Perhaps the most stable job in the music industry, albeit the
least glamorous, is that of the musical engineer. The musical
engineer performs the same duty as a civil engineer would to a
building the engineer makes the dream of the artist and the vision
of the producer into an actual record that can be played online or
on consumer mediums.
The music engineer must usually go to an engineering school for
at least two years and serve an internship at the studio before he
or she will be considered for major-label jobs, which is usually
the best paying work in the music industry. Although none of these
requirements are set in stone, the basic premise behind the
schooling and the internship is the time spent in the studio.
Unless you know someone who owns a studio, it is rather difficult
to find one and be allowed to stay in it long enough to learn the
discipline of being a music engineer.
The main tool of the music engineer is the audio editing
program. The industry-standard is known as Pro Tools, although
there are many other audio editing programs that are used, among
them Cakewalk Sonar and GarageBand. As a music engineer, you will
be expected to learn how to use anyone's studio, as you will often
be traveling to the place where the artist or producer is. There is
an industry standard of communication between musical instruments
known as MIDI, which an audio engineer will be expected to know as
well.
The duty of the audio engineer after recording an artist is to
make the music sound as good as possible on consumer electronics.
This is a process known as mixing, and then goes through to a
process known as mastering. The mixing engineer and the mastering
engineer are two completely separate disciplines, and usually one
will not perform the other.
For some reason, mastering engineers are paid more than mixing
engineers are. A good mastering engineer can earn up to $250 an
hour, while the going rate for a mixing engineer with a reputation
is around $50-$100 an hour.
