I started getting into SR after my major mysteriously changed from Music to undeclared after my freshmen year, could have just been a clerical error but I took it as an Omen. A roommate joined a jazz vocal act called Rare Silk which got signed by Polydor and turned into a national act after a couple of years. I was still trying to do school around our touring schedule for about 5yrs...

just never quite worked...
When in town I'd record recitals and dink around tape opping for a little soundcraft, 80-8 rig for the Boulder Creative Music Ensemble (Trpter Ron Miles came from this group) or do live to 2trk w/ an Ampex 440 and a Yamaha pm-1000 for groups locally. A roommate got a studio audition w/Miles based on a demo done in our living room through 2 ****ty little 8ch boards straight to cass. I found GOD himself on the answering machine! What a buzz!!!
Mid 80s between tours I ran a B-16, AMH CMC32 room for a guy who wanted to own a studio. It gave me a great place to play between tours. We did tons of Eno and Laswell kinds of **** with no time pressure whatsoever. It just came at the cost of recording really lame garage bands to pay the bills.
The touring gig died at the hands of a meglomaniacal road manager in 88 and I returned home to play locally and share an E-16, Ramsa rig in the living room with a couple jr engineers I'd brought along. No control room, tracking with phones, sounded great for what we had! We even had a 6'parlor grand for a couple of years. Bedroom under the living room drove the girlfriend round the bend though!grggt
Quit playing fulltime and dove back into SR regionally in 92 and got this room running for the university about 94 and weened myself from SR as momentum grew. Been running this joint for 8 yrs now and am at peace with it since we redid the control room this summer and accepted that 95% of what we did was in Pro Tools. Like most anyone who learned with tape I miss how easy it is to get flattering tones but this market can't support the cost of 2". And as many of us have found out we can get much closer to the tones we want with different mic/pre choices than what we might have used for going to tape. I do plenty of jazz and classical which fair better in digital than gtr laden rock as well. Oddly enough Meg has actually seen our little Berger room here at the edge of the cornfield a couple yrs ago and my former assistant did a bit of SR for her as well.
Staying current is the same as always, talking with other engineers and learning from their experiences. Now instead of the relatively small number of local engineers or those I'd meet touring I can share experiences with the lot of YOU worldwide. rollz
Now WTF am I going to do about retirement... hmmmm
Hey Chris, if you run into an american drummer there named Ron Pliewacki tell him I said hi. I'm sure we have a greater appreciation for one another now that we're not riding around in the same van!