My new book "Push the Right Buttons: A Practical Guide to Becoming and Succeeding as an Audio Engineer" is now on sale at many major online booksellers, including Amazon, Barns & Noble, and Google Play. Radio World just reviewed it, read the review here. I thought I would quote some passages out of the book many might find interesting. The book is aimed mostly, but not exclusively, at people thinking about getting into the industry:

Maybe you’re a little foggy on what kind of jobs there are that classify someone as an audio engineer or audio producer. When I first started thinking about what an audio engineer did, I thought it was someone (usually a man, because there were and still unfortunately are very few women in this field) who sits at a mixing console and looks through a window at musicians or announcers in front of a microphone. That’s how they’re always posed in pictures. An engineer twisted knobs and slid faders up and down. I really just saw it as an isolated, single job. It intrigued me though, because it meant that person knew what all those knobs and sliders did. That person was also participating in something exciting and creative. I have never forgotten how I felt when I got sucked into a piece of music or radio program. And when I would look at the back of a record and skim through the credits, I started to notice that there were names other than the performers. They would credit the recording engineer, the mixing engineer, the mastering engineer, the producer, and the studio. It dawned on me one day that they were being recognized for much of the creative process along with the musicians. That told me that these people were more than button pushers. They were vital to the success of that record.

 

Some of the names that kept popping up on the back of my albums were: Alan Parsons, Phil Ramone, Tom Dowd, Eddie Kramer, Bruce Swedien, Rudy Van Gelder, and Geoff Emerick. Of course, if you look these names up, you’ll find out how they shaped the way we hear recorded music today. They were more than button pushers, they actively participated in a song’s sound. Each one has many stories to tell about how they worked with an artist or producer to push the envelope and make a truly unique recording. Anybody can stick a couple of microphones in front of a drum set or piano and get a decent sound. What sets these engineers apart is they had built enough trust with the artist that they could try new or unusual techniques that would enhance the song. They had the chops and confidence to sometimes go out on a limb and risk their reputation for the sake of making a great record. That’s why they’re on the back of the album along with the musicians.

I also give common sense advice to seeking out a job in the audio industry:

You have to be honest with yourself – and your future employer –of your path. The expectation of any entry-level job is that it’s not a forever job. The employer knows this, the employee knows this, so don’t paint an unrealistically rosy picture in your interview. Often, employers needing to fill an entry-level job treat it as just that – entry-level. They expect the candidate to either work themselves up and out of that job into a better one within the company, or to bide their time until another job comes along somewhere else. What you do need to tell the employer, with your whole heart and commitment, is that you’ll do your best at the job and not let the company down. In the interview for my first job at the campus radio station, I told the program director that I was wanting to gain experience in the audio recording field and that I thought a radio station was a good place to start. I didn’t rosy it up by saying I wanted to be the next great NPR host, I kept it real and honest. When I landed my next job at the film production company, I told them I wanted to work in a recording studio and that recording music was my goal. Being an entry-level position, they told me that I would gain valuable experience using the same tools that other recording studios use. The street can go both ways when everyone is honest with each other.

One thing I tried to do throughout the book is give a clear, very real look at how our industry works. In the "Business Hours" chapter, I detail several real productions, hour-by-hour, day-by-day so that readers can find out exactly how a complicated production comes together. I cover my time running live sound at the University of Kentucky Football games at Kroger Field, recording the Alltech Celebration of Song concerts, a documentary on Abraham Lincoln by Witnessing History, and the world-wide radio broadcasts of horse racing's Triple Crown. Let's pick it up in Baltimore, Maryland, home of the second leg of the series, The Preakness:

Saturday, Preakness Day. Like the Derby, the drinking by the infield guests started with breakfast. There are stages, music acts, beauty contests, the “Running for the Urinals” race, fights, you name it. At that time Pimlico’s infield was filled mostly with college-age kids that drank from sunup to sundown. From way atop the finish line where we were, you could just hold up a pair of binoculars and randomly point them into the crowd and see something you probably would never see again in your lifetime. I guess that’s why they called it “The Freakness.”

All that fun aside, it was a very early day for us. We arrived around 7:00 AM if memory serves me. We were pretty well locked down at this point. All microphones and back-up microphones were in place, all the wires were run and tucked and taped down. Everybody checked all the circuits one more time, trying to make them fail so repairs could be done early. I was now ingesting and editing even more interviews. Early morning workouts might reveal a new wrinkle in predictions, or a horse might scratch and throw everybody’s handicap off. It was actually pretty exciting to see news change from hour-to-hour. I was also recording interviews in our booth. A dignitary would come by and wax on about the history of the race or their role in today’s second jewel of the Triple Crown. Today is usually the day when you meet the people who have their names engraved on the sides of buildings, that movies are made about, or have plaques in the Hall of Fame. I also had to pack a recorder and mic and go record the track president for a package. I was either recording, editing, or playing audio from about 8:00 AM until the race ended. I was very tired of listening by the time the day ended.

I also have a chapter called "Creativity" which offers not only basic concepts, but also provides some "Get out of jail free" cards to help when producers have a creative block:

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. I like to use organic sounds when layering sound effects. I feel like humans can connect to complex and new sounds if they contain a familiar element. In the truck chase scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Ben Burt ingeniously layered a lion roar under the throaty engine of a Nazi truck to give it a menacing sound. To make a tough biker even tougher, I pitched and slowed down a bumblebee’s buzz by several factors, then layered it under an idling motorcycle. My inspiration was the “Killer Bees” skit from the original Saturday Night Live. If you slow down a cat meow, you can get some creepy sounds to liven up a jungle soundscape. A pitched-down dog growl makes a great monster growl. So, go put on your pith helmet and explore other creatures from the animal world and how they can fit into your soundtrack.

If you know of someone that is looking to get into the audio industry, or is just curious about the magic that goes on behind the curtain, this book will push the right button. The eBook version is available now at the online retailers below. The paperback is print-on-demand right now, so those may take a few weeks to fulfill. A stock of printed copies will be available early next year. We're still adding retailers and awaiting shopping links, so if some of the links below don't work, try searching on their site directly for "Push the Right Buttons".

•Paperback version, 585 pages
•eBook version

More on our web site here.