Payment of Assistants!

[7rojo7]

Interns don't get paid. They agree to do helping work and be humble to be able to say when they apply for an assistant position somewhere that they know how to behave in a studio atmosphere and that they know what a studio is.
I never interned or did the "runner" job although I've done it all, the most humiliating.
Assistant's motto: Do everything all the time for everybody and don't let anyone notice.
If you work with an enginner more than once you've probably scoped out his working habits, setup the session the way he's used to before he gets there. If it's a mix have the 1/2" up on the machine even if it won't be 5 hours before you start hitting tape. Make whatever tapeover patches, mults, etc... If it's an in the box project, check to see if it's a clean session and has locations marked for the arrangement, all the main tracks and their subgruped organized in an easily findable manner, mark any tracks for cleaning or hiding and alert the eng of any problems before he starts listening (you should do this on any session) make copies of the lyric sheets etc.... There's a lot more to do.
1988- $300 a week flat- 14 hrs a day for 6 days a week with some excursions lasting up to 40 hrs straight (no drugs!) vacations are frowned upon (meals would've been wonderful, sometimes an engineer that was getting 700 a day would get me an extra thing from the menu when he saw that I ordered only fried rice, no drink) I usually had to waste another 2 hrs on payday to track the owner down, if you skipped a weeks pay he wouldn't believe that he hadn't paid you and you had to threaten to quit to get it etc... Learned sync, automation, midi programming, limited only to HipHop. Did a lot of tracking (1st) and 2nd on mixes and remixes. I also did a bunch of drum, gtr and bass playing for looping, drumfills, percussion, chickenscrathing.
1990- $8 an hour with a 1010 or whatever, pay your own taxes if you made enough money that year, some money and bonuses on the sleeve, in 92 $10 an hour. From the day I got this job I was putting mics. in front of artists and pushing the red button, I did a lot of assisting which could be 1sting or just answering the phones, put up this reel and order the takeout. Some of the time I would play studio manager too. A lot of recognisable, experienced AEs and producers from all genres of music, my ability to read music and sightsing was appreciated here. I got to play on some tracks and I also spent a lot of free time there helping the other staff keep the studio healthy. Lucky studio owner!
The other staff from that studio are now producing and recording Albums for majors or playing and writing them. We remain close friends.
Throughout all of this time of poverty there was always comraderie and this is the thing that's lasted, besides the experience and methods gained, the memories of these friendships are the most gratifying.
It's not easy to be a good assistant.

[LTA]

This thread is amazing me, not so much in how little or how much people get paid, but rather how loosely the titles are used.

Intern/house engineer/2nd engineer/engineer-in-training/freelance engineer/etc.

What about the people that actively choose to be career 2nd engineers, and will continue to "intern" at every studio they work at as a house engineer until they learn the workflow of that environment?

Not all interns are newbies, and not all engineers are seasoned veterans. It is making union shops more attractive though. Then you'd not have to worry about if you were getting paid, but rather where you could work.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by LTA

It is making union shops more attractive though. Then you'd not have to worry about if you were getting paid, but rather where you could work.

Are there still union shops? Who do music?

[kieran kelly]

Originally posted by entropy
Hang on! Let me get this clear. You are saying that interns/tape-ops/2nds get paid? As in a wage? AND meals?

When I went thru the learning process I got a pat on the back, dinner and once a week a henry of hash or some dirt weed. After a few years of living on my wifes wage, I graduated to pay proper. By that time, our assistants were living in the lap of luxury. We paid for all there travel to and from the studio, meals and £50 a week.

Now you're telling me that some get as much as US$150 per day and a day is only 10-12 hours!!!

I used to get up half an hour before I went to bed, lick road clean, with tongue.... and our father would put us to bed by thrashing us with a broken bottle and dance on our graves singing hallelujah etc etc etc

You say this as if you are proud.....

[kieran kelly]

Originally posted by Dave Martin
Yep - more than a few high profile studios would have to close their doors if they had to pay people to do what the interns do for free.

I cant wait till they wither and close there doors.
Goodbye don't let the closing door hit you in the A$$

[LTA]

Originally posted by Dave Martin
Are there still union shops? Who do music?

Well, not literally shops. I know live sound engineers can join IATSE. And certain recording studios most likely would fall under the realm of NABET. They are very much alive and well. Not every state is a right to work state either, so there of course would be some geographical variety. Union audio engineer jobs are out there though.

Unions would be the death of a commercial recording studio though. So would the enforcement of employment and labor laws.