The traditional route into studio engineering used to be starting at the bottom as an assistant. Today opportunities like this are few and far between so if you are lucky enough to get a break as an assistant it’s so important to make sure you get the best out of the opportunity. Kevan Gallagher share his thoughts on how to do just that.
Most peoples first foray into the studio recording world is into the job of an assistant engineer. I spent 5/6 years as an assistant so it's not always a short spell but it does give you a great understanding of the mechanics of all sort of sessions (and people).
In before the clients in the morning, last to leave after the clients have left and expected to be in peak form whether it's 2 in the afternoon or 2 in the morning although why anybody would still want to be in the studio at 2 am is something I now question.
The Assistant Needs To Engineer Sometimes
The irony of being an assistant is that I feel a good assistant needs to have some good engineering experience and the fact that many studios used to be reticent to allow their assistants to use the studios in down time is a very bad thing. Giving assistants the opportunity to become better and therefore better understand the needs of the producers and engineers they are working with can only benefit the studio and the session AND the assistant.
I have felt in recent years that some assistants haven't fully embraced their job title and haven't really been as much a part of the session as they should have been and as a consequence, not helped to make the session run as well as it possibly could. This is not a generalisation as I have also had some great ones but an observation nonetheless. I feel one of the best/worst experiences an assistant can have is to have a really bad session with someone. That may not be the fault of the assistant and may be the fault of the client but an experience I and many of my peers had in our early assisting days. For me, following that, I assumed that every client would be as awkward as that particular experience and I NEVER had an issue again.
Anticipate And Be Ahead Of The Session
Quite the contrary, I made sure I was 20 steps ahead of the engineer I was working with and that everything was set up and I had things ready I knew they would be needing in the coming hours even before they did. Back in the days of analogue mix sessions and recalls, by the time the final version had gone down, the recall was complete, tape boxes labelled, DATs done and automation saved to floppy disc etc. I could basically leave with the client. All because I was in the studio all the time and could see what was needing done.
One advantage of that attitude and being fully in charge of all that stuff was that clients would appreciate it and feel that they could hand tasks over to me and know in full confidence they would be done well. I wouldn't just set mics up for the engineer on a piano, I'd position them with the pianist playing and have a better sound than they could imagine and then watch their face as they pushed up the faders I'd marked as Pno L/ Pno R. That often led to me engineering bits of a session I'd started as an assistant. You need to inspire confidence in the clients without appearing like a smart Alec and without treading on anyone's toes, a difficult balance but not an impossible one.
The other thing you have to know is how everything works in the studio and also know that when things aren't working, how to patch around them as if nothing was wrong.
Also, don't be scared to tell a client what's broken and what channels to avoid on the console. Studio owners will take issue with this but I'd still urge assistants to do it. What they don't know...............
This leads on to the other difficult balance. The assistant is EMPLOYED by the studio but WORKING for the clients, who should they show loyalty to?
All things being equal, both but sometimes, it has to be the client.
The assistant is the face of the studio to most clients and often runs it as much as a studio manager does so their job is more than just technical and technical it most definitely can be.
In the days of tape they had to know how to line up and sync tape machines, how all the finer points of the desk automation worked, how the advanced features of the console worked even though they were not the engineer. How all the outboard operated so they could get into the deeper parts to do recalls. All the ways of doing multiple foldback and keeping the players happy with their can mixes, how to fully describe faults so as the maintenance team could identify and fix them and most importantly how to have a good laugh with the clients whilst keeping on top of the session. Tape days are gone for the most part but equivalent technical skills are still needed.
Be There When It Matters
You don't need to be in the studio all the time but you need to learn the times that you must be there. Simple common sense tells you that the setting up stage of a session might require your undivided attention as would the period of initial recording when any faults may become obvious. Once the session is up and running then popping in and out regularly may be enough but KNOW when these times are.
Get involved in the session and show the clients you're keen, enthusiasm makes people remember you and ask for you again which leads to other opportunities. Don't hide away and make people look for you when they need something, never do that. Accept that the job of the assistant isn't always fun but play the long game. Accept that nobody's going to ask you to engineer something if you make it clear you're.not happy making them something as simple as a cup of tea. If you're happy making someone a cup of tea at home, don't think it's beneath you on a session.
You may have some.great engineering experience but that's not why you're there, use that experience to make the session run uber smoothly and the clients WILL notice.
For another perspective on career progression and making the most of opportunities in the studio check out Dom Morley’s article How I Got From Teaboy to Grammy Winner in Four Steps.