Market for Sound Designers

[Tibbon]

Well i'm trying to find my niche in the market and how best to enter it. I've been working with a studio for a while, and it's going pretty good, but I have a feeling that the studio will actually be merging with another in LA at some point.. anyway, back to my point.

Trying to find something that is fairly easy to enter into, but a specialty, and it came upon my that i could be doing sound design and synth work solely, and it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg (aka.. SSL and PT HD) to get into.

Perhaps i'm wrong, but the more I listen, the more i hear electronic type work in more music today (as opposed to mid 90's grunge era), but yet... i see that most studios only have or two decent keyboards at most and maybe some VSTi plugins.

Is there a strong need for the type of person that can either go to the studio with a carful of modular units, etc... and work with the band, producer and engineer to really get things sounding fresh and innovative, OR to have drives sent to and paid to 'add creative sounds' to the music. I see just 'programming' credits on all sorts of CDs ,so i assume this market exists.

So i guess i'm asking... if you aren't already in this market and VERY sucessful... have all future positions already been filled by the Moog Modular plugin and whatever engineer is already sitting at the desk? or is there room/hope for new people coming in?

In addition, the keys sitting around at most studios are rather bland (Triton, K2600, etc...). I'm thinking at targeting more towards the analogue modular side of things, etc...

Or even better... Do any of YOU guys need some synth and programming work done on your stuff? I feel that the work that I do is really quality stuff..

[Tibbon]

Oh, and if you're wondering why in the world i don't just do it for the clients at the studio i work at...

Most of our clients fall into one of two categories...
1) Hip hop people that bring in 'industry' beats, and have no time/money for new sounds
2) Rock musicians that have already drank all their money away, and are very stingy to pay the studio, let alone 'someone else'... also most are so egotistical and feel that they can do it all themselves in Reason..

[Lostintheocean0]

Ah yeah im in the same position as you, well im still in school, so i dont work for any studios at the moment, but i have the same doubts and fears. hahah And yeah its sad, how new artists seem to think they can do all the recording on there own by buying protools or reason and getting some shitty mic and recording a lame demo that sounds like its been recorded in a garage. ohh wait..because it has.... and your egos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NeoVXR]

trance, techno, house, dance, ..
it has become kind of a DJ thing. and they don't usually let someone else mess with their sounds. they might have a small team that is complete at the time when they become successful.
before that, they have been sitting themselves for weeks, and programmed this and that.. if it is good, then it is part of the personal success and attitude. I think, not many will restart with competely different sounds. careeers are short. but some will become producers and work with other artists. here might be a little chance to do something about the sound library, and updates on clients' demand...
also there are millions of sound patches available, and the flow of information is cumbersome, how to describe what is missing, and to listen so many examples.

this having said, I regret that there is so much mainstream music based on pure factory sounds with very little tweaking.

I think, as a remixer, you could become also a sound designer with reputation, so to be hired. the problem repeats in how to become a famous remixer..

[Tibbon]

Anyone needing any quality remixes done?

Send me your hard drives! i'm cheap :) (well, fairly... i gotta pay rent :) )