanding of these issues gained from my exposure to these articles will certainly influence the way I approach finalizing my last report of my interactive capstone deliverables. I now plan to use these articles to broaden my perspective and enhance my expectations of the rewards, work and struggles of being a professional in the music industry.
Since any kind of art, visual or performing, is a very subjective field, many have justifiably felt overwhelmed at the idea of “making it big” in the industry and becoming any kind of star, or even just using their talents to have a sustainable income. This also includes many who have been heavily involved in music for most of their lives. Each source examined in my research of music business contributes significant evidence to the idea that the vast technological advances in music performance, composition and production has resulted in a more navigable playing field in the professional music world. A few things that have become much more mainstream and accessible to musicians than they ever were before the 21st century include musician directories, more regulated copyright law, Performing Rights Organizations, more widespread guides in songwriting and legal frameworks designed to help musicians (Waldfogel, 141; Kilgore, 3, note 12; Tough; Kilgore, 9). While this does provide a more efficient framework to musicians, songwriters, etc. to work with, it also means that there's more to sift through to make sure their music a) isn't being taken advantage of and b) they aren't accidentally on the other side of that coin and getting in trouble for copyright infringement. The positive side of these struggles in professional musicianship is it gives plenty of opportunity to learn what it takes to stand up for musicians rights and attract clientele that take them more seriously.
I found the methods used to research in these studies of the art of music surprisingly non-artistic, but still useful. In Tough's research there was a great deal of analysis with the market in 1998 about the strictly mathematical side of this. It partially looked at similarities with “beat, chord progression, duration, fullness of sound harmony, melody, octave, pitch, rhythm, sonic brilliance, and
tempo” to help determine how any or all of those factors influence the popularity of a song (98).
In other words, these and other factors were scrutinized in an attempt to discover if we can predict human preference in music or if it's purely random and instinctual (Tough, 98). Other measuring factors included length of song intro, overall song length and viewpoint – i.e. first, second or third person, or a group of people, story telling, etc. (105-107).
On the purely business side of the industry, factors measured to rate the success of a band included the amount of merchandise sold, the dollar amount of income the band earned per gig and how much a band had toured, if at all, for a more general picture of the matter (Fisher, 142). For the more minute details, outsourcing and promotional factors were measured. For outsourcing, Tough's article discusses in part, whether the band used a booking agent, had a website, an outside accountant or a publicist (142-144). Promotional factors included whether the band used the internet to market their music and had a website, used a mailing list or sold most of their recordings at gigs.
With respect to how the music industry has changed significantly over the last 25 years, Waldfogel's article about Guerilla Radio and artist's right investigates the success of musicians, recording artists and the traditional “gatekeepers” of popular music as the perceived need of their services began to significantly decrease. This was done by analyzing success patterns like the growth of independent labels, the number of actual brick-and-mortar retail outlets, radio audience and the competition among online stores (207-208).
Most of the historical and chronological factors surrounding music technology and the commercial music professions are found in Waldfogel's research. When it comes to new and budding musicians trying to make a living with it, the reason it's important to understand the historical background of the development of music technology has a lot to do with knowing what needs to be
done practically, acoustically and electronically to get that “perfect” sound they are looking for. It is essential to understand how we as humans first discovered what new kinds of sounds could be achieved as we made scientific discoveries in several areas. This includes microphone design, mixing hardware capabilities and room treatment. Consideration must be taken as well for whether recording artists want a sound that is narrow and focused, intimate, broad and sweeping, far away and ethereal, or makes full use of the frequency spectrum perceptible to the human ear. Additionally, translating what they want into how they play and the space or studio they choose to record and perform is a key factor for professional quality.
An example of this is being able to hear the difference between audio playable from vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes and purely digital audio. Each has it's benefits and downfalls. The rise of CDs in the late 90s and 2000s sparked a debate about whether or not the “cleaner” sound of a CD was actually desirable or not (“Loudness War”). Part of this debate was about whether it sounded too polished as a result of removal of essential audio data you'd get from an actual record, or if the easier means of storing more hours of music was worth the sacrifice of the closer-to-live sound. Nonetheless, people began preferring ease of use to the higher quality because the average untrained ear couldn't really hear the difference. This issue became more pronounced in the 2000's and early 2010's when the shipment of physical music products dropped from 20 billion to under 3 billion. Recently, vinyl has been making a comeback (Waldfogel, 196, Fig. 1, below). In fact, vinyl sales outsold CD's in 2021 for the second time since 1987 (Bass, 2).
One example of a small but important reason why the history of music technology and the industry comes into play with producers has to do with reverb. Reverb was at first often created in audio tracks by either recording in a heavily reflective room or, later, finding ways to use electronic hardware through which digital audio signal was sent and processed before it was physically recorded. Understanding how to tell the audible difference between recorded versus digital reverb is a huge part of being a good producer. The overall point is that understanding how things used to work gives a greater understanding of how things work now and can help give budding recording artists and producers a better idea of how to achieve the sound they want.
What I have discovered in reviewing my initial sources was actually a bit relieving to my previous notions in professional music. I was relatively sure, beforehand, that as I went through my business, professional development and building my skill set I would need to and be able to figure out how to find the unexplained “secret sauce” of “making it big.” Because the music industry and predicting consumer preferences relating to music really isn't something any one has legitimately figured out yet, my research has led me to conclude that my reliance on simply going by instinct, networking, insights and connections among other music professionals will win out in the end. It definitely shows me that there will always be more work to do and more adapting to adjust to, but that with each change in the music industry, on both a global and national level, everyone else is always just trying to learn as they go as well.
Music is such a hard thing to really pin down, quantify or definitively measure in its scope of influence, creative limits or developmental possibilities. Therefore, it's no surprise that it continues to evolve at the rate it does. For this reason, I feel both motivated and empowered in my efforts to forge my own path in my desired profession as a songwriter, producer, composer and arranger. I need to trust that I have enough will power and integrity to navigate the changes in the field right along with everyone else as I go without worrying about coming up against any kind of proverbial brick wall or sign that says ‘you must be this tall to enter.’
ORCHESTRA RESEARCH
I began my research by surveying different industry standards and opinions about which microphones and which miking techniques will be most useful and effective in different recording scenarios, beginning with orchestral recording. In this process I was looking primarily how to establish the highest possible fidelity in capturing a sound that makes the listener feel like they are listening to the performance in person, even if they are not.
DPA Microphones had an in depth explanation of using an AB Stereo Technique (“Classical Orchestra, AB Stereo”). They suggested using two Omnidirectional Condenser microphones which are placed a specific distance apart to capture an optimal level of ambiance and an accurate image of the overall sound. It surprised me that they claimed the idea of an orchestra being arranged in a semicircle around the conductor to be a rare thing because that's the only kind of arrangement I think I've ever seen. They made an interesting point that if mics are placed too close to the conductor, the instruments on the far edges will be too far off axis to create an accurate audio image without unwanted delay in the final recording. This caused me to consider placing them more towards the front of the room.
DPA also specified that the distance between the two microphones in this AB Stereo Technique are often placed roughly 1/2 meter to 2/3 meter apart, but that some producers actually prefer as far as 2 ½ meters apart. They cautioned that if they are too far apart it will start to create a hole in the stereo image, which would require a third microphone in the middle to compensate. However, from my experience with my degree in Music Recording Technology from Salt Lake Community College and hearing many examples of the difference between varying levels of panning in stereo images, I questioned this caution. From my experience, if I listen to an orchestral piece, especially on surround sound, it is much more of an immersive experience if there is a sort of “hole” in the middle of the image. I do want the listening experience with the orchestral recording to feel like the listener is almost in the same spot as the conductor. This would mean deliberately placing the mics far enough away that the further off to the sides each respective instrument is placed, the further off to the sides it sounds to the listener. I tried this method digitally when I produced my first orchestral project using purely MIDI instruments in Cubase in my MIDI II class at SLCC and was quite satisfied with the result. The only drawback to this I saw to this was if someone is listening with earphones and only was one in, which happens often these days. In cases like that it would be good to have a more even stereo image overall.
DPA also recommended angling the mics toward the back of the room in an effort to capture all the spatial qualities and prioritize which sections are more prominent throughout the performance.
MY OWN PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Something else I considered in the brainstorming process for the orchestral recording was using condenser mics with my own KSM313 Ribbon mic from Shure. Like all other ribbon mics, it would be able to capture sound coming in from the front and back of the mic, helping to enhance the perception of being in the room with the orchestra with residual high frequencies coming off the wall behind the listener. This effect would be even further enhanced by the fact that my KSM313 has a wide, smooth frequency response for rich bass frequencies on the front and crisp, precise response on the back for higher frequencies. When I saw this specific mic at NAMM in my first year at SUU, the man at the Shure booth demonstrating it's capabilities to me explained that their proprietary Roswellite material used in the ribbon allows the mic to take the higher sound pressure from the loudness of an orchestra without being overloaded or damaged. They even say that it can take phantom power (making it able to pair with a condenser mic well). I haven't been brave enough to try that before this project, mainly because all other ribbon mics have stern warnings from the manufacturers never to use phantom power with them because it will destroy the delicate ribbon inside.
With the combination of the Figure-8 patterned KSM313 and a few large diaphragm condenser mics (such as a couple of C414s), I thought, I could get an especially complete picture of the audio for the listener with a full orchestra. Condenser mics are better for capturing sound at larger distances anyways.
As for the solo piano recordings, I have tried using several different mic combinations, including 2 C414s as well as a pair of KSM 184s and my pair of SR-M500s. I personally have loved the sound of my SR-M500s on my own acoustic piano at home better than anything else I've tried, but also achieved a good sound at SLCC when using two small diaphragm condenser mics and boundary mic on the far inside surface of the piano. However, something else I remembered in planning for Spring 2025 when I refined and executing my plan was that I needed to consider the benefits of capturing both the close-up, intimate sound of each respective instrument as well as the sound of the room so I would have the option to choose exactly how much of the room I wanted to mix into the final result.
In relation to the Senior Recital portion of the recording, I wanted to made sure I had a very specific plan for how I wanted to set up mics for the band performance section of the recital and discussed this matter in details with Dr. Tebbs, discussed later in this report.
Another thing I learned from my AAS was how much polar pattern and stereo arrays matter in the recording process. Between XY, near coincident XY, Blumlein, ORTF, AB and Mid-Side and Decca Tree techniques, the only array we chose for any of the recording was the Blumlein near the outside curve of the piano, stacked, track-wise, on top of two KM-184's closer to the piano strings under the lid. This was used during the dress rehearsal for my Senior Recital.
When considering mic distance, I know I didn't want anything too close to any of the instruments in any of my recordings so I could avoid too much unwanted “noise” - such as pedals, clothes ruffling, the close up mechanism movement of piano hammers or key switching on wind instruments, etc. I knew I wanted as clear and uniform as a sound as possible, especially from the orchestra, so I considered using a Decca Tree or something similar to place the orchestra mics directly over head across the ensemble to avoid unwanted coloration from floor reflections that might be more likely occur if there were in out in front. This unfortunately didn't work out because of lack of student support and complications with the hectic spring schedule for the Music Department.
Additional acoustic treatment of each recording space was another consideration I both researched (in one of my old textbooks, Mic It!) and discussed with Dr. Tebbs. I know in my home studio, absorption panels do make a significant difference, but I thought with the extra space I had to work with in Thorley and South Hall, it would be a good idea to plan for some way to add extra acoustic in those spaces to get the absolute best sound quality I could in those spaces. Dr. Bohnenstengel suggested, for the first portion of my Senior Recital, putting Thorley's partition dividers in between the piano/harpsichord setup and everything else for the band songs, mainly for visual clarity for the audience, but I also thought it would provide a better audible image for both the audience and the piano mics.
SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY'S FIRST SAMPLE LIBRARY
In order to receive honors credit for the Recording II class I completed in fall of 2024, I recorded and professionally edited a Sample Library for SUU's students to use in perpetuity in their own editing, songwriting, mixing and production assignments or projects. The following is a summary of what I learned from this project about recording and editing that became a great asset in my decision making process for my capstone recording and mixing.
Instrument capabilities. I spent the summer of 2024 putting together PDF sheet music according to what was then my best judgment in capturing a good range of each instrument's capabilities. There were, naturally, things that I couldn't see ahead of time to consider in my composition for each instrument, especially since I only have expertise in piano and a little guitar and percussion. In recording violin, for example, the performers that came into the studio reminded me that in my intention to record both legato and staccato articulations, I had forgotten a significant difference in the capabilities of the instrument. Violins have three different kinds of what other musicians would simply call “staccato” all by itself, including staccato, spiccato, and pizzicato. I had to all of the sudden make a decision on the fly as to which one I actually wanted because there simply wasn't enough time to get all three on top of legato.
Another example of learning about instrument capabilities had to do with tempo, which will serve me well in more than just recording in the future. When my trumpeter came to record, part of our recording session included just holding notes as long as he could. On some notes that I thought would actually be quite easy to hold through a long breath, he described to me the elements of how the valves and slides work together for each note that make it harder than one might think to hold some of them for very long. I found out that low concert C, for example, is more difficult to play as long as some other notes close by (which I had assumed inversely) because of how much air is required to get a good sound with the way the vales and slides are positions for that particular pitch.
The editing process. The sheer amount of time I spent on quantizing, comping and other elements of audio editing to make the sample library as professional and easily usable as possible was definitely greater than the time I dedicated to recording. Due to my mic choices, I learned at least one thing about the benefits and downfalls of having a really high quality mic to record samples. With my KSM313 I ended with such high fidelity and sensitivity from it that details of the sounds of the room I didn't want made it into the recording; things like subtle creaking of the piano bench. This required quite a bit of correction in the audio editing, careful identification and isolation of elusive transients in many of the audio clips and then copying and pasting certain fragments to other parts of a clip before rendering the final sample to be used in the sample library. That whole process was an intensive learning experience all on it's own.
Mic choices in sampling. Something I didn't anticipate gaining, but should have, was better understanding of which mic brands and types (i.e. large vs.small diaphragm, polar pattern, etc.) can work the best with specific instruments and which to avoid. One example of this was my plan to use a Neumann U87 to record Nylon Guitar. When I went to the mic closet in the Center for Music Technology, I couldn't remember in that moment which case had the U87 and ended up finding the AT4050 instead. Upon realizing that it, too, is a large diaphragm condenser mic with a cardioid polar pattern, I opted to use it instead.
I was greatly and pleasantly surprised with the high quality and detail of the sound quality it had in comparison the the U87 and I was able to capture exactly what I wanted for those recordings. I also had not planned on using a dynamic mic for any of my wind instruments, but when Dr. Tebbs suggested Electrovoice's RE20 for Tenor Sax, I went with that and noticed how versatile that particular mic tends to be with positioning. I had forgotten to tighten the mount on the mic stand enough and noticed part of the way through recording Tenor Sax that it had sagged down a little but I hadn't noticed any difference in the sound quality. I even decided to move it at a totally different angle at one point in that recording session without noticing almost any difference in the overall detail of the sound.
RECORDING “Realms” AND MY SENIOR RECITAL
In regards to the recording of “Realms,” my discussions with Dr. Sun about the layout and instrumentation of the Symphony Orchestra and with Dr. Tebbs about miking techniques with that as well as my Senior Recital resulted in a change of plans. I wasn't able to get enough help from the number of musicians required for a full orchestral recording and only ended up with less than 10 people who participated in the recording process. Nonetheless, I was able to get flute (2 parts), clarinet (2 parts), trumpet, tuba, violin and percussion. I had each instrumentalist come to the SUU's Center for Music Technology one at a time to record. More complications came up related to mixing live musicians with MIDI.
One of the biggest hurdles with this project had to do with realizing that the more perfect, clean sound of sample libraries and plugins in Cubase can be very difficult to blend with the more highly nuanced differences in pitch and timbre of live instruments. After I had finished recording everyone and successfully aligning transients for each parts I quickly found out that using Cubase's native VariAudio feature to correct off-pitch sections (there were quite a few of them) caused a major problem. Even a high profile DAW like Cubase could not account for anything more than the frequency of a pitch. The more I tried to compensate for shifts in timbre that affected pitch as well, the worse the overall harmonies of the parts were misaligned and sounded really awful. I discussed this with Dr. Tebbs and asked him for advice on what to do about this and when all of his suggestions for the nit-picky type of pitch editing didn't work, I decided to submit both files, the original MIDI orchestration and the version accompanied by live instruments, so the difficulty of mixing live with MIDI (especially strings) could be clearly discerned.
In private lessons with Dr. Tebbs, figured out that we would need at least 16 mics in my Senior Recital to cover piano, harpsichord, electric guitar, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, violin, vocals, trumpet and trombone. As noted earlier herein, Dr. Tebbs suggested that, as he himself had done before, we could really get an optimal, full sound (including the overall sound of the room) with the piano if we used 2 small diaphragm condensers inside the piano and 2 large diaphragm condensers in a Blumlein configuration outside the piano in the curved area. This would allow for the combination of an intimate, crisp and bright sound to be combined with the feeling of a concert hall, making the audio much more robust and pleasant.
Aside from the piano mics, we used a Sennheiser MD421 for guitar, DI boxes (to get a more direct signal than a mic) for synthesizer and bass guitar, a DP7 mic set to do snare, kick, hi-hat and overheads with drums, a Neumann U87 for violin, a Marantz MPM-1000 and Lewitt LCT240 for vocals, an Electrovoice RE20 for Trombone and a AT4050 for the Trumpets.
On of the challenges we had to plan around was the problem of not just being able to put mics in front of absolutely everything throughout the entire Senior Recital Program. Since we only had 16 inputs to work with and what would have been 19 tracks being used, we made a few adjustments to how mic setup would change throughout the performance. I had determined to move the KM184's from the Harpsichord to the underside of the piano lid after performing my harpsichord piece, already having every other mic connected except the Trombone mic. I planned to remove the violin input from the audio interface after I performed my piano/violin duet with my mom, and plug in the already set up Trombone mic in that track instead.
The dress rehearsal didn't go nearly as I expected and had quite a few unplanned complications. Since we had several different sizes of XLR cables it was quite difficult to adapt to with the size of the stage and figure out which instruments in the band portion of the recital would need which sizes to reach my recording engineer's table. As a result, we were unable to route vocals, synth and bass through both the Focusrite interfaces and the PA system so any audience present could hear them. This also made it nearly impossible for all band members to hear each other. However, we had the talent in both bands to compensate and actually ended up with a very workable and mixable recording either way from just the dress rehearsal.
I specifically mentioned the dress rehearsal for a few reasons. First, Dr. Bohnenstengel took a picture of the mess of microphones and cables on the stage before we actually began, showed it to me later and asked, “does this look like a performance stage to you?” My answers was, of course, “no, it doesn't.” It looked more like a chaotic mess. We therefore began trying to make plans for a very different recording arrangement for the recital so the stress of getting signal flow just right with so many instruments would not be an issue. My recording engineer and I discussed the idea of using a snake to route multiple inputs more easily around the piano so it would be easier to move between my piano solo pieces and the band performing “What You Say” and “Tear Apart This Pain.” The second issue was that Dr. Bohnenstengel thought that would still add too much stress to the performance aspect and negatively impact my ability to perform up to par and actually get a sufficient musical accuracy in the recording.
I agreed with him and we completely discarded any recording of the recital itself aside from the Music Department's Live Stream. To compensate for this he suggested I recorded a better version of myself playing my harpsichord and piano solos the morning of my recital and I used that as additional practice time as well to warm up for noon when I'd actually be performing. The resulting audio was more than satisfactory.
Dr. Bohnenstengel was right. My Senior Recital itself was likely the best I've ever performed under pressure in my entire life! I was honestly in shock at how well the whole thing went. The timing, cohesiveness and unity of the band pieces was better than ever and my synth player even said he felt like performed better than he ever had in “Tear Apart This Pain” that day as well.
The audio review and mixing process was a positively revealing effort in and of itself. The fact that the overall performance during the hectic and chaotic dress rehearsal ended up yielding some high quality audio that, frankly, wasn't super difficult to mix and edit, just a little tedious perfecting the transients and transitions. This was evidence to me of the high-class professionalism and skill of the musicians I had been working with the whole time. Another positive and educational experience with mixing the audio from the dress rehearsal had to do with tempo and learning to work with transients in a totally different way than I was used to. I had to do it with the very inexact, human ebb and flow with slight tempo changes throughout each piece. Previously, I was heavily experienced with and used to adjusting timing issues with a typical DAW's tempo grid, aligning slightly off-time notes in the either Cubase's VariAudio tool or in Melodyne with ProTools.
With a live performance recording, there's no point in trying to adhere the whole song to a single tempo with a grid because of the natural and subtle ebb and flow of performance tempo. Trying to align a strict tempo through an entire piece like that will make the sound likely very grainy in key areas and turn it into an uncomfortably awkward experience for the listener. I had to simply use the most consistent instrument in the ensemble, drums, as my measuring stick for tempo for the rest of the instruments. This actually proved to be quite helpful in maintaining the humanistic and artistic elements of the music in the mixing process and turned the end result into something that was (for me, for once) refreshingly non-rigid and raw, but still very professional sounding. The process of mixing the music on the harpsichord, piano and the violin/piano duet my mom and I performed was significantly simpler and only required a few minor note corrections via comping. Past that, getting the sound just right for my taste was only a matter of adding the right of reverb, equalization and compression.
With my increased experience in both mixing and audio editing in Recording II and my Sample Library, I gained quite a bit of technological practice and ear training that proved immensely helpful as a preparation for the process of mixing and editing in the post production process. One of biggest techniques I was most thankful I had already developed was working with transients and quantization.
However, I also wanted to understand more from industry professionals as well, so I researched mixing tips from one of the major industry plugin designers, Izotope. They had a few suggestions that I tried to apply and emulate as best I could regarding bass dominance, drum mic priorities, vocal EQing and not overediting among others (Messitte). After studying their article about mixing titled “6 Tips for Mixing Good ol' Fashioned Rock and Roll,” I especially did my best to apply ideas 1, 2 and 6. This included allowing bass guitar to dominate the lower frequencies, mixing the drums from the overheads out and using automation between the first two verses and the last chorus. Automation in that solo section was particularly useful since we didn't have time to do a sound check at all before we started recording the dress rehearsal where What You Say was performed. The trumpet solo definitely ended up needing automation anyways to make it sound more balanced throughout.
CONCLUSION
Overall, there were a few major takeaways I gained from this effort.
First, the organization skills needed to put together a recording of a large group of musicians requires much more than just asking for help. Even at a university, where many students regularly play gigs in and out of class for free, it will be much easier for me in the future if I ever attempt an orchestral recording again to offer monetary compensation of some kind. As has been repeated multiple times in several classes at SUU, and as I have learned from running a music business for the last 3 years, professional musicians have the same claim to their skill set being a career as any doctor, lawyer, mechanic or other profession. Therefore, unless someone truly is nothing more than a hobbyist, expecting someone to help in a recording, a song writing process or any other aspect of music creation without monetary compensation is actually insulting.
Second, the practice habits that I have applied over the last 30 years with piano performance, composition and songwriting apply just as much to recording and mixing. It really does take hundreds if not thousands of hours of practice with audio editing, mixing and other element of post production to gain that same level of skill. When Lacey Williams was doing a masterclass for our Commercial Music Club she said that what helped her become a better song writer than any of her experience in years with Nashville studios was simply writing... I believe it was at least a song a week. At one point I believe she even said she had a short spell of time writing a song a day. Now she's known all over America as a pro song-writer.
Lastly, I had the privilege of having, in my opinion, the top vocalists, brass players, guitarists and one of the top drummers at SUU helping me record the content for my Senior Recital and, therefore, have developed a much better sense of what professional level skill in each of those areas looks and sounds like. This made the rehearsing, recording and mixing processes much more time efficient than some of the musicians I asked to help me with my sample library. The wide gamut of talent level I have observed has certainly raised the bar for who I'd want to hire in my future career with my studio and refined my expectations for what true high quality results sounds like in a finished mix.
I am forever thankful for the support I have received here at SUU and the tools, comprehension and skills I've gained in how to making a living with music, even as I'm still just beginning and even as I approach my 40s. These really are skills that anyone with enough integrity can obtain. Success in music doesn't always have to be based on any kind of instinctual virtuoso. Anyone with the drive and the love of the music can make it happen. I am evidence of that.
(click here for the mixed audio for the Senior Recital)
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