This is the last in a series of articles aimed to help you in your consideration of a career in the Music Recording Industry by discussing the questions a prospective sound engineer should ask.

Recap:

In Part 1, we looked at changes in the music recording industry, how this affected career opportunities for the Audio Recording Engineer.

Part 2 discussed various Sound Engineer roles, the skills needed to fulfill them, and what education and training options there are available to help you.

This final part covers how to go about: Choosing My Best Path to Get There

A good starting point is always to clarify what it is you are aiming at…

You may not have very clear objectives at this stage. Even if you do, remember these will probably change as you gain experience, meet different people, and new opportunities arise. However, the general direction you expect to take will influence your choice of education and training.

So here’s a few questions to ask yourself:

1. Studio Employment

Are you looking for a "job". If so, what roles are of most interest to you? Are there academic or professional qualifications required? If so, these must be supported by the course options on your short-list.

2. Running your own commercial studio

If this is your aim, add to the skills list above a strong dose of business, marketing and people management skills.

3. Home recording

Is this a hobby, where you’d like to improve your skills, but still mainly for your own interest? Or are you a musician or artist aiming to produce professional quality demos or more from your home recording facilities?

So what should you look for?

4. Location

For many this may be the limiting factor. However, I’d encourage you to look for ways to get the best possible training for yourself that you can manage. That means choosing the course first, and moving your base, if necessary, in order to participate fully.

5. Program coverage

1. Fundamentals of sound recording and production - equipment set up, recording, mixing, mastering,
2. Acoustics - how does sound behave in different spaces - studio vs concert hall vs car
3. Business and marketing, especially if your dream is to run your own recording studio business
4. Future directions in technology and market

6. Listening

How does the program provide listening exposure? Are there live performers available to work with?

7. Hands-on time enough?

What equipment is available? How much time will you get? How is it scheduled?

8. Who’s teaching?

Are they active professionals, or "just" academics? Are they current masters at their art? What reputation does the school have with employers

9. Links to entertainment industry?

Which sector do they focus on? Who are they working with? Does this help you meet your goals ?

10. Apprenticeship/Internship program.

Do they have an apprenticeship or internship program? Are there places for all students?

11. Funding.

There will be course fees of course, and living costs while a student. But don’t forget you’ll probably need to fund a further 1-2 years living while you gain sufficient experience to land a good job, or build your reputation to be able to attract your own fee-paying clients.

So you either need to have some capital available, or be prepared to work part-time during this period.

12. Part-time/full-time?

This is related to funding, location and level of course.
If you need to work in order to pay for the course, then you probably need to find a part-time course. You may be free to move to your preferred training location. Or not, as the case may be. Depends on your circumstances.

(I was fortunate to be able to opt for a generous redundancy package after 18 years with my employer. Although I was married with 3 children, this funded my full-time MBA course.)

13. Campus based, local studio based, or distance learning?

For many people, your choice will be limited to whatever is available locally within traveling distance from your current home.

If you're not near a major center, that may well push you towards local studio-based, or distance-learning training options.

Both of these have the disadvantage of limiting your experience to the equipment available at the studio, or at home.

It’s then a matter of looking locally to find which studios are within reach, and contacting them to investigate training opportunities.

The distance learning option has a powerful advantage though…as a door opener to job interviews. Successfully completing a course under your "own steam", in your own time, with your own equipment, should demonstrate to any potential employer a strong commitment to a career in audio. This is certainly true where the examining body is independent of the sound engineering school concerned.

I didn't find many distance learning courses. However, a couple that do have an excellent reputation, and have independent examinations, are:

• Audio MasterClass from Course Director David Mellor, and
• Audio Courses from Course Director Chris Hambly

Check them out…

14. Am I a Good Candidate Anyway?

You need to be comfortable with technical subjects and equipment, as well as having an aptitude for music. But even more important are the personal professional characteristics of positive attitude, willingness to learn, dedication to client service and reliability. You need to be employable!

15. Lifestyle

Many recording engineers spend long hours, often into the night in recording sessions with artists. Sometimes away from home. So depending on your role, you may not have a very predictable social life. This doesn’t suite everyone, or not at all times in life.

Summary

• Consider your aims
• Survey the available courses
• Make an assessment based on your aims and the checklist above
• Are there any pre-requisites ? Do you already meet them?
• How is mentoring supported?
• Short list the ones that look a good fit, and contact them to discuss your remaining questions and get a "feel" for the organization
• What about funding ? Is support available from any sponsors? Can I fund my training in other ways?

Other resources:

Magazines:

• EQ Magazine
• Surround Professional
• Mix
• Billboard
• Pro Sound News
• Sound on Sound

Websites:

• www.MusicRecordingCenter.com
• www.aes.org/education
• www.HomeMusicRecording.com
• www.Music-Recording-Studio.com

This is part 2 of a series of 3 articles on getting started as in music recording. In this article we’ll look at what skill set a recording engineer needs, and the education and training options available in audio engineering and [tag]music production[/tag] to help you build them.

Recap:
As we discussed in part 1 , change has swept through Audio Recording Industry like a storm over the last decade. Much of this was fueled by

• plummeting computer costs
• recording software capabilities maturing, and
• the widespread availability of broadband internet

With corporate recording studios in decline, few Record Labels today own studio operations. On the positive side, there has been rapid growth in smaller commercial studios, even more in the number of home studios, and in artist-operated markets. New markets, like online games, and computer animated films have emerged, providing new opportunities for the aspiring audio engineer.

If you’re considering investing time in a sound engineering training course of some kind, you should give some thought to what exactly it is you need to learn. Then you’re in a better position to evaluate your various educational and training options.

Recording engineers need to draw on multiple areas of knowledge and experience such as:

1. Science of sound, acoustics, psychoacoustics
2. Electronics engineering
3. Operating complex equipment
4. Building design, with emphasis on acoustic spaces
5. Logic of signal paths and signal processing
6. Listening to complex sound and distinguishing its components
7. Art of musical creativity
8. Effective people communication
9. Stamina!

As you’ll see, some of the above (items 1-4) are "academic" in nature and can be gained in various ways according to the student’s preferred learning style. However items 5-8 depend on observing the experts at work, and building your own experience under the guidance of a master craftsman as your mentor.

The exact skills mix and emphasis will vary according to the role(s) you'll fulfil, so it’s worth while taking a moment to understand a bit about the typical and new sound engineering roles.

• Recording engineer - responsible for everything in a recording sessions from mic placement through sound set up, multi-track recording, editing, and mixing. Works with Producer and Artists to help realise their creative vision.
• Mastering Engineer - responsible for final stereo mix to be used for duplication
• Producer - Overall responsibility for the recording project
• Film score mixer - records and mixes audio for film

The following are more recent, and more specialised roles:

• Sound Designer - covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project
• Game audio engineer - works with composer to implement sound track for a video or on-line game
• Internet audio engineer - responsible for all aspects of audio delivered via the internet. Includes streaming technologies, as well as recording.

So, what options are there for me to get a good Audio Recording Education?

First, let’s be clear. I’m not talking about academic qualifications, primarily.

For anyone aiming to be involved in live recording, your development plan must include a mix of 3 elements:

• education in the science background to your subject
• training and practice to build the technical skills required in operating the wide range of equipment and software you’re likely to come across
• mentoring by an expert who can accelerate your artistic skills development enabling you to contribute effectively to the musical creative process as part of a team

Important notes:

1. You cannot expect to excel without competent technical and artistic skills.
2. You can get away with a less than perfect scientific education. You can always fill in any gaps elsewhere.
3. But you will not compete in this business with poor technical and artistic capabilities. You also need the contacts that a good mentor can help you foster.

So what are the different routes into the recording industry?

Direct
This means taking a particular Audio Engineering course - focusing on sound engineering in a specific or general form.

The main advantage of this route is the immersion you should get in the industry through the educational part of your development.

Indirect
Alternatively you can come via a more general discipline. The most likely are:

• Science,
• Electronic Engineering, or
• Music,

…since abilities in these areas contribute directly to the Recording Engineering skill base.

An advantage of this path is that it keeps your career options open. Given the employment challenges in the Audio Recording sector, this may well be a good thing.

In either case, you have open to you a huge range of classes, short or longer courses, certificate or degree level, with differing mixes of studio hands-on and classroom time.

You’ll find a good list of available courses world-wide at the AES website http://www.aes.org/education/ at all academic levels:

You can search by region to find what’s available with reach of your home, or by course type to find the best opportunities, wherever they are located.

Many require no prior qualifications, knowledge or experience. Others, such as Degree courses, carry the usual academic entry requirements.

So to summarise:
Becoming a competent Recording Engineer requires

• knowledge of recording principles and understanding of equipment operation
• experience of listening, and controlling the recorded sound from a variety of sources, using a range of equipment, in different types of acoustic spaces.
• Communications ability to work with the artists, producers, and others involved in the music recording process

This means that your education is only beginning with the classroom and equipment operation bits. You need to build up sufficient working time and practice with live recording artists, and learn to produce consistent results before you can consider yourself ready to take on the world.

It’s like learning to drive a car. You can read all the books on driving you like, but until you sit behind the wheel, with your instructor beside you, turn the key, engage 1st gear and press the accelerator pedal, you don’t start to learn to drive. (Hopefully you also learn to use the brake before you hit something!)

I think you’ll have got the message….

But how do you make this link from understanding to skills? The best answer is to regularly work with a mentor who is already a master at his craft.

In the final part of this series of articles, we’ll summarise practical guidelines to help you choose the most suitable education and training path to take you from your current skill level in the direction you want to head, as effectively as possible…

You can read this now: Audio Engineering Student Challenge

A sound recording career?

When considering any career decision, it's a good idea to review what's going on in your industry. What long term opportunities could it offer you? Is there more opportunity than last year, or is the recording industry declining? Or changing significantly?

Where can I get advice I can trust?

The answer to this question is now critical for you because of the huge changes surging through the music recording sector.

The audio industry has undergone huge changes in recent years…

Back in the early days of music recording, the studio equipment necessary was so costly that few artists and performers could afford their own recording studio facilities. So shared recording studios grew up around the major centers of the music business - in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago, and London. With the expansion of radio, and arrival of TV, there was a sustained growth surge in the entertainment business, and the large recording studios thrived along with their corporate parents – familiar names such as Colombia, Capitol, Decca, MGM, and RCA Victor, EMI Records, etc.

The typical steps to becoming a professional recording engineer became:

1. hobbyist/amateur recordist
2. some formal sound engineering education
3. (unpaid) apprenticeship or internship with master mentor
4. assistant engineer position

In this process the quality (skills, reputation, and contacts) of your mentor was critical in launching your career effectively.

But by the late ‘90s, computer hardware and software technologies had advanced in capability and dropped so much in price, that many of the artists who had depended on the large studios and production companies could now operate independently, and with excellent results, from recording studios at home or in much smaller, local studios.

And with Internet access available widely, not only has recording and production technology changed dramatically, but so has distribution, now that internet downloads are so fast and easy. Alongside this, computer animation in the film industry and the growth of video games (which recently overtook the film industry in revenue) provides a whole set of new opportunities for audio engineers that just didn't exist previously. Of course the economics of the industry are undergoing a major shift at the same time.

Today the main industry “drivers” are:

• Music – growing and fragmenting into niche sectors
• Films – declining; some even forecast the death of the “blockbuster” movie
• Broadcasting – becoming more localised through increasing community broadcasting, and at the same time more global via internet podcasting, radio and TV
• Video and online games – rapidly expanding

These all share a common trend in favour of smaller, independent producers, a trend enabled by advances in computer, communications and recording software technologies.

So what does this mean for employment or business opportunities in this sector?

In summary:

• Fewer “jobs” with the major players, who are downsizing
• Widening range of roles – thanks to new technologies in animation and gaming
• Greater need for commercial skills – to market your own recording services to other artists
• Fewer apprenticeships and internships available – more difficult to make the “right” connections and benefit from expert coaching

This means it's now much harder to get into a traditional recording engineer role with a studio. If this is what you've set your heart on, I'd suggest you contact all recording studios in your locality, and make sure they know of your interest and availability.

You may find it easier to get into one of the newer roles in games, video or on-lines, or computer animation.

What ever your goals, in the next section we'll look at the question:

“What Skills must a Audio Recording Engineer have?”

This should lead on naturally to grasp the critical elements of the education and training programs you'll need to consider investing in.

You can read this now: Essential Skills of an Audio Engineer

Want to be a recording engineer?

Confused about which recording engineer schools would give you the best start?

Need to get a handle on your options for a recording engineer education?

Considering recording engineering as a profession or serious hobby?

This articles series will help save you time to find the best options for you.

Don't make the mistake I just made… I thought to myself:

"I'll do a quick internet search, and easily find good advice on options for getting into the audio recording profession."

Wrong!

I tried this just a couple of days ago. Yes it was easy to find course info. Too easy - I was swamped with details.

I tried searching on phrases like "recording engineer courses", then changed to training, education, schools. Then tried "sound engineer", and finally "audio engineer", again with all the variations. I used the main search engines - Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

What I found was Read more