Alternative career paths for engineers and sequencers

[Hypertone]

Barrista.

[josevin2000]

josevin2000 wrote:
most prominent i can currently think of right now is audio content for mobile phones, mainly talkin of ringtones...
Embarassed Help

Yes It is indeed a big market. But programmers here need to be really skilled at making an exact replica of others' tracks... most ringtones are covers and tunes by commercial artists. and u will be expected to make a catchy replica of it, normally for around 30 sec...

Programmer must be very good at keys. all the loops and beats the artist would have used, the programmer has to manually play and record... he should be capable of listenin to a tune and playin it note for note.he must be capable of picking up every note and instrument in the song and incorporate it in the midi...

Besides u may be asked to program songs by any artist, any genre, from any ctry.. so u will come across unknown instruments, diverse chord progression etc all addin to the Extrem skills that one requires to do the job..

Well most of us modern day programmers might struggle here. I am one big case. I'll program my own stuff wihtout much problems, but when it comes to sequencing others tracks, every track is a big challenge..

Nevertheless i know some dudes who are really good at this and doin really well in this field.. all about havin the right skillsets

[chagzuki]

Dustman it is then.

[emdot_ambient]

You may as well decide that you are going to earn your good living by winning the lottery...

HEY! Stop blabbing my plan!

Guess I'll have to fall back on Plan B now:

Phase 1) Record great tunes
Phase 2)
Phase 3) Profit!

[IIRs]

Yes It is indeed a big market. But programmers here need to be really skilled at making an exact replica of others' tracks... most ringtones are covers and tunes by commercial artists. and u will be expected to make a catchy replica of it, normally for around 30 sec...

Programmer must be very good at keys. all the loops and beats the artist would have used, the programmer has to manually play and record... he should be capable of listenin to a tune and playin it note for note.he must be capable of picking up every note and instrument in the song and incorporate it in the midi...

Besides u may be asked to program songs by any artist, any genre, from any ctry.. so u will come across unknown instruments, diverse chord progression etc all addin to the Extrem skills that one requires to do the job..

All true. I've been paying the rent with ringtones for a couple of years now.. it takes all my musical knowledge. Biggest problem for me us that most of our clients don't have the faintest idea what goes into it. We regularly get asked "what software do you use to convert audio to MIDI" "I use my ears and my brain and 25 years of musical training you ignorant f**k!". Of course I don't actually say that..

[IIRs]

"I use my ears and my brain and 25 years of musical training"

I use Cubase too, come to think of it..

[analog orange]

It turns out, a friend of my wife's husband worked with a lady who's husband worked at the place I'm at now.

Wouldn't a friend of your wife's husband be your friend since you are your wife's husband?

That is confusing, okay.

Wife's female friend-->
Female friend's husband-->
Husband's female friend at his work-->
Female friend from work's husband-->

Does that make sense...Now I'm confused.

[james0tucson]

That is confusing, okay.

I'd bet a dollar that there's a German compound word to express this precise relationship.

[analog orange]

IMHO guys, the ringtone market will disappear once phones get a bit more memory standard. Just like people are no longer hired to squeeze decent sounding video game soundtracks from your computer's 8bit soundcard, this market will dry up in 5 years at the latest. I mean really, what is the point when every phone has 30 gig of storage on it in a couple of years? See following:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NE ... 08/105586/

It's a dead end industry, so make some money on it while you can. Record companies will start releasing ringtones directly out of the studios once there's the bandwith. I'm sure most engineers will be required to create mp3 ringtones for every track they produce...

Sorry to be such a pessimist.

[IIRs]

Turning an audio file into a PCM based ringtone is easier than turning it into a MIDI based one.. but its still a specialist knowledge quite different from that needed to produce the single. The mix engineer isn't expected to do the final mastering: thats the job of the mastering engineer. Editing and mastering the ringtone is my job. (For my sins).

Anyway, I personally think that audio ringtones are bloody useless when judged on the basis of "how easy are they to hear when in my pocket / handbag" .. don't write off MIDI based tones just yet! (We still sell plenty of mono's you know!)

[chagzuki]

Good ear training excercise though.

[IIRs]

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not recommending it as a career choice: you really do have to have a very good ear, its not easy to get into it, and I don't think the money properly reflects the skill that is involved.. not to mention the fact that my ears are tired a lot of the time.

[IIRs]

Good ear training excercise though.

Very good!

[shamann]

Wife's female friend-->
Female friend's husband-->
Husband's female friend at his work-->
Female friend from work's husband-->

So it was your wife's friend's husband's friend's husband then. Perhaps that could be someone's new career? Would look good on a business card.

[Mr Smith]

A thought about video game industry, i heard the gaming industry is now bigger than the movie industry... And it is likely to grow. Videogames technology is ever-advancing, graphics and sound is evolving to become detailed realistic (and less repeated, instead of one tune throughout the whole game, music and sound changes all the time). The work needed to create a state of the art videogame nowadays is tremendeous compared to what it used to be when games were 8-bit and 2D. Consumers demand detailed graphics and detailed sound... More audioguys at the game house = less time for game completion = more profit?

Isn't the conclusion that demands for videogame audio-workers will increase? Gaming industry is growing and evolving. To me it appears to be a major future thing for music producers and sound people. Videogames are also stealing profit from ordinary record industry, instead spending on CDs with music, people spend money on video games.