herrcaptain
@herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
- Comment on What are the pros and cons to buying a smart watch from temu? 1 month ago:
Pros: price
Cons: the watch doesn’t work and now you have lead poisoning
- Comment on Tumblr to move its half a billion blogs to WordPress 2 months ago:
Right? At this point I’m just sticking with WordPress because I can’t be bothered to migrate a bunch of sites off of it. Every year for the past decade it’s felt jankier. Tumblr’s backend has to be a dumpster fire for this to seem like a good idea.
My criticism aside, WP still has the convenience factor of being the open source web platform that has a plugin for just about any need. Whether those plugins are gonna break for site or introduce interesting new vulnerabilities is a different discussion.
- Comment on Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years - CNA 4 months ago:
What was this from? I know the reference but can’t place it. I could obviously search for it but, hey, I’m trying to be social here.
- Comment on Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years - CNA 4 months ago:
I’m pressing X to doubt.
- Comment on Galaxy S10 til the wheels come off 4 months ago:
If you really truly are interested in it as a career don’t hold back, but know that it’s a looooooong road for very little money and absolutely no guarantees. Like anything fairly creative, only the top percentile make actual good money (or even sustainable money), and even then you usually have to freelance and build your own reputation to get there. That said, there are viable adjacent jobs that use that skillset. I worked in corporate AV for a few years, which involves running sound, lighting, and video for events. It’s far from glamorous though, and mostly involves manual labor in setups and teardowns. You’re basically a roadie who also runs the gear, but instead of mixing cool rock shows you’re mixing a few mics and a PowerPoint presentation for a pharmaceutical convention. The hours can also suuuuuuuck. My longest shift was 20 hours. I got home at 3 AM after that and then had to be back at the shop for 7. You live on free coffee and cookies that the banquet staff give you (you get to be on a first-name basis with every hotel banquet server in your city). It can be weirdly fun as a youngster but I have no idea how the older techs survived. I regularly worked 40 hour weeks when I was part time and 60-80 when full-time. I burned out by like 22.
The music store gig was really fun though. I ran the rentals desk and spent a lot of time teaching my customers how to use the pro audio gear. That’s also the most ridiculous place I’ve ever worked in terms of memorable stories.
You can also run sound in a dive bar, but that’s mostly about who you know and involves more networking than you’d expect to work in a dive bar for very little money.
As far as actually being a professional audio engineer or producer who makes a living making records - that’s the real tough part. I suppose it’s possible to land a staff job in a studio, but that’s not really how it worked in my small city. I freelanced with my own gear and home studio for years until I met a (relatively - this is Canada) big-name producer who I’d built rapport with from my job in the music store. He offered to let me work out of his proper studio for a very reasonable rate. Note that this wasn’t a job - it was an offer to pay him to use his facility. Still, it was the closest thing I had to a break and for a few glorious months I was (barely) scraping by as a full-time recording engineer. The clientele I had built up over the previous decade were almost exclusively local punk and garage rock bands, meaning none of them had money, and now they had to pay real studio fees on top of my own, so I was charging way too little. I was technically doing it though, but then I finally fully burned out - due in part to some looming personal issues - and that was that.
As to all your other comments - alllll of that can be learned through study and experimentation. I went to an overpriced school to learn the fundamentals, but a diploma like that means shit and you can learn it just as well on your own. With stuff like EQ you don’t need to be able to instantly pick out a good/bad frequency fully by ear - there are little tricks for zoning in on what you’re looking for (crank the gain on the EQ and scan the frequency range until you find the tone you’re trying to get rid of, then turn it down. Hint: it’s almost always the lower-mids making stuff sound muddy.)
This all being said, if you’re interested in this stuff I suggest dipping your toes in as a hobbyist first. If it becomes your obsession maybe consider a career, but only if you’ll be content working adjacent jobs rather than recording bands full time. Also, in case I didn’t make it quite clear, there’s a ton of networking involved. It’s easier if you actually play in a band, as I did (you don’t have to be good - just out there meeting people). I suppose it’d still be possible otherwise if you spend most of your free time at local shows and really get to know the musicians. Also, by the time I was getting in, home recording was a vibrant industry so wasn’t just competing with other engineers for jobs - I was also competing with bands just doing it themselves. I’m sure that’s only gotten tougher these days with cheap gear being so accessible.
I hope this doesn’t come across as demoralizing. I just want to make sure you know what you’re potentially getting yourself into. If you’re hating your current industry, though, and this all sounds overwhelming, another approach is to find something tolerable but maybe not what you envisioned, and make the best of it. In creative fields work typically becomes your life as it’s a constant grind to make ends meet and something that was once pleasurable inevitably becomes tainted by association. Some people have the emotional fortitude to survive under those conditions but I suspect they’re few and far between. I’ve worked probably a dozen jobs in my life before landing in my current role. Depending on how you count it, I’ve been here about 11 years and I fully expect this will be the company I work at for the rest of my working life (in part because my family bought the business a few years ago after several of us had worked there for years). The job has nothing to do with anything I went to school for and is in an industry I have no personal interest in. But, the work itself is interesting and sometimes creative,. Most importantly, the people are good, so I’m about as happy as a person can be in a job. Keep yourself open to opportunities like that, if you can find them. Buying the business helped, but even before that I had pretty much accepted that I was a lifer because this was the first grown-up job I felt content in.
- Comment on Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years - CNA 4 months ago:
We need to revise that for Lemmy.
“Lemmy: Where men are men, and men are women, and women are men, and I think we’ve got a few women who were born women, and also there’s a whole bunch of new genders as well, and no genders at all, and that’s all cool with most of us.”
It’s a mouthful and might not read well on a t-shirt, but we can workshop it.
- Comment on Galaxy S10 til the wheels come off 4 months ago:
I used to actually know a ton about this stuff but haven’t touched a musical instrument or audio device in over 12 years. Sooooo, bear with me.
All of this will depend entirely where your interests lay in terms of audio production/engineering. One of the core skills would be the ability to pick out different sounds from a soundscape. I suspect you already have a knack for that given how much you seem to think about audio quality. Tied in with that would be an understanding of how digital audio works in terms of bitrate, dynamic range, what clipping sounds (and looks) like, etc. I’m sure there’s tons of info on all that online. Analog audio has a whole other set of skills associated with it, but I doubt it’s super accessible these days for a beginner. That’s outside of cassettes, at least. I’m sure old 4-track cassette recorders are super cheap. As much as I loved analog recording, you’re probably better off just going digitally and using processing to get an approximation of the “traditional” analog sound, though, if that’s your jsn. Or if you’re going for a black metal sound or something else intentionally grungy, go to town on a cassette deck.
From there I’d say the biggest skills would be understanding basic mic technique, the general physics of sound, and how to properly set your levels (basically the ratio of preamp vs amp). Next up would be figuring out basic processing - namely the different types of EQ and compression. Effects play into that too - especially reverb and delay - but EQ and compression (plus proper micing and levels) are generally going to be the foundation of a good mix.
That being said - this all entirely depends on what you’re going for. If you don’t do anything musical yourself and aren’t inclined to record other musicians, you can have tons of fun remixing other people’s work. I’m pretty sure there are sites out there where you can download raw audio tracks to mix yourself. Another viable option if you’re into electronic forms of music is to get a sequencer and experiment that way.
I got my start when I was maybe 13 or 14 with a cracked copy of Fruity Loops (I think it’s called FL Studio now). I used that to write dumb electronic songs despite having no theoretical musical or audio knowledge (besides having previously used the built in Windows sound recording software to layer weird shit I recorded with a crappy mic). That software also came with demo tracks that I experimented with. About a year later I got a bass guitar and started a punk band, and that led to all sorts of weird experimentation with recording mediums. From there I bought a shitty reel to reel tape deck and began recording punk bands out of their jam spaces, eventually went to school for audio engineering, had a bunch of jobs related to the art (while freelancing doing recording work and live sound), and finally burned out and never touched a guitar or mic again.
None of that is necessary or even something I’d recommend. It’s a perfectly legitimate hobby if you want to keep it small-scale. You can start it with almost no money, but that’s where I’d caution you if you have anything approaching an addictive personality - the gear can get super addictive as you begin a quest for the perfect tone. For a few years there I worked at a musical instrument store and most of my paycheck went right back to my work (the staff discount sure helped though). Likewise, most of what I’d make freelancing would go back to gear as well. That’s one of the big reasons I quit cold turkey one day. I still miss it as a hobby, but I know the second I start it back up I’ll be right back to dreaming of expensive tube preamps. Your own mileage may vary if you have better self-control.
- Comment on Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years - CNA 4 months ago:
Now I’m no American, but something smells FBIish about that address.
- Comment on Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years - CNA 4 months ago:
ICQ was my first foray into meeting girls online, back when that was a really weird thing to do.
Post a/s/l to pay respects.
- Comment on Ironing 4 months ago:
That one surprises me less, based on the limited stuff I already know about GMO companies like Monsanto. Still madness, of course.
- Comment on You're in the right place 4 months ago:
They should name that shop Potpourri.
- Comment on The internet connects people 4 months ago:
Very good point! I imagine meeting someone in person and finding out they have the same unusual hobby would have been quite the thrill. I’m old enough to distinctly remember a world before the ubiquitous internet, but never had a super niche hobby to have given me that sort of experience.
- Comment on The internet connects people 4 months ago:
That’s a fair point but I suspect this has always been the case. I bet if we could go back to the prehistoric period we’d find someone saying, “Cronk found himself another dick-shaped leaf to add to his collection.” I’d almost think with less available to amuse them, people would be finding joy in all sorts of weird hobbies or collections.
- Comment on The internet connects people 4 months ago:
Imagine how different the world was for people with super niche interests before the internet. Back then, this would have been seen as the weird (or at best eccentric) guy in your town who collects fire alarms and won’t stop talking about them. Now he’s presumably got a fulfilling social life via his unusual hobby, and an outlet to share his thoughts to a willing audience.
For all its many faults over the last decades, this is the pure internet at its best.
- Comment on Ironing 4 months ago:
Well now I’m bummed out to find out that people are trying to patent math.
I’m with you on all of those though.
- Comment on Ironing 4 months ago:
Okay, but how about we still go with the subcontractor, but … Hear me out here … We call it AI and the subcontractor actually works in India for pennies on the dollar? Pivot to that and you’ve got my investment.
- Every venture capitalist right now
- Comment on Galaxy S10 til the wheels come off 4 months ago:
^ This person audio-engineers.
No judgement - just from reading your comment I definitely get this vibe. I get it though. Most wireless stuff is either going to be heavily EQed consumer trash or overpriced audiophile stuff with all the latest buzzwords. There just doesn’t seem to be much of a market for reference-grade stuff in a wireless format.
Not that I could justify spending a bunch on good headphones though, so I’ve settled for a low-end pair that sound acceptable for what they are.
- Comment on Ironing 4 months ago:
Soon on Forbes or something:
“You’ll be flattened to find out what industry millenials are killing next.”
- Comment on Lol. Lmao, even. 4 months ago:
I mean, Absurdism can (to a degree) take you from depressed to content. It obviously can’t help with the actual chemical imbalance sort of depression that drugs can fix, but it sure can help with that good ol’ existential dread.
It’s been a staple of my mental health for decades, though the drugs certainly help. SSRI’s for me, but whatever works for you.
TLDR: Absurdism is good and drugs are good too.
- Comment on App development 4 months ago:
You can probably compile her yourself if you can’t find her in the AUR.
- Comment on Wouldn't it be funny if there ended up being a plastic-based life form and they wondered how they came to be... 4 months ago:
With our current handling of the planet, probably not much.
- Comment on hotwheels sisyphus 5 months ago:
Believe it or not, they’re all about Hot Wheels.
- Comment on In Canada, bodies go unclaimed as costs put funerals out of reach 5 months ago:
Brilliant!
- Comment on In Canada, bodies go unclaimed as costs put funerals out of reach 5 months ago:
I can confirm this person is Canadian, due to their reply (immediately) containing a favourable comparison between Canada and the US in their reply.
It’s a part of our national fabric.
- Comment on hotwheels sisyphus 5 months ago:
The rest of the wikipedia article:
The genus name is derived from Hot Wheels, an American brand of scale model cars. The long coiled embolus of the palpal bulb of this new genus reminded the authors of a looping Hot Wheels track.
The species is named for Sisyphus, a king featured in the Iliad, who is punished by the gods for cheating death. For this, the gods sentenced him to an eternity of rolling a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down. The cyclical nature of his punishment reminded the authors of the circular copulatory tube of the spider.
These dudes are on a whole different level when it comes to naming spiders.
- Comment on In Canada, bodies go unclaimed as costs put funerals out of reach 5 months ago:
The bodies continue to pile up in the morgues, but our supply of unused N95 masks cuts the edge off the smell…
In all seriousness, I’d suspect, on average, we’re doing better than Americans because we at least have a better social safety net and public healthcare (granted, the Conservatives have been trying to chip away at that). In some ways things are getting better, like a degree of dental and pharmacare being phased in. On the other hand, the plutocracy that runs our major consumer sectors are price gouging like the best of them under the guise of inflation (while making record profits). We’re also all but guaranteed to get our own Trump-lite voted into power at the next election, and he’s frothing at the mouth to make things worse. The first thing on the chopping block will likely be the carbon tax, which in my opinion already isn’t punitive enough.
I guess wave if you see me in the opposite trench in the water wars in a few decades… ?
- Comment on How would you decorate this room? 5 months ago:
Very carefully.
- Comment on Sleep does not help brain wash out toxins, study suggests 5 months ago:
Thanks, very cool!
- Comment on Sleep does not help brain wash out toxins, study suggests 5 months ago:
I think you might be onto something. There’s been so many times where I’ve had a technical issue I can’t resolve, and sleeping on it results in an answer in the morning. Or often even a Eureka moment in the middle of the night. I’m certain that sleep helps you dredge up missing connections between ideas.
- Comment on Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT 6 months ago:
Right? It seems like the modern internet is made up of like 5 monolithic sites, and unlimited SEO spam.
I know that’s not literally true, but it sure feels like it.