You can become an audio engineer without a degree. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says educational requirements for sound engineering technicians “vary from a high school diploma to a college degree, depending on the position,” and puts their national median pay at $73,130 (May 2025). The no-degree route: one DAW and signal flow, then a working studio, then paid assisting.
What an audio engineer does
BLS defines the job in one line: “Sound engineering technicians, also known as audio engineers or sound mixers, assemble and operate sound equipment.” Sound engineer and audio engineer are one job under two names, so the path to become a sound engineer is the one below. The work covers music, film, television, podcasts, theater and live events, and it splits into five lanes.
| Lane | The work | Where it happens | Usual first job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recording (tracking) engineer | Mic choice, gain staging, capturing takes | Commercial and project studios | Runner, then assistant engineer |
| Mixing engineer | Balancing and processing the multitrack into the final mix | Studios and private mix rooms | Assistant prepping sessions |
| Mastering engineer | Final EQ, loudness and release files | Mastering rooms | Mastering assistant |
| Live sound engineer | Front-of-house and monitor mixes | Venues, tours, churches, corporate events | Stagehand or system tech |
| Audio post-production | Dialogue editing, sound effects, mixing to picture | Post houses, game studios, podcast networks | Assistant editor |
More on the role itself is on the audio engineer career page.
Do you need a degree to be an audio engineer?
A degree is one option, not a requirement. On education requirements, BLS says: “Broadcast, sound, and video technicians typically need postsecondary education. Depending on the work they do, educational requirements may vary.” Those programs, it adds, “may lead to either a nondegree award or a college degree,” and its quick facts list “Short-term on-the-job training”.
Some universities say so themselves. MTSU, which offers an Audio Production B.S., writes on its own program page that “a degree is not required for some positions in the field of audio,” and that “many employers value the rigor and exposure that degree-seeking students have experienced.”
What a studio checks in your first week is practical. Can you build and label a session, patch inputs to the right tracks, wrap a cable over-under, keep the file tidy and stay quiet while the artist works? The longer answer, with the trade-offs, is on our page on audio engineering degrees.
Five routes in, compared
Costs are each institution’s own published figures, read October 8, 2026. Housing, books and gear are extra unless stated.
| Route | Time | Published cost | Where the hours happen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four-year degree | 4 years | Belmont University: $45,200 a year before housing (2026 to 2027). MTSU, in state: $5,784 a semester at 15 credit hours (2026 to 2027) | University studios and labs, shared with a class |
| Associate degree | 2 years, 60 credit hours | Iowa Western Community College Audio Engineering A.A.S.: $7,350 a year, estimated, Iowa resident (2026 to 2027) | College studios, shared with a class |
| Certificate | Five 12-week online courses | Berklee Online Music Production Professional Certificate: $1,575 a course ($7,875) plus a $175 fee | Your own room and gear, with instructor feedback online |
| Self-taught | Open-ended | About $524 for the starter kit below, plus a computer | Your own room; feedback from whoever will listen |
| Mentor-led studio apprenticeship (Recording Connection) | Ask an advisor | Set per person; talk to an advisor | A working studio, one-on-one with its engineer |
At this year’s rates, four years at Belmont comes to about $180,800 before housing, and eight semesters at MTSU about $46,300 in state. Two years at Iowa Western run about $14,700 for an Iowa resident, and the Berklee certificate $8,050 with its fee.
The degrees buy structure, a credential and time on shared gear, and the people you meet are classmates and faculty. The apprenticeship buys hours in a room where paying clients are recording, and the people you meet are the studio’s engineers and artists. Recording Connection’s route is a program you pay for; the cost is set per person, and a mentee advisor goes through it with you before anything is agreed.
How to become an audio engineer, step by step
1. Learn signal flow and one DAW
Signal flow is the path sound takes from the microphone through the preamp, the converter, the DAW, the buses and out to the speakers. Nearly every problem in a session sits somewhere on that path. Learn it inside one DAW; Pro Tools is the common language of commercial tracking rooms, and the Scarlett 2i2 below ships with Pro Tools Intro+.
2. Train your ears
Pick three commercial releases in the genre you want to work in and use them as references. Match their loudness to your mix before comparing, or the louder track will always win. Then learn to name what you hear: muddy low mids, harsh upper mids, a vocal buried behind the snare.
3. Get into a working room
Runner, intern, assistant or apprentice: the title matters less than being in the building during sessions. Studio days can run ten or twelve hours, and sessions get booked on short notice, sometimes for an hour or two from now. The person who gets that call is often the one who said yes last time.
4. Learn session etiquette and file management
Don Zientara, who runs Inner Ear Recording in Arlington, Virginia, put the people side this way in his mentor interview: “One of the things I tell my mentees, and we talk about quite a bit, is just being a diplomat.” In the same interview he adds being “an ambassador and working through problems that bands inevitably have.”
The technical half is housekeeping: consistent track names, one folder per session, backups before you leave. Our guide to file management for engineers covers the habits studios expect.
5. Build credits and a reel
A credit is your name on a release you worked on, as assistant, recording, mix or mastering engineer. Keep a running list with dates and roles, and ask how you will be credited before a release goes out; assistant credits are easy to leave off. Pair the list with a short reel of before-and-after clips of your own mixes.
6. Pick a lane
Once you have assisted on enough sessions, one of the five lanes above will be the one you keep volunteering for. Go deep on it. The others stay useful, especially on smaller sessions where one person does everything.
How long does it take to become an audio engineer?
BLS says programs in this field “may take several months to years to complete.” A bachelor’s degree takes four years, an associate degree two, and the Berklee Online certificate five 12-week courses. For Recording Connection’s mentor-led route, the advisor conversation covers length.
The clock that matters more is time to your first paid session, and no route controls it. It depends on your city, how many sessions you assist and how people remember working with you.
How much do audio engineers make?
These are BLS national medians for May 2025, the latest release, with projections for 2025 to 2035.
| Occupation (BLS) | Median pay, May 2025 | Jobs, 2025 | Change, 2025 to 2035 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sound engineering technicians | $73,130 | 15,000 | Down 3%, to 14,600 |
| Broadcast technicians | $59,570 | 24,100 | Down 3%, to 23,300 |
| Audio and video technicians | $58,100 | 87,600 | Up 4%, to 91,100 |
| Broadcast, sound, and video technicians (whole group, including lighting) | $60,150 | 136,600 | Up 1%, to 138,400 |
For the whole group, the highest-paying industry listed is “Motion picture and sound recording industries” at $75,450. A median is the midpoint: half of workers earned more and half earned less.
For the 3% drop in sound engineering technician jobs, BLS gives the reason: “advances in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), will allow fewer technicians to set up and operate broadcast, lighting, and sound systems, which is expected to reduce demand for these workers.” It still projects about 9,800 openings a year across the group, and “Most of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.”
Gear you need to start
Prices read October 8, 2026.
- Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (4th Gen), $239.99 at Focusrite. Two mic inputs; it ships with Pro Tools Intro+, Ableton Live Lite and Cubase LE.
- Microphone: Shure SM57, $109 at Shure, sold without a cable. A dynamic mic you will meet on snare drums and guitar amps in working studios.
- Headphones: Sony MDR-7506, $114.99 at Musician’s Friend. Closed-back, so the click track does not bleed into the mic.
- DAW: REAPER, $60 for a discounted license (personal use, or commercial use with up to $20,000 a year in gross revenue) after a 60-day free evaluation; or Logic Pro, $199.99 one time as a standalone Mac app. Compare the rest in our DAW comparison.
That comes to about $524, before a computer, a mic stand and an XLR cable.
The first exercise worth doing with it: record the same guitar amp with the SM57 in three positions, on the center of the speaker, halfway to the edge and at the edge, and listen to how the tone changes. That habit, moving the mic before reaching for EQ, is worth building before any other.
Skip for now: studio monitors in an untreated bedroom, where the room misleads your ears in the low end; a large-diaphragm condenser before you can place a dynamic mic well; and plugin bundles. Spend that money on time in a real room.
What learning inside a working studio looks like
Recording Connection places each mentee one-on-one with an audio engineer or music producer in a professional recording studio, learning while the studio works with its clients. The lesson plan runs from signal flow and microphone placement through Pro Tools, equalization, dynamics and mastering. Two of the mentors, from their published profiles:
Don Zientara, Inner Ear Recording, Arlington, Virginia. His profile lists 50 years in the music industry, and in his interview he describes recording both to a 24-track two-inch tape machine and to a computer. See the studios in Arlington.
Matt Linesch, Ocean Way Recording. He is a former Recording Connection mentee with more than a decade as a music industry pro, and his profile places Ocean Way in the Hollywood area. See the studios in Hollywood.
Schedules are agreed with the mentor, and because many mentors already work odd hours, lessons can be set for when you are free. Browse the mentor directory by state to find a studio near you.
Questions people ask
Are audio engineers in demand?
BLS projects sound engineering technician jobs to fall 3% from 2025 to 2035, from 15,000 to 14,600. The wider group still has about 9,800 projected openings a year, mostly to replace workers who retire or move to other occupations.
Is an audio engineer the same as a music producer?
No. BLS describes sound engineering technicians as workers who “assemble and operate sound equipment,” while a producer steers the song, the arrangement and the performance. Many people do both on smaller sessions.
Is audio engineering certification worth it?
BLS says certification “is not required by most employers” but “may offer advantages in getting a job as a broadcast or sound engineering technician.” A certificate in the DAW a studio runs can get you past the first question. It does not replace hours on real sessions.
Where do audio engineers work?
Across the whole BLS group, the largest employers in 2025 were publishing, broadcasting and content providers (16%), motion picture and sound recording (12%), and performing arts and spectator sports (11%); another 11% were self-employed.
Can you learn audio engineering online?
The software side, yes: REAPER’s 60-day evaluation is free, a Scarlett interface ships with Pro Tools Intro+, and certificates such as Berklee Online’s run entirely online. Mic placement, room acoustics and keeping a nervous singer comfortable need a room with musicians in it.
How do you become a mixing engineer?
Most start by assisting one: prepping sessions, printing stems and recalling settings for revisions. Mix your own projects against reference tracks and ask the engineer you assist for notes. The mixing engineer page covers the role.
Next step
The first step is the application. A mentee advisor then talks through your goals, the studios near you and the program cost; you interview with the mentor, and acceptance is based on fit. Apply to Recording Connection.