Fiery vocals backed up by melodic bass and solid guitar progression. Supported by a drum beat that builds up the pace for a song that makes you want to rock out and dance at the same time.

The person who worked behind the scene to harmonize the vocals and instruments is called the Record engineer. While most people describe engineers as someone who constructed towering buildings, bridges, etc,. Record Engineering is an existing career path to take, especially for those music lovers. Their part is critical in the desired sound that an artist, producer or performer wants to attain in their sound recording, film or video. Recording Engineer’s main equipments are their mixing board, computer and other equipments to record and edit music, vocals and sound effects. They have the power to bring about the perspective of the song using different equipments that can ameliorate the parts according to its needs. Sounds can be altered and feeds can be mixed.

Creating music is fun but lots of hard work is definitely poured out. Dedication and focus is needed because of the long and irregular working hours involved. Recording sessions can last up to wee hours with short breaks to prioritize the artist’s schedule. Luckily, Assistant Engineers are often there to help on setting up the equipments, recording and other tasks.

The main duties of a recording engineer are setting up and breaking down the equipments to be used. Then he discuss with the artists and/or producers the sound that they want to attain. He commands the recording board, mixer, editing and other equipments during and after recording sessions while keeping an ear to the flaws that would be rerecorded. Lastly, he mixes the recorded tracks to have a finished product.

Few years back, recording engineers learn the ropes of the business by themselves. These days, there are many schools that cater to formally educating and training audio engineers as well as those who wants to pursue a professional career in the music industry. For those who want to shift their career in this field, short courses in audio engineering are very useful. A certification is also available from The Society of Broadcast Engineers, which is open for those with minimum of five years of experience and willing to take an exam about the theories and practices involved.

Notable Recording Engineer is Al Schmitt, a fifteen time Grammy winner for songs like Unforgettable by Natalie Cole in 1991 and When I look in Your Eyes by Diana Krall in 1999

If you want to be a recording engineer, you need to be music oriented, adept with the changing technologies, equipments to be used and to the music scene. You must be good with troubleshooting, keen to details and with strong problem solving approach. Aside from those technical skills mentioned, you need to have good communication skills because you will be working with different people from artists, producers to crews. You need to be open for different ideas, patient and flexible for the goal of making the artist’s sound come true.


Mei Galang is an article contributor for Jobs section of Ozfreeonline.com and author of  Jobs Blog