by B. J. Hardy
“Well done Coby.” I smiled at him. “Now for our last attempt.”
I set Cassie’s music up and we began.
As we concluded, Elan remarked, “That had me on edge!”
Lara agreed.
Then Jerry stated, “That was the best one. It made it a whole different piece. I liked that!”
The others nodded.
Then it was time to adjourn the class, and I quietly asked Cassie to stay behind for a word.
Once everyone else had cleared out she asked, “Did you like my companion too?”
“Yes, it was by far the best. You are at the top of the class, Cassie, it’s no secret. Let me ask, do you still have ambitions to produce music?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I think you will rise to the top of your field. I wish to help you out, if that’s alright?”
“Absolutely, Maestro.” She smiled.
I retrieved a business card from my wallet and handed it to her. “Call and ask for Eric. Do not say my name, at all. He will be expecting your call. Just say your name when you talk to him.”
“The Grill Recording Studio! Oh my god Maestro! Are you hooking me up with some of the experts?”
“Yes. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mind?” She flew onto me like an eagle hunting its prey, latching on and hugging me. Then she gave me the sweetest kiss on my cheek that I’d ever had. “I love you for it… sir.”
“I told him to show you the ropes and even to get your hands on the soundboards under the guidance of their expert engineers. Eric is one of the best producers that there is, period. Pay attention to him. Take notes. This is for real!”
Tears began to run from her gorgeous hazel eyes. “Oh my… no one has ever done anything like this for me before. Thank you so much, Maestro!” She said still hugging me, but then too soon she released me.
“Remember, do NOT say my name. He knows who I am.”
She nodded but looked confused.
“I go by a nickname with him. I don’t need the connection to my position here at the University known.”
“Oh.” She cocked her head.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Good, now go kick ass woman!”
She had a bounce to her step as she left. Yes, that was the perfect gift for her.
Chapter 9
-Cassie-
Lara hunted me down as I left the class. She could obviously see that I was bursting with excitement.
“Holy shit, girl. Did he propose or something?”
“Shut the fuck up.” I laughed.
“So, tell me what got you all bubbly like that.”
I showed her the card.
It took her a moment to figure it out, but then she shoved my shoulder. “Get the fuck out! No way!”
“Yes way! He hooked me up!”
“Oh my god. I knew he had a thing for you.”
I groaned.
“So, are you ditching Jacob then?”
“What? No!”
“Has he called you yet?”
I shook my head and looked down. Lara and I had of course talked since that epic night and when I told her that Jacob had asked for my number, saying that he wanted to see me again I could tell she was at once happy for me, and bummed out because Kyle hadn’t asked for hers. She’d been a one-night stand, her and the other girl he’d taken with him. At first, I’d felt bad for her in a way but since Jason hadn’t called me in over a week, I then felt sorry for myself. I figured that neither of us could complain much though as it had been the most epic night of our young lives.
“What do you have to do in return for the naughty Professor?” She giggled.
“Stop!”
She laughed and then handed the card back to me. “This is really cool, and way beyond the call of duty. I think Professor Riachuelo knows that you are going to be a serious producer.”
“He pretty much said so, yeah.”
“Don’t forget about me when you get to the big time, Cass.” She was suddenly serious.
“I won’t. If your blog hasn’t taken off by then, I’ll hire you.”
She smiled and gave me a hug. “Thanks.”
I called the studio right away when I got back to the dorm and asked for Eric. They put me through to his voice mail as he was out of the office. It figured. I simply told my name and my number. I remembered what Maestro had said. I wasn’t about to betray his trust. Just as I cracked my laptop open to do some studying, I got a call back from Eric. He had been expecting my call and asked if I could make it in the next afternoon. I immediately said yes, and we set up a time. Fortunately, I had no classes then but even If I did, I would’ve skipped them for this opportunity.
When I looked it up and got directions, I was glad that it was only a couple miles away so I could take the bus. I could hardly sleep that night because I was so excited. This was a big deal! It could really give me a jump start on my career. Hell, maybe I’d impress Eric enough so that he might hire me. Sure, I was being overly hopeful, but why not? However, being dog-ass tired wouldn’t help me at all so I really tried to force myself to sleep. It didn’t work.
I did have a class in the morning, English two-oh-two, and I was falling asleep during it! This was the last class session before the mid-term, and as such the professor was giving us good info, almost exactly what would be on the test. I missed a lot of it. Guess I would be on my own for the exam. By lunch I was starting to become energized and fully awake finally. It wasn’t a long bus ride, but I did have to transfer once to get there. After taking a deep breath I strode in the door of The Grill Recording Studios. Anyone even remotely connected with the music business had heard of them. It was world famous! This was for good reason too.
Eric came right up to get me when I gave my name to the receptionist.
“Hi Cassie! Pleased to meet you. Our mutual friend has said good things about you.”
“It’s my pleasure, Eric. He told me you are the best in the business.”
“He is a flatterer, but I am glad he thinks so. Anyhow, you’re majoring in Music Production at Berkley?”
“Well that’s my plan. I haven’t declared my major yet though. This is just my first year.”
“Have you ever seen or done any production work?”
I shook my head. “I’m taking Music Tech One-Eleven, and Audio Tech One this semester. Next semester I’m signed up for Production Analysis Lab Two-Fifteen though.”
He nodded kind of absently. We walked down a hallway and then took a side corridor to a door that led to a control booth in a studio. There was a man with a long brown ponytail sitting at the console.
“For today I thought to have you sit in with Phil here. Phil, this is Cassie… Cassie, Phil.” He introduced us.
Phil extended his hand and I shook it with a smile. “Hi.” I said.
“Good to meet you. Please have a seat.” He motioned to a comfortable looking chair next to him.
“I’ll check up on you later, Cassie. Have Fun.” Eric waved as he left.
“First things first, let’s explain the system. There are two general types of input from the studio; mic level, and line input. Mic level is about fifty DB lower than line input. We control this with the pre-amp gain. We raise the signal level to the correct amplitude for us to work with it from here.” He tapped a control nob that read ‘Pre-Amp Gain’
“Okay.” I took my note pad and pen out of my backpack and started writing this down.
He smiled at me and went on, “The signal is then sent through the board dynamics. These are the compressor, gate, limiter, equalizer, expander, and compressor.”
“Wait, let me get all of that down.” I hurriedly jotted notes down.
“Then we listen on the pre-fader, AKA the PFL.”
Some of the terminology was familiar from my Audio Tech class, so I wasn’t completely lost.
“Next the signal goes to the fader specific for each channel so we can fine tune it
as we mix it.”
“Check. Got it.” I nodded.
“Then the signal goes to the pan, this is where we can change the signal from right to left or even balanced for a stereo mix. We can mute it at this point as well. From there the signal for a specific channel goes to the main bus. This is where each channel is joined with all other channels. The Master Fader controls the bus signal level… here.” He tapped on another control labeled just as he’d said. “From there we amplify it to be able to play it on the speakers in the booth, in the studio, or both.”
This didn’t seem all that hard. “Cool.” I said.
Then he started getting much more technical talking about the Pre-Aux bus, Post-Aux bus and the different effects that could be utilized on the signals before being sent back to the main left and right bus.
He went through it again, but this time he played a prerecorded signal mimicking one that would be generated in the studio. It was of some electric guitar. Now Phil had me go hands-on to start manipulating the signal. I quickly got the hang of it and was having a good time. It was fun! I liked being able to change the sound and effects pretty much to my heart’s content. I knew what sounded good to me, and that is what I went after. The trick was in the fine tuning to get it just right.
Before I knew it, Eric was back to get me. Looking at the time almost two hours had elapsed. This kind of blew my mind, but then again time flies when you’re having fun.
“So, is she catching on?” he grinned.
“I’ll say. Cassie is a natural if I’ve ever seen one.” Phil chuckled.
“Excellent. Would you mind if I have her back tomorrow to sit in on the live session?”
“That’ll be great!” Phil nodded. He turned to me, “You’ll really like this! Trust me!”
I could tell by his enthusiasm that he meant it.
“I can’t wait!” I beamed a bright and honest smile.
I followed Eric back up front, and he told me what time to be there.
“Now tomorrow the group that will be recording is a big one. You need to keep this hush-hush, okay?”
“Mums the word.” I agreed.
“Good, talk to you then Cassie.”
I went to catch my bus back to the dorms. It was a great day. My future seemed bright as could be. With this hands-on learning, I’d be light years ahead of the other students who would be my competition.
I called Lara on the bus and told her all about it.
She seemed excited for me but then asked, “Do you think this producer guy might be willing to do an interview for my blog?”
“What? I don’t know, and I’m not going to blow it by asking him either.”
“Oh come on, please.”
“No! At least not right away. Give me some time here, woman! I just met the man.”
“Fine. Just keep it in mind when you do get in good with him.”
“I am absolutely fucking sure that you’ll remind me.”
“Goddamn right I will.”
We both laughed.
I’d forgotten that I did have a class the next afternoon, but I went ahead and left in the middle of it, explaining that I had a doctor’s appointment. I wasn’t about to miss out on this. It was my Audio tech class anyhow, and that was exactly what I was going to go learn at The Grill, but at a much faster pace. The University did seem to like to drag things out, I’m sure just so they could haul more money out of us. That day Eric simply came up to meet me and told me to go on back to the same studio as the day before, saying he was busy with a client. That made me think that Professor Riachuelo was indeed a good friend of his for him to leave a meeting to greet me.
Phil welcomed me and had me take the same seat by him and get my headphones on.
“I already have the mics and instruments set up for the band. I’ll show you how to do that next time. It’s easy.”
“Right on.”
We made some small talk, mostly him telling me of his education. He’d graduated from Berkley with the same major I was pursuing.
“If you are a production major, how come you are doing engineering?” I asked the obvious.
“It’s called OJT. In other words, production is something that takes some years to work up to.”
That sure burst my bubble, and I suddenly realized that it wasn’t a short straight path to what I wanted.
“I should clarify that, it is at this level. There are lots of run-of-the-mill studios, but they don’t get the big names like we do here. So, there are lots of producers out there without as much OJT as we get here, but basically they’re mostly hacks.”
“I do want to play with the big boys.” I snickered.
Just then the studio door opened, and the band entered. I had to blink several times before my eyes could accept that it was Alulim, or most of them anyhow. There was Denny, Kyle, and Jacob!
“Oh my god!” I huffed.
“I told you that you’d like it.” Phil chortled.
Then Jacob saw me, and his eyes lit up. “Hey guys, look who’s here!” He came into the control booth to greet me.
“Hey Cassie! Great to see you again.”
I stood up and he hugged me. “It’s great to see you, Jacob!”
He gave me a sweet kiss on my lips. The other two joined us in the console booth.
“Hi!” Denny also hugged me, followed by Kyle.
“What on Earth are you doing here?” Jacob asked.
“I’m learning how to engineer recordings.” I beamed.
“Fucking awesome!” Denny said.
Kyle concurred, “Fuck yeah!”
“Say, sorry that I haven’t called you, but we’ve been busy as fuck, baby.” Jacob apologized. “We have an album to get out.”
“It’s okay. I figured as much.” I let him off the hook.
As I looked them over, I realized that D.D. wasn’t with them yet again. “Hey, what gives? Isn’t D.D. here?”
“Naw. The fucker has a recording studio in his house. He pre-records all his bits and then we play listening to him on the head sets.” Denny explained.
“That’s weird.” I ruminated aloud.
“Yeah, he is that.” Kyle widened his eyes.
“Anyhow, we are burning daylight guys.” Denny announced. “Maybe we can even get two tracks laid down today.”
“Don’t count on it, not with Eric nit-picking.” Jacob told.
But Denny pressed, “Well let’s get with it. You never know… we might get lucky.”
Just then Eric entered the booth and ushered the guys into the studio, saying pretty much the same thing. He then donned a set of headphones and opened his lap-top on a clear spot of the console.
When the band was ready, Eric told Phil to play the track. Over my headphones I heard the flawless guitar of D.D. It was a song that I’d never heard before, and it crushed everything. This was even the best yet! The rest of the band joined in and god they were tight. Consummate professionals the lot of them. They played the whole song straight through and Phil told me that he was just balancing the signal to the main bus for a base recording. The effects would be added later.
Eric spoke into the mic when they finished. “Let’s do the first twenty measures again. Kyle pick up the tempo just a quarter beat. Jacob, slow down an eighth. Denny, sit this one out.”
This fine tuning went on for several hours. Each small piece was recorded and labeled. The final mixing would come after they had the perfect base-line laid down. I noticed that Eric seemed to be communicating with someone on his lap-top, and I figured it had to be D.D. I realized that he must have a feed patched into him, wherever he was. The man certainly knew what he wanted, definitely a perfectionist. They even had each member play bits by themselves. Finally, Eric called it a wrap, and the band popped in to say goodbye, mostly to me. Jacob promised that he’d call me when he got free.
After they’d gone, the three of us began to go through each track individually balancing and adding effects to them. It was painstaking work, but also a l
ot of fun. Here I was actually helping craft the finished song of my favorite group. My mind was blown! Both Eric and Phil often asked me how I would fine-tune the signals, and quite a few times they went with the settings I chose. My mind wanted to just numbly freak out at what I was doing, but I wouldn’t let it flake on me. I wanted to be doing precisely this. It was my dream come true.
I was ultimately bummed out when Eric asked me to come in again the next day to do the final polishing, but I had the first of my mid-terms then. I started crying it upset me so much that I couldn’t come play with them. He soothed me and told me that he wanted me there again, and often. When I finally left the building, it was well past dark, even getting late. I called a Lyft to take me home as the bus had stopped running some hours before. I thought that Lara would probably be busy studying, but I figured ‘fuck that!’ She had to know about this unbelievable day, and right then too.
Needless to say, her mind was completely blown, and she was uncharacteristically nearly speechless. I wasn’t though. Hell no! I was talking a mile a fucking minute I was so excited.
“This is crazy. You know that, right?” She finally got a word in edge-wise.
“I KNOW!” I just about screamed.
“You are crazy.”
“I don’t care. I love it!”
“Try to get some rest Cass. Midterms tomorrow and all.”
“I think they might hire me.”
“Rest…”
“You rest, I’m fucking on top of the world!”
“Good night Cass.”
I paused seeing if she would hang up. “But this is so awesome, Lara!”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Good night.”
Reluctantly I told her good night too, and then she hung up.
Chapter 10
-Maestro-
My symphony was nearly finished. Expressing the desires I felt, and never so strongly, did alleviate the angst that weighed on me from knowing that the one I wanted was in the arms of another.
‘She’s young. She has mistakes to make.’ I told myself.
‘Are you going to catch her when she falls?’ My sensible-self asked.