Sound Engineering vs Audio Engineering
Sound Engineering and Audio Engineering are involved in the production of a good music. It is hard to find a person who does not love to hear music. The people who work to ensure that the music you hear when artists perform on stage or during recordings, sound great to your ears are called audio or sound engineers. Audio or sound engineering refers to a career which is all about capturing, recording, mixing, editing and reproducing sound with the help of mechanical and electronic instruments and devices. The final sound that we hear in a live concert where rock bands are performing is a result of all the hard work of a sound engineer.
The field of sound engineering requires expertise from many areas of study such as music, acoustics, and electronics, apart from having basic knowledge of physics. In modern times, computer knowledge has become essential as post production tasks require the person to be proficient in handling computers also. Music industry has come a long way since the invention of gramophone by Thomas Edison in 1877. Today, music has become an integral part of our lives with all the media players and phones equipped with all sorts of music.
It is the duty of sound engineers to record even the slightest of sound variations. Electronic mixing board is the lifeline of audio engineers work as it has number of switches, dials, lights and meters that help him in recording input of sound. During post production, it is the task of a sound engineer to make the recorded sound even better. In a sense, he polishes the recorded sound or morphs it. Apart from electronic mixing board, other essential devices used by an audio engineer are workstations, signal processors and sequencing software.
Audio engineering is not like any other branch of engineering with a fixed 4 year course. Any person who has done a course in audiography and sound recording can become a sound engineer. This is a profession ideally suited to those who have a passion for music and a flair for picking up sounds meaning he has good ear for music. There are lots of opportunities in this field these days as there is no dearth of work in media such as films and TV for good quality audio engineers.
Audio engineering comprises the practical aspects of music and as such differs from acoustic engineering that is more concerned with the theories of music. In some places, the word engineer is prohibited to be used with such people and there they are referred to as sound or audio technicians and not as audio engineers.
Those who pursue audio engineering typically come from arts background and people involved with fine arts, broadcasting and music later on develop as sound engineers. Today there are many colleges that are awarding degree in this field of engineering. One such example is BS in audio production.