How can you build a portfolio and gain experience as an audio engineer?

Building a portfolio and gaining experience as an audio engineer requires a multifaceted approach. Start by seeking internships or entry-level positions at recording studios, live sound venues, or media production companies. Offer to assist established engineers on projects, learning from their expertise. Additionally, take on freelance gigs such as recording local bands, producing podcasts, or providing sound for events. Create a diverse portfolio showcasing your skills across various projects. Utilize online platforms to share your work and network within the industry. Continuously refine your techniques, stay updated on new technologies, and seek feedback to improve.

Seek any opportunity you have to explore the different fields of sound engineering. You might initially be more attracted by live sound, studio sound, or post-production. Take a step into one, get an internship, work with friends, and jump on any occasion you can to get yourself in the role of audio engineer. When you find what really interests you, here's when things really get started. Take your time, and invest it into learning the craft and mastering it.

As an established live sound engineer and music producer, I understand the importance of finding your niche in the broad field of audio engineering. While live sound was my primary focus, having worked in Westminster for Parliament House and at one of the stages in Glastonbury. It never stopped my passion for recording, mixing, sound design, or music production in general. Each area offers unique challenges and rewards, enhancing my versatility and marketability. Specializing helps define your target audience and market effectively, but maintaining a broad skill set keeps the work exciting and opens up diverse opportunities. Find what excites you most, build your expertise, and stay open to learning across all aspects of sound.

Building a robust portfolio is crucial for showcasing your audio engineering skills, creativity, and versatility. Include samples that highlight your best work, whether from your own projects, collaborations with other artists or producers, or services offered to local bands, podcasts, or events. Fiverr can help you find clients and projects that align with your niche and skill level. Ensure your samples are high-quality, relevant, and diverse to demonstrate your capabilities across different aspects of audio engineering. This variety will make you more appealing to potential clients and employers.

In addition to building yourself a website, there are other simple and cheaper ways to present your portfolios to your would-be clients. You could upload samples of your work to the cloud storage and share the link with prospective clients. You can also create a portfolio on Google Workspace with little design skills and present a well looking portfolio to your clients. In the same way, you can also take advantage of design platforms like Canva to design an engaging portfolio for yourself.

We are in an era where online and social media are your showrooms. Bring people into your world. Channel them through your website. It's a space 100% for you, to showcase your skill, personality, and more. Get a website that is somewhat at a minimum professional. It doesn't cost much anymore, and with a bit of skill and time, you can get some pretty amazing ones running at a low cost or for free. Take a look at mine, for an example.

I think we all remember the day's before AI or even music streaming platforms. I came out of my performing arts degree wide-eyed and eager only to realize I spent 75% of my time as my promoter, content creator, booking agent, publicist, etc and barely anytime on music. The fact we have AI to help us to all that as well as build our website now. Is a game changer

Most definitely, the audio world can be very saturated now thanks to bedroom producers, so face-to-face is the key. Networking and self promotion always plays a big part in any industry

As an audio engineer, it is very important to listen to other audio engineers' works once in a while and juxtapose their sound with your sound. This could help in giving you a feedback on the quality of your productions. Of course, every sound engineer have their greatest tool which is their ears and their minds. This is how they perceive and process sound. But listening to other sound engineer's work could point you to one or few things you could consider to adjust in your work. This is due a good way of learning. On the other hand, you could ask for help from veterans or people who are ahead of you in the industry. On the flip side, you could also learn from a junior engineer who understands some aspects of sound better than you do.

Stay on top of trends, keep evolving your skills, and constantly learn. This is how you stay on-top of things. Artists and producers want to work with knowledgable engineers, capable of delivering top-sounding production.

Be truthful. Don't put credits that you don't have. Especially with Grammy, Awards, etc. It takes a minute for anyone to check this online. For Grammys, only the main engineers, producers, writers, and major actors on the record get credited and nominated. Not assistants and interns. Just tell things as they are, keep it real, and anyone around will respect you.