Jobs in post / Career advice

[cyantologist]

Sorry if this isn't the right forum..

I'm relatively new to recording. Not totally dumb, but I can't say that I have a lot of experience.

My question - I would love to make a career out of some aspect of recording. I was thinking something along the lines of post production or recording voice over stuff for tv or something along those lines. Basically, a job where I get to be around nice equipment and record or edit stuff, but still sort of have the 9-to-5 feeling.

Can anyone offer any input on how to go about making this a career or give me any other ideas for things i should consider? I know that a lot of people would discourage going to recording school in hopes of getting a job as an engineer at a studio, but I wonder if it would be different for post stuff since the employer would most likely be some random company with their own facility instead of a full-blown studio? And if so, can anyone recommend some decent schools?

Any input would really help. I'm 23 now and it's time to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

[mikeyc]

You have a point about school looking better if you're applying for a corporate gig... I went to recording school years ago, and I got a corporate gig pretty much because I went to recording school. It was monkey work and nearly drove me insane before I left, but I did get a job.

[cyantologist]

Just out of curiosity, since I live in michigan too.. where did you go to school? would you recommend it as decent as far as school goes? and what kind of stuff did you do when you say monkey work? Sometimes I don't mind doing boring work but I just want to have some sort of idea of what's out there.

Thanks for the reply

Mike

[JGriffin]

Well, I'm a "corporate" engineer, I work in an in-house studio in an ad agency in Chicago. I have a B.A. in Telecommunications (emph. audio production) from Michigan State University. It's predominantly a 9-5 job, benefits, etc. And it's a pretty well-equipped studio for the stuff we do. Since I'm not recording drums and that sort of stuff our mic closet isn't huge, but we have a ProTools HD rig, pretty good voice booths...really excellent tools that I have access to. So while it's not a "full-blown" studio in terms of a big live room, a grand piano, tons of vintage synths and 400 mics, it is a fully functional recording studio for the work that happens here.

One of the differences is that the competition will still be intense for jobs, but perhaps not as much so, since most of the graduating recording students are still into working in a studio making rock records; not as many of them will be looking for post jobs.

I'm 38 and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

[mikeyc]

I recorded audiobooks. The field has a lot of room for creativity (and doing the same gig freelance is quite enjoyable), but the company I worked for turned it into assembly-line production-- the whole process was so regimented that there was no fun left to be had (We had 2 mics, essentially, one preamp, had preset plug-ins, and a studio manager and company president who din't really understand audio very well and only really worked to "idiot-proof" the studio instead of improving it. Plus the pay sucked.

I went to the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, OH in 1996-- when ADAT was king and the AKG C3000 was one of the cheapest LDC's on the market. It was a short program, which was the main attraction. I think I learned a lot there and I wasn't there long enough to get brainwashed about "how you mic things" and all the goofy dogma I associate with recording school. the school has a pretty good job placement service (which is probably one of the biggest things to look for in a school) and the studios are pretty nice.
I think I learned a bit more when I took recording classes at Western Michigan University, but that was a lot smaller program-- a lot more hands-on experience. No degree is available through Western specifically for recording, though...

[Mane1234]

My 40 hr a week job that pays me is recording sleep and I've been doing it for close to 20 years now and the similarities, especially when everything was still analog, to recording music are definately there except I don't get a whole lot of creative control running sleep studies. 5 years ago at 40 years of age I decided I wanted to get to the next level of audio recording and stop just trying to learn on my own band so I became an intern at one of the big studios here in town. I learned tons of stuff and it opened my eyes up to the fact that I just want to do this on whatever level I can so after a couple years there I struck out on my own as an independent engineer.

Will I ever work with big famous rock stars and win a grammy? Doubt it...
Will I ever make enough to quit my sleep gig and do recording full time? Not real likely....
Do I have fun and enjoy it? Every damn time I hit record. Sometimes I charge my clients and sometimes I don't. Sometimes they actually have a budget and we get to do drums and vocals in a nice studio and the rest at my place. It's all good and very rewarding. If you want it bad enough you'll find a way to go out there and find what you want is what I'm taking forever to say here so get out there and good luck.

[littlepokey]

If it s not morally beneath you, you might think about advertising. Hook up with a local video producer, or radio station production dept. It can be kind of interesting if not bad for the soul. Everything has to get forced into a 20, 30, or 60 second hole. It s a good way to get some editing chops. I dont do so much of this work anymore, but for a while, was cutting a lot of radio spots for various freelance ad guys. The money's pretty good. After a while it gets kind of old...

[JGriffin]

If it s not morally beneath you, you might think about advertising.

dude, I'm right here in the room.

[littlepokey]

No offence intended. Despite the fact that I should be grateful (a couple of shady car dealer ad campains paid for a substantial portion of my gear), I m a little cynical about the crap that goes along with that. However, it was a great learning experience and a good way to make some quick $$$.

[JGriffin]

None taken, although there's as much if not more shady crap in the music business...

[cyantologist]

thanks for the advice, everyone. i think the job would have to be pretty sad to be morally beneath me. and i think advertising is well in the clear. as long as it involves recording and getting to work with audio on nice equipment, i would consider myself lucky.

[rydberg]

I've been doing post audio for the past 8 years or so. TV, radio, shorts, features, docs, etc. I also work on the occasional record project, either the whole thing or tracking some parts. I feel pretty lucky to be working in a great studio with (mostly) cool clients. There are occasional moments where we're working on stuff that you have to just deal with - retail commercials, especially price and item stuff can be a grind. But as a whole, it's a very stable and great career path. It's also a field with plenty of competition, so you better be coming with some heat and a huge skill set. You've also gotta be really good with a wide range of people, especially people in suits. Best part is that I can still work on indie records in my spare time, play in a band and still have time to hang out. Back in the bad ol' days I was hustling like a mutha between a full-time audio gig at a university and about 4 concurrent freelance audio gigs. Shit's a lot simpler now. But now I'm just rambling. Either way, nice work if you can get it.

P.

[bcgood]

I've been doing post audio for the past 8 years or so. TV, radio, shorts, features, docs, etc. I also work on the occasional record project, either the whole thing or tracking some parts. I feel pretty lucky to be working in a great studio with (mostly) cool clients. There are occasional moments where we're working on stuff that you have to just deal with - retail commercials, especially price and item stuff can be a grind. But as a whole, it's a very stable and great career path. It's also a field with plenty of competition, so you better be coming with some heat and a huge skill set. You've also gotta be really good with a wide range of people, especially people in suits. Best part is that I can still work on indie records in my spare time, play in a band and still have time to hang out. Back in the bad ol' days I was hustling like a mutha between a full-time audio gig at a university and about 4 concurrent freelance audio gigs. Shit's a lot simpler now. But now I'm just rambling. Either way, nice work if you can get it.

P.

Lovin Beretta76. The streams on your site sound great. Cool punk rock girl vibe. Lovin the recording quality, especially for streaming audio. Tell me if you recorded this how you did it... : ) Woops I'm not meaning to high-jack this thread. I just realized this is way off topic and yet it does lend more weight to what you've posted knowing that you can deliver the goods...

bcgood

[hiddendriveways]

I was on this quest for a while here in NYC. There are a number of large audio post studios here. About 4 years ago I finally landed an interview for an assistant position. I had decent audio knowledge at the time, but now-a-days I have a much better understanding of sound. I have a minor in audio and a major in writing.

The interview seemed to go fairly well, but I did not get the job. It was really a bummer at the time. I was working in sales in the pro audio dept at Guitar Center, and my dream was to get the F out of there and do real audio work.

Fast forward a couple months, there I am at GC on the sales floor with some hideous bowling shirt on, and some kid comes up to me and starts asking all of these basic questions about audio. I helped him out for about 20 minutes. I could tell he wasn't going to buy anything, but I usually helped people anyway. He didn't seem to know anything about sound. This kid seemed about 21 yrs old, and forgive me for being judgemental, but yeah, he was a total pencil neck with not the slightest bit of social grace about him. Every word out of the guy was awkward. Anyhow, at the end of the conversation he informed me that he was going to go out and celebrate because he just got hired as an assistant at a big audio post house a few blocks away.

Talk about getting your tires deflated.

Many of the music studios in NYC feast on wide eyed little weaklings like that kid. They bring them in and have them do the shit work. They pay them minimum wage. They hire these people with no intention of ever promoting them. They are used, abused, and eventually fired or forced to quit because they cannot afford groceries.

After meeting this kid I was convinced that this practice is also embraced by some of the posh NYC audio post houses. And perhaps the reason I didn't get hired was that I seemed to have an iota of self respect.

I'm not trying to discourage you from pursueing this career path. I'm just telling you my little tiny taste of that world. I'm also not saying all studios in NYC are evil like this.

I say go for it. That's the only way you end up working in audio. Go to school, but look for an inexpensive school. The poster who suggested finding a school with a good job placement dept is on point, but I would make "not-getting-into-serious-ass-DEBT" more of a priority.

****

In case you're wondering happened to me, I left GC after a year and went to work with one of their direct competitors, B&H. I sold pro audio on the sales floor for a year, then I did pro audio phone sales for a year, and now I write the pro audio catalog, audio newsletters, and other stuff. I love my job. Writing has always been my first passion, hence my stupidly wordy posting. Plus I do music, record bands, and do some audio work on films in my spare time.

[rydberg]

Lovin Beretta76. The streams on your site sound great. Cool punk rock girl vibe. Lovin the recording quality, especially for streaming audio. Tell me if you recorded this how you did it... : ) Woops I'm not meaning to high-jack this thread. I just realized this is way off topic and yet it does lend more weight to what you've posted knowing that you can deliver the goods...

bcgood

Thanks for the positive comments! I'll send you an email with the details.

P.