Need help on starting my life.

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wjgypsy

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As most of you know, I want to be a engineer for my carrer. My mom says that i will have to go to a recording school and learn all the stuff that i know all-over again, just so i can get some little peace of paper that tells bigs studios that i'm "good-enough" to work for them.

Why can't i just keep leaning like i am? You guys have heard my stuff and you think that it's cool.

And another thing that i wanted to ask you guys is: i know that some of you only record as a hobby but, for those of you that do it for a living......how did you start out? where did you start out?
Theres a friend of myne that owns a studio and he has had over 25 years of experence and i was thinking of asking him if i could whatch him record clients and maybe one day working as his as. Engineer (for free for a little while) What do you guys think that i should do?



zeke
 
hey Zeke, your mom is not 100 percent right about this.

The key point for you is to get int o a studio now and intern while your parents still pay for your living expenses. Most studios prefer hands-on experience to a fool sail degree. If you need some physics or electronics classes take them as you go through your internship. Music theory and history are good too but practical experience will be the really indespensible tool in the future. That does not mean a hiring studio will give a crap about your home studio so don't be suckered by that dream.

It will be harder later (when life starts costing you) to try to explain to some studio owner why he should pay you to intern when he has 27 full sail grads willing to work for free.

Education is important...a degree is not.
 
I'm sort of in the same situation as you, only I'm a bit older (18)and seemingly with less money and contacts available to me :)


Internship is the way to go if you want to be an engineer for someone else's studio. If you have the opportunity to work for free, then snap it up right away. You have no idea of the competition out there just for free internships. I've been trying for years - the waiting lists to work for free are a mile long.

So if that's what you want to do, then go for it. But first, maybe do a bit more thinking about this dream. Studio engineers work crappy hours, have no life at all, drink way too much coffee, and often get paid very poorly. All this equates to the possibility of hating your job. Imagine ruining something you love because the situation causes you to start hating doing it day after day.
In some cases, it may be better to keep such things as hobbies. I'm not saying that's the way you'll go, just think really carefully.
 
and by the way, i've opted to just work mindless jobs for a while and travel the world for a few years. like you, i'm young and have all the time in the world to "start my life."
consider just having fun for a while - you won't always have the opportunity. no need to rush it - if all goes well, you'd be doing it for the rest of your life anyway, regardless of when you start.
:) :)
 
I disagree, if you know thatis what you want to do, do it now. later may be too late.

I can not afford to take an internship now at 29 and imagine your parents supporting your ass while you work your way through 10 years of classes and an internship after a few years of world travel at 30. :rolleyes:

Though it is true that it may be a better hobby than carrer. Who knows you may discover the next blink 182....ugh.
 
I think that i will love Engineering. I think that i will start out working in studios and then make enough money to make my own studio company. You see like most teens, i have a dream to be a real famos rock guitarest. (joined a band tuesday) and i'm hopeing that, that will pay for my studio. But before that, i know that it will be hard. And i'm sure that i will have days when i hate my job but who dosn't have those days? I love music and i've been arould it all my life (My Dad own's a Music park)

I don't mean to brag, but i hope to one-day be famos. Then mybe
i will start my own label along with my studio.



Damn i love music

zeke
 
Well don't plan on making enough working at a pro studio to start your own studio...they're not that dumb.

You don't start making real money until studios ask for you by name.
 
ZEKE SAYER said:
You see like most teens, i have a dream to be a real famos rock guitarest. (joined a band tuesday) and i'm hopeing that, that will pay for my studio.


Damn i love music

zeke
Click to expand...

Kid, you really got stars in your eyes. Now i dont doubt your a good guitarist, but that statement is like a bum saying hes going to pay off his mob debts soon as he wins the lottery. If that doesnt make any sense, read this http://www.negativland.com/albini.html If you want your own studio, i suggest you find a real way to make money. Consider this, by the time your band was making the kind of money needed for a real studio, you would be too busy touring to record anyone.
 
Your best bet would be to get training for a job that makes good money and do your music and engineering on the side. Work that job and save every penny you can for a few years and build up your credit. With a good sales job and a bunch of credit cards you could have around 15-30grand saved up and another 20 grand or so in credit to get your own business started up by the time you are in your mid-twenties.

I did live production for concerts and films for 10yrs and it wasn't until I worked in the software business for a few years that I actually made enough to build up my own studio. I made more in 2 years of software sales than I did in 10yrs of production work.
 
Zeke – Don’t discount the idea of maybe going to college and learning about running a business. You maybe could do the music thing on the side to help with college or get an internship while you are in college. I’ve been on the fringes of the industry enough where I’ve seen many studios go under for lack of business acumen. If you own a studio and it gets large enough, you will need business skills. Plus if it doesn’t work out you have a degree to fall back on, or at least to fall back on until you can get the cash going for a studio.

Just a thought. :)
 
ZEKE- i was in your shoes once. i looked at schools and all the shit and they were charging a ton of money. discouraged by that i took it upon myself to walk into one of the most reputable studios in town and approach the owner and ask his opinion of such a school and if it is worth it and all of that stuff. his reply was that i would be better off and i would learn more if i were to spend that $5,000 recording a project at his studio to get the hands on experience. well i thought that the guy was bullshittin me into spending all that money at his studo. well as it turns out i was persistant on keeping in touch with him and in return he GAVE me a shot at a full time internship that was unpaid and it took me about one year to complete(and i didnt spend that $5,000 either). i have been employed by him since and i am all so greatfull that he gave ME that shot out of the mile long list of other people that wanted the position as well.
you never what can happen with patience and effort.

so here is the studio that i now work at

www.tempermillstudios.com

good luck!
 
ps -here is another option for you to get your foot in the door.
look at a place called THE RECORDING CONNECTION.

they find you a job by paying a studio(near where you live) to take you in as an intern!
and if the studio decides to keep you on staff they get an additional payment. so basicly they pay the studio to teach you in real sessions.
mabyee someone in this thread can tell you more about it.
im shure that you can do a search on the net and find the recording connection's website.
they put their ads in the back of all the music magazines like mix and eq and ap and all of that.
they sent me a free video and information packet when i called them.
check it out.

go for it now! dont wait until your older.
 
Just another point of view... Well you may think that I'm a square
and maybe I am...

I'm also not sure on whether a school on audio engineering would be the right way for you... I assume that an internship will be of more real value. But IMO it would be REaLLY useful to have a second possibility to work in (?). The example of a business-school seems rather logical to me, too. Once you own a studio and you don't know how to 'manage' it, you might have some severe problems. Maybe something into direction of engineering or software work might be your thing? Could help you in your studio, too.

A friend of mine is a photographer and he did kind of the way you propose... He worked in his fathers studio, and did not wanna do an internship as he 'already did that thing'. But it did not go too well forward until he went to a kind of famous photographer for an internship. Nevertheless now, at times of low economy, he simply has not got enough money to go round. At age 38, his parents have to support him, and that seems to be a risk to me...

Just something to think about... (But I assume you already did...)

aXel
 
"You can come to our studio, sweep up, keep tape in order in the library, fill coffee machines, and get our lunches and muffins for us. If you do it right for 6 months, maybe we'll let you touch something. If you don't break anything after a year or so, we'll let you record some stuff in the studio after hours when it's empty...but it had better be all in place and ready to go when we start in the morning!"


Zeke,

THIS is how you start out in the recording business.

From there, if you start doing good work, it gets around and you start little by little. If you suck, it gets around and you are done.

H2H
 
"Education is important...a degree is not."

I just wanted to add by saying this. Don't get suckered into thinking a college education/degree is not important. Get as many degrees as you can. I'm sure alot of us (me) old farts around here regret not sticking with college and getting a degree.

Get a business degree as well. This will help you when it comes time to manage a studio.

Also, keep this in mind. When/if you want to open your own studio you will need more than Mom/Dad's money. When you go to your bank and apply for a business loan, that's when those degrees are going to help you as well. Plus you'll have learned how to write a proper business plan.

Good Luck!
 
deadleafecho said:
Kid, you really got stars in your eyes. Now i dont doubt your a good guitarist, but that statement is like a bum saying hes going to pay off his mob debts soon as he wins the lottery. If that doesnt make any sense, read this http://www.negativland.com/albini.html If you want your own studio, i suggest you find a real way to make money. Consider this, by the time your band was making the kind of money needed for a real studio, you would be too busy touring to record anyone.
Click to expand...

I love that article...It should be required reading for every one before they get into a band
 
I don't mean to say that the ideas that you all had are bad but, my dad has sussesfully owned and operated 2 companys at once (1. car autoshop and a Music park, where he holds weekly concerts.) He is not exactly a "millionar" but it keeps food in our bellys and a roof over our head. he has been running the auto part shop for over 30 years and has been running the music park for 14 years. he's 64 now and i know that, that is old, but it's because i was the last of his 7 kids! (:-0) But i think that i will ask, a friend of myne, who ons a studio, to start letting me help him out in the studio, doing things, like sweeping, running arens, filling up the coffie pots and hopfuly, one day, help him run the board. ( basicly what Hard to hear said.)

zeke
 
If you really serious about this, your best bet is a degree in electronic engineering. Go for it even if you do get the intern at the studio and eventually end up working there. I know you're young and want results now but if it's what you really want to do, it will be worth it.
 
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