Three Reasons Music Recording Engineers are Having a Hard Time Finding Work

Having a hard time finding work in the Music Industry as a recording engineer?

There is three big reasons why - the economy, technology and the Internet. These three factors have played a huge part in the loss of work for engineers, and here is why.


The Economy

Yes, a lot of people may think that the economy would not affect the music industry as much as it does, but in some cases it may be effected by the economy even more than most industries.

The music industry relies on people having extra money, and when times are tough, people don't buy CD's or go to concerts; a band that spends $4000.00 a year to have their CD recorded, if they can't afford it anymore than the engineers, producers and studios suffer.


As long as the economy is not doing good or even when it bounces back, if it's still at an unstable state or at least in a rescission state, the cycle will continue and it will be hard to find people who are willing to record their band or their self to make a CD that might only sell a few hundred or even a few thousand copies.

The economy also affects record labels and production companies as well. Record companies and productions companies are the financial backing to a lot of work that comes available to studios and engineers. They can pay for studio time that an artist or band may not be able to afford, but if sales down, then they will be restricted to how much funds they can use to promote a talent.

Technology

Technology is great for the D.I.Y. (do it yourself) people, but for a recording engineer it makes trying to get work very hard. Technology is making it capable to have a small home studio with big professional results at an extremely affordable price.



A studio that could have been put together 15 years ago for about $50,000.00, can now be put together in someone's garage or basement for just about $5,000 dollars, and believe or not, it can sound just as good.
Even worse for the engineer, if you're just a solo musician or a really small band, it can take even less money and even less space. Hand held recorders, computer software, compact MIDI keyboards, MP3's, flash drives etc. are just some of the products playing a part in taking the need of an educated, experienced engineer out of the equation.

The Internet (Information World)

Here is the third and final nail in the coffin for the independent recording engineer. If you have access to all of the equipment mentioned above and more, and want to learn how to use it, the internet has unlimited resources to learn from. Although, there are some things you just can't pick up from reading or watching videos - if you stick with your hobby long enough, you might just be able to be just as good as a professional without the need for schooling or an internship.


Adjust Your Game Plan
Just think about some of these factors when you go out looking for work. Understand, it might not be you or your talent that hurts your chances of getting work, but it could be that the Music Industry is changing and recording engineers are suffering from it. My suggestion to everyone is to see how the industry is changing and change with it. Find out where and how other engineers are making their money in the industry and adjust your game plan.

 

Launching a Recording Engineer Career

Rocky Starts

 
Becoming a recording engineer in the music industry is not as easy as some people may hope. There are very few salary based jobs out there for a recording engineer. The only real way to break into the industry of recording music is to become a freelance audio engineer. The hardest part about being a freelance audio engineer is getting your first couple of clients and getting them to come back. It's not uncommon for someone to spend 1 to 5 years in search of a steady clientele that can bring in some source of steady income that can put food on the table, pay the bills, pay for health insurance and pay for any equipment you need to keep your business up and running.



Finding Clients
 
The reason why the first couple of steady clients are so hard to find is because it is hard to get someone to shell out some hard-earned cash for your recording services when they have no idea what kind of work you will do for them. Even with an education in the recording arts field, you will find that it does not mean very much. It may relieve some worries of potential clients but not enough to make a big difference. In fact, most of the real successful recording engineers never even attended school. Of course this does not mean that someone should skip out on getting educated before trying to jump-start a career in the recording arts field. If you need the education and even if you don't, if you can afford it, it can't hurt.

Another reason why it is hard to find those first couple of good clients to start-up a steady clientele is that even a somewhat part-time established band or an artist probably already has a recording engineer and a studio that they use on a regular basis. Even if they are not completely satisfied with their current recording situation, it would still be hard to convince someone, who as a beginner, you could do a better job. If a potential client knows you're just starting out as a beginner, they would be taking a huge risk that your recording services could still be extremely amateur. If your recording services were not up to quality standards then (in theory) a band or an artist would still have to pay you, but they would also have to go back to their old recording services and then pay them to either fix what you've done or even have the whole project rerecorded, which is a waste of time, money and also a huge hassle.

Don't Forget the Contract
 
Here's a little hint! Make sure a contract is signed before work begins. If you were wondering, this is how you will guarantee that you get paid. Like with anything, even if your skills are not yet professional and you're still in the learning process, if you did your best and put the time into it, you will still want to get paid. And with a contract you will. It's up to the client to ask and understand about your credentials and up to you to do the same with your client. If both parties tell the truth, both parties will go into the project with the right expectation.Determination, Networking and Motivation
 
If you feel like you have the skills and determination to take on this career and make it work for you, then by all means you should follow what you know is best for yourself. Determination, networking and staying motivated when work is not coming in so steadily are the three tools you really need to get a career lunched and keep it going. The most important tool a person needs to utilize is networking. Network with people who have the same ambitions of making it in the music industry as you do. You can have a thousand friends, but if the only thing they know about the music industry is how to pop a in CD of their favorite band or artist and hit play, they will not help you very much when trying to achieve your goal. Anyone you can get to know who plays, records, produces or promotes music are good people to become friends with and stay friends with. You never know when an opportunity not directed to you or for you might come along and one of your friends is in the right place at the right time but can't do the job but can vouch for you and say, "Hey, I have a good friend that may be able to help you out," and sometimes that's all it takes.

Another option of networking you can utilize is advertising. I personally finished school at the Recording Institute of Detroit, and I bought some advertising to see what kind of potential clientele would come my way. Unfortunately, I don't have much good to say about this process. I advertised with networking websites, fliers and business cards, the little response I did get were usually from somewhat corky individuals with completely unrealistic expectations. In fact, I never picked up one of my clients from advertising. I'm not saying that someone else might not find success in this process, but this is just my personal experience. Depending on your location and how much effort you put into advertising, someone else might find different success than I did.


Internships
 
When I finished school for recording engineering in Michigan, I went on a search for an internship. I contacted over 100 studios about an internship and only received a couple of responses back. The responses I received all pretty much had the same answer. The answers were, they do not use interns at all or some responses were they did not use unsolicited interns. Solicited internships would mean you would have to know someone or pay someone or a company to get you one. Now, there is a possibility that other states have better intern opportunities. But for me I never even checked out-of-state because I did not have the money to relocate to another state for an unpaid internship. I was, however, given advice from two different studio owners/engineers that graciously took some time out of their day to talk to me. Both of their advice was pretty much the same and pretty simple, "In a state like this where almost all musical recording engineers are freelancers, forget the internships and just get out there and get started. An internship would just be wasting a lot of time."


Last Words of Wisdom
 
I should note that if you are looking for those salary jobs, you will increase your chances dramatically if you were willing to move to places where music is extremely huge, such as New York, California, Nashville Las Vegas etc.


 

Get Serious About Your Studio: Create a Patch Bay

If you have a Home Studio and you are running a lot of outboard equipment, then you need to invest in a patch bay. Think of the trouble you probably go through unplugging one piece of equipment and snaking out the cord and then running it to another piece of equipment. Think of the spaghetti mess of cords and knots that you have to fight with and trip over on a consistent basic.


With a patch bay this could all be avoided. Quick and easy access to all of your equipment will help take the stress off of you as the engineer and can help you and your studio look professional.


You will also find that if you have a signal flow problem, finding where the problem is at will be a lot easier with a patch bay. With one patch wire, you can stand or sit in the same place and check everything one plug at a time, it's that simple.

Unfortunately, I wish I could tell you this project is cheap, but I can't. I would say you should expect to pay about a minimum of 200 hundred dollars. The bay itself will cost money and the chords will not be cheap either, but in my opinion money well spent.

So basically, you can keep wasting your time on your hands and knees under your studio desk trying to blindly connect to the back of each component, or you can set up a patch bay and run everything one time and one time only.

Head over to this site for great patch bay advice "patch bay"



 

Is Mastering Your Music Project Really That Important?

This question comes up a lot, mostly by rookies because it cost extra money and it’s a process that can be quite complicating for the inexperience. 

Should I master my music after mixing? The answer is simple, YES. 

This is just one part of the recording process, but possibly one of the most important. What you hear coming from your DAW into your monitor speakers or headphones will not be the same once it’s played in MP3 or CD format. Also let’s say you burn your music to CD, listen to it and you like what you hear, since all music devices are different they will play them differently. 

Essentially, what mastering does for your music is it gives it all round correct accuracy and clarity when played at any level on any device. 

Now, as a rookie, should you attempt this process by yourself? You can, but doing it successfully is up to you and how serious you take it. If you go at this process with no idea of what you’re doing, then you may as well just leave it as is. 

But, if you’re willing to take some time and learn by (tutorials, videos, books, websites and hands on experience with a professional) you may get the knowledge you need to tackle this process and be successful at it. 

If you do decide to take it seriously and try to master by yourself, you will need to invest in an outboard software mastering program such as IZOTOPE. This is an industry standard program that I found to be the best as far as user friendless, it was also what we were required to use while I attended school for engineering.

Tip:  These are your three different major mastering procedures you should look-up and study.

1. Multi-Band Compression

2. Parallel Compression

3. General Compression and Brick Wall.

Recording Engineer Advice: Get paid First!

If you're a freelance audio engineer then getting paid is important. Unfortunately, there are people out there who just aren't good people and are always looking for someone to screw; it's part of the business. As an engineer you need to protect yourself, and the best way to protect yourself is by making sure nothing leaves your computer or studio without the money upfront.

Rough mixes, data files, masters, mp3's, not even a couple of tracks you recorded out of a full album should ever be handed to the client without being payed. Even if the client is due back for more tracks or a mastering session, you could hand them over a rough mix and later a dispute between rates could arise and the client may decide there are no longer happy with the current situation and not come back; if you did not get paid for the work you handed over, you just lost money.

This is sad to say but even friends should be held to a certain professionalism. Chances are your friends won't skip out on you and not come back, but if you don't take some type of stand it's very easy for them to get the wrong impression and take advantage. Unpaid debt can build up and then get pushed to the side, then be forgotten as they are working on more debt.  It's kind of like the old saying my Mom used to say, "Before it even starts, nip it in the bud."

Getting Some Hands-on Time in A Studio with a Studio Engineer

In this day and age there may be enough technology out there to have just about all of the same technology that a high profile studio has right in the comfort of your own home. But one thing you can't buy is you can't buy the knowledge and experience that a high profile studio has.

How do you get this type of knowledge and experience? The obvious answer to the question is to read the manual, research the internet, watch videos and get as much hands on experience as you can.


But, there is another way you can get free training.

I found that engineers are usually pretty nice and reasonable people. They like to help other people chase there dreams just as they probably had mentors and help throughout their career. You can try to find studio owners or well respected engineers and ask them if you can sit in on some of their recording time. Let them know that you are using some of the same hardware and software they use and spending some time in the studio with them will be beneficial to you.





If you can get someone to agree to let you come in and sit in on a session; know your place. Watch and ask questions but don't get in the way, don't over step or be pain. Unless asked directly, don't try to help, just pay attention take notes and learn.

Now, you probably won't get anyone to pay attention to you as some smuck off the streets. What you want to do is do your homework on the person and the studio you want to approach. Look and sound professional, even if you're not yet professional, showing up with a professional attitude will help who ever you approach believe that they are not just wasting their time. And if possible always approach with a phone call and or in person. An e-mail or a Facebook message in most accounts will not be taken seriously.

The best way to break this plain between you and a professional engineer is to come off as someone who is eager to learn. Know you stuff, be persistent, know who you are approaching, the music they specialize in and be prepared to let them know what your goals are in the future, but make sure they are realistic. But, most important thing you need to do is listen and remember whatever they have to say.


In the end, if you can get a chance to sit in on a session, the best thing that can happen is you get some in-studio time, possibly some time to pick the brain of a good engineer, maybe even some hands-on experience and if all goes well, you have now made a connection that down the line can become very useful.

Making Your Sample Drum Tracks Sound Real

It's no surprise, there is no replacement for the sound of a perfectly recorded drum kit. There is also no surprise that getting sampled drum tracks to sound real can be a very tedious task. But nowadays, with the way technology has progressed, there are many different options to help an engineer overcome this common problem.






Here are three very important steps that can be taken to help you get the best realistic sounding drum tracks as possible:

1. Reverb and compression:
There are many different effects that can be attached to the drum track to help get rid of an unnatural sound. But the most important effects that must be used are compression and reverb. As an engineer, you should start with EQ, volume, panning, room size, diffusion and any other effects you need to apply to the drum samples and tracks before you get into the final reverb and compression.

When you are getting ready to do the final touches, you should start with a parallel compressor. Your parameters should be: a fast attack, an increase in gain control, a low threshold and a decay of your liking. This will give you an on-and-off pressuring sound that will mimic the sound of a real person being recorded on a real drum kit.

The last final touch you should apply is the final reverb. The reverb should create just enough distance in the drum sound to make it feel like the drums are in the room not in the speaker. But the biggest/smallest mistake you can make is adding to much reverb. Don't go over board, just a little to much can bring back the very sound you are trying to get rid of: an unrealistic sound.

2. Use overhead and room microphone samples:
When drums are recorded in the studio or at a live venue, they are most likely recorded with each component using an individual mic. But also there will be two overhead mics and or sometimes a room mic used to catch the sound of the kit at a whole. Finding samples of overhead drum mics or room mics might be hard and tedious, but if you find the right sample sound that complements and completes each component of the original drum sample, the process would be well worth the while.

3. Using ghost notes:
What are ghost notes? Ghost notes are inadvertent sounds made by a drummer before and after the original hit of a drum component. It mostly happens with the kick, snare and sometimes the hi-hats. The process of using ghost notes are as easy as taking duplicates of each sample you want to make ghost notes of and placing them within the drum loop at a decreased value of about 70 to 80 percent less then the original note.

Tip: Since they're supposed to be inadvertent notes, it should not have any type of pattern to where you place them in the loop.