Work Experience – summary

Although the third year has begun, I realised I didn’t post about the results of my work experience…

Over the summer I completed my work experience that was part of the PDAR module.  This took place at Ty Du studios in Rogerstone, Newport.  I attended for 5 days – Monday to Friday.  When I arrived I was shown around the studio and got to know Alex, the man who runs Ty Du.  He asked me about the work I have done in university and told me about the sort of work he does.

During the week I was there, he had no bands booked to come in and record so instead we looked at some of the songs he had recorded the week before and was still in the process of mixing.  This involved guitar based music with rap and hip hop vocals (Somewhere between Rage Against The Machine and Dog Eat Dog).  He showed me some mixing techniques I hadn’t seen before and encouraged me to speak up if there was anything I thought needed changing.

We also looked at some soundtrack music he had been making to be sent off to America.  He worked alongside another producer somewhere in England and together they created 2 to 3 minute pieces of music designed for film trailers.  He showed me the steps he had taken in creating a piece of music and continued to work on it when I was there.

So, overall it was an interesting experience and a good contact has been made.  I was able to see the work schedule and demands a working producer has to follow from day to day.  If I were to say anything bad about the time I spent there it would be that perhaps I didn’t actually do too much myself.  By this I mean it involved me watching and listening a lot but not actually doing too much.  This probably would have been different if there were bands recording but that’s just how it worked out that week.  However, by watching and listening I was still able to learn about different mixing techniques and ideas.

Work Experience – Success

After rejections and no replies, I have finally been able to sort something out for work experience.  It will take place in June, after the module has finished but it seems as though it will be very useful for me.  It is at a studio called Ty Du, in Rogerstone, Newport.  I emailed a man called Alex, who has done a similar course to mine in Glamorgan university and has since recorded musicians including the Super Furry Animals at this studio.  After realising how difficult it is to get a work experience position in a studio, I could not turn this down.  Below is a link to their website where you can see examples of bands they have recorded as well as pictures and news on the studio.

http://tydustudio.co.uk/

 

 

 

As well as doing this for the PDAR module, I aim to do some more work experience over the summer too.

I plan to apply for the BBC work experience that they offer because it would be great for me to learn new things, meet new people and make contacts.  It would look great on my CV and may help me once university has finished as applying for the BBC was one of my thoughts.

And finally I may be helping out on the sound desk at an event in Caerphilly during the summer too.  This will be good experience in live sound and again, teach me new things.

 

Work Experience Contact Evidence

Orchard Entertainment – This was a music promotion company based in Cardiff.  Up to capacity so no space.

Jeff Rose – co owner of Unit 42, a small recording studio in Newport.  Studio was too small for work experience students and after going down there myself and seeing it; I can understand why he said that.

Sevenfish Promotions – promotional company based in South Wales. Had no reply.

Global Promotions – Cardiff based promotional company.  Seemed like the most hopeful one but after my second message there was no reply.

First thoughts

My band is going into a local studio to record our second EP in about a month and my plan is to make a good impression on the engineer and ask if I would be able to get any work experience there.  I will attempt to get in contact with him beforehand to show that I’m eager.  It will be close enough to home so it will be easy to travel there if necessary.

However, I realise that this might not happen as the studio might not need any extra people around at the moment so if that plan doesn’t come through, I will look into a more promotional/merchandise area.  This would benefit me in a different way and hopefully teach me important skills about the business of music.