Luke Pickering is a former graduate of Audio production at the University of Lincoln and currently works as a studio assistant at Church Studios in London. It is one of very few large commercial studios left in the UK.
Luke showed us a slideshow of pictures of the studio which consisted of the main studio, studio 2 which is primarily for mixing tracks and a writing room for artist to write in.
Milico is a company who headhunts audio mixer freelancers which Luke suggested we come apart of if we want to pressure a career in multi-track recording. They own a few studios in London but manage a lot around the world.
Luke then described the different roles you may find yourself in one day of you ever wanted to work in a recording studio. The roles were:
Studio Assistant- Keeping equipment working and tidy. Managing files. Managing plug-ins and files. Basically making the assistant engineers job easier.
Assistant Engineer- Knows the studio inside and out. Usually based there. Good at reading situations and atmosphere. Making sure the session is running smoothly. Making the Engineers job easier.
Engineer- Responsible for making the recording happen. Understands technically how to achieve sounds. Saves and stores work. Vast technical knowledge. Efficient and experienced in studio workflow.
A very useful topic Luke discussed was how to apply or jobs and the do’s and don’ts which I felt were transferrable across the sound industry.
Dont:
Say you’re a producer
Say how amazing you are at DAW
Showreels
Write more than a page
Talk about yourself too much
Explanation marks
Create work for the reader
Do:
Nice layout
Apply for the position listed
Appear flexible
Appear curious
Include picture
Acknowledge mundane jobs
Follow up application
I felt this lecture was interesting as Luke explained a little bit of a taste after what post uni life is like. A lot of hard work went in to get where he is now which was inspiring. I particularly liked do’s and don’ts when it comes to applying for jobs.