Just general questions

[tone_aot]

Whasup guys. Just wonderin how many people do this audio stuff for a living. I've been a musician since age 3 and i would love to have a job as a music producer/audio engineer. I have a superb ear for music and i've gained an ear for recording quality through lots of practice and forum beatings . I just wanted to know how everyone else got into the business so maybe i could try some of yalls methods. Thanks guys!

P.S. Please don't kill me because this is not about microphones.

 

[chessrock]

I've been a musician since age 3.

I take it you played a mean kazoo?

I wouldn't necessarily recommend audio engineering as a career path, by the way. You might have a more lucrative future pan-handling and buying lottery tickets with your earnings.

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[tone_aot]

I started playing piano at three. Audio engineering isn't a good career?

 

[killmachine]

it's not that it's not a good career. it's just that the days of old are pretty much gone. In that multi staff studio's are few a far between and also expensive and most cannot afford to record there.

Part of the problem from what i've seen is people driving down the price of recording in general all the time. Believe it or not there's people that record other people FOR FREE!
all the time. Yes everyone needs experience, everyone needs a guinia pig to practice. However, the major problem is that some guy recording on Cubase in his parents bedroom recording it for free ends up taking buisness from perhaps someone that may be a little more qualified and have a more extensive setup.

Is this bad? NO. But it drives down the price for everyone else. I don't care who you are. What your setup is. How much experience you have.

THE MOMENT YOU PRESS RECORD FOR SOMETHING OTHER THAN ONE OF YOUR MUSICAL ENDEAVORS MAKE SURE THEY'RE PAYING FOR IT!

I don't care how much it is. $20 for a song, $500 for 6 songs. Whatever, charge something.

Do a song for free to get aclimated to your gear and practice on someone. But don't do it for free past that. Everyone involved in recording that is trying to do it for a living suffers.

My first outside clients paid $300 for 4 songs. They've got a guy that would do it for free. They went with me anyway which was good, but my point is this.

I'm not gonna take hours of my life and not get anything out of it. Engineers are not a charity organization. We all have bills, we all need good gear to get a good product, and all that costs money.

SO DON'T SELL YOURSELF OR ANYONE ELSE SHORT>

 

[chessrock]

Audio engineering isn't a good career?

It's gotten to be kind of similar to acting. If you ask Jerry Seinfeld or any of the "Friends" cast if acting is a good career, you'd get a much different answer than if you were to ask the guy who does idustrial training videos and the (very) rare comercial or indie film.

The problem with that analogy is that it might actually be easier to land a role in a major feature film than it is to become a financially successful audio engineer. I mean, honestly, just off the top of my head I can probably rattle off about 10 successful actors that reside here in Chicago. And I can probably think of less than 10 moderately successful Audio Engineers with major label credits, etc.

On the same note, I can probably think of maybe 20 more guys/gals who get steady work producing Voiceovers. Maybe 10 more doing location sound for comercials and picture, 10 more who produce and edit radio comercials, and probably 10 more getting freelance work that probably doesn't pay them very well.

So by my estimations, you'd be hard pressed to find more than 300 actual, working professional audio engineers in Chicago, which is a town with a population of 3 1/2 million people. So that would mean that, at least by my very rough calculations, that AE's might represent about .01% of the population around here. To put that in to perspective, the number of people making a living in the restaurant or catering industry in this same city could very easily be in the thousands. What I'm saying, Tone, is that, at least in my city, one would much more easily find steady, decent-paying work as a bus boy or a bar tender than they would in the field of audio.

In other words, most parents of audio engineers would be proud and happy to learn that their kid just landed a job prep'ing salad or bussing tables. That would be considered a major step up in both long-term job prospects and opportunity, as well as money-making potential.

And this is in the day and age when we know that there is going to be a continuing growth in demand for workers in the health care industry. It's pretty much be a given that a male registered nurse with only 2 to 3 years of schooling will almost be guaranteed to have no trouble finding work and making a decent living and to have every health benefit available for the rest of their lives. Yet, we probably have more guys wanting to waste their money on Full Sail ... which is pretty stupid when you think about it.
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