Why Modern Music Production Tools of the Recording Industry Matter
How many videos have you seen of Artists in the Recording Studio? Ever been to a concert and stared at the person that is obviously controlling all of the sound? Ever rationalized that there are movies with dinosaur sounds in them, but there are no dinosaurs on Earth to record? Alien spaceships in video games always have their own, sound, too, right? In answering these questions, you’re probably recognizing that you might be cut from the cloth of what makes up an Audio Engineer!
Being an Audio Engineer is SO MUCH BIGGER than just being the “science guy” in a Recording Studio. In EVERY sound that YOU hear, somebody was responsible for getting that sound to the masses. More so, before that sound is available to the consumer, some Engineer captured the sound, manipulated the sound, and delivered the sound on some format: music download, movie, video game, television broadcast, concert sound, albums, etc. ANYWHERE YOU HEAR SOUND, other than the sounds of Nature, an Audio Engineer was at the helm!
For people that are excited about leaping into the field of Audio Engineering, there is a vast world of opportunity! Many aspire to be in Recording Studios working with Artists and Producers, but, the truth is, Artists and Producers exist outside of the confines of the studio, as well. Regardless of the occasion, or location, these Artists and Producers demand to stay focused on their “art,” and require a “technical artist” to provide for them the means of getting their “sound” out!
The modern Audio Engineer is so much more than the black and white photos of the early days of the industry might suggest. The MODERN ENGINEER is capable of harnessing the ability of the traditional analog gear of yesteryear, but is EXCITED to live their technical lives, taking that “analog” ability and applying it to the NEWEST technologies!
Don’t get me wrong… There is DEFINITELY a time and a place for the traditional large format console, and tape machine. Truth be told, MANY Artists and Producers prefer the sound of analog gear. However, with clients demanding more of the Engineer in less time, the advent of DIGITAL capabilities has thrust the Audio Industry into new and unexplored places!
In today’s audio world, you can hop a flight and edit vocals right on your laptop, with audio softwares like ProTools, Logic, FL Studio, and many others. YOU can even try out “freeware” from some software developers to get a grasp on the software’s surface level capabilities! And those vocals you’re editing? You might have recorded them in your friend’s basement with a basic microphone, and audio interface, that allows you to take an analog signal and convert it into a digital representation of its’ original self. That’s why it’s call A/D Conversion… Get it? Analog to Digital?!
What if you’re looking to capture sounds for a class project movie? Easy! You use the same rig (computer, microphones, audio interface) and head out to where you think you might be able to capture the sounds you need.
Once you’ve captured the sounds, and your class project movie is ready for its’ debut, you’ll have to reproduce the audio, and playback what you’ve recorded, through the opposite process, known as D/A Conversion!
Here’s a quick question? What if the captured sound isn’t EXACTLY what you need it to be? There are lots of reasons as to why the sound may be less than perfect… maybe it wasn’t the greatest microphone, maybe there was noise captured from the air conditioner, maybe a “click track” can be heard in the vocals, and it is distracting. Well, with the continuous advancement of the digital audio process, many manufactures, like iZotope, have developed softwares that will allow the Audio Engineer to extract these oddities! More so, these future-looking software manufacturers are developing “emulators” that allow us to mimic the sonic signature of ridiculously expensive microphones, recorders, consoles, and dynamic processors like compressors and equalizers! What an EXCITING NEW WORLD!If you find yourself getting excited about this EXCITING NEW WORLD, be bold and leap into The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, where our specialty is TAKING YOU TO THE NEXT LEVEL in the Professional Audio Engineering world. We focus on all FIVE discipline of audio: Music Production, Live Sound Reinforcement, Game Audio, Post Production and Broadcast. Want to connect to your DREAM? Call us at (800)562-6383 or visit us at CRAS.EDU