I’ve looked around the forum and don’t see a dedicated place to introduce myself. So, since others have done it here, I will do the same.

Hello everyone,

I began multitrack recording back in the early 80's. I started by recording drums onto a cassette deck, playing it back and adding a live bass while I mic’d the speakers and recorded the sound onto a second cassette deck. I continued this back-and-forth process until I had a completed song. It sounded horrible, especially the first tracks, but I thought I was walkin’ in tall cotton.

Then I discovered Sound-On-Sound recorders. The quality of my recordings improved a little, but just a very little. Not long after the SOS recordings, Fostex introduced their 4-Track cassette format and I was on my way. By 1991 I had purchased a Fostex R8 and a Fostex 1240 mixing board. Living in Nashville afforded the opportunity to pick up a lot of used outboard gear without having to spend the family fortune I never had. I learned a lot on my own, and picked up a lot of tips and tricks from musician friends who recorded in my home studio.

In 1994 I had become somewhat disenchanted with life & society, so I moved to a house which was located on a 2000 acre farm. The closest stop sign was 15 miles away and I had to drive nearly 2 miles back into the woods on a little dirt road to get to my house. Not long after the move, I stopped using my studio and settled into a minimalist lifestyle. I packed all my gear away with the exception of 1 acoustic guitar which kept me company. Shortly after the Y2K scare I moved back into the city.

Last year I unpacked all of my recording equipment and now have my studio up and running again. I feel like the Ice Man who had been frozen in time. Technology sure has changed in the past 12 years. Couple that fact with everything I have forgotten about recording and you could say that I am pretty much starting over. I’m looking forward to learning from you guys, and gals (if there are any). I’ve enjoyed reading through your forum and have picked up a lot of information already. However, there is still a lot that makes no sense at all to me. I suppose my biggest problem is that I never really learned the proper and technical way of doing anything in the studio. I sort of learned from trial and error. I would fool around with a piece of gear until I liked what I heard coming out of the monitors. But, I guess that approach has its own merits. Still, I am at a place where I want to learn the things I never knew.

Thank you all for your time, and for having this place to discuss the art of bending, shaping and capturing sound.

Regards,

BlacKHawK

Welcome to the forum! And welcome back to recording!

Feel free to ask questions, let us know what you're working on, etc.

I actually still use a 4-track cassette recorder in conjunction with my PC and the digital world, so don't feel bad