Advice for someone thinking of doing sound engineering.

raindog.promo

Howdy.

I did sound engineering many years ago in STC, and was asked by my uncle if i had any advice for his son who is thinking of studying it also.

The son is in 5th year in school so, i presume has at least 2 years before applying for a full year course.

Advice I would give:

Try attending a week long sound engineering introduction course over the summer, or trying to get work experience at the weekends in studios.

I think it might be a good idea to try for work experience in RTE and aim for media production/sound engineering over trying to make a living from live music/recording bands as a lot of people aim for this and it means either emmigrating or being up against a lot of competition.

Download demo versions of Pro-tools, Reason, Nuendo.

Get some keyboard lessons, to use alongside reason and to help with understanding midi. knowing a few chords on guitar would be handy too.



Considering he knows nothing about sound engineering:

Can anyone recommend music programs/editing software he should try and get a demo of?
Can anyone recommend any books/videos on sound engineering he might benefit from buying?
Does anyone know of places that do week long courses that are worth the money?

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Many thanks.

raindog.promo

Guess he'll just have to find out as he goes.

trackmixstudio

Hi.
This sort of question comes up regularly here so that's probably why there are no answers for you.

eg. http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055456323

These sound engineering schools turn out LOTS of "qualified" engineers every year further saturating what is already a small industry. It is not a good idea to put all your eggs in the sound engineering basket.

Michael

raindog.promo

trackmixstudio wrote: »

These sound engineering schools turn out LOTS of "qualified" engineers every year further saturating what is already a small industry. It is not a good idea to put all your eggs in the sound engineering basket.

I agree, I've done it myself and would probably advise going for radio shows or RTE for sound engineering jobs.

studiorat

Tell him to go for the boring work like RTE and the like, no-body will do that **** for nothing
Where there's muck there's brass!

tony1kenobi

Send him to Pulse recording studio..........I went there ten years ago..........it's a blast..............just warn him that in all likelihood it won't work out.

Having said that I was in class with Ciaran Lynch.......

I sell phones...Ciaran produced the last few REM, U2 albums...........

.....it could be worth a shot.

PaulBrewer

raindog.promo wrote: »

Try attending a week long sound engineering introduction course over the summer, or trying to get work experience at the weekends in studios.

I think that's a terrific first step - the first think he needs to do is find out if he likes it. Having no experience he won't know if the reality of the work is what he imagines it to be.

I've seen guys who think they want to get involved in studios and then the harsh reality of constant coffee preparation takes the sheen off quickly!

PMI

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I think that's a terrific first step - the first think he needs to do is find out if he likes it. Having no experience he won't know if the reality of the work is what he imagines it to be.

I've seen guys who think they want to get involved in studios and then the harsh reality of constant coffee preparation takes the sheen off quickly!

What he said but sandwich runs too

PaulBrewer

PMI wrote: »

What he said but sandwich runs too

... and cleaning the bog ...

raindog.promo

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I think that's a terrific first step - the first think he needs to do is find out if he likes it. Having no experience he won't know if the reality of the work is what he imagines it to be.

The kid lives in Newbridge.
Any of you studio heads know of any setups out that way? I haven't been beyond the pale in a long long time?

I really do need to get out more.

PMI

Only think of stuarts place in dunshaughlin?!? not to far when you actually drive it !! jealoustown studios