HOW TO BECOME A SOUND ENGINEER [audio recording]

HOW TO BECOME A SOUND ENGINEER
You would like to be, you are, a sound engineer.
Why will I hire you instead of somebody else?

By Stephane Meer, Head manager of Studio Capitale, Audio Post-Production company in Paris France.

For fifteen years now have I seen and interviewed young sound engineers, mostly out of school looking for a job.
Some of them can have their evaluation made in minutes, some take a few days, in all cases after a week we know if the challenger is a possible recruit or not.

What are the things to know?

First, what you learn in a school will at max be 50% of what you need to know.

Second, knowledge is important but the key is attitude.

Attitude toward a technical difficulty
Attitude toward the questions you should ask yourself
Attitude toward the company team
Attitude toward the customers.

1/ Attitude toward a technical difficulty

We NEVER ask anyone to know EVERYTHING before coming to us.
It's okay if you don't know a software, a machine, or a way to record something.
What you shouldn't do is lie about it, and pretend you know when you don't really.

The best attitude is to ask questions and get your hands on it.
We will judge you on the way you react and learn, much more than on what you already know!

2/ Attitude toward the questions you should ask yourself

The rule is: Everyone makes mistake, -provided you are human, aren't you?-, but a professional always CHECKS OUT before delivering a program.

When a new challenger comes to us, he's in probation. We start slow by giving him easy tasks at first. You should always check out any simple request you are given. THEN we will think you are reliable and go on giving you more and more responsibility.
If you fail those early tests, I'm very sad to say that you are black listed right away and your chance to be recruited is gone.
Always verify, verify, verify again, spend a lot of time at this until this is your second nature.

3/Attitude toward the company team

There are many good sound engineers out there, so why recrut somebody we don't like and have to share our days with for the months or years to come?
The rule here is the same as in any social context:
Don't think about YOUR perspective, think about THEIR'S!
Don't talk about you, make them talk about themselves. What could be useful and comfortable for THEM first. What is their need, what is their problem, what do they like, what can YOU do for THEM?
Be in their shoes and they will take a good care of you and make you succeed.
It's so simple to do the right thing when you focus on the right goal.
We don't care about YOU, we care about what YOU can do for US.
So the first step, if you want to win the game, is to know more about the team you'd like to fit in.

4/Attitude toward the customers
Customers don't spend their time with the accountant, with the secretary, with the manager...they spend their days with their sound engineer.
Therefore you ARE the company's face to them!
We will recruit you if you give a good image to people. If you have charisma and sound reassuring, you definitely have an edge. The proper culture and way of life will give you a link with our customers and we will measure this feedback to evaluate you.
I've seen young sound engineer cross a customer in our corridor, and this person came at me and said: "I don't want him for my session". This is real life, every relationship detail is important, smile, hello, would you like a coffee or a tea...you know what I'm talking about don't you.

My conclusion is: Don't think you are a sound engineer because you master a pro tools!
Don't think you are good because your school gave you good marks.
Be modest and master the tips I gave you, and you will be a winner.

Best luck to you!

Sincerely

Stéphane Meer

Stéphane Meer is Head Manager of Studio Capitale Audio Post Production in Paris France.
He is a professional composer and author of the musical fantasy audio book Helena and the orchestra of the world of mist.

[FANTASY AUDIO BOOK] FANTASY AUDIOBOOK (FANTASY BOOK)

Please watch this video and welcome to the world of mist!

Audio book Helena #one 4/8 "fiction fantasy literature"

http://www.musicaltales.com/helena
Musical Fantasy Audio Book.
In this episode, the fantasy story holds on a minute to leave some space to the music. This is a musical poetic description of autumn season. In this free fiction fantasy literature, this kind of theme is allowed.
HELENA and the orchestra of the world of mist
http://www.musicaltales.com
http://www.musicaltales.fr
http://www.musicaltales.de
http://www.musicaltales.es
http://www.musicaltales.ru
http://www.musicaltales.cn

Audio book Helena #one 3/8 "story child"

http://www.musicaltales.com/helena
Musical Fantasy Audio Book. In this episode of the fantasy novel, the characters are still in the real world, a small village. Helena explain the kidnapping of her parents.Enjoy the big crescendo in the music!
This is an episode of this story that child and adult can follow.
HELENA and the orchestra of the world of mist
http://www.musicaltales.com
http://www.musicaltales.fr
http://www.musicaltales.de
http://www.musicaltales.es
http://www.musicaltales.ru
http://www.musicaltales.cn

HOW TO BECOME A SOUND ENGINEER

You would like to be, you are, a sound engineer.
Why will I hire you instead of somebody else?

By Stephane Meer, Head manager of Studio Capitale, Audio Post-Production company in Paris France.

For fifteen years now have I seen and interviewed young sound engineers, mostly out of school looking for a job.
Some of them can have their evaluation made in minutes, some take a few days, in all cases after a week we know if the challenger is a possible recruit or not.

What are the things to know?

First, what you learn in a school will at max be 50% of what you need to know.

Second, knowledge is important but the key is attitude.

Attitude toward a technical difficulty
Attitude toward the questions you should ask yourself
Attitude toward the company team
Attitude toward the customers.

1/ Attitude toward a technical difficulty

We NEVER ask anyone to know EVERYTHING before coming to us.
It's okay if you don't know a software, a machine, or a way to record something.
What you shouldn't do is lie about it, and pretend you know when you don't really.

The best attitude is to ask questions and get your hands on it.
We will judge you on the way you react and learn, much more than on what you already know!

2/ Attitude toward the questions you should ask yourself

The rule is: Everyone makes mistake, -provided you are human, aren't you?-, but a professional always CHECKS OUT before delivering a program.

When a new challenger comes to us, he's in probation. We start slow by giving him easy tasks at first. You should always check out any simple request you are given. THEN we will think you are reliable and go on giving you more and more responsibility.
If you fail those early tests, I'm very sad to say that you are black listed right away and your chance to be recruited is gone.
Always verify, verify, verify again, spend a lot of time at this until this is your second nature.

3/Attitude toward the company team

There are many good sound engineers out there, so why recrut somebody we don't like and have to share our days with for the months or years to come?
The rule here is the same as in any social context:
Don't think about YOUR perspective, think about THEIR'S!
Don't talk about you, make them talk about themselves. What could be useful and comfortable for THEM first. What is their need, what is their problem, what do they like, what can YOU do for THEM?
Be in their shoes and they will take a good care of you and make you succeed.
It's so simple to do the right thing when you focus on the right goal.
We don't care about YOU, we care about what YOU can do for US.
So the first step, if you want to win the game, is to know more about the team you'd like to fit in.

4/Attitude toward the customers
Customers don't spend their time with the accountant, with the secretary, with the manager...they spend their days with their sound engineer.
Therefore you ARE the company's face to them!
We will recruit you if you give a good image to people. If you have charisma and sound reassuring, you definitely have an edge. The proper culture and way of life will give you a link with our customers and we will measure this feedback to evaluate you.
I've seen young sound engineer cross a customer in our corridor, and this person came at me and said: "I don't want him for my session". This is real life, every relationship detail is important, smile, hello, would you like a coffee or a tea...you know what I'm talking about don't you.

My conclusion is: Don't think you are a sound engineer because you master a pro tools!
Don't think you are good because your school gave you good marks.
Be modest and master the tips I gave you, and you will be a winner.

Best luck to you!

Sincerely

Stéphane Meer

Stéphane Meer is Head Manager of Studio Capitale Audio Post Production in Paris France.
He is a professional composer and author of the musical fantasy audio book Helena and the orchestra of the world of mist.

Audio book Helena #one 2/8

Musical Fantasy Audio Book is a new concept of fantasy children's style. The fantasy characters of helena and friends are here depicted in their original village in the town of Bussy. Sohane is her loyal friend, in the tradition of fantasy novels.
At this stage, Helena doesn't know she's bound to the epic quest that awaits her.

This is the second episode of chapter one. We are in a story that moves very slow at first. It introduces the characters before they get thrown into the fantasy world. Here we meet Sohane and Constantine that are Helena's best friends and we guess a little about their relationship.
Don't hesitate to react and comment, I would be happy to answer any question

DRAGON HOW TO DRAW

Step by step how to draw a dragon.
Follow Pascal Quidault giving birth to a dragon.
From a musical fantasy audio book in video.
This is a picture of a dragon fire breathing, out of several pictures of a dragon illustrating the audio book.
Queen Teresa Wagner burns her way into the Cathedral mounted on her huge dragon Ember.
This is the beginning of chapter four of the audio book.

Fantasy Audio Book Helena #one 1/8

http://www.musicaltales.com/helena
Musical Fantasy Audio Book
HELENA and the orchestra of the world of mist
Novel by Stephane Meer
This is the first episode of a 90 minutes story. Helena, a young piano virtuoso hears voices in her head: "The voice of the stone will destroy his power". She has visions of a black fortress, the burning cross, the prophecy...

Fantasy Audio Book Helena #one 1/8

Musical Fantasy Audio Book
HELENA and the orchestra of the world of mist
Novel by Stephane Meer
This is the first episode of a 90 minutes story. Helena, a young piano virtuoso hears voices in her head: "The voice of the stone will destroy his power". She has visions of a black fortress, the burning cross, the prophecy...

In this episode of the audio book, I try to give the hint right away of the fantasy drama to come. Therefore I introduce the visions in Helena's head. In the music, I start slow, without giving away too much, though introducing an secondary Helena's theme that will develop later.
Some people will find that chapter one is slow. It IS slow on purpose. Starting slow is my idea of building the sensation of speed when the time comes. The reader is dozing on a slow pace and will be started up in a flash.

HELENA and the orchestra of the world of mist
Novel by Stephane Meer

CONDUCT AN ORCHESTRA 1/4

Orchestra Conductor

Tutorial one, the gesture

My purpose here is not to make an exhaustive review of the thousands of aspects of how to conduct an orchestra.

The idea is that if you understand a few principles and use a few tips, you can tremendously improve the result of your experience with any orchestra. You can make things easier, sound better and save expensive studio time.

My expertise is conducting my own music, which is bound to be synchronised with a motion picture.
This is why I will talk more about the specificities of recording in sync with a film, which is a bit different from the classical techniques.

The first task of a conductor is to synchronise dozens of musicians together. This is what your right hand does. It is recommended that your gesture should hit an imaginary point, to improve precision. This is kind of simple, you think a machine could do it. But no, because there's a glitch. The bigger the orchestra, the farther away musicians are. Percussions could be 30 yards from you. It takes some time for the sound to reach you. It means your gesture is always a bit ahead of what you hear. This can be greatly improved by the use of headphones, but still you will feel the delay.

Your left hand, in classical music, is used to give infos like volume, start, stop, legato, vibrato etc. Some call it the "hand of the heart".
I'm not recommending using this technique when working with a synchronised movie. You really need such a tempo precision that both hands should be working together. If tempo permits to have a vertical movement, it gives you an extreme precision in the way the orchestra will react to you.
If you'd like to use this gesture, the volume will be given by the amplitude of your movement, and all other infos like start, crescendo, will have to be given by your eyes and head movement.

This is the end of tutorial one about the basics. You can comment and ask questions by using my stephanemeer youtube channel

Recording session with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra

This is the orchestra recording in studio of my fantasy audio book in video.
This has been a wonderful experience for the people from brussels are so great! This is with the Brussel Philharmonic Orchestra. Only a few tracks were captured in video. I wish I could show you more. Please tell me what you think of it.
"From my dream to yours..."

AUDIO BOOK in video, Helena 5 NEW RELEASE

This is the chapter 5 of my musical fantasy audio book Helena and the orchestra of the world of mist.
This epic ending comes in a big crescendo.
The audio book basis is enhanced by the music and the video.
Please don't hesitate to comment
http://www.musicaltales.com/helena
http://www.musicaltales.com
http://www.musicaltales.fr
http://www.musicaltales.de
http://www.musicaltales.es
http://www.musicaltales.ru

Stephane Meer interviewed "author" "composer"

This is my interview.
I try to explain the concept of musical tales, or musical fantasy audio book.