Audio Engineering 101: A Beginner's Guide to Music Production

Amazon Exclusive: How Audio Engineering Helped Get My Band Signed By Tim Dittmar

Tim Dittmar

Working in a studio I often had access to record my own band and experiment. In the early '90s I recorded a six-song demo for a band that I was drumming with. We had only been a band for about three weeks when this demo made it into the hands of a local production company person, who at the time worked with RCA records. Although we didn’t end up with this label, the person who originally discovered us ended up managing our band and got us signed to a major label and many indie labels. It is great to have a backup plan, especially as a musician. Audio engineering is a great career option when being a musician isn't paying the bills. It allows you to still be creative and involved in the music scene. You may not get rich right away (or ever) but seeing your name on a CD you recorded is priceless.

Here are a few of the bands I currently play with:
annabella
The Hearts and The Minds

It is common for audio engineers to have their own home studio and also work out of other studios. Pictured here is a classic Trident 80B console located at Top Hat Recording studio in Austin, TX.
One of the many reasons I became an audio engineer was to record and produce my own bands and music. Here I am mixing me and my wife's band, annabella, on my studio's Toft console.
As an audio engineer you will need to find people to record. Running live sound and playing out in a band is a great way to meet potential clients every night.Here I am on tour in Athens, GA with annabella.