What does a sound engineer do and how to become one?

In the modern world, the distribution of labor is increasingly shifting towards the service sector. A machine can also be a “hard worker”, and a person is a higher being, he must engage in mental or creative work. Any of the current working professions can sink into oblivion in the next twenty years, but a sound engineer is interesting and worthy of payment, and certainly not in danger of extinction in the near future.

One of the main features of the specialty is that the work can look very different, and such a specialist is in demand in many fields of activity. In fact, a sound engineer is the person who is responsible for creating sound images. You hear musical accompaniment and voice acting in movies or radio shows, at a performance in the theater - it is the sound engineer who collects it.

But the job description of such an employee is not limited to - if there is no ready-made sound effect at his disposal, he must record it on his own, figured out how to reproduce the necessary sound, and make sure that the recording quality is at the level. He is engaged in further processing of sound recordings.

Concert sound engineer engaged in other activities - This is an indispensable assistant for the house of culture, where live performances are often held. The duties of such an employee include ensuring decent sound quality, which you have to configure directly in Live mode. Similar may be a description of the activity sound engineer and on the radio, but there he often simultaneously deals with what was described above - creates sound tracks for advertising, invents screensavers, beats, and so on, deals with their recording and mixing. In this context sound engineer may be a full-time employee and in an advertising agency, and in a recording studio, and many more where. In today's world, you should not be surprised at sound engineering as freelance.

To summarize the description of the activities of such a professional is better thesis. He does the following:

• picks up sound solutions;
• manages the installation of audio equipment on stages or in studios, checks the serviceability of his work, makes the necessary changes;
• records and edits sound tracks - both musical and voice, creates phonograms;
• responsible for the quality of sound recording or live sound;
• adjusts the sound at any public events or live broadcasts, ensures that the quality of sound transmission does not fall regardless of the development of events;
• develops arrangements for compositions.

As in any other work, in the profession of sound engineer you can find both bright and positive features, as well as characteristics that are more likely to be negative. Choosing a specialty, it is worthwhile to clearly understand what are the pros and cons, therefore, we will consider what and how. Let's start with the benefits of sound engineering.

1. Work is creative. This is not an activity where you can tear your back. They do not become a sound engineer from despair - this is a dream to which everyone goes purposefully.
2. There are a number of related professions. A sound engineer is required in many areas, but he is usually needed alone. However, when looking for vacancies, this will not become a problem, because there are similar positions that can be occupied with a sound engineering education. Sound engineer and microphone operator are alternative ideas for how to work almost by profession.
3. Theoretically, there is access to the "stars". Most people see their idols in the best case, a few times in their entire lives, and even then on stage and at a considerable distance, and for decent money. When working on the radio, in a recording studio or in a prestigious concert hall, you will see them regularly, right in front of you, and even for free. Even working in a provincial theater, you will communicate with interesting and comprehensively developed people, and not with ordinary inhabitants.

All this, of course, looks very good and interesting, but nevertheless, one should not forget about the shortcomings - they may turn out to be significant.

1. Forget about normal working hours. Unless you work on the radio, you may well not have a follower. If the equipment does not work or you are unable to record the desired track, and the performance is tomorrow, you will go home only at the cost of dismissal. The schedule can be very busy, and you will not always fit into it.
2. Get ready for business trips or modest earnings. The best “sound engineers” are often sorted out by the very “stars” in order to carry them along on concert tours. This mode of life is for everyone, because not everyone will like to wake up every day and go to work in a new city.
3. Substantial physical exertion is possible. Responsibility for the equipment and good sound often means that you need to carry all the equipment yourself.

As stated above Sound engineering is a profession that allows work in a number of related professions. Nevertheless, not in all cases the positions are interchangeable, because the applicant should clearly understand where and to whom he goes. For instance, sound engineers are often confused with sound engineers, and these are significantly different things.

The difference between the two professions is that the sound engineer is a much less creative (and at the same time less prestigious) position. If the first is a creative person who is well versed in technology, then the second is a purely “techie”. Roughly speaking, the sound engineer is the person behind the console who monitors the volume of the useful sound and noise in Live mode and makes the first one sufficient and the second minimal. You may come across other definitions of a sound engineer’s specialty, and it’s possible that somewhere you’ll even be taught more than a sound engineer is usually taught.

To be a good sound engineer, you must first meet certain requirements, and study hard. Professional standard in this case, it consists of two parts - innate or steadily developed personal qualities, as well as knowledge and skills acquired during training.

The activities of the sound engineer are inextricably linked with sounds and music, therefore it is highly desirable have a musical ear and subtly feel the beautiful. Only rich imagination and good perception help through the sound to arouse the necessary emotions in the listeners, so these qualities are very important. The specialist must memorize sounds well in order to be able to restore what he once heard.

To create sound images, a professional must be sufficiently erudite in all areas, clearly imagine what associations this or that technique will cause in the public. Since the activity is creative, he must understand that no conquered peak is absolute - you can always move forward, you need to constantly learn from colleagues, even if for now they are supposedly behind.

Having entered a suitable university, you will study according to the approved program and it is unlikely that you will miss something, but it still does not hurt to know in advance what you will have to study. The work of a sound engineer involves confident orientation in a number of specific areas of knowledge - for example, in acoustics and physics of sound. Such knowledge will allow us to understand how the shape of the room and the decoration of the walls affect the sound. After learning, you will learn to level out the shortcomings of those rooms where you have to adjust or record sound. Over time, this can be used for their own purposes - for the purposeful creation of various sound effects.

Certainly a professional should be free to use sound editors for the computer. Programs such as Sound Forge, Adobe Audition, or even Fruity Loops will help a lot in creating beats and soundscreens. If you, in your activity, nevertheless rely on an element of creativity and independent creation of sound tracks, or at least arranging strangers, then you cannot do without the appropriate software.

Finally, the sound engineer obliged to be able to manage audio equipment and understand it well. To do this, it is worth knowing the technical parameters and the possibilities of the mass of models of remotes, amplifiers, microphones, and so on. Even new and high-quality equipment can give a bad sound - simply because it was improperly tuned, used incorrectly, or simply unreasonably placed.

Sound engineering is not a profession where you can come from scratch and succeed. Modern technologies allow you to undergo superficial training in many specialties at home, sitting at the computer. Many people think that you can easily become a sound engineer - having mastered several audio editors and learned how to glue tracks in them. In principle, at some minimal level this will be enough, but a person who dreams of a loud title of sound engineer hardly sees himself as a DJ in a simple club or assistant toastmaster at weddings. As for serious career plans, for the sake of their implementation it will be necessary to go to college and get higher education.

It should be noted that various specialized courses will not affect your prospects in any way. Perhaps there are really good teachers there, and you will be taught how to use the equipment, but the document that they will issue will be inconclusive. An employer in this area will never take risks and allow a person with such a dubious “crust” to take up such responsible work, and he simply cannot check a potential employee in idle conditions. By the same logic, it makes little sense to go to college - for the sake of worthy prospects, it is necessary to pay attention only to universities. There you will be taught such complex and specific subjects as, for example, physics of sound, and you will become a real professional.

You should not think that sound engineers are taught only in Moscow - in any large city there is a university that provides the opportunity to study a specialty. It is necessary to focus on those educational institutions where there are music, theater or, in general, creative faculties. The most prestigious diplomas will be given by such giants as Moscow State University, Russian State Humanitarian University, Institute of Contemporary Art, Russian Academy of Sciences Gnesins, MGK them. Tchaikovsky. However, the list does not end there.

Creativity is great, but people usually go to work for a salary as well. The sound engineer gets, to put it mildly, in different ways - it all depends on how you manage to “break through”.

The average Russian salary for a sound engineer usually varies between 35-60 thousand rubles, but you should not dream of such money right away. Somewhere in the province a novice can easily get 15 thousand, and a large city would give him more, but still not too much - 20-30 thousand. Having gained some experience, you can get 30-50 thousand - a lot depends on where exactly you got settled in a conditional theater, a house of culture or a recording studio. At the pinnacle of success, professionals who work with record labels, film studios, or famous musicians can earn many more than these amounts.

Freelance in the industry generally does not allow to adequately assess salaries in advance - it all depends on what kind of work you are ready to undertake, how many orders you manage to receive and fulfill. As for the activities of the sound engineer-DJ, there you can count on 1-3 thousand rubles per shift, but again, it all depends on the level of your fame and prestige of the venue where you perform.