CARLOS GUILLEN
“A good friend of mine and I had managed to scrape together enough for a basic project studio. Nothing more than a mixer and an ADAT, but it was enough to get me hooked for life… I recorded a friend's band playing live at a local club, the 13th floor. I spent three months mixing the record, every day researching recording online, teaching myself as best as I could. The band managed to get it into the hands of a local college radio DJ. And then one night, I heard a song from that demo on the radio…My mix was beamed through radio waves into my car stereo and then played back at ridiculous volume, the whole time I had a maniacal grin on my face and perhaps the greatest feeling of accomplishment I have ever had. And still I thought "The Rhodes is a hair too loud...etc...etc."
I think it all started with a drum machine. I got this funny little drum machine, no more than a toy really, but I could not stop playing with the thing and recording simplistic beats onto a tape deck. At that point I had had some musical training in piano and voice, but there was something about the capturing of sound that somehow interested me more than any of the music I was learning at the time.
My junior high and high school years were spent doing technical theatre - building sets and focusing lights, all the behind-the-scenes activity during school plays and concerts. Every year the music department did a musical revue of popular music from the 60's to the 80's. It was my first introduction to amplified sound reinforcement. I think that was when the seeds were really planted, but I went through a few detours before I fully realized what I wanted to do with my life.
My first two years at college were a resounding disappointment. I started at UMBC as a mechanical engineering major. For years I had wanted to go into Engineering. I had always had a technical leaning, an interest in science and technology. But without some kind of spark, some kind of creative output, all that science and technology just didn't motivate me. A friend of mine introduced me to the Theatre department at UMBC and I changed my major the next week.
I spent an incredible three years in the Theatre department, stage managed many productions, including a show that won a national competition that allowed us to perform our production at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. During my years in the Theatre Department I stumbled onto something called Sound Design. That's when I started to really figure things out.
That, and once after I graduated with a BA in theatre, I went into my parent's basement, turned my little fender tube practice amp as loud as it would go and discovered tone.
I graduated school in 1997 and worked for a year doing sound for a local theatre. I enjoyed my time doing sound, but something was still missing. I found that something in recording a demo for a local band. A good friend of mine and I had managed to scrape together enough for a basic project studio. Nothing more than a mixer and an ADAT, but it was enough to get me hooked for life.
I recorded a friend's band playing live at a local club, the 13th floor. I spent three months mixing the record, every day researching recording online, teaching myself as best as I could. The band managed to get it into the hands of a local college radio DJ. And then one night, I heard a song from that demo on the radio.
My mix was beamed through radio waves into my car stereo and then played back at ridiculous volume, the whole time I had a maniacal grin on my face and perhaps the greatest feeling of accomplishment I have ever had. And still I thought "The Rhodes is a hair too loud...etc...etc."
Basically I'm addicted to tone. When I listen to records, I deconstruct everything sonically, sometimes before I even listen to the MUSIC. I follow recording engineers and producers like most people follow football players. I research the equipment the pros use, and collect interviews in magazines like TAPE OP and MIX. I recognize the microphones that sit on the desks of late-night talk show hosts...
Basically I need to record. I have managed to teach myself a few things over the years, but I need to learn more. So much of my time is spent squeezing the internet like a sponge to learn what the best mics and preamps and mixers and tube amps etc etc are. What can I say, I'm obsessed!
I will do whatever it takes to hear another of my mixes on the radio again. There really isn't anything else for me to do.
