Education in Meerbusch
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Recording studio of the music school before the restart
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Drummer Ramon Keck leads the recording studio practice courses at the municipal music school.
Photo: RP/ena
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Meerbusch In the almost 20 square meter small room under the roof of the municipal music school, no courses have been offered for more than a year due to Corona. This is about to change soon.
Ramon Keck pushes the controller up, the bass becomes more powerful. Then he edits the volume of the individual instruments on the computer. “Normally the song would still be mastered now,” explains the musician. That means he’s getting the finishing touches. But on this morning no songs will be recorded and mixed in the recording studio of the Meerbusch municipal music school, and no music will be produced either. The popular recording studio practice courses with Ramon Keck have been canceled for the past year. Because the room on the top floor of the music school building on Kaustinenweg in Strümp, at just under 20 square meters, is far too small to be able to keep the necessary corona distance there.
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But as soon as possible, the group course should be offered again. “Many are already asking when it will start again,” says Keck, who also oversees the music school’s percussion ensemble. “Tonstudiopraxis” is primarily an additional offer for those who are already learning an instrument at the music school. “But external people can also register,” says music school director Anne Burbulla. The only requirement: a certain enthusiasm for technology should be there. “Recently there were maybe a bit more boys who signed up,” reports the course leader. Most of the participants are between 14 and 16 years old, “but twelve-year-olds can also take part”. Six participants is the upper limit in the small studio. The offer is popular with teenagers. A former participant even liked music production so much that she did an internship in a large recording studio and now wants to study “Sound and Image” at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf.
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Keck, who has a bachelor’s degree in jazz, rock, pop and drums and has been offering “recording studio practice” for several years, wants to give the young people a rough overview of work in the recording studio in his seminar, but tries to explain the theory “as briefly as possible” and just let the young people try it. “Because the participants often already have a clear idea of what they want to do here,” he says. Most wanted to record their own music. “Very classic, singer-songwriter-like with guitar and vocals,” says Keck, who can see the singers through a built-in pane in the adjoining room, which is specially equipped with acoustics, and can communicate with them via an intercom.
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In addition to the pure recording, it is also possible to produce and mix your own music in the recording studio. “The common thread in every course is the recording up to your own finished mastered song,” says the music school teacher, describing the concept of “recording studio practice”. With a few practiced moves, he then shows what that means: With the so-called midi keyboard, for example, he can produce sounds, send them directly to special software, edit them on the computer and play them back. Keck: “In this way, I can create a whole piece of music out of nothing.” Because the special keyboard can imitate a drum kit just as much as a violin or a saxophone. Artificial, i.e. electronic sounds are also possible. “Then the vocals are then superimposed over the microphone – that’s how pop music is produced these days,” explains Ramon Keck, but immediately limits: “But the quality of a live performance cannot be achieved.”
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In addition to Ramon Keck, his colleagues Daniel Goldkuhle, Head of Guitar and Popular Music at the music school, and sound engineer Mathias Preuss are responsible for the recording studio. For example, they jointly produced the CD “Best of Stadtische Musikschule Meerbusch 2020” there, as well as several videos for their own website that present the various instruments that are taught at the music school. “The fact that we have such sound and image specialists in the team is a unique selling point of our music school, that’s really lucky,” emphasizes director Anne Burbulla. “Our teachers have great knowledge in this regard, which was developed even more during the pandemic in order to be able to offer streams and digital lessons.” Various concerts were also created during the pandemic, which can also be seen on the website: “The Pupils recorded their respective parts individually at home, then I mixed the recordings as a band,” reports Keck.
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The recording studio is currently well positioned acoustically, technically and in terms of staff, says Burbulla: “We owe that a great deal to our sponsoring association.” Of course, it is always possible to expand and modernize the equipment, such as new software, screens or mixing consoles to purchase. The head of the music school already has new ideas for the future: “For example, we could imagine a mobile recording studio practice workshop,” she says. “Then Ramon would grab the most important equipment and go to schools with it.”
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