Recording Engineering

[J.Warsoff]

Hi everyone. I'm only a sophomore, but I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. Since I love music and am a musician, but I also like robotics and working with electrical components, I thought why not do both and be a recording engineer. I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight to this and how robotics and electrical experience will help me in this kind of field. Thank you!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jared,
If you were closer, I would invite you over to sit in on a mixdown and dubout session on a 5.1 project I am working on. I have been at this on and off since early December and the project is possessed, absolutely haunted.
As a recording engineer you have to be able to take enjoyment in sitting through the same piece of music over and over and over. I am confidant that I have heard this piece more times than the composer and arranger put together. Maybe ten times more. While some projects are not as intense (or have as many problems as this one) you still will perform the same. Take a country show I engineered many years ago. Our first order of business was tuning the drum tracks. We started with bass, then snare, then upper toms, then floor toms. We never moved off the first song while doing this. Starting at noon, we finally broke for a meal at 8PM and then started back finishing with the overhead tracks and getting an overall mix of just the drums around midnight. All without leaving the first song. We started the next day at 8 AM and by noon or so we had everything but the vocals tuned. After lunch we started into the vocals and by about 5 we were actually starting to listen and mix the second song in a one hour show. The engineering part of this is hearing something that you need to fix or make sound different, knowing what you need to add to correct it, and figure out where in the signal path it needs to be placed for the best advantage. If you are engineering the session, the mixer will depend on you to know everything about all of the equipment, what special tweaks it might need to sound just right, or how to load software that might change it's operation.
The real engineering part for me is having to modify hardware, repair equipment that isn't functioning just right, be able to hear and identify minor issues and know where the problem is actually occurring. Recently, that meant identifying a digital echo was occurring in a digital transfer that was not the slap of a piano hammer coming from the side of the piano that was in full stick. One is unavoidable and the other required a complete dubout after the problem was identified and corrected (rebooted).

[J.Warsoff]

Thanks for the insight Al! I am also a budding jazz musician, and I plan to be a recording artist on the side. Ive also heard that some recording engineers help out with production and the musical aspect, if they know music theory, composition, etc. That's basically what I'm like, technical minded but also musically minded. Can a recording engineer also do things that have to do with the musical aspect of a song/production?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jared,
You become a triple threat when you can read music, know when someone is playing the wrong notes or not keeping in time, and can hear the difference between an SM81 and KM 84 and know when to use one over the other. Our art was even more in demand during the days of analog tape. Today software makes up for a lot of mistakes that are best handled at the source before you need to take action. As you become more involved, things like drum sampled tracks become obscene when you hear them playing over and over within a song.
One of my heroes was Les Paul. He had all of these qualities and was a nice guy to boot. He was the father of modern electric guitar construction, multitrack recording, console engineering and a great musician. Much of what we take for granted today, Les had to invent to make things sound the way he wanted.

[J.Warsoff]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Jared,
You become a triple threat when you can read music, know when someone is playing the wrong notes or not keeping in time, and can hear the difference between an SM81 and KM 84 and know when to use one over the other. Our art was even more in demand during the days of analog tape. Today software makes up for a lot of mistakes that are best handled at the source before you need to take action. As you become more involved, things like drum sampled tracks become obscene when you hear them playing over and over within a song.
One of my heroes was Les Paul. He had all of these qualities and was a nice guy to boot. He was the father of modern electric guitar construction, multitrack recording, console engineering and a great musician. Much of what we take for granted today, Les had to invent to make things sound the way he wanted.

Wow, thats great to know Al! Here's something interesting: Herbie Hancock, the famous jazz pianist, actually graduated college with a major in Electrical Engineering and only minored in general music.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Yes, I worked with Herbie a few times in the 80's. Another nice guy in the industry. We did a few Downbeat Jazz awards shows at my station. The project I am currently working on is also a jazz project.

[J.Warsoff]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Yes, I worked with Herbie a few times in the 80's. Another nice guy in the industry. We did a few Downbeat Jazz awards shows at my station. The project I am currently working on is also a jazz project.

Are you serious?!?!?! I love Herbie's stuff! I'm a huge jazz fan as well as a musician (i play tenor sax, guitar, bass, and harmonica) so I listen to a lot of his stuff.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Herbie was one of the first keyboardists to use a small audio console to mix the outputs of his several keyboards to both an ear monitor and to the recording desk during the show. One of my most favorite other performers was Lionel Hampton. When we were setting up his equipment, he offered to give us all a lesson on how to play the vibes. How cool is that? Hamp was always cool and friendly with the crew and made us feel like we were visitors instead of the other way around. At one point he said "when I take a break, the crew takes a break".

[wireties]

This is beyond kewl! I am also a huge Herbie Hancock fan.

My daughter is studying EE at Baylor but on a recent trip to NY visited the studios at 30 Rock. She is now looking into music and broadcast engineering. She is a good piano player, composes some, reads well and has the voice of an angel (Dad talking here).

What kind of background do music/broadcast engineers typically have?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Keith,
I wish I could recommend broadcast engineering but I can no longer look someone in the eye and say there is a real future here. I have a BS as a EET from Bradley but have been working in TV since I joined the TV club in high school. I had to engineer shows during a teacher's strike at my school to keep classes going. I have never crossed a picket line again. I am grandfathered in as a First Class Radiotelephone, now a General Class license. I was a certified Broadcast Engineer with the SBE but recently dropped membership. I am self taught in acoustics and audio control room design, and a graduate of SynAudCon audio seminar series.
While I sometimes am assigned to music shows and audio production, I am also involved with system engineering, equipment install and repair. While I might be fixing a mic one day, the very next I might be on the roof inside a satellite dish or up on Sears Tower working on our transmitter. Most young people do not want to go near something that has 35 kV@2amps power supplies, can make 20+ kW of RF or gets struck by lightning several times a year. This job has been very good to me and I have never regretted a day. On the other hand, most people would shy away if you tell them that occasionally I will start my day at 5 AM and still be on the clock, the next day at 2 PM. Starting at 7 AM and still working at 1 AM (and scheduled to start the next day at 6 AM) is not uncommon during a show day or commercial shoot.

BTW, Someone sent this to me a few weeks back. I hope you all like it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEliY73q_Fk

[rsisk]

I love listening in when engineers start talking about cool things. Thanks guys.

[DonRotolo]

Al, It can't be as bad as you say. After all, there's the lousy food, mind-numbing monotony, temperamental artists and producers, along with the occasional technical glitch to keep your spirits from flagging...

Seriously: Thanks for that insight. Very, very cool.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

What food? Seriously, when working with pros and outside clients the food is pretty good. Just far apart, everyday, it's what ever you can find nearby.

I should mention that I was part of the team that developed stereo for US TV. We started out making our own stereo VTRs and simulcast with FM stations. When we didn't like dealing with New York network policies on audio compression and auto gain devices, we got involved with an independent engineering group and developed BTSC audio. We were pushing hard for Dolby A noise reduction in the L-R channel but the committee settled on DBX. So we did all the on air testing and were the first on the air with stereo way back when.
On a sad note, one of our transmitter stereo engineering team just died this week. Don Geigner was a good friend, fellow ham and a great transmitter engineer. He taught me a lot.

[J.Warsoff]

I think that rather then working for radio stations, I would rather want to work in a studio with musicians and help produce albums. I like working with things like soundboards and mixing, but i think my experience with electrical in robotics will come in handy, whether it be soldering or making PWMs.

Oh yes, I've done some research on job outlooks, and it looks like the recording and broadcast engineering fields are supposed to grow significantly in the near future and beyond! Since technology changes fast, the music industry needs people who know how to use/fix the components to keeps things running. Sounds good to me.

[wireties]

I know what you mean Al. I designed some of the navigation systems on our aircraft carriers, the control systems of a few big telescopes and some antenna control systems. You end up doing some 48 hour-straight stints with the captain yelling at you, working all night on another system then all day while the astronomers sleep and climbing antenna towers in the Aleutians - not always fun!