When I think of an engineer, I think of an architect or someone who tinkers with wires and circuits all day. In the music business, they use a different type of engineer. He is called a recording engineer and his job begins as soon as the artist starts to sing.

The area that the recording engineer occupies is called the digital audio workstation, or DAW. This workstation contains all of the technical gadgets an engineer needs to fine tune the sounds he hears. The engineer works with the artist to lay down the best sound they can get. This may involve the artist recording certain parts of the song several times until just the right sound is achieved.

The recording engineer may have additional teammates to collaborate on the performance. They are mostly a part of larger projects with big budgets. Smaller projects use the recording engineer in several roles to compensate. Learning all aspects of music engineering can help you land a job in a smaller studio that needs a multi-tasking engineer.

Let’s move on to the mixing engineer. This person takes the best tracks and mixes those together into one blended sound. He uses the best musical tracks that the recording engineer has produced. The recording engineer can hear how the sounds mesh with each other. If it is less than optimal, the recording engineer is back in the studio with the artist recording new sound tracks. Being a mix engineer is kind of like putting together a performance.

A mastering engineer depends on their ears to enhance their experience. He will listen to see what the sound is really like. Over the years he has developed a talent for hearing tones that should be projected more and voices that need to be stronger.

Every engineer needs an assistant. If you are the assistant engineer, keep your wits about you. This could be the final step towards your big break. An assistant performs the usual duties: gopher for the artist and engineers, working with the recording and mixing agent, and learning as much as they can about the business.

The assistant learns to operate equipment and practice their sense of hearing. Music is important because the instrumental sounds and lyrics create a mood in people. It is a form of artistic expression that everyone can appreciate. I love listening to good music and a crystal clear recorded song is that much better to listen to.

Employers will expect a recording engineer to know something of the equipment when they accept the job. In the music industry, there is no substitute for learning and gaining experience. It used to be a catch-22 of sorts. No one wanted to take a chance on you if you hadn’t had any practical time using the equipment. Then again, it is hard to get the experience if no one will hire you.

Take a course or apply for a degree program that will give you the necessary hands-on training. You will need it to get into the door of a music studio for an interview. Where once this equipment was rarely seen in a classroom, many music schools have all of the resources they need to hold labs where everyone gets to utilize the equipment to do some real work.

Do you desire to be a recording engineer? Learn how to do all the jobs of every engineer in case you will be the only one. One way to know if this is right for you is to apply for an internship and try a variety of jobs.

Perhaps the most important difference that can be distinguished between a tape-based system (digital or analogue) and samplebased recording system is random access. Random access production refers to the fact that digital audio can be stored within a random access memory (RAM), or a disk based memory medium in such a way that the data can – virtually instantaneously – be accessed, processed, or reproduced in any order at any point in time.

Once developers began to design updated sample editor software, it was discovered that through additional processing hardware, digital audio editors were capable of recording digitized audio directly to a computer’s hard disk. These devices, sometimes known as digital audio workstations (DAW), serve as computer based hardware and software packages that are intended specifically for the recording, manipulation, and reproduction of digital audio that resides on hard disk.

Commonly, such devices are designed around and controlled by a standard personal computer with the addition of a sound card which provides the input and output interaction with the computer.
There are multiple advantages to using digital audio workstations in an audio production environment.

- The capability to handle longer sound files. Hard disk recording is limited only by the size of the hard disk itself (commonly one minute of stereo recording at 44.1 kHz occupies 10.5 MB of hard disk memory or 5MB / track minute).

- Random Access editing. As audio is recorded on the hard disk, any point within the program can be accessed at any time, regardless of the order in which it was recorded.

- Nondestructive editing allows audio segments (often called regions) to be placed in any order, manipulated in any fashion without changing the originally recorded sound file in any way.

- DSP. Digital signal processing can be performed on a segment or entire sound file in either real time or non-real time in a nondestructive fashion.

- In addition to these advantages, computer-based digital audio devices serve to integrate many of the tasks related to both digital audio and MIDI production. Many DAW’s are capable of importing, processing, and exporting sound files into formats such as mp3 or Real Players G2.
Recording Techniques

FILTERS

Also known as equalization or EQ, filters are used to increase or decrease the level in a specific range of audio frequencies. The most common filters are the simple bass and treble controls found on inexpensive stereo systems, which act on a broad range of frequencies. But other filters are designed to surgically boost or cut very narrow bands of the audio spectrum.

SHELVING FILTERS
As the simplest form of filter, shelving EQ boosts or cuts all frequencies above or below a fixed frequency. A bass shelving filter, also called a low-pass filter, boosts or cuts everything below its fixed center frequency. Likewise a treble shelving filter, also called a high-pass filter, boosts or cuts everything above its fixed center. A single control typically adjusts the amount of boost or cut.
These filters are useful for making broad changes like reducing boomy bass and wind noise. But encoders can easily be overloaded by too much bass or treble, so it’s often wisest to use these filters to cut high and low frequencies to prevent artifacts.

BANDPASS FILTERS
These filters can be used to boost or cut audio on both sides of a center frequency. Bandpass filters are commonly used as midrange filters, because they have little effect on either high or low frequencies. The familiar graphic equalizer is just a set of bandpass filters tuned to different center frequencies.
More sophisticated versions, called sweepable bandpass filters, have an additional control allowing you to change the center frequency. Bandpass filters are useful for increasing the intelligibility of a speaker without increasing hiss or background noise. A variation of the bandpass filter is the notch filter, which boosts or cuts all frequencies except those around the center frequency.

PARAMETRIC FILTERS
A parametric filter is a bandpass filter with an additional control to adjust the width of the frequency band being effected (fig. 3). These are the surgical tools of audio editing. They can be used to eliminate just the noise from an air conditioner, while having a minimal effect on the rest of the audio.
With all filters it’s important to follow the audio engineer’s first rule of EQ — cut rather than boost wherever possible. Cutting undesired sounds is always less obtrusive, and boosting too much can make a track too loud and lead to distortion and artifacts when encoding.

COMPRESSORS
A compressor’s basic function is to reduce the dynamic range of an audio recording, which is the difference between the loudest and softest sounds that pass through the recording chain. Simply put, a compressor is a processor whose output level increases at a slower rate as its input level increases.
By reducing the volume of the loudest sounds, a compressor lets you raise the level of the entire audio track, making it all sound louder than it actually is. Compression can be a big help in achieving intelligible audio tracks with a more uniform volume that will survive the encoding process.

A compressor consists of a level detector that measures the incoming signal, and an an amplifier whose gain is controlled by the level detector.

A Threshold control sets the level at which compression begins. Below the threshold, the compressor acts like a straight piece of wire. But when the input level reaches the Threshold, then the compressor begins reducing its output level by an amount determined by the Ratio control.

The Ratio control establishes the proportion of change between the input and output levels. If you set the compression Ratio to 2:1, then when the input signal gets twice as loud, the output signal will increase by only half.

If you set the Ratio to its maximum (10:1 or more), the the compressor becomes a “limiter” that locks the maximum level at the Threshold.

While a compressor can level out a recording, high levels of compression can also introduce artifacts including “pumping”, in which there is an audible up and down change in volume of a track, or “breathing”, which sounds like someone breathing as the background noise level goes up and down.

EXPANDERS
An expander is the opposite of a compressor. As the level of the audio signal gets louder, the expander’s amplifier turns up further making loud signals even louder. An expander can be used to reduce noise in a process called downward expansion. In this case you set the Threshold just above the level of background noise. The expander will then raise the volume of everything above the Threshold, but won’t change anything below the Threshold, thereby lowering the perceived background noise.

NORMALIZING
Normalizing increases the gain of the audio file until its loudest point (or sample) is at maximum level. The overall signal level is now higher, which makes for clearer audio, and also gives the encoder more bits of data to work with and reduces encoding artifacts. The only downside of normalizing is that it increases the noise as well as the audio signal so it should be used carefully. It should be your last step before encoding, and you may not need it at all.

Music engineer and training schools offer premier sound engineering, music production, and audio recording classes with two state-of-the-art campuses in Phoenix and Gilbert Arizona. Top-quality music engineer training and audio recording job training for people who are serious about working in the music industry is in high demand.

Music engineer training and audio recording job training should be extensive, comprehensive, and relevant. Industry professionals are often the ones that teach the latest music production and sound engineering techniques, and train students on the most current music recording technology so they are ready to being their career in music from the moment they graduate.

Music Engineering Job Opportunities

Graduates from good, accredited music recording conservatory can find work anywhere within the music industry. They can find employment as sound engineers, music producers, game audio engineers, concert sound mixers, movie sound engineers, and wherever a skilled and talented recording technician is needed. They can even work with individuals and bands as managers or become accomplished musicians themselves. The possibilities and opportunities are endless for those who have true passion and the desire to succeed.

Good quality schools are typically committed to helping our students realize their dreams of having careers in recording and music. The best sign of success is happy graduates who are doing jobs that they love and find true fulfillment in working. Most schools have informative classes and modern facilities provide our students the education they need to succeed in the fast-paced and challenging music industry and also provide internships and job placement services for our graduates to give them the experience and help they need when they finish our music production job training programs.

Contact us today to take your first steps on the path that will lead you to your dream career in music.