A Career As A Recording Engineer

Midnight is approaching. All of the forty hour week days and nights will soon pay off. But you can’t help to think that maybe, that one chord wasn’t right. You analyzed it, created new notes but you are beginning to feel differently. Even if you made the wrong choice, at least you won’t be the one to take the fall. Well, not publically. All of your hard work is given to the artist, but at the same time, they should receive the recognition instead of you. Seeing as a great deal had been their ideas. The anxiety was eating away at you even though you know their fanbase is a vigorous group. Maybe, just maybe this is your greatest record yet.
Many people in the music industry will never receive public gratitude for their hard work, and in my eyes, that one crucial job is a recording engineer. Recording Engineers are widely known as producers which is the more commonly used title. Recording Engineers are people who are able to “use electronic equipment to record, mix, and edit sounds, including vocals, music, and sound effects” (Career Cruising). Just by viewing the list of abilities, one can see how demanding the job can be.

In the music industry, there is an innumerable amount of jobs, more than a person would be able to count on hand.

In perspective, the most crucial job has to be a Recording Engineer. Aside from the qualifications the workplace is “mostly indoors in soundproof rooms,” and the “hours are irregular” (Career Cruising). Having the capability to handle the stress and sporadic work times shows just how rigorous the job is. Giving your creative intake and knowing what sounds are thrown together, properly shows that a person has “a technical understanding of music,” which goes beyond creativity as well. Producing an album for an artist matters a great deal for their career and yours as well, which goes without

saying.
For a Recording Engineer, there comes other responsibilities besides the qualifications. Knowing certain regulations such as neighboring rights can either be beneficial or counterproductive for music artists. Neighboring rights are “known as related rights, are the rights attached to sound recordings (as opposed to those attached to compositions, or authors’ rights, benefiting songwriters and publishers). Beneficiaries are the performers and producers (from a financial perspective) of the works,” according to Emmanuel Legrand. With the technical term, it is obvious that artists are not receiving much from these rights. These royalties take away from the finances that one artist may earn.
Understanding the direction that an artist wants for their musical path, cannot interfere with your own opinion. Suggest, but never change. Recording engineer Steve Albini is opposed to the idea of “getting credit for the aesthetic decisions that musicians make,” (1:21:55). Recording Engineers, whom most of which like being called Producers, gracefully accept ideas that may never have been their own. For Albini to decline any sort of creative input and rightfully give it to the musicians, astounds me in the most gracious way. With the battle of neighboring rights, Albini states “I don’t take royalties on the records that I work on, partly because its apart of a system that exploits musicians in a way that I am just not comfortable with, but I also feel like my job does not warrant it. Whenever a person wants to be paid a percentage of what otherwise would be your income, that person is being overpaid. I feel like not participating in that system, makes it easier for me to sleep and that also means that the differential [such as] the money that would have gone to me, is going to the band and I feel good about that” (1:22:55). I find Albini to be respectable in the music community, based upon certain choices he has made to help musicians obtain more success for their career.
Though I am sure musicians have called upon this issue, these producers will continue to be stuck in their ways and collect the preferred end of the bargain. In Figure 1, a musician is speaking to what could be viewed as a producer, promoter, manager, and etc. The musician is speaking about all of his endeavors not being acknowledged when, rightfully, they should be. The person he is speaking to acts as if 5% would be plenty to live off of. What this person needs to realize, is that while they have their own career to look after as well, musicians across the globe are struggling with the deficit they are provided. It is uncanny for any human to believe that a person deserves 5% of their rightfully claimed ideas. People like Steve Albini understand musicians are entitled to what they created, and to accept every penny for their own ideas.
Being able to produce a record album is imperative that a recording engineer comprehends the dexterity to aesthetically appeal to not just the band’s fanbase, but even to the general public. Dan Brooks states that, “like all aesthetics, taste in music is a worldview. But music is not just an aesthetic pursuit; it’s also intensely social.” To be a recording engineer brings enormous liability within the music industry. Having identified the creative pursuit in a musician and recognized what they are looking for shows the variety in the mind of such person.
Uncountable jobs and obligations restraint certain people from being given the opportunity to show their greatest abilities. But without certain jobs, like a recording engineer, they are viable in the music industry. Without these jobs, it would be taxing for any person. These jobs have come to be essential, and I have realized that the most vital job is a recording engineer. Yet, even with their erratic schedules it is notable they can work efficiently under pressure and produce an astonishing album.
It has now reached midnight, and the sales are flowing in more rapidly than you had expected. Perhaps over analyzing wasn’t a mistake afterall.