Becoming a professional recording engineer

[echo]

This thread is largely a response from all sorts of people I encounter who are considering recording engineering as a career. I get asked this very frequently, so here's some advise for all of you who are considering this as a career option.

If you want to learn recording engineering as a hobby (i.e. model trains, ham radio etc) or so that you can make your own recordings in your own home studio, great!. By all means do it. It's fun, and yes you can learn to make great sounding recordings at home.

But if you are considering this as a *career* i.e. getting paid and supporting yourself as a recording engineer, here's my hard won advise. DO NOT!

Reason= You will never ever ever get a good paying job doing recording engineering. NEVER. Not in a thousand years. The reason? there are ZERO jobs out there. NOT ONE, that pays even half as much as 'burger king' or 'wal mart' . Reason? Recording studios are all either going broke, or already broke. They can't afford to hire anyone, unless they are cool with either YOU paying to work, working for free, or working for free with the promise of 'some day' getting paid a couple of hundred bucks when the band pays us, and similar bullshit.

When I was working at a studio in Toronto, we got, at minimum, 25 resumes and applications for the position of 'recording engineer' EVERY SINGLE DAY. We threw every single one out. Reason?. There are tons of very experienced recording engineers around, who have dozens of platinum album titles and 30+ years of experience, who are lucky if they can now earn $15/hr part time working in their craft. Why on earth would anyone hire someone with ZERO major project experience if you can get a world class pro for less than the guy who flipped your burgers at lunch time?

The only people making any money from 'recording engineering' are the dozens of dozens of bogus 'institutes' that promise a 'career' in 'recording engineering' in exchange for some exorbitant fee. (some as much as $12,000 - $20,000). Google 'recording engineer' and see how many jobs are there compared to the people who want to liberate your money in exchange for training in a 100% un marketable skill with zero career potential. (PS, you will find 0 jobs listed)

So . . the hard reality of recording engineering. Great to learn if you want to make recordings for yourself or your friends. It is NOT a career option at all. DO NOT EVEN REMOTELY CONSIDER BECOMING A RECORDING ENGINEER AS A CAREER. If you are considering spending a huge wad of money at one of these 'recording engineering institutes' , do it only if you want to get good at home recording or as a hobby. If they are telling you that you will become a 'highly paid working professional in the recording arts and sciences' then you are being fed pure bullshit.

You will NEVER EVER get a decent job as a recording engineer . Not ever.
Sorry, but that's just the reality of this profession that -used -to - be.

Here is a good link . .

(This is truthful)
Mistake #1 - Become a Recording Engineer!

echo

[garageband]

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure someone is contemplating giving a huge amount of Dad's money to Full Sall or some such fantasy camp and needs to hear this.

And a link, too? Very thoughtful.

[echo]

Thanks Garageband;

Like a lot of former recording engineers, I took a 'day job' so I can pay my bills, but still churn out albums at my home studio. I really, really love doing it - don't get me wrong. It's always fascinating, fun and a test of your artistic and intellectual powers. But there is no way to make a living at it.

However, if you are in a good band and you want to record your own album, go for it! Just don't expect to pay the rent doing it. It's impossible.

Cheers
echo

[recordingDR]

This thread is so bad. Brandon please delete this tripe.

[grooveboxmusicTony]

If I could just point out the obvious here. Your first two posts to this forum were to bash the professional recording industry?
Part of my combined income comes from recording music. I can't say that I would use words like 'never' or 'impossible'. I'm proof that its just not true.

Plus, in combination with promoting shows, or managing a band, or any other of the things you can do in the music business, being a recording engineer is one of the fun jobs.

Consider this the counter point to your point. People need to see both sides.

[brandondrury]

I want to make 2 points.

#1) If I didn't have the little bannner ads up on RecordingReview.com, I guess I'd be applying for a job a computer fix it store for $8....(most likely I'd be internet marketing junk and make 20x what I do now). My studio money has just about dried up. The demand is 5% of what it used to be because every kid has an audio interface now. Only the bands that want to make something fairly serious are calling me and it's only after they've failed at their own stuff.

Even though my skills have improved immensely in the past year or two, the local music scene doesn't really care.

My studio work has moved into a method of making $100 here, $400 there, and every once in a while I'll snag $3k for a big long project that requires a zillion hours of work.

So the world has changed. Back when I started 8 years ago I was the ONLY dude around who could record 16 simultaneous tracks without going to the $50 an hour studio that didn't sound that good anyway. Now, you can piece a studio together for almost nothing that can do the same.

I'm glad I saw all of this coming. I never considered my studio a "business". I just recorded bands and did my thing. I always had web adventures going on with RecordingReview.com or otherwise. Sometimes I wonder if that held me back in recording. Now I know I made the right choice for me.

The utopian idea of going to recording school and making a nice living doing a cool job has just about dried up I think when speaking in generalities.

#2) If you don't go for your dreams, what's the point?

The other side to this is if you REALLY want to do something in life, you just have to fucking do it. There are always reasons not to do it. I'm sure if I would have just gotten my degree in database boredom I'd be making $80k a year and considering putting a gun in my mouth. I'm glad I've went down the route that my girlfriend's parents will never understand....until my plans are fully realized and I have way more money than I really need.

So just go down a path. Do what you like. Everything I make money with today was on offshoot of what was a gigantic waste of time and money in my dad's eyes....guitar playing. My web skills and my recording skills are all I've got and I wouldn't have those unless I had the balls to waste my time doing something fun.

There was a post that really made me rethink my views on life just a bit. Let me find it. Well shit. I don't remember the title. Basically, the guy went to recording school, worked in a studio for 2 years where he did a TON of soldering. That gig dried up so he worked at a TV repair shop and was hired due to his experience at soldering in the studio. He then eventually went to a little electronics coarse that got him a bitter Mr. Fix It job. He then decided to go back to school where he got a degree in electrical engineering. When it came time to get hired for the serious job making BIG bucks, all his bullshit experience in soldering and real world troubleshooting gave him the edge over the other guys.

So maybe going the indirect route is not the fastest, but it may be the right choice.

In closing,

I do feel that there are some good points hit by the rant above and the link provided. Becoming a professional audio engineer is a tough gig. Making any money at it is very tough. There is quite a bit of sensationalism towards recording school and it's nice to see a hard hitting view that knocks the edge off of fit.

However, there is overt pessimism in both viewpoints that I can not accept. My success is on the tipping point. I will soon have the world by the balls. Pessimistic pussies don't succeed. It's impossible. So have the balls to believe in what you are doing.

There is a DVD / torrent floating around called The Secret that I recommend every pessimistic person watching.

Brandon

[recordingDR]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Pessimistic pussies don't succeed.
Brandon

brandon eloquently sums up this entire thread with this sentence. TC is a pessimistic pussy. successful recording engineers aren't.

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I want to make 2 points.

........

Brandon

Well said, Brandon! It's also about realistic expectations.

My studio is a part-time paid hobby! Yeah, I sunk alot of money into it with no expected payback or short-term break-even point.

Why part time? Because I live in an area that consists of part-time musicians. They have full-time non-music jobs or careers.

So I know I can never open up a full-time studio in the middle of central Alabama.

However, because I'm in proximity of Nashville, there are a lot of wannabe, big-star artists/musicians, so I do get some jobs where the artists are serious and actually get to use Nashville session musicians. So I tend to keep busy at least 4 nights per week over the past 2 years.

But once again, it's all part-time. I'm happy with that.

I'm happy getting paid a little money as compensation for my experience and services helping to develop young talent or helping older folks get back into music (been getting alot of that lately). I have a friend who is now paid by Sony/ATV full time to sit in Nashville and write songs.

So, along with Brandon's thoughts, and my philosophy.... "If it ain't phun, then you ain't doing right!"

I'M HAVING PHUN at WHAT I'M DOING AND MAKING SOME MONEY ON THE SIDE!

[KillerV]

Firstly I want to say thanks, Brandon. That was an excellent post. A damn excellent one. I love your no-bullshit way of doing things. I'm also at a point these days again where I really needed to hear "if you REALLY want to do something in life, you just have to fucking do it."

Secondly, I think the OP is a troll. It's not even so much what he wrote or that he came on here with that as a first post. I might not have been suspicious had he not provided that link, but now I would bet goooood money that this is the same guy who were just banned off another recording forum I frequent for doing this same kind of bulshit the whole time. That (this?) guy gets off on winding people up and created a sour atmosphere that everyone got really sick of, so I won't be paying him any further attention.

[Starlight182]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I will soon have the world by the balls. Pessimistic pussies don't succeed. It's impossible. So have the balls to believe in what you are doing.

There is a DVD / torrent floating around called The Secret that I recommend every pessimistic person watching.

I agree. I've watched The Secret and I recommend it as well. It's definitely something worth watching if you want to succeed in anything.

Don't let the OP discourage you. And who wants to find a job anyway? It's all about being your boss, aka owning your own studio.