Audio Tech? I Like the Sound of That!

As the title partially implies, if I were to be part of a television studio, I would love to be part of the sound team in some form. Sound design would be my primary choice with audio operator being my second

 I am very well aware of sound's ability to make a production sink or swim  and I realize that without sound, visuals in almost any form are left lifeless.  A commercial without sound is just a car driving down the road or an ocean that just says "I'm just a body of water. Theres no fun here." A show with poor audio quality is doomed to mediocrity, and a movie with improper music scores can confuse and disconnect with an audience.

Courtesy of Matthew Keefe

While the effects of poor sound design and audio recording can be detrimental to any production, sound work that is well done can bring that same production to the next level. Stories and emotions can be expressed ten times better and good scoring can immerse the viewers into another a world in cinema. 

I have found that bad sound is noticed way more than good sound in todays media saturated world. If a program has a well produced musical track with clean audio levels on mics and cool sound effects, the viewers will probably end up saying, "Wow, that was a good show." They might talk to their friends about how awesome the show "looked" since television is primarily a visual medium and they might not even say anything about the sound, which is a good sign to me since I find it usually registers on a subconscious level for most. It's all to easy though to find an auditory mistake, and those mistakes tend to be the most off putting  for a viewer. 

Sound design and audio engineering is an art form to me, and I hope to work hard in these fields and hopefully master them someday. I am very fortunate to be a Communications major at Shepherd University and with the experience I am getting, I am confident that I will be prepared to put my skills to the test in the future.