Charles

[djui5]

I wanted to make a thread to personally thank Charles for all the contributions he's made to this forum. He's gone to great lenghts to provide an insane amount of information that most of us would never has access to, and done so in a highly professional manner. Not to mention that he's a nice guy and understands the power of avoiding negative responses and negative talk in general.

Thanks a ton Charles.

[Shan]

I second that. Charles has been my best and favorite Mixing instructor and we haven't even met in person. I have learned most of my stuff from him. Always helpful. Nothing but good things to say about him. Keep up the great work Charles.

Shane

[Jose Mrochek]

I had the chance to meet Charles at Crescent Moon Studios where I interned during 4 months. Funny thing is, back then I knew more of what he liked to eat than what his awesome curriculum was!!! I always remember him as a great guy and would also like to thank him for this great forum and the amount of time he takes to share his inside info with us, that trust me. Of absolutely all the great engineers I had the chance to meet, NO ONE and I Mean NO ONE, would share even 5% of what Charles is sharing with us. I will continue on with his example, and hopefully one day everyone will follow the fact that by hiding "secrets" we are not doing the music business any favors. After all it's all about doing great songs isn't it ? ? ?

[Alchemy]

Charles,
We appreciate everything we have learnt here.

[magnetic]

I've been working my way through Charles's digizine articles and the threads here and I want to chime in with my thanks.

I'm a musician just learning how to record with HD2 and all this info is helping me immeasurably. Me with HD2 is like a 12 year old with whiskey and and a bitchin' camaro; but at least now I'll know how to drive a few blocks without too bad of a wreck.

[krid]

THANK YOU Charles for all your great posts and awesome articles.
Thanks for the amount of knowledge you share with us : I am very grateful to learn so much from a such nice, experimented, talented engineer.
Your tips and techniques are very helpful for a lot of us, and I really appreciate your mixing philosophy.

Thanks

[Charles Dye]

Randy, Shane, Jose, Ilya, magnetic, + krid,

My thanks to all of you for your kind words of appreciation. You are all very welcome. As I'm sure I said elsewhere, I do this because I enjoy it, and because I like the feeling of knowing I'm helping others work their way through our shared passion.

For the March 2003 issue of Audio Media Kevin Becka asked me to contribute to their AM Forum column. It's essentially a soapbox the magazine provides to audio professionals so they can talk about a subject that is important to them.

I took the opportunity to put into words why it's important to me that we share our techniques with each other:

The Secret Life of Engineers

by Charles Dye


For the last few years I've been asking myself a question about an aspect of our industry many of us may accept as just the way it is, but I don't believe it has to be. Why do we have "engineering secrets"? More importantly, why is each new generation of engineers required to essentially re-discover many of the techniques of the previous generation's masters?

Imagine if the same were true of medicine or science? Each generation would have to re-discover the polio vaccine, electricity and the semi-conductor. That clearly doesn't make sense. In many vocations new techniques are simply shared with colleagues for the sake of improving their industry's common product. Do we as an industry benefit by not sharing with each other? Probably not.

Somehow we've created a culture where techniques we learn are kept secret from one another. Presumably the reasoning behind it is if I know how to do something you don't, then that makes me a better engineer. But I don't believe that's really true. For example: doctor's all have available to them the same information base to learn from, allowing each of them the possibility to have equal skills. Does that mean one doctor cannot be better than another? No, certainly not.

Then what makes one engineer better than another? In my opinion, two things: their ears and their console-side manner, but not necessarily their learned techniques. Knowing how to do something, versus having the taste to know when and why are two distinctly separate abilities. The one that sets great engineers apart from good is clearly the latter. Most of us are aware of this, so why do we collectively perpetuate this cycle of ignorance? Probably because we worked very hard to discover each of the techniques that enable us to get the sound we searched so many years for, and since we worked so hard to learn them, it only makes sense that younger engineers do the same. Right?

Again, I don't agree with that logic, and for that same reason. I think since I worked so hard to learn my techniques, that is exactly why I should share them with others—so they won't have to. At first, it might feel like we're giving away something that will somehow damage our position in the market, but in truth we've each reached the level we're at as engineers because of our ears, and that ability can't really be passed on. It must simply be developed by each engineer on their own.

Recently, the internet has fostered this kind of sharing with forums hosted by some true golden ears. What a younger engineer can learn by asking direct questions of these men and women is great. I hope this is an indication of a new age of sharing. For me, it's very rewarding when I'm able to help others in this way. I feel the more knowledge that we can pass on to the people around us, the higher quality of work that we can all do.

Again, thanks for your support. As I said I like help others, but your appreciation only encourages me to continue. I'm also very glad to hear some of you say that you like to share your techniques. There have been a lot of great ideas here already this month. I've been learning things from the first day of the forum.

I'm also really enjoying the fact that some major label experienced engineers + mixers are joining the forum this year and sharing their techniques as well. That is really fantastic!!!

Thanks to all of you.

BTW--For those of you who missed the forum when I was here in November of 2002, you can read it in the Guest Moderator archives. We covered a lot of really great topics:

Page 10, Page 11, Page 12, Page 13, Page 14

[AUDIOSFX]

What a great column... Thanks again even though you have alot of April left to moderate.

I have an immense amount of respect for your lack of ego on this subject and ability to share your techniques with the general engineering/gearslutz public. It is a valuable asset for any of us to share ideas and push the field forward.

It is a competitive buisness and guys like you can really open doors for many people or show people on a noo b level some good habits to get into before the bad ones set in...

The neat thing about our buisness is its totally subjective ...todays hits are tomorrows old news and sound and music will constantly change...For film, music and all sonic arts...

A genious mixer is waiting to emerge and he might do it on a 1/4' 4 track..or on a am3 card all ITB...

Stranger things have happened....

I absolutely agree that it is absurd not to show some cards maybe not all of em but enough...

-ws

[Charles Dye]

Originally posted by AUDIOSFX
I absolutely agree that it is absurd not to show some cards maybe not all of em but enough...

AudioSFX,

Thanks. It's my pleasure. And about what you said re "showing some cards", I've thought a lot about that over the last few years. For example when I was writing Hard Disk Life, was there a technique that was so hard fought for that I would just have to keep it a secret? Where was the line of secrets that I was not willing to cross.

And I came to the conclusion that there was none. I was going to hold absolutely nothing back. It would have hurt the effectiveness of the column + I wanted HDL to be as comprehensive as I could make it within the space I was allowed by DIGIZINE. And I still feel that way.

I also later realized an unintended benefit of sharing. By giving away my "secrets", I actually gain skills at the same time. Once I've shared a technique it pushes me to come up with another way of doing that process instead of always doing things the same way. It keeps my sounds fresh, and more importantly keeps me challenged + interested in my work.

Thanks.

[Charles Dye]

BTW-- I just want all of you to know that I know I'm not getting to all your threads + posts. But I'm keeping a list + slowly trying to catch up.

Thanks for your patience.

[Jose Mrochek]

This morning as I was walking came to mind this Idea. Songwriters in general, give out their secrets all of the time in Records. For example, decades ago The Beatles have given us all of their secrets. I can grab one of their albums and get all the chord progressions, sounds they used, everything is printed and given away right there. But it is so hard to make melodies and songs in general like they did. I simply think Charles is a great producer with extraodinary vision that goes way beyond his Protools abilities or plugin recomendations. And that is what makes him who he is today. and another big plus, nobody mentioned here.. or at least I did not read, i think 50% or more is not even technical ability, it's people relations. I would much rather work with a engineer that understands me or is just simply a nice guy to have around rather than a super rocket scientist you cant stand for more than 2 hours in the studio. These are the factors that make you or break in the industry. Just wanted to add this to the post

[ddavid]

Charles:
I am Project Studio Owner getting ready to Expand my services to other folks.
Once a while back I asked you a question, I believe it was in some Pro Tools Digidesign Forum...
I was impressed with the fact that you took the time out to reply...
Your reply was lengthy and full of tips, tricks and very informative.

You didnt have to take the time But you did!

Just thought I would thank you and keep up the good work.
You helping lots of folks
dan

[Charles Dye]

Dan,

Thanks for saying that. That's why I love the internet. It's really a great feeling knowing you can help someone, so they won't be as frustrated with something that used to be difficult for you.

You're welcome.

[djui5]

Originally posted by Jose Mrochek
i think 50% or more is not even technical ability, it's people relations. I would much rather work with a engineer that understands me or is just simply a nice guy to have around rather than a super rocket scientist you cant stand for more than 2 hours in the studio. These are the factors that make you or break in the industry. Just wanted to add this to the post

I agree...I've found that to be true in my career anyways. I've got sessions because the artists felt comfortable with me. I feel getting along with people will take you far in this industry. That's what I like about Charles and Jules so much..they're really cool headed and seem to get along with almost anyone. Don't get me wrong, you do have to produce good work..but personality can change everything.

Who want's to be locked in a studio for 2 month's at 12 or more hours a day with some stinky a$$hole? I ended a "working relationship" with a guy here locally because I couldn't handle his attitude anymore. He treated me like I was some scum bag that was there to be his little b#$*#@. I don't wannna work with people like that...if I did I'd return to the restaurant industry where I came from.

[Mike Jasper]

Knowing how to do something, versus having the taste to know when and why are two distinctly separate abilities.

Yep. No matter what you tell us, we'll each have to sort out the when and why on our own.

I've come to resign myself to the same fate in recording that I had in my early attempts at songwriting. First, I have to make some bad ones.

So thanks for showing us the chords. It's up to us to write the songs now. (Am I taking this analogy too far?)

Jasper

[schmeete]

Yes Charles,

Cant repeat enough what value your unselfishness, has been to me.

My favorite Charles Dye tip of all time by the way is

"The Head Bob".

It is CLASSIC

Peter

[Charles Dye]

Peter,

You're very welcome. I'm glad I could help.

And it's funny you would mention the The Bypass/Insert Head Bob thread. I just happened to re-read it the other day while looking for something else in the guest mod archive.