Bind 2: Venture
Research Project
Introduction
In this blog I will be researching the world of sound engineering. I’ve aspired to work in the music industry for the longest time. I’ve played in bands and performed for a number of years until a few years ago I realized that I’m really drawn towards the behind the scenes aspect of it. To help my research, I’ve conducted an interview with the CEO, engineer and producer of Hollywood House Studios Matias Kiiveri. In addition to that, I’ve created a Google Form Questionnaire that I shared in a Mixing & Mastering forum and received feedback from. I will be talking about what it takes to become a successful studio engineer, who does it involve and how to stay relevant in this fast growing industry.
Chapter I - Getting Started
To get started in the world of sound engineering, it is important to have quite a few sets of skills which I will dissect further into this blog. The industry might seem like a riddle and not everyone can manage the aspects that come with it. In short, there is a large number of people who want to enter the glamorous business of sound engineering and for that you need a ton of self-motivation & great networking skills. (Modern Recording Techniques, Chapter 1, p. 23)
“I started to record my friends’ bands during my high school years in our rehearsal space, with just a couple of microphones through a digital mixer to a two channel audio interface. What really pushed me to the industry was my internship at my uncle’s company Hollywood House (studio in Helsinki). That gave me job opportunities and brought me clients naturally. “ (Kiiveri, Matias, February 2023. Interview with the Sound Engineer at Hollywood House)
After talking with Matias and collecting answers through a Google Form questionnaire, it has become clear that most audio professionals have started on their own and continue to work on their own. That being said, the art business (including engineering and recording) is in most cases reserved for self-starters aka freelancers. Only you can push yourself the hardest to be successful in the line of freelancing. A college degree in production or engineering does not mean that you’ve now made it – it doesn’t guarantee a job in the future in audio. Dreams take a while to happen and they don’t on their own. It takes a great deal of perseverance, personality and talent to be successful.
“In fact, one of the best ways to get into the biz is to ‘‘knight’’ yourself on the shoulder with a sword (figuratively or literally) and say: ‘‘I am now a __________!’’ Whatever it is you want to be, become it … Shazammm!“ (Modern Recording Techniques, Chapter 1, p. 23)
Many people including myself have struggled with the question “Where and how do I even start?”. The answer is now. Even whilst being at school that is filled with like-minded people, artists, engineers, producers, creatives – by just putting yourself out there it will scarily increase the chances of success. Taking part in the endless workshops that different organizations have to offer can also help you find your path. If the workshop doesn’t work out for you then it is important to remember that being in the right place often means being in the wrong place several hundred times.
Chapter II - People Skills
“It’s not only what you know, it’s who you know…”
Networking makes up a big part of the success in your career. It is important to keep your ears open and ask questions. Maybe someone you’re talking to has an uncle who is in the business, it’s unpredictable where you might find connections. Business wouldn’t work if we didn’t talk about it. (Modern Recording Techniques)
“The internship at Hollywood House (studio in Helsinki) was the first push, but after that I found new clients from the music circles in Oulu where I lived at that time. After moving to Helsinki, socialising with my new school friends and the people I met was a big part of getting new clients from new areas. Also social media is a big part of keeping my work visible for others.” (Kiiveri, Matias, February 2023. Interview with the Sound Engineer at Hollywood House)
If there’s a studio that you’ve got in mind and would like to work at, go and hang out without being in the way. There might just be an engineer who needs some assistance or perhaps knows someone else who might use your set of skills. The longer you stick with it and the more you put yourself out there, the more you will find out and the more people you’ll meet.
Q: How have you found clients in this industry?
A: A mixture of cold calling and word of mouth.
Google Form Questionnaire response
To push it even further, we live in an era where social media is the number one tool for gaining traction, but just like with anything else in this industry, perseverance is key to running social media successfully. It’s a simple task to add to your everyday life. If you’re in the studio, creating something, setting up microphones, mixing or even just making coffee for the engineers, recording the process on your phone & later editing it into a 60 second clip in the form of “A Day In A Life of …”, will tremendously boost your career. People love to watch that stuff, it’s addictingly interesting.
Chapter III - The Process of Running a Successful Studio
A successful music studio has a wide range of qualities other than their gear. The overall quality, knowledge and vision of their staff defines the outcome of the establishment. It is also important to remember that the music that we hear and love has one very strict ingredient that all the technology in the world is basically useless without – human creativity, emotion and technique. That in mind, here are some human factors that a studio could not run without:
A producer’s job is to communicate with the artist by helping them and the studio to record the best possible outcome reflecting the artist’s vision. This can often mean receiving a demo from an artist, and helping them create the sonic vision that the artist is looking for, or a producer may work on his own material and outsource the artist to perform their songs. In this fast growing world, it is relevant for the producer to also have engineering or recording skills. Conversely, an engineer is going to spend a lot of time with artists recording them, often the role of co-producing becomes part of their job as well.
An engineer is someone who must be able to express the artist’s music and the producer’s concepts through recording technology. Considered an art form as music is subjective and everybody has their own taste & experiences. A day in the life of an engineer at as studio usually consists of welcoming the artist or musicians, placing them in the desired locations, choosing and setting up the microphones, checking the levels on the DAW or on the console, recording the tracks and if necessary overdubbing or adding sprinkles or little embellishments to the performance and last but not least, mixing and mastering the track into a number of different formats.
An assistant engineer is often around studios to do the time consuming “need to be done” tasks like microphone and headphone setups, running cables, setting up the console & DAW for a recording session, oftentimes after the session, the assistant engineer performs rough mixes and cleans up the session. WIth the world changing fast and the number of freelance engineers rising quickly, assistant engineers are good to have to help guide the freelance engineer through the quirks in that recording studio.
A maintenance engineer is quite self explanatory I’d say. Although I think it is very useful for anybody working in the studio as an engineer to know how to solder, some bigger establishments might have a full-time maintenance engineer to keep an eye on the gear all the time and make sure everything is running smoothly & taken care of.
A mastering engineer is someone dedicated to working with the final mix. Their job is to master the final mix in terms of overall loudness (LUF), EQ and dynamics. Often mastering engineers bring life to the track and make it the best possible sonic experience. It is important for a mastering engineer to really know and trust their speakers, as they are the last link in the music making process. (Miller, David; Modern Recording Techniques, p. 19-22)
There are plenty of more positions involved in making a fully functioning music business:
- Artist management
- A&R
- Music publishing
- Distribution
- Web/Graphic development
- Studio management
- Finance sector
A lot of these professions can be outsourced depending on the size of the business. Knowing how the system works and having skills in each of these areas is very important to stay relevant. Constantly learning and keeping yourself updated with the latest updates and changes in this industry will guarantee a successful career. (My New Microphone, 2021)
Having a thorough portfolio is a must. A portfolio is a collection of your works that showcase your abilities as a sound professional. It can be built on a website where it’s easy to navigate and find your work. A portfolio should also contain important details about you as an artist e.g artist bio, artist statement and contact details. Your portfolio is a reflection of your skills and experience, it’s important that you highlight your best work and showcase your range of abilities. (Indeed, 2022)
Chapter IV - Technical Side
Knowing your gear instead of endlessly obtaining new products, is the difference between knowing what you’re doing and winging it. I believe we are all familiar with the thought of “if I only had this plugin…”, where in many cases we are just unfamiliar with what we’ve got. Taking the time to truly understand how to translate your vision creatively when mixing, will make the process much more fluid & enjoyable. It is important to learn how an EQ works in different settings, how a compressor can manipulate the sonic qualities of a track or how to use time manipulating plugins properly. I have definitely been a victim of the thought mentioned above. That said, there is no strict blueprint to mixing or recording but there are essentials we must understand.
“I’m a software engineer as well, so I like to develop my own plugins/software for mixing” Google Form Questionnaire response
Throughout the process of learning, taking the time to experiment with microphones, their positions, testing different preamps or treating the room differently than before will all help shape you as a sound engineer. Through trial and error is how I tend to learn best. The amount of theoretical resources available online is endless and I can definitely get lost in the thousands of hours of content and reviews on youtube, but at the end of the day my experience is my experience and without a real world test I can’t really allow myself to form an opinion.
“Do study psychoacoustics and understand the science of sound. Don’t fall for all the mysticism and gear hype in this industry.” Google Form Questionnaire response
“My mastering monitors”Google Form Questionnaire response
For example when choosing monitors, it is important to pay attention to certain aspects in order to successfully pick the right ones for your needs. However, setting monitors up in your dedicated studio space is going to be much different than listening to the speakers at a store or a showroom. It is important to have a collection of musical pieces that you’re well familiar with. With that in mind, choosing speakers and listening to tunes that you know, we are able to pay attention to whether the monitors have an even frequency balance. If you notice any frequencies that are exaggerated or attenuated (especially in case of cymbals in the high end, vocals & guitars in the midrange and bass and kick drum on the low end), it is easy to recognize what type of calibration that set of monitors might need. It is also important to test the monitors at different volume levels and see if frequency range stays balanced throughout the adjustment of master dB level. (The Mixing Engineers Handbook, Chapter Nine, p. 67)
“What’s some of your favourite gear to use?”
“Tape recorders, ribbon microphones, tube microphones, fabfilter plugins, uad-plugins, oek-sound plugins… rc-20 plugin!”(Kiiveri, Matias, February 2023. Interview with the Sound Engineer at Hollywood House)
Chapter V - Mentors and Money
In the music business, it seems unimaginable to deal with all of its aspects alone. Having someone to mentor you is a big asset. Perhaps a lecturer from a university, or an experienced studio professional. Especially when it comes to freelancing, having someone who’s experienced and gone through the process once already, who you can turn to and ask direct questions from is a comforting thought. Some of the things that a mentor could help you with:
- Business decisions, such as deciding whether to sign an artist and what type of deal should it be
- Creative process as in deciding which songs to record or which producer to use
- Helping you assemble a professional team with their networking list including producers, engineers, social media managers and the list goes on
In other words, a mentor will help guide you through the obstacles that this career path will present. It’s always good to share your findings with someone with an opinion. (Passman, Donald S., All You Need To Know About Music Business, Chapter 3, p 37)
Income in this industry I feel is very individual. Pay very much depends on the quality and your attitude towards work. That’s the freedom of freelancing, you’re your own boss. Although it’s good to note that with it comes the side of unbillable hours. Searching for clients, replying to emails, invoicing – all that time is not paid for. Researching the market to help you find your price can be helpful. For example, when I went to a studio for 4 days of recording and 4 days of mixing / mastering, it cost us nearly 4000€. This is also in the capital of Finland, prices will vary depending on location and studio quality.
Depending on the country and industry, the median yearly pay for a sound engineer in Europe is from 30,000 to 40,000€. Nonetheless, sound engineers who work for live events such as festivals, concerts or even theatre shows can earn more than an “office” sound engineer. (PayScale; Audio Engineer Salary in Germany, 2023)
Chapter VI - Conclusion
In this rapidly changing and constantly developing world, it’s becoming seemingly more and more difficult to become a successful audio engineer due to there being so many aspects to pay attention to, which is why it’s important to divide your time and focus on a few things at a time. This is a process that will take years and it’s important to keep a level head.
Success in this area will come with personal initiative and perseverance rather than relying solely on a college degree. It’s only half the skill to know how to engineer and manipulate audio, people skills and networking is just as important as technical skills. Keeping a good log and an aesthetic presentation of a collection of your works will make you stand out from the crowd of audio engineers. Your portfolio is a reference to your works that will be used as examples when acquiring new clients.
Entering the audio industry demands significant dedication and hard work, however staying persistent you will find high rewards. Music is constantly changing which gives us the opportunity to endlessly explore and grow ourselves as industry professionals. Music and the industry are continuously evolving into something new as frequently as month to month. Being able to keep up with this ever evolving industry is more important than most are aware of. Being an engineer is a multifaceted career and without the ability to adjust, assimilate and stand out, it is easy to fall into the crowd of generics.
As more technology and resources become readily available to the general public, it is more important for engineers to hone their craft and evolve with the times. Skill is only a portion of what is required to be successful in this field now. Being multidimensional and adaptive will provide major advantages to not only engineers but the clients as well. Music is a world with unlimited and immense untapped potential. Being able to stand out and dominate as an engineer is vital for the music industry and for personal careers.