Made by Andre Tidwell (Stock Photos from Pexels)
They say you must use your eyes to see something and your ears to hear something. In the case of being an recording engineer, both structures are important. Today, I will be giving you all a list of seven reasons why recording engineers are important. But first, let’s start off with the definition of a recording engineer: “someone who sets up and operates recording equipment and is responsible for creating, modifying and producing music. He or she is an expert in everything audio.”
1. Having a Great Ear
Knowing what is needed, at the correct time is one of the more valuable traits of a recording engineer. There are a lot of times in a studio session where an artist may like a track, but as an engineer you feel that something is missing. For example, you can put a reverb on the adlib and pan to vocals to the left and right and now the artist loves the song more than ever.
2. Experience
I know this is valuable in every career, but what I mean by experience is knowing how to use the basic things that are needed in a recording session to provide a great sound. Some of these things are where to put your microphone, knowing where to put acoustic room treatment, knowing how to properly eq, compress, sidechain, and more.
For example, if you are running a recording session and your artist vocals gets picked up better if the microphone is placed slightly to the right of his mouth because you hear that his vocal projection fades to the right when he speaks explains how important having experience as an audio engineer is.
3. Creating the Environment
Before a session begins, you as an engineer has to make sure that everything is set up correctly to get the best out of your recording session. A few things that an engineer should do before the session are clean the studio, gather session templates, gather tracks from the artist if provided, set up the microphone stand, and gather the food and drinks that the artist may need for the session.
4. Organizing the Session
Knowing where to put your files and tools used from the session is vital. So you can easily find your files and tools, and be ready for mixing and mastering after the recording session. This can make your life a lot easier when you start having a lot of projects across different platforms.
But, imagine if an engineer could not stay organized, none of the tracks will be in order, none if the instruments will line up, your song or recording will be out of order, and it will take all day to recover any files if they get lost or misplaced.
5. Ability to fix sounds
There are times in a recording session when the artist buys a beat but it has some parts in it that do not sound right. For example, if a beat has a tag in it you don’t want, the kicks are not aligned right, needs some extra bass, or there are no drops in it, the engineer can set the tempo of the beat which lines up the waveforms and other changes needed to create a better recording experience.
6. Working in Different Fields
An engineer’s ability to work with every kind of person is what is so dynamic about engineers. If you need to record a podcast done, record a audiobook, record a commercial, or record a tv show, what do you need? Recording Engineers!
Engineers are needed to capture the sound, fix technical difficulties, know where to place certain equipment, and any other recording needs that are provided.
7. The Engineers Final Thought’s
This can make or break your clients confidence because your client will ask you, “is the song is great, ok, or does it suck”? But you must answer the question honestly because if you don’t, you may keep your client, but you will lose your credibility.
If there is anything that I missed or got incorrect, please let me know in an email or in the comment section below. Again, just to clarify that I don’t know everything, but the reason I made this post is because when I search on google, there is either not enough information or not clear information about why being a recording engineer is important.
This was my list of the “7 Reasons Why Recording Engineers are Important,” let me know your list by following me and sharing it below.
Peace…