hueseph, post: 388121 wrote: You are missing the point. There are people getting into large debt (apparently up to $120,000)to get involved in an industry that does not pay back.

It's one thing to get into debt knowing that there is a real chance of you getting a crack at getting into recording. But to get into debt with little or no chance of making it is just horrific.

RemyRAD, post: 388391 wrote: I think the best way to learn is basically by doing it. I am preparing to start to teach where it will be all hands on and very little book time. I'm going to make this affordable that I hope will inspire business? Like many other studios, we are virtually going out of business and so we become recording schools. This will be a certificate only school and I'm not interested in any college accreditation. People just want to learn how to make good recordings and not all of the other blab blab that goes with that. There will be some reading to familiarize everybody with previous and current technologies. There will be a strong emphasis on learning the basics since everybody today, knows how to use a computer already. So checking into your local recording studios might yield something similar to that?

I will profess that I am not a profess
Mx. Remy Ann David

Do you take on interns, and if so had any particularly good or bad ones?

I do take on nonpaid interns. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, I have had a dearth of work. I have taught and mentored numerous people over my 40+ years. I am currently looking into relocating to Nashville, Tennessee in search of more work and clients. So please keep in touch. This could also be the beginning of my end? If I can find no more opportunities in the Nashville area, I'm quite likely to throw in the towel, sell off everything and pursue other professional endeavors. I have worked in the professional broadcast and recording industry my entire life. So my talents and capabilities are quite broad ranging.

I don't think I've had a bad interns since I carefully handpicked each one. Some of my interns have gone on to careers within the industry. Others realized, it's too much freaking work fraught with bad pay and backbreaking work. You have to have tons of unrelenting passion and determination to survive in our industry. Many of us in the business are freelancers, which is generally a nice euphemism for unemployment. We do this not just for the money but for the personal joy and gratification that we get. It's unrealistic to think that you only get into this business to get wealthy. It's akin to playing the lottery. There is no guarantee that your number will come up. So I've had a great deal of success without any financial royalties.

Lucky is the person who was a lucky person.
Mx. Remy Ann David

I for one hope that things work out for you in Nashville and that you do not call it quits. This industry will be a poorer place without you.

Ryan Edward, post: 388850 wrote: I for one hope that things work out for you in Nashville and that you do not call it quits. This industry will be a poorer place without you.

I second that emotion....just like the song.

Hopefully the whole pro recording world will somehow get back to "normal" sometime soon. The major recording studios here in this area have either gone out of business or have fired all their staff engineers, closed all their rooms except one and are holding on by a thread. My mentor who owns one of the best, most professional recording studios in this area has gone from 11 employees to 6 and has recently changed his focus from audio to video production. The local area CD - DVD duplicator has gone from 17 employees to 1. Our local pro audio retailer has shut down their operations and fired all their employees. The biggest local non national music retailer with multiple stores closed down laying off all their employees and the owner is currently working for Sweetwater. Even the local Sam Ash and GC are having problems and their sales are way down. Not a pretty picture and unless somethings change soon it will only get worse.

To talk about education one has to look at the prospects for those graduating and their potential to obtain good paying, full time jobs and right now it is NOT looking very good. I personally know three recent Full Sail graduates. One is working in a Verizon store, one is working for GC and one is living at home with his parents. The person working for Verizon graduated with honors and at the top of his class and still cannot find full time work in the recording studio world. I guess I am pessimistic but I don't think this will get better anytime soon. Best of luck to the recent graduates of ANY audio engineering programs!!!

I also hope that everything sorts itself out in your favor Remy.

Thanks. I suspect I will stand a reasonable chance if there are any chances left to be had?

Good thing I took a bartending course. Because if I can't mix music, I'd rather mix drinks. Olive or onion?
Mx. Remy Ann David

Thomas W. Bethel, post: 388857 wrote: I second that emotion....just like the song.

Hopefully the whole pro recording world will somehow get back to "normal" sometime soon. The major recording studios here in this area have either gone out of business or have fired all their staff engineers, closed all their rooms except one and are holding on by a thread. My mentor who owns one of the best, most professional recording studios in this area has gone from 11 employees to 6 and has recently changed his focus from audio to video production. The local area CD - DVD duplicator has gone from 17 employees to 1. Our local pro audio retailer has shut down their operations and fired all their employees. The biggest local non national music retailer with multiple stores closed down laying off all their employees and the owner is currently working for Sweetwater. Even the local Sam Ash and GC are having problems and their sales are way down. Not a pretty picture and unless somethings change soon it will only get worse.

To talk about education one has to look at the prospects for those graduating and their potential to obtain good paying, full time jobs and right now it is NOT looking very good. I personally know three recent Full Sail graduates. One is working in a Verizon store, one is working for GC and one is living at home with his parents. The person working for Verizon graduated with honors and at the top of his class and still cannot find full time work in the recording studio world. I guess I am pessimistic but I don't think this will get better anytime soon. Best of luck to the recent graduates of ANY audio engineering programs!!!

That sounds so depressing, I'm surprised that I am not reading about mass suicides in the recording industry.

If you were old enough to watch the news on television, you would have noticed that all the major networks ran stories on how in debt all these college students are to obtain their degrees for which they can find no work for. And those were practical degrees not knob twiddling recording engineer degrees. So you can want to be a recording engineer really badly and want a degree for that but you're not looking at the practical side of today's economy and job market, record labels, recording studios closing, broadcast stations laying off most of their technical staff. You're living in Lala land which is unfortunate for everyone. We love what we do. And we're going broke trying to do what we do and we have a lot more experience than any beginner's have with a piece of paper from school. Not that you shouldn't get one but these are the realities. And it's not good. It's not good for us. It's not good for you. You're not going to change the music industry with your college degree as a recording engineer. You might do better with computer programming, physics, sales, marketing and maybe not? Even NASA is laying off rocket scientists. Homeland security is cutting back. We'd all do better if we put a little blue vests and worked for Wal-Mart. After all, they're selling recording equipment today aren't they?

Welcome to Wal-Mart!
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD, post: 388194 wrote:
I also find acoustics to be the least of any of the problems encountered. That's because in live on location recording, you never get a choice of what the acoustics are going to be like. So when recording at home, consider it live on location recording at your home. Which will mean a minimum of structural changes. Lining your room with foam gizmos and other blah blah can be more counterproductive to the acoustics. All you need really is diffusion and that comes from a standard living room environment with heavily padded couches, chairs, pictures hung on the wall, etc.. If you want better diffusion, building floor to ceiling bookshelf along an entire wall lined with discarded books from schools, universities, libraries. It also presents an image of knowledge even if you haven't read a single blasted book on the shelf.

Mentored and self-taught successful engineer.
Mx. Remy Ann David

I am seriously impressed by that paragraph. Please don't give up recording..

I'll never give up recording. I might give up the Remote Truck, CROW (Control Room On Wheels). I am a very fine and accomplished professional at what I do. It's in my blood. It's all that I am and all who I am. I hear things no one else hears and I don't sweat the small stuff. I have a gift. I'm damn lucky and have been throughout my +40 year career. So I don't see that I shouldn't be working somewhere where I am more well appreciated. Nobody seems to appreciate my knowledge or expertise in this Mid-Atlantic void. Partially because Baltimore was a shipbuilding and steel town at Washington DC specializes in governmental mediocrity. And that is Ron White, the redneck comedian has said something which I also live by, YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID. So I'm giving up trying in this godforsaken area of the country of the US.

If my exploratory visit to Nashville is fraught with resistance from a tight click of folks, all of which I have been told that exists there, I may try other possibilities before liquidating my fabulous CROWmobile.com endeavor. Because I have and I do have a lot to offer in the land of fine music recording in engineering. I certainly don't like doing live SR/PA but I have done it on occasion. My technique there is also far different from the other live PA guys do. To me a live PA should sound nothing more than like a live, studio, recording. And that means a more purity of sound integrity. It's not about loudness. It's not about avoiding feedback. Feedback is avoided by proper placement of the speakers in relation to the musicians on stage more than anything else. But with all those wacky toys they all have to play with, they can't but help obsessively playing with everything. And that just gets me down. And since most PA systems produce a high level of distortion, I've always found it extremely fatiguing to listen to. I've actually done PA while engineering from my control room in the truck. To which, many people have expressed their anger that I am not out in front listening to the PA. I simply tell them that it's a live recording that I am trying to convey through a PA system. I have a controlled environment in which to work in and I get to decide how loud I want my monitors for my listening purposes. Once I have established a quality sounding mix, I then leave the confines of my control room in the truck and walk out to listen how it translates to the audience. I might add that when I do it that way, I have employed some sophisticated 1/3 octave equalizers to compensate for aberrations in the PA system. But that's not what I'm listening to in my control room. A different concept for sure that no one else has done and I really don't know why?

The loony and unique
Mx. Remy Ann David

I sometimes encounter people who are going to recording school and seriously worry about them. Are they doomed? In my area (Santa Monica) I know of an engineer who finally got laid off (nearly 2 years ago) by a major film / TV sudio recording studio after they had round after round of layoffs. I know of some music audio recording studios that have gone out of business.

From what I hear it's because cheap recording software is replacing people. Also file sharing and the closure of brick and mortar video rental stores is killing the DVD business, which in turn shrinks production budgets. File sharing is hurting the music business too.

I can't help but think that a lot of these students that the recording schools are churning out are going to find that there's no jobs for them. Are they throwing away their money?

Many are throwing away their money in pursuit of their passion. But passion like being an OB/GYN negates the threat of medical malpractice lawsuits. They still need to learn what they need to learn to put it into practice for themselves. Which is where the industry is now currently going. At least the doctors still must rely upon a residency before they go into private practice. Such is not necessarily the case any longer in the recording industry. Thankfully, no one gets killed in the recording industry. Though they might lose their shirts? And then they also have a huge student loan to pay off. And in our industry, you learn more by doing and by reading than going to school to hear it from somebody who most likely has never really done it themselves, professionally, in their own lifetime. Though there are plenty of fabulous engineers of notoriety whose contract business has also ceased to exist. And those folks with college degrees like themselves have the ability to be employed by universities. I don't. I did not go to school for what I do. I just had to be smart and talented enough to trump those who relied upon academia for their education. Not all can do that. I'm just damned lucky for the gifted talent I have. But I too, for the past couple of years, have no longer been making a livable income. At least not in this godforsaken area of the country in the mid-Atlantic void of talent. I love it when students tell me how recordings must be made because they learned it in school. So you can't fix stupid.

I'm not stupid I'm talented, gifted.
Mx. Remy Ann David

I read on some of these school's sites that they are "accredited" and therefore 70 - 80 percent find work afterwards. I just don't believe that there are all of these recording engineer or producer jobs waiting for new graduates to take them. I think the schools are full of crap. If the schools don't get new students then the teachers become unemployed and the schools go out of business.

Did Rick Ruben and Ted Templeman go to audio engineering school?

Schools, like advertising, isn't necessarily 100% true. They still have to market their product just as the good doctor indicated. Supply versus demand would dictate that there are jobs out there for university graduates. In a recent news survey, students with insurmountable loans cannot find work in their selected academic training. So who are the liars? It ain't the politicians in this case. It's those fine in prestigious universities. They're just as bad as Bernie Made Off because all they want is your money and all they provide you with are hopes and promises that cannot be fulfilled.

I've got a lovely 64 track analog recorder that only uses 1/4 inch tape to sell.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Supply versus demand would dictate that there are jobs out there for university graduates. In a recent news survey, students with insurmountable loans cannot find work in their selected academic training. So who are the liars?

I think there's defintely a lot of useless majors out there -- and to go to school for a whopping 4 years????? Overkill! I would never go to USC to study anything other than to be a doctor, lawyer, scientist or something along those lines. But as far as audio engineering school, I really question if there's really all of this demand for all of these graduating students. I think most of them become waiters and waitresses.

There has been a lot of coverage of the cost of college versus good paying jobs on NPR lately and from listening to the broadcasts some people are starting their professional lives with massive debts from their college education. One point that was brought up by a professor, who was being interviewed, was the idea that there is a lot of "wasted time" in college and in most disciplines a person could, if they wanted to, do their whole undergraduate work in a maximum of three years if the college would permit them. Some colleges make this impossible with their structured class/credits per semester schedule and only having some classes available on a limited basis which means the student has to sometimes wait around a fourth year just to take the one class he or she needs to graduate.

Some families are balking at the steadily increasing cost of college and offering their off spring a choice between a college education or a lump sum payment that they can use as they see fit.

The cost of higher education is, as the professor pointed out, is getting out of hand and only the most wealthy people maybe able to afford to send their children to college in the coming years. One point that the professor brought up was that it is not only the "ivy league" schools that are getting expensive but with the state legislators running into budget problems a lot of tuition at state schools has gone up substantially over the past 10 years and it looks like it is going to get worse. Another interviewee said that people should start to rebel and not send their children to the most expensive schools and pretty soon those schools with have to lower their tuition to attract students. I personally don't think that would work since a lot of parents want their children to have the best education and are willing to sacrifice a lot to send them to the best schools.

At some point about 25 years ago colleges made the decision that they were not only going to just educate students but were going to offer the best of everything to attract incoming students and started building the latest state of the art facilities and dormatories. This massive cost was then past onto the students in the form of tuition hikes and it became a race between colleges as to who could spend the most money to atrract new students.

Faculty members who had been living very comfortably on good salaries realized that they could market their teaching skills and went looking for better paying academic jobs. In order to keep those faculty members happy the overall faculty salaries doubled over a couple of years. As more and more professors saw what their colleagues were making they also demanded larger salaries. Full professors who had been making $60,000 and living comfortable lives suddenly were offered double that amount if they would stayput and not decide to look elsewhere for jobs and all this increase in salaries also added to the over all cost of education.

If something is not done soon the cost of a college education will get to be so astronomical it will take a young person 15 years of work just to pay off the debt they have incurred and they will have to put off other things like marriage, buying a house and raising children just to pay off their college loans. It is a mess and only getting worse.

Someone did a study and found out that a plumber can make more than a doctor in the long term.
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://finance.yaho…"]Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Long Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff | Fin - Daily Ticker - US - Yahoo! Finance[/]="http://finance.yaho…"]Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Long Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff | Fin - Daily Ticker - US - Yahoo! Finance[/]

Dr_Willie_OBGYN, post: 389538 wrote: I sometimes encounter people who are going to recording school and seriously worry about them. Are they doomed? In my area (Santa Monica) I know of an engineer who finally got laid off (nearly 2 years ago) by a major film / TV sudio recording studio after they had round after round of layoffs. I know of some music audio recording studios that have gone out of business.

From what I hear it's because cheap recording software is replacing people. Also file sharing and the closure of brick and mortar video rental stores is killing the DVD business, which in turn shrinks production budgets. File sharing is hurting the music business too.

I can't help but think that a lot of these students that the recording schools are churning out are going to find that there's no jobs for them. Are they throwing away their money?

I'd say you are right there, however, these kids are determined to be the next big thing. Try telling them otherwise.

It's rough enough going to school to be a lawyer when you potentially stand to earn $300 a hour. A lot of lawyers are settling for being legal assistants or bar tenders. I can't imagine trying to become a mixer at some recording studio. Better to buy your own gear, read some books, etc. Don't pay to go to these schools.

Everyone might want to read this New York Times article nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.htm?_r=3&pagewanted=all

Talk about depressing and troublesome.

Back when I was in school (California State university system) it was like $350 a semester. People gotta really question going to school versus just reading books on your own.

When you started out in recording, would you guys have gone into this industry, knowing what you do now?

bart_R, post: 389703 wrote: When you started out in recording, would you guys have gone into this industry, knowing what you do now?

A resounding YES but would I tell someone to go into it now? NO WAY! The industry has changed so much that it is no longer possible to make a decent living (IMHO) in the business of audio. Too many people who are giving their services away for little or no money and too many people who don't know anything about what they are doing trying to do recording and mastering.

It is a real mess and getting worse by the day.

video editing and film are the same way. A zillion people all want to do it. I feel sorry for people who spend $160,000 going to USC film school. Just invest that money.

Thomas W. Bethel, post: 389648 wrote: Everyone might want to read this New York Times article nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.htm?_r=3&pagewanted=all

Talk about depressing and troublesome.

Absolutely f#cking terrifying.

Dr_Willie_OBGYN, post: 389602 wrote: Someone did a study and found out that a plumber can make more than a doctor in the long term.
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://finance.yaho…"]Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Long Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff | Fin - Daily Ticker - US - Yahoo! Finance[/]="http://finance.yaho…"]Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Long Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff | Fin - Daily Ticker - US - Yahoo! Finance[/]

I'm a good painter ( no, I'm an awesome painter) and I wouldn't trade my life because it gives me the freedom I need to make music without starving, shilling, settling for digital crap or BS our community just to keep my foot in the door and selling ads here.
I won't tell you what I make but its a hell of a lot more than most professionals wearing suits.

Times have changed. 20 years ago I started noticing how fat people were getting. And how lazy and un healthy people are. Rich people with really nice houses tend to be fat, out of shape or lucky enough not to have to do things they don't need or want to do so they hire me and if I like the job, I might do it. NO BS.
Regardless, I realized years ago how valuable the jobs were that fat people couldn't do. Painting is one of them. Its a very physical job and if you can do it well, the sky is the limit, especially for high end painters.

Physically fit people are in demand , trades demand fit people that are clear headed so the way I see it , Trades are where its at. The jobs that the fat people can't do are the jobs of the future. Once you are in the loop, the key is to do those jobs really well and build your own business. I'm living proof.

Music used to be my sole income and my life. I was a full time musician that toured 46 weeks a year, for 18 years on the road. Then video came in and it "killed the radio" and eventually took out live music as we know it. It created a false perception of what real music is and started a trend towards accepting sampling, MIDI, sequencing, etc etc etc in the pop culture, music that could never be performed live without computers. This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing, but it is what happened and why we are where we are today. I was part of that generation and took advantage of it just like I am today in the Trades..

After being what I call a Hybrid Musician, I saw a clear picture of our future most likely better than most. So, I got the heck out of live music in 1998. After using Pro Tools for 10 years and hating the sound of it, I'm now building up an analog studio and painting again, but this time for a new client that wants quality.

Now music is a very serious, profitable hobby. If people start demanding better sound I will be there. But I don't really care if it ever earns me a living like before because I don't do it to survive anymore. I do it because I want MY music to sound better than plug-in music. I am going back to where it was when it sounded different.
I love Electronically composed music, but I don't like it to all sound boring like digital sounds and thats where analog comes in.

The recording business is meaningless to the population and going this way because there is a DAW in every OS package of some level. So, right from childhood, just like painting, someone can learn to record and this leads to one thing only, no money and a bad paint job.

Painting and recording share a similar mindset now. Painting has always been a tough business to make a lot of money at because everyone thinks they can paint right from kindergarten on. However, not until you get to your middle ages, do you really appreciate a home that is painted well. I think the recording industry is in the same light now. All my clients are 45 years old an up. All my projects are high end. I do not work for anyone other than those who demand excellence and appreciate art done well.

So, my music business is following the pursuit of sonic excellence. Thus, why I am leaving the plug-in era for good reason and going full steam ahead on high end analog/ hybrid sound. I make a great living as a high end painter and I know my sound now is better with less plug-ins and more analog ;). There is more to this business than any school will ever teach you.

I would love to be a Final Cut Studio editor / After Effects editor or a sound editor for indie films but there's nothing but slave labor gigs out there.
I still write PslyTrance music. Labor of love only.

I was getting my car repaired yesterday. The owner of the shop was lamenting that in ten years there would be no mechanics. He said most young people today don't have any work ethic and they don't want to get their hands dirty working on cars. I have heard the same from people who run machine shops - 15 years ago they had waiting lists of people wanting to work there but today the jobs go begging and no young people seem to want to start into the trade. Some top machinist make over 80K per year but the young people want to work on computers and not get dirty working on machinery. I think eventually all the trades will be hurting. I have a good friend, who is a master carpenter, and he said that the carpenter's union is seriously concerned that a lot of young people no longer want to start on the road to being journeyman carpenters because they don't want to work outside or get dirty working. If the US of A would ban all illegal aliens and send home all the ones that are here the crops would not get picked and the menial jobs at hotels. resorts and casinos would not be filled as there is no one who wants to pick produce or work for minimum wage doing housekeeping or other menial jobs. It is a real mess/ Getting people to see what is really happening and what the world will be like if we don't wake up to the facts is frightening. Please read this from the BBC [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.bbc.co.u…"]BBC News - ILO warns of youth unemployment 'crisis'[/]="http://www.bbc.co.u…"]BBC News - ILO warns of youth unemployment 'crisis'[/].

Legal Americans will pick lettuce if the price is right.

Dr_Willie_OBGYN, post: 389860 wrote: Legal Americans will pick lettuce if the price is right.

It has been proven over and over again that Americans don't want to do the back breaking labor done by people from other countries even if they were being paid $10 to $12 per hour and no one could afford the lettuce they picked. Can you say $5 - $7 per head??? That is what some economist say would happen to prices for produce if we paid working wages. I don't want to get into a political discussion here on an audio web board but there is a lot of info on this topic on the WWW.

Dr_Willie_OBGYN, post: 389602 wrote: Someone did a study and found out that a plumber can make more than a doctor in the long term.
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://finance.yaho…"]Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Long Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff | Fin - Daily Ticker - US - Yahoo! Finance[/]="http://finance.yaho…"]Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Long Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff | Fin - Daily Ticker - US - Yahoo! Finance[/]

Probably make even more money as a welder.

Kids don't want to get their hands dirty...full stop.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that last comment. I could never get my nails done with all of the filthy and strenuous effort required to do on location recordings. It's backbreaking work. It's dirty, filthy, pulling cables on dirty floors. Sort of like picking vegetables and fruits for a 12 hour day. Numerous friends of mine, from NBC-TV, who chase all over town with heavy camcorders on their shoulders and who have joined me on some of my location recordings have commented " Remy! We've never had to work this hard for anything we've done for NBC-TV! " Yeah, how about that. I turn into one broken down dirt ball after those types of jobs. Thankfully, they are not an everyday occurrence. I don't think I would even be physically capable of doing what I do on an everyday level? I generally need a couple of days of recovery after every one of those location recordings. It's insanity personified.

It's all good since I am obviously already insane. LOL And I love it. Almost can't get enough of it.
Mx. Remy Ann David

I love watching those guys running all over the place with those huge ass camcorders trying to get the scoop.

audiokid, post: 389848 wrote: I'm a good painter ( no, I'm an awesome painter) and I wouldn't trade my life because it gives me the freedom I need to make music without starving, shilling, settling for digital crap or BS our community just to keep my foot in the door and selling ads here.
I won't tell you what I make but its a hell of a lot more than most professionals wearing suits.

Times have changed. 20 years ago I started noticing how fat people were getting. And how lazy and un healthy people are. Rich people with really nice houses tend to be fat, out of shape or lucky enough not to have to do things they don't need or want to do so they hire me and if I like the job, I might do it. NO BS.
Regardless, I realized years ago how valuable the jobs were that fat people couldn't do. Painting is one of them. Its a very physical job and if you can do it well, the sky is the limit, especially for high end painters.

Physically fit people are in demand , trades demand fit people that are clear headed so in general the way I see it , Trades are where its at. The jobs that the fat people can't do are the jobs of the future. Once you are in the loop, the key is to do those jobs really well and build your own business. I'm living proof.

Music used to be my sole income and my life. I was a full time musician that toured 46 weeks a year, for 18 years on the road. Then video came in and it "killed the radio" and eventually took out live music as we know it. It created a false perception of what real music is and started a trend towards accepting sampling, MIDI, sequencing, etc etc etc in the pop culture, music that could never be performed live without computers. This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing, but it is what happened and why we are where we are today. I was part of that generation and took advantage of it then, just like I am today with the Trades..

After being what I call a Hybrid Musician, I saw a clear picture of our future most likely better than most. So, I got the heck out of live music in 1998. After using Pro Tools for 10 years and hating the sound of it, I'm now building up an analog studio and painting again, but this time for a new client that wants quality.

Now music is a very serious, profitable hobby. If people start demanding better sound I will be there. But I don't really care if it ever earns me a living like before because I don't do it to survive anymore. I do it because I want MY music to sound better than plug-in music. I am going back to where it was when it sounded different.
I love Electronically composed music, but I don't like it to all sound boring like digital sounds and thats where analog comes in.

The recording business is meaningless to the population and going this way because there is a DAW in every OS package of some level. So, right from childhood, just like painting, someone can learn to record and this leads to one thing only, no money and a bad paint job.

Painting and recording share a similar mindset now. Painting has always been a tough business to make a lot of money at because everyone thinks they can paint right from kindergarten on. However, not until you get to your middle ages, do you really appreciate a home that is painted well. I think the recording industry is in the same light now. All my clients are 45 years old an up. All my projects are high end. I do not work for anyone other than those who demand excellence and appreciate art done well.

So, my music business is following the pursuit of sonic excellence. Thus, why I am leaving the plug-in era for good reason and going full steam ahead on high end analog/ hybrid sound. I make a great living as a high end painter and I know my sound now is better with less plug-ins and more analog ;). There is more to this business than any school will ever teach you.

You make music because you like and enjoy it. That's the best way to make it, out of love.

It's sad when trades such as car mechanics and recording become obsolete because no one wants to get their hands dirty anymore.

People need to be educated about the value of earning an honest days wage.

If I needed money for my family I know I wouldn't be so picky about what work I did.

Yes but if you had just paid $40,000 for a degree from Full Sale and your only job opportunity was a stocking clerk at Wal-Mart, you might get an employee discount which may better help you to feed your family. But somehow I might think you might feel slightly embittered by the lack of available professional studio jobs. No matter, you could always run a Barringer at the local bar for the simply awful rock bands coming through. Then you could make them sound their mediocre best. Then maybe you'd feel better as you pay off your student loan for the next 20 years?

I think college bound folks are some of the stupidest folks in the world. Why? Because they have in their head something they want to do but they haven't researched what employment opportunities actually exist for the degree they want. Sure, with some, it may just be the law of averages such as becoming a medical doctor. But a recording engineer when the technology changes yearly. If you don't use it, you lose it. It doesn't matter if you know how to use a large frame SSL. They'll be gone tomorrow. And everyone will want you up to speed on the latest and greatest stuff. And you won't be. If you want to go for a double degree in electrical engineering and audio engineering, so you could design new types of equipment, that might make a little more sense. If you want to get a double degree in business management and audio engineering that too makes you more viable for other opportunities. But some people just have one track minds while thinking they need at least 128 tracks for a four piece rock band demo. Even acoustic engineers can solve the acoustic problems I've solved. That's because I wasn't dumb enough to go to school for it. They take out their little test gizmos and put nasty sounds through the speakers and then tell you it's all fixed. And it still sounds like crap. Because they've done everything right as taught which is wrong. It's theory versus practice. The only thing you really have to know about learning audio engineering is just by doing it. Reading everything you can about it. Get subscriptions to the trade publications. And utilize cheap equipment until you can get a great sound from it. Then when presented with good equipment, you'll have no problems. If you like to blame your problems on the equipment, you're not meant to be in this business.

Flush the toilet put down the lid.
Mx. Remy Ann David