Sound Engineering as carrer opportunity. By Gray Spark Audio Academy

How do you know if sound engineering is for you!

There are two flaws with this thought process: Becoming a Sound Engineer does not necessarily make you a better musician. Sound Engineering requires a completely different set of tools and skills as opposed to becoming a Musician Here we see few skills and traits that one should look for if they are interested in heading into this field.

Technical Details As the name itself suggest Audio Engineering will require you to work with a lot of technical information, i.e How Microphones Work, How Analog to Digital Converters works, etc. If talking about a microphone, or the electronics of speakers and other audio equipment bores you then maybe you should work on developing an interest before you head into a course.

Problem Solving This is something that you will tackle as an Audio Engineer almost every day. It could be anything from figuring out why the signal isn’t coming into your DAW to being able to decipher if there is any problem with the electrical wiring. As an audio engineer, you will be faced with solving many of these problems and if not exciting they should at least not feel like a tremendous chore. It is the biggest flaw I have noticed with students, also the biggest reason for students dropping out.

Imaginative Thinking / Creative Thinking This goes without saying that an audio engineer should be able to think outside the box from time to time. Audio Engineering is a field that requires a mix of both technical knowledge as well as creative thinking.

Unlike traditional Engineering, Audio Engineer doesn’t have physical rules that bound our work and sometimes bending these rules is what leads to discovery or an approach we would never think possible. Students who are able to think outside the box are usually the ones who end up becoming the most successful.

Intermediate IT and Computer Skills In the modern recording world, all recordings are done solely using Computers, and although it goes without saying that computer skillset is something that is a must for everyone to know in the 21st century. You must also have an intermediate understanding of how Operating Systems work, how software is installed into the system. How the computer allocates RAM to certain Processes, How the computer performs basic calculations etc.

People Skills Ah! This is the most basic yet most overlooked aspect. As an audio engineer, you will at any point in time be interacting with multiple people. One must learn how to make a person comfortable in their space and more often than not these “persons” will be musicians.

In conclusion, you should have at least 3 out of these 5 traits before you commit yourself to become an audio engineer, and if you don’t have them work on yourself on building these traits and you will build a passion towards this field that will ensure your success!

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