What's your background in relation to audio??

[sqkev]

Even though I don't know you guys that well, but I feel that the group of people on this site and a few on ECA are very knowledgeable. Just wondering if you guys actually pursue your careers in the audio/acoustics field.

I've finally decided to really go back to school (Cal Poly Pomona) next fall and try EE.

[minitruck_freq]

i was in band back in school. played clarinet, bass clarinet, drums and guitar. havent played anything in years. just recently bought a guitar and amp...hoping to start playing again but no luck so far. my career has nothing to do with the audio industry. car and home audio are just a hobby.

[drocpsu]

I think it'd be sweet to be able to pursue a career in the audio technologies field. As for me... I just like listening to music and playing with stuff. :D

[Hobbes26]

I'm studying the wide field of 'room acoustics'...

[newtitan]

just a guy who wishes that he took that scholarship to go to audio engineering college in canada vs chemical engineering in the US

[wavac387]

i love driving to music, and thats led to being very interested in sound reproduction in general.

next year when i start college i might do electrical engineering, but it'll more likely be mechE

[Ocelaris]

I used to install home audio/video, and now selling the stuff... just a young guy into good audio ;)

[raamaudio]

I am originally a country bumkin pot head, rotgut home brew wine in the root cellar at 13 years old, slot car, model cars, finally union electrician, maintenance electrician, audio hobbiest (started building my own speaker systems 30 some years ago) US Navy data systems tech(20+years), dabled in car audio(my mother had the firsts system I ever heard, Motorola 8-track, yeah baby!!) since there has been car audio, putting together some decent components back in 82 or so, sold a bunch to my Navy buddies, finally into real high end car audio in 2000.

Now I just putz around in it here and there.

Rick

[chad]

I was always into music since I got my first AM radio at the age of 4, WLS Chicago, Rock-n-roll all the way. Moved into high end home audio as soon as I could push a mower (mowed a lot of yards). My mother read me books on tube theory before I could read, fiction was never in my intrests, gained this knowledge and when it got over her head (boredom) I learned to read the stuff. Could understand a schematic before I could read well. As soon as I could hold a soldering iron I started building. mostly grafting the present designs together, but it was an affordable way to get good audio at the time, some of them still run and I still have them. Got into car audio at 15, blew up a bunch of amps (pyramids) and then built my own. Still running 17 years later btw. Studied Electrical/industrial engineering and got into pro audio in college. DJ'd for money (turntablist) and installed/maintained club systems. At this time I got into performance audio too mostly stage work and doing repairs. I graduated and worked in my applied field for exactly one week and realized I hated it. Went to work for a high end pro audio store and did repairs and customer service. This morphed into designing and selling high end rigs for stadiums, houses of worship, etc. Not being able to keep my hands out of performance audio I started doing sound for local bands and events. This turned into a more full time gig then I got into regional touring as a mix engineer. I quit the store and went national during the summer and worked for a repair shop in the winter months and was a broadcast engineer at a local corporate radio conglomerate too. I would have toured year around but was married and had a home. Touring was a blast, but as you all have probably heard, rock-n-roll can take a toll on you. I look much older than I am, my joints creak, and my marriage dissolved, at 31 years old I was ready to retire, I had saved up a sum of money and did go dormant for a while as I was getting a divorce, DOH!

Luckily a friend of mine who works at the local university was getting ready to retire. I was divorced and had the whole lot; house, pets, bills, everything. The retirement thing was not going to last long and I wanted a job that would not kill me but keep me into audio and music, yet make some money to enhance the second retirement, give me benifits, and allow me to keep the remainder of the nest egg I had. So I got this gig, an Electronics Engineer for the School of Music. Not bad, I still mix a couple bands and festivals. I met a widow with a boy. He is now my son and I am really enjoying family life. No intent to go back on the road but I miss it like crazy sometimes. The limited mixing I do keeps me from going insane. I have a bench at home to do repair work of my own and for friends. If I want more cash I open the door to outside buisness. I also have a mastering studio that I do mastering work for a techno label (keeping the DJ thing at heart) but I also do mastering for local rock bands to help them, I TRULY support a local music scene for without it I would have gone nowhere, I'm paying them back, my rates are low for them.

As for car audio, I dig music. I like to hear my mastering projects on different systems and my commute to work is much longer since a recent move. It was one of the things that sparked my intrest in the louder side of music and I will always hold it to heart (although the pro audio guys still think I'm insane)

Chad

[MiniVanMan]

I'm an engineer by trade. No particular discipline because in my field I jump around from electrical to electronic to mechanical on a daily basis. I work with MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imageing). Also did 15 years in the military working with electronics. Things like FLIR, fiber optic systems, and laser targeting systems. So I've dabbled in a lot out there. That's my geek side that I like to say qualifies me to have an opinion.

Car audio interests me due to the fact that I spend the majority of my day in a vehicle. It's much better to troubleshoot the peaks and valleys in your sound system than it is to scream at other drivers while sitting in traffic. As I learn more, I take on more challenging projects (as money allows), and will start dabbling in home audio very soon (new house requires new sound system).

[smee]

6 year long guitarist here, runs in the family for generations. I like lots of musical stuff, like joe satriani, stee vai, yngwie Malmsteen, and ever since really getting into these guys ive had a severe want to hear music to it absolute best. Precise and accurate, so naturally im a all SQ head.
Probly also helps that my older brother was a physics major sort dude, always working wtih electronic with him, built lasers, all that stuff so naturally all electronics appeals to me. And now Me bro and his friend started opening up a recording studio so ive been helping them with that and diving in even deeper to learning how room acoustics work, and all that nasty stuff you need to fix for studio.
Just a fun hobby, that never dies, that never stops evolving, and always gives you something to do with that paycheck!

[BBOYSTEVIE]

I LOVE music. ALL this other stuff I'm trying to get a grasp of for that, and I think and hope I'll never stop.

[hcbassplay]

Right on, smee, I've been playing bass for 10+ years... I'm an ultimate DIY'er. I built my own bass from scratch. Black Limba body, wenge neck, Indian rosewod FB, Seymour Duncan Model J pups. All gotoh hardware. Set and finished my own frets. Plays like a dream, action is dead low, killer tone.

Yngwie Malmsteen... I know you're a shredder :D

I work at an electronics manufacturer. We specialize in building optical coating systems. www.eddyco.com is the website. I'm shop manager, machinist, TIG welder, electrician, plumber, carpenter, you name it, I can do it, and if I haven't done it before I'll learn how in one day, and do it as good as anyone that's been at it for 20 years. I figure if someone else managed to do it, so can I. Life is nothing without variety.

I try to have as much fun as I can; if I die tommorrow, I don't want to regret not having tried something yet. I have more hobbies than I can name. Only way to go about life, IMO.

[smee]

damn good times hcbassplay! Ive ben looking into building my own guitar too. I was going to copy the steve vai jem series, and using black limba for a body. Neck through design, maple and ebony neck 5 lam, just gotta get the car all done first. One project at a time!

[hcbassplay]

You know, I think building my bass was one of the most rewarding projects I've ever done... I was coughing up sawdust for a week though afterwards. There's nothing more satisfying than somebody asking what type of instrument you play and telling them "I built it myself". Sometimes people don't beleive me.

I would strongly suggest you give it a shot. I am happy I did. It's not as hard as you think, either.

[Weightless]

Audio was something I never planned on getting into...I went to school for illustration. When I got out of school, my friend landed me a job at an audio-visual integration company designing touch panels.

The position fell through and I went through a few different positions ranging from installation to rack fab.

Now I trouble-shoot AV systems. It's not heavy on the audio, more so on the video side of things.

But ever since hearing my dad's copy of Pink Floyds Delicate Sound of Thunder, i've been hooked.

My fiance thinks that I want to get into programming so we can get a bigger house, I want to do it so I can buy more toys for my ears...haha.

[brass monkey]

About a decade ago I decided I liked car audio I still have the frist newspaper flyier that got me into it.
later I got a job at Best Buy in car audio sales. (extrimely frustrating, my boss knew nothing but sell the items with the most margin.) We got into it and I quit. I took some pud jobs for a while looking for more jobs in the audio field. Then I went to Iowa and worked at Elemental Designs for a week but that didn't work out.
Just friday I had my last day at Martin Logan back here in Kansas. Today was my first day doing construction at the new job but Ive got a few Irons in the audio fire still.

[bfrance]

Had to dig up this old thread:

I've had a background in music for as long as I can remember. At 7 years old, my older brother bought me Quiet Riot's "Metal Health" album for my birthday and I was hooked from then on!

Started playing guitar at age 12, (17 years ago, although it seems like a lot longer,) and got into car audio as soon as I bought my first car. [How's this for an old-school system, for you older guys: 1 12" Crunch sub, a Zed-Audio built amp, (I think it was badged as a crutchfield, but I can't swear, it was a big blue sucker that looked like the old linear power amps,) 3.5" Denon coaxes and an ancient Sanyo 2 channel that I still have.)

I got real heavy into audio after high-school, working first at Best Buy, then for a local mom-n-pop store that sold nice equiptment for the time, (PPI Art Series, Soundstream Reference, McIntosh, Infinity, etc.) During this time, I was also playing in a band, (think Pearl Jam/Alice in Chains type stuff.) This was also my most serious car audio period, (back in '97 my civic had 8" midbasses in the doors, 5.25 and tweets in the kicks,and a TON of Soundstream power running it, ie: Reference 1000s running 400 to each 8 and Reference 405s running 2 channel w/100 to each kick panel, tons of sound deadening, 1/0 gauge power and ground, etc, etc, etc...)

My audio habits got derailed by Performance pursuits, (I've had it all, supercharged Honda Civic, AWD Eagle Talon, Subaru WRX, etc.) Finances forced me to abandon that industry, so now I'm back to audio, which has always been my true love for cars.

-Ben

[300Z]

My dad is an EE and have been working with Pro Audio even before i was born... so i just grew up between speakers and amps... i used to be into Pro Audio till 6 years ago when i moved to Tampa... and got into car audio because i had no more Pro Audio to play with... :( Pro Audio used to be so much more fan...

Leo

[chad]

Dude, Tampa is LOADED with pro audio! I loved traveling through there... Chop, Chop! Get your love back!!!

Chad

[300Z]

Dude, Tampa is LOADED with pro audio! I loved traveling through there... Chop, Chop! Get your love back!!!

Chad
I wish it was that simple... first i dont know any1 whos into Pro Audio around here but i've been lazy to go after them... :( and second i've been away for too long, 6 years is way too long for Pro Audio... now almost everything is digital and all... i'm way outdated in that respect... :(

It sure would be nice to bo back in the game tho... :cool:

Regards
Leo

[foley316]

I've sold and installed and am MECP Advanced certified. I'm just a formost electronics junkie with my primary love being car audio.

[IceWaLL]

I started off playing the alto saxiphone then a few years later.

my brother bought a "system" when i was 13 and he was 17. It had 2 cerwin vega 12" stealth 1's in a truck style box in the back of his 87 gta firebird. I just knew more bass could come from his setup so I ripped EVERY wire out of the "professional install" and read up on termpro.com how to wire it up and I've been hooked ever since. BTW they wired everything wrong and I knew more than their installer did even back then.

I moved towards bigger better things like enclosure design and getting the most bass possible before I knew it I crossed the 3000 watt barrier and beyond.

then I got into diy audio, which is where im at today.

and now I am an electricians apprentice and still cant get enough of anything that has to do with electricity!

[Skorzen]

I have been involed in proaudio since I was 14(I'm 22 now) I have dine some studio work and I play bass a well. I also built by bass from scratch. Poplar back/core, bloodwood accent line and quilted maple top. Neck is five piece laminated Whit ash and Paoferro. Macasser ebony fretboard :D no inlay on the face of the fretboard except for the 12th fret where I inlayed the celtic trinity knot symbol. Electronics are EMG J pups, and Aguilar 3 band pre. Schaller bridge Gotoh knobs.

[|Tch0rT|]

I have been involed in proaudio since I was 14(I'm 22 now) I have dine some studio work and I play bass a well. I also built by bass from scratch. Poplar back/core, bloodwood accent line and quilted maple top. Neck is five piece laminated Whit ash and Paoferro. Macasser ebony fretboard :D no inlay on the face of the fretboard except for the 12th fret where I inlayed the celtic trinity knot symbol. Electronics are EMG J pups, and Aguilar 3 band pre. Schaller bridge Gotoh knobs.

Got pics? (especially of the inlay?) :D

Ryan