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Audio Engineer | What I do & how much I make | Part 1 | Khan Academy - YouTube
Channel: Careers and Personal Finance by Khan Academy
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My name is Kelly Kramarik.
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I'm 25 years old, and I'm a freelance audio engineer,
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and I'm set to make about $40,000 this year.
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Some people just stay in one trade, one part of audio.
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I like to do a little bit of everything,
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so I work in a studio as a recording and mixing engineer.
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I work in live sound as a monitor and front house engineer.
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In film, I'm a production sound mixer,
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so my main goal is to get the dialogue on set.
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Then in post-production,
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that's when we focus on sound effects, creating them,
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taking them from a library, Foley, recording that,
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footsteps, basically re-creating the world
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that we already recorded in a studio setting
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so we have more control over it,
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and I also am a graduate student,
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and I'm in the recording arts program.
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So I'll be graduating soon.
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It was only a two-year program,
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but just fine tuning all of my skills for the real world.
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One of my favorite projects so far has been
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I was working monitors at a festival,
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and so one of the bands that I worked for,
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I just absolutely love them.
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They were awesome, their music, everything about them,
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and so I gave them my card and said,
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"You know, if you ever want to record,
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"I work at a studio, and it'd be cool if you came on down,"
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and they contacted me,
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and so I brought them into the studio,
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and it was their first time in a studio,
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and they were so excited.
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So the extra cool part is that we're making an EP,
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a three-song EP,
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and once it's mixed, fully recorded,
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they're gonna bring that out
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on their live tour this summer,
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and then I'll probably mix them again this summer.
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So it's really cool to work in live
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and in the studio just
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because I get the opportunity to find artists
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that maybe didn't think that the studio was a possibility.
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When people have an idea to make music,
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even from the smallest part, like the beginning,
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they just have a guitar with a couple
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of chords and some lyrics,
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helping them make it into a song, record it, mix it,
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produce it, that whole process is just super rewarding
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because then they have something for the rest
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of their lives, and it helps music in general.
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You know, it's meant to invoke feelings in people,
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and that's awesome.
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That's why I love music is because I get goosebumps.
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You know, when you listen to a seven-minute rock ballad,
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it's like, "Oh my God, this is epic,"
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and that I want to help make other people feel that
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on the other side of things.
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Having a good ear is obviously very important
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in audio engineering.
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You just have to know good rhythm.
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You have to know the different frequencies,
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the different frequency ranges that instruments live in,
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and that's just kind of the basis of audio engineering.
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If you're in a live sound setting, you know,
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frequencies that pop out feedback,
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feedback is when the speaker picks up the signal
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from the microphone.
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It creates a loop,
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and that's when you hear that like screeching,
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high-frequency noise.
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That's my biggest enemy as a monitor engineer.
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If one of those pitches starts ringing out,
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I have to be able to know exactly what frequency that is
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and then pull it out immediately
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because once it happens
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and it starts going it's just gonna get worse and louder,
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and it'll just ruin the performance.
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So I have to be able to exactly know what frequency
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that is to pull it out fast,
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and that's why it's super important to know all
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of your frequencies exactly what they sound like,
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and that can be taught, I think.
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If you just sit with headphones on, it's really annoying,
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but if you just sit there and listen to different pitches,
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that's how you learn how.
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I mean, that's how I did it.
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Other skills that are super important is just having
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a great personality, being easy to talk to.
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When I'm a monitor engineer in a festival setting,
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I have 15-minute changeovers from one band to the next
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and no sound check basically.
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You just have a line check to make sure
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that the signal's coming through, and in that 15 minutes,
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we have to get the other band off, the new band on,
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and then maybe while they're walking on stage they say,
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"I want kick, snare, and bass in my mix,"
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and I say, "Okay,"
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and then I just kind of pull it up a little bit,
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and then for the first song, they're looking at me
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and saying, like...
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It's all about hand signals,
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which is funny 'cause everyone's different,
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but you know, the guitar player will point to the bass
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and be like, "Up," and I'm like, "Okay,"
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and then I have to like look at them.
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I'm always like the weirdest person
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when I'm a monitor engineer 'cause I'm always like...
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Like constantly just like seeing who I can help and how
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because when you're dialing it in, I mean,
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you want to make their performance go off without a hitch.
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If they can't hear everything, that's just not gonna happen.
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Sometimes you have to make a mistake to learn something
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for real, and it's usually big mistakes
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that you learn something, and you're like,
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"I will never do that again," you know.
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So making a mistake in live sound is something
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that I haven't done yet, and I know it's gonna happen,
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so that's like really scary for me.
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I just don't...
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Maybe it won't ever happen.
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I'll knock on wood, but that's really scary
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because in these high-stakes settings, you know,
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when you make a mistake it's big,
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but that's also another part of coming back
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from that mistake, how fast you can fix your mistake,
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and if the artist even knows
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that you made a mistake is another part of it.
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In Denver, Colorado, being a freelance engineer,
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there's a ton of live work all over the place.
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In the studio world,
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everybody is mostly freelance unless you own a studio,
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and that means that you have to bring your own clients in.
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My boss is awesome, and I get studio leads from him,
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but for the most part,
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you're expected to bring your own work in
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if you want to make money.
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You can make anywhere from 30,000 or less,
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depending on how often you do this, up to $200,000
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or, you know, millions every year.
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It just depends on who you record, who you work for.
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If I were to get picked up by a national touring act
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and then go on tour with them for a year,
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I would be in that higher bracket.
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If I landed someone in the studio
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and I recorded their first album and then it went platinum,
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you know, I would make money off of that, not necessarily,
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because once my job is done in the studio with that album,
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I don't continue to make money off of it,
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but I would hope that that artist would bring me back
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for the next one, and then you know,
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you get your name out there, and you keep going from there.
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The way that I have gotten
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where I am is just going to meet people all the time.
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I know everybody that is an engineer in Denver.
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I've been to every studio in Denver.
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I'm a very friendly and outgoing.
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If I ever meet someone, I ask them how their studio works,
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who they hire, how all of that goes,
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and if they have any opportunities.
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I'm always looking for new opportunities,
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and if someone ever brings one my way, I say, "Yes."
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Even if it's unpaid, I end up saying, "Yes."
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It could lead to just a new connection with someone,
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and that's huge in this industry
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because I don't really want to have to advertise myself.
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I think it would be cool to just keep getting gigs
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by word of mouth.
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