Audio engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer)
Sound engineering is increasingly seen as a creative profession where musical instruments and technology are used to produce sound for film, radio, television, music and video games.[4] Audio engineers also set up, sound check and do live sound mixing using a mixing console and a sound reinforcement system for music concerts, theatre, sports games and corporate events.
Alternatively, audio engineer can refer to a scientist or professional engineer who holds an engineering degree and who designs, develops and builds audio or musical technology working under terms such as acoustical engineering,[citation needed] electronic/electrical engineering or (musical) signal processing.[5]
Research and development
Education
Audio engineers working in research and development may come from backgrounds such as acoustics, computer science, broadcast engineering, physics, acoustical engineering, electrical engineering and electronics. Audio engineering courses at university or college fall into two rough categories: (i) training in the creative use of audio as a sound engineer, and (ii) training in science or engineering topics, which then allows students to apply these concepts while pursuing a career developing audio technologies. Audio training courses provide knowledge of technologies and their application to recording studios and sound reinforcement systems, but do not have sufficient mathematical and scientific content to allow someone to obtain employment in research and development in the audio and acoustic industry.[9]
Audio engineers in research and development usually possess a
Sub-disciplines
The listed subdisciplines are based on PACS (Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme) coding used by the Acoustical Society of America with some revision.[11]
Audio signal processing
Audio engineers develop
Architectural acoustics
Architectural acoustics is the science and engineering of achieving a good sound within a room.[13] For audio engineers, architectural acoustics can be about achieving good speech intelligibility in a stadium or enhancing the quality of music in a theatre.[14] Architectural Acoustic design is usually done by acoustic consultants.[10]
Electroacoustics
Electroacoustics is concerned with the design of headphones, microphones, loudspeakers, sound reproduction systems and recording technologies..
Musical acoustics
Psychoacoustics
Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of how humans respond to what they hear. At the heart of audio engineering are listeners who are the final arbitrator as to whether an audio design is successful, such as whether a binaural recording sounds immersive.[12]
Speech
The production, computer processing and perception of speech is an important part of audio engineering. Ensuring speech is transmitted intelligibly, efficiently and with high quality; in rooms, through public address systems and through mobile telephone systems are important areas of study.[17]
Practitioner
A variety of terms are used to describe audio engineers who install or operate
In the recording studio environment, a sound engineer records, edits, manipulates, mixes, or
In typical sound reinforcement applications, audio engineers often assume the role of producer, making artistic and technical decisions, and sometimes even scheduling and budget decisions.[18]
Education and training
Audio engineers come from backgrounds or postsecondary training in fields such as audio,
Audio engineers must have extensive knowledge of audio engineering principles and techniques. For instance, they must understand how audio signals travel, which equipment to use and when, how to mic different instruments and amplifiers, which microphones to use and how to position them to get the best quality recordings. In addition to technical knowledge, an audio engineer must have the ability to problem-solve quickly. The best audio engineers also have a high degree of creativity that allows them to stand out amongst their peers. In the music realm, an audio engineer must also understand the types of sounds and tones that are expected in musical ensembles across different genres—rock and pop music, for example. This knowledge of musical style is typically learned from years of experience listening to and mixing music in recording or live sound contexts. For education and training, there are audio engineering schools all over the world.
Role of women
According to
Women's Audio Mission was started in 2003 to address the lack of women in
]There certainly are efforts to chronicle women's role and history in audio. Leslie Gaston-Bird wrote Women in Audio,[23] which includes 100 profiles of women in audio through history. Sound Girls is an organization focused on the next generation of women in audio, but also has been building up resources and directories of women in audio.[24] Women in Sound is another organization that has been working to highlight women and nonbinary people in all areas of live and recorded sound through an online zine and podcast featuring interviews of current audio engineers and producers.
One of the first women to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own
Other notable women include:
- Sylvia Robinson, early hip hop music producer
- Susan Rogers, engineer for Purple Rain
- The Dead Boys' Young, Loud and Snotty;
- Delia Derbyshire, British electronics pioneer
- Lari White, a co-producer on Toby Keith's White Trash With Money
- Leslie Ann Jones, recording engineer
- Sylvia Massy, engineer and producer for Tool, System of a Down, and Johnny Cash
- Ethel Gabriel, producer and record executive RCA Victor
Sub-disciplines
There are four distinct steps to the commercial production of a recording: recording, editing, mixing, and mastering. Typically, each is performed by a sound engineer who specializes only in that part of the production.
- Studio engineer – an engineer working within a studio facility, either with a producer or independently.
- Recording engineer – the engineer who records sound.
- Assistant engineer – often employed in larger studios, allowing them to train to become full-time engineers. They often assist full-time engineers with microphone setups, session breakdowns and in some cases, rough mixes.[18]
- Mixing engineer – a person who creates mixes of multi-track recordings. It is common to record a commercial record at one studio and have it mixed by different engineers in other studios.
- Mastering engineer – the person who masters the final mixed stereo tracks (or sometimes a series of audio stems, which consists in a mix of the main sections) that the mix engineer produces. The mastering engineer makes any final adjustments to the overall sound of the record in the final step before commercial duplication. Mastering engineers use principles of equalization, compression and limiting to fine-tune the sound timbre and dynamics and to achieve a louder recording.
- Sound designer– broadly an artist who produces soundtracks or sound effects content for media.
- Live sound engineer
- Front of House (FOH) engineer, or A1.foldback sound. A live/sound reinforcement engineer hears source material and tries to correlate that sonic experience with system performance.[28]
- Wireless microphone engineer, or A2. This position is responsible for wireless microphones during a theatre production, a sports event or a corporate event.
- Foldback or Monitor engineer – a person running foldback sound during a live event. The term "foldback" comes from the old practice of "folding back" audio signals from the front of house(FOH) mixing console to the stage so musicians can hear themselves while performing. Monitor engineers usually have a separate audio system from the FOH engineer and manipulate audio signals independently from what the audience hears so they can satisfy the requirements of each performer on stage. In-ear systems, digital and analog mixing consoles, and a variety of speaker enclosures are typically used by monitor engineers. In addition most monitor engineers must be familiar with wireless or RF (radio-frequency) equipment and often must communicate personally with the artist(s) during each performance.
- Systems engineer – responsible for the design setup of modern PA systems, which are often very complex. A systems engineer is usually also referred to as a "crew chief" on tour and is responsible for the performance and day-to-day job requirements of the audio crew as a whole along with the FOH audio system. This is a sound-only position concerned with implementation, not to be confused with the interdisciplinary field of system engineering, which typically requires a college degree.
- Front of House (FOH) engineer, or A1.
- television programs.
Equipment
An audio engineer is proficient with different types of recording media, such as analog tape, digital multi-track recorders and workstations, plug-ins and computer knowledge. With the advent of the digital age, it is increasingly important for the audio engineer to understand software and hardware integration, from synchronization to analog to digital transfers. In their daily work, audio engineers use many tools, including:
- Tape machines
- Analog-to-digital converters
- Digital-to-analog converters
- Digital audio workstations (DAWs)
- Audio plug-ins
- Dynamic range compressors
- Audio data compressors
- Music sequencers
- Signal processors
- Headphones
- Microphones
- Preamplifiers
- Mixing consoles
- Amplifiers
- Loudspeakers
Notable audio engineers
Recording
- Steve Albini
- Jim Anderson
- Dave Aron
- Sylvia Massy
- Michael J. Bishop
- Bill Bottrell
- David Bottrill
- Helmut Burk
- Iain Burgess
- Chuck Britz
- Patrick Brown
- Terry Brown
- John Burns
- Ian Caple
- Dru Castro
- Fred Catero
- Roy Cicala
- Bob Clearmountain
- John Congleton
- Mike Crossey
- Terry Date
- Nick Davis
- Charles De Schutter
- Jack Douglas
- Tom Dowd
- Mark "Flood" Ellis
- Geoff Emerick
- Jack Endino
- Shawn Everett
- Bob Ezrin
- David R. Ferguson
- Steve Fisk
- Dave Fridmann
- Humberto Gatica
- Rudy Van Gelder
- Nigel Godrich
- Doug Grean
- James Guthrie
- Mick Guzauski
- Roy Halee
- Wally Heider
- David Hentschel
- Bones Howe
- Andrew Jackson
- Andy Johns
- Glyn Johns
- Leslie Ann Jones
- Toshi Kasai
- Neil Kernon
- Jacquire King
- Eddie Kramer
- Greg Ladanyi
- Maxime Le Guil
- James Lock
- Chris Lord-Alge
- Tom Lord-Alge
- Malinda Lowe
- Reinhold Mack
- Mike Marciano
- George Martin
- Tony Maserati
- George Massenburg
- Mario J. McNulty
- Joe Meek
- Yuri Morozov
- Alan Moulder
- Jack Mullin
- Evgeny Murzin
- Roger Nichols
- Clif Norrell
- Alex Tumay
- Alex Newport
- Paul Northfield
- Gary Paczosa
- Hugh Padgham
- Robert Parker
- Alan Parsons
- Dave Pensado
- Lynn Peterzell
- Tony Platt
- Resul Pookutty
- Bill Porter
- Bill Putnam
- Bob Rock
- Phil Ramone
- Emitt Rhodes
- Bruce Robb (producer)
- Susan Rogers
- Scott Salem
- Elliot Scheiner
- Andrew Scheps[29]
- Al Schmitt
- Tom Scholz
- Jim Scott
- Ken Scott
- Da-Hong Seetoo
- Eberhard Sengpiel
- Mike Shipley
- Norman Smith
- H. Sridhar
- Chris Steinmetz
- Mike Stone
- Stephen Street
- Bruce Swedien
- Bill Szymczyk
- Mike Terry
- Wharton Tiers
- Devin Townsend
- Ken Townshend
- Phil Thornalley
- John Travis
- Michael B. Tretow
- Derek Varnals
- Robert Venable
- Tony Visconti
- Andy Wallace
- Dan Wallin
- Kenneth Wilkinson
- Misha Kachkachishvili
- Dennis Moody
- Jonathan Wilson[30]
Mastering
- Tom Coyne
- Mike Dean
- Kevin Gray
- Bernie Grundman
- Steve Hoffman
- Ted Jensen
- Dale Becker
- Bob Katz
- Bob Ludwig
- Rodney Mills
- George Peckham
- Bob Weston
- Gavin Lurssen
- Reuben Cohen
- Mike Bozzi
- Pablo Schuller
Live sound
Broadcasting
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See also
References
- ^ "Which Type Of Sound Engineer Are You Destined To Be?". www.sheffieldav.com. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
- ^ The difference between a producer and an audio engineer, archived from the original on 2021-12-15, retrieved 2019-12-08
- ^ "Interview with Phil Ek". HitQuarters. 25 May 2009. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved Sep 3, 2010.
- ^ Rosenberg McKay, Dawn. "Audio Engineer Job Description: Salary, Skills, & More". About.com Careers. Archived from the original on 23 July 2018. Retrieved 8 Dec 2019.
- ^ Smith, S. E. "What Is Audio Engineering?". wiseGeek. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
- ^ Daley, Dan, "The Engineers Who Changed Recording: Fathers Of Invention", Sound on Sound magazine, October 2004
- ^ University of Salford. "Graduate Jobs in Acoustics". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ^ a b Acoustical Society of America. "Acoustics and You". Archived from the original on 2017-03-08. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ^ University of Salford, Acoustics. "Physics and music technology degrees". Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
- ^ a b National Careers Service. "Job profiles: Acoustics consultant". Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ^ Acoustical Society of America. "PACS 2010 Regular Edition—Acoustics Appendix". Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-07-166347-2.
- ^ Morfey, Christopher (2001). Dictionary of Acoustics. Academic Press. p. 32.
- ISBN 978-0-7506-0538-0.
- ^ Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics (TCMU) of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). "ASA TCMU Home Page". Archived from the original on 2001-06-13. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ISBN 978-3-662-55004-5.
- ^ Speech Communication Technical Committee. "Speech Communication". Acoustical Society of America. Archived from the original on 4 June 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
- ^ a b Huber, D.M. (1995). Modern Recording Techniques. (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Focal Press
- ^ Ncube, Rosina (September 2013). "Sounding Off: Why So Few Women In Audio?". Sound on Sound.
- ^ a b c Savage, Mark (2012-08-29). "Why are female record producers so rare?". BBC News.
- ^ "Gale - User Identification Form". Go.galegroup.com. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- ^ "Womens Audio Mission - GuideStar Profile". Guidestar.org. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
- ^ Mathew, Marlene; Grossman, Jennifer; Andreopoulou, Areti (2016-09-20). "Women in Audio: Contributions and Challenges in Music Technology and Production". Audio Engineering Society.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "A More Inclusive Industry". SoundGirls.org. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
- ISBN 978-0415875622.
- ^ a b c d e "Women account for less than 5 percent of producers and engineers — but maybe not for long - Cover Story - Nashville Scene". Nashville Scene.
- ^ "Front of House (FOH) Engineer", Get in Media Entertainment Careers
- ^ Davis, G., Jones R. (1990). Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. (2nd ed.) Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp.
- ^ "Andrew Scheps". McDonough Management. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
- ^ "Jonathan Wilson: Fanfare Reviving The West Coast Sound". Sound On Sound. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
External links
- Audio Engineering Articles and Formulas
- Audio Engineering Society
- Audio engineering formulas and calculators
- Broadcast and Sound Engineering Technicians at the US Department of Labor
- Recording engineer video interviews
- A free collection of online audio tools for audio engineers
- Audio Engineering online course Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine under Creative Commons Licence
- Audio White Papers, Articles and Books
- AES Pro Audio Reference
- Audio engineering news in Lithuania