Lessons

Lesson Info

Class Overview & Student Goals

Welcome everybody I'm a little nervous obviously I spend most of my time in a dimly lit control room so being under all these lights and stuff is gonna take a little getting used to me for me just real quick on some stuff that I've worked on obviously the rhianna and katy perry records were pivotal in my career because I receive grammy nominations for them the dream was an arm be record one of the first big records that I ever worked on so that was kind of one of my kind of introductions into the music industry which is why I put it on you know, a highlight for my career um this frank ocean record novocaine is a record that I engineered and mixed that it wasn't like a chart topping hit but it was a very special record to me in a special record to a lot of people and one of the funnest records ever got to work on so that's why I put it on here justin bieber baby was a song that sold ten million copies so that's pretty crazy that I got to engineer a record that sold ten million copies st...

ill can't believe it to this day but well you're going to be learning today is that I have my dream job and anybody if I can do it anybody else can um it does take talent but talent can only get you so far in talent is basically everybody that's sitting here in washington home that has a passion for music is gonna have the ability to get a job in the music business you just have to be willing to work hard and it's very very difficult and what I've learned over the ten plus years of this industry I'm going to be sharing with all you guys and some of my mistakes some of my triumphs what I've learned by making mistakes what I've learned by doing the right thing um and I'm gonna help you guys weed out some of the things that you would have made a mistake on that I can help you kind of bypass by teaching you some of these things so we've divided us up into four segments the first one getting your foot in the door I mean it's a very basic term that I'm sure all of you have heard many many times it's probably one of the hardest parts of this is getting your foot in the door once you're in the door your chances increase ten fold that you're going to make it but getting your foot in the door can be very very difficult no these are very very important aspects of being an engineer or a producer most of what I'm going to be talking about is geared towards engineering because that's what I do however the blinds between producer and engineer and creator are blurring more and more every year with you know how technology moves and everything when I started and it was still kind of you know a specialty jobs so that's what kind of how this is the path that you're going to be taking is more geared towards your specialty job and what you want to do so people skills technical skills and then once you've kind of gotten your foot in the door how you climb the ladder and kind of stay in the business and maintain a career and how you move up through the ranks of having a career so let me ask all of you guys you know, people watching at home people here what is your dream job because that's kind of going to better determine how we thank you for how we cater this to you because it's going to be a little bit different like say if you want to be a recording engineer or you want to be a mastering engineer where you want to be a mixed engineer or you want to be a producer or a songwriter is going to dictate the path that you take and how you take it because this is all about strategic planning come I'm a huge sports fans when we referencing sports a lot throughout this you have to be the peyton manning of this you want to be the most prepared person in the room that's going to take your exploit your talents mean talent goes without saying in order to get to where you want to get you have to have talent but you want to be the most prepared person you're going out prepare everybody you're gonna outwork everybody and in doing that your chances they're going to increase here jot these down sure absolutely so my name's will will I'd like to own my own recording studio amazing that's awesome and in doing that are you looking to be an engineer a producer a songwriter like what's your like if you could do one thing for the rest your life what would it be uh then I'd say produced but I would also be the engineer studio right those two things are probably focus and as soon as I start cause I'm going to go through and very detailed explained what all these jobs do in the difference between all these jobs and that might also help help you better cater what you want to do because some people have a misconception of what exactly a producer is or what exactly recording engineer does or you know so I will go through that detail what they do and how they contribute to the record making process uh my name's tyler I want to be a professional touring musician my band is like uh pop rock music and I also want to be like the songwriter and producer for a record with sweet go off that's. The main thing for me excellent what you mama and in sasha my dream is to write music as a producer for myself, for others with other artists, and to travel the world. Excellent. A lot of creators in the building today. We love creators I wouldn't have a job of wasn't for them what about you sir? My name's johnny I would also say that I would love to be a a touring musician around the world but also later down the line I'm a songwriter now in love to write for other people and produced the work as well something like what max martin does dr luke one of those you know those guys were the best they're touring musicians I mean it's really fun but you know what happens when you're wanna have a family and stuff you know it's it's good to have ah and and the two things intertwined you know, being a touring musician most touring musicians also do studio work and you know a lot of studio musicians that I work with also are on the road all the time too well and so that was me on the road all the time twenty five years and after a while you yeah yeah yeah what what you said is true at some point some people this happened to me wanted teo manifest a creative life at home and not necessarily just a home you know I'll travel to produce records or do sessions but really focusing on cultivating a creative world here in the bay area so hi! No, I'm kind of doing my dream job but I want to keep deepening on the path you can always grow and always that's the beauty of this business is you have never master it because it's always changing, right, right? And for me, uh I still love performing and playing on people's records but producing and mentoring and composing has become more what I'm joost bye then being out there performing for folks so it feels really good to know that and then to just be seeking out opportunity sounds like you are by the way I work sitting extricate so you're this is julie sister I sit next to a pond clc good morning you waken sound exactly like hans so it sounds like you do a little bit of everything like primarily like a writer but I'll tell you engineering along what about about five years ago I was out on the tour bus here whatever it was twenty and I I really really want to manifest abundant creative life at home on so I thought let me get specific about what I want and I just wrote it down I want to produce five records a year I want to score four movies a year I want to teach I want you're already and you're going to see when I start going through this you're already strategically planning yes the way and I cannot stress that enough it's all about being prepared and strategic right plotting where you're going to go this is not a business that you could just kind of fly by the seat of our pants and go okay, I'm gonna do this I don't really know what I want to do yet you gotta figure it out and set a goal and never lose sight of it, and it just has to be. It has to consume your life. It really does. Well, it sounds like you. Here you go, a lot of stuff. Yeah, I do a lot of awesome. What about you in the back, sir, I would like to be recording and mixing in with tyler. Recording and mixing engineer. I love it. It's. What I do twenty hours every day. Primarily mixing these days, but, you know, definitely get the urge to cut stuff. Have a great time doing what about you, my man, mixing music for films, what's your name again, caliph k h a l a t awesome. Hey, l t. I'll try my very best. Remember who's, who I'm just. I've got a lot of stuff in my head, too, so I'm gonna do my best. He should record a mix for film. Yeah. And again the lot of the stuff I'm gonna be talking about is geared towards music because it's I can only speak from my own experiences but they're very very similar in you know it's the same process the same drive because what this course is going to be it's not necessarily going to be technical specifics I mean I'm going to go over some specifics that you have to know um but I'm not going to really be agree going over things that you would learn a recording school I'm or going to be teaching you how you take the knowledge you've got from recording school and turned it into a career or the things that you when you're in recording school you really like you know, if there's ever a time where you doze off these are the times that you can't like these the knowledge you have to retain and it's going to be the same whether it's film or music so what about you sir sam I'd actually like tio work on movies as well as mixing in recording in studios and video games is also oh yeah that's a he that's a field that they didn't really have this much about that when I was coming up but I mean that's a field that I'm still so fascinated with how they get the sound and you know that that's definitely a growing field and audio as well about you katrina katrina yeah, um thinking it's basically, like the thing that I would breathe, wake up in the morning that I want to do exactly what I want to do. But I also want to produce and come start composing, maybe for, like, film, or go for, you know anyone else. But and I wanted just not just being one. John robert working well, john, the center. They're awesome, and keep the keep it moving. It's. Always nice, it's always rough when you get pigeonholed in one thing, even though you know you're still doing music and it's great.