Quote:
Originally posted by mwagener
Jose, It wasn’t always that way. I started out in my own studio, had the equipment, no clients and a ton of time to experiment and read manuals. I invited the band from the rehearsal room next door to come in and record so I could learn how to do it.
I have to disagree. I have an intern now at my “project studio” and I’m sure he is learning a lot more than anybody just making coffee and cleaning the toilet in a “big studio complex”. I feel that you learn more by “doing”, I did. I never assisted in a “big studio”, jumped right into the hot water by running my own. In fact, I feel like I’m still in the hot water with every project I do. Ryu (my assistant) is now out recording bands himself on his ProTools rig, we just talked today and he mentioned that it’s a whole different story if you are actually responsible for what you’re doing, but he is doing it and learning.
I think you over value the “networking/climbing your way up” situation. The success stories where the assistant took over because the “real” engineer got sick are rare.
Well, I didn’t start out at the big studio/big productions stage, it took me many years to get there and I was really lucky to be in the right spot at the right time. Again I think you learn more by doing and making mistakes. You should never isolate yourself, go and hang with other engineers/producers, read books, go to forums like this one. I would have loved to have access to all this info at a push of a button, but maybe it was better that I didn’t and made mistakes and learned from them.
The most important thing to realize is, that it takes time to learn this, it’s not going to happen in a week, a month or even in a few years, it’s a 24/7/356 job and there is no instant gratification, in fact it will take forever until you get paid. Long, hard hours of work and don’t even think of having a relationship during that time… |
Thanks Michael, as always it's a pleasure to learn from your experience
I do , I guess overvalue the networking of the big complexes because I did the intern/assist at one of these places and met so many talented people I became good friends with , it really changed my life in a very short period of time. I had to leave the place because my student visa had expired and didn't want to marry a american girl to get my green card which is another story.........
But I do now understand where you are coming from, and it's great to know there are other options to climb your way up. Thanks again for your reply.