Renesongs wrote
@ Neps - You hit the nail on the head. It all boils down to demographics. SA just not have the market to support musicians and sound engineers full time. By way of example Cape Town is the only major city in the world without an Orchestra, Ballet Company (or decent concert venue). Many SA muso's cant afford studio time. The trend I see happening is everybody builds there own home studio that is "good enough". I am currently training musos to use their home studio's more effectively. So the answer for qualified SE is to go into teaching maybe? If I was looking to improve my SE knowledge I would look for an SE that I knew and trusted and pay for private tuition maybe be his apprentice for a while. I would defiantly stay away these Bull-crap colleges. BTW I had was in a band with a guy with a good studio and a SE certificate from a London school and he also knew diddly-squat, but because he had the certificate and he owned the PA we had to put up with his bad advice.
Rene, you have a great idea going there with training! SA has for most part a too little industry for what people are aiming at. And to get outside people to record here is a big ask, but I'm working on that... Think 'GameFarm Studio!!'
I'm all for training, but I'm against misinformed training. The big problem with CT is that ,yes, its a nice city but its not where most of the action is. And so, people tend to flock to JHB. I cant tell you how many clients I have that take all their work from CT and bring it here. The problem is that CT doesnt offer all the services that you look for.
As an example, in PostProduction we need a lot of special rental equipment at a moments notice, or we need to track one thing here and in 20min be at a mix at another studio. Now with Digidelivery its nice, but SA's internet is too slow. So what do we do, drive to the other studio. In a 10km radius around our facility there are 5 Editing facilities (high end) and everythign else you need!
What I'd say to aspiring SE's is to find a mentor, a gut with experience. And before you say they are too busy. All of them feel like I do, and are prepared to give advice, part some knowledge. Because even I learn something from young guys asking questions!
So.. ask questions, get to know people in the industry. And if you have any, feel free to even email me. If I dont know I can ask around. The guys up here are a very nice community of people, and cross pollenating (without stealing clients) is very welcome.
