I got an email yesterday from GC regarding a class every Saturday morning....

on using the Mac and Garageband to create "your first song". I realize from the wording and from the fact that it is a one hour class that it covers the basics of a lesser DAW... if you can call GB a DAW.
 
However, it really got under my skin. I would REALLY like to see Cake put on a seminar tour. A two or three (or more) day event done regionally. Am I the only one who would be interested? The CW videos are good but they go fast for me and videos are never as good as sitting in a class with my lappy, interface, small keyboard, and headphones. I imagine some third party reps would want to be involved too.
 
Maybe a lot of people on here who have recorded professionally for years wouldn't be interested but I know that I would be all over it. Maybe some of the power users could help with it in their region. I cannot get to West L.A. Music easily. I can get to Atlanta easily and I could make Nashville.
 
Videos are good and books are great but LIVE teaching would be so much better (for me). Till then I will use the manual, the CW and G3 vids, and X1 POWER!
 
Am I the only one?
 
Julien
 
 

They have more then just getting started, they teach mixdown, tracking, and a bunch of other ones.  The invite email I get says it's for logic pro.

yeah I'll bet the factory loops are set and rarin to go...please! .. if they have a beat/loops i mean song already booted up i would not be suprised. and i garuntee the instuctor will slylie pitch an item(s) the noobs dont have, but they can pick it up on the way out the door..even if its just an overpriced cable they might not even need. 

FWIW.. i do think Cake and others try to cram too much info into little 3 to 5min segment vids..as oppose to having just one with chapters that go step by step and truly goes in depth..

 
I totally agree... I think I mentioned, they go too fast for me. I have to watch more then once to get anything from the videos.
 

i think a classroom would be no different

It would be different if they made it different. In the real world I own an exterminating business and my wife is a CPA in private practice, we both have to complete an number of classroom hours to keep out certification. I have to attend actual classrooms, she can do hers all online (I can do some hours online but most must be live classroom hours... I have to have 80 in every 5 year period). Yes, it suq. We have two associations here that offer classes. They both have a winter and summer conference that last three days and they both have 2 or 4 hour classes in different locations in the "off season" manufacturer reps usually teach the classes. Cakewalk could do the same, all it would take is some planning and organization. They could do a travelling three day session with morning and afternoon sessions, basics in the morning, audio and midi in the afternoon. Day two audio in the morning, audio in the PM. Have another room where someone teaches sequencing drums. Day three, morningmixing, afternoon mastering. Another room/another teacher for teaching to use 3rd party software to get your music to red book standards... and that is just my uninformed ideas. I am sure that CW could come up with something better.
 

this may just be a ploy on the part of GC to get customers into the store.

Of course it is and CW could do the same and sell more of their products. They could get a Roland rep tp be there and show what the V-drums can do and sell some of them. They could get Line-6 and IK and others to send reps to help.... I think it could be a big winner and of course it wuld be geared to make money for the company, they are a business they need profit, all they can get, and helping users will make them more money. I think it is something that they could start that could evolve every year into something better and better and help Cake to leave the other DAWs in the dust...
 
Julien
 
 

Jbow, I would love to see something like that, I would be happy with some more of the Cake TV videos pertaining to the first time user or beginner working with X1. I find I am So So when self teaching as i have had to do that on 90% of anything I have used or worked with. I am always looking for Links to Videos, Websites, etc. I was really impressed with the amount of information I found when I was learning the working of my Digitech GNX4, I even found sites built by users designed to explain some of the functions that may be second nature to more experienced users but unknown or very limited understanding to new users. I would love to see more Videos like I stated above or some experienced users breaking things down as I can tell there are settings, Features, etc. that I am not using nor do I have a clue as to how I would if I wanted to. Hopefully as SONAR X1 gets older and more people start using it perhaps what I am referring to with other Software/Hardware will eventually start being available.

 
Most experienced users assume that you know what they are talking about when they use DAW lingo but a new user does not understand a lot of the terms and their implications. Some surely will think "I learned it, so can you"... but things could be made so much easier for those who really do not understand. We will all get it eventually but anything to help would... well... help.
 
Anyway, I'd pay to go to a seminar.
 
J

aleef

Most experienced users assume that you know what they are talking about when they use DAW lingo but a new user does not understand a lot of the terms and their implications. Some surely will think "I learned it, so can you"... but things could be made so much easier for those who really do not understand. We will all get it eventually but anything to help would... well... help

 
 
jbow i know exactly where you are coming from on that one. when i was new to DAWs i was also new to computers.. i had a very rough time trying to get help, i did not know any of the technical terminlogy. even though i first recorded with ProTools back in 1999, i was just one of the musicians and i never dreamed that 3 years later id have something like that in my house. i thought my Roland VS880 and Yamaha S80 were the big time for home-recording. i totally agree, it should  be way easier for the new user. i am ashamed of the amount of time i have spent over the years reading manuals, powerbooks, articles, printouts, you name it i have read it.  if you are not careful all that reading and reseaching will slow your growth and development as a musician.. and every year its a new beast, with new features, and new language... and you have to figure it out..on your own. DAWs are great but trials of it all suck..

I've recently come to this conclusion as well.  I spent the last year or two just studying, reading, and learning as I felt I wasn't getting any better with my production (i had been producing for years before). Turns out I learned a ton but didn't actually finish any projects.