tips for beginning your audio career

antiheroinc

antiheroinc

Member
Feb 23, 2010
152
0
16
Brisbane, Australia
does anyone have any? ive been applying for anything audio related in Brisbane, Australia and haven't had any luck yet.
I was trained up on an SSL K, SSL G, and Digidesign ICON just to name a few. I've worked as a runner for different festivals on the east coast of Aus, I have my own mixing station at home (i use station loosely as I can only afford plug-ins atm) where ive recorded demos for local bands.
How did you guys begin out?

Also i need tips to get sweet revalver tones, i've heart Catharsis Studio's work and im blown away so if he reads this, give me some pointers? ive been used to just recording live through an amp in a separate sound proof room and really wanna utilize revalver mkIII alot more since I don't have that high access anymore since I began moving.
 
Being trained up on big analogue desks is unfortunately a pretty unhelpful thing once you hit the self-financed, home studio market. The modern home production era is rapidly going somewhere else, and phasing out desks altogether.

I began by recording as many bands as I could in whatever studio time I could book at JMC while I studied there. In my free time I would frequent this place and soak up any errant tidbits of knowledge his Sneaphood and Co. would graciously pass down. It's very hard, there is no easy way in. You just have to keep cracking away at it at the low level and become friends with as many bands and other engineers as you can. Crack the market somehow.
 
Undercut undercut undercut! Keep your overhead SUPER low and provide the best band for the buck... eventually, if you're good, you'll run most of the bigger guys under. Just be patient and stay positive, man. You'll work through 1000 shitty bands and get about 10 good ones, in my experience!
 
raybrochill said:
Undercut undercut undercut! Keep your overhead SUPER low and provide the best band for the buck... eventually, if you're good, you'll run most of the bigger guys under. Just be patient and stay positive, man. You'll work through 1000 shitty bands and get about 10 good ones, in my experience!
Click to expand...

Nothing like encouraging the race to the bottom man...
 
raybrochill said:
Undercut undercut undercut! Keep your overhead SUPER low and provide the best band for the buck... eventually, if you're good, you'll run most of the bigger guys under. Just be patient and stay positive, man. You'll work through 1000 shitty bands and get about 10 good ones, in my experience!
Click to expand...

There was a major discussion on this already and the main conclusion was that this is what is ruining the industry. If he was to run the bigger guys under, same thing will inevitably happen to him and then he will go under. It may work in the short term, but this cannot work long term and the long term effects will make him worse off as he has spent so much time developing skills and now there is no industry for him to use them in where he can actually make a living.
 
To an extent, do not take the advice given above. It is indeed ruining the industry but that's not why I say what I say. I took that aproach for the past 2 years and it has been hell. I've been in court twice for nimrods who don't pay or threaten me to the point of hunting me down. It all comes from having that low price and getting people who have no business recording. What you should do it figure up the cost of everything you have you've PAYED for and take 5-10 percent of that and use it for the cost PER SONG for small projects. So if you have say a computer, interface, a few cheaper pre's, maybe one comp, $3000 worth we'll say, charge 200-300 per song with of course, package deals ect. Don't devalue your work. Be a businessman, not a musician.

P.S. I am assuming you have a general clue about recording with a few years experience.
 
Well are you playing to play or playing to win? That's the real question, here. Businesses have been undercutting since the beginning of business. Gas stations do it every day. Until you have a good size reputation, I think it's a good idea to suck up as many good bands as you can... in any way you can. Disagree all you want, but it seems to be working for me! I'm not making the bucks at the moment, but I'm working with a TON of musicians (talented and not). I keep in contact with the talented musicians, because they're going to be the most likely to go somewhere. I might be ruining it for guy downtown, but I'm not in the business of caring.
 
raybrochill said:
Well are you playing to play or playing to win? That's the real question, here. Businesses have been undercutting since the beginning of business. Gas stations do it every day.
Click to expand...

Gas stations all charge the same price if they are in the same area... If they were undercutting each other, gas would be really fucking cheap and they'd be out of business... Hmmm, food for thought?
 
Norris-wf said:
There was a major discussion on this already and the main conclusion was that this is what is ruining the industry. If he was to run the bigger guys under, same thing will inevitably happen to him and then he will go under. It may work in the short term, but this cannot work long term and the long term effects will make him worse off as he has spent so much time developing skills and now there is no industry for him to use them in where he can actually make a living.
Click to expand...

Then what the fuck should he be doing? Charging 1000$ a song when he's using reaper and free plug-ins, and recording in the bedroom of his parents house?
 
cloy26 said:
The consensus was to do stuff for free and work on yoru own stuff, learn how to really do it through an internship, then when you are ready, go out on your own and open up your own studio. :D
Click to expand...

So it's better to do it for free than to ask for something? And working on your own stuff and downloading tracks online for mixing online may help, but it clearly isnt the same things as recording other people and trying to make their songs as good as possible by adding/removing arrangements/instruments/stuff.
 
I agree. But their argument was pretty valid. Undercutting will eventually hurt us bedroom AE's in the end if we plan on being anything in teh business. The low cost undermines (exact terminology here lol) the quality of recording. Guys like me and the other guy who does it for cheap are turning out mediocre stuff and are charging nothing. So when the band upgrades to a real studio, they expect the jump in price to not be so drastic. They are baffled when they hear its a minimum 300 dollars a song. Then, before you know it, its us who are the studio guys sitting in the chair not getting any business because 18 year old producers are taking all the potential work.

roughly that's what the previous thread was about. Maybe ermz will chime in like last time, but they def opened my eyes up to another side.

I agree with you about the best experience (other than interning) is just starting with local bands, but they make a very valid point. Will I stop recording bands? No. Will I raise my price in hopes to turn the majority of the bands away and to reflect a more true view of true recording rates? yes. I realized that I need to work on getting a GOOD sound consistently before I can sell the product. I need to focus more on quality as opposed to the quantity of mediocre (at best) mixes.
 
Yea over here in Los Angeles there are MANY studios charging WAY to cheap. Even my studio charging $300 for an 8HR day is stupidly cheap, but if I raise it to the $500 a day rate, no one shows up........ but there is idiots out here charging $600 for a FULL EP(one of them is a member of this forum!) It really pisses me off. I cant stand this whole undercharging for recording. The EQUIPMENT IS EXPENSIVE ENOUGH, but my RENT just for the studio is PRICEY! It really takes a lot to do this professionally, to make sure that we dedicate time to being skilled at the craft and trying to have a nice studio for musicians to record in, but then we get slapped in the face by these fucking half brained engineers that charge insanely cheap and fuck everybody over and make the musicians think that getting a good recording is cheap.

Anyways I had to get that out,

As for tips go:

Record bands offering them PRE PRODUCTION, DO NOT AND MEAN DO NOT LET THEM THINK WHAT YOUR OFFERING IS A REAL RECORDING unless it sounds super incredible, Because if you offer them PRE PRODUCTION then they will HAVE to go to a real studio and PAY money, WHICH IS GOOD IN THE LONG RUN FOR EVERYBODY!
 
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