As always we have a few great questions in this week’s FAQ Friday
Today’s featured question is “When you are first starting out how do you know you are ready to work professionally as an engineer?”
I strongly believe there’s no time like the present. If you have been using a DAW for a few months and you got used to it. You have an ear, feel creative, excited and passionate about making music. – Then just do it, make music.
We all know Geoff Emerick was 19 turning 20 during Revolver. I’m bringing that up because he maybe had a year or two worth of experience working at abbey road.
Then he was thrown in on the deep end and became a full-time engineer. As you know Revolver is considered to be the number one or two in the greatest albums ever made by every chart that ever comes out.
Revolver had incredibly talented musicians involved, but there was a 19, 20-year-old who was capturing great performances and was creative trying out amazing new ideas for things that we now take for granted.
If you think about it in. Those terms and all of the musicians that we admire who were teenagers or early-mid 20’s when they were making their first records. It’s that sense of creativity that comes from inexperience. It’s a creative passionate thing, not age, if you love what you’re doing and bring your A-game, get yourself involved, you can do amazing things.
Service Industry
The second part of this answer is about the service industry, as a producer, Engineer, or mixer you’re providing a service. If you feel confident and comfortable doing that at any time then you should.
There is always going to be someone you can help. If you understand your level of ability if doesn’t matter if you have been doing this for a few months or a few decades. The reality is, if you know how to record something basically, you know how to program some midi stuff and build tracks.
Even having a young artist with a small budget that wants to come and work with you on it is great. You may have to work lots of long hours but you’ll learn together. There’s a saying “Learn as you Earn” meaning you’re always learning.
Whatever it is you’re doing no matter what you are being paid you should always be learning. Don’t hold yourself back, it’s a wonderful opportunity for you to get out there making music. Your age is irrelevant, experience and acquired knowledge are amazing things to bring to a situation. What’s more important is the want, need, desire, work ethic, passion, love, and positive attitude, those are more important than all else.
I’ve been in rooms with really talented people who are horrible to work with, the tell everyone they are doing it wrong and getting no level of creativity. I’ve been in rooms with relatively inexperienced people that get performances from people and allow them to feel important and bring ideas to the table and add positive things to the music.
To be honest I’ve been in a room with more negative experts than I have with anything else. You’ve seen comments on channels with people telling each other off, Can you imagine being in a room with someone saying “you’re doing it wrong.”
Imagine being a kid trying to play a part while doing something creative and a guy is saying all the things they’re doing wrong. – I mean common.
Sometimes it’s a blessing to be open to learning and not to be an expert, cut yourself some slack. If you’re new to this and still learning but want to get yourself out there, remember all the greats, all the best people in the world are still learning.
Watch the full episode of FAQ Friday below!
We cover the following questions during this episode of FAQ Friday!
• How do you make decisions on the gear when so many people can have a negative opinion about certain pieces of equipment. At the same time, it may be a building block for an iconic album. How would you approach it? (1:02)
• When you are first starting out how do you know you are ready to work professionally as an engineer? (7:26)
• What do you use to control your multi-monitor setup? Is it a passive or an active monitor controller? (13:27)