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Networking

Trade shows going to talk a little bit about networking now that you're in your career and you're working um networking is very very very important and this is where your kill mentality kind of slows down a little bit whereas if you are a ninja going to try to slit your competition's throat now your competition is actually your friend I utilize my colleagues they utilize me we talk on the phone all the time if I'm stumped on something I can always call dave recall a colleague of mine you know what now what are you doing on snares lately I just can't get to snare to sound the way I want it to sound and we share techniques with each other we give tips an engineer that hides their techniques to me is just ridiculous there are guys out there girls out there engineers in general that are very secretive about what they do and I don't but I don't agree with that because you could give two carpenters the same hammer nails not gonna build the same house it's all about what's in here and what th...

ese here um now I'm spout off another day prince sado quote that he always taught me is one of the best simplest things he ever told me it was like I can teach you how to get a great snare sound but I can't teach you what a great snare sound is it's like I can show you techniques all day long but that doesn't mean that you'll be inspired and hear sound in your head that people are really going to go oh wow that sounds great the techniques are just ways to get you get the sound to come out of the speaker you have tohave the idea in your head of where the sound is going to come from sometimes we get stumped so we utilize each other um the trade show aspect this is a great place to meet new people to meet people you haven't seen in a while and my favorite part of it get in bed with the manufacturers get free shit not to mention you get to know all this is all about staying ahead of the curve and staying ahead of the times I go to these trade shows I talked to the people at abbott I talked to the people at universal audio I talked to these people so I know about a lot of the stuff that comes out six months before it comes out some of the stuff I've already worked with you know I have a lot of colleagues that do beta testing for the new approaches version so I already know all that all the bugs are and because they tell me like oh approach was ten or eleven has a weird thing where if you export a region is a file it crashes the computer you know, like you learn about all these things and learning what the new stuff is coming out it's. Just like studying the trends in the music charts. You're studying the technology where it's, moving to the future of technology, where, you know you go to like, this is a great, awesome trade show. Nam. Some of you may have been already, um, it's, like disneyland for musicians and engineers. Uh, and here you'll get to see all the new stuff that they're working on, stuff that they're gonna be releasing in the next year the next five years, the next two years. Not not only is it a great place to network, but it's a great place to re con about the future of where music recording is going. Is this a mantra for somebody who's starting out? Maybe still, an internship criteria. Would you apply for deciding which is the right treacher for you to attend? To be completely honest I would say something like this is premature for someone with an attorney it would be great to see absolutely and you could learn 00:04:02.768 --> 00:04:05. a lot but I feel like 00:04:06.44 --> 00:04:08. you wouldn't realise what it's worth you would have 00:04:08.91 --> 00:04:11. to find a way to get in to that's where they're not 00:04:11.17 --> 00:04:13. open to the public and you have to know you have to 00:04:13.38 --> 00:04:18. know somebody I mean the guy's the you could get a 00:04:18.67 --> 00:04:20. pass from a guy that works at guitar center if you 00:04:20.59 --> 00:04:21. knew him or something 00:04:22.84 --> 00:04:24. but realize that when you're in this building you're 00:04:24.95 --> 00:04:25. with 00:04:26.74 --> 00:04:28. professionals you're with 00:04:29.68 --> 00:04:33. a couple thousand guys like me that make a living 00:04:33.17 --> 00:04:36. in the music business so as an intern 00:04:37.74 --> 00:04:41. you may be a little premature and you may be getting 00:04:41.05 --> 00:04:43. a little ahead of yourself by trying to network with 00:04:43.34 --> 00:04:45. thes people prematurely because first of all your 00:04:45.54 --> 00:04:48. road by the time you actually can't work with these 00:04:48.0 --> 00:04:50. people they probably have forgotten who you are because 00:04:50.94 --> 00:04:51. there 00:04:52.44 --> 00:04:55. they see one hundred two hundred three hundred people 00:04:55.66 --> 00:04:57. in this place every day 00:04:58.86 --> 00:05:01. every time I go to nam I probably get five or six 00:05:01.79 --> 00:05:05. hundred emails daily of just people that I talk to 00:05:05.96 --> 00:05:06. and 00:05:08.04 --> 00:05:12. no, I've done talks there before and you know you 00:05:12.22 --> 00:05:14. hang out at the booths with some of the manufacturers 00:05:14.32 --> 00:05:16. and people come up to you and talk to you and everything 00:05:17.04 --> 00:05:20. I wouldn't recommend as an intern stepping into one 00:05:20.8 --> 00:05:23. of these seven interminable somebody's, really just 00:05:23.44 --> 00:05:26. starting out. They want to begin their networking. 00:05:26.25 --> 00:05:28. They want to have the exposure, wrote them. I mean, 00:05:28.64 --> 00:05:30. obviously, this is not the right show, but I'm just 00:05:30.4 --> 00:05:32. curious how you'd apply, what criteria, where you'd 00:05:32.56 --> 00:05:34. say, where do you start and look for the right show 00:05:34.44 --> 00:05:36. for somebody starting out? Um 00:05:41.94 --> 00:05:46. I don't know if a trade show would really be something 00:05:46.54 --> 00:05:49. that someone that starting out could utilize like 00:05:49.28 --> 00:05:52. cause these air these this is like a peek into the 00:05:52.85 --> 00:05:55. future for someone that starting out there so is trying 00:05:55.28 --> 00:05:58. to get a grasp on how to record music properly how 00:05:58.78 --> 00:06:02. to mix me a proper tools user group or just like hanging 00:06:02.27 --> 00:06:04. out with other people from school other net right 00:06:04.4 --> 00:06:09. yeah I would I mean forums there's chat rooms I mean some of those could get a little ridiculous with people sometimes but um I would I would recommend in the intern stage networking with other people that are in your same boat and this is part of your re kon and your ninja tio find out how hard they're working and take him out by working harder you don't want to overstep when you're in places like this you're surrounded by people that are very far ahead of you when what we really going to say to dave prince otto if here hey man and big fan cool thanks bye right and he's the nicest guy in the world he would never blow anybody off he talks to he killed himself trying to talk to his many people as he possibly can but there's nothing he can really do to help you out. I go into the same problem because I I believe so much in giving back to people and giving in to the education process of the music business and recording because still and so blessed to be where I am but I mean these it's hard to tell to talk to some of these young people because you don't know there's not really anything you can do to help him out at that point come you know, because someone were like oh, can you forward my resume to the studio and blah blah blah and it's like I'll forget you know, like you send me away like I don't know you you can't really just send me a resume you know, the best way I can help you is advice and let you know what you should do um so for someone that's starting out, I would definitely say you should hang around your peers as you're stepping up the ladders and moving through this process you always want to surround yourself with peers because that is how you're going to assess how hard you gonna have to work to beat your competition if you're hanging out around people that are way ahead of you, they know they may not be working at the same pace or level that you are because they've already done the hell week they've already done assistant engineer gig they've already worked and they've already destroyed the first half of their life because ah, part of your life will be destroyed by this job just you know you're going to rebuild it into a much greater happy life but it's, like a snake shedding their skins, you're it's. Part of you will die, so be prepared for that. So these people have already shed that part of their skin, and you haven't. So you should hang around people that that r in your boat, so you can be, like, quietly plotting behind the scenes. Okay, these people do this, this and this and this. I'm just gonna do ten times as much, and it won't even be a competition at that point. Yes, sure, a lot of you guys know what this is. This is like nam, without the musicians implementation into it. This is a lot of producers are members of a yes, of course, but this is a nerdy engineers club, but it's ah it's, really the closest thing that engineers have to a union, but it's, not anything like they help you get paid or anything like that. It's it's, a club essentially, like like I said, engineers network, they share techniques with each other, they share strategies with each other. Oh, they learn from each other. We all learn from each other. Damn! And this is another great event, it's held every year and it's one, they trade off between here in san francisco and in new york city. So every other year, it's either going to be here, it's in new york city come to join a s. I think you just have to pretty much pay a fee. A lot of the schools have, you know, you can you can enroll through the school. I think they have, like, discounts for students and stuff to become a member. I highly, highly recommended 00:10:06.42 --> 00:10:07. it's only going to help your network, and you'll get 00:10:07.94 --> 00:10:11. into the conventions and everything. Yes, convention 00:10:11.8 --> 00:10:16. does have more people that air kind of lower in the 00:10:16.05 --> 00:10:19. totem pole area, so to speak, more intern type people, 00:10:19.26 --> 00:10:20. so you could be able to surround yourself with those 00:10:20.72 --> 00:10:22. people. I mean, again, you're not going to go in there 00:10:22.94 --> 00:10:24. and, you know, walk up 00:10:25.46 --> 00:10:28. to mutt lange and be like, yo, the guitar sound is 00:10:28.3 --> 00:10:30. awesome, and you'd be like, I know, 00:10:31.37 --> 00:10:31. you know. 00:10:34.32 --> 00:10:36. Couple of you know, quick do's and don'ts. Some of 00:10:36.61 --> 00:10:39. the stuff is kind of obvious. Um, introduce yourself 00:10:39.85 --> 00:10:40. network. 00:10:42.06 --> 00:10:45. Don't pester people, you know. Don't be bothersome, 00:10:45.7 --> 00:10:47. don't annoy people, got it 00:10:49.36 --> 00:10:53. you really like. I can't stress enough. The manufacturers, 00:10:53.99 --> 00:10:56. you want to get to know these people because they're 00:10:56.25 --> 00:11:01. going toe be the perfect spy for your re kon, for 00:11:01.26 --> 00:11:01. your 00:11:03.52 --> 00:11:05. keeping up with changing trends and technology. 00:11:08.42 --> 00:11:11. You really have to stay on top of that and if you're 00:11:11.19 --> 00:11:14. as passionate as all of us are about this job that's 00:11:14.05 --> 00:11:17. part of the fun too get in the getting to know all 00:11:17.02 --> 00:11:19. the new free stuff and learning how this stuff works 00:11:19.84 --> 00:11:20. and 00:11:21.52 --> 00:11:24. you know when this program I'm sure a lot of you are 00:11:24.8 --> 00:11:27. familiar with mel dine when they came out with the 00:11:27.34 --> 00:11:29. version where you could split according to most and 00:11:29.94 --> 00:11:33. fix one note of accord I was like how is this physically 00:11:33.94 --> 00:11:36. possible and where you know the first place I learnt 00:11:36.68 --> 00:11:38. this was at like one of these trade shows where they're 00:11:38.51 --> 00:11:41. like hey check this new thing we have coming out we 00:11:41.21 --> 00:11:43. figured out a way that if a piano player playing and 00:11:43.62 --> 00:11:46. their finger mrs aki you could go in and just fix 00:11:46.16 --> 00:11:49. the one key and like that's impossible it can't be 00:11:49.07 --> 00:11:51. done he's like oh yeah watch this and he did it right 00:11:51.82 --> 00:11:54. in front of me like well 00:11:56.86 --> 00:11:58. and kind of you know kind of like what I was touching 00:11:58.88 --> 00:12:01. on focus on people that are your peers 00:12:03.02 --> 00:12:07. you know don't walk up to someone that is your hero 00:12:07.65 --> 00:12:11. just a tone that you're that they're their hero they hear that a lot it's great it's flattering they really like you but that doesn't mean that they're going to like help you get in the business because they hear that a lot they're big time guys and girls or whatever. Oh, and this, you know, uh, no. Don't get sloppy drunk. They do serve alcohol at these things. I've seen some people get wasted and embarrassing for them. You know, having a few drinks definitely takes kind of the the overwhelming helps you talk to people. Whatever takes a little bit of the edge off, but don't don't ever do it. This is very important when you start to get to this area of your career where mentally, you're kind of, I can't really believe that this is happening, like the tunnel has been so long. And it was so such a pipe dream when we started. And now you are making a living at recording music or making music or mixing music. So act like you belong there because you've worked your ass off, and you do belong there. At this point, you don't just get there by mistake. You don't come what's that saying, ah, fake it till you make it it's. Impossible to fake it till you make it and be here, because you will have been exposed a long time ago if you're a fake it person. You, khun b s your way to a lot through to a lot of jobs in the world. But we're making music at the highest level is not one of the places you could be a sce. You're way too, because you're working hand in hand with people that have twenty five or thirty years experience. A lot of my peers of my competition are forty five and fifty year old people that have been mixing records for twenty five or thirty years. 00:14:10.32 --> 00:14:13. That's. My competition. And I could. I would not be 00:14:13.19 --> 00:14:15. even in the conversation if I didn't belong there. 00:14:16.72 --> 00:14:20. So realize this and know that you belong there, and 00:14:20.43 --> 00:14:22. you have value and don't never undervalue yourself. 00:14:24.62 --> 00:14:24. Yeah, 00:14:26.02 --> 00:14:29. you'll find yourself working next to people. You've 00:14:29.0 --> 00:14:31. looked up to your whole life. And, you know, we were 00:14:31.52 --> 00:14:34. kind of talking about this earlier, where you kind 00:14:34.41 --> 00:14:36. of have to stay grounded about it. 00:14:38.82 --> 00:14:40. You don't want to be overwhelmed by the moment. 00:14:42.76 --> 00:14:45. This can happen to people where the moment is just 00:14:45.73 --> 00:14:49. so big and so overwhelming that it just crushes them 00:14:49.52 --> 00:14:52. like they've been working so hard and they're finally 00:14:52.36 --> 00:14:56. here and it's like they feel like oh my this is like 00:14:56.13 --> 00:14:59. my break if I screw this up I will have worked for 00:14:59.03 --> 00:15:00. nothing baba blah 00:15:01.92 --> 00:15:04. but you just have to simplify it you've done this 00:15:04.44 --> 00:15:07. ten thousand times by this point you've recorded a 00:15:07.96 --> 00:15:09. thousand vogel's 00:15:10.75 --> 00:15:13. fifty thousand vocals twenty thousand guitars you 00:15:13.8 --> 00:15:17. makes a thousand songs in your life it's just another 00:15:17.34 --> 00:15:20. one it just happens to be by someone that's very important 00:15:20.88 --> 00:15:21. to you 00:15:22.18 --> 00:15:25. you can't you have to treat it like it's another day 00:15:25.05 --> 00:15:27. on the job or the moment can overwhelm you 00:15:29.76 --> 00:15:31. if you treat every record the same and you don't get 00:15:31.92 --> 00:15:35. overwhelmed by a specific moment was specific project 00:15:35.82 --> 00:15:37. that's the key to victory because you never know which 00:15:37.89 --> 00:15:40. one of those projects is going to be the one that 00:15:40.41 --> 00:15:43. sends you through the roof if you treat every single 00:15:43.63 --> 00:15:46. one the same you know you record every album like 00:15:46.42 --> 00:15:48. it's the last thing you're going to record you mix 00:15:48.1 --> 00:15:49. every song is the last thing they're ever going to 00:15:49.79 --> 00:15:53. mix and that way there is no margin for air 00:15:54.12 --> 00:15:56. well I just wasn't feeling it that day I didn't deliver 00:15:56.16 --> 00:15:58. on that day well that was the day that could have 00:15:58.27 --> 00:16:01. been your what shot you through this guy you know, 00:16:03.29 --> 00:16:04. these people are no longer your idols. 00:16:07.12 --> 00:16:09. There, now, you're competition, so you can't think of them as your idols anymore. I can't look at them the same way. Can't be mystified by them. You're you know, like they're divine to me, not anymore, because you are like them. You're just as proficient as they are. The only difference is they've been doing it longer, and they've done some records that were more successful than you have. Um, you've stolen their techniques, so you guys do the same stuff you've worked in war class studios. You're using the same gear. The only thing that separates you is experience and their taste, what they think things should sound like. But you wouldn't be in this conversation if people didn't think that what you think things should sound like wasn't good. You wouldn't have made it this far. We got her. Oh, again, this applies again, because this is when your tendency. This is when you do have a tendency to start feeling yourself a little bit. Like, man, people are paying me for this, and they like what I'm doing. I I'm not starving anymore, you know, living comfortable making records every day, smooth sailing. And end this capacity people in this mental capacity, I have a tendency two get overly ambitious, I guess you could say, and one of the ways that can happen to things can really happen if you're overly ambitious. Ambition is very, very important. I've talked about drive and passion and ambition a lot today, but there's a line of being too ambitious and too eager. And when that moment it's, like you've been traveling down this huge path ten and it's like, oh, it was so far and now it's literally, like you're like hanging like this, you like I can it's right here, and sometimes you can get impatient because that last littlefoot, you have to grab until you're finally in the big time, it's so close and you're kind of stuck right here and you just can't grab it that's when over ambition can happen, and what happened that could happen is you may take on a project that you're in over your head on, and you may not. They will be able to deliver on it because you're not ready yet. Another way to that over ambition happens. You end up stepping on people's toes, realize that this is a business built on relationships and these competitors that have this twenty five years of experience that you're now competing with. You're not just competing. With twenty five plus years of experience and and record making and technical ability, you're competing with twenty five years of relationships that they have with producers, record labels, artist. And if you try to step in and maybe undercut some of those guy, oh, I'll do the project for having the bob loblaw, let me do the project, I'll I swear I'm going to deliver it. I'll do it for half the money. I'll do it for free, I'll do it on spec. You're going to step on people's toes because you're like, hey, dude, that's, my client, that you're talking to that's, been my client for twenty years, like this can piss people off and it's, part of. I guess this can kind of tie into your people skills. Mom. The two easiest ways that over ambition happens is people take on projects that they get in over their head on. Or they get overly ambitious. And they step on their peers. Toes, either those you want to be careful with. Yeah. And while you're getting too big for your britches you want to counter act that bye them not being too big for you but I get stay humble I realize this the people that last in this business for a long time are the people that treat other people the way that they should be treated remember that the same people that you see on the way up are the same people you're going to see on the way back down so if you treat these people badly on the way up well if you you know hit a snag in your career and you start kind of fallen backwards these people are going to move out of the way and let you fall flat on your face because it's like oh that guy was a dick I don't care if he crashes and burns move out of the way I don't want to hit me on the way down if you if you are great to these people and you help them any way you can and you're you know you you utilize your peers and like oh man like this guy's great and bobble blah and you make a name for yourself by being a great people person and being someone that's really amazing to work with these people you're going they're going to hold you up here because a lot of this is word of mouth too what do you think of this guy? Oh, he's awesome dude definitely higher I say that the people all the time people call me recommending you know I heard about so and so what do you think about them for the gig I could easily just be like no you should hire me to like I'll do it I'll be like that guy's amazing you will not you will not be disappointed trust me and we all do that to each other because we all want each other to succeed we've all ninja on our way to the top so that we can live with ninjas can live amongst each other and be and living a ninja community where there's enough for everyone to eat you know over there's enough for all of us we don't have to snake each other's gigs we'll have to steal each other's clients what you know now when we're in this point in our careers it's it's about client relationships and it's about building your business through you're the way you conduct yourself as a person which comes far first how you conduct yourself as an engineer as an engineer you're just in the control room that's a very small space like building your business moves very very far beyond the walls of the control room you how you conduct yourself with your peers how you conduct yourself too other artistic people stay humble you know don't music you know there are guests the recording end of the music business is sort of even though you guys are competitors, we're also friends and peers. Absolutely, you know. So even though on paper, your competitors, you know, there's, that level of respect there, that you don't really, you know, artists are oftentimes more competitive with each other than, like producers are producers or engineers are. And I think that's, a cool culture. And, you know, it kind of goes back to your point of, like, make sure that you treat every right and stable, because if you want to be part of the club, that's, the culture of the club and it's, all because it's about how you are is a person, because it all stems to. Are you likeable? Because that's the number one. That's. The number one reason why engineers get rehired. I like working with them. Maybe wasn't the best vocal sound I got, but, man, was it a pleasure to be in the room with them? I mean, that's going to carry you further than anything. I know a lot of engineers that are the get you the best recordings ever, but the assholes, so they never work, and vice versa. I know some people that air no. That air. Awesome to be around. And my little brother, who doesn't engineer, could engineer better song than that. But coming from the chat room actually related to this. Andrew, according to your aunt. So it's come from rural jr, just a couple questions, but this one here is saying, is it better to act like you belong somewhere and turn down a job? You don't think you're ready for making look, make it look like you aren't prepared for the big leagues or take on a job and make mistakes that you learn from when the long run. I shouldn't answer that perfectly. The answer is. Um, you turned down the job, but you do it in a certain way, you, during a specific way, instead of saying, you know what, I don't think I'm excuse me, I just don't think I'm ready for that job, you know, that's, not how you respond, you say, man, I'm so honored that you would think of me for that gig, that is really, really amazing. That sounds really, really good. I care. I'm such a fan of your work, and I'm such a fan of what you do and I, I'm a music guy. First I care about the music, I loved the music, I'm driven by the music. So what I feel is that I may not be the best person to deliver the sound that you're looking for. I want what's best for your song I love I would love to work with you that would be great but I think that there's someone else that could kill it even better so what I'm gonna do is we're gonna work together to try to find you I'll help you you know I got I know tons of guys I know guys that air specialties at that sound I know guys that would really kill this for you so let's find the guy that will really kill this for you so you get the best possible recording that you can that that saying something along those lines I would help you be able to still work with them in the future even though you're not ready to do right now something like that is much it's better for the year longevity than just man I would love to but I just don't think I'm ready like a rookie like you you mean you're not ready I'm giving you the opportunity of a lifetime I referred them to the guy who did a great job then you're going to get a lot of shine from that absolutely you're still there still going to remember you and he hooked up with that guy he's awesome right so that guy's gonna owe you big time the guy you recommended just make sure you don't drop the ball breakfast cheese wiley's wisely do you recommend another reason why we stay so closely knit and sew in each other's business of what we're doing, because for that reason, recommendations that happened all the time. No, probably half my gigs and come from referrals from other places come. So the answer. That question is, if you're not ready for something, yes, you shouldn't take it's better to turn it down than to take it, take it on and make mistakes, because those mistakes can be more detrimental. But the way you turn it down, you have to be very ninja, like and strategic and the way you turn it down, because you don't want to blow a chance to work with him in the future, you just want to make them feel like their record is so important to you that you want to make sure that it gets done the best way possible. And you want to help them doing that. But you, it's not gonna be you. Thank you. More questions. I think we're good to go. Okay, we're better. Oh, all right. Here we go. Kind of. Help me. Secretive with your methods and techniques. Stupid, you know, like like, how did you, how did you get that vocal to cut through? Wow, I'm not telling you. It's so dependent on the source material you don't know what you don't know what recording they were given. You don't know what equipment they had access to. I mean, literally you could give me a pro tools that those basic pro tools rig with the stock dj rack plug ins, and I could get a good mix out of it because it's not about the equipment it's about how utilizes come, does some equipment sound better than others? Absolutely some equipment adds tone and adds character, but you khun those are extras 00:28:12.739 --> 00:28:15. you know what I'm saying? And you're not going to 00:28:15.21 --> 00:28:16. use it the same way that I use it, 00:28:17.82 --> 00:28:19. you're not going to use it the same way that he uses 00:28:19.48 --> 00:28:22. it, you're not going to use it the same way crystal 00:28:22.0 --> 00:28:25. analogy uses it or many american or day prince otto 00:28:25.38 --> 00:28:27. or any of these guys, they all do things differently, 00:28:28.82 --> 00:28:31. so because you've learned how all of these people 00:28:31.73 --> 00:28:34. do things, I'm not saying you shouldn't find out absolutely 00:28:34.38 --> 00:28:36. find out how everybody does everything because that's 00:28:36.74 --> 00:28:41. all going to be in your mental roll index of information 00:28:41.05 --> 00:28:43. you're taking from other places to create your own 00:28:43.13 --> 00:28:43. sound with it. 00:28:45.92 --> 00:28:46. From 00:28:47.52 --> 00:28:48. you know, we learned from each other. 00:28:50.12 --> 00:28:50. You know, 00:28:51.52 --> 00:28:53. dave calls me in the middle the night all the time, 00:28:53.82 --> 00:28:57. man, what do you I just can't tell if this is any 00:28:57.12 --> 00:29:00. good or not take a listen to it. I'll listen to it 00:29:00.86 --> 00:29:03. be like your trip way better than the mix I could 00:29:03.53 --> 00:29:03. do 00:29:05.72 --> 00:29:08. of one way we utilize each other a lot as well is 00:29:09.28 --> 00:29:11. when we have to move. Studios. 00:29:12.08 --> 00:29:13. There's times were working in rooms that we never 00:29:13.88 --> 00:29:16. worked in before, and you don't necessarily know 00:29:17.92 --> 00:29:20. what the room is sounding like. So I'll call one of 00:29:20.78 --> 00:29:22. my peers that's working in his own studio, and I'll 00:29:22.94 --> 00:29:25. be like, yo, can you check this out for me? I you 00:29:25.55 --> 00:29:28. know, I need to know where I'm at because I've never 00:29:28.32 --> 00:29:30. been in this room, you know, it would be like, yeah, 00:29:30.38 --> 00:29:33. there's, something weird in the low end or something's 00:29:33.36 --> 00:29:37. bumi, you know, no double check the base there's something 00:29:37.11 --> 00:29:38. in three hundred that's, a little weird. 00:29:40.82 --> 00:29:41. We help each other 00:29:42.85 --> 00:29:45. I could we could easily be like hope you screw that 00:29:45.73 --> 00:29:49. mix up, they send it to me instead we don't do that 00:29:50.82 --> 00:29:53. wait, don't do that we help each other out would you 00:29:53.98 --> 00:29:57. want someone to do that to you? Absolutely not you're 00:29:57.34 --> 00:30:00. in a shark tank a month's, other sharks but we don't 00:30:00.55 --> 00:30:02. want to eat each other we want to eat other people 00:30:02.57 --> 00:30:04. that are trying to come up and get in there, but once 00:30:04.92 --> 00:30:07. we're in, we're like we're good in here was room for 00:30:07.18 --> 00:30:10. us, you know? You know 00:30:11.52 --> 00:30:14. you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours like we help 00:30:14.24 --> 00:30:14. each other out. 00:30:15.99 --> 00:30:17. We don't steal each other's clients, we don't snake 00:30:17.97 --> 00:30:20. each other's gigs and when we need advice and we need 00:30:20.82 --> 00:30:23. help, we get I've never hesitated 00:30:24.69 --> 00:30:26. and they wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing for 00:30:26.72 --> 00:30:29. me and that's how we all stay relevant there's very 00:30:29.81 --> 00:30:32. few people that get to this point and get good enough 00:30:32.48 --> 00:30:35. to be here so everyone that's here is good so you 00:30:36.29 --> 00:30:39. these air they can you can utilize these people use 00:30:39.74 --> 00:30:42. them as tools like these air free information like, 00:30:43.5 --> 00:30:46. oh man, this guy does the best drums I've ever heard 00:30:46.1 --> 00:30:48. in my life like maybe I should ask him about drums 00:30:48.63 --> 00:30:51. if I'm struggling with drugs, maybe that'd be a good 00:30:51.25 --> 00:30:51. idea 00:30:55.67 --> 00:30:58. always remember this kind of goes back to the ambition 00:30:58.48 --> 00:31:01. thing, you know, we're so close and you're like, oh, 00:31:01.67 --> 00:31:05. man, if I just lean over a little more, I can grab 00:31:05.15 --> 00:31:08. it, you can't force it it's gonna happen 00:31:10.69 --> 00:31:13. the same way is when you're an assistant and you're 00:31:13.37 --> 00:31:16. you haven't slept in two weeks and you, you know 00:31:17.79 --> 00:31:20. you've been showering at the studio and you gotta, 00:31:20.44 --> 00:31:22. you know, been wearing the same socks for four days. 00:31:23.29 --> 00:31:25. Hopefully the runner interns got you new socks by 00:31:25.45 --> 00:31:25. then, 00:31:27.39 --> 00:31:32. but I realized that you can't you're going to get 00:31:32.1 --> 00:31:35. the engineers gig it's gonna happen when you're in 00:31:35.44 --> 00:31:37. the assistance gig and the same goes when you're here, 00:31:38.09 --> 00:31:41. when you're in making a living and you're working 00:31:41.07 --> 00:31:43. hard, utilizing your peers, staying on top of the 00:31:43.9 --> 00:31:46. technology, doing re con about the changing trends 00:31:46.72 --> 00:31:48. and music to try to create your own sound, 00:31:49.59 --> 00:31:51. you just have to play the numbers game you work 00:31:52.95 --> 00:31:57. what eventually one of those gigs he's going to translate 00:31:57.87 --> 00:32:00. into something that shoot you out of the sky. 00:32:02.95 --> 00:32:05. And it's not gonna happen overnight maybe it will 00:32:06.69 --> 00:32:08. I've seen it happen to a couple of guys 00:32:09.29 --> 00:32:12. you know they train they mix records for a year and 00:32:12.4 --> 00:32:14. a half and something they do goes number one and then 00:32:15.36 --> 00:32:15. it's a rat 00:32:17.46 --> 00:32:18. sky's the limit 00:32:19.46 --> 00:32:22. but everybody's different you can't model what you're 00:32:22.15 --> 00:32:26. doing off of the timetable of someone else's success 00:32:26.01 --> 00:32:28. you could model the methods of the way they succeeded 00:32:28.45 --> 00:32:30. but it's gonna be different for everybody because 00:32:30.09 --> 00:32:31. circumstances are different 00:32:32.56 --> 00:32:36. you can't what the you're not going to make it overnight 00:32:36.19 --> 00:32:38. you don't get rich overnight all that stuff I mean 00:32:38.56 --> 00:32:40. and you can't worry about 00:32:41.29 --> 00:32:44. having success the success that you want in the bigger 00:32:44.2 --> 00:32:46. picture of success worrying about it happening right 00:32:46.73 --> 00:32:46. away 00:32:48.16 --> 00:32:50. you take care of whatever's in front of you now I 00:32:50.71 --> 00:32:51. got a new song every day 00:32:52.96 --> 00:32:55. every day's a new song and I take care of the best 00:32:55.83 --> 00:32:57. of my abilities I treat it like it's the last song 00:32:57.95 --> 00:33:00. I'm ever going to do and the next day and new song 00:33:00.03 --> 00:33:02. is going to come in the next day a new song is going 00:33:02.4 --> 00:33:05. to come in and I play the numbers if I mix 00:33:06.99 --> 00:33:08. two hundred fifty songs a year, 00:33:09.66 --> 00:33:12. I have pretty good odds of one of them being a hit 00:33:12.38 --> 00:33:14. at some point if I do it for five or six years something's 00:33:14.8 --> 00:33:15. going to be it 00:33:19.56 --> 00:33:21. if you're good, eventually, one of those things that 00:33:21.4 --> 00:33:23. comes across your desk is going to blow up. 00:33:26.86 --> 00:33:29. I mean, it's, just it's. Just gonna happen. 00:33:32.26 --> 00:33:34. You know, if songs here in the scoring zone, right, 00:33:36.06 --> 00:33:37. if you're mixing records and, 00:33:38.46 --> 00:33:43. you know fargo, north dakota, you might be mixing. 00:33:43.76 --> 00:33:47. I don't know some weird country or some kind of bluegrass, 00:33:48.53 --> 00:33:50. which is cool. But if you're doing that in nashville, 00:33:52.06 --> 00:33:54. you doing the same music in nashville at a much higher 00:33:54.24 --> 00:33:54. level? 00:33:57.23 --> 00:33:59. And you're going to increase your chances. 00:34:00.76 --> 00:34:04. It's, a numbers game, remember that, were strategic 00:34:04.56 --> 00:34:09. plotters way, don't play, we don't take chances, we 00:34:09.13 --> 00:34:11. calculate and play the odds. 00:34:12.81 --> 00:34:16. The best odds you have are to play the numbers, be around where the music is being made, work your way up through there and make the music, maybe just keep on doing it. A new song every day, a new gig, you know, the first record you produce may not be a smash record, but guess what, you're learning how to produce records, and if something wasn't successful or wasn't a hit, why wasn't it a hit? Okay, well, maybe I won't do that next time. Maybe I'll try something else eventually, something's gonna hit, and then you get a formula, you know, and then you eat off that for a long time. Yeah, so. Once it finally happens you've worked. He makes two hundred records year you record, you know, fifty bands a year you finally have something that people are talking about, man, did you hear that record? Did you hear the guitar tones on that record? Did you hear the drum sound on that record, man? Did you hear the vocals on that thing? It snowballs, it's a small industry people within the industry are going to talk. And the best thing I raised people like people like you, right? They want you to succeed. The only question is whether they're going to give you the big project. They're not is based on your reputation. What have you done? I really, really like you. You're a great guy, your awesome to work with. How many hits do you have? I'm gonna hire this guy he's got a hundred hits. Okay, well, once you have that one hit, they're like, oh, man, you gotta hit and I like you, I'm giving you all my business, they have to like you first it's the most important thing, you have to be their favorite person, they have to be like, man, I really wish I could get him to do the project is just I don't know if he's ready yet, but once they know that you're ready, you're in this is when they're trusting your opinion. What do you think this should sound like? What can you take this to the next level for me? What? How should the drum sound? This is when you get to walk in the control room with the producer and collaborate on what the records going to sound like. This is when your hair style style hair stylist status starts to become mohr, like one of those fancy art hairstyle people that you know, you're not cutting hair and supercuts anymore. And now you're in a, you know, a salon getting paid six hundred bucks an hour to cut celebrities, hair run, people trust your opinion, your opinion matters. Those little things, you know, everything we kept in our head. Remember where you have to be careful what you say and who you say it, too, and how you say it. Well, now, some of those opinions can actually be told because that's what they're paying you for, um just don't drop the ball. People will pay for your opinions as long as they come out. Well, hi, and they that's how you stay on top of the game by staying sharp on everything that you possibly can, whether it's technology, whether it's changing trends in music, whether it's, what your peers they're doing, come. Whether it's, new techniques, you're still always learning new stuff from other people. But now that you're in your own control room, or your engineering, your own sessions, there's, no one really to steal the techniques from anymore, because you're doing the techniques so that's. Why we network with our peers, because we're still stealing information like we were as an assistant. But now we're reaching out beyond the boundaries of control room into other control rooms, because you're the people that you looked up to, or now your friends and your colleagues and that's, where it gets fun. You're getting paid a lot of money. In some instances, I don't want to say anyone who does. This is going to be rich. I mean, you're making a living, a good living for doing what you love. That's, that was the dream, right, that's. What what more could you ask for the day you decided to go to recording school or the day you decided to pursue some sort of career in the music business? And now you have that it's, a question of how you conduct yourself in that spotlight, how you treat people in that spotlight, how you interact with your clients in that spotlight, how you conduct your business affairs in that spotlight is goingto determine how long you stay there. You know, if you follow all of this, you treat people the right way. You understand that this is a business like anything else, and understand that how lucky you are to be in that business, and you never lose sight of that. You'll be fine. Never take anything for granted, ever. You know, I wake up every single day still, like, I can't believe I'm doing this. And also realizing that there's, other baby ninjas out there that want to get into so I can't ever keep the eyes in the back of my head, or we'll never be closed. Now I'm gonna keep my eye on you guys. Now that I've told you guys, all this could become coming for my job one day. But you're not to beat me fair and square, and if you do that's the way it is, whatever's best for the song, right, that's, the way I look at it, don't undervalue yourself, um, no, what you're worth, you're you're important to you. People are paying you to take their creation and their baby to another level, because they trust what you're going to do with it. So trust your own instincts and no what you're worth, you've worked your whole life. You've worked through this internship through this painful assistant engineering job for almost no money, no sleep, and this is the payoff. So don't don't let people take advantage of your payoff like you put yourself through this so that you could be here and be living well. And you know that first life that basically you died of this is your new life and it's it's much easier and much more fun, then, not sleeping, ever. I mean, I still work really hard. I work six days a week still, but at least I get a day off now. And you know, the reason why I don't take many days off, because I'm so passionate about what I do. Um, if you lose that passion, there might be someone else that comes behind you and takes it takes the rug from underneath you. It all stems, too, you know. How bad you want it. My handwriting is just absolutely terrible. Keep that. No matter what happened, where, how far you get. Once you get into the shark tank, so to speak. Everybody's obsessed. So if you cease to be that. Never stop being a student of the game. You belong there, so act like it. You know, I always told my assistance and people at the studio, when you walk into the control room, act like you're supposed to be in the control, even if you're just going into a light, a candle or your your duty vibing out the room. If you're just, you know, an assistant coming into just aesthetically, change something like, don't you don't sheepishly, like, poke your head in and kind of just walk in the door like you're supposed to be there. Don't make people feel uncomfortable by sneaking being sneaky, you know. Don't force it. Don't let your ego get out of control, it's enough egos in the music business to go around as it is. I don't have an ego, I I don't. I do what I feel like is best for the song. If somebody doesn't like it, I say, okay, how can we fix it? Don't say you're crazy. We've seen the songs I've worked on talking about. This isn't good, not my song. What I did for one song may not work for another, you know it. Never forget that it's, not your song. And you can't. You can't force it, it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. All you can do is work as hard as you possibly can work. We're card and everybody around you do as much reconoce you can steal as much information as you can learn is much about everything, as you possibly can. Are you ever going to know everything? Absolutely not, but you're going to try to get as close as you possibly can. You're going, you're gonna learn everything or die trying, and you're going to die trying before you learn everything but that's. The beauty of it is you can't master this job, you can't get bored of it. If you get bored of it, you're in the wrong business, should do something else. So it's gonna happen? And once it does. You're on cruise control. I mean, not cruise control, but things are kind of taking care of themselves. You know, it's, a machine that's working, is on its automated machine. Now, you know, it doesn't take every exhausting effort to keep the machine moving. Now, the machine kind of runs, you just have to make sure that it, the automation, isn't, doesn't stop running. Um, and you do that by staying passionate, staying grounded, staying educated. And that's, what I have to say about that so questions we do have some questions have some great questions, actually, and we've got a truly international audience, as we always do. We've got people from vienna in austria, people from girl, but this question came in from mexico, actually, during the break, andrew and I were talking about his career when he's worked with some dutch artists and he's saying that the dutch music scene is relatively small, so the producer was working with us now come to the u s to do some work here. Sebastian is in mexico saying, I wanted to ask you, first of all, andrew, is there such a thing as too old? Definitely not on what advice would you give to people like him? In countries where there isn't much of a music industry and the specific genre he'd like to work in matt, how about approaching a studio somewhere else outside may be coming to the u s? Well, the answer to the first question is there such a thing is too old. No, of course not. People don't care about how old you are if you're recording artist that's not true, there is a such thing is too old. You know what? You can't be forty five and try to be miley cyrus have ever, you know, her type of image, you know, but as an engineer or a producer, let's thing is too old to say. Has anybody told share that? Chair's been around for a long time that's it? I guess I'm talking about someone that's trying to break anything living decision, um what? And as faras not being around that's kind of being scoring zone if you're not around the music that you want to make, move, how bad do you want exactly what you willing to give up for it? I'm it's definitely becomes easier or it is easier when you're younger because you have a little less tto lose or less to give up. You know, when I moved away, I think I was twenty two or twenty three, so I didn't really have much in my life, so I wasn't really leaving much behind for someone who's a little older, that might not be the case. You know you may have a family or house and you know, obligations that make it a little harder to just pack up and leave, but in the end, you have to be around where the music's being made to be considered an option to help make the music. Mom, you want to be around studios that are making the records that you want to make. That's that's. The fast track to get where you want to get. Can you get there somewhere else? Maybe, but I don't know how. I only know my experience and what I experienced and what my peers around we have experienced and it's pretty similar. You go where the music's being made you re kon and assess your competition, and then you just work way harder. It's it's. A simple concept. Yeah. It's. A general concept, but it's absolutely true. If someone around you, it works pretty freaking hard than that. You're in first of pretty hard work, because the only way you're going to get there is to be the hardest person working the hardest working person in the room. And I was definitely that from the moment I stepped foot into recording school until the moment I got my first check for recording or mixing, you know, and a major artist, I work harder than everybody around and be a ninja. Don't. Learn everything you possibly can about everything. You're never gonna learn everything, but you're going to try and the more you know, and the more you learn, the better. You'll be able to plan your move, maneuver your plan or got it fine loopholes to get where you want to get. If you stop learning someone's going to take your job you're going to have become a relevant you're going to fall behind the times it's what keeps the job interesting right I mean if you stop learning that you become bored going through the motions at that point where's the fun in that you might as well be working a starbucks or something sorry if anyone worked at starbucks uh but you know it I mean you're doing this because you want to do something you're passionate about it if you stop learning that kind of means you've lost the passion for it right? So don't let that happen questions from the students dessert so I mean you said that you got you know, a great portion of your work currently from referrals but where does the rest is that your manager that goes out and gets the words some of it sum sum is through management in contacts that they have you know, my managers have history with other labels and other people and when they're talking about business and talking shop about oh we're going to be doing this record you know? My management will strategically oh, so who do you think's gonna mix it? Oh well if you're looking for someone in charge you know blah blah blah they strategically they're out there strategically ninja ing newer and uh referrals your peers I would say 00:50:22.4 --> 00:50:23. maybe a third referrals 00:50:27.1 --> 00:50:30. twenty percent? No, I would say fifteen percent referrals, 00:50:30.64 --> 00:50:34. maybe. And then the rest is split up between repeat 00:50:34.11 --> 00:50:37. business and management, you know. 00:50:41.0 --> 00:50:44. I do a lot a lot of my clients or repeat clients like 00:50:45.15 --> 00:50:48. I have clients, you know, you if you have four, five 00:50:49.3 --> 00:50:51. big clients that make, like four, five albums a year, 00:50:51.95 --> 00:50:54. I mean that's going to fill up your whole year. So 00:50:55.3 --> 00:50:58. your repeat business is what's going on keep that 00:50:58.76 --> 00:51:01. is going to automate that that that engine we're talking 00:51:01.71 --> 00:51:04. about your repeat business is what keeps it moving 00:51:06.0 --> 00:51:08. keeps it automated where you don't have to really 00:51:08.53 --> 00:51:12. hustle or, you know, get grind to get these gigs like 00:51:12.44 --> 00:51:15. they're kind of that they're just coming in based 00:51:15.57 --> 00:51:18. off of work that you've done in the past, you know, 00:51:18.67 --> 00:51:21. you do an album with this person, and then maybe you 00:51:21.11 --> 00:51:23. get some referrals that works in through here. Then 00:51:23.73 --> 00:51:26. maybe, you know, your manager gets you a couple of 00:51:26.71 --> 00:51:29. gigs, and then maybe, ah, blind gate comes and someone 00:51:29.45 --> 00:51:31. heard a record that you did and calls you. You did 00:51:31.42 --> 00:51:33. this, and then by that time, this person is ready 00:51:33.97 --> 00:51:36. to do another album and your oh, here's, another album. 00:51:36.39 --> 00:51:38. Then this person might be ready to do another album 00:51:38.12 --> 00:51:40. and harry ghost, and then it just kind of automates 00:51:40.13 --> 00:51:40. after a while. 00:51:42.42 --> 00:51:43. Does that make sense cool? 00:51:46.7 --> 00:51:49. Are there any books that you've read that you have 00:51:49.45 --> 00:51:52. stood out and you've applied more than you could recommend? 00:51:57.19 --> 00:52:00. Not live. Furioso is often police. Any books or any 00:52:00.9 --> 00:52:02. research resource is. 00:52:06.6 --> 00:52:08. Prince otto's place. Death. 00:52:09.9 --> 00:52:10. I mean. 00:52:13.5 --> 00:52:16. What I tried to do here rather than because pencil 00:52:16.55 --> 00:52:18. this place, you can learn any techniques and, you 00:52:18.56 --> 00:52:21. know, learn secrets of the mixers or whatever. I didn't 00:52:21.77 --> 00:52:23. really want to do that here wanted to give people 00:52:23.23 --> 00:52:25. information on how you can have a career, how you conduct yourself tow, have a career because there's lots of information on their on, you know how to get a good kick drum or how to e q a vocal or something like that. I mean, I could talk about that time, blue in the face, but I feel like that information. It is easy to get what's. Not easy to get is. How do I get from sitting in my house and wanting to be an engineer toe, actually sitting in the control room and getting paid for it. Follow these steps. You have a much better chance than other people that wouldn't follow steps like this would have as far as a book. E, I don't know, because I don't really read books about engineering. There was a text book that I read called modern recording techniques. They probably give it out in most recording schools. I mean, the books are pretty general. Like most of places, they're going to be the same books. I would say your best resource is dave in sado show as faras learning techniques and stuff like that. Finding information online is so much faster and easier than reading in a textbook, I feel like, I mean, books are great, but it's, kind of like, who reads books anymore, right, like, do you want to learn howto had a had a mic, a drum kit? Just look up my king drum kits with this person online, you know, and you probably find something you can see with your own eyes is supposed to something you read in a book.