It’s hard to overestimate how important audio is to the entertainment industry, and professional recording offers a number of entry-level and intermediate careers that play a vital role in media production. There’s music of course, but great audio is also an essential component for films, video games, and web sites – with each industry relying on people working in a range of creative and technical positions.

Albums, singles, remixes, and beats – the music industry produces thousands of tracks a year, and it takes a team of assistants to help craft a great-sounding record. There’s the Assistant Engineer, who shadows the audio engineer, and is responsible for setting up the studio for talent, maintaining client hospitality, and logging the paperwork for a session. Helping support that role is the General Assistant, who ensures that the engineer, producer, and artist’s personal needs are met during a recording session.

Film and television production is also full of important roles for audio personnel. On set positions include the Boom Operator, the person responsible for capturing the dialogue spoken by the actors, as well as ambient noise from the filming location. Once those recordings are taken into postproduction, it’s the role of the Dialogue Editor to make sure the spoken audio is synched up correctly to the actors’ on-screen performances.

A number of creative audio positions are also seen throughout the video game industry, with the soundtracks to many games on par with a Hollywood film. It takes teams of Sound Designers working in different capacities to help record and mix the explosions, engine sounds, and other environmental effects that make the gameplay come to life. Web sites and mobile applications also rely on the Interactive Audio Engineer, who implements sound effects and music, and finalizes the audio mix for different software and multimedia.

And as different as these industries may seem, some audio careers often cross over all types of media, as they share many of the same production tools. Typical recording sessions will utilize a dedicated Pro Tools Operator to manage the digital audio workstation, software, and plug-ins, while collaborating with the engineer to capture and manipulate the audio tracks. Sessions will also include a Tape Operator, who makes audio, video, and machine control patches per instruction from the mixer, engineer, or sound supervisor.

Potential Careers

• Assistant Audio Editor
• ProTools Operator
• Audio Technician
• Audio Board Operator
• Mix Assistant
• Audio Post Production Assistant