Industry Insider: Dave Hampton

Jul 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Mike Levine

           
 

A PRO'S ADVICE FOR FINDING ENGINEERING WORK

Dave Hampton has worked in a variety of audio engineering positions for a host of major artists.

Dave Hampton has been an audio engineer for more than 20 years, working in a variety of capacities, both in the studio and on the road. His clients have included Prince, Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, RZA, M.I.A. and many others. Hampton also writes about the music business, and in his second book, The Business of Audio Engineering (Hal Leonard, 2008), he talks about how to build a career as an audio engineer. EM spoke to him about that subject in a recent interview.

With today's emphasis on home studios and the diminished size of the commercial studio scene, there's got to be a lot less work out there than there used to be for engineers.

Yes, there's a lot less traditional recording going on, but if you look at a lot of the top albums on Billboard, many of them used, at some point in time, a traditional large-format studio. That's not dead. My wife and I work a lot at The Village here in Los Angeles. We go there because the facility has a history of hit-making activity. Their staff is focused on service and we are treated well. I'm telling you this so you can see that even though the recording “scene,” as you call it, might be changing, there still is a desired need for large-format commercial studios.

I would guess that it's the middle-level commercial studios that mainly have gone under.

I think many who did not adjust to the changing landscape of our industry went out of business, both large and small. I also believe that anyone who is blessed to be working is never measuring the size of his or her situation. That middle level just gets referred to as “independent.” You've got to look at this fact, too: All over in every city now, there are pockets of people who are doing recordings of all different types. Churches, individuals, barbers, et cetera; and everybody's got a CD because the tools are that prevalent.

You can't talk about the state of the industry without discussing the state of education. We have many schools now offering audio recording arts education. That one fact has given us many more entry-level engineers than jobs to fill. Add to that the experienced engineers who say, “I only mix,” and you have the perfect environment for total professional job displacement. New younger models willing to take low pay for a shot versus old-guard pro that costs what they cost. I wrote my books so that people can learn the skills that you need to prosper in a business that asks for you to provide service. I truly know the resources in my book are helping many monetize themselves, both in front of and away from the console. That's so important in the present economy we are in. When I started out, many engineers waited for a call to work on a session; they were not motivated to create on their own. Then we went through a time when many said, “All I do is mix.” Specialization is great, but unless you are printing your own money, you have to diversify your business, just like the rest of us.

In the book, you talk about the kinds of audio engineering jobs available that are not studio related. What are some of them?

You could be on a cruise ship as audio support. You'd probably work about two to three stages. You'd probably have three or four shows a week, maybe more or maybe less. But you'd make a really good living and have some great benefits. You could work in the forensic audio profession. You'd have real good work with good benefits. You're not going to get a Grammy that way, but you will get a check. You can work at your local church or synagogue, or any place that has audio. Audio ministries is a paid position in many churches that have over 250 people.

And those churches often have huge sound systems.

And all the same principles apply. It's a viable area to work in, and again you have a great chance to make a consistent paycheck being an audio engineer. You can work at theme parks. I know a guy right now; he's an Emmy-winning engineer. Where did he start? He left school and started at Disneyland. Mixed at two or three stages live, and then later on he ended up working on Ellen [the TV show] mixing sound effects. He now also does mixing for The Price Is Right.

These days, it's much more common for a musician to also have engineering chops.

I think that musician-to-engineer is a natural progression. Many engineers are musicians or started out as musicians. You can't be involved with music without learning about music.

But there are a lot of us who don't necessarily want to spend the money to go into the studio right away. We work on producing tracks at home using decent gear, and then maybe bring someone in to mix it or bring the mixes to a mastering engineer.

I think that's where the settling point for moving forward is. I think it's about using both small- and large-format studios. Every situation is different, and many times budget drives the production choices. Get your music to a point where you say, “Hey, let me give this to someone who does this for a living, and then let me see what it's like after they mix it. In fact, let me go to a big studio to mix.” While you might not have the budget to do your entire project in a large studio, you can include that extra edge of creativity in your production to actually engage people who are good at specific things to take your project to a higher level. It's a guaranteed result because they're coming from a different sonic perspective and have another experienced creative outlook.