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Flying solo and trying not to die learning


patoggt

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Okay, so i m a "sound guy" from a very small country called Uruguay (we´re 3 millions). I´m trying to step out into the sound world/work, but we do not have gigantic productions where one can start from the bottom and learn with the pros the way up. So sometimes its difficult to be calling yourself a "sound mixer" when actually i m learning the job as i take the gigs. These forums and other web are 49% of the help one needs, the other 51% is in the field. 

 

What i intend with this thread is to see if there are others in the same position and want to share experiences.

 

I tend to read and search a lot in jwsound and i know most of the times the things i m looking for are in here, but not always is easy to find the correct thread. So it would be nice also copy/paste threads that you find interesting for beginners. 

 

I found the other day this guy on the web and i loved his blog 

 

 

http://soundrolling.com/technical-sound-blog/

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Hi, pat, and welcome.

If you have been reading here, then you know there are some books that we keep recommending, and for good reasons.

Hi senator! Thanx for the comment! Please to meet you, i almost feel like i know you after reading several threads and comments!

 

Yes, i bought the ones i could: Ric Viers and Dean Miles. Both great books! Also i take great pleasure and believe the importance of search the rentals and stores catalogues. I´ve learned a few things looking at BH and Trew Audio.

 

One thing that shocks me (here you have to go to the US to get your gear, there are no audio rental houses), is how there are not hundreds of videos reviewing gear. The Countryman B6 its almost imposible to find. The gentleman above you Matt Price gathered various Audio/Behind the scenes/Pros talking/etc videos from Youtube and Vimeo, that are very hard to find! Precious material!

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Your thread title says it all, that's how it goes as a newbie soundie, esp in small market without great mentors around to work for and learn from.  Be glad you live in the Internet Age--those of us who started before forums like this one existed had to make many more mistakes and take a much longer time to learn the craft!

 

philp

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The book "Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures" which Mr. Mike has posted; has helped me a lot in field. Working with an experience sound mixer in the field is your best bet in this industry (for now and your future).

 

Good luck fella!

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Your thread title says it all, that's how it goes as a newbie soundie, esp in small market without great mentors around to work for and learn from.  Be glad you live in the Internet Age--those of us who started before forums like this one existed had to make many more mistakes and take a much longer time to learn the craft!

 

philp

Thanx Philip for your comment. I´m always glad for the "Internet Age"! But i guess you always want more!

 

 

 

Vasileios thanx for the advice! I´m looking into it as the Senator already pointed out!

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(Edit: Holy crap - I didn't realize how long my post was until I saw it all in the window!)

 

 Thanks for starting the thread. I'm in a similar position I suppose. I got bitten by the recording bug a few years ago and have amassed a decent rig aimed primarily at recording live music (main rig now is Schoeps MK5/MK41 > SD USBPre2 > Edirol R-44). I've found a couple venues around Richmond, VA that get musical acts I like and I can record in without much hassle. That's typically amplified rock type music. I record outdoors at festivals some as well so I've become quite familiar with the need to make your gear and especially power sources flexible and portable.

 

To expand my experience I started looking for opportunities to record other types of music and found a branch of Classical Revolution sprouted up here in town. I asked if I could come and record and they were more than happy to have me do that as they had been thinking about how to archive their events. I've gotten to record all kinds of instruments: violin, bassoon, harp, cello, vibraphone,  as solos, duos, quartets, quintets, even a full orchestra through this.

 

Over the last 9 months or so I've added in a couple Sony camcorders and have been making some multi-cam videos syncing audio in post with Sony vegas. I came across Ric Viers book "The Location Sound Bible" and found while it was primarily targeted to dialog/interview type recording it had a lot of overlap with the recording I was already doing from a gear and "be ready for anything" perspective and found the whole thing very interesting.

 

Recently the Classical Revolution folks have started a program they call "Bar Talk" where they have a speaker present something on a musical topic and then a set of musicians perform some related works - all in a less formal setting than a concert hall, namely a bar.

 

I brought my audio and video gear and recorded both the speaker and music portion. Recording the music I'm comfortable with and have a basic idea on how to get decent results. The speaker was something else and while it went ok I realized I now had a need for a lapel mic or some other solution as there was no sound reinforcement used or needed in the small room for the audience to hear and thus no sound board or PA for me to benefit from.

 

So here I am on jwsound learning what I can about lapel mics, wireless, etc. I recently picked up a Senn G3 bodypack and already have a couple DPA 4061's I use for music.

 

At 40 years old I'm now contemplating how I might make a career change from the world of Information Technology but at the same time I'm having a blast learning to use all the gear and of course getting to listen to all the great music!

 

That's my background - now my relevant (hopefully!) contribution to this thread ;D:

  • I've gained valuable experience by offering to help out groups like Classical Revolution who have essentially no financial resources to hire somebody to record them. Even the musicians are donating their efforts. There's not a lot of pressure so if something doesn't work out I don't feel so bad. I still refer to this as a hobby but approach it as though I'm doing it professionally.
  • I'm enjoying the learning and get satisfaction from improving the results I get and learning from mistakes.
  • Doing everything from shooting to editing helps me appreciate why you do certain things early in the workflow to make it go easier down the line. To record a concert I let the video and audio roll the whole time. To make something with pieces edited together you definitely want to break it up into discrete chunks as you're shooting.

So maybe this is a path others have followed. I didn't start recording with the plan to do it professionally (and it's long shot that I actually will), rather I'm following my interests. As I've reflected on my younger years, this is largely the same path I took to get into the IT industry so maybe there's something to it. I loved compiling the latest Linux and FreeBSD kernels and installing webservers on my PC at home just to try it out. I couldn't believe I was able to start getting paid well to do something I would have done for free! Of course I was much younger without a family to support.

 

Note: I have learned from posters on JWSoundgroup to avoid taking jobs that should be filled by experienced crews for low ball fees and with inadequate equipment and experience for the task. I've read the horror stories here and am taking that to heart.

 

Another thing that's clear - there's a signficant financial investment required to really get into this. While you can get by with low end consumer gear sometimes, there's a reason the professional gear costs what it does and using the right tool for the job makes a big difference. You don't have to have the latest and greatest, but there is minimum level for sure and there's a reason Sound Devices and others designed stuff the way they did. "A timecode slate costs how much?!?!?!?!" :blink:

 

Second hand gear - I haven't bought any of my main gear new yet. You can save a lot and learn what your preferences are.

 

Besides continuing to do the stuff I'm enjoying right now, I think my next step is to seek out some folks in the Richmond area who are recording and mixing for video professionally and see what the reality is. I'm guessing it's a fairly small market but I really have no idea. We're pretty close to DC.

 

Thanks for the space. I really enjoy browsing the old topics here. If anybody is interested in recording live music check out taperssection.com . Tons of great info and great folks mostly with a hobbyist/enthusiast bent as opposed to professional but there's definitely overlap. They like to use mics in pairs for the most part over there and not a lot of shotguns...

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If I may suggest a book about film editing for you. "In the Blink of an Eye" by Walter Murch. In my opinion the more you know about all aspects of film making the better you will be as a sound for picture mixer.

CrewC

 

+1. In college did a bit of gripping, some editing, and lots of post sound besides location sound. I have to say that learning all the crafts and how they all come together to make the final product does help a lot in understanding your own craft.

 

Also +1 to anything written by Walter Murch.

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Reading all these books is good, also reading this forum as well as others is good, read as much as you can. And especially about post production. If you can, try to sit in on a post production session, or at least during the picture edit. Knowing as much as possible anout the post process is vital and very helpful with your own work.

Also, try to do every job you can, even if it's unpaid. Try to talk to everyone involved with the post production on your job. And, something I learned the hard way, make sure you live in the right city. If the market's small in Uruguay anyway, then live near the main (only) market

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