In this chapter: The places pop stars always claim to be when they’ve been out of the charts for a while, recording studios are where recorded sounds (music and spoken word) are made, resulting in a master tape which is sent to the record company to be made into records.Usually they consist of one or more ‘mixing’ rooms and one or more ‘live’ rooms. Larger studios might also house rehearsal space.
Record companies or bands/artists pay the day to use them; they cost upwards of several hundred pounds a day depending on the facilities offered.
Mixing room: this is where the producer and sound engineer (see below) work their magic, using a mixing desk, any digital sound generators, and controlling and recording the sounds being made in the . . .
Live room: a soundproofed room where the artists play their instruments. There’s usually a separate booth for the vocalist (you’ve probably seen these in a few pop videos).
Artists’ lounge: where artists and sometimes staff hang out when they’re not actually required in the live or mixing rooms. This is usually where you’ll find the loos, Playstations, sofas, magazines, pool tables, TV, coffee machine, thumb-twiddling girlfriends and boyfriends and so forth.
A far cry from the flashy steel-and-glass offices of major record companies, studios are usually far more discreet places, tucked away on ordinary streets (e.g. the famous Abbey Road studios), in basements, back rooms and back alleys – you could walk past many of them without registering what they were.
Some studios are known as ‘residential’. These are hidden away in the countryside and offer accommodation for people using the facilities. Others belong to artists themselves and are situated within their home (or Peter Pan-themed fantasy world if your name is Michael Jackson).
The Highs And Lows Of Working In Recording Studios
HighsIf working on the technical side you have an enormous amount of artistic influence and it can be as creatively satisfying as being a musician yourself. The money can be extremely good. Producers can earn tens of thousands of pounds for recording an album, and top engineers are also well rewarded.
Lows
Not recommended for claustrophobics or outdoor types, as the 16-hour days locked in a small, windowless, artificially-lit space can really drive you stir-crazy. It can also get stuffy and smoky and it’s impossible to go outside to stretch your legs.
Many in this field are freelance and work on a project-by-project basis, so the work can therefore come through in fits and starts, which is nerve-wracking if you’ve got rent to pay. The pay is also very low when you’re starting out as something like a studio assistant – £8,000 salaries are not uncommon.
Record Producers
What Is A Record Producer?The role of the record producer is absolutely integral and cannot be overstated when it comes to the creating of a band/artist’s sound and the making of hit records. So it often seems rather unfair when a producer’s handiwork is credited to the band or artists instead. It is producers who, in the majority of cases, turn a decent song into a
, commercial one – or turn sows’ ears into silk purses in the case of some of the fluffier pop stars . . . As a mark of their importance they are, however, usually very well-renumerated by the record companies, who hire them on a project basis. They can become famous names themselves: e.g. Nellee Hooper, Trevor Horn, William Orbit.
As is the case with virtually every job mentioned in this book, the more successful/important you are, the more shots you can call. So, novice producers without much track record must tout their wares in the form of demos of past work to record company A & R departments and try to get some work, while a well-known super-producer can waltz directly up to artists they admire and ask to produce their next album. If the artists like the idea and have enough clout with their label this will generally go ahead (e.g. Trevor Horn with Belle And Sebastian’s sixth album).
What Do Record Producers Do?
Record producers are hired (often through an agent or manager if they are particularly successful) by A & R departments of record companies (see
Chapter 3) for projects (i.e. to record a single, or all or some of an album). Projects can last anything from one day to months and even years. Sometimes producers are also hired directly by unsigned artists and/or their managers for the purposes of making a demo.
In the case of an album, the first thing a producer will do is sit down and talk ideas through with the artists, listen to existing demos, pick out good bits and weak bits and
what needs to be worked on. The producer will also select a sound engineer to work with (see below). There may then be a rehearsal period known as ‘pre-production’ in which songs to be recorded are thoroughly practised, fiddled about with, and any problems ironed out.
When the producer is ready to begin the recording sessions, each member of the band usually records their part separately.
During the recording the producer sits at the mixing desk (usually a 24-track desk, but it can be as many as 48 or as little as eight if they’re after a basic, rough-and-ready feel) working alongside the engineer. But it’s not all technical; just as important is steering the artists through the recording session, deciding what order to record songs in, suggesting changes in the playing/singing or even lyrics if they think it’s necessary and keeping everyone focussed on and enthusiastic about the job at hand.
After recording, the music is ‘mixed’, i.e. the volume levels are balanced on each track and any extra sounds are added in. When everyone’s happy (and this can take a while as artists will have their opinions too about how loud the guitars should be, or how long the intro should last) the final master is delivered to the record company for the A & R department’s verdict.
Getting In The Door
Record producers normally start out as assistant engineers, progressing to engineers (see below). There’s little
of leaping straight into the producer’s seat without climbing the ladder this way; you simply won’t have the technical know-how, experience, maturity or diplomacy required.
However, some producers start out as musicians – producing is the favourite occupation of former pop stars when they get too old or unfashionable to get on
Top Of The Pops themselves and don’t fancy running a pub.
Courses in sound engineering or music technology contain a ‘production’ element but this alone won’t make you a record producer. You’ll still need to start as an engineer, or at the very least teach yourself the way around a mixing desk and get plenty of hands-on experience, like this rising star.
Case Study: Dimitri Tikovoï, Record Producer
‘I started making music when I was a child, out of passion and fun. At the time I could only see the outside aspect of it, which was a mysterious world, almost like a cartoon, where everything seemed to be quite distant from the reality. Music has always been either an entertainment form, a communication form (or in a few cases a research form), but the industrial aspect of it is quite recent and is not necessarily something that you see from the outside.’
‘Working in the music industry mixes two different feelings. One is the appeal of creating music that has the potential to be heard by a great number of people and therefore, as a producer, to try to push the limits of what is conventional. The other is the business and industrial side of it, which comes with the dark side of any business that needs to generate large sums of money without caring much for the product (in this case the artists) that it is exploiting. So as a producer, musician,
even if you work at a record label, you always find yourself torn apart between two realities.’
‘I started playing drums when I was seven, and was playing with bands by the age of 13 when I also bought my first computer and eight-track recorder. I then studied jazz and classical percussion and kept on playing live for other people. From what I earned from playing live and programming for other artists I bought more and more equipment to build my own studio. I didn’t go to any engineering school, so everything I’ve learnt was from working with other people or experimenting by myself.’
‘When I was 17 I produced my first record for a major record company. I was a hard-working person and because of my unconventional background (most producers come from a sound engineer field) I started to get more specialised work. Luck has a very important place in all this, plus the fact that you shouldn’t lose focus on what you believe and try to make everything possible to get your own sound and find a different way to approach things. Determination and love of what you do are the key factors.’
‘I started working quite young and had plenty of time to make many mistakes. You have to work hard, stick to what you are good at and believe in it and be patient. I am now working for bands and artists such as Placebo, John Cale, Michael J. Sheehy, Gary Numan, Goldfrapp, Marc Almond, Tram, Keith Flint and collaborative work with producers like Flood or Paul Kendall.’
‘The best thing about the job is that you learn every day from the people you work with, so it keeps you creative and you’re always challenged. The worst thing comes with the requirements of the business, and the money factors.’
‘My advice to young people wanting to get into record production? Don’t do it for the wrong reasons. It is a very long and difficult path which involves a lot of work, a lot of patience and a lot of struggle.’
‘Do it only because you feel passionate about music. The reality is that you’ll probably have to work very hard for a very long time for very little reward at first, so the only thing that will keep you going is what you’ll be learning in exchange and the privilege of meeting and working with interesting people. Do it for the fun and the rock ‘n’ roll. Forget about the sex and drugs, you won’t have time and you won’t be able to afford it anyway.’
Sound/Recording Engineers
What Is A Sound Engineer?Working closely with the producer, the sound engineer is often inseparable from, but not quite as ‘senior’ in the recording studio pecking order, as them. The engineer works on the technical side of a recording and tends to be the quiet one with the furrowed brow, sitting patiently fiddling with knobs while the producer is enthusiastically exhorting the bassist to take it ‘once more from the top’ through the studio intercom.
What Do Sound Engineers Do?
They look after all the studio equipment, setting it up at the start of the recording session and dismantling and checking it all again afterwards. They set up sound levels and dynamics (the loudness and softness of instruments) and acoustics within the live room. They then operate the mixing desk and/or recording software and any digital recording equipment during recording, and mix the different recorded tracks together onto the master tape. They then check the tapes, label them, assemble all the information on the recording needed by the record company and do anything else the producer needs them to do with regard to the recording.
Getting In The Door
You will need:
- to have the requisite technical/electronic/electrical know-how
- in-depth musical knowledge or, even better, the ability to play an instrument yourself
- an ear for pitch, timing and rhythm
- courage to be creative when its required.
Bear in mind also that there’s little room for egos in this field - the precious or moody need not apply.
There are over 200 courses covering sound engineering (often called Music Technology or something similar) at colleges and universities around the UK, ranging from MAs to BTECs, full-time and part-time, and everything in-between. Check those that are accredited with the Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS). When it comes to convincing a studio you have the wherewithal to come good for them, even a GCSE in electronics will be better than nothing.
Try to get work experience at a studio - find details in your local phone directory. London’s famous Abbey Road and the beautiful Air Studios are just two of the most prestigious studios, and are used by all the main
labels and big stars. As such they are, predictably, regularly flooded with enquiries from wannabe studio hands. So if you’re a total newcomer, forget them altogether and see if there’s something smaller near you.
At a smaller studio outside London which specialises in local bands’ demos, radio commercials and jingles, the chances of getting a look-in and actually twiddling some knobs yourself are infinitely higher – you might even be allowed to do something other than refill the toilet roll holders and make coffee. A year of that and then you might be in a position to send Pete Waterman your CV.
Failing this, try work experience at a hospital radio station, offer to help out roadying for a local band or venue, or get work experience with the sound engineers of a big theatre (see also Chapter 7 on jobs in live music).
If you strike gold and a studio takes you on, an entry-level job will be as an assistant engineer or studio assistant (‘tea boy’ or ‘tea girl’ in the less enlightened studios!).
Studio Managers
What Is A Studio Manager?Studio managers look after the studio, rather than the recording itself. It’s an administrative/marketing role rather than a creative one.
What Do Studio Managers Do?
They have various duties. They try to get new business (and retain regular customers) for the studio using whatever marketing/advertising/phone means they can to
A & R people at record companies to bring them business.
They negotiate fees with record companies, take bookings and keep the studio diary full to bursting and well-organised so that everyone knows who’s recording what and when. They look after human resources: hiring staff, paying them, generally being the boss.
They ensure all equipment is properly maintained and fixed if necessary, and hire anything else that’s needed. This is particularly important for the good reputation of the studio – if they don’t have a swanky, up-to-date mixing desk, producers and engineers won’t enjoy working with them and will therefore advise the record company that’s footing the bill to choose somewhere else next time.
They look after the day-to-day running of the studio including making sure office supplies are available (from photocopy paper to boxes of DAT tapes), answering the phones, dealing with the post, etc.
They also need to be able to step in and help out if an extra pair of hands is required during the recording, be this helping the engineer find the wah-wah pedal, or bringing the singer more hot Ribena.
Getting In The Door
You’ll need to be a good multi-tasker as you’ll often be doing three or four different things at once, with producers, engineers, assistant engineers, pop stars, receptionists and A & R coordinators all vying for your time and help.
You also need a keen business sense as you’ll be the one out there pitching for work for your studio: there is fierce competition amongst studios for work from the major record companies.
Studio managers often start as receptionists and work their way up, but are also sometimes ex-musicians or producers who have built their own studio and want to run their own ship.
Work experience is a great way to begin - see also
Chapter 2 for more information on getting a job.
Other Jobs You Might Find Within A Recording Studio
- Technical director - in charge of the equipment and technical side of things
- Rehearsal room coordinator - some studios have rehearsal rooms which are booked out to record companies and bands/artists separately from the recording rooms.