Audioman / Audio Engineer

An audio engineer is someone with experience and training in the production and manipulation of sound through mechanical (analog) or digital means. As a professional title, this person is sometimes designated as a sound engineer or recording engineer instead. A person with one of these titles is commonly listed in the credits of many commercial music recordings (as well as in other productions that include sound, such as movies).

Audio engineers are generally familiar with the design, installation, and/or operation of sound recording, sound reinforcement, or sound broadcasting equipment, including large and small format consoles. In the recording studio environment, the audio engineer records, edits, manipulates, mixes, and/or masters sound by technical means in order to realize an artist's or record producer's creative vision. While usually associated with music production, an audio engineer deals with sound for a wide range of applications, including post-production for video and film, live sound reinforcement, advertising, multimedia, and broadcasting. When referring to video games, an audio engineer may also be a computer programmer.

In larger productions, an audio engineer is responsible for the technical aspects of a sound recording or other audio production, and works together with a record producer or director, although the engineer's role may also be integrated with that of the producer. In smaller productions and studios the sound engineer and producer is often one and the same person.

In typical sound reinforcement applications, audio engineers often assume the role of producer, making artistic decisions along with technical ones.
Different professional branches of sound engineering
• Studio engineer could refer to either a sound engineer working in a studio together with a producer or to a producing sound engineer working in a studio.
• Recording engineer is a person recording a record differentiating from a ...
• Mixing engineer who performs mixes of already recorded materials. It is not uncommon for a commercial record to be recorded at one studio and later mixed by different engineers in other studios.
• Game audio designer, engineer is a person who deals with sound aspects of game development.
• Live sound engineer is a person dealing with live sound reinforcement. This usually includes planning and installation of speakers etc and soundmixing during the show. This may or may not include running the foldback sound.
• Foldback or 'Monitor' engineer this refers to the person running foldback sound during a live event.
• Systems Engineer is a person responsible for the design, setup and flying of modern PA systems which are often very complex.
• Audio Post Engineer is a person who edits and mixes audio for film and television.

Education
Audio Engineers come from all backgrounds such as electrical engineering or Fine Arts; many colleges and accredited institutions around the world offer degrees in Audio Engineering such as BS in Audio Production. A great number of production mixers are autodidacts with no formal training.
Equipment
Audio engineers in their daily work operate and make use of:
• Mixing consoles
• Microphones
• Signal processors
• Tape machines (mainly Multitrack recording tape machines)
• Digital audio workstations
• Music sequencers
• Speakers
• Preamplifiers
• Amplifiers

Professional audio, also 'pro audio', can be used a term to refer to both a type of audio equipment as well as a type of audio engineering application.
Professional audio equipment can be used to describe any audio equipment used or marketed for use as a sound application by or for a professional or professional purpose. This includes, but is not limited to, loudspeakers, microphones, Mixing consoles, amplifiers, recording and playback devices such as dat or turntables, and in some cases telephony devices. Pro Audio equipment typically carries an implied elevation of manufacturing quality and features compared to regular or consumer level audio equipment (as is common with other types of professional equipment.)
Professional audio application is commonly used to refer to professional audio engineering and operations, which can include but is not limited to broadcasting radio, audio mastering, sound reinforcement such as a concert, DJ performances, Audio Sampling , public address, surround sound movie theatres, and in some cases piped music application.

Both terms imply involvement of audio engineering at an industrial(occupational) level as opposed to a personal level. For example, a regular personal use microphone such as one in a mobile phone would have a very limited dynamic range focused on speech, whereas a pro audio microphone would have a much wider dynamic range to capture quiet whispers or loud musical instruments. A regular loudspeaker for home use may handle 100 watts rms at a given signal-to-noise ratio, whereas a pro audio loudspeaker such as one used for concert venues may handle 1000 watts rms or more, or a studio use speaker may operate at a significantly more efficient signal-to-noise rating at the same 100 watts as the home speaker.

Specifications alone do not inherently include or exclude equipment for consideration as professional audio level, but are used by most publications and documentation as a starting point of reference.

The sound operator (also commonly called production audio engineer, audio engineer, sound board operator, sound technician, sound mixer or A1) is the person responsible for the overall and total execution of the sound design during the performance. This job may include operating a mixing console and sound reinforcement system, as well as co-ordinating sound effects and mixing microphones. The sound operator reports directly to the sound designer.

While professional theatres typically hire a sound operator as part of the production staff, it is not uncommon in smaller theatres for the sound designer to assume the role of sound operator.

Historically, the sound department of a professional theatrical production used to be a subset of the electrics (lighting) department, and sound personnel were hired as electricians. This is no longer the case, though, again, it is not uncommon in smaller theatres for this role to be assigned to someone such as an electrician or assistant stage manager.

In touring theatre, the sound operator is responsible for getting the sound system installed and running, and smoothly integrated with the venue and any of the local equipment. This could include backstage and front-of-house intercom, video monitors and cameras, auxiliary speakers (under the balcony or in the lobby), backstage and dressing room audio monitors, public address microphones and assistive listening devices.

In larger productions, the sound operator is typically assisted by one or more A2s (link below).
A digital audio editor is a computer application for audio editing, i.e. manipulating digital audio. Editors designed for use with music allow the user to do the following:
• Record audio from one or more inputs and store recordings in the computer's memory as digital audio
• Edit the start time, stop time, and duration of any sound on the audio timeline
• Mix multiple sound sources/tracks, combine them at various volume levels and pan from channel to channel to one or more output tracks
• Apply simple or advanced effects or filters, including compression, expansion, flanging, reverb, audio noise reduction and equalization to change the audio
• Playback sound (often after being mixed) that can be sent to one or more outputs, such as speakers, additional processors, or a recording medium
• Conversion between different audio file formats, or between different sound quality levels

Typically these tasks can be performed in a manner that is both non-linear and non-destructive.
Editors designed for use in speech research add the ability to make measurements and perform acoustic analyses such as extracting and displaying a fundamental frequency contour or spectrogram. They typically lack most or all of the effects of interest to musicians.