Put the Engineer in Audio Engineer

The title engineer is typically associated with someone that can completely control any aspect of a trade.  Engineers are typically stereotyped as incredibly intelligent and problem solvers.  So why give a guy that sits behind a board pushing faders and setting up wires an engineer?

Because a great audio engineer knows not only the mixing or even recording aspect of music making.  A great engineer knows his studio inside and out.  Engineers should be able to not only trouble shoot anything that arrises but also fix it.  Audio engineers are jacks of all trades, they never stop learning and they never say no.

So lets say you are getting distortion through a channel that is miking a vocalist.  Would you know where to start?  Great engineers are troubleshoot and fix these things on a daily basis.  They can solder a cable flawlessly, replace capacitors and know why the air conditioning isn’t turning on.  You are the ship’s captain, the artist’s paintbrush and the president’s chief of staff.

The audio engineer can make or break a session.  So what does this mean to you?  This means you should never stop learning, make mistakes and realize there is a lot more to making records than pushing faders and turning knobs.  It’s more than great beats and expensive gear, it’s being the guy that anyone can go to with their problem and find a solution.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with us?  Let us know below!