Career advice needed.....LONDON based - not a NOOB

[DSMrehearsal]

This is a post to anyone that can offer some constructive advice on where to go next with my career.

At present I run a small facility (LIve room/control room/toilet) I've been engineering for close to 6 years full time doing live work at crud venues/underpaid or outdoor iligal partys out in feilds, location recording, had a studio share for 2 years - then onto my present place which was finished a few months back (self build).

I enjoy the projects I work on, and my no means want to leave where I'm at, but at the same time would like to get to work on some larger projects even if its in a small capacity - and work in a fully Pro facillity.

My problem is that I am unsure as how to go about it


I'm intelligent and compenent but I'm a bit lost, please help.

Many thanks to anyone with something to say
Daniel

Present place has::

ATC asl 50
Yamaha DM2000
STUDER 827
Tab V76 pre's
Millennia pre's

Mics, AKG, Royer, EV, Neumann

Mac running Nuendo and Logic

[seaneldon]

there's a million big rooms that love filling in dates with freelance engineers. if you wanna work at a nice studio...book a band at a nice studio.

that said, sometimes you've gotta swallow your pride and do the shit you don't wanna do. especially if you're looking for any kind of staff gig. even if you think you know lots of stuff about this hilariously complicated job we have, you could always learn more by starting from the bottom and being whipped into something worthwhile. think of it as the farm system of recording studios. they'll be more comfortable working every day with the guy that "grew up" in their room, who knows exactly how the dude in charge likes to work, etc.

[DSMrehearsal]

I'm happy to do that, the reason I've written this post is that I realise that I have a lot to learn, but I have responsibilities and canot give anywhere my full time, maybe only 1/2 days a week. My point was that I'm not the type of person to be dead weight in ANY situation - if it needs doing I'll get it done.
But are there any places out there who are prepared to have people there for only 1/2 days a week ?
And will my experiance make any bearing on them choosing me over a fresh face who knows not much (but can be there 50 hrs a week) or is there room for us both?

[Andrew Kinsey]

First and foremost, many of the worlds leading engineers are freelance and dont work directly for the studios unless they have a steak in the business. As with anything there are exceptions to this but generally once an engineer gets to a certain level it pays more to go freelance.

Getting a job in a studio as an assistant is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, sure its not impossible but even if you find somewhere the job you end up with may still not lead you to where you want to be in the end.

You may find that if you carry on as you are it may work out better for you in the long run as you could potentially, with experience, become quite sussesfull at what you do.

[DSMrehearsal]

My problem is that I'm being asked to do larger projects at the momment, but have no experiance using an ssl or neve - I'm sure they are pretty self explanetry, but things like the automation would slow down a session, and people are not paying me to learn on the job

[bpatural]

Don't worry about the automation unless you're actually mixing on the console...you won't use it otherwise. If you're intimidated by the big consoles, download the ssl manuals, read them, then book a few hours somewhere on your own dime with an assistant and work on it for a couple hours. They're very intimidating, but not very hard to use once you play with it for a couple hours...and you'll learn enough in a couple hours to at least look like you know what you're doing. Anyplace with these consoles is gonna have assistants to get you through the gig anyway. Take the gigs you're offered on them and learn...I used to assist engineers all the time that would be mixing on a console they had never touched before...sometimes it went a bit slow, but they got the hang of it no problem...signal flow in all consoles if very similar.
Cheers,
-Brian

[drBill]

Originally Posted by DSMrehearsal

My problem is that I'm being asked to do larger projects at the momment, but have no experiance using an ssl or neve - I'm sure they are pretty self explanetry, but things like the automation would slow down a session, and people are not paying me to learn on the job

Book a room where the seconds are good enough to be the principals, give them their due respect and you'll look golden.