Engineering school and the conservatory at the same time
Antoine has been a musician since his childhood, and arrived from Saint Etienne to join Grenoble INP - Ense3, UGA. At the same time, thanks to his status as a High Level Artist, he followed the "sound professions" programme at the Grenoble Conservatory, which he completed in 2020. “This programme was very complete, with many details I was not aware of, apart from the scientific aspects (waves, etc), all the artistic aspects were a great springboard for me, even if the training was very focused on classical music. It is based on 3 points: recording, sound and mixing.”
Antoine began to equip himself with a home studio early on, but also a mobile studio so that he could travel to record the groups where they were, and even do live recordings. In addition to the practical work of his training at the conservatory, such as sound design for concerts, he approaches groups and musicians and works on other projects.
"I started working with bands at the conservatory, Blue Velvet (a jazz trio from Grenoble) was the first band I recorded. At the same time, I applied for a grant from the Grenoble INP Foundation to finance the acquisition of equipment, such as a sound card, my first microphones and an 8-channel interface for recording. This grant allowed me to take on new projects and I worked with around fifteen groups, some of which I now follow regularly. Since then, I have been able to take advantage of this grant twice more, in order to buy professional-quality dynamic and condenser microphones.”
He works with local bands like Resto Basket (a French punk rock from Grenoble), and is mixing their second album at home. “This album was then mastered by Bruno Preynat, a sound engineer in Montbrison, known for his work with Mickey 3D. It was a great experience, I was able to get feedback on my work from someone who is a professional and high level rock musician.”
A thriving student art scene
He also works with a friend who is a student and high-level artist at Grenoble INP - Pagora: Léo Aoun with his group Gin Tonic Orchestra, which is about to release an album, or Plus Plus Plus, which includes another Grenoble INP - Ensimag student, Andrew McDonald, or the Grenoble INP - Phelma student trio, Parallaxe. “There is a lot of collaboration between students, I also worked with Fanfarnaque from Grenoble INP, I recorded and mixed their album.” Antoine also participated in the Crous Grenoble Alpes Student Groove Orchestra (SGO) project for two years in a row.
“This year we worked on the theme of African music with Dobet Traoré and Blick Bassy. This allowed me to work on big sets with about thirty musicians and internationally renowned artists. The project was originally scheduled for spring 2020, but was postponed and we were able to do a performance at La Source in Fontaine - with a seated, social distanced and masked audience - just before the second lockdown. I was able to postpone classes in order to attend the two-day residency and I was the front-of-house sound engineer. It was a really great opportunity!”
A well thought-out career plan
Antoine joined the SICOM programme in order to make a connection with audio signal processing. Last year, he did a six-month internship at Pulsar Audio, which makes digital audio effects for sound engineers and musicians. “I am very happy because the two specialities of art and science come together and enrich each other. For example, when I have worked on a reverb effect for a week, I feel like I understand it better when I use it in a mix and vice versa, it's exciting.”
“For the second part of my gap year last year, I had imagined starting a full-time business through the auto-entrepreneur status. Because of the lack of concerts, it didn't really work. Between March and September, I made almost no recordings. Fortunately, before the first lockdown, I had done a lot of recording and video work for a band called WillOMood and the Resto Basket album. This meant I could work from home a little. We also made an after movie video for the SGO. This gap year was a test of my professional project, to see if I really liked it so that I could change direction if I didn't. And in the end, I really liked it!”
Today, Antoine is doing his end-of-study internship in the same company as his gap year and is canvassing groups for new projects.
“If I have one piece of advice for young people in preparatory classes, it is to look carefully at the courses of study before going to a school, even if things can sometimes seem a bit vague. You should not hesitate to contact students who are already in these courses, to ask about the jobs and opportunities. It helped me a lot to know from the beginning that I wanted to do audio signal processing, it was a big motivation for my studies.”
