Month: October 2016

This week’s guest lecturer was previous student Luke Pickering, who started his studies at Lincoln in 2009. He has now gone on to be fully involved in studio work, having the pleasure of working at the legendary Church Studios in London, now owned and ran by Paul Epworth – Epworth is a respected Grammy award winning song-writer and producer. His impressive discography includes heavyweights in the industry such as Adele, Bruno Mars, Coldplay and Bloc Party (only to name a few) and tracks featuring in blockbuster films like Django Unchained and Skyfall.

To begin with Luke spoke about the current studio set up at The Church Studios; they have two 72 track desks, which are two out of the only five that have been created, and also there newly built Studio 2 room which in his own words is the best SSL mixing room in London; a very futuristic, clean looking studio. Very desirable. He then went on to speak about Miloco, who in Luke’s own words are “keeping studios as we know it alive”. They are a company that not only run studios and help with clients booking those studios out, but they also expand into studio builds, designs and installations, repairs and they also sort out work experience, and not just in London, but throughout the world.

Speaking of the more ‘traditional’ studio roles he first spoke of a studio assistant, who’s tasks include: equipment inventory – something Luke said he has to keep on top of for The Church Studios, which is over 900 pieces of equipment. They have to arrange repairs for equipment, so this means knowing that a piece of equipment is too far gone for you yourself to simply fix, which leads on to another task of a studio assistant; making life easier for the assistant engineer; to know what is happening in the studio such as equipment that is out for repair, so they do not have to even think about those sorts of things. A studio assistant will also organise bookings if someone wants to book out any equipment or a studio room, and they will even help with runners. Those on work experience. Luke then made the point that you need to be ready for anything; a studio environment is not a 9-5 job where what happens day in day out is pretty much the same, it can at times be extremely stressful or at others be really slow and you will find yourself sometimes not needed in that room. Another point made; don’t be in a room that you’re not needed in. Following on from the studio assistant summary, Luke then described the roles of an assistant engineer, which include: knowing the studio inside out, which means you are the first to arrive and set up and you are then also in charge of the pack down; you know where everything goes, you know how it all works and when the engineer needs something you can get it for them straight away. If a previous client comes in, you should be able to recall the setup they previously had and have this ready for them. You also keep everyone ‘fed and watered’ – which, of course, means making a good cup of tea. He makes the point that if you are in this role, or even a runner and on work experience, it is important to make sure you make a good impression and make the effort. Make people notice you.

Luke ended the talk with some do’s and don’ts with CV and cover letter writing. For the do’s, make sure your cover letter is personal to the position you are applying for, not for that job you’ve been dreaming of since you were 16. This leads to making sure you do your research into the place you are applying for; showing them you are interested in them specifically and you’re curious. Also show that you are flexible and that you acknowledge those mundane jobs – being a runner, making tea and showing you know that you won’t be sat down behind a desk any time soon. Listing your skills as far as being computer and social media literate is a good thing to show as far as skills are concerned because it shows you are intuitive, willing/wanting to learn things of your own accord. It is important as well to not talk about yourself too much (do NOT call yourself a ‘recording engineer, or producer) and do not write more than one page as your cover letter. Employers read countless applications, don’t make them bored.

To conclude this guest lecture, Luke told us about his experience of leaving uni and showing he was adamant on not ending up in a 9-5 job, but showing that working in a studio is not as glamorous as what some people might perceive it as. It is hard work and you have to work your way up – making tea and doing errands is more than likely part of the things you will have to do. But in the end, if it’s really what you want to make a career out of, it will always be worth it. The thing that I took from this lecture more than anything was not only confirming good CV and cover letter writing, but being told about the company Miloco. Founding out about companies that are big on work experience and can really help me with getting in to my desired career is important right now, being nearly half way through my final year already.

Quoting from his own personal website:

“Using intuitive composition, field recording, improvisation and photography, Jez has been exploring his enjoyment of and interest in detail, simplicity and his emotive response to places and situations for over 3 decades.” When growing up he was a choir boy and before every session they were all made to ‘listen to the church’ for 20 minutes, and at the time it drove him absolutely mad but now, as he looks back, he’s realised that it had a very big impact on his life. Paying attention to the sounds that are almost overshadowed and lying underneath.

Jez-Riley French is, as I would describe, a sound explorer, and throughout his talk it was evident that he enjoys exploring sound deeper than most would. He began his talk with explaining contact microphones, developed by Jez, that instead of picking up air vibrations they pick up solid object vibrations. This he says is beneficial because the manage to pick up a full range of frequencies – also they don’t pick up hardly any air vibrations – this was also displayed by another of his recordings he showed us, which was on a print rack. They can pick up sounds from almost 2 miles away, which was proven by a gunshot in a piece of his from a score that he recorded in Italy. Another of his recordings he played us again used contact mics where they were placed on barbwire with the sounds being produced by insects and leafs touching the wire; the same way the noises were created for the original Star Wars. He also briefly spoke about hydrophones, which are microphones that can record in liquids; then playing another piece of work that is his, of water with vinegar in to bring out the minerals (dolomite).

Most of his work is durational, which has been played in galleries and exhibitions such as Tate Modern and organisations in Iceland and Italy, and this is because he is interested in the psychological attention we as humans have, especially in relation to music and sound. From this he recommends that when doing field recordings to keep recording for longer than you’d originally think, because if you record for 30 seconds you will end up wishing you had 10 minutes of that recording. More sounds means more use for more projects. While on the topic of field recordings Jez was very clear with making his opinion on the definition of what most view field recordings as, and that he disagrees. He says it is “not just nature and the serenity of the countryside” because we are all part of nature. Environmental recordings should also, in his opinion, be played at the volume in accordance to reality, so basically do not mess with it; when it is untouched and at it’s real level from the recording you hear more, because our brains psychologically recognise the sounds as reality.

He goes a little bit more in-depth on the topic of nature and field recordings by saying that since we have evolved, and technology along with us, we have “ruined our ears”. This he states has been caused by too much heavy compression; and even jokes that cows could wipe us out by sneaking up on us, because we just wouldn’t hear them. Then talking about infrasound (frequencies too low for the human ear) and ultrasound (too high for the human ear)  French makes known that we can not hear infrasound’s but we can sense them; using an example from scientists who believe that if the world stopped turning we would die in two weeks from the lack of vibrations we are so used to yet so unaware of constantly throughout life. He also played a recording for us he did in the mountains, where there was no traffic etc. using geophone’s, of just the world passing by. Then telling us an amusing story of bird experts who spent time arguing over what species they could hear in his recording at Fjallsarlon Glacier Lake, but yet those so called birds were actually in fact the ice melting; this played on the fact that we get used to hearing what we want to hear rather than what’s really there.

I really enjoyed this talk, even though in all honesty I wasn’t expecting to because of my lack of previous experience in field recordings, but it really gave me a bit of confidence in a way for me doing it for my project. Also when he spoke about hydrophones and then I found out the university now has them I am interested in using those. And on his end comment when asked about the pictures used for his recordings and scores, he said that he feels still images work better with sound, and as this being something I am doing for my project it made me feel more confident in what I’m doing.