Fine Arts Career Services

Hey guys nice to talk to everyone again. Spring break was awesome and not for the obvious reasons. As soon as I got back to Houston my band and I started to get to work, and although I was unable to go to the studio to work, I had my own small studio to keep myself occupied. After my band got to my house on Sunday we setup the mics on the drum set and started to arduous task of tracking drums. Having only done this once before at my house, we ran into a lot of problems. The first problem started when I realized we were short one mic stand, luckily, it was 6:30 and we had enough time to get to guitar center and get one. Upon arriving at home and setting up the mic stand, we realized we didn’t have a mic CABLE; this caused much frustration. We did what we could for that day; sound checked all the mics and went over a couple of songs. The next day we got a mic cable and spent the next 6 days tracking drums, we limited our session to about 5 hours because after that everyone wants to just rip each other’s heads off. We got everything done except one song. O and heres the kicker, that mic cable and mic stand we bought were for nothing because we were using a separate interface for that particular mic, and it crapped out on us so we couldn’t use it (we found this out after we recorded everything). Luckily it was a rid mic so we didn’t really need it to bad. Other problems we ran into get too technical and would take far to long to explain. Just know that daisy chaining two audio interfaced may get you more inputs, but it comes with its share of problems.

I emailed my supervisor with multiple email addresses of band record labels. The bands will be showcasing their talents at the SXSW music festival. I have also been helping out with the finishing product of the film cue sheets for one of the engineers who I also had the opportunity to follow on Wednesday to a client meeting.

On Wednesday, the engineer and I went to Music Lab to meet with a client who was ready to record their first three songs. I had the opportunity to see how the engineer approaches a client, what is important to ask and how to determine if the artist is ready to record. This is part of the pre-production process. The recording engineer needs to be made aware of the following: 1) how many songs are fully rehearsed and prepared to record so that no extra time is wasted trying to prepare or change music (this would waste both the engineer and musicians time and money) 2) listen to the music that is going to be recorded so that the engineer has an idea of what the client’s stylistic sound is. 3) the engineer asks the client what is desired in the finished product and how both of them can achieve this goal. In our case, the client needed a drum arrangement as well as back up instruments. The engineer felt it was also important for the client to have a couple of more songs to record to make the record legitimate.

I think it is very important to be able to listen to what the client wants because in the end, they are the customers and they need to be able to be satisfied with their product. It is important for engineer and client to have a good relationship with each other and launch a great recording because this will lead to future recommendations to other clients. As a result, the engineer will have more business coming in.

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Since last time we talked, not much as changed. I do, however, want to talk about something that ive been doing for the studio. A couple of weeks ago my supervisor was wondering if me or my fellow intern knew anything about photoshop. Unfortunately neither of us has ever used it. After washing the situation around in my brain, I figured learning how to use photoshop would become a useful tool to have in the real world, so I volunteered to undertake the operation. The task was basically to create a flyer for marketing; so we can post the flyers up and around town. I went about learning photoshop by watching a couple of tutorial videos on YouTube. After I thought I could handle it I opened up the program and started messing around with pictures to see what all did what. After finally getting the hang things I made the template that was required for the flyer and started to layer on the pictures and logos that were given to me. Getting more comfortable with the program, I started messing with boarders, layering, and cool effects. Unfortunately my first draft was denied because I went to hay wire on the effects, but after toning it down and changing a couple of details I got a great final product. We should be printing them shortly. other than that, i got yelled at for not washing out a smelly trashcan, which is cool cause i should of done it. “yelled” might be an exaguration though, it was more like a polite discussion actually :).

Other than the daily duties at my studio, I visited Kendall’s internship site. The engineer usually has a list of tasks for Kendall to do. Sometimes the engineer and Kendall will record some drum takes together and the engineer allows Kendall to Comp/Edit the takes together. Kendall is left to experiment on his own and learn more about the DAW. He is also responsible for downloading any new songs that come in through email sent by the engineer or other clients and making Pro Tools sessions for those. After the downloads, he will put in markers (Verse,Chorus, etc.), making a BeatBox track, using Stylus RMX. Then, the engineer will give Kendall’s work a listen as well as feedback on how well he did his work or what he needs improvement on. Sometimes, if it’s more of a remixing gig, both of them brainstorm ideas to add on top of the drums (shakers, tambourines, effects on the vocals). Then both Kendall and the engineer go through and pick out what they like or don’t like. Both of them work together and use each other’s ideas to come up with solutions to a project. I think it is neat because Kendall is given an opportunity to be able to work with the equipment itself, and have his ideas heard and valued.

Between last blog and this one, much as progressed. My fellow intern and me started a South by South West AKA SXSW (which it will be called from here on). On the SXSW website there is a long list of ALL the performers from all the venues. We are in charge of compiling an email list of as many record labels as we can find. We do this by checking each bands myspace and searching their respected record label. This task does get kind of annoying as some of the bands either don’t put their label or sometimes they will put multiple labels. In such a case, we need to find out if that label is showcasing them at the SXSW. Also this week, I was given the task of creating a 5th street studio flyer. This was fun and challenging, as I had to learn how to use Photoshop, which is proving to be a very useful tool as far as advertising goes. Other than cleaning, I’m still having fun hanging out with the other engineers here and I’m starting to really enjoy their company. See ya next week.

-Sunka

Working at my internship has been going great. This past week I was really ambitious. On Friday, I devoted half the time I was there to making sure that Studio A was tidy. I made sure that everything was spotless and dustless. Afterwards, I realized that although I was finished with my duties, no one was in the studio recording that day. I still had half of my day left but I did not want to go home early. I knew that another engineer needed my help with a film project offsite. I called him for directions and went over to another studio to help out. He needed help in creating cue sheets using excel. The cue sheet contained information about the film such as what sounds were heard at the exact time and a description of that sound. I was not familiar with sound to video so I had the opportunity to observe the editing process. Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to ask questions about how or what he was doing because I knew the engineer was on a strict deadline. I did not want to set back any time he had left. Instead, I glanced over as I was typing up the spreadsheet and when I was done with the cue sheet, I was told to go back to 5^th Street and print out copies. I stayed a little late after work because it took a while to print out the 60 pages.

I realized that a great amount of time is spent editing sound on film. Not only do you have to create a cue sheet for the film producer, you also have to know what sounds belong and which ones should be taken out. I saw how tedious it could be to try and perfect a sound that would only last a second. However, every split second adds up and builds up to an overall polished project. Using detail and having determination as well as ambition to complete such a task is important in the editing process.

Last Wednesday I helped with drum setup after I finished emailing potential clients and completing my daily tasks. What I have learned at school and at the studio is that mic setups are done in a certain way (by preference) which includes the positioning of stands first, placing the mic clips on the stand second and then the mics. The last things are to organize the cables on the floor and wrap the cables around the stand, plug in to the mic and then to the wall. Then you can position the mic as you wish. Simple. I didn’t get out of work until 9pm that night but I didn’t mind because I had the opportunity to sit and observe after I was done. (It did hurt my study time) Friday through Monday were my busiest days because not only did I have to juggle school with work, but I had to run errands all weekend on top of homework and studying. Yesterday I recieved another assignment for SXSW (another 50 bands) and I have to complete those in a few days. I also had to promote the studio by writing emails to those who were about to host a big event that needed live sound. Yesterday me and my partner completed a list of inventory that took up half the time we were there. We still need to complete the rest of the inventory list this Friday. After completing the list we have to type it up on a word document. As I took inventory I became familiar with where certain things were. Me and my partner think that taking inventory will help us out in the future, should anyone ever ask us where things are. After work I was so tired but that didn’t keep me from staying up to study. I have to keep up with the pace!

I am currently interning at 5th Street Studios. At this facility, recording engineers and musicians work together to develop and create audio recordings of the musician, whether it be an ensemble consisting of as many as over seven musicians or just a solo musician. The musician informs the recording engineer of what sound they desire and the engineer helps to create and develop, as well as capture the vision of the artist onto an audio recording. However, each step of the recording process is crucial to making a high quality product. My first day I was treated kindly by everyone and the engineers seemed very interested in answering all of my questions. My supervisor gave me a sheet consisting of my duties. I have to assist the recording engineers, promote the business, contact clients, set up and tear down studio sessions, and be responsible for various assignments given to me throughout the semester. After my duties are completed, I am able to observe. My first assignment is to help out the studio promote itself for the SXSW festival. After interning at 5th Street Studios, I hope to expand my knowledge of the recording industry, develop new techniques and approaches to the development of an audio recording, and be able to recognize, analyze and overcome a variety of obstacles that can face a recording engineer during a session. Not only will I be able to help capture art, I will learn to realize each musician’s vision and see how others view music other than myself. I will learn how to work with clients and how to properly run a professional recording business. I am very excited about this opportunity to experience what the music industry has to offer.

Well the first couple of weeks were interesting. I expected a lot of cleaning when I took this internship but then I found out we actually share the space with an electric supply warehouse, which means dust is everywhere. My basic cleaning duties have so far been sweeping the outside warehouse area, sweeping and moping Studio A, (theirs also a studio B), cleaning the bathroom, yuck, wiping down the console, and of course, taking out the trash. luckily a fellow classmate of mine is also interning their so at least we get to split up the grunt work. Its not too bad though, cause after all the chores get done the fun happens. What I found to be interesting was we do a lot of marketing through the internet. We are constantly looking for new clients and one of our recourses is to use Myspace. My fellow internee and me add friends, post bulletins, and send out messages alerting people of our deals and specials. Aside from that we help setup and break down sessions, it will be a while until we get to use the console. Well I don’t want to spoil everything we do, so until next time, peace.