careers in the recording arts

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daled

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Hi, My name is Dale and I am currently studying business at the University of Alberta. I am, and have been all my life, very interested in beginning a career within the music
industry. I have spent many hours researching
occupations such as recording engineer or producer and actually talked to many engineers, yet I have still been unable to find the information that I need to make any decision. I am hoping that you may be able
to take a few minutes to help answer some of my
questions:

1. What are some of the various positions available in
the audio industry? (engineer, producer, live
sound...?)
2. What are the educational requirement for these
positions? (university degree? specialized
training?)
3. Are there any previous work experience
requirements? Can I be hired after completing a
specialized training?
4. Would specialized training(or any volunteer/work
experience) enable me to begin a career at a position
higher than "entry level"?
5. What is the average salary for these varrying
positions?( from entry level to experienced)
6. Which would be a more useful background, a diploma
from a specialized school or volunteer/work
experience? or both?
7. Are there any University courses I could focus on
that would help to direct me into a career in
the music industry?
8. What other careers would a knowledge of audio
prepare me for?
9. Is this type of career "stable"? Is there going to
be any future demand for this profession?
10. Are there any reputable specialized training schools in Canada or the United States that
you would recommend? (Recording Arts Program of
Canada, Harris Institute for the Arts, ...?)
11. Are positions in the recording industry more in demand/profitable in the US or Canada?
12. How did you get where you are today?
13. Is it wise to hold down a "day job" in order to support a home studio, or is it better to take the risk and fully immerse yourself in the business?

I'd really like any advice to help me along with my
decision. I'm really confused if a university degree,
although giving me something to fall back on, is
necessary or will even help me in a career within the
industry. I'm also very confused about the varying
jobs/salaries available. I'm interested in something
that allows me to be very interective with the bands
and other music fans alike, yet will still offer a
degree of stability. I would really appreciate your truthful comments, as everytime I have tried to get information from people in the field, I have gotten an extremely negative response (if at all).

Any help with these questions (or reference to another
individual or helpful website) would be much
appreciated. I am very greatful for your assistance
and hope that with this information I will be able to
make the career and educational choices necessary to
enter this field.
 
Ha!!!

Ask a recording or live sound engineer how much they are making a year if they are working for someone else.....:)

Every guy I know who went to a recording school wound up taking a "entry level" position in a decent studio. Few are going to hire you in as a lead engineer freshly out of school mainly because you will lack any real life experience in engineering. Engineering is more art then technical knowledge in most cases. You either have the experience to know what sounds good regardless of how you got that sound, or you flounder around with mediocrity in audio. No school can teach you how to HEAR good music, or tell you every possible way to achieve the sound a client may be looking for, or for that matter will work within the context of the recording. Basically, you will have to have a lot of experience in recording to have a position that above being the guy the set's up the mics and fetches coffee. This business at the professional level has become way to competitive for a studio to risk having an inexperienced engineer in control of a session.

All the guys I know who went to school also said that they didn't really learn much there that they couldn't have learned on their own in the same amount of time, and for far less money. Start reading BBS's like this one, and start buying equipement and start your own thing. Maybe take a marketing class or two. Like I said, this business is very competitive at the professional level. Many studio "For Hire" are having a rough time of booking enough studio time to afford to hire full time staff unless they have state of the art equipment and engineers that really know their stuff. This is because of the boom in home recording. When most musicians are looking at very small budgets for recording a CD, they don't like the look of $50+ per hour, no matter how much better it may sound.

Live sound is hard on your ears. There may be a little more work available in it, but you will find that now a days that the bands don't want to pay good money for a competent sound man. Live sound is complicated to do too. It requires a lot of experience to be good at it. I have done live sound for serveral years now, and don't do as much of it as I could because the pay is generally lousy, and my ears are usually shot the next day which means no studio work that day.

If you are looking for stability, flexibility, and creativity, look into database management or something. The music business offers none of the above....:(

Ed
 
I'm not an insider in a position to give you good career advice, but I'm at least far enough along in my own recording endeavors to have started seeing the truth of sonusman's words. I've considered paying $10000+ for not even a year's worth of school at a recording school, but then I started thinking about how far I've come already and what I could learn if I spent even a fraction of the cost of that school on some equipment. I'm just nearing the point where I'll have a good enough rig and enough experience to start charging a few bucks for my work and produce some local bands that don't have the money for the more established studios around town. I think that's the route to go - start with whatever you can afford and just start recording and mixing your ass off. You can get tips from here and you'll start developing your own tricks of the trade and learning how to make things sound as good as you can with what you've got. As you get better equipment you can start spending less time fighting with your gear and more time concentrating on the music. Soon you can start producing local bands and work up the independant ladder, where you can choose your own road instead of playing studio gopher for no money and no respect.
 
Ed's advice is bang-on....

Gosh he's smart!!! :D

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
My small humble bit of advice

You better love this proffesion with all your heart or I would incourage you to
think twice before embarking on a sound career.

If you can do with out it, then do so.
Ed summed it up - its rough and you'll be cleaning out a lot of ash trays untill you get somewere if at all.
Then the hours you work !$@@^%^#%%.
The asshole producers you have to work with !#@%^%#&.
The guys who pay late (the check is in the mail) %(%*&
The premadona great artist (your going to shoot in a sec.) #$^%&#^$&^&.
The artist who thinks he is great #^&^%*.
The Record companies who sqeeze you to death #^&^%$*&*(
The empty studio hours nobody has booked #^&^%$*&(
The guy who just called to cancell !@#$^%
The guy who calls and says "what you dont have analog? &*&*
The guy who calls and says "what you dont have PRO Tools?" #^&#^&^
The guy who calls and says " what only 48 and not 96kHz?" #^&^%$*&
The guy who calls and says " but down at Shmo's it 2 dollors cheaper" $*$*$&*$
The guy who DID record at shmo's (only to come back to you) and say "you know at Shmo's there is a pool table as well".
The guy who calls and says " I want to record the band with a full 3 song demo
but I only have a budget for 1/2 an hour" &*&*&
The punk purple hair band that brings their girlfriends-beer-popcorn-pizza
and insist that you new freshly carpeted studio is THE place to party.
The guy who ask's you why cant you make his banjo sound like a bagpipe
The guy who wants you to record bagpipe.....all day-night and still want you to look happy.
The guy who really deserves to have a break but you can't really help him.


If you are addicted to this profession, then I'm sure my advice is going in one ear and out the next.

[Edited by Shailat on 10-28-2000 at 15:19]
 
Yo Shailat - all that and more. And ED I agree with you entirely. It's not that a good education in recording isn't a good idea - it's just that you can't get one - I've hung with these professor guys, I've been one, and most of them don't know shit.

I've met a kid who had spent months learning some silly computer code that creates a sine wave in one full semester at a University.

$10,000 will buy you a pretty good studio today (especially with the prices you guys pay) Within one year you will have taught yourself more than they will teach you in three. The next two years are for free ;)

Cheers
John :D
 
Really good thread.

"Many studio "For Hire" are
having a rough time of booking enough studio time to afford to hire full time staff
unless they have state of the art equipment and engineers that really know their
stuff. This is because of the boom in home recording."

I asked about this before, and you've elaborated here. All things come to those who wait. :)

You guys really should do a demo CD. Many fish bites if you got good bait.
 
Thanks alot to everyone who's replied so far. I guess these are the kinds of answers I expected to get considering I've been hearing things like this from many local engineers. But, like probably most people on this message board I can't let the dream die. Judging from most of the advice recieved so far, I'm better off to get an education and a good job in order to support my audio 'habit'. It's actually pretty ironic that, because the 'professional' audio industry is so hard to break into, many people resort to home studio businesses, therefore adding further competition to the market and decreasing employment opportunity in professional studios.
 
i'm glad i joined this site...i too was at a point where i thought the best way to go was to go to school to learn this stuff.but after reading this ..as well as talking to some people who own their own studios.the impression i get is the same. your better off in the long run to learn it yourself.atleast then you can be in control of what your doing.and you can spend more time learning than running for coffee for everybody.

Rock on!!!!
Bob
 
Well Bob,
There is quite a bit of positive things in working as an assistant in a good studio.

You can learn quite a bit from listening to a good engineer or see him work.

Many assistants get the dirty work of simple recording jobs BUT....
They also get the work the big guys don't want to touch like demo high school bands, The singer who can't sing. The singer who thinks he can sing, The singer who CAN sing (but is an asshole) etc...
This way not only do you get a lot of experience but you get to work with excellent gear !!! for free.
You also can practice at 4:00 in the morning when nobody is in the studio and they tell you to lock up after your done.

You might be good at making coffe and actully get a job as a full time engineer
as time goes by. That's a paying job doing something your friends do on a PC
and call them selfs engineers.

The only problem is you have to eat a bit of shit before this happends.
But then doesn't every body eat shit from their boss ?.

I find some studio owners think that an assistant is somebody you can punch around. If you can't take it then forget it.
 
Well Shailat,

Iguess i never saw it like that.

I see your point.
 
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