The sound engineer must prepare for the recording session. This includes setting up microphones, routing audio signals for headphones and sound effects, preparing software and making sure that all the required gear is working properly. The sound engineer also gets the musicians into position to record.
Sound engineering is as creative as it is a technical. One of the its creative outlets is sculpting the sonic characteristics of each instrument being recorded. The microphone an engineer chooses will affect the quality of the sound, as will the placement of the chosen microphone. Any processing devices such as compressors and EQs will also change the sonic character of the sound. It is the engineer's responsibility to get good sounds from each instrument being recorded before the session starts. It may take a few hours to get the sound right for just a drum set.
Once the proper sounds have been obtained, it is time to record. It is the engineer's duty to make sure all of the audio levels are good. If the level is too low, the engineer will get bad signal-to-noise ratios. If the level is too high, clipping will occur, which causes distortion. The engineer is also responsible for operating the recording device, such as an analog tape machine or a DAW (digital audio workstation).
After the sound engineer records a song or piece of audio production, he moves on to the editing phase. Editing is the process of cutting out bad parts, or takes, creating composite tracks of good takes and cleaning up any pops, clicks or other unwanted noises. Editing is most commonly done using DAW software such as Digidesign Pro Tools. When recording to analog, however, much editing is still done with a razor blade and tape.
Mixing is the process of balancing the levels of all the different recorded instruments. The mix may be done by the recording engineer or by a separate mixing engineer. The process involves adjusting the volumes of multiple tracks, panning the tracks in the stereo field and adding effects such as reverb and delay. The result of the mix is a stereo track.
Mastering is often done by a specialized mastering sound engineer. The mastering engineer takes the stereo track from the mixing process and fine-tunes it with processing such as EQ and compression. Mastering typically evens out a mix and results in a slightly louder recording that is ready for distribution.