Thread: wishing to break into recording

Start by doing your own homework. Use the search button above. You will find lots of similar threads and the general consensus of the mature members here is that this is not a great field to get into right now with studios closing in record numbers in the last few years. If you want to learn you're at a good website and an internship is very valuable if you can find one. Reviews on the university degrees are very mixed for this field. Most will steer you in the direction of an electrical engineering degree that can pay the bills to afford this expensive hobby.

Originally Posted by pmolsonmus

Most will steer you in the direction of an electrical engineering degree that can pay the bills to afford this expensive hobby.

Reminds me of the 3 fella's that went together and purchased lottery tickets....

They hit the jackpot!

When interviewed about what each would do with their share of the money, the first guy said that he wanted to become a professional golfer.

His plan was to study under Jack, Tiger and some of the other greats of the game. Study golf course businesses and course design, then open his own business.

The second fella' said that he always wanted to become a professional artist. His plan was to study the great masters in Europe and hopefully become a successful artist.

The third guy was a studio owner. He said he wasn't gonna change anything... he'd just keep running the studio until the money ran out!

Lol... good one Max!







Hows the studio going BTW?

Thankfully, technology has made it much easier for you to " break-in" than it was for us 20 to 40 years ago. There were no recording schools. No degrees in moving volume controls or playing video games. Back then, breaking in meant doing all that menial stuff that's required to keep the broadcast and recording industry running. Reading meters. Making cassette & reel duplicates by the thousands. Staying awake all night and not falling asleep on the air. Now, all you need to do is go to Guitar Box and buy yourself $500 of stuff and you are a recording studio. If you're good? You can make marvelous recordings on the cheapest equipment. But just like it was years ago, competition is stiff. So you really need to read up on all that you can get your hands on. If you want a decent introduction to the recording arts and sciences, I'd rely on the community college. Their pricing is reasonable and you will learn what you need to know. If you want to impress somebody and tell them you have a bachelors, a Masters or even a phony baloney PhD, you need to spend a lot of money for a completely uncertain future. Even the titles of all of the positions once held by engineers & newscasters at NBC, ABC, CBS, CBC, BBC, Fox et al. have in recent weeks all been changed! Now, we all try to make livings at this. Some do so better than others. Others have to rely on this as a professional hobby while they hold down a viable, actual income producing career and/or job. So like many college-bound folks, you may want to consider a sensible income producer. Remember, what we do is art. And like most artists, many don't make a living at this. And we'll keep on doing it until we drop. Because that's what we do.

You know you're old when you're not looking at new equipment but prospective clients instead.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Originally Posted by pmolsonmus

Start by doing your own homework. Use the search button above. You will find lots of similar threads and the general consensus of the mature members here is that this is not a great field to get into right now with studios closing in record numbers in the last few years. If you want to learn you're at a good website and an internship is very valuable if you can find one. Reviews on the university degrees are very mixed for this field. Most will steer you in the direction of an electrical engineering degree that can pay the bills to afford this expensive hobby.

Thank you, I didn't realize things were so bad within the business. You mention apprenticeship, I did a little checking and found a company called recording connection. They say they have something called a mentor program which sounds good for me because I would much rather learn within the studio setting than in a classroom one. I am going to look deeper into this option. Thank you for your help and sorry for starting up another thread.

What do you love about the music business, or music itself? I would love to hear why you are interested in this business?

I wonder what the new generation is moved by these days. The glamor or the art and magic of sound.

Originally Posted by bigtree

What do you love about the music business, or music itself? I would love to hear why you are interested in this business?

I wonder what the new generation is moved by these days. The glamor or the art and magic of sound.

I'm 23 and in the Marine Corps, currently in Afghanistan. I'm looking to master two arts, which are sound and writing. I realized early on how unlikely producing fame and fortune for myself from writing is, and so I began looking into the much more realistic form of writing: technical writing, which produces more income than the creative sort.
You wonder what the younger generations are moved by. Speaking for myself of course, the only way I can say it is to say that most people put on music when they have work to do. I find work to do so I can listen to music. I'm fascinated by music and all the little interchangeable parts that create it. Then there's the hurricane like eruption of emotions good music can cause. I like at some or a lot of most every genre. My main goal is to use the remaining two years on my contract to learn what I can about software, gear, and recording, andwhen I get out set up a basic studio and find amateurs to record, like people that sing and play in bands for fun. I want to do this because I know I'll love doing it. I've been playing with FL Studio here in Mehtar Lam learning the features, making beats, and pestering the army looking for amateur rappers to record. I don't expect to earn a living at it, I just wanna see the inside of a studio some day.

All BS aside, without a degree how can I ever get inside a studio without a degree or any experience whatsoever? I don't care if its to sweep floors as long as I can be in the same room with recording artists and all the mixing gear.

Originally Posted by bigtree

What do you love about the music business, or music itself? I would love to hear why you are interested in this business?

I wonder what the new generation is moved by these days. The glamor or the art and magic of sound.

In my humble opinion, what we're seeing is something that those of us in the "business" for awhile, have a regrettable position to observe from.

"We" understand the entirety of the real "gig" is not based upon the value of the gear which is owned, but more on the value of what we have come to do through bustin' our butts, just to be lucky enough to afford a nice beer in a relaxing chair... and BE HAPPY!

The glamour and allure of gaining income from selling your "stuff" to the masses is a pretty damn good lure ( if you ask me!) All you gotta do is find a niche' hook, and you're set. But it's a mighty small brass ring to jump for, that's for sure.

But to be honest, that's not what those that are reaching for the brass ring think it is, in terms of actually taking the time to understand the importance of knowing exactly the details of which knob really IS the suck knob.

When you're talking about new gear that in many ways is superior to anything made even 10 years ago.... and at half the cost to purchase... it's no wonder that anyone with 200 bucks and an internet connection are jumping on the recording bandwagon. For simple stuff... yes. A lot of this stuff is ok. Fortunately, a few things translate very well into higher end systems.

But here, we're simply talking about the understood aspect of operating any gear in a "professional" atmosphere.

On a "professional" level, you are expecting to either deliver, or receive goods and services in a timely manner, in accordance with standards that you must hit. Not once, not twice... not even 7 out of 10 times... You have to deliver products to a real standard for duplication, every single time. You will get ONE exception... then you won't get any more work. You can't always see that on a 2 buss meter. It's a bit more technical than that.

For an education program to deliver students in the market place who have the technical savvy to actually run a KEF on a line array on Tuesday, and cable wrangler on Friday night... THAT would be good. But that cannot be all they know. At least not when they come out of school.

Gimme a guy who can wind cable straight with no kinks and can keep from lettin'' his mouth overload his ass, and I'll put his butt to work before I would someone who walks up to me lookin' for a job with his hands in his pockets.

Which reminds me... If you don't like coilin' cable... don't make your life miserable.. get out now. You'll be coiling cables for the rest of your life.

In looking for a program in either a certificate, AA or BS degree... Ask how many production's you get to work on. The more, the better.

If you get the bug for real theater, IATSE's got a good program for training guys to do the gig the right way. (Though, no two locals are exactly the same.)

Push some trunks around, in between beers... builds up your muscle, and you need the exercise anyway, right?

Crawl around under the hood on top of a Cat400 at 3am, slippin' shifter bearings around, then make the gig at 7am and rock the "IN" until soundchecks at 5pm, doors at 7, downbeat at 8, knockemdown @11, truss down by 2am and on the road to the hotel at 4am... back up at 9am, lather, rinse, repeat a few dozen times... It wears well on ya'!

But in answer to bigtree's question, I really don't think that this current "generation" of recordists reason that the process of capturing the natural sounds of the world around us is as important as sampling the natural sounds as a secondary standard. There is a full generation of not knowing the true sound of an instrument. Only what they are told it sounds like.

Think about that for just a minute.

So, natural sounds are just sounds. It's almost like any sound they hear, has no more importance than any other sound. It's the added visual sensation that is multimedia brainwashing.

I just wish people would get together more and actually listen to music made by musicians in a performance environment. Advertising shoes, underwear and makeup is one thing, but actually playing in front of a coupla' hunnert folks is when the magic really happens, and you actually "experience" a performance.

But the masses are being sold a lot more than reality. A LOT more. So much so, that the line is now blurred between reality TV, news, entertainment and pablum.

If you work anywhere in a market where you are on staff, you will be working with millions of dollars of equipment, facilities and salaries. You're NOT gonna walk in and sit down at the biggest console in the building after the 2nd or even 3rd year and impress ANYONE.

You've got to either own the gear, or you gotta earn the respect of those who do own it, to let you near that investment.

So, "we" know on our end, that going for the highest quality we can afford is a necessity, while the next generation is diggin' on much lower standards... by like... 50%!!!

Which begs the argument...

Should we all just forget the craft of recording and just join the masses o consumer's???

Or are we going to commit the greatest of all ineptitudes and claim that the standards of the listening environment is shite and should be upgraded?

But the economy is in the dumper, and Clear Chunnel is makin' another land grab at the US public airwaves, thereby sewing up the public from being exposed to regional artists.

So... you gotta make a decision as to whether you wanna' be workin' for love of music... or whether you're looking for a ride.

If you're looking for a ride, don't hang out at my place... your ass is gonna work, or somebody who does wanna work, will be right in that spot.

If you're willing to eat plenty of Ramen and peanut butter, you might just make it.

...and THAT'S the glamour part.



If you're an artist... then don't get into recording... it'll break your heart when you find out how much is BS on the other side of the glass. There really is a lot of tech stuff that will break your spirit... primarily the money involved. Artists should know how to record at least basic tracks without overloading a mic. That's hard enough in most cases.

Artists need to be able to create and save their basic ideas. If it's basic enough, a simple recording is often quite adequate for final production. So, it's important enough to get a basic understanding of mic placement and simple recording processes.

After that, IMHO, an artist should go to a trusted professional to be the other half of the recording process.