We listen to thousands of songs in our lifetime. They often turn out to become the bookmarks of our lives. The song from that one summer you spent with a friend, of that tune that reminds you of a former lover. Music has that kind of power. It can make us relive our past emotions if only for a glimpse. Over time many may argue that our music has not gotten better, some go as far as saying its gotten worse. Whether it has or has not we can all agree that sonically it has become more polished, clear, and louder (which is a topic for another post.) Companies spend hundreds of thousands on professionals to record these songs and make them worthy of a space in your gray matter.
This is where the sound engineer comes in. Like an interior designer or architect may design a room or building by molding and shaping space, the engineer does the same with sound. He or she will carve holes in the audio spectrum so that everything sounds well together. It is an art and a science with some pretty interesting mathematical patterns and models that help us make decisions. People are spending more money now on headphones than ever, with the advents of highly marketed units like the Beats by Dre of SMS line by 50 cent, people are getting an improved sonic experience. This is specially compared to the small ear buds we all grew accustomed to in the iPod era and the laptop speakers we often forced into the role of half decent speakers.
In the studio we joke about how many hundreds of thousands are spent on recording equipment, studio time, and how much time and attention to detail goes into mixing a track, in order for it to be listened to on 9$ ear buds. I liken this to flying out to Europe to see the greatest artistic works of art, but doing so with foggy goggles on. You sure are missing out on a great deal. There are now a lot of great options when it comes to listening devices, specially when we can carry our music everywhere on our smartphones and via the cloud.
So think of an audio engineer as the person who shapes the sound of the music you listen to everyday, the echoes, space, and color of the sound is all done that way for a reason; to make your experience a better one.
For those who are interested in learning how to become professional producers and engineers I want to share with you a great resource. This site has worked with some of the most well known colleges and universities in the country to bring you great online classes at no cost to you. Just sign up and do the work. You will learn a great deal, with out having to spend thousands on a class. But check them out they have a lot of other great courses as well.
Always wanted to learn to play guitar but never had a teacher or knew where to begin? They are having an intro guitar class. Who better to learn from than the pretigious Berklee? Free 99. Want to know what an audio engineering class looks like? Check out my video below.
Oh and go sign up for these free online audio classes now before its too late. I will keep the link on my resource page as well for your convenience.
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3 comments:
Nice informative post brotha. I remember that session. It's a shame we didn't get to finish it. I do have a question. Is your target audience those who are already involved in audio production or are you going for the beginner? Get at me when you get time. P.S I'd like to get a copy of that video. Thanks for the post! PEACE
-Mr. Rude-
Thanks for the links to the free courses! Also, where are you in the video? I was hoping to see you at work.
No problem I hope these resources can be of use to you and my readers. I was shooting the video, its a first person perspective.
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