Students graduate from the audio engineering program with work experience
There is no doubt that the best musicians have the talent to rise to the top, but they also have the right sound team.
As San Jacinto College student Blake Patterson puts it, every great song has a great audio engineer behind it. This is why Patterson drives from Spring, Texas, each day to San Jacinto College to obtain the proper training and internship experience to become a part of a successful audio team.
“I knew I wanted to attend the San Jacinto College audio engineering program because of an experience my friend had who now works in the field,” said Patterson, who interns with Rice University and Houston’s First Baptist Church. The San Jacinto College audio engineering program requires all students to pursue internships as part of their curriculum. “I’m gaining real-world experience that a lot of people coming out of schools do not receive. In a short amount of time, I’ve come from being a student with no audio experience to a student with two audio engineering jobs who is about to transfer to a university in the fall.”
“I knew I wanted to attend the San Jacinto College audio engineering program because of an experience my friend had who now works in the field.”
– Blake Patterson, San Jacinto College student
Exactly what do audio engineers do? Angela Beyer, San Jacinto College audio engineering professor, explains that audio engineers are responsible for capturing and reproducing reality–whether it is recording a band, the spoken word, or natural sounds like atmospheres and sound effects for a movie. They need to be not only adept with using complex equipment and software, but also passionate about their craft, personable and comfortable interacting with other people.
“Students can expect a lot of hands-on learning in our audio engineering classes, where they not only learn how signal flow works, but they apply what they learn by doing recording and mixing projects in our three studios,” said Beyer. In recent years, San Jacinto College audio engineering student have had opportunities to meet and gain advice from music legends like Steve Miller and Victor Wooten. “We emphasize the importance of musicianship to the audio engineer, and students learn basic music theory, take private lessons, and perform in ensembles.”
Beyer added that students gain experience composing and programming music in the College’s two Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) classes. The program’s live sound reinforcement option is new this Spring for anyone pursuing the Music-Audio Engineering Certificate of Technology or a Music Recording Associate of Applied Science. The program offers its flagship music recording degree/certificate, for students more interested in working in recording studios, becoming independent engineers or transferring to a four-year sound recording program. Beyer said that many students choose to take both the live sound and recording options, to give them even more versatility once they graduate.
Starting pay for new audio engineers varies with experience. This is why internships give San Jacinto College students an advantage when beginning their search in the job market. Beyer noted that many jobs are available in churches and venues for live sound reinforcement. Students also may choose to become independent engineers, opening their own project recording studios.
For more information about the audio engineering program at
San Jacinto College, visit sanjac.edu/career/audio-engineering.
– Jeannie Peng-Armao
