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Private Instruction in Computer Recording

Taught by: Jim Aikin
Teaching studio: Fine Fretted Friends, 2181 First Street, Livermore
Contact:925-447-2906, midiguru23@sbcglobal.net

If you have a computer, you can learn how to produce great-sounding recordings at home. This is your chance to sign up for weekly lessons with an expert and take your music to the next level!

The Teacher: I'm well known in the professional music community for the hundreds of articles I've written over the past 20 years in a variety of high-profile magazines, including Electronic Musician, Mix, Keyboard, and Virtual Instruments. I've written two books on music -- Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming and Chords & Harmony (both published by Hal Leonard). I also teach classical cello through Fine Fretted Friends in Livermore and Ingram & Brauns Musik Shoppe in Pleasanton.

You can hear examples of my computer music productions on my blog.

Make Music on a Computer??? Today's computer music technology offers an amazing array of resources for musicians. Some people write traditional songs (for guitar or piano and voice) and would like to record them, but aren't sure where to start. Others may want to lay down tracks with a band, working at home in order to save money on studio time. Still others may want to do electronic mixes, remixes, and mash-ups using loops and samples, or compose original music entirely in the computer using only software-based synthesizers and other tools. I can help you with all of these processes and more.

Software & Hardware Choices: If your music software is already installed on a laptop, you're welcome to bring the laptop to lessons and plug it into the sound system in the teaching studio. If your music setup uses a desktop system, bringing it to the studio would be impractical, so we'll use my laptop instead. We'll work out a way for you to bring data CDs and load them into my computer at the start of each lesson. At the end of each lesson you will receive a fresh copy of any files that have changed.

If you're new to computer music and have a recent Macintosh, the best place to start is with GarageBand, a remarkably powerful music app that's included as part of the standard Mac software suite. I'm also proficient with Propellerhead Reason (a terrific music production program available for both Mac and Windows), Ableton Live (the number-one choice of dance music DJs around the world), Sibelius (the top music notation program for producing professional-quality printed scores), Steinberg Cubase, Native Instruments software synthesizers, and many other music programs.

The Lessons: Computer music-making is a huge, complex field, so we'll try to keep it simple. Each week we'll focus on what you want to learn. If you're starting from scratch, we'll cover the basics: digital audio, MIDI, and setting up a computer for music. If you want to record your own songs, or record your band, I'll show you how. We can work with the software you own already (either Mac or PC), or I can suggest what software and hardware might work best to get you to your musical goals.

All lessons will be in the form of weekly one-on-one sessions. Because launching the software and loading files takes a few minutes, half-hour lessons would be impractical, so all lessons will be a full hour in length. They will be held in the computer music lab at Fine Fretted Friends. The lab is equipped with both a Macintosh and a Windows PC, but while our software arsenal is large, we don't have everything. If you need lessons specifically on how to use a program that I'm not familiar with, I'll try to find some way to help you move forward. (And if I don't feel I can help you, I'll tell you so up front.)

Among the topics that we may cover (depending on your needs):

• Recording your guitar, vocals, and other tracks with a microphone.
• Punch-in and overdub recording.
• Making music with sampled loops.
• Using digital audio effects such as reverb, compression, and EQ.
• How to produce professional-quality multitrack mixes using computer automation.
• Exporting mp3 files in a form you can upload to your MySpace or Facebook page.
• Troubleshooting and fixing computer and audio problems.
• Adding MIDI synthesizers to your songs.
• Editing MIDI tracks in a piano-roll editor.
• Programming new synth sounds using a variety of techniques, including sample playback, additive, virtual analog, and FM synthesis.
• Choosing the right software and hardware to build a more powerful home studio.
• Developing multitrack musical arrangements in the computer with bass, drums, pads, and other sounds.
• Printing out lead sheets for your songs.
• Combining audio with video for home movie DVDs.

While I will be happy to help you troubleshoot technical issues in your system at the lesson, this is not the best use of your time or money. You're better off solving problems through consultation with tech support or by posting questions on the manufacturer's forum for registered users before you arrive at the lesson! I will assume that your software is registered and that you're therefore able to make use of user forums. If I should discover that you're using pirated (cracked) software and therefore have no access to technical support, you will no longer be able to bring your laptop to lessons: We'll use my system, not yours, until you uninstall the pirated software. No cracks. No exceptions.

No software, hardware, or textbook purchases are required of students, other than a box of CD-R discs for making copies of the files we create during the lessons. But you'll definitely get more out of the lessons if you can spend (or have already spent) a little extra money on equipment, supplies, and one or two books that I may recommend. You'll also be ahead of the game if you can spend some time in your home studio every day becoming more familiar with the topics covered in the previous week's lesson.

Cost: Lessons cost $65 per hour, payable at the last lesson of each month for the entire following month. That comes to $260 for months with four lessons, $325 for months with five lessons, and $195 for months when there are only three lessons due to a holiday. There is no refund for missed or cancelled lessons, and no alternate time slots ("make-up lessons") will be available.

• It's up to you to find a co-student. I may be able to suggest someone who is seeking the same arrangement, but don't count on it.
• I will not negotiate or handle scheduling or finances with the two alternating students separately. In business matters, I will deal only with one student. If you're the one who contacts me about lessons, that's you.
• As the "leader" of this non-real-time duo, your job is to collect the money from your co-student in advance of the first lesson of the month and have the payment ready for me, either in the form of two separate checks or in the form of a check from you for the full amount. I will not allow you to pay for one student this week and then collect the rest of the money the following week.
• You're also responsible for coordinating the alternating schedule. Basically, I will be at the studio every week and will teach whoever is there. If neither of you is there because of a scheduling mixup, there will be no refund. If you both show up due to a mixup, you can flip a coin to see who gets the lesson.
• If your co-student drops out, you will have to either schedule (and pay for) all of the weekly lessons yourself, find another co-student who can take lessons in the same time slot, or stop taking lessons. (Sorry.)

Possible Lesson Curricula: All students will develop proficiency and gain hands-on experience with digital audio, mixing, automation, effects, and computer system resources. In addition, depending on where you want to go with your music, I may suggest focusing for some period of time in a specific area of music technology:

• Loop music. This is where many dance and hip-hop musicians will naturally want to put their energy. I recommend Ableton Live as the learning and production platform.
• MIDI, synthesizers, and sequencing. A slightly more traditional set of topics, but incredibly useful. I recommend Propellerhead Reason as the learning and production platform, but if you have a different sequencer, we can use that.
• Recording audio. The teaching studios at Fine Fretted Friends are not acoustically isolated, and can't be used for recording decent-quality vocals or acoustic instruments, but we can easily lay down rough tracks in order for you to learn the process of recording and editing. An electric guitar can be plugged into the computer directly.

Contact: To sign up for lessons or ask questions, please phone or email Jim Aikin (925-447-2906, midiguru23@sbcglobal.net).