Audio Engineering.

Making Tracks

 

They're our faceless sound stars, the 'ears' who shape the sound for our favourite music, TV shows and movies. But how does an audio engineer turn average sounds into great ones, and what are your job opportunities in audio recording?
When you start your MP3 player, turn on the TV or the radio or see a movie at the cinema, the first thing you hear is likely to be the work of an audio engineer of some kind. These technicians transform humble recordings into Oscar and Grammy winners, and get songs played on the radio that become chart hits. The chances are you wouldn't recognise the names of these engineers, but if you're not put off by a 'studio tan' caused by days and nights spent in a windowless recording studio, audio engineering could be a sound career choice for you.

 

We asked three experienced engineering tutors and a student to tell us about their experiences in sound:

 

- Zed Brookes is programme coordinator in the Certificate in Audio Engineering and Music Production at MAINZ in Auckland.
- Stu Carr is audio production tutor for the Certificate in Audio Production at the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT).
- Nick Campbell is a Rangitoto College student who already does live sound for Auckland bands and who will start a diploma next year.
- Karsten Schwardt is audio programme leader at the SAE Institute in Auckland.

 

In the days before digital music, the only way to get a job in a recording studio was to brew tea or coffee for the musicians and work your way up from there. Nowadays, Zed of MAINZ assures us, a qualified audio engineer will find a well-paid job if he or she is both talented and dedicated. "Steve Roberts at York Street Recording Studios started out making coffee," says Zed, "and he's their head engineer now." Roberts has recorded artists such as King Kapisi, Scribe and Ben Lummis.

 

Karsten says SAE's diploma in audio engineering prepares students for a wide range of careers, but focuses on audio work for sound recording, post-production studios, radio and television broadcasting stations, live sound, and 'mastering' (preparing the finished recording for transfer to CD or vinyl).

 

SAE tutor Aroha Harawira is now program manager for Auckland's bFM. Luke Berryman was named 'Engineer of the Year' in 2004 and has worked with Stellar, Strawpeople and Carly Binding. Former tutor Jeremy McPike is now manager of York Street Recording Studio in Parnell who have recorded bands like Goldenhorse, Steriogram and Blindspott, among many others.

 

Kevin Harris, who originally set up SIT's audio course, was an engineer from Europe who'd had a studio for 20 years in Italy, and who recorded some big European names. "Now that he's set up the school he's gone back to Italy to carry on working in the recording industry over there," says Stu.

 

Part of the success of MAINZ's courses is as a result of its tutors engineering for a lot of successful artists. For example, tutor Angus McNaughton, produced the band SJD, which is scheduled to release its fourth album this year. "Roy Martyn has been recording Chris Knox's new album. Paul Streekstra has recorded the Exponents, Dave Dobbyn and Split Enz. The last band I engineered was Katchafire," says Zed.

 

Dream Job?

 

Seventeen-year-old Rangitoto College student Nick Campbell has been a musician for most of his life so far and his main instrument is drums, which he's been playing for around ten years. His musical focus is his own band, Axis Mile. "The band members are my good mates and we're all at school together," he says. Axis Mile won the 2005 North Shore Youth bands competition and the prize was to record a single at Auckland's York Street Recording Studios.
Nick currently does live sound at all of the Auckland-region gigs played by Rockquest's 2005 runner-up, The Midnight Youth, the band that won the Best Song award with 'Home' (its second single).

 

The person who has most encouraged Nick's interest in live sound and studio recording is a tutor at his school, Quentin Levridge (Q-Dawg). "He taught me everything I know. He has a diploma in audio engineering and worked as a live sound engineer. He gave me the inspiration to get better and do as much work as I can."

 

Nick has also done the sound for The Fast Crew and says he most enjoys making bands sound as good as they can possibly be in front of an audience. He loves the atmosphere of live gigs - except when asked to work with a poor sound system. "When the crowd keeps turning round and looks at me funny, that usually means something sounds bad!"

 

Nick encourages anyone interested in sound to get a formal qualification - as indeed he will do, next year, at one of the audio engineering schools. "There can never be enough good engineers out there because there are always bands looking for someone to do their sound at gigs."

 

Stu of SIT agrees with Nick that there are benefits to having an academic education, regardless of whether you intend to carry on working in the audio field or not. "The fact that you have a qualification behind you means you can walk into a lot of jobs," he says.

 

The Studio in your PC

 

Because home recording is becoming more accessible - thanks to software programs such as Garageband (www.apple.com/ilife/garageband) and Pro Tools (www.avid.com/products/xpressStudio/proToolsLE) - most of the audio engineering schools, universities and polytechnic courses include working with digital recording software. But Stu of SIT says it's just as important to teach the philosophy behind these programs as it is to teach the technical skills: "Know what they are, know what they're capable of doing, and then the direction you take when you get into the industry is entirely up to you."

 

Because as Karsten of SAE points out, you don't need talent to buy Pro Tools, just dollars. "Although digital technology raises the quality bar because of the amount of control offered to the engineer and ease of use, it still takes a trained and talented person to use these tools successfully."

 

Zed Brookes of MAINZ says the success of Garageband and Pro Tools has created a generation of recording musicians. "There are a lot of people out there with the technology. Anyone can go and buy it, but there are still a lot of people who don't know how to use it properly. We provide the formal training, like microphone technique and the studio recording discipline that puts it all into perspective."

 

I heard that....Pardon?

 

The Beatles' former producer George Martin had to retire when his hearing started to suffer following his years in the studio. But Nick isn't too worried about damaging his hearing. "I wear earplugs when I'm playing drums at home and at gigs. I don't usually wear them when engineering live, as you have to be able to hear exactly what's going on, and if I can't hear it clearly then it's too loud." We found that all of the audio engineering

 

schools offered safety advice and teach students to respectfully observe sound levels for their own health. Stu Carr says SIT has an audio tester to test students' hearing. "In an audio engineer's learning and day-to-day job situation, you aren't exposed to levels that are going to be damaging for a great length of time. If you are, it's your own fault - you're mixing too loud!"

 

Karsten says hearing damage is discussed early on in SAE's courses. "Students are advised to buy protective earplugs, particularly for doing live sound."

 

Zed says MAINZ also teaches students about safe listening levels and addresses the issue of hearing damage. "We go into the whole quality of listening, watching out for volume and being careful with loud noises."

 

UNSUNG RECORDING STARS

 

So, if you don't mind being one of the 'backroom' stars - and you don't destroy your hearing through listening to your iPod on full volume - audio engineering could be a rewarding profession. As you can see from our links below, there are plenty of audio courses and jobs to choose from in New Zealand.

 

As sound recording becomes more refined and complex, musicians will need to have an even better understanding of technology in order to use the tools of their trade. So next time you turn on the radio or your MP3 player, spare a thought for the skills of the audio engineers. After all, without them, you probably wouldn't like your favourite recordings nearly as much as you do.

 

Click here for Popular Audio Engineering Courses.
Click here for Possible Careers in Audio Engineering.

 

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