The Placement Year

For each student on the Tonmeister programme the third year of registration is normally a Professional Training Year (PTY), during which they will be working for an employer in the audio industry. The PTY scheme has advantages for employers and for students...

For Employers

This leaflet explains the gist of the placement scheme, gives some examples of how it might help you as an employer, and mentions a few of the other employers who use it: TonmeisterPlacements.pdf

Employers who have registered their intention to offer a placement this year can view shortlists of candidates plus CVs on our Members Only Website.

For further information please contact the Tonmeister Senior Professional Training Tutor.

For Students

The placement year forms an important part of your education and aims to develop your professional, practical, interpersonal, organisational, and creative &/or technical skills, and to allow you to apply some of the theory that you have learned in the first two years of the programme. Full placement scheme details for current students are available in the programme handbooks and module descriptions but, as a taster, here (in no particular order) is what some of the students on placement in 2022/23 thought were the 5 'coolest' (i.e. most useful, interesting, remarkable, exciting, impressive, enjoyable, etc.) things about their placements...

Abbie : ICP Recording Studios : Assistant Engineer

• Worked with a lot of cool vintage gear
• Enjoyed lots of Belgian beers
• Greeted by Paolo Nutini backstage at his gig
• Played rugby in a Belgian league
• Made friends in a second language

Adam : Sound Disposition : Sound Assistant

• Created an IMDB account with official credits
• Recorded and rode in a Bentley Corniche
• Sat in on a week-long final mix of the first episode of a Sky Tv Series
• Assisted and led part of a Foley Workshop Day
• Got to perform foley wearing a Gas Mask for an animated short film

Alex : Ben Holland Sound : Sound Engineer / Dubbing Assistant

• Learned the craft of a dubbing mixer and recorded VOs at famous people’s houses
• Worked as a sound assistant for the Coronation of Charles III and Camila
• Worked as a sound guarantee for Glastonbury 2023
• Travelled to the USA and Chile as the sound recordist for a travel show
• Worked as a sound guarantee on Champion’s League football

Alex : Wells Cathedral School : Music Tech Intern (Tonmeister)

• Made over 100 recordings of many different kinds of music
• Taught my own drum recording workshop
• Took apart and redesigned a music studio control room
• Ran live sound at a pop concert for the Mayor of Wells
• Made recordings of a jazz band, which have been heard by Wynton Marsalis

Alex : Graveney School : Music Technician

• Recorded professional musicians in a string quartet
• Mixed line-by-line for a school musical
• Supervised a choir concert at the Royal Albert Hall
• Soldered lots and lots of broken equipment
• Worked in a very friendly and welcoming department

Alexander : Floating Earth : Assistant Sound Engineer

• Recorded in iconic music venues across the UK
• Gained experience in editing and recording classical music
• Worked with renowned orchestras and musicians
• Built strong connections with engineers and producers for future work
• Was part of recording for the BRITS and Coronation of Charles III

Annie : Abbey Road Studios : Studio Runner

• Worked with and recorded some of the best musicians in the world on a daily basis
• Engineered an overnight writing session for Dave
• Met and worked with with world class composers and engineers making contacts with people from all round the world
• Watched unreleased documentaries and films
• Got to drink lots of free alcohol at big work events

Becks : Royal Academy of Music : Studio Recording Assistant

• Became proficient using ProTools and Final Cut Pro
• Realised video engineering wasn't so bad, recorded and edited many multi-cam concerts
• Worked with some of the best conductors and classical musicians in the world in said concerts
• Worked closely with students by recording, mixing and editing their composition and commissions
• Was given full responsibility and freedom in my own recordings, mixing, and post-production

Ben : AIR Studios : Runner

• Learnt how to rig large orchestral sessions for film
• Had the best food in the industry, every day
• Made a coffee that was 3/4 decaf
• Had lots of lovely pints with some wonderful people
• Ate a Colin the caterpillar with the James Bond composer

Caitlin : Ben Holland Sound : Sound engineer/dubbing assistant

• I got to be sound engineer on the coronation mixing presenter mics
• Got to assist on big orchestral sessions
• Got to work on big scale TV shows and meet and mic up celebrities
• Michael McIntyre knows my name
• Mixed live news in a language I don't understand

David : Menuhin School : Placement Technician

• Talking to world class musicians, classical engineers and music teachers about their approach and life
• Helping to organise and deliver an international competition with a prize of £100,000
• Witnessing child prodigies progress through the year
• Being a part of the conversation on the direction of the Hall
• Playing a 2020 Steinway Grand in the auditorium in my spare time

Ethan : ICP Studios : Assistant Engineer

• Recorded and mixed multiple albums
• Assisted big artists like Coldplay and Paolo Nutini
• Travelled around Europe
• Had amazing meals cooked for me everyday
• Didn’t make any tea or coffee

Flaminia : Sky Post-Production Services : Trainee Audio Dubbing Mixer

• Mixed an entire season of the show "Let's Game"
• Spent a (paid!) day visiting a foley studio
• Improved my Pro Tools skills immensely
• Shadowed incredibly talented people
• Watched TV shows in a Dolby Atmos certified dubbing theatre

Hannah : Guildhall School of Music and Drama : Recording and AV Intern

• Worked on two Orchestral Drum and Bass Gigs in collaboration with RAM Records
• Got really good at video editing and using DaVinci Resolve
• Scored free tickets to Love Supreme Festival
• Was credited on a commercially released album
• Got paid to go on a canal boat for the day

Joe : Vivid Broadcast : Sound Assistant/Guarantee

• Worked on BBC events such as Glastonbury and the King's Coronation
• Mic'd up lots of famous people
• Travelled all across the UK
• Mixed Championship Football games every weekend in the summer
• Got to watch lots of National Theatre shows for free!

Louis : Real World Studios : Assistant Engineer

• Met amazing contacts that I’ve stayed in touch with
• Had free reign over the studios and did loads of downtime sessions
• Got booked to engineer sessions for paying clients
• Learnt some new Pro Tools shortcuts
• Was cooked for by the studio chef every day

Maisie : Guildhall School of Music and Drama : Recording and AV Intern

• Worked on a drum and bass concert at the Barbican Theatre with RAM records
• Recorded and mixed 53 jazz compositions in 3 days
• Filmed artsy music videos for a collaboration with the F-List and Guildhall
• Ran a recording session with Guildhall Session orchestra on my own
• Had to stand in and pretend to be an array of famous jazz musicians collecting their awards for a rehearsal with Clarke Peters

Michael : Storm Events : Assistant Broadcast Technician

• Gained lots of experience working on live events and filming jobs around the UK
• Built a broadcast rack for use on livestreamed events
• Developed some teleprompting skills
• Learned a lot about video and livestreaming
• Flew to Jersey with 3 cases' worth of equipment to run a livestream. Twice

Milan : HotHouse Music : Assistant Score Co-ordinator

• Became a part of the Guildford Games community by creating blogs for their website and helped with organising the Guildford Games Festival
• Visited Develop Games Conference in Brighton as part of an work event and got to speak to many cool individuals about the games industry
• Recorded a composer playing conch shells in the Natural History Museum after closing hours
• Got to make a short film with a Super 8 camera
• Attended the Audio Developer Conference to gather information about the different new technologies up and coming

Noah : The Dairy Ltd : Studio Assistant

• Engineered major-label vocal recordings
• Re-installed SSL 6000E studio
• Recorded and mixed soundtrack for documentary about bogs
• Played bass on coolest record of 2024
• Met top-3 music industry dogs

Stephanie : Hoare Lea : Acoustician

• Went on the rooftops of lots of tall buildings to set up microphones for sound surveys
• Created computer models of buildings to calculate reverb times
• Visited lots of new places in London and further afield (including Brighton beach)
• Wrote a report which is now publicly available on Islington Council’s planning website
• Herded ducks on an activity day

Will : Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance : Studio Intern

• Solely recorded approximately 140 studio sessions of various musical genres
• Recorded a symphony orchestra on location
• Recorded, mixed and mastered a harp, guqin and double bass project
• Synced and video edited recording sessions
• Established connections for freelance work and personal projects