In 30 years...

[Plec]

I don't think it will be possible since engineering is pretty much out the door as is today. Technology has become so cheap and all over the place that most people record everything themselves and it has the possibility to sound good but the thing lacking is experience and know how. All software developments are aimed at accomplishing certain tasks in less amount of time plus making engineering a no brainer for musicians. Just look at the Waves and Toontrack stuff which is just totally aimed at musicians not knowing anything about engineering.

I know first hand that most commercial productions made today that a lot of people use as reference recordings are made by musicians not knowing anything about engineering. They just have a very musical ear and know what they want, but they have no idea what it is they're doing. Pretty funny actually but true nonetheless. The trend will just continue where engineering has been so streamlined that any musician will be able to achieve the result they want without consulting anybody else. Engineering as a trade has almost disappeared and will be totally gone within maybe 5-10 years. Then there will only be musicians left... and since most engineers are "failed musicians" in a way, these people will have nothing to do.

Musicians will also become obsolete in the future since every single person will be able to create for themselves the exact type of original music they want to listen to at the moment with the push of a button. It's only a matter of time.... that might be 50 years or something though... but engineers will certainly be obsolete pretty soon. And it's not because an engineer will ultimately be able to do the task better than the musician, just that the difference in quality will not matter to anybody else other than engineers.... which is already where we are today.

 

[Soundlurker]

10 Obsolete Jobs

Anyway, I stand by my opinion that audio engineering won't become obsolete in the foreseeable future. It may become a sort of boutique type of service like with clothes and carpentry but it's going to persevere.

 

[::XeS::]

But if the situation is so shitty (also today) and if you think that in the next years we will have nothing to do....why we still invest big amount of money to build places, buy expensive gear, relocate studios in new places, etc...? If I "know" that in 5 years I'll be in the middle of the street I would never buy lot of gear o build new places

 

[Hez]

I think some of you are overestimating the quality of home recordings. Sure gear is getting affordable and more and more people are getting hold of stuff, but so few of them have the patience and intelligence to learn how to use it. Naming guys like Bulb isn't really fair because he's an anomaly and probably the most famous home producer (within the metal scene, at least). What about all the chumps that buy some cheap interface, ProTools LE, spend a week trying to figure it out then give up and pay up to record with a real producer?

It's hard to predict quite how easy technology will make it for the layman, but I'm pretty sure it'll never be completely accessible to every musician. The industry for producers is gonna tighten, without a doubt, pushing out the guys that either aren't good or can't adapt, but I don't think it's ever gonna disappear completely.

 

[joelplagues]

I'm not sure about sustaining a living full time BUT....

I think the "engineer" will become a member of the band. if someone in the band isn't already recording, mixing and mastering, someone who works with the band once will possibly be brought in to do all their stuff, full time. Sure it sounds silly and you won't be making great money, you will be living and eating just like the band does. Shit, to make more money you will have to be the live sound engineer as well.

Live sound will continue as I don't think we will see robots patching cable's, checking mics, Flying line array's etc. for a while. So if I don't get a break/more work in the studio space,hopefully I can continue the live sound side of things.If not....guess I'm back to retail

 

[angryoldsoundguy]

Depends what you call audio engineering. Key is to either be awesome at a niche or diversify.

Friend of mine did music, TM, FOH, sound design, composition and post production which eventually led him to mainly do audio for video, which happened over the course of several years.

If you mean audio engineering as just recording, or even more so, just recording heavy music or metal, that would be very difficult.

However, there will always be a demand for creative people, since drum samples or amp simulators can never replace that. Then it is just like any other business, offering a service that people want that is of better quality and/or better price than your competitors.

 

[timislegend]

well ... someone is gonna need to run a/v on "big brother".

 

[nialldoran]

I think that the engineers that are making good money today will still be making good money in 30 years (hypothetically, if they are still doing it etc) its just a matter of keeping with the times and staying sharp as to how the industry changes and how it can help us, not hinder us

History repeats and after music business eventually picks up again and recovers from illegal downloading, there will be some other tradgedy to devestate the business, i mean piracy has been going since sheet music, performers and composers back then thought that with people stealing their material they would be out of work, but talent and perserverance shines through cheap imitations. A band can make an attempt at mixing and mastering their material with laptop speakers and no clue what they are doing, and it may yeild decent results but, but pros are called pros for a reason.

 

[Brandon E.]

Y'all're a buncha pansies afraid of change.

 

[AHChris]

EZmix 7.4 HD will rule the audio engineering world

 

[Empathy]

The smarter ones out of us won't just sit back and watch in terror as the music industry continues to turn into an entirely new beast, we'll be riding right in the midst of that change.

Keep up with the times and you'll manage just fine.

 

[::XeS::]

Yeah....you have to adapt yourself

 

[Paulie!]

As much of an advocate as I am for home recording... I'd have to say that if my band had the money... I'd use the home studio for pre-pro and pay for studio time to get the real deal album done. Nothing is as cool as recording an album and NOT HAVING TO ENGINEER THE DAMN THING at the same time... I've done it one time about 5 years ago and it was the most enjoyable recording experience ever.. just play your shit and done...

So yes, I think Audio Engineering will be around for a long time, because your big name bands are not going to build a studio for themselves and record their own shit, they just won't do it. Engineering your own shit is much more of a pain in the ass than someone elses, IMHO..

If nothing else I would track drums in a studio, then track DIs (guitar and bass) in the home studio + any synth work that was direct in.. then go back to the studio for vocal tracking and any piano.. then either mix it myself and have someone master it, or pay someone to do both.. Seriously, in my experience, recording your own band sucks because inevitably one person in the band will not like a sound you're getting (be it the drum sound, a guitar tone, or w/e) and it just causes tension between members.. again.. in my experience.

 

[drew_drummer]

If artists are expected to diversify and take on multiple roles in order to be successful, then why shouldn't AE's ???

 

[Limak]

If artists are expected to diversify and take on multiple roles in order to be successful, then why shouldn't AE's ???

+1, and it's not only for musicians. It's like this with any profession, especially in engineering.

Just look at how software engineers have to adapt for example. If they stay in their safe-zone(like some programming language) for too long they become less valuable, hence less wanted by custommers/hiring companies.

Something that was considered very impressive 10 years ago is thrown into ,,basic knowledge" sort of thing.

People have to be more multiprofessional nowdays to keep their jobs, I don't see why it should be any different for AE's now. Audio Engineering houses(recording studios, mixing houses, mastering houses) propably will have to expand in order to keep up with new demands of the market. Think of plugin creation for example.

All I'm saying is don't expect being able to do stuff the old-fashioned way you are doing now and make tax paying money out of it 20 years from now cause that's not how it works nowdays. This thing is catching everyone, especially in engineering field.

 

[GarethSE]

No I think robots are going to do everything.

Isn't that pretty much already the case?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I think some of you are overestimating the quality of home recordings. Sure gear is getting affordable and more and more people are getting hold of stuff, but so few of them have the patience and intelligence to learn how to use it. Naming guys like Bulb isn't really fair because he's an anomaly and probably the most famous home producer (within the metal scene, at least). What about all the chumps that buy some cheap interface, ProTools LE, spend a week trying to figure it out then give up and pay up to record with a real producer?

It's hard to predict quite how easy technology will make it for the layman, but I'm pretty sure it'll never be completely accessible to every musician. The industry for producers is gonna tighten, without a doubt, pushing out the guys that either aren't good or can't adapt, but I don't think it's ever gonna disappear completely.

Absolutely. I know this sounds dick-ish, but in my opinion most of the stuff done at home by the artist with a virtual drummer plugin, amp sim and bass sample library sounds like garbage. Now, there are exceptions of course and some of that stuff sounds really good, so don't get your panties in a twist if you think I'm talking about you or this dude you know. The reason quite a lot of that kind of material on this forum sounds good is because usually the people here are genuinely interested in the craft. Most musicians aren't, and if they're serious about their music, they will continue to bring their work to the pros to get the most out of it.

 

[ze kink]

It's going to be fine, just different. If you're not willing to adapt though, things will probably be a lot harder. I mean, look at these people who are running completely analog studios without the backing of a famous clientele, I just cannot believe that they are doing too well.

And yes, it is going to start to diversify a lot for sure. For instance, I can imagine a band tracking an album themselves and then sending it out to somebody else to mix, who just works at his home and does numerous bands a month. Just look at the popularity of services such as Finnvox's internet mastering; whenever there's spare time in the schedule, they can grab a session from there and ensure that there's a steady income all of the time.

Also, my advice. Do NOT build your own studio. Just get a good room to mix in.

 

[smy1]

There will always be demand. There just won't be many Porsche-driving, beachhouse-owning, huge-studio using engineers anymore. And those will mainly work for film studios.

 

[ahjteam]

Do you think any of us will be able to sustain a full time living doing only audio engineering?

turn off the sound from tv. boom. turn off radio. boom. turn off the sound from a movie. boom. turn sound back on, remove music from everything. boom. remove all live audio engineers. boom. you have your answer.