“Nick is definitely the finest intern we have had this year - he is proactive, intuitive, inquisitive and has a great base knowledge of audio” - Trackdown General Manager Elaine Beckett.

It’s an audio engineer student’s ‘dream opportunity’ - to walk out of the campus of an audio engineering school and into work at an internationally acclaimed recording studio. For AIM Audio student, Nicholas Rowse, the experience of an internship at Trackdown Scoring Stage (Studios) at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, comes a close second. Trackdown is Australia’s premiere purpose-built Orchestral Scoring stage and is credited with recording and mixing the scores for blockbuster movies such as “Australia” and “Happy Feet”.

Nicholas is in his 2nd year of a Bachelor of Music majoring in Audio Technology at AIM, and says that having the opportunity to work at Trackdown Studios is “a truly magnificent experience”.

To earn the internship offered at Trackdown, Nicholas had to undergo an intensive selection process. He was chosen based on his academic performance, level of participation in AIM Audio related projects, general level of professionalism and successful completion of an interview with an internal and external selection panel. Safe to say, he’d earned the opportunity.
 
Like any good apprentice, upon arrival he found himself appointed to some simple house keeping tasks, however it wasn’t long before he was deep in the audio engineering world that he dreamt of one day working in.

First up, Nicholas was able to sit in on some studio sessions involving the editing of Foley to an Australian feature film. “The sheer number of edits to just one small part of what we hear during a movie is difficult to fathom, I certainly bared witness to that. It was amazing to see how quickly the editor works” adds Nicholas.

Next, Nicholas was asked to help build a new production suite, setting up a Pro-Tools HD system with Mackie HR824mkII studio monitor speakers, Mac Pro with two dual 20" screens and an 8 channel mixer, an experience he had never had before.

From here the recordings started and “they don’t let up” says Nicholas, as you would expect from a world-class recording studio such as Trackdown. “My first session I was part of was an amazing 20-piece choir recorded for a video game. The clients in Japan were able to see and hear everything that was going on from a whole other country because of an audio and video link streamed back and forth between Japan and Sydney Australia” adds Nicholas.

“The ensemble was totally spot on and sounded absolutely gorgeous directly monitored straight from tape in the control room. I was proud to know I played a part in creating the amazing sound I was hearing,” says Nicholas. Throughout the internship Nicholas had the unique opportunity to observe and assist on high profile orchestral recordings, audio post for feature films and television and music recordings. In fact, Nicholas has now earned his first 2 feature film credits on ‘A Heartbeat Away’ and ‘Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole’.

Nicholas has also impressed the studio enough to now be offered an extension to his internship, such has been his commitment and dedication to the project. “Nick is definitely the finest intern we have had this year - he is proactive, intuitive, inquisitive and has a great base knowledge of audio” says Trackdown General Manager Elaine Beckett.

“Opportunities like these are part of what makes the Audio degree at AIM unique” says Audio Head of Department Jason de Wilde. “The experience Nicholas is having at Trackdown is a credit to him as one of our most impressive AIM audio students. The internship is a great networking opportunity and who knows what great career opportunities might eventuate for him from here”.