So, how long have you been engineering?

[AntonioPetrole]

Thought I would just take a poll seeing as how the forum has changed a lot in the past few years.

 

[JeffTD]

Way too long for how young I am. My "join date" freaks me out.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

It's insane how it just engulfs you. I remember it like yesterday when I bought my first interface, it was some old M Audio piece of junk from a million years ago, but I thought Nick Crows 8505 would make my tones legendary! And 4 years later, I still sit hear bashing my head against my desk telling myself that I haven't gotten any better lol

 

[Line666]

I think I bought a toneport at 14 or 15 or something, that was how it all started for me, only really just starting to get good 7 years later.

 

[StefTD]

really depends what you mean by engineering, if it's enough to record something
into Cool Edit Pro than I am probably doing this for like 10 years, if this doesn't
count, I am probably out

 

[Nimvi]

10 or 11 years this year, I'm not sure anymore. Although I would hardly describe the first few years as "Engineering". Obsession with tone and having no fucking clue would be a more accurate description. The internet wasn't as full of good info back then, or I was just not very good at finding it. I have saved a lot of articles about audio in those days, and reading some of them now makes me scratch my head.

I have had tons of moments since then, when I thought: "NOW I understand this engineering thing". And every single time it took me about a month to look back at that moment and realize that I didn't know shit. And this makes life worth living!

 

[StefTD]

I voted 5-6 years because that's the time I actually have a little clue about what I am doing,
but I am still one of the most amateurish guys on this board with shitty equipment.

 

[Max Morton]

If I'm not mistaken, it's been 12 or 11 years since my first paid job as the sound engineer. I remember it well Recording the sympho-black metal band. Ended up playing all the instruments for them, composing keyboard and drum parts. I was into vintage rock and metal back then, but this first experience changed everything for me. I used Cakewalk 8 back then. But I think that I began delivering my first (more or less) professional results in between 2008 and 2009.

 

[~BURNY~]

Started with this. Does it answer the question?

 

[blue_fAng]

Arround 2009. I wanted to sound like Keith Merrow so I bought a toneport to record my ideas, then started recording bands. I just quit a few weeks ago but I'm still going to do my own stuff when I get time, just as a hobby.

 

[nialldoran]

i Voted 2 year cause that's how long i've been getting paid to work at a studio, but since recording other people in their bedrooms and stuff, its been more like 5, i'm 22 at the moment

 

[Mago]

First time I tried to mic up a drumkit was 2004 or 2005.
Really getting in deep...I'd say 2008, first paid job 2009 or so.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

This seems to be one of the few professions were you have to practice for about 4-5 years before you actually start making any money.

We are a bunch of masochistics

 

[Skaldir]

This seems to be one of the few professions were you have to practice for about 4-5 years before you actually start making any money.

We are a bunch of masochistics

That's true actually. That's why it always makes me pissed when newbies come here and want to get all the presets and shit to skip all that learning. You can't really skip it. You can get good result with all those new stuff, way better than when I started with 4-track tapes or digital recorders without computer. But you still need to spend all those years to really be someone that knows something. More than a dazzler.

 

[nialldoran]

That's true actually. That's why it always makes me pissed when newbies come here and want to get all the presets and shit to skip all that learning. You can't really skip it. You can get good result with all those new stuff, way better than when I started with 4-track tapes or digital recorders without computer. But you still need to spend all those years to really be someone that knows something. More than a dazzler.

Absolutely, there is a great sense of satisfaction working your ass off for 16 hours a day and having something that sounds great at the end of it and there is no getting around it, fuck knows im still in the middle of all of this learning, but i feel myself knowing more and feeling better about what i'm working on after every project finishes.

 

[mickrich]

I dropped out of a Building Services degree in 1992 to do a sound engineering course.
This was back when it was really expensive to set up a home studio.
Me and another guy took out car loans and bought a Tascam MSR24 1" machine, a Soundtracs desk, a few alesis verbs and Behringer compressors and built a studio beside my parents house.
We priced well compared to other studios and got loads of work.

We opened a musical instrument store in 1998 and got lots of exclusive dealerships including ESP, Tama, Sonor, Line 6, ENGL etc and did really well until Thomann started targeting Ireland and pretty much wiped us out by 2008.
During this time I bought the other guy out of the studio.

When I got out of the store, I immediately got into training.
I did Apple certified trainer courses in Logic and Soundtrack pro.
There was a shortage of trainers here, especially in STP, so I got lots of freelance training work.
In 2011 I started teaching for a recording college, covering sound engineering, sound technology and audio post for the film course students.

I normally teach 3 days a week and do 2 days in the studio.
Just finished teaching for this term and college reopens at the end of September but I have a few albums in for the summer.
I aslo do freelance work for a couple of TV stations and advertising companies.
My parents thought I was mad when I dropped out of my degree and were really pissed off but in the long run I made the right choice.
I love my job(s).
I was 40 in January but feel much younger than friends with "regular" jobs.

 

[mickrich]

That's true actually. That's why it always makes me pissed when newbies come here and want to get all the presets and shit to skip all that learning. You can't really skip it. You can get good result with all those new stuff, way better than when I started with 4-track tapes or digital recorders without computer. But you still need to spend all those years to really be someone that knows something. More than a dazzler.

10,000 hour rule really applies to sound engineering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)

 

[Mashreef]

i vote for 2 years only..
started with my realtek builtin card
did a lot of demo's with fl studio drum machines for the bands back in 2005

i got my first paid job in 2010.. so from there it all started i guess

 

[egan.]

i vote for 2 years only..
started with my realtek builtin card
did a lot of demo's with fl studio drum machines for the bands back in 2005

i got my first paid job in 2010.. so from there it all started i guess

That's some interesting math.

 

[LiberaScientia]

I only really started properly understanding how shit works in about April/May last year, so I went for 1 year. Still haven't had a paid job, but I've got a job in a studio now, so I guess that counts