The person behind the mixing desk may be an artist or a physicist
Audio engineer covers two very different jobs: the studio or concert specialist who places microphones and balances a mix, and the degree-holding scientist who designs the algorithms behind MP3 files and Auto-Tune. Both answer to the same final judge, the human ear, and both fields remain overwhelmingly male.
In a recording studio the engineer captures, edits, mixes or masters sound so that the artist and producer hear their vision realised. That means knowing how signals travel, which microphone suits a guitar amplifier or a voice, and where to put it, plus quick problem-solving under pressure. On small projects engineer and producer are often one person, and at live shows the sound engineer frequently takes on artistic, scheduling and even budget calls. Some are self-taught, having learned entirely on the job.
The research branch looks more like a laboratory. These engineers usually hold degrees in acoustics, physics, computer science or electronics, and some academic posts demand a doctorate. They write signal-processing code for reverberation, echo cancellation and perceptual coding formats such as Opus; they model rooms before they are built; and they work for headphone makers, car companies and games-console firms. Their subfields include architectural acoustics, electroacoustics for loudspeakers and phones, musical acoustics covering synthesisers and the physics of singing, and psychoacoustics, the study of how people actually respond to sound. In Germany the Toningenieur designs, builds and repairs audio systems.
Titles are slippery. Sound mixer, recording engineer and audio technician can mean the same role or quite separate ones, and some jurisdictions bar anyone who is not a licensed professional engineer from using the word engineer at all. Studio courses teach practical skills but lack the mathematics needed for research jobs.
Women remain rare. The San Francisco nonprofit Women's Audio Mission estimates they make up under 5 percent of the sound and media workforce; the UK's Music Producers' Guild puts its female membership below 4 percent. Founded in 2003, the mission has trained more than 6,000 women and girls and runs a studio built and staffed by women. Pioneers include Trina Shoemaker, who in 1998 became the first woman to win the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, and Gail Davies, country music's first female producer, who faced open hostility after moving to Nashville in 1976.
Source: Audio engineer
