The best way to prepare for a career and sound engineering ensure you understand the fundamental principles thoroughly. You should also practice applying your knowledge in a variety of context. Spend as much time as you can recording, editing and mixing audio. Don’t limit yourself to a single genre of music, but rather apply your skills to as diverse a range of material as possible. A good sound engineer should be comfortable mixing hip-hop one day, recording a brass ensemble the next tracking vocal overdubs for a rock band the next. Remember, you’re providing a service and you should have as diverse as client base as possible. This will dramatically increase your sound engineering production skills as you will be exposed to unfamiliar working practices concepts and techniques that will become a valuable part of your skillset. Try to gain experience wherever you can. This could be in a recording studio or rehearsal room, but also in a live venue or anywhere where sound engineering is been practised. You need to study and absorb the fundamental theoretical principles, but after that it’s all about developing your skills in as many real-world contexts as possible. These don’t have to be paid positions are in professional contexts, could include collaborating with other students in your college or other creatives such as filmmakers, podcasters or documentarians.
