best cities to move to for engineers

[hey_mavis]

I have been thinking of moving to a place where there is more work for engineers/producers.

The cities that come to mind are NYC, LA, Atlanta, London

Would these be good choices? Or is it more that because they are such meccas for entertainment that it's actually harder to get work there?

Are there any other suggestions?

I am partly just curious, and party really considering moving.

thanks!

[UnDeFiNeD]

Bombay, I was there two days as a tourist and they allready offered me a job in bollywood :D

Pzz

[BlueSprocket]

I would really analyze your goals in making a move. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to spend more time with like minded people? Are you trying to learn more from your peers? There are advantages and disadvantages to being in places with "more work". The main advantage is there are more people doing what you do, so the opportunities to learn first hand from other engineers is greater. Not to mention the camaraderie of like minded people. On the other hand a great disadvantage is, there are more people doing what you do, so the competition for gigs increases heavily.

I lived in Nashville for a few years. I managed to, in a fairly short period of time, do some very cool things and learn from some amazing people in the industry. I also worked for peanuts when I was engineering, cause I was constantly battling "well so and so can do it for $10/hr in his basement." Don't get me wrong, it was a great experience and I would not trade it for anything. What I learned was invaluable. I have since moved back to my hometown in VA, have a small mix and OD studio, I work more than I did in Nashville on projects that I like equally well, and I make the kind of money I want to. The reason...there aren't a lot of people who do what I do here.

Making a move isn't a bad thing, I'm just saying to really think it through. Any experience you can have in life is worth it, so long as you are willing to take something from it.

-Chris

[mixerguy]

uhhhhhhhhhh i think the biz suks all over the USA (and maybe the whole world over?)

[lozion]

Originally Posted by UnDeFiNeD

Bombay, I was there two days as a tourist and they allready offered me a job in bollywood :D

Pzz

Really? Doing post in India, wow... are you going?
Cant imagine the rates though.

[danbronson]

I'm pretty curious as well. Anybody know about the better places in Canada to have a studio too?

[SighBorg]

I'm pretty curious as well. Anybody know about the better places in Canada to have a studio too?

I would look at Vancouver or Toronto. Working up the chain might be harder but there are some very successful studios there.

I personally am curious about the current state of LA and if there are any sections of the place doing better than others.

[lozion]

Originally Posted by mindkontrolle

definitely not New York n

that bad? What about the NY hustle... gone?

[six_wax]

Originally Posted by Kelly644

I personally am curious about the current state of LA and if there are any sections of the place doing better than others.

There is lots of work in LA... You just have to be willing to fight and scrape and hustle to get the gigs. You will lose a lot of work to people with Grammys, even little stuff. Up & coming acts will be courted by droves of quality producers & engineers. You will be asked to work for far less than you're worth, constantly.

If you don't have a totally killer reel, a big record under your belt, or a great set of connections, you should either a) stay "home" until you accumulate these, or b) be prepared to mop your way into the biz in LA... or c) be a *really* good talker & hustle, hustle, hustle.

[octatonic]

Narnia.

[Marjan]

Any Irish slutz around...?
I love your music, from Folk to Pop...
I've considered moving to Dublin for a while and see how it goes... may be getting musicians to play with too.
How's the scene up there...?

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

I have been thinking of moving to a place where there is more work for engineers/producers.

The cities that come to mind are NYC, LA, Atlanta, London

Would these be good choices? Or is it more that because they are such meccas for entertainment that it's actually harder to get work there?

Are there any other suggestions?

I am partly just curious, and party really considering moving.

thanks!

Where do you live right now?

[hey_mavis]

Originally Posted by Marjan

Where do you live right now?

Trinidad and Tobago, I run a studio therein, but being a Canadian and having worked in Toronto previously (albeit at a small film company, not a big studio) I was just curious as to how things looked in other necks of the woods.

How big is a 'neck' of woods anyway? Is that a fixed amount?

Can I go out and buy '3 necks of prime woodland property?'

hmmmm

food for thought

[u b k]

Originally Posted by lozion

What about the NY hustle... gone?

it moved out... couldn't afford the rent.


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[drBill]

Originally Posted by six_wax

There is lots of work in LA...

yeah, always has been. But there's also more engineers/producers/studios per city block than anywhere else on earth. As you say, competition is fierce. I think that secondary or even third tier cities are much better opportunities these days. Certainly not LA. If you're all gold and platinum then you can walk in anywhere and your clients will follow you. If not.....prepare to work at Starbucks.

[AMIEL]

Malasya! I am not sure what is going on now..but was huge few years ago!

[picksail]

I have no complaints about being in LA. I can't take any more work. I've literally spread myself too thin.

I've had only five days off this entire year. One was my wedding anniversary, three days were actually networking gigs/meetings and the other was this past Friday.

No complaints here.

[Arcana]

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

Trinidad and Tobago, I run a studio therein, but being a Canadian and having worked in Toronto previously (albeit at a small film company, not a big studio) I was just curious as to how things looked in other necks of the woods.

How big is a 'neck' of woods anyway? Is that a fixed amount?

Can I go out and buy '3 necks of prime woodland property?'

hmmmm

food for thought

Interesting. My wife is from Grenada so the thought of moving there has crossed my mind. However, I've just noticed there's about 12 times as many people in Trinidad and Tobago so it's probably a no go, considering T&T has very small market (I'm just guessing) I can only imagine Grenada's market is pretty much non-existent.

I suspect that you mostly record and engineer Reggae, Soca and Calypso bands?

I live in London and can't even find much work here I'm not an engineer but a composer though....and not very pro-active unfortunately.

What made you move there in the first place?

[teamdresch]

Originally Posted by Marjan

Any Irish slutz around...?
I love your music, from Folk to Pop...
I've considered moving to Dublin for a while and see how it goes... may me getting musicians to play with too.
How's the scene up there...?



Where do you live right now?

There's a decent music/gigging scene in Dublin.
Not a whole lot of money to be made other than playing covers etc.
Gimme a shout and I'll see if I can think of any links to help your research.

[hey_mavis]

Originally Posted by Arcana

What made you move there in the first place?

My dad is from here, and I grew up between here and Edmonton (Alberta) so I am always back and forth. I love the vibe and music here, but the money and infrastructure leave something to be desired, and Canada...well Canada is COLD, I mean really f&*king cold!!!!

I mean...dude...

also you can drink beer in street here, (no law against drinking anywhere you like) and bars close whenever they want to (no law about last call or whatever), so that's a plus.

As for the market in Grenada...I don't think you'd get much work, there are studios but I don't THINK there is a big enough industry there. T&T could support an engineer (as we are swimming in oil money at the moment) but you'd have better luck as a live sound engineer than a studio engineer here.

[lozion]

Originally Posted by dylansmale

instead of telling you to leave the guy alone, I'm going to have to say "OH BURN!"

Huh?

[AMIEL]

Originally Posted by picksail

I have no complaints about being in LA. I can't take any more work. I've literally spread myself too thin.

I've had only five days off this entire year. One was my wedding anniversary, three days were actually networking gigs/meetings and the other was this past Friday.

No complaints here.

Picksail ...Do not forget all the time that you need to stay in shape!!

[lozion]

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

My dad is from here, and I grew up between here and Edmonton (Alberta) so I am always back and forth. I love the vibe and music here, but the money and infrastructure leave something to be desired, and Canada...well Canada is COLD, I mean really f&*king cold!!!!
I mean...dude...
also you can drink beer in street here, (no law against drinking anywhere you like) and bars close whenever they want to (no law about last call or whatever), so that's a plus.
As for the market in Grenada...I don't think you'd get much work, there are studios but I don't THINK there is a big enough industry there. T&T could support an engineer (as we are swimming in oil money at the moment) but you'd have better luck as a live sound engineer than a studio engineer here.

Trinidad... Interesting, I've considered relocating to Dominica a bit further north, although a beautiful Island (green), I think it lacks the resources to support a recording facility, the pool of clients being limited. A solution would be to attract intl musicians but that is no small feat...

Have you come to the same conclusion about Trinidad? Even with the oil boom? Considering Trinidad has one of the strongest economy of the region, if its the case, sounds like the Caribbean (except Jamaica where studios are literally at every corner!) may not be an ideal destination...

PS: Yeah Canada is f?&*g cold... I've had enough...

[lozion]

Originally Posted by picksail

I have no complaints about being in LA. I can't take any more work. I've literally spread myself too thin.

I've had only five days off this entire year. One was my wedding anniversary, three days were actually networking gigs/meetings and the other was this past Friday.

No complaints here.

Hey Stu! Happy to read you're swamped with work! thumbsup

[hey_mavis]

Originally Posted by lozion

Have you come to the same conclusion about Trinidad? Even with the oil boom? Considering Trinidad has one of the strongest economy of the region, if its the case, sounds like the Caribbean (except Jamaica where studios are literally at every corner!) may not be an ideal destination...

PS: Yeah Canada is f?&*g cold... I've had enough...

Montreal, gah, cold is not the word.

Actually if you want to work in the Caribbean and you speak French I would suggest Martinique, they are technically a part of France and they have a lot of music coming out of there (The French connection means that artists have access to the European market).

If not there or Jamaica then Barbados is a good place, Eddy Grant has a big studio there (Blue Wave I think it's called) and many acts go to Barbados to record.

Trinidad sucks for studio gigs for two reasons 1) artists don't sell records, they make really good money by performing, but they don't really sell records, so spending big money on recording does not appeal to most of them, plus there are no record labels, each artist is their own label basically.

and 2) because the government has really dumb laws about bringing gear in, so attracting international artists is not easy, (outfitting your studio is not easy either, you have to pay crazy tax on imports).

International artists wanting to bring their own gear have to pay a bond EQUAL TO THE PRICE OF ALL EQUIPMENT in order to bring it into the country, granted the artists get the money back, but who wants the hassle when one could record anywhere without it?

so yeah...also interesting story, Bob Marley came to Trinidad in the 70's and he almost could not perform before the government demanded that studio bond, it came up to something like 300 thousand dollars and the promoter did not have it. So after some serious negotiation, and bob almost not playing they finally pulled it off. Point is, if they will do that to Mr Marley himself....you get the idea.

[lozion]

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

Montreal, gah, cold is not the word.

Actually if you want to work in the Caribbean and you speak French I would suggest Martinique, they are technically a part of France and they have a lot of music coming out of there (The French connection means that artists have access to the European market).

If not there or Jamaica then Barbados is a good place, Eddy Grant has a big studio there (Blue Wave I think it's called) and many acts go to Barbados to record.

Trinidad sucks for studio gigs for two reasons 1) artists don't sell records, they make really good money by performing, but they don't really sell records, so spending big money on recording does not appeal to most of them, plus there are no record labels, each artist is their own label basically.

and 2) because the government has really dumb laws about bringing gear in, so attracting international artists is not easy, (outfitting your studio is not easy either, you have to pay crazy tax on imports).

International artists wanting to bring their own gear have to pay a bond EQUAL TO THE PRICE OF ALL EQUIPMENT in order to bring it into the country, granted the artists get the money back, but who wants the hassle when one could record anywhere without it?

so yeah...also interesting story, Bob Marley came to Trinidad in the 70's and he almost could not perform before the government demanded that studio bond, it came up to something like 300 thousand dollars and the promoter did not have it. So after some serious negotiation, and bob almost not playing they finally pulled it off. Point is, if they will do that to Mr Marley himself....you get the idea.

Gotcha... Hence you wanting to move... Wish I knew where that new Mecca will be...
Maybe Dubai? lol. Also, I've heard good things about Poland, big boom there apparently. One things for sure, Montreal isnt it. I met one of the big studio owner last week who told me he pays the overheads but thats about it...

So where's the money?

[Jay-]

Im moving to Austin but I work as a day trader/week end warrior. Absolute palaces going for $200K and lower, this week 8% lower... lower...

How low can it go????
Also LOW crime but high property tax, high standard of living but aging infrastructure and pretty progressive although slightly watered down version of LA, I think it was called "Mini LA" as its getting so much drama there.

I cant be sure im not there yet!

[Tibbon]

My thoughts would be to look at Berlin (doesn't have to deal with shitty US dollar, big city, lots of music, cheap to live in, but you have to have a VISA if you're american), Portland OR (cheap, fun, good weather, west coast), and Austin TX

[hey_mavis]

Sow how is Toronto? As compared to Montreal?

I saw a sticky about a studio in Poland that is looking for people, perhaps Poland is the place to be.

[hey_mavis]

im guessing canadians need a VISA to live in berlin too?

OOO what about Amsterdam? Seems like a place that people would like to record in.

[lozion]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

My thoughts would be to look at Berlin (doesn't have to deal with shitty US dollar, big city, lots of music, cheap to live in, but you have to have a VISA if you're american), Portland OR (cheap, fun, good weather, west coast), and Austin TX

I also spent 6 months in Barcelona in 2005 and I can tell that its a great city but not from a engineer perspective... But I did meet alot of folks there who had good things to say about Berlin. So yeah, Berlin might be it but for North Americans, the Schengen convention really is a drag... (visa)