Top 10 Reasons Not To Become A Recording Engineer

By Justin Colletti

Recording can be fun. Sometimes it can be a career. But it’s not for everybody. And today, becoming a working engineer is no easier than becoming a working musician.

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Throughout my adult life, I’ve made most of my living recording, mixing, and editing music and sound.

I also love language just as much as I love audio, and my work as a journalist has allowed me the opportunity to cover the aesthetics, techniques and economics of the business for some of my favorite outlets like AES, Tape Op, SPARS, Indaba, The Deli, and SonicScoop.

Since I love talking about this stuff when I’m not in the studio, it means that people tend to ask me a lot of questions. To be honest, I enjoy that. My favorite question is probably: “Will you mix my record?” But the most frequently asked question might just be: “Should I get started in recording?” and “Okay, how?” My usual reply is: “Hey that was two questions”, “Sure why not?!”, and “I have no idea.”

Are you ready to get obsessed?

In general, I like to encourage people wherever they show an interest. Although audio is a competitive field that’s been hard hit by a sluggish economy and rapidly-restructuring music industry, I still find it to be a rewarding line of work. But for many, audio production has become more than that. For the first time in history, it’s an affordable hobby as well.

It’s no secret that in the past 10 years, the popularity of recording has exploded. Due to the staggering growth of both home multi-tracking and specialized recording schools, it’s pretty clear this pursuit doesn’t need my help to sell itself. So today, instead of talking about how fun it is to make records, we’ll focus instead on the 10 best reasons to avoid ever becoming interested in the technical side of recording in the first place. (If you’re interested, we’ll also suggest a half-dozen alternate paths in music that have more room for growth). Let’s start with the obvious:

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