5 Essential Tips for Beginner Sound Engineers

Gabe Nelson of The Production Academy has 5 tips you should know when first starting out as a sound engineer.

The career of a sound engineer is a fun and exciting journey! Newcomers to this task may find it difficult to understand the basics and what is important or what should be focused on when starting this new journey. Though it can be difficult at the start, once you get the hang of what you’re doing and how to do it, you can exceed expectations to pass being a beginner. 

Luckily, you don’t have to look too far to find information on what should be worked on when learning to be a sound engineer. This comes from many professionals and experts who have been in the field before and have now shared their experiences with you and many others. When taking heed of the essential tips, you will greatly improve your skills in no time!

Take Your Time

All good things take time to make or achieve, and making or capturing great sounds like a sound engineer is no different. The most highly recommended step and tip from professional sound engineers is to take your time when working with sounds.

You may be on a tight schedule or need to get the work done ASAP, but if you don’t be patient when you are capturing or making the sound you run the risk of not getting a high-quality piece. It’s more important to take your time and get the best sound you possibly can, as clients would expect high-quality work from a sound engineer, beginner, or professional. 

So take your time, work diligently but be patient. Make sure when you are working that you aren’t rushing the process just to get the work done, but enjoying the work and finding that perfect sound that you are looking for. Think about it this way, if it doesn’t sound good to you, most likely won’t sound good to others. 

Practice and Learn

Like any admirable skill, being a sound engineer takes time to become great at. This time is often spent either practicing or learning how to work with sounds, capture them, edit them, use equipment, and much more. This is why the second more highly recommended tip is to practice all you can and learn multiple different equipment and editors. 

Think about how you were learning to ride a bike or learning to type on your computer. You weren’t perfect nor great at it at the beginning, in fact, you probably fell off multiple times or had to look at your hands while you typed to ensure you were spelling words properly. Learning anything is just like that, so learning more efficient sound engineering skills and perfecting them comes with practice.

Practice with different types of equipment, see which ones you like the best. Use different editors to see which offers the best tools to achieve your goals depending on what the goal is. Get to that spot where you are comfortable with learning new skills and perfecting these skills with the tools available. This would make you a great asset to any client. 

Stay Away From Marketing

Now, when you are a beginner it might seem impossible to make a name for yourself or get your voice heard in a world so largely filled with many other sound engineers who have been in the game longer than you. Due to this, many would throw themselves into marketing assistance that projects their names to other companies and clients in hopes of earning them more jobs.

This, to professional sound engineers, is a big no-no. While you may think it’s helpful and will earn you more jobs or possibilities, it could hurt your image and reputation, or find you work with less reputable clients that won’t bolster your image. The idea of being a bigger sound engineer is through practice and producing high-quality sounds for your client, no being on billboards for every company to see.

It’s a common mistake many starting sound engineers make because they fear they can successfully sell themselves to a client and thus need additional help. Marketing often costs a decent amount of money, and can sometimes charge a fee on your payment once you make the money. This is why many professionals state you should stay away from such actions. 

Learn What Is Important To Your Style

Everyone has their style when it comes to getting something done. This can be for art, music, writing, design, much more. The same is for sound engineers, as each sound engineer will work differently and have their style of capturing and producing the sound they want to achieve. 

Due to this, is it suggested by professionals to learn what you need to know and what you need to use that will help perfect your style. This could be anything from the different tools and gear you need to the time of day and what place you like to record. Anything that helps perfect your style to make you more confident in your skills is what you need to learn.

It can be the same as practicing and learning, but with this, it mainly focuses on your style and what you need to perfect about it rather than learning and practicing everything. While it’s great to know and be decent at everything a sound engineer could do, it’s more efficient and better for you once you know enough to perfect what you wish to do as a sound engineer to be a greater asset to yourself and a client.

Know What Gear You Will Need

Finally, the topic of your equipment. When capturing and editing sounds, you are going to need some kind of gear that may vary in cost. The gear you need would also differ depending on what you are capturing, what’s going on, and what kind of scene or idea is happening. This is why it’s important to know what gear you will need.

It’s always great to have all kinds of gear with you at all times, as you never know what is going to happen or what the client may ask of you. But in times when you know what you will be doing or what your main objective is, it is highly important to know what tools you will be using. Good sound engineers know exactly what equipment they need at any given moment to capture the perfect sound requested by their clients. 

Thus, professional sound engineers recommend that you practice all use of all kinds of equipment, but know what gear you would require for each type of sound sought by yourself or others. You would like to use the right tool for the job to achieve a successful and easy accomplishment.

Starting Off as a Sound Engineer

Becoming a sound engineer is an exciting journey that will take you into a highly skilled profession and career. Being a beginner can spike anxiety as there is a lot you have to learn and perfect to become a more well-known and skilled professional that clients will always want to recruit. 

Luckily, you can put your fears aside, as many professionals have offered their experience to assist newcomers to achieve their goals faster than they could. These experiences have shown that practice is a huge part of the job while learning about your style and different kinds of equipment is also highly recommended to help you achieve perfection.  

It may be scary to be a new sound engineer in this huge world, but with these tips, you will become bigger and better in no time!