You may not see them but sound engineers play a critical role in the entire music industry. Anyone who’s been in a concert and awestruck with the quality and clarity of music can thank an experienced engineer who is controlling all that sounds. Sound engineers are otherwise known as mix, reproduce, manipulating equalization as well as electronic effects of the sound or also, as audio engineers.
They do not need to work solely in music. Because believe it or not, some land a career in controlling and designing the sound in theaters, conferences and virtually any venue that is requiring sound projection for the audience.
What Types of Sound Engineers You’ll Encounter?
Being able to operate a big mixing board at live show to manipulate the sound that the crowd hears is otherwise known as mixing the front-of-house sound. But, this is just one aspect involved in sound engineering. There are basically four distinctive steps involved to commercial production of recording. This includes the following:
- Mixing
- Editing
- Recording and;
- Mastering
Because of these, sound engineers have their own specializations and roles. Remember as well that it’s fairly common among these roles to be performed by one person for smaller shows and events. This is primarily because of hiring an entire team is a luxury that is typically reserved for well-funded and huge venues or even tours. Some other titles and roles include:
Monitor Sound Engineers
This kind of engineer is handling the sound that a band hears to their monitors on stage. A band member who’s asking for something along the lines of “can you turn down the guitar a bit” is basically interacting with the monitor sound engineer.
System Engineers
These people are taking care of the setup for complex PA systems, amps, speaker for bands as well as other sound engineers in the project.
Studio Sound Engineers
They are typically seen working in studios to be able to make top-quality recordings of speech, sound effects and music.
R&D Audio Engineers
The job of these engineers is to invent new equipment, techniques and technology to further improve the process as well as art of audio engineering. With this in mind, if they say that they need the best humidifier for 1000 square feet area for better sound quality, then rest assured that they have done thorough research about it first.