Summary of my first week at LCC : Jose (the very creative audio programming tutor), the professional DAW Pro Tools, never ending definitions of music production, and the fabulous Rick Rubin.
My first class was creative audio programming and apart from Joses’s (my tutor) album listening party, we mostly just got to know each other. Jose, our tutor, who looked like someone I could’ve bumped into at KitKat, led the conversation by introducing themselves and then, the classed followed suit. One by one, my peers would explain their background in music. After too many niche artists were named, I have to admit that I was relieved when somebody said they enjoyed BTS (even though I’m an avid K-pop hater) and not another underground artist that I’ve never listened to.
On my second day, I left campus wondering if I was still enrolled at LCC or if I had been transferred to MIT. While learning the basics of Pro Tools that day – emphasis on the word “basics” – I felt as though I was back in math class. The programme is very technical and not as intuitive as other DAWs. Nevertheless, it does seem that once I get a good grasp on it, I’ll be able to produce more complex music thanks to the Pro(fessional) Tools integrated in the programme, as the name suggests.
Our last class was way less hands-on than our firsts. We pretty much spent three hours debating on what it meant to be a music producer and how we could define music production. The overall consensus was what that a music/record producer was someone who produced records – pretty straight forward, right? And apparently, Rick Rubin was considered a music producer, even though he would just lay down on a sofa with a microphone in his hand.