* How long have you been doing this?
Quick answer: I've been involved in audio recording most of my adult life. If that's not a good enough answer for ya then read on... :-)
The fascination began in high school. I almost hate to admit it, but this was back in the mid-70's. During my senior year in high school, I was working part-time at a local Radio Shack store in Crystal Lake. It was around this time that I was starting to teach myself how to play guitar (I had been playing bass for about a year or so but decided to switch over to guitar). As fate would have it, the manager of the store was an ex-recording engineer. He, in turn, hired a few of his unemployed recording buddies and so I found myself surrounded by people with a considerable amount of recording experience. This particular store wasn't like the Radio Shack stores you see today. This one had a really nice stereo room in the back and sold brand names like Pioneer, Technics and Akai in addition to the cheaper Realistic stuff. These unemployed musician-types would occasionally bring in samples of their recording work to play on the stereos in the back room. So I'd get a chance to listen to their work, ask a few questions and talk "shop" with these guys. I was only 17 or 18 at the time. None of these guys took me seriously. I was kinda like a pet to them :-) Somehow I was able to save up enough money to buy a nice 4 track reel-reel tape deck (a Dokorder) along with some cheapo mics and stuff. I'd invite friends over for little bedroom jam sessions and I'd throw up the mics and try recording a bit.
You'd think, hanging around those guys at Radio Shack, I would have learned a few things. Unfortunately, there was a limit to the amount of information those cats were willing to share. Which was a pretty common problem back in the day. Insider studio information was a closely guarded secret. There were no books or videos or instructional materials like there are today. No internet (gasp). No siree. You learned what you needed to learn as an apprentice and you held that knowledge closely. Home enthusiasts like myself had to resort to trial and error to get anything accomplished. It was like a virtual "scavenger hunt" to find any meaningful information. I remember buying a record that was made by Tascam, which was a sort of demonstration disc highlighting the capabilities of their multi-track tape decks. This record was like a godsend to me because they provided actual audio samples of various recording tricks that you could apply to your own home-based recordings (simple shit like putting a microphone inside a cardboard box and then tapping on the outside of the box to make a kick drum sound). So as little tidbits of information came my way, I'd immediately run home and experiment. That was really how it all started. As an aside, I remember Radio Shack sold those little tape splicing kits. At the time I really didn't know why I needed to splice tape but I figured it must be important so I used my employee discount to buy a Radio Shack tape splicing kit for $4.99 which contained a small metal jig, a single sided razor blade and a few inches of adhesive splicing tape. I went home and immediately started experimenting by cutting the tape and then trying to reattach the two ends. I found out right away that this was going to take some practice. I had to keep the band-aids and unguent handy. :-)
A 5-year stint in the Air Force followed high school. I was trained as a radar technician. Pretty sophisticated stuff for a snot nose kid right out of high school who didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. My guitar playing improved quickly because all of a sudden I was surrounded by guys who played a whole lot better than me and I was able to see what they were doing up close and personal. I spent the last two years of my enlistment over in Germany. By that time, my guitar chops had improved to the point where I was able to put together a little rock band and play at various bars and clubs in the area. That was a trip. I continued playing in bands when I returned home as a civilian. I was also doing a lot of demo recording in local studios. That experience that has served me well. Because of my technical training, I was usually the guy in the band that took care of maintaining all the equipment.
In the mid-80's I managed to get a job as a manufacturing engineer working for Zenith Electronics which was a fairly well-known producer of televisions and other consumer electronics products. I worked for Zenith for almost 18 years before the industry bottomed out and the company collapsed (yeah, that old chestnut). During my tenure at Zenith I dabbled as a weekend warrior musician and experimented with home recording technology. I had managed to build myself a fairly nice home studio which I was using primarily to record my own demos. Eventually, friends found out I was doing this and wanted to come in and record too. Which was fine with me. They were my guinea pigs (so to speak) while I taught myself the ins and outs of computer-based digital recording.
At the point where I got laid off, I looked around and realized that there were little or no job opportunities for manufacturing engineers anymore so I decided to go full-time with this studio. I was already making money with it as a "hobby out of control". I really liked doing it. Why not give it a shot? With the blessing of my wife and family, I went full-time with the studio in January of 2002. Didn't know if I'd survive 6 months but I figured it was worth a try. It was either this or go flip burgers and I didn't want to flip burgers. The first few years were a little rough but over time I managed to build up a steady clientele. Been doing this ever since.
The two most commonly overheard comments around here are "I'd give my left nut to have a setup like this" and "If I had a setup like this my wife would never see me". Yes I had to give up a nut and yes my wife hardly ever sees me ;-)