Sound Engineer

Making your favorite songs sound great

The sound engineer has the tech knowhow to make your favorite songs sound great
A sound engineer is responsible for the technical side of a recording or live performance. They design and manage sound levels and outputs, making sure a recording gets captured cleanly, and they are responsible for maintaining the physical sound equipment. A skilled sound engineer helps songwriters bring an idea they have in their head to life.

When your favorite artist steps into the studio to record a new song, the sound engineer is ready to make sure the best sound is captured.

A sound engineer is responsible for the technical side of a recording or live performance. The sound engineer designs and manages sound levels and outputs, and is responsible for maintaining the physical sound equipment, like amps and microphones.

A sound engineer needs to have good aural skills, strong attention to detail, able to work as part of a team, problem solving skills, among others.

Mack Woodward is a freelance sound engineer. He has an associate’s degree in recording arts, but says there are a variety of ways to get into the industry. “Some people went to school. Then some people just did the internship at the studio and that was their schooling. There’s all different paths, but you don’t necessarily need a degree.”

He adds, “The degree or the school gives you a well-rounded [overview]. It wasn’t only recording in a studio. I got live sound introduction. I got post audio, which was all movies and that kind of thing. So it opened my mind to how many careers are possible.”

Despite COVID-19, Woodward has remained busy. “I can only assume it’s because tours stopped, and artists were trying to keep fans and social media ‘fed’.”

“Thankfully due to technology, I was able to work from home for those months and get songs mixed for clients. Once we started going back into the studio later in the summer, we would wear masks in the common areas as a consideration for others. We would still generally take on clients- at least those who felt comfortable coming back in.”

The median pay in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), for a category that includes broadcast and sound engineering technicians was $45,510.

Employment in this area is expected to increase 9% for the ten-year period ending in 2029. That growth is expected to come from businesses, schools, and entertainment industries seeking to improve their audio and video capabilities.

Woodward says it’s rewarding to hear a song he has worked on played on the radio. But adds it’s more than that. “The most rewarding aspect is when I get a call from somebody saying that they want to work with me after hearing something that I’ve done. I think that’s the coolest thing.”

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.