I was looking into this a while ago but just got busy doing other shit which ended up being practically nothing.

I asked around though and most of the properly paid engineers are self taught and got their arse into the shit. They told me it was just useful for a bit of paper if you wanted to work radio or tv.

However I would still have done the course anyway because I'm a fucking engineering retard.

I imagine in Melbourne it is the same as in Sydney. There are no jobs. If you want to work in the studio you need to freelance and bring work to a studio, or start your own studio. In the very rare instance of an actual studio gig coming up, it won't be advertised, it will only be offered to someone in the know, and pay will be peanuts, hours will be crap, and the work more than likely mind numbing (rolling cables, making coffee etc). But you may learn something if you are keen.

Probably better than the music industry skill course at BRIT...ahhh BRUCE!

with the course, be prepared to make coffee and clean the studio for at least a year, before anything meaningful. better off finding a live sound job somewhere, at least your paid as your learning, then you can move on to making coffee

One mate of mine started a studio which is now debt-free and making money, but he's getting out of it to become a witlof farmer or something ridiculous. He did a course at some point. Another one finished his course and went straight into teaching that same course. Others are likely to have had different experiences.

i've done the course... the only difference between all these courses are the gear you use. go to sae and you're using ssls and neves... go to vu or nmit or rmit and you're using behringer. i did it cos i have my own studio. like jbr said, there is no work in studios - there is a bit of work in education institutions though.

An (ex-bandmate) friend of mine is kicking some goals with this shit. He does a lot of work on tv shows, live broadcast kinda stuff, bit of live mixing. He only did a course at NMIT and got an assistant job at Metropolis studios before it went bust. He does work odd hours though and still maintains his dependency on marijuana quite well.

SAE churns out hundreds of people with pieces of paper saying they're qualified and no skills. Incredible over-supply to job demand.

There is definitely more demand for good live engineers... TV gigs are pretty hard to come across because those dudes have been there for years and hang on to the jobs like crazy. But you never know, you may get lucky! More money in advertising studios, if you can handle that...

One of my mates did the RMIT sound course and got into TV, but it took him a few years and a lot of persistence to get the break.

Thanks, guys (gals)!

memphis said 16 minutes ago:
with the course, be prepared to make coffee and clean the studio for at least a year, before anything meaningful. better off finding a live sound job somewhere, at least your paid as your learning

Hi Memphis, how do I get a live sound job when I am starting out with no prior knowledge?(apart from some experience I had at production house...like... turn a 1k tone on, switch the mixer to -12dB or -20db... keep the ''needle'' under peak...etc) And what is the industry like?

DANNA, I won't be able to afford my own studio. I don't think I would able to work in education insTITutions as English is not my first language and all that.

Oh... and I don't drive. :-(

sorry, assumed you had some interest in this which would mean, to me, some experience with your own band or friends or something. i'm sure you could find some kind of accoustic bar where you do nothing but vocals and maybe a guitar. actually, i'm not sure, but i would think you could, sorry, i'm working backwords, stuff i did. now, you couldn't pay me enough to do any of it

LOL
So what should I do, memphis?

And that's why I am looking for course.

don't know, get a cheap four track and mess with it till you can use it, or take the class

i'm sorry, don't mean to sound rude

No problem, mempsie.

SGH said 48 minutes ago:
SAE churns out hundreds of people with pieces of paper saying they're qualified and no skills. Incredible over-supply to job demand.

And they have bad designed Ads on street press.

JBR said 43 minutes ago:
There is definitely more demand for good live engineers... TV gigs are pretty hard to come across because those dudes have been there for years and hang on to the jobs like crazy. But you never know, you may get lucky! More money in advertising studios, if you can handle that...

I'm interested in live recording too.

LOL
So what should I do, memphis?

PA company. Push boxes around then hopefully get to mix because your keen and hang around after the bump in to see what the mixer does.

Thanks!

And the course I'm looking into covers live recording too:

Career prospects
Sound technicians operate audio equipment to amplify, enhance, record, mix or reproduce sound in a wide range of situations. Work may include studio recording, pre-production, live sound and music reinforcement, including related fields such as television, radio, film and multimedia.

SAE churns out hundreds of people with pieces of paper saying they're qualified and no skills.

Weird thing about that is that there are SAE colleges all over the world and I've seen the syllabus for some of those and they were really, really good.

Why does Australia get the shit SAE?

I'm sure Tom Misner would say Australia has a great SAE at Byron, the SAE World Headquarters...

He's hardly likely to put shit on his own product, is he?

i have actually heard that the byron sae is good. the rest... not so much. that said, for the price of study you could buy a mixer / PA and a bunch of decent mics and just start recording / doing live sound (though you won't be able to live of the government while you do it like you would if you were studying). i suppose you'd probably need to know a bunch of people in bands already though.

pretty much any way into this sort of career involves offering your services for free for a decent amount of time. if you get some skills together then you can maybe ask for a little bit of money to cover your costs after a while. after a bit more time, if you're getting a lot of people asking for your services, you can maybe ask for a small set fee (not enough to live off by a long shot, but enough to do more than just cover your costs for the session/gig... maybe a few bucks profit). as you get more people who want to work with you you can increase your fees. maybe one day you can make it your only job.

i'm maybe 2/3 through this myself. i do it as my full time job but am still working things up to the point where i'm making a comfortable living. i'm maybe a year or two away from that.

Incremental, are you in Melbourne?

for the price of study you could buy a mixer / PA and a bunch of decent mics and just start recording / doing live sound

One of Brisbane's biggest self-employed sound engineers told me he did exactly that. His parents offered him the cash to go to SAE and he asked them to buy a PA with a third of that instead, and within two years he'd paid them back (including when he blew it up at his fifth gig, or something, and had to repair it). Last time I saw him at a gig he was lugging his gear into the venue with about five paid staff out of the back of a semi.

Hang on, get I get government loan for those courses?

brisbane.

i'm fairly sure you can get HELP (aka HECS or whatever) for many of these courses, and AUStudy if you're eligible.

i spent 5yrs at uni getting a couple of degrees and then 3yrs as a programmer, all the while either spending my money on buying some decent recording gear or saving at away for when i quit that job and went into recording full time. i've never had any proper audio training but i have a lot of bands come through with people who have, and they're usually pretty envious of the setup that i have. almost none of them do sound for their job. sometimes they ask me for an internship, which i find pretty funny considering i'm working out of a single room basement (that was also my bedroom and living room for 2 years) with gear strewn all over the place (although i'm in the process of building a proper studio space).

anyway, as i said i'm still a while away from making a decent living from the studio, so i'll leave it to the actual engineering success stories (i'm sure there are a few) on the m&n board to give more info. just thought it might be useful to the OP.

You have a better chance of winning the lottery or making a living playing music than making a viable career in audio engineering. The money spent on the piece of paper would be much better spent on books and equipment, as well.

Funnily enough, this is always something I've been interested in, and I now spend my days using ProTools and Audition, checking levels and jacking in and off this and that.... They pay me for it too. Strange this 'eh?

*things

email said 1 minute ago:
Funnily enough, this is always something I've been interested in, and I now spend my days using ProTools and Audition, checking levels and jacking in and off this and that.... They pay me for it too. Strange this 'eh?

Share your story please, mister email.

Ms.

I volunteered in radio for three years. They opened a brand new studio and needed staff, I am now the staff.

Anything in the music industry will take you a lot of your own time, money and effort to get into. Any job I have had was through endless research, passion, enthusiasm and time. Lots of time.

Worth it, great job.

:-)

Thank you, Madame Email.
I will look into it.

Oh - bit I left out. I also moved to the country. It's a lot easier to get a show here than it is at FBi, and I should imagine PBS/RRR as well. But I'd still highly recommend it, there are plenty of peeps from those stations floating around in some good jobs.

So, if I am going all out and do a TAFE course, RMIT is the one to go to right?

Reading the enrolment stuff. Totally confused.

A guy I used to work with did the course but he is now working at a warehouse.
But his friend told me he might not trying to get into the industry hard enough.

Is my dream of being the Chinese Timbaland going to end?

Just fucking do it, what else are you going to do next year.

You're just as likely to be successful doing this if you try hard enough once you finish the course and not get wrapped up in the dream of becoming the worlds biggest engineer.

Volunteer like a mother fucker while you're doing the course as you should be getting austudy or something and wont really need the cash as hard.

I am enrolling! 32.9 yo man who had his degree 9 years ago!

The letter from RMIT said:

NO

blessing in disguise

Why? Are you offering me a job in Electricsound Ladyland™?

would that i got paid myself

?

You can come do sound for us tommorow for about 20 bucks a band. Crude introduction.

Be there at 3, set everything up and then listen to all my ideas.

King_Rat said 3 minutes ago:
You can come do sound for us tommorow for about 20 bucks a band. Crude introduction.

But I dunno what to at all and I don't finish work til 5 and need to pick up $ from Kelele....

get lead

plug one end into mic & put mic on stand

stuff other end in mixer

push faders up and down

done!

when lead singer requests more 'vocals' in foldback give them a thumbs up, implying that you have turned it up, when in all reality, you've done fuck all

electricsound said 3 minutes ago:
get lead
plug one end into mic & put mic on stand
stuff other end in mixer
push faders up and down
done!

Sweet!

Knew a guy who basically started doing demos under his house for an amount of $ befitting his skills and experience. Several years later (and lots of hard work) he had a very good set up and was pretty much living off his recording sessions. Pieces of paper are good but nothing beats trial & error & experience.

Pieces of paper are...

...nothing in audio. It's people you know and show reel/previous work and how much you approach people. It's like picking up women, either you look good already and get the ocassional approach or you try and try and try (and some people still never get there).