RTFM
As much as I am anti-expertise, I am in equal measure pro-knowledge. So, with that in mind, I would like to encourage you in a perhaps strange-sounding direction for a moment: I want to encourage you to read the manuals for the gear1 you own!
I only mention this because I’m painfully aware of how few people actually do this. And, look. I get it. Some people are averse to reading, and manuals can be dry. (And some manuals are not really intended to be read, per se? The current Pro Tools manual is 1,608 pages long! To me that’s more of a reference document. Thank god for searchable PDFs.)
But I want not to make a guilt-based case here for manual-reading, but an aspirational one. Because here’s what I love about manuals: invariably, when I read one, I learn something that I didn’t know — about a piece of gear that I paid money to acquire! And how magical is that? It’s like getting more gear, for free! It’s like unlocking secret bonus features for no more money!
Read properly, a manual isn’t a boring technical document. I mean, it certainly can be that? But, viewed through another lens, it’s an inspirational manifesto — chock full of exciting ideas for how to do something with sound that you didn’t previously realize you could do. And how exciting is that?
Getting something for nothing — jamie
We’re talking software, mostly? Gear is mostly software these days, at least for us home recordist types.