assistant engineering

Make sure that you draw a clear line as to your assistant's responsibilities, and your interns' responsibilities.

First off, it's my opinion that an assistant shouldn't have to be bothered with coffee, dishes, sharp pencils, phone calls, food orders and garbage. I want them in the technical areas where they are of the most help. If need be, they should be delegating to the interns about coffee and such.

Second... A good assistant should be on autopilot. The best assistant that I had was always thinking three steps ahead of me. She would listen to the producer carefully, so, most of the time, I never had to say a word to her. She always had patch cables in her hands while I was mixing, and if the conversation was about vocals, the only thing that ever had to leave my mouth was "563 to a 312" (or whichever mic/pre combo I wanted her to set up).

Bonus... This particular assistant had amazing ears, so I utilized that quality. If I was struggling with trying to get a good snare sound or something, I never felt hesitant to ask her to dial something in, and usually loved it.

Thirdly... A good assistant will always have the outboard gear labeled with the instrument that it's being used on. The 1st engineer should never have to trace patch cables to find the outboard that needs to be adjusted. Board tape should always be accurate, media labeled immediately, outboard gear documented as mix stems are running, session details entered into the console before the 1st walks into the room, etc...

Off limits... A good assistant should know their boundaries. Drum tuning, production advice, unsolicited performance critiques, beauty tips, etc... are rarely in their job description...

While I agree whole heartedly with Patrick in the above statements, I also consider an asst that I can rely on like this has been at it for awhile. Not still in a school. Maybe it's just that I've become a little jaded, but most Students (if that's what we're talking about) need better information from the ground up.

It seems as though everyone wants to think I need them to know the gear etc. I need them to be aware of everything going on in the studio, have a great attitude and take care of whatever they can. If it is deligating coffee and trash duties, great. Regardless, make sure it's done.

While I'm working, yea, I want one that has everything doc'd, labeled, etc. If they aren't doing all that and they've said they've got it covered, they're gone. If I know they don't/can't have it all covered. I'm ok and I'll do what I need to, to make sure everything is done how I want it. Some asst's are better than others and know to do vocal chain docs on the back of my tracking sheets. Some haven't figured that out, but if I like them, they'll soon know.

We're talking about a school here, aren't we? What are the true basics? From there we all start to inform our assts how WE like to work and what WE like.

Basics are attitude.

I'm a little bit surprised noone has mentiuoned this before, especially in this DIY forum.

Teach 'em how to solder!! Repair busted cables, loose connections etc.

or am I off base?

Ray.

Not really. But when you think about it most places that have assistant engineers tend to have a tech staff as well. Then again good luck getting a tech at 2 AM

so bad news,
well slightly expexted news,
the school i was going to guest lecture at about assistant engineering (for the class called "audio engineering c -assistant engineering") cancelled my guest lecture as apparently the kids where "tired of hearing about assistant engineering" so a replacement was called in without my knowledge to talk about how the assistant engineer is dead, and that no one should even think about being a runner or an assistant because "everyone is working out of thier houses on m-boxes anyways",
so yeah,
thanks all for your help, i think every point is completely valid and i appreciate your help, but i guess it goes to show you what the industry has come to.

where is anyone going to learn how to record?? i mean really really record, school can give you the basics , but .. maybe im just bitter.

thanks again