mmm

For some reason this thing just popped in my head. Do people still look at it?

F@#king Finally

So it's been a while since anyone has posted so I thought I'd update everyone on my situation.

BTW, congrats to Lee on that Govt. Mule credit, I know it was almost 2 years ago but congrats still.

As for me, I went back to school for the third, yes, third time to get my Masters in Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver. I started in August of 2009 and recently finished last December. I wrote my thesis on using sustainable building materials in critical listening environments, specifically using straw bales and adobe.

It turns out that building a studio out of these materials is superior in every way save one. Your walls will be about 2 feet thick, but the acoustic performance, cost, and the environmental impact are pretty drastically better than your standard "room within a room" approach, which was pretty surprising.

Anyway, after that was done, I moved back to San Diego and have come back to work for Sony Computer Entertainment as a full time mixer for game trailers and promo videos. I started last Thursday and things have been pretty busy right out of the gate. You can see one of the videos I mixed my first day here for the game Little Big Planet 2,

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/share-trailer-littlebigplanet-2/709648

So things have seemingly worked out for the time being. Hopefully all of you are finding consistent employment, I wish you all the best. Keep in touch and if anyone sees this, post some news about yourself.

Cheers,

Nick Fletcher

Yay

So I get my first major credit coming soon.  I'm pretty excited.  It's for the new Government Mule album and I will be buying it immediately.  Unfortunately, we were going to go down for The Black Eyed Peas in LA and do some live recording, but the gig isn't happening.  Sad but, something else will totally come along.

I hope everyone else is enjoying what they're doing and I hope I can see a bunch of you at some point in the future.  Some sort of get-together would be cool.

Things are... Okay.

Hello there to everybody. It's too bad that I've missed all the get-togethers but thanks to Lee for getting in touch with me and letting me know about this blog. I think now more than ever it's important for us to keep in touch and give any help we can. Things are going okay for me here down in San Diego, I moved back home after graduating in April and am still here. Can't get a steady enough job to allow me to move out. It's kind of depressing being 28 and living with the folks, but hey, I don't really have a choice if I want to continue in this field. Anyway, I'll continue with the format that was laid out in the first post.

1. Jobs - At the moment I am a game audio intern at Sony Computer Entertainment in San Diego which is f-ing sweet. I got hired in September for a 3 month paid internship but they were nice enough to extend it another 3 months. It ends in a couple of weeks and I have shit lined up. They have told though that they would hire me in an instant if the "head count" allowed it, which is nice, but it doesn't pay my bills. They actually laid off a couple people in the sound department about a month ago, one guy had been here 12 years and had 3 kids, so me not getting hired kind of pales in comparison.

I have received 2 credits so far though, Dialogue Editor for MLB 09 The Show, and Foley Assistant for InFAMOUS, both coming out in the next couple of months, which is huge for my resume. I'm hoping I can get a couple more before I leave on some games in development.

I am in the process of applying for grad school and my boss wrote me an amazing letter of recommendation. I'm applying for a Master of Science degree in recording arts at the University of Colorado at Denver. Hell, if I can't get a job then might as well tack on to my exorbitant student loan balance (thanks Expression). I figure I can get some great loan interest rates right now and now that I've found something I love to do, a graduate degree seems like the right way to go. It's also something I've always seen myself doing anyway.

2. Projects- While here at Sony, I'm using the facilities to mix some recorded music from Expression, doing post work on some cinematics for God of War Chains of Olympus that I can add to my reel, and applying for jobs. I've also been in contact with a guy making a short film that is very audio-driven, so I'm hoping that will be something to work on coming up in the next couple of months. Like every film maker ever, he has festival aspirations, but who knows, maybe it'll happen.

3. Location - Here in San Diego for the time being, probably moving to Denver in the fall if I get into the master's program, looking for jobs everywhere, so who knows where I'll be in a month.

4. Events - The Casbah here celebrated their 20th anniversary in January and had some amazing shows, I saw 3 Mile Pilot, Don Caballero, The Album Leaf, Ilya, to name a few. Some great local bands got back together after years and played some great shows.

5. Cool audio sites - A couple cool sites I've stumbled upon are audiotalk.org and audiocookbook.org. Just some interesting audio related information.

6. Stuff I've learned - This is a difficult industry to make it in (obviously), especially in a city that isn't LA or NY. We picked a really shitty time to finish school with the economy the way it is and the music industry the way it is. But every time I think about how difficult it is, I think about friends of mine who are attorneys, stock analysts, accountants, etc., and I imagine myself doing what they do, and I get depressed, then I get motivated to try harder to make this passion of mine work.

7. Possible job hook ups - Not really, though if anyone ever applies to the intern position down here at Sony, I can probably put in a good word to the deciding people.

8. My life/well-being - F@cking frustrated and excited at the same time. Dealing with a girlfriend who doesn't want me to leave San Diego but who also is very supportive. Living with my parents is making me insane. Not having my life together by the time of my 10 year high shcool reunion is bugging me, kind of, but not really. Excited at the prospect of getting my graduate degree, something that I've always wanted. Anxious all the time. Overall, doing okay.

If any of you are living in the San Diego area and want to collaborate on anything, feel free to email me. Come March 20th I will have a lot of free time. I hope everyone is doing well and good luck to you all!

Nick
nlfletch at gmail dot com

Bringing Sixty Back

Okay, the post title was a bit lame, but I couldn't resist (and I don't even like JT).

Anyways, thanks Lee for posting. I was thinking of posting awhile ago, but I obviously didn't get around to it until now.

A lot happened since I last posted. To make a long story short, I finished out one of my internships in December, took a month off for the holidays and all, then started at Larrabee in January (same studio mentioned by Lee earlier). I actually only applied there because I remember Lee said he got offered a paid position there last summer. People have nothing but nice things to stay about it though. Unfortunately, I am back at the internship stage.

There are some famous mixers here, Manny Marroquin and Dave Pensado. They are pretty cool dudes. If you've never heard of them by name, you have more than likely heard their mixes. Look them up on AllMusicGuide.com (it's like the IMDB of music).

Interning is... interning. It's not fun, but it's something that needs to be done if you want to get into the world of studio recording. Lee's situation is pretty much like an ideal situation for anyone starting out in our positions. I read this article last week, and while it didn't tell me anything I didn't know, it just assured me how difficult it is, and brought me down a little more. In fact, in that article they describe an ideal situation like Lee's. A project/session needed to be done and he was the only one there, at the perfect place and time. Let's just say that does not happen very often. Don't get me wrong, it's not all luck. I know Lee is a hard worker, and I'm sure he made his own breaks. So go Lee!

In LA or other big cities, it just doesn't really happen like that. I'm at a big studio in LA, and this is how most studios like this one work:

You intern for free for several months. If there is a runner position open, you move up and get paid minimum wage. You do that for several months, and if you are lucky you get an assistant position, and don't get paid much more than that, but you get to be in the studio finally and you get experience. You do that for awhile (could be a few years), and hopefully you'll be ready to become an engineer.

As much as this sucks to be interning, I don't regret moving back to LA. I know of a few other Ex'pression students working at recording studios (in the Bay area). There is more competition in bigger cities like this. You compete with people from a few other schools too, but whatever. Bigger markets offer more potential chances to work with more known artists, which I think can help you work with a larger variety of people later on (and looks good on your résumé), BUT it does take longer. You do what you can to get yourself there. You work hard and stay persistent, and one day you will get there. :)

Take care everyone,

T

www.tiffany-lo.com

tiffanymlo.blogspot.com

   

Merp. Bring it back?

Hello everyone.

So, I never posted because honestly I didn't have anything to post.  I've been working my butt off for the last 4 months or so and it seems to be paying off.  

After school it took me a little bit to get going, poor economy, the thought of internships, it all had me a bit down.  I had been, essentially, given a paid starting job as a runner at Larrabee with the intent of moving up.  But, I couldn't realistically make it in the time frame they wanted.  I had been speaking with a woman named Rachel and she seemed to be understanding of the situation.  Shortly thereafter I began making a list.  A big list.  And I started going into SF looking for the studios on this list.  Unfortunately none of these places would return calls or even be around the studios when I went to take my resume.

So, I throw out tons of e-mails, I get some responses.  Some are nice, but go no where.  Some offer advice.  Some just keep telling me to keep trying back.  Eventually I get one e-mail back from a place called Bay Area Sound Studios.  Now, while I'm speaking to them, I get a job offer from a private home studio.  I decide to go with an interview at BASS and see what it's like.  I come to find that it's a pretty cool place that would offer me more hours than I believed I would have at the private studio.  I find out fairly quickly that the job at BASS is mine.  Awesome!  So I make a call to the private studio letting the guy know I can't really be available for his gig.

I begin working at BASS and continue looking for internships.  Still not getting enough hours and needing to find other things to fill my time.  I send more e-mails out and I get responses, and a couple interviews that go nowhere.  Eventually I receive a call from Studio 880 saying they'd like me to come in for an interview for an internship.  I was excited because 880 was really the place I'd been thinking of most after I decided I would be staying in the Bay.  

I go in for my interview at 880.  It was interesting.  Cool studio, nice space.  I leave assuming I probably didn't get the internship as everything else had gone so poorly up until that point.  So I try not to get my hopes up.  The last time I had gotten my hopes up it was for a gig at Fantasy that I thought I had a really awesome shot at and it didn't end up happening.  So I wait nervously and a couple days later I get a call back asking me when I could come in for my first shift.  

I go in for my first shift a day or two later (my schedule started off as half days).  I did a lot of cleaning, a lot of runs, cut a lot of vines, and even did some painting.  I end up going into 880 as often as I possibly can.  I get to sit in on some sessions, interact with clients and see what the social environment of a professional studio is like.

Come to a few weeks ago and I am, all of a sudden, the only person left at the studio.  The head engineer took off with Green Day to do work and the next person in line left to move to Canada to be with his wife.  This leaves me.  A three month intern who's been watching but hasn't really gotten the feel for the studio quite yet.  Well, it didn't really matter.  I was all that was left.  I find myself starting off with some editing for sessions, then I begin picking up work on a film that was left behind by someone else, then, just the other day, I begin picking up the mastering gig and now I have my first session (unless it's cancelled) on thursday.

I wanted to post this for those of you who might be having a tough time finding work.  Sometimes it's just the right place at the right time and you just have to make the calls that you think might be best for you.  I promise, that if you work hard, eventually you will make it somewhere.  There was one week where there were mixing sessions at 880 (my second week I believe, maybe third) and I was the only intern that could make it in.  So I was there every night until at least 2am (a couple nights to 3 and 4) and still got up in the morning when I had to and went in to my internship that morning and even went to BASS in San Raphael in the evening until 11:00 when there were no mix sessions.  That week I ended up working a total of around 85 hours and only got paid for about 20 of them.

I hope you're all doing well and not stressing too much about life at the moment (not that I'm one to talk).  You're totally not alone in this industry.  It's a tough environment right now and for all I know I could screw up royally tomorrow and it could all be gone.  But, I just keep trying my best.  When I get put in a new situation I've never been in before I feel stress.  I'm sure there are a couple people here that could tell you how stressed they've seen me get about silly things.  But I tell myself I just have to try.  The worst that happens is I fail at something I didn't really know how to do in the first place and at best I surprise myself and my boss.

So work hard!  We'll all get to a place eventually where we really can help each other out.  If I really don't know how to do something I will ask someone I think might know.  Use your classmates.  I know I'm totally willing to try and help out with anything someone might be unsure of.

So again, I hope you're all doing all right.  Give an update if you feel it's worth it.  We should get together at some point and hang out.  It's been a while since I've seen a lot of you.

Also, I'm trying to get a message board together.  Something where we can talk socially, not necessarily about work and stuff.  Maybe it'll work maybe it won't.  Right now this is the address  class60.proboards.com.

I am worried, too.

If I see these people, I will send up smoke signals and let you know that they are safe.

The signals will be blue. no, wait, Orange. They will be orange.