Wow guys just finished reading the thread and I am a bit depressed. The
bright spot as I see it is there will always be Audiophiles who will insist
on the quality recordings that only masters in the field can tern out.
Jake
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Smart" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 3:15 AM
Subject: Re: three questions about audio, protools and blind people...
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
