Who here is a "staff" engineer?

[PLAbass]

Just curious! And by this I mean someone that works every day at a facility that they do not own.

I am in such a position and have been for a couple years. We're an audio trade school as well as a recording studio so my time is split fairly evenly between teaching and running sessions. Though the recording side is busy, the facility is very large (5 rooms with SSL, Neve, API desks, etc.) and is supported predominately by the school. We're also in a tertiary market, located in the DC area. It ain't LA or NY.

I tell students every day that a position like this is pretty darn unusual these days. I'm just wondering to what extent. How many staff engineers are there out there? I assume most larger studios employ more assistants to help the freelance engineers that come in and bring the majority of work?

Who works at a facility with a staff of recording engineers?

[marty lester]

Originally Posted by PLAbass

Just curious! And by this I mean someone that works every day at a facility that they do not own.

I am in such a position and have been for a couple years. We're an audio trade school as well as a recording studio so my time is split fairly evenly between teaching and running sessions. Though the recording side is busy, the facility is very large (5 rooms with SSL, Neve, API desks, etc.) and is supported predominately by the school. We're also in a tertiary market, located in the DC area. It ain't LA or NY.

I tell students every day that a position like this is pretty darn unusual these days. I'm just wondering to what extent. How many staff engineers are there out there? I assume most larger studios employ more assistants to help the freelance engineers that come in and bring the majority of work?

Who works at a facility with a staff of recording engineers?

well, for the last 13 or so years, i was chief engineer (on staff) at a studio/production
company type thing...but i got laid off in October. yes, it's really rare to the point
of "it doesn't happen" down here in Austin. most people throw out their own shingle and go it alone...or have some partners and the odd intern. Austin isn't probably all
that typical of a bigger city market though. oh, and we don't really have free-lancers work at our studio because, as i said, we're more of a production company than a commercial studio.

marty.

[Roc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by PLAbass

Who works at a facility with a staff of recording engineers?

"I"

[Etch-A-Sketch]

I am...and have been for the last 8 and 1/2 years.

[TheFirstThird]

Me; two years. Judging from the way my boss runs the company though, may not be much longer...

[Etch-A-Sketch]

Originally Posted by PLAbass

I tell students every day that a position like this is pretty darn unusual these days. I'm just wondering to what extent. How many staff engineers are there out there? I assume most larger studios employ more assistants to help the freelance engineers that come in and bring the majority of work?

Who works at a facility with a staff of recording engineers?

Actually, if anything it's becoming MORE commonplace, but at the same time it's harder to find/locate the jobs.

As commercial studios go belly-up, they are being bought or leased by production companies, composers and artists to use as a private facility.

The place I've been at for the last 8+ years is a perfect example of that. The studio used to be called 'King Sound' and was one of the more widely used studios in LA back in the 80's. Bruce Hornsby recorded portions of both of his albums here, don henley, the police, etc. have all been in here. It's a 3 studio, 25,000 sq ft complex. We can fit 40 musicians in studio A and regularly do 22 piece string sections and 20 piece big bands...

So who's all the music for?? US! We make music for TV and film licensing. We don't rent out the studio to the public. In fact it's tough even for friends of the owners to book time with us. As the music industry changes you are going to see this business model more and more... It's almost going back to the way things were... where the label or company making the music owned its own studio and all of it's artists/composers recorded in there.

Case in point, look at East West. They make sample libraries. They bought the old "Cello/United/Western" studios. While they are still booking out the studios commercially, the main purpose for them buying the space was so that they can create their own products there... studio rentals is a form of secondary income to them.

Also, film composers are now starting to have their own studios. Most 'big name' composers you can think of own their own studios that they do most of their work out of except for the 80 piece orchestral sessions. So as an assistant you might end up working at James Newton Howard's studio or Bear McCreary's studio instead of the Record plant or Capitol.

The tough thing in the future is going to be finding these places. Most places don't advertise that they have studios since they don't rent them out to the general public. So even knowing they exist so you can apply for a job there is going to be somewhat of a guessing game and word of mouth.

[suedesound]

I was for the last 3 years but just officially split off because I'm starting a production partnership with a producer Ive done about 75% of my work with in the last year. Mainly left so I don't feel bad booking other studios if I need to. I'm also on staff at a local club if that counts.

Even though I got some work thrown at me it was still up to me to book most of my sessions.

[PLAbass]

The production company thing is interesting. Sorta the same thing as the studio/school model as the recording studio portion is supported by the production side (I'm guessing in most cases).

I'd love to hear from some assistant engineers as I'm under the impression that there are still houses that employ "staff" assistants. Perhaps this is more common? If anyone is employed by a recording studio as an assistant engineer, how is that working for ya?

It's tough to get a feel for the state of the industry as we're sortof isolated in this area and, like I said, my situation seems less and less common.

[dragan]

I am. 5.5 years here, mostly doing post.

[psycho_monkey]

I'm technically freelance, but my main client is the studio I do most of my work at, and they also act as my management when dealing with other clients.

[Brenton]

I am, almost 20 years. Video production house, location and studio recording and mixing for video. The last 2-3 years I've been shifting across to camera and video editing. I was getting pretty bored with audio after that long.

Have a home music studio for my audio kicks.