While not related directly to audio, one of the best investments of time I ever made was to learn Photoshop. Back in my 20s, when I had far more time available to learn new skills, I worked in a backstreet studio which had a design studio and printworks on the floor above. I got on well with the designer and he showed me the basics in Photoshop on a big beige Quadra with a 21” CRT display. In downtime, rather than play Wolfenstein 3D I learned Photoshop pretty thoroughly. Those skills have served me well ever since.
All of that changed when recently I stopped my Adobe subscription and bought Affinity Photo. It’s a great application but is different enough from Photoshop to make me realise just how valuable those Photoshop skills were and how difficult I’m finding it in my time-poor life today to make the time to get properly fluent in Affinity. This got me thinking. Which skills which aren’t directly associated with studio production would I suggest an aspiring audio engineer learn which will benefit them in their endeavours to have a busy and fulfilling career?
There are some suggestions which however useful they are I’ll discount:
Live Sound
It doesn’t matter how singleminded you are about wanting to be a studio engineer, get out there and do some live shows. There is far more work available and the pressure of live sound or broadcast events force you to learn how to make decisions and to understand that ‘perfect’ is the enemy of ‘good’. With so much control available in a DAW it is healthy for people to have to navigate situations which are fundamentally uncontrolled. Stuff goes wrong, learning how to deal with it under time pressure is important.
However, Live sound is basically audio engineering so it gets struck off the list.
Soldering
Soldering (with an ‘L’ please, what even is “soddering”?) often gets a mention in this context but I’m going to pass on it for inclusion in this list because as long as you can solder up a cable and fix a dodgy output on an electric guitar you’re probably good enough, and those things aren’t hard. Soldering multi-pin connectors is such a pain that many people I know who can do it, don’t - they pay someone else to do it! If you have a vintage console then it makes sense to do as much of the maintenance yourself as possible but I’d suggest that for most of us we work in software or using hardware which uses surface mount components and isn’t suitable for hand soldering. And then there is valve gear. Unless you know what you’re doing, just don’t go there!
So learn how to fix a cable but I’d leave it there.
Coding
Learn some scripting or HTML but if we’re talking about ‘proper’ coding, C++ etc, then in the same way as soldering isn’t a big enough subject to make this list, coding is too big! If you want to learn to code properly then absolutely do it, you’ll be far more employable and earn far more than most audio engineers.
However if you do you’ll probably find it will be instead of, rather than complementary, to your career as an audio engineer.
My Five Top Skills For An Audio Engineer
Synth Programming
While the job title of ‘Programmer’ on record credits isn’t really a thing any more, it amazes me how many very experienced audio engineers who focus on recording as opposed to ITB production don’t use synths. I used to teach synthesis to music tech students and there were always a handful of people who thought that because they didn’t use synths in their productions, that there was no value in learning how to use them. Learning synthesis is learning about how to construct sounds from first principles and if you understand how sounds work you have a valuable insight into how to best manipulate them. I’ve written about this before. From an understanding of the harmonic series to the inter-relation between frequency and pitch, to understand sound properly try making your own.
Video Editing
This is one of those skills for which it is useful to have some experience. For any engineer recording music today it is pretty unlikely that that music won’t end up being used in conjunction with video, and to do that it’s probably going to end up on the timeline of a video editing application. If you work or intend to work in post production then it is even more useful, a point illustrated by Damien Kearns when he wrote about why for him, learning Avid Media Composer made him a better audio engineer.
For the kind of bread and butter music recording and production work which is so important to the development of an engineer, artists today, even at the very beginning of their careers and possibly a long way from a ‘proper’ video, will want an element of video as part of their project. From multi-camera studio session videos to live recordings, all artists have a need for a visual element to accompany their music. What was once prohibitively expensive video equipment is now accessible to all so get a copy of Final Cut Pro and a handful of cheap 4K cameras and see how you get on. If you can drive a DAW you can do a basic video project.
Drum Tuning
This is one of those ones I wish I was better at. I can tune out an offensive ring in a snare in an emergency but compared to someone who can actually tune a kit I’m not even close. The thing about drum tuning is I’ve know too many excellent drummers who can’t tune a kit well. I don’t think you can assume that it’s necessarily going to be covered by the player. After all, how many guitarists do you know with badly set up guitars?
Even if you’re not a drummer, if you find yourself in a position where you can spend some time tuning or re-heading a kit, take that time. Especially the snare. I’ve said that I’m not great at it but Luke Goddard, who it has to be said is a drummer, is great at tuning a kit and while I can sort out offensive issues, I couldn’t say I’m exactly in control of the process, he can decide how he wants the kit to sound and get it there quickly. That’s the skill I’m talking about. Borrow a snare drum off a drummer friend for a weekend and see how you go.
Networking
I don’t have building computers on this list, you can build your own PC if you want to but it can be easily avoided by buying off the shelf or getting Mac. I’ve always thought that kind of knowledge is a poor investment of time unless you stay abreast of it because it changes so quickly. The same can’t be said of networking, which while it changes, it does so more slowly and because it is a true international standard, the subject is well defined.
The thing about networking is you rely on it. It doesn’t matter what you do, you will at some point access a network to do it and while that might be limited to a domestic WiFi connection, it’s still useful to know something about how it works. DHCP, static IP addresses, layer 2 vs layer 3, QoS. Do you know what all of these are? They affect you so get the basics down.
Then of course there is AoIP. Dante is everywhere and AVB and RAVENNA are similar but not quite the same. Do you know the difference? A lot of networking isn’t relevant to small studios but networking isn’t going anywhere and when it stops working you usually do too!
Music Theory
I’ve long since stopped arguing with people who say they don’t need to know music theory. You can write or play anything by ear. It’s really hard to talk about it without some relevant language though and if you know some theory you can get your point across, or understand someone else’s point more quickly. That’s why everyone should learn theory. You won’t suddenly turn into Jacob Collier if you know chords beyond major and minor!
As an example, picture the guitarist who screws his face up when told to play a 7#9 but gives you a thumbs up when told to play a ‘Hendrix chord’. It’s all giving names to things. However when a backing vocal is doubling someone’s harmony and they are asked to move up a third or the keyboard player is told that the bridge ends with an extra bar of 2/4 it’s all just efficient communication.
Take that further and rather than explaining your turnaround to modulate to a key change you can just say it’s a two-five-one. Suddenly you’re using jazz language but it’s fine, knowing the names of things which have been done before doesn’t mean you’re going to disappear into jazz fusion obscurity.
I play in a band with one of the most naturally musical people I’ve ever met. I’d love to have his ear and ability. However, if I need to tell him to raise the fifth a semitone I have to play it to him or tell him which finger to move, he doesn’t know which the fifth is. It doesn’t matter, but it slows things down. If you spend your time talking about music, learn the language!
So there are my five and my three also-rans. What would be on your list of desirable or essential skills for the audio engineer?
Photos by cottonbro, Blaz Erzetic, Ron Lach, Kelly Sikkema