Do you know the characteristics and employment prospects of the audio engineer industry? Do you know what the daily task of being an audio engineer is? What qualities do you need to be a qualified sound engineer? Let's answer these questions briefly.

First, the industry characteristics and employment prospects of audio engineers

Sound is one of the important foundations of human society. The level of understanding, control and appreciation of sound in a country and a nation directly reflects the cultural quality and developed level of this country and nation. Some countries with advanced technology and culture, such as Germany and France, have a relatively high level of understanding and appreciation of sound, especially music. Our motherland is an ancient civilization, and the level of music in the Tang and Song Dynasties was the highest in the world. Since the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of economy and science, higher requirements have been put forward for culture and entertainment. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 200,000 karaoke halls in China, and there are nearly 1 10,000 audio technology employees in the halls, audio-visual education, radio and television, audio-visual program production and other units. At present, among all walks of life in China, audio technology industry (sound engineer, sound engineer) has become the hottest industry. Many factories and mines lack qualified audio Andhadhun in meeting rooms and lecture halls, while cultural entertainment, film and television projection, especially radio and television departments are in urgent need of qualified audio engineers and technicians. Therefore, sound engineers and sound engineers are both urgently needed talents with broad employment prospects.

Second, the sound engineer's work characteristics and basic quality requirements

Audio engineer, sound engineer and Andhadhun are collectively referred to as audio engineers and technicians (Andhadhun is the professional title for audio engineers according to China's professional etiquette and labor department), and their work scope is closely related to skill requirements or * * *, but at the same time they have certain differences or personalities.

Whether it is a sound engineer or a sound engineer, their main job is to pick up, control and process the sound, but there are differences between them. The main job of the sound engineer is to amplify the sound in the hall, which is what we usually call live sound reinforcement. Their job is to pick up the sound (human voice or musical instrument sound) through the microphone, and process and process the sound through the mixer and peripheral devices (such as equalizer, voltage limiter, noise gate, exciter, acoustic feedback suppressor, effector, frequency divider, etc.). ), and then restore the sound through the power amplifier and speakers, so that the audience can get the best human voice and music sound effect. The sound engineer is required to know not only the tuning skills of various sound equipment, the correct use and placement of microphones and speakers, but also various basic knowledge such as architectural acoustics and music acoustics. In addition, because the current sound engineer is real-time sound reinforcement, it requires the sound engineer to be skilled, responsive, adaptable, and have the experience and skills to quickly troubleshoot.

The sound engineer's job is mainly to pick up and record, and through post-processing, produce excellent sound programs, such as film recordings, TV recordings or other audio-visual company recordings. Unlike the sound recorder who needs to amplify the sound at the same time, it is not affected by the sound field (such as sound feedback, reverberation time, room constant, etc.). ), but how to record the sound truly and naturally during recording, and how to create a sense of scene, realism, distance, direction (stereo) and movement (surround sound) during post-production, so that the produced program has distinct layers, wide range and moderate loudness. Therefore, higher requirements are put forward for the recording engineer's listening training, music literacy and operation skills, especially for computer operation and the use of various software and plug-ins.

Whether you are an audio engineer or an audio engineer, the working conditions and environment are superior, such as working in dance halls, radio stations, TV stations, film and television production centers or conference centers of government agencies, enterprises and institutions. The salary is relatively high. For example, sound engineers work in Hong Kong and Macao, and the average monthly salary is about 25,000 yuan. The monthly salary in Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the south is about 8,000 yuan, and the average monthly salary in the mainland is about 4,000 yuan. The salary of the sound engineer is higher than that of the sound engineer. Good working environment and high salary level are the characteristics of sound engineers and sound engineers in the same industry Some people say that the occupation of a sound engineer is entertainment, and the job of a sound engineer is to play with sound, which makes sense.

Whether an audio engineer or a sound engineer, they must have a strong foundation, a wide range of specialties, strong ability and high quality; The voice of a compound high-skilled professional who can combine theory with practice and unify technology with art not only brings people knowledge or information, but also brings people an artistic enjoyment. Artistic enjoyment is the ultimate goal, but it is achieved through various technical equipment, technical means and skills. This requires not only that the sound engineer or sound engineer can skillfully operate and use all kinds of modern advanced analog or digital audio equipment, but also have a lot of basic knowledge. For example, in order to accurately calculate the size and pitch of sound, it is necessary to master the logarithmic operation rules in mathematics; To understand the sound wave propagation in the room, we must be familiar with the sound wave propagation law in physics and the knowledge of architectural acoustics. To understand the working principle of various acoustic equipment, we must learn electrical and electronic knowledge; To master the skills of using microphones and speakers, of course, we must learn the basic principles of electroacoustic. Others, such as acoustics and music theory, are indispensable. Not only must you have the above basic knowledge, but more importantly, you must have skilled operating skills and rich practical experience. Therefore, the combination of theory and practice and the unity of technology and art are the necessary conditions or basic quality characteristics required by sound engineers and sound engineers.

The above shows that to become a qualified sound engineer or sound engineer, the basic quality requirements are very high, but this is not unattainable for sound engineers and sound engineers. This industry is characterized by easy entry and difficult further study. After two weeks of intensive training, a student who has never studied tuning and amplification can tune and amplify independently. We require students to complete the connection of 13 audio line and the adjustment and setting of five devices (mixer, equalizer, voltage limiter, power amplifier and effect device) within 6 minutes after training. Practice has proved that after two weeks of training, more than 90% of students can meet this requirement. Of course, this is just an introduction. If you want to be a veritable sound engineer or sound engineer, you must go through several years or even decades of operation practice and theoretical cultivation to achieve it.

At present, among the nearly one million audio practitioners in China, there are not many people who can really meet the above requirements, and most of them just stay at the level of tuning, let alone tuning. The vast majority of sound engineers have not received professional education or specialized professional training, but only learned a few tricks from the master, only knowing the location and usage of a few key buttons and buttons. I don't know how to set the system level, how to bring out the bright spots of human voice, how to use the voltage limiter and equalizer correctly, how to connect and use the effect device, etc. But I don't know much about the calculation and setting of room sound pressure level and reverberation time, and I don't even know the influence of room on sound quality. Although some sound engineers have worked in this industry for more than ten years, they have not made much progress because of the lack of theoretical basis and expert guidance. In recent years, there are many audio engineer training units and institutions all over China, and many audio engineers have been trained. It should be said that most of them are very serious and responsible, and have trained many high-level audio engineers, which have made great contributions to improving the technical level of our country's audio.