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New DAW operator advice needed


jmpmusic

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Dear DAW Dudes,

A friend of mine purchased his 7th grade son a new Macbook, Cubase 4 and the MOTU 8pre. Neither of the two mentioned have any Mac experience or the least understanding of DAWs. The son is using his computer in school and taking it to and fro on whim, so it's not situated in one place all the time. Could you kindly let me know on a scale of one to ten , (one being a minimum of 4 phone calls over a 6 month period to tech support for help - to a - 10 being a cerebral hemorage 10 days minimum hospital stay). Is this sort of thing a fairly easy plug and play operation or does it take some expertise. They're not concerned with learning MIDI at this juncture. thank you in advance for comments. ;)

jp

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Yowza.

 

If someone in the mix has some recording experience that can be brought to bear on the DAW experience, then you might be looking at some mitigation of the headache.

 

For this, though, there's a good possibility that your "range" will be from 7 to 10 (or maybe more). Of course, it is also possible that they will carefully read the documentation available to them, understand it quickly, and otherwise be good learners.

 

We all have to learn, of course, but starting from scratch like this seems rather akin to putting a child (who has never even seen a bicycle before) onto a 21-speed mountain bike with no training wheels.

 

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic.

 

Dear DAW Dudes,

A friend of mine purchased his 7th grade son a new Macbook, Cubase 4 and the MOTU 8pre. Neither of the two mentioned have any Mac experience or the least understanding of DAWs. The son is using his computer in school and taking it to and fro on whim, so it's not situated in one place all the time. Could you kindly let me know on a scale of one to ten , (one being a minimum of 4 phone calls over a 6 month period to tech support for help - to a - 10 being a cerebral hemorage 10 days minimum hospital stay). Is this sort of thing a fairly easy plug and play operation or does it take some expertise. They're not concerned with learning MIDI at this juncture. thank you in advance for comments.
;)
jp

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...although if it's a 7th grader, he might already be really comfortable with a computer and be really catch on to the thing fast...hard to tell, as it depends on the overall setup and the natural facility that the son has.

 

 

I agree with the advanced technologies being taught in today's educational system. My son is a Junior and he knows more about the internal works of a computer than "some" college degreed professionals.

 

I am actually considering buying the raw parts to allow him to build his own super computer.... although I haven't mentioned the idea to him yet. ;)

 

I'm buying a new computer, in transit now, and if I like it well enough; I'll let him play around with one of the other computers that we own. If he does okay with it; I'll let him build one from the ground up.

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It all depends on the kid and the learning environment. If the kid's into it, he'll find a way to figure it out. If he's not... well, we all know...

 

:thu:

 

But to give it a good shot... I'd get him going on GarageBand first. It's like reading. Get a kid to read a story they love that didn't put them out with regards to their parience of the medium. Short, clear, fun... and they're hooked. More books. Bigger books. Deeper books...

 

GarageBand can have this effect. Just use the internal audio at first. I'd put that stuff away for 4 to 6 months. That stuff isn't going to make the experience any more engaging. Just the opposite.

 

So GarageBand, then, "Hey! Let's hook up that stuff now and record this song I've been making up in my head." Or, "Let's figure out how to get this GarageBand jam into cubase and record a lead solo!".

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Grumble, grumble . . . .

 

When I was in 7th grade, I had a V-M tape recorder that I bought with my paper route money. The kid should get something simpler and more intuitive and start learning the fundamentals of signal flow and microphone usage. Once he understands those things, it will be simple to apply them to a computer-based DAW.

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