A few years back, before letting me take over the proceedings of a recording, the lady in charge of the studio said: “A sound engineer is a doormat of the studio.”
Not knowing what she really meant, I experienced the core reality of that statement as I worked through many studios that included working with different kinds of people and clients.
Even today, I see sound engineers exploited to the whimsical fantasies of producers, directors, music directors, and every other guy who decides to relieve himself from a creative ejaculation.
That said, sound engineers today are way too smart. They are ready to take any shitload from them till the time they are paid for it. It’s like paying for a public toilet Rs. 2 ticket to shit unlimited, to your heart’s content.
Money drives them to work slowly, work with a lot of breaks, work with a lot of chatting and bitching about people and the industry as they sink themselves in the overtime quota, where they again work slowly, work with breaks, dope, share dope, work, and unwind.
All of the above does not matter if you strive to get the ‘genuine’ best in the production you’re working on.
If you end up being the agency guy/client/music director/producer/director or the engineer, strive to keep your production ‘clean,’ something that you can be proud of.
So what if you’re a doormat or a broom?