Recording engineer as a career
Home > Home Recording Forum > Talkin' Smack > Recording engineer as a career
Posted on Feb 26, 2003 09:31 pm
Cleamon Jones
Member Since: Dec 31, 2002
I'm thinking going into recording engineering. Anyone have any ideas on what the job market is like? Is it a something I could make a decent living at? I'm not worried about making aloy of money, I just want to do something I will enjoy.
[ Back to Top ]
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 26, 2003 09:45 pm The best advice I can give you right now is to maybe visit a studio or two and see what is is like. It can be great job yes, but then again, it can be some long and very wierd hours. Enginers are the guys who get woke from a deep sleep at 3 AM when the band wants to come in with a bit of a buzz and lay a couple more tracks down. An enginer can also get plenty of praise for doing it right, or can get blamed for anything bad that might happen to a recording. Yet most of us that venture into that realm do enjoy it, and the money isnt half bad. Maybe see if you can get a job at a studio nearby as an apprentice or something, this is a good way in eventually.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Feb 26, 2003 10:10 pm It's a bit of a wierd market out my way, Detroit. Never a thing advertised for openings. All about getting inside. Once inside, you can move around pretty good as you get known. Anymore a lot of the folks out this way rent a physical space and arrange their own crews. A good number of folks engineer "on the side".
Good Luck!
Feb 27, 2003 04:25 am hey noize, how does one "visit" a studio. what do you do, do in and ask for a tour? ask if they're hiring? or just pretend to be a potential client/customer and ask to be shown around?
Feb 27, 2003 08:17 am I just wondering with the advent of PC home recording, if there will even be a need for engineer's in the future. I live in Canada, so if I hve to migrate to the US I will.
Feb 27, 2003 02:27 pm I'm sure there will always be recording engineers while there are people who are not willing to put in the time, or just are not interested in the technical aspects of the process. Most of the big named bands are still going to go to a pro studio to record their stuff, and are going to want an egineer who really knows what he's doing. I wouldn't worry about recording engineers going out of fashion any time soon :-)
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 27, 2003 05:00 pm Well back when we did time in the studio, I got lucky and became friends with the enginer. He basicly took me under his wing and I eventually was given a chance to mix and learn all the gear. I am not sure how most studios are today, but a I am willing to bet if you find a small one, they will be happy to show you around. I guess I would call and ask, and let them know what you are interested in. You could fib I suppose and tell them you are doing a paper for school or something like that. That would get you in the door and let you ask a million questions.
As far as the job market for enginers, well the job is really more than mixing. Being an enginer can include things like getting the tracks which are allready done in and copying them from tape or whatever to your system and then mixing them down from there. It can also include just copying files to another format of media. It can also be as simple as cleaning up one track that someone else may have messed up, or cutting a track up to be used by someone who does not have the equipment to do so.
So there are a lot of differant hats worn by an enginer in a studio. I dont think there will ever come a time that an enginer will not be needed somewhere.
