Why i hate working in a music studio - an engineer's rant!!

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Why I hate working in a music studio

A pretty funny read but I'm sure there's a little something in there that everyone who works in a studio can relate to.

They argue over the prices like it's nobody's business. Mate, the rates are what they are. They are set in stone. You'd imagine they would get this? NOPE! Every week another bunch of brainless Jay-Z wannabes stroll in and spend half an hour arguing with me over what discount I can give their 'crew' because they're an 'upcoming act' and they're going to hit it 'big' so they bring me 'repeat business'. PISS OFF. A lot of the time, they refuse to pay the remaining session time at the end of their session, so I'm obliged to withhold their recordings (another stupid thing the owner says we have to do). Sometimes they get violent. I've even been in a scuffle with two of the guys. It's an outright joke. But no... no that's not even the worst part.

The worst part is hearing some of these idiots clamber into the booth and start 'rapping'. Or 'singing'. This, for me is both the worst and best part of my job because on one side, I have to listen to the most talentless bunch of music class rejects rapping about guns and hoes which is excruciatingly painful on my ears. A lot of my mates look up to me and think it's a brilliant gig I've got working in a studio listening to music all day but they have no concept of things like FATIGUE and MONOTONY and the mind numbing droll that comes out of these kids mouths. It is at times unbearable. Stop wasting your ****ing pocket money!! The good part is thank God they smoke so much weed because I spend half my working life passively high and I've never bought a bag in my life.

I studied music for years and graduated with a technical degree in sound engineering and musical composition. I loved studying, it was full of bright people full of ideas and ambition. I was enthralled by working with professional musicians in a proper environment, there really is nothing like it. If I'd have known that studio work was this boring, monotonous and ****ing ridiculous though I probably wouldn't have gone that way. I'd probably have said **** THIS SHIT and studied aeronautical engineering instead.
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Not cool. He should quit if he feels that way. I've owned my studio for 7 years... I let Full Sail dropouts and rejects run it..never got ripped off and always got paid.

I live for the next up and coming wannabe's. They'll be buying my new investment property and fund my other business ventures.
 
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i respect it. its supposed to be a professional thing. black and white there.
 
​That is awesome. Somebody finally tells the truth.
 
Another pretentious "engineer" crying about having to work
 
I feel his pain though for real. People be actin' retarded in the booth n stu n shit. fucc son keep your composure at least.
 
thats the kind of people you bring in your environment.
the same people that will argue with you over your price do so because we allow people to do that in an effort to "get what we can get"

if a person started haggling with niketown about how the guy down the street could get him a better deal niketown would point you to the direction of that guy down the street and say "next customer". i turn down people all the time who don't want to adhere to my rules.

had a guy in last week that didn't wanna put down his deposit until he showed up. this guy was a notorious reschedule and canceller. always had a reason why he didn't have the money and was always trying to break up payments to when it worked for him but have you work the sessions.

I told him no, a deposit is a deposit, not a payment, your paying to get on the board. he didn't go for it, so i didn't see him when he tried to give me the money i respectfully declined. he wanted all his sessions (from previous jobs) and i offered to give them to him. he's been tip toeing around coming to get them ever since.

he has 2 more days to do so otherwise i have to clear my studio drive for paying clients.

yall be forgetting, YOU SET THE RULES. you do.

---------- Post added at 11:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 AM ----------

thats the kind of people you bring in your environment.
the same people that will argue with you over your price do so because we allow people to do that in an effort to "get what we can get"

if a person started haggling with niketown about how the guy down the street could get him a better deal niketown would point you to the direction of that guy down the street and say "next customer". i turn down people all the time who don't want to adhere to my rules.

had a guy in last week that didn't wanna put down his deposit until he showed up. this guy was a notorious reschedule and canceller. always had a reason why he didn't have the money and was always trying to break up payments to when it worked for him but have you work the sessions.

I told him no, a deposit is a deposit, not a payment, your paying to get on the board. he didn't go for it, so i didn't see him when he tried to give me the money i respectfully declined. he wanted all his sessions (from previous jobs) and i offered to give them to him. he's been tip toeing around coming to get them ever since.

he has 2 more days to do so otherwise i have to clear my studio drive for paying clients.

yall be forgetting, YOU SET THE RULES. you do.
 
I think some of the people who eventually end up working as a studio engineer once wished/thought/planned to be the talent, themselves. So they think, "As long as I'm working around music, it'll be all good." But eventually, you face the fact that you're not the talent, you think you can do it better than 90% of your clients, and this all sucks. Gotta watch out for that mindset. Working around music is probably not as interesting as being the musician.

My bandmate loves skiing. Dude was training for years.. his brother was a Junior Olympian... whole family was ski, ski, ski. As he got older, he decided to become a Ski Instructor - lasted for 2 months. He hated the monotony... New group of rookies every 2 or 4 hours asking him the same questions. Bunny Hill ALL day, while he knew in his mind he could rip a Black Diamond Hill, easily. Instead, he quickly learned that working around skiing was not the same thrill as trying to be a pro skiier.

I think this happens to some people in music recording biz, too.
 
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ruptured said:
Why I hate working in a music studio

A pretty funny read but I'm sure there's a little something in there that everyone who works in a studio can relate to.
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Dude sounds pretentious. He's attacking their talent level as well as mentioning the fact that he graduated with a technical degree and it was full of bright people. Where's the objectivity? Being an engineer requires more than a technical ear. YOU need people skills and the ability to interact with people from different socio economic backrounds. Just imagine the people skills it took for those engineers in the past who had to interact with certain rappers.
 
iambase said:
Most rappers are shitty though you gotta admit...
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If you look at many of today's hottest rappers, 99 percent are young Black kids from the inner city. They possess that street mentality and an engineer must have enough people skills to effectively interact with them. There also may be a generation gap that you may have to bridge. There has to be a little of compromise on both sides or you can just work with rappers from the burbs who may be well behaved, have access to mom and dad's cashflow but who lack real talent. I always use Alchemist as an example. He could have stayed in the wealthy hills of Southern California looking for a well behaved rapper who could afford his services but he moved to grimy NYC and built a relationship with poor hungry rappers from broken homes who lived in the projects.
 
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Most of those young black rappers are secretly college educated kids who are more child actors than real street thugs.
 
A Double degree in engineering is not far off.

He/she can use that degree and just go back to school and complete modules to expand their qualifications.

Screw that. Nobody should ever be in a violent environment specially at work with that type of qualifications.

Except the ATL mall guy. No. but him neither.
 
It's what you sign up for.

Why go thru the work to be a psychiatrist if you're gonna complain about guys telling you all their problems?

Why be a firefighter and complain when you gotta run in a house to save fat people you gotta carry out?

Why wanna plat sports, but just complain about guys from the other team talking shyt to get under your skin?

It all comes with the job. End of the day, you're doing something you love and getting paid to do it, why complain?
 
Sounded like a legit rant to me.

Shit happens, not everything is sunshine and rainbows, that's life.
 
lol i hope this dude us lying. right now i'm in school for studying electrical engineering and audio engineering. if it what he says is true then fuk
 
^^^All about how you carry yourself. It's like 1 boxer could say he's bored because he's never had a challenge and has never even been hit hard enough to get rattled his entire career and the next boxer could say his problem is he keeps getting KTFO minutes into the bout.

Dude was from Australia if I read right though. May have been in the states, just can't see studio sessions getting that real in AUS, could be wrong. I will say the clients you take on is a big part, but when you need that money, sometimes you can't be picky about clients. That's when location and who you advertise your services to comes into play.

I'd personally rather deal with a buncha dope boys coming in with their blunt I gotta tell to put out and there guns sitting all over the place than the Dad/Manager who knows their kid is the next Britner Spears. I hate those f**kers!!!

...And maybe I knew more of what I was getting into from sitting in studios since I was a kid...I've been immune to the monotonay and routine of everything since like 15 years old.
 
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He's in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK (North-East of England). Very different to Aus in a lot of respects but some similarities such as religious profile (type of religion and % adherents) and gun crime amongst the "gangster" element.

There's also a lot more about the owners and the general crap condition of the studio itself.

As d'ranged says, though, you gotta work with all sorts and you gotta know how to handle people, regardless of whether they be packing or not.....
 
Recording Engineers can get burned out. It sounds like homey is burned out. When that happens you might need to take a break. I shut my studios down to the public years ago. I got worn out. I have more horror stories than I care to mention. It sucks recording something you hate cause you got paid and you don't want to tell them. Nothing worse than sitting for 8 hours recording music you are not feeling. Hell, its hard to record music you really enjoy. Artist/managers/label owners can be very...interesting people to say the least and it requires uncanny patience. Plus, if you feel that your safety or health is in danger you should eliminate that stress immediately.

When i got burned out I had to understand why and re-evaluate my business. I either had to scout out artists and record who I believed in as a producer or scout out other engineers to take the sessions I knew would not work with me. I only started engineering because I was a producer/songwriter first so I chose the producer route. I am planning to reopen my studios to the public after 7 years but I have younger more eager engineers running the show.

There is also a lot more to the sound/recording engineering business than running sessions for rappers. You can get in to sound design & mixing for film. You can slip in to radio and television. You can design sound for ringtones and apps.

I believe in the laws of attraction and know that a negative vibe can block many blessings. The quality of work your studio produces is directly effected by the energy you have around your creative space. If your not feeling it...change it up.

-735 Music
 
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