Last week of my internship.

So this is the last week of my internship at Avatar. It's been a good learning experience. I'm supposed to do a critique for the studio manager, Tino about the experience with positive/negatives. I figured that might interest some of y'all since I've been asked much about my work there.

First of all, I have to say I hoped I could have spent more time at the studio. I really enjoyed the chance to be singled off with an individual mentor/engineer, but I felt like it limited the amount we could learn. I feel particularly blessed to have been assigned with Anthony who took a lot of chances to teach me and learn from me as well. He catered the hours we spent to what would help me most and assisted me to learn the most popular large-format console in the industry (the SSL 9000J) with great fluency. He familiarized me with much of the gear I was less familiar with and passed on some great tips. I feel like the biggest skill I developed was much more effective mic selection and placement, as that was a primary responsibility on every session.

I would have like to spent some more time in ProTools and on the console(s) than I did. I have owned my own studio now for many years so the distance from ProTools made me feel like less of an engineer. I also wished part of the internship included some time with Tino learning the business side of it too, but I understand he's a pretty busy guy keeping the studio booked. Although unexpected, I learned from the artists too, especially the Brand New guys. They knew what they wanted their sound to be like and we could work together on getting the guitar tones and drum sounds just right.