RC grad Edgar Vazquez Builds his Clientele

After attending the Recording Connection Audio Engineering program, then returning for the Advanced Audio program, Edgar Vazquez has taken the real life lessons he’s learned from mentor Ryan Conway and applied them to growing his own clientele in Denver, Colorado. Although the goal is, ultimately, to have his very own studio, Edgar is making it happen step-by-step, building up to when he’ll be able to make the push, hopefully in coming months.

Speaking about his plans Edgar says, “Everyone that I have worked with so far, we’ve made great sounds out of like just being in an apartment. And even that so, like I would like to get to the point where I would have enough clientele, from the people I’m working with now to where it demands a need to move out and like go to a studio and like actually, you know, put my studio in there.”

Originally a performer and musician, Edgar got involved in the act of producing and engineering because he didn’t like giving his work to a middle man. The goal of learning audio engineering was completely utilitarian at first, a means to and end. But, as time passed, he grew to love engineering and producing more and more.

When asked how he took things to the next level Edgar says, “One of the biggest things that brought me to Recording Connection was like kind of not knowing where to go in life…I ended up looking it up on Google, and falling in love with everything that was being said and all the testimonials and everything. And so at that point, you know, I just said, ‘Let’s do it.’…It was definitely nice to choose Recording Connection because it was a lot more feasible, but I think it’s nice the way that you guys do your programs, and especially with being able to be with someone within the studio.”

Over the course of the program Edgar grew close to his mentor Ryan Conway of Conway Sound. One of the biggest things Ryan ingrained in him was to get less out of his head, less cerebral about his whole approach. Speaking of learning mic’ing techniques, Edgar says:

I think one of the biggest things for me was microphones. For me, it was crazy because I kept thinking about microphones so specifically in where it should be put in all these different matters, and like I was trying to think in right out like, “Oh, well, this needs to be angled in this way because this and this and this.” And like it’s good to look into that, but I think one of the biggest things that Ryan taught me, which I thought was funny though he would do it, would just be like, ‘You know, I think you’re thinking about this too hard. Let’s just place it here and then we’ll place it over here, and then we’ll compare sounds.’

I was overthinking, and really making things complicated, and that was the same thing I felt throughout my whole musicality and everything. I’m playing music, playing the right songs, everything just felt so complex because I wanted it to be a little bit more like different than normal, but at the same time, I think that when you let yourself naturally work with things and music, most of the time, the natural way that you’re going to like it by the sound of it or the way that you are just kind of tweaking it and then maybe a sound comes up and you’re like, ‘Oh, oh, I like that. Let’s go back,’ you know.

When asked what advice he has for aspiring engineers and music producers just now coming into the program, Edgar says, “One the biggest things I think I could recommend to people is to definitely stick with what your dream is, but also basically make yourself prepared to be able to kind of be flexible with that dream…I think one of the best things as a student is to be asking questions…Be interactive and be interested as much as you can be, because I mean, it’s something that you love, you know, and this is someone that knows what you’re wanting to do. I think you really need to respect what they’re doing and also let them do their work. [Then] after the session you could ask them like all the questions that you need…You need to take that chance when you have it.”