What job should a sound and electrical component lover have?
January 18, 2015 11:06 AM Subscribe
My husband is 28, has a Masters in Sound Engineering, and is trying to figure out what the next steps in his career are. Does he stay in music or move to something else that can put his skills working with electrical components to use? details inside.
Currently he works as a musician, is recording albums, mixing them, doing audio restoration, and has a solid background in electrical engineering for audio applications. He is working often with clients he enjoys, but even with a full schedule is looking to further increase his income, so the question is: what can he do? is there something in the music industry that would be more profitable?
he loves fiddling with things to solve puzzles. for instance, he can spend 16 hours in a row taking his digital camera apart and putting it back together, soldering tiny electrical parts to fix sound boards, working with different kinds of machines. What kind of jobs use those skills so he could be happy all day long working to solve problems? i was thinking electrical engineering, but isn't most of that stuff based on computers now?
it would be cool if he didn't have to stare at a screen all day long, so something like electrical engineering where it's 99% coding is not what he wants. going back to school would be possible if it was the right fit, but obviously he wants to avoid just getting more education that doesn't lead fairly directly to a job in the 70-80K range.
Any ideas? Thank you!
Currently he works as a musician, is recording albums, mixing them, doing audio restoration, and has a solid background in electrical engineering for audio applications. He is working often with clients he enjoys, but even with a full schedule is looking to further increase his income, so the question is: what can he do? is there something in the music industry that would be more profitable?
he loves fiddling with things to solve puzzles. for instance, he can spend 16 hours in a row taking his digital camera apart and putting it back together, soldering tiny electrical parts to fix sound boards, working with different kinds of machines. What kind of jobs use those skills so he could be happy all day long working to solve problems? i was thinking electrical engineering, but isn't most of that stuff based on computers now?
it would be cool if he didn't have to stare at a screen all day long, so something like electrical engineering where it's 99% coding is not what he wants. going back to school would be possible if it was the right fit, but obviously he wants to avoid just getting more education that doesn't lead fairly directly to a job in the 70-80K range.
Any ideas? Thank you!
Yep, a good amp repair person is worth his weight in gold. He could also start making his own amps and sell them. Or scour yard sales and Goodwill to find old ones and fix them up. Lots of possibilities there if he's motivated.
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:23 AM on January 18, 2015
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:23 AM on January 18, 2015
Response by poster: don't want to threadsit but -
he could TOTALLY do this job. he does it now for fun and loves it. So the question is, how could this become an actual real job where he makes more than a few bucks a week? is someone out there making 60-80K repairing amps?
posted by andreapandrea at 11:27 AM on January 18, 2015
he could TOTALLY do this job. he does it now for fun and loves it. So the question is, how could this become an actual real job where he makes more than a few bucks a week? is someone out there making 60-80K repairing amps?
posted by andreapandrea at 11:27 AM on January 18, 2015
Probably not repairing. I think that building and selling your own could bring that in but only after years of establishing a business and a name.
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:39 AM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:39 AM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
How about other media? Sound engineering in film, television, radio, gaming?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:15 PM on January 18, 2015
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:15 PM on January 18, 2015
Do you live near Los Angeles? Because NAMM is happening this week. It's not really a "job fair" but I suspect someone interested in working in the industry could make a few contacts there.
Also, I know a fellow whose family owns a music store, and they apparently do a thriving business in repairing electronic instruments and whatnot.
posted by doctor tough love at 12:15 PM on January 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, I know a fellow whose family owns a music store, and they apparently do a thriving business in repairing electronic instruments and whatnot.
posted by doctor tough love at 12:15 PM on January 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
One more thought: boutique Eurorack components. Go out and look at matrixsynth for some ideas.
posted by doctor tough love at 12:20 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by doctor tough love at 12:20 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Sound engineering for film and television is definitely a thing, although I don't know how you break into it. In the old days most sound effects were practical, or at least started out as practical things that were then run through filters and mixers to get a particular noise (e.g. the sound in the original STAR WARS involved things like hitting guy wires with wrenches and combining that with other sounds).
There's probably more of that done in the digital domain than analog these days, but they've still gotta start from somewhere.
posted by fedward at 12:32 PM on January 18, 2015
There's probably more of that done in the digital domain than analog these days, but they've still gotta start from somewhere.
posted by fedward at 12:32 PM on January 18, 2015
Nthing that musical/audio gear repairpersons are becoming rare as hen's teeth, especially for things like mixing boards and power amplifiers & such, and it sounds like this would be right up your husband's alley. Although admittedly part of the reason there aren't many repair places around is that for a lot of current gear it's just not cost effective to repair it. But IMO there's still a crying need for a new generation of repair techs willing to take a whack at keeping gear functional.
is someone out there making 60-80K repairing amps?
Actual dollar amounts for pretty much anything music & arts tech related are going to vary widely depending on your location.
That said, if you're more thinking about "middle-class income", yeah, I think it's absolutely possible, although probably more for people owning a repair business rather than employees.
how could this become an actual real job where he makes more than a few bucks a week?
First would be to see if there's an actual repair place in your area - they'd almost certainly love to hire your husband on, at least part time or as an independent subcontractor who can take gear home to work on it (the two places in my area that do this kind of work are literally wall-to-wall with piles of gear that people want repaired, and they've got at least a three-month wait before anything gets fixed.)
Second, he could contact any local music instrument stores and offer to be their guy for repair, or at least referrals - these stores are constantly getting people looking for gear to be repaired, and a lot don't actually have anyone in-house to do the work.
Third, he could simply offer to start fixing the gear of the musicians he knows through his audio engineering work (musicians always have something or other that isn't working right), and let word spread through word of mouth and social media. Eventually he might look into opening an actual brick-and-mortar location.
But all of this comes with a caveat - I'm still talking about a situation where he's supplementing his income from other sources, picking up repair work as he can get it, and hustling for more, and it will take time for this to build to a point where he will make that middle-class income from repair work. Actual "real jobs" in the music industry, including on the tech side, where you work 9-5 in exchange for a salary & health benefits & a retirement plan, are few and far between. Manufacturers are probably most likely to have that kind of job, and most other music-associated businesses that might have a few of those kinds of positions will most often be looking to hire people who have a bunch of real-world experience, which your husband may or may not have.
So if that's the kind of situation you're looking for, I think you'll probably have to look outside the music business, with your husband's tech/engineering work maybe bringing in some extra cash outside of his "real" job.
posted by soundguy99 at 1:34 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
is someone out there making 60-80K repairing amps?
Actual dollar amounts for pretty much anything music & arts tech related are going to vary widely depending on your location.
That said, if you're more thinking about "middle-class income", yeah, I think it's absolutely possible, although probably more for people owning a repair business rather than employees.
how could this become an actual real job where he makes more than a few bucks a week?
First would be to see if there's an actual repair place in your area - they'd almost certainly love to hire your husband on, at least part time or as an independent subcontractor who can take gear home to work on it (the two places in my area that do this kind of work are literally wall-to-wall with piles of gear that people want repaired, and they've got at least a three-month wait before anything gets fixed.)
Second, he could contact any local music instrument stores and offer to be their guy for repair, or at least referrals - these stores are constantly getting people looking for gear to be repaired, and a lot don't actually have anyone in-house to do the work.
Third, he could simply offer to start fixing the gear of the musicians he knows through his audio engineering work (musicians always have something or other that isn't working right), and let word spread through word of mouth and social media. Eventually he might look into opening an actual brick-and-mortar location.
But all of this comes with a caveat - I'm still talking about a situation where he's supplementing his income from other sources, picking up repair work as he can get it, and hustling for more, and it will take time for this to build to a point where he will make that middle-class income from repair work. Actual "real jobs" in the music industry, including on the tech side, where you work 9-5 in exchange for a salary & health benefits & a retirement plan, are few and far between. Manufacturers are probably most likely to have that kind of job, and most other music-associated businesses that might have a few of those kinds of positions will most often be looking to hire people who have a bunch of real-world experience, which your husband may or may not have.
So if that's the kind of situation you're looking for, I think you'll probably have to look outside the music business, with your husband's tech/engineering work maybe bringing in some extra cash outside of his "real" job.
posted by soundguy99 at 1:34 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was also going to suggest sound for movies and TV. Even your local tv news needs a sound guy. It's not as much fun as music, but it's also not being phased out by people doing everything themselves on their laptops.
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:42 PM on January 18, 2015
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:42 PM on January 18, 2015
Every music producer and audio geek I know works in IT as a day job. Abstractly, it's the same sort of skill (troubleshooting), it just pays a lot more money.
posted by empath at 2:24 PM on January 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by empath at 2:24 PM on January 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
I'm much like the description of your husband and was making nothing with my music business endeavours. So at age 40 (which is pretty late) I got a chance to work as a post production audio engineer for television. This is what I do now. Although I hardly ever have to fiddle with small electronic parts for work, it is a great career. The work is occasionally very interesting (mixing documentaries or drama, or having time to do sound effects), but most of the times it is not as exciting as making music. He could do this freelance or for a company. Skills required:
- Be good with Pro Tools and large consoles (S6, D-Command, Pro-control, C24, etc.). But this can be learned on the job.
- Be fast and know how to balance quality over time. Everything I do is bound to tight budgets and deadlines. In music there usually is time to fiddle with equalizers until everything sounds just right. For television it's more like dial in a setting you guess will be okay and go with it if it more or less solved the problem.
- Know your place. Big budget music sound engineers can be like studio gods, while post production audio engineers must wait for clients, keep a positive attitude no matter what, work late shifts without complaining and be prepared to postpone the whole thing because video editing was late.
- Be a problem solver and not get stressed about things. 50% of my work related problems is computer related, like dead network connections, offline media, Pro Tools not behaving quite right, crashes, etc. The other 50% of the problems is social, time related, etc. About zero percent is sound related. Okay, maybe one percent.
I did SAE (School of Audio Engineering) which was a definite plus when I went job hunting.
Good luck to the both of you!
posted by hz37 at 2:32 PM on January 18, 2015
- Be good with Pro Tools and large consoles (S6, D-Command, Pro-control, C24, etc.). But this can be learned on the job.
- Be fast and know how to balance quality over time. Everything I do is bound to tight budgets and deadlines. In music there usually is time to fiddle with equalizers until everything sounds just right. For television it's more like dial in a setting you guess will be okay and go with it if it more or less solved the problem.
- Know your place. Big budget music sound engineers can be like studio gods, while post production audio engineers must wait for clients, keep a positive attitude no matter what, work late shifts without complaining and be prepared to postpone the whole thing because video editing was late.
- Be a problem solver and not get stressed about things. 50% of my work related problems is computer related, like dead network connections, offline media, Pro Tools not behaving quite right, crashes, etc. The other 50% of the problems is social, time related, etc. About zero percent is sound related. Okay, maybe one percent.
I did SAE (School of Audio Engineering) which was a definite plus when I went job hunting.
Good luck to the both of you!
posted by hz37 at 2:32 PM on January 18, 2015
When I was in graduate school in Baltimore I had a good part-time job working for Maryland Sound setting up sound for giant stadium-sized concerts and raves. I got that because I'd been doing club and warehouse party sound installation and met some other people that worked there. It was a pretty good gig, there was a lot more work available than I had time for. Besides local sound installation, they had people building custom speakers and people that went full-time on the road on concert tours.
I don't know if you're in a big urban area but maybe something like that would work.
posted by overhauser at 2:52 PM on January 18, 2015
I don't know if you're in a big urban area but maybe something like that would work.
posted by overhauser at 2:52 PM on January 18, 2015
My friends brother makes $$$$$ designing and building amps, and got the capital to do so repairing them. I also know a guy who works at one of the only local shops that still repairs amps. Guys busy all day every day he's willing to work, and constantly has more work just from word of mouth.
I think that shop makes more money on repairs than they do on sales for sure.
I don't know the dollar amount either of them make, but i know the custom amp guy sells amps for ~$3000 and stuff as fast as he can build them. There's a big waiting list, and he sells a couple a month at a minimum. So ~70,000 isn't a misrepresentation, and i feel like it's probably more.
Repair guys charge fantastic hourly rates. I know a guy who does all kinds of electronics repair, but used to(and occasionally still) does amps. He bills out at over $100 an hour.
The trick is either getting a bench at an established local independent shop where work will be lined up for you, and you can build up your own rep, or doing that and then parlaying it in to your own "brand" of amps/cabinets/etc.
I can't speak to studio work, or large sound system installation, or any of that other stuff. But the people i've met or know who do amp repair or build amps are not hurting for money or work. They're generally working as much as they want, and could probably work 7 days a week if they had nothing else to do and felt like it(or 3, and still always have work if that's what they wanted).
If you're good, smart, inventive, intuitive and quick you'll quickly develop a rep as the guy people want. The guy at the music shop next to my work is widely recommended now and that shop has only been there for like... 2 years?
As a closing comment on preview, if he has any experience repairing synths, especially analog synths, he can command the BIG bucks. In my city there's maybe one or two guys who can do that and they charge out the ass and get paid. Analog synths are practically like porsches or something, any time anyone opens the hood you're out $400-500 even if it's just a cable that needed to be reseated. And people who can spend $3000 on a moog(or prophet 5, or oberheim, or whatever) will just shrug and open their wallet.
If you're in a big city, and he got a job at a local shop like that doing amp and keyboard repair at different rates, you would be north of 80k no problem.
posted by emptythought at 4:18 PM on January 18, 2015
I think that shop makes more money on repairs than they do on sales for sure.
I don't know the dollar amount either of them make, but i know the custom amp guy sells amps for ~$3000 and stuff as fast as he can build them. There's a big waiting list, and he sells a couple a month at a minimum. So ~70,000 isn't a misrepresentation, and i feel like it's probably more.
Repair guys charge fantastic hourly rates. I know a guy who does all kinds of electronics repair, but used to(and occasionally still) does amps. He bills out at over $100 an hour.
The trick is either getting a bench at an established local independent shop where work will be lined up for you, and you can build up your own rep, or doing that and then parlaying it in to your own "brand" of amps/cabinets/etc.
I can't speak to studio work, or large sound system installation, or any of that other stuff. But the people i've met or know who do amp repair or build amps are not hurting for money or work. They're generally working as much as they want, and could probably work 7 days a week if they had nothing else to do and felt like it(or 3, and still always have work if that's what they wanted).
If you're good, smart, inventive, intuitive and quick you'll quickly develop a rep as the guy people want. The guy at the music shop next to my work is widely recommended now and that shop has only been there for like... 2 years?
As a closing comment on preview, if he has any experience repairing synths, especially analog synths, he can command the BIG bucks. In my city there's maybe one or two guys who can do that and they charge out the ass and get paid. Analog synths are practically like porsches or something, any time anyone opens the hood you're out $400-500 even if it's just a cable that needed to be reseated. And people who can spend $3000 on a moog(or prophet 5, or oberheim, or whatever) will just shrug and open their wallet.
If you're in a big city, and he got a job at a local shop like that doing amp and keyboard repair at different rates, you would be north of 80k no problem.
posted by emptythought at 4:18 PM on January 18, 2015
How about installed sound? SynAudCon is a good resource.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:54 PM on January 18, 2015
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:54 PM on January 18, 2015
I don't mean things like hone audio amps but the $1000+/channel recording gear. Charging $50-100/hour for that work is doable if you know what you're doing.
posted by Candleman at 5:40 PM on January 18, 2015
posted by Candleman at 5:40 PM on January 18, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Candleman at 11:18 AM on January 18, 2015