(Opinion Article)
It depends! In a world where we have tons of information available to us instantly via the internet, it may seem like it's completely worthless. I must admit that going to an expensive university to get a degree in audio engineering isn't absolutely necessary, there are tons of my peers who are succeeding in this career without a formal education. However, I'd like to offer some perspective: when I was in school, I learned invaluable information that I still use every day. My specific audio engineering curriculum was heavily saturated with classes about the physics of sound, as well as the mathematics of signal processing and this knowledge has been the bread and butter of my audio engineering career.
But how exactly does the technical knowledge I learned in school apply to daily situations of a working mixing/mastering engineer?
Sniffing out and avoiding audiophile or "hi-fi" snake oil that doesn't make any notable sonic difference.
Example 1: "I go to this studio that has an audio interface that was thousands of dollars, so I expect it will be a million times better than XYZ's interface." This is not necessarily true - So many of the most expensive pieces of hardware are made with the same parts as the cheap stuff but just hand assembled and marked up in price. As long as you are going with a reputable brand, the truth is that most audio interfaces are perfectly capable of making industry level professional quality recordings. Check out this very objective video by one of my favorite YouTube Audio Engineers, Julian Krause: here, where he compares a ton of interfaces with a sound scientific process. The irony to me is that none of these options even existed 30-40 years ago when they were making hits that we still listen to today, but that's a conversation for a wholly different article.
Example 2: "Gold Cables" or extremely expensive Hi-Fi Speakers, or DACs - Yes there is a quality difference in how all of these products are made... but if I asked you to point out your five favorite songs that were recorded exclusively using Mogami Gold XLR Cables, or only mixed on a certain set of PMCs $100,000 dollar speakers - I don't think you or any professional engineer would be able to do that. Hot Take: What school taught me is that even the people who make these things cannot hear the difference and are extremely biased just like consumers. They are mostly interested in doing it because it is what companies want to sell, and companies want to give you every reason possible to buy their products. Claiming that their interface is 64-bit floating point and can record a hair dropping on the ground sounds amazing but still has absolutely no practical usage.
Avoiding buying unnecessary or redundant plugins and avoiding unnecessary/redundant hardware. Knowing why plug-ins work the way they work, not just guessing what they do based on output.
Example: We are constantly bombarded with expensive magic button plug-in ads and articles with titles like "use THIS compressor and your vocal will be amazing!" or "this one reverb plugin changes everything!" Knowledge of exactly how these plug-ins work from the inside out lets you determine whether it's worth spending $$$ on it. Sometimes these magic button plug-ins are simply just masked multi-band compressors, saturators or very simple convolution based plug-ins. In reality, there are only so many things you can do to alter an audio signal, and if you train your ear or have experience with DSP, you can hear exactly what is happening and how it happens with most of these magic button plug-ins.
Knowing room acoustics and how to [really and scientifically] treat a room.
One of the most ironic things I see in studios everywhere is extremely expensive monitors in an UNTREATED room. Acoustically, this makes no sense - you will never be able to get flat monitoring like this. The unfortunate truth is that monitors are only as good as the room. By learning about room acoustics, I was effectively able to measure and treat my mix room (as much as possible). I also know my mix rooms deficiencies and am aware that I need to check mixes on multiple sources and headphones to truly dial in a mix or master. I will write an article on this soon.
Knowing the industry's digital delivery standards.
Your engineer absolutely doesn't want an MP3 file of a mix for mastering, it's a lossy file-format
If you mix in 16-bit 44.1khz, you will need to convert it to 48khz for use on film and TV
Loudness standards for TV, YouTube Spotify etc... stay tuned for an article on this topic.
Knowing how to fix and troubleshoot hardware and software issues at the source.
Example: I had a broken Yamaha Reface DX Synthesizer. Fortunately for me, I had enough hardware knowledge to be able to test the signal path and find exactly which part was broken and replace it for $5. I've also brought back to life cables, microphones and DI boxes that were deemed dead.
In my personal experience, clients tend to trust me more than the competition because I know music and sound down to the physics and math of it.
For very technical clients who are also professional engineers or have serious technical knowledge, it genuinely helps to be an expert on hardware and software which reassures your clients that you are on their level and that they can trust you.
This also makes you MUCH more hirable from a professional standpoint as many studios want someone who can fix hardware and software problems on top of being an engineer.
CONNECTIONS with professionals
This bullet is slightly controversial to me as many engineers that are teaching at schools do it because it brings in more cash than their studio. That's not the case for ALL teachers as many do it out of passion for sharing, but in my experience, lots of teachers I've had didn't know what jobs were out there and didn't know who was hiring, simply because it wasn't their problem - they already had a job at a school.
On the other side of the coin, there are incredible teachers with amazing accomplishments who are happy to share their world and take you to the next level or connect you with internships.
You'll also find that tons of the students that you may attend school with end up in alternative careers or related careers and they need YOUR engineering so it can be a fabulous way to connect with potential future clients, especially if you are a top performer at school.
If you decide to go to school for engineering, keep this in mind:
While I was at school, I found that many of the students I went to school with got all caught up in only the math part and had a severe lack of musical skill and cultural understanding which is necessary to be a good producer. I was lucky to have the privilege to also do a classical performance degree at an acclaimed conservatory in tandem with the audio engineering program, which I feel was necessary to develop my music ears to the professional level. If there are any outside opportunities to perform and become a better musician while you are at school, it is absolutely essential to take those opportunities to develop yourself professionally.
TLDR; Knowledge never hurts - making sure it comes from reputable sources is VERY important and school is one of the places you can trust (mostly). While you are at it - development of musical skills outside of producing and mixing is one of the most valuable things you can do. Whatever path takes you there, if you are serious about this as a profession, make sure you know that this journey takes time, practice and dedication to become a "real" professional and break through the noise of the over-saturated competition. Final bit of advice about the industry: competitors don't want your competition. This sounds completely redundant, but some people will try to convince you that it's a waste of time to invest money and time in your skills and knowledge simply because they didn't need to. However, it is always valuable to develop skills and knowledge as you'll never know when those skills, and experiences will be helpful. So, whether you decide to go to audio engineering school or not, what matters is your willingness to learn and grow as technical knowledge could be the difference between an artist or studio choosing you or another person.
Cheers,
Joe
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