Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Blair Jackson

GETTING A FOOTHOLD IN THE AUDIO INDUSTRY IS TOUGH (BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE!)

And Avatar's Imamura says, “Our studio is more analog, so we need people who understand what that's all about. We don't want people who are just going to sit in front of a screen. Believe it or not, we still use tape!” That said, he adds that today's production assistant, rather than labeling and organizing tape boxes, spends more time keeping track of hard drives and what's on each of them. “There's actually more documentation than ever before,” he says. “It's really an important part of the digital world.” And that's one reason Imamura looks for people “who seem to be really conscientious and detail-oriented because the job, whether you're a production assistant or an engineer, is very detail-oriented. Every job in a recording studio involves tremendous focus. We also look for people with good common sense, which can be in short supply,” he chuckles. “So it's not just about knowledge or ability. It's temperment and desire. They really have to want to do this.”

What intangibles is Mann-Cherney looking for? “Self-motivation, passion, patience, sense of humor and knowing how to be invisible.

“The business is changing,” she adds, “and engineers need to be more versatile and wear different hats. Because of this, the job of assistant has totally changed. Assistants need a strong knowledge of not only engineering, but music theory, the music industry and technology in general.”

Reality Check

No doubt, many students envision themselves working their way up the ladder at places like Record Plant or Avatar, or some other glamorous major studio, but the odds of that happening are, frankly, not in their favor. So what is a more realistic path to jumping into the audio world? Well, you need to expand your horizons and be flexible.

Imamura notes that “some small studios provide a really good training ground. We've had people come from working at owner-operated studios who are really well-trained and they get up to speed here really fast. If you know where to look, you can sometimes find situations like that, and it becomes a good way to get your foot in the door.”

Another way to get some experience is to look beyond traditional recording studios. Now, some people really do want to be the next Steve Albini or Jimmy Iovine and can't see beyond that big studio control room to envision themselves in some other audio-related position. But increasingly, the jobs are elsewhere.

According to CRAS' Khademi, “A lot of people come here thinking they want to work in a studio, but then they get exposed to other things, and suddenly they say, ‘Hey, I really want to get into live sound!’ I've seen more kids getting hired into live sound sooner than kids going into studios because the turnover rate in live sound is higher. There are so many more entry-level jobs there. They're young and they're not afraid to bust their butts, which you're definitely going to do in live sound! But we encourage it, because even though it's not a studio, it might be right for you, or you could view it as a way to meet people in the industry and get paid a little bit while you're working toward a studio gig.

“There are lots of other places to look for jobs in audio,” Khademi continues. “We've placed people with the Library of Congress and in forensic audio. We've gotten people into game audio, though most [job] applications there require one to two years of experience, so we encourage people to also get into post-production, which is fairly closely related. We have courses here where students can learn some post basics, learn about commercial production, Foley, dialog replacement. Those are all possible job areas for some people.”

Becky Sullivan of giant post house Soundelux says that they very rarely hire people directly out of school: “Most of the editors here have been here for 10 years-plus, so we don't bring in a lot of ‘green’ people. In sound editing, it's really important that they get out there and learn their craft. Sound editing is not just being able to run a Pro Tools computer. It's a real craft and that takes experience to learn how to do it well — how to layer the sounds and have it work for the emotion of the picture and work for the mixers and be good.

“A lot of times, I'll tell young people who are trying to break into film sound, ‘Go to some of the smaller companies in Burbank or Santa Monica and tell them you'll work for free and do whatever needs to be done to get in, and really learn your craft and earn your stripes.’” Unfortunately, because of union restrictions, Soundelux does not currently have an internship program. “The union doesn't like free labor,” she says. “If an intern came in and cut a reel of dialog, I'd have to throw it in the trash because I cannot prosper from his free labor. But a lot of the smaller independent companies use interns.” So, she advises, don't be afraid to do the legwork to find out who might need some help. You'll get a lot of “no's,” but one “yes” — even in a field that might seem tangential to what you really want — might lead to an exciting career path you never expected.

“Studio gigs are few and far between,” is Haseleu's sober assessment, “but our folks seem to be finding jobs in emerging markets, so we've had a number of people go into broadcast audio because there's so much more work in hi-def and broadcast engineers aren't sure what 5.1 is, and so on. Then also, new media like Internet companies and game support. A couple of people have gone to places like [Electronic Arts] and applied to the production department and gotten assistant gigs.

“One thing I would say about the more traditional recording studio career, though, is that it's maybe a little easier to make what I would call a ‘middle-class living’ for an artist, engineer or producer,” Haseleu adds. “You don't have to be working in Hollywood with a major act to make a decent living. You could be working out of your house. Your product may end up on a band's CD that they're selling with their shows or distributing off Internet sites. Maybe the band is playing the college circuit, which is not too exciting for somebody who had visions of being the Rolling Stones or whatever, but string some of those kinds of jobs together and you can make a living doing it. It's hard, no doubt about it, but it's worth it if it allows you to do what you love to do.”

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Blair Jackson is Mix magazine's senior editor.

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