Frank, no problem. This is on topic. Nickus, historically, the tracking or mix engineer receives income from either the studio that employs them, or else was contracted by a project's Executive Producer. In either case, upstream of those people, the money came from larger projects, such as producing demo or album tracks for an artist, work on a film or television project, music for commercials, etc. The studio was the music and sound factory, and the engineer was one of the technicians.
1. Music sales are profoundly low when compared to historical figures. The huge music markets of the 20th century are gone. Since people aren't buying like they used to, no one wants to invest the huge amounts of money to elaborately record artists. From small time to big time recording artists, album production budgets have shrunk to the bare minimum. This is the case in all media. Instead of hiring live musicians, most film and television music is now sequenced. When people are actually recorded, in many cases, recording is kept to a minimum. It is cheaper to edit than to spend lots of expensive time to get the great take. 2. Without the huge in-flow of large recording budgets, the money no longer is available to support most of the large recording facilities of just a few years ago. As the facilities close, that means less steady work for lots of people formerly employed by the technical side of the recording industry, including engineers. 3. Anyone with $1,000 can record a passable version of a song at home, and anyone with $10,000 and a few years of practice and study can do a competent job of recording and mixing an album at home. There are wonnabee producers and mixers under every rock, and there are so many that they work for little to nothing. They might not have golden ears and decades of experience, but even those that do have found it harder to insist on past pay when there is so much competition and less money available to pay them. Why rent studio time to cut a demo when your buddy can run GarageBand? Why pay someone to write and arrange music for a commercial, and book musicians and a studio to record it when someone can be contracted through a web site to throw together some loops with a few overdubs for a couple of hundred bucks? Everyone is trying to make their project happen for less money. So, in summary, there is less money available to support a larger number of people that are attempting to perform this work. It's important not to live under illusions when trying to turn this sort of work in to income. The day of the mega studio and the recording engineer in the traditional sense is pretty much gone, with a few exceptions. The big cities for recording in the US, such as New York, LA, Atlanta, and others still employ people for this sort of work, but the jobs are far fewer, and they're flooded with people with lots of experience in bedroom studios. I know just a few people that still routinely get work in large facilities. The others that I know that are still making money with this sort of work have pretty much given up on the old model, and have turned themselves in to craftsman instead of techies. By that, I mean that they find their own clients, work with them on an on-going basis, and sell themselves as experts in particular types of recording. Even so, they are usually being directly paid by artists, and so are making due on far less money than in days passed. There isn't megabucks in this anymore, except for a small few. If you do it, you should view it as an art that you'd like to pursue, and hope to make enough to sustain yourself. Focus on a niche. Become good at on-site recording of acoustic instruments, find those musicians, and promote yourself. Become good and fast with editing, and fight with the hordes of others competing for jobs online. Become fast at throwing together instrumental tracks and beds in short periods of time so that you can serve the low budget new media people. Moving to the US or UK probably won't help so much. You can hunt up work over the Internet as well as someone in either of those places. Really, though, you must absolutely love this sort of work, because getting anywhere with it today takes a huge amount of time and effort, and the rewards aren't commonly financial. Sorry if that's gloom, but it's how things are. On the positive side, pretty much anyone that wants to record can now record. It's not an elite club anymore, nor does it require a lot of money. Recording music is becoming something that people increasingly do for themselves, rather than depending on technical experts. We're not quite to the point where GarageBand has an auto-mix button, but I don't doubt that a feature like that will show up before too many years. Those with golden ears will say how auto-mixes are lacking in this way or that, but most people won't be able to hear, nor will they care. In that world, you'll be working to please the people that still do care. I think that it will be like painting portraits in a world full of digital cameras. Someone in that position must love to paint. Bryan On May 23, 2011, at 2:41 PM, Frank Carmickle wrote: > Hi Nickus > > On May 23, 2011, at 7:49 AM, Nickus de Vos wrote: >> On May 20, 10:06 pm, Frank Carmickle <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Hello Nickus >>> >>> On May 19, 2011, at 8:03 AM, Nickus de Vos wrote: >>> Snip... >>> >>>> you get experience if nobody gives you a chance, well in the last 6 >>>> months I have asked that question over and over but that's just how it >>>> is. It's not a easy industry to get in to. >>> >>> The industry as a whole is really suffering right now. There are way to >>> many people trying to do jobs that are disappearing. I understand your >>> frustration. My plan is to hang in there and do as much as I can. Music >>> always seems to suffer the most during economic down turns. At some point >>> people will decide that they want to spend money on nice recordings of good >>> musicians actually playing music. The object is to be in a position to >>> work when the work shows up again. For some of us we just enjoy recording. >>> If I go blow $$$ on gear that I keep for the next 30 years then I can >>> record for 30 years. That brings me great joy. How much is it worth to >>> you to make recordings? Or maybe you don't buy gear but you rent studio >>> time at place that has great gear that you wouldn't be able to afford >>> otherwise. Either way find a way to record if that's what you love to do. >>> >>> Take care >>> --FCHi frank >> I know that the industry is taking a dip because of the economy but in >> South Africa it's worse than in Europe or the states. Thing is here in >> SA the industry isn't as big we don't have 1000s of live engineers and >> 1000s of studio engineers, most guys do both or whatever they can to >> make money. We don't have massive studios like your Abbyroads in >> England, most studios over heer is privately owned with guys working >> alone. With all these factors I haven't even mentioned the blind thing >> as that scares people they think I'm stupid or something so that's >> another negative for me. The only way for me would be to basically >> start my own studio which would cost me a lot of money which I don't >> have, my other option is to start doing live sound to get in to the >> industry which I also can't do because I can't go in to places, do set >> ups etc. I can do live sound in places like theters with installed >> systems but because of the experience factor and the blind thing >> people just don't want to hire me for big shows etc. I am basically >> screwed for now, luckally I still live with my parents who supports me >> but sooner or later they are going to start getting tired of me not >> working. The ideal for me would be to go to England or the US because >> it sounds as if there's more oppertunities but with imigration and >> visa regulations these days you have to have a job on the other side >> before you can go. Anyway that's my story in a few words and before I >> get kicked off the list for posting irevelent stuff let me stop. > > Well... Maybe Brian doesn't think that this is on topic but I do. I think > that the technical troubles are equally as hard to deal with as the lack of > opportunity. I think it is very very important for us to talk about how to > the skills to pay the bills. That means we need to be able to use the gear, > find and keep the clients, and everything in between. I think you are > greatly mistaken about the industry and how it is in other places than your > own. Some of us do live in Nashville, New York city, or Los Angeles, but the > majority don't. Even if you do live in NYC you still would have trouble > finding work. I know sited folk in NYC who are trying to make it as audio > engineers. Tom is correct in saying that it's all about persistence. Most > people in NYC are recording in their bedrooms. I really think it's > unfortunate. people have decided that they would rather spend money on a few > crappy pieces of gear than to go in to a studio. The quality of recordings > is surely suffering because of this. I am also looking for the answers to a > bunch of these questions. In the mean time I'm going to record some projects > and see if people start noticing my work. If they do than maybe things will > start looking up for me. I'm gonna keep trying. > > --FC >
