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Hi all, I've recently started working with Audio Animals in London. I've been given an amazing opportunity here and wanted to gathers others insight into the dos and don'ts for working with professionals in their studio.

My roles at the studio are to help out with small jobs, as you'd expect making tea for the engineers to reduce downtime and general assistance with their mixing and mastering. Assisting with this is great as I'm patching patch bays and setting up mixes ready for them to work. On my first day I got to assist with the mastering of 12 Hollywood film scores which was an amazing insight into what I can expect and I don't want to let them down.

Any help and advice you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated and taken on board.

I'll be writing a day to day post on their website of the goings on as life as an apprentice engineer in training. Hoping to land this job for years to come.

You can see pics of the studio and stuff here - http://www.audioanimals.co.uk

Thanks guys!

lol

Learn how to make a good cup of coffee.

Any useful advice lol

deadly habit wrote:Learn how to make a good cup of coffee.

This + learn how to shut the fuck up. That's pretty much exactly your job description. You're a fly on the wall unless there's grunt work to be done. So just get good at doing the grunt work well and quickly, and don't bug the engineers too much. I'm sure you'll do fine.

If you can observe and anticipate the engineers' actions you'll be invaluable, but get it wrong and you'll be a nuisance. If you know a certain eng always reaches for an 1176 on percussion and he just pulled up the perc bus to work on, if you've already got the 1176 patched when he turns around to ask, he'll look at you like his wife on their wedding day. Helps to have the controls already in a reasonable range as well. Basically anything you can do to minimize the work the eng has to do. But until you really get a good idea of how things work, you'll just be a piss-off if you're overstepping your boundaries.

For now just do whatever you're asked quickly and efficiently and keep everything neat. Then go back to quietly observing in the background. And have a nice pot of coffee ready when you notice the cups getting low.

Is Paul still offering mastering tracks for a tenner on his SSL?

http://www.dubstepforum.com/forum/viewt ... 8&t=240609

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to reply. If I manage to fit the mould you describe then I'll be happy, and hopefully the engineers also. I've been getting some really great advice so far, so thanks a lot.

All the up to date prices are on the site.

I"ve had great and i've had terrible interns in sessions. The great ones are pro-active, don't get in the way, and generally add a whole lot to keeping a session moving... and when the client is paying by the hour, keeping a session moving is key. Initaitve-wise i've had interns do things like set up a guitar chain that they think might work next to the one the engineer and I discussed; it may or may not get used, but its very cool that they took the effort to do so.... provided it didn't get in the way of what we'd already planned on doing.

The bad ones needed to be told to do anything and everything, didn't show initiative, offered opinions when they weren't asked, and/or generally wasted the clients time.

and, yeah, made a shitty cup of coffee.

Sharmaji hits the nail on the head though being able to tidy up quickly and effectively is something I always value.

wear socks

I see that in addition to posting this on here, you've also posted on KVR and Future Producers.

Why not post it on GearSlutz as well? They're generally more studio/engineer orientated in their users. This forum is mostly home users, so any studio advice would be coming from a few people at most, and everything else would be second hand/anecdotal.

Also, AudioAnimals and Paul have their own accounts on here already;

Audio Animals - http://www.dubstepforum.com/forum/membe ... e&u=176181
PaulAshmore - http://www.dubstepforum.com/forum/membe ... e&u=169606

So why not speak to them directly to ask what is required of you?

Keep clients' confidentiality?

^ Definitely. Nobody wants to be in a session hearing you talk shit about other clients (no matter how deserving) simply because they'll wonder if you'll chat shit 'bout dem once they're not around.

OP, there's a lot of good lore + tips in written form these days. I'd strongly suggest - no, INSIST - that you get a subscription to Tape Op magazine (it's worth it. Trust. ) for starters. The "Behind The Glass" books by Howard Massey are fantastic - you come away realizing that not everybody does things the same way, even at the pro level, and that people skills are just as important as good ears & attention to detail.

You got time to lean...you got time to clean. I can't offer any more advice that hasn't been mentioned already.

*edit
I might add if I was OP I wouldn't mention the companies name in the post.
Think of potential clients searching the web for studios...would you want them seeing a post about interns asking how to do their job.

Yeah Tape-Op is mandatory actually, especially as it's free

test recordings wrote:Yeah Tape-Op is mandatory actually, especially as it's free

You just reminded me I need to change the mailing addy on my subscription.

Also know the proper way to wrap cables OP, key thing and how to make cables/basic soldering.

Oh right, forgot about that. Sort of fits in with keeping things neat. If you don't know how to over/under a cable, git to youtube.

SunkLo wrote:Oh right, forgot about that. Sort of fits in with keeping things neat. If you don't know how to over/under a cable, git to youtube.

don't let them catch you elbow wrapping that sh*t...grounds for dismissal.

-delete-

If worse came to worst...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id845845897?mt=8