Two Key Things Recording Engineers Must Learn

Education & Development Articles

Having a deep love and appreciation for music is one of the key elements needed for recording engineers, but having a good ear is also a necessity. A recording engineer, also called a sound engineer, is a person you will find at a music recording studio. This person not only records music, but he or she also mixes it. Becoming a recording engineer requires the proper education, and here are some of the things you will learn if you go to college for this profession.

The Essential Ingredients For a Sound Studio

Recording music professionally is something that is completed in a music studio. A music studio generally has several rooms, and each serves a key purpose. The rooms you will find include:

• Equipment room – this is the room where all of the equipment is located. It generally has a window in it that is used to view the sound-proof studio, and a recording engineer spends most of his or her time in this particular room.
• Sound-proof studio – when musicians come to make recordings, they will set up in a room that is completely sound-proof. The music they make is recorded on equipment in the equipment room, but the music is always made in the sound-proof studio.
• Waiting room – the third room in a sound studio is a waiting room, and this is where musicians wait while other musicians are making recordings.

These are the three necessary rooms in a sound studio, and during recording engineering school, you will learn more about other important features and elements of each of these rooms.

Operating a sound studio will also involve learning how to set up the instruments and microphones inside the recording room. Recording good sounding music requires complete silence from outside noises, and it requires having the right types of acoustic panels and materials inside the room.

How To Run the Equipment

One of the most important things recording engineer school teaches is how to run the equipment at a music studio. Music recording equipment can be very high-tech, and there can be a lot of different types of equipment used to make and mix recordings. You must learn how to operate all of the equipment needed for this, and you will learn how to operate:

• Digital recorders – when a band comes to a studio to record a song, the band generally does not play all at once. Instead, each instrument and vocal is recorded on a separate track. For a normal band, this could include making 10 or more tracks for just one song. Professional bands may even record 50 tracks or more for a single song.
• Mixing boards – a mixing board is used to combine all of the recorded tracks. The board allows you to adjust levels of each track individually, and you can change tones, sounds, and other features of the tracks. A mixing board also allows you to enhance the tracks by speeding things up, echoing certain parts, and adding digital sound effects.

You may also learn how to operate equipment that is even more sophisticated than that. One item is a device that controls a person's voice. It takes the voice and adjusts it so that it is the right pitch, and it is able to correct a voice that is too flat or sharp.

When you complete a mix for a song, you can put the music on a CD and your customer can listen to it. If adjustments need to be made, you can easily make them, and you can make as many copies of the CDs as needed.

This is a great type of career for a person that loves music. If you are interested in becoming a recording engineer, you can look into a college that offers this program.

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22 October 2014