I Want to Record Artists, but I Have No Experience: Your First Steps
Inside the Studio · Round Table Recording Company Blog
You want to record artists. You want to be the person behind the board, shaping how music sounds, helping people capture something that matters to them. That’s a great ambition. Here’s the honest truth about where to start: the path is accessible, but it’s not instant. Nobody hands you a session on day one. You earn it through learning, practice, and proving you can do the work.
If you have no experience and you’re starting from zero, here’s a realistic roadmap for getting from “I want to do this” to actually doing it.
Start by learning how sound works
Before you touch a fader, you need to understand signal flow: how audio travels from a microphone through a preamp, into a converter, and into a DAW. This is the foundation everything else is built on. If you don’t understand signal flow, every other skill you develop will be built on shaky ground.
You also need to develop your ears. Start listening to music critically. Not as a fan, but as a student. How does the vocal sit in the mix? Where is the bass relative to the kick drum? How much reverb is on the snare? What does the stereo field look like? This kind of active listening is a trainable skill, and it’s free. All it costs is attention and time.
Learn a DAW
Pick one professional DAW and learn it well. Pro Tools remains the industry standard in commercial studios and post-production. Logic Pro is dominant in music production. Ableton Live is the choice for electronic music and beat-making. Reaper is gaining ground everywhere for its flexibility and affordability.
You don’t need all of them. You need one. Learn how to create a session, import audio, record, edit, route signal, use basic plugins (EQ, compression, reverb), and export a finished file. YouTube tutorials, official documentation, and online courses from platforms like Coursera, Skillshare, and LinkedIn Learning can get you started for free or nearly free.
Record everything you can
Experience is the fastest teacher, and you can start accumulating it immediately. Record your own voice. Record a friend’s guitar. Record a rehearsal. Record a podcast conversation. The subject matter doesn’t matter at this stage. What matters is that you’re setting up microphones, managing levels, troubleshooting problems, and listening back critically to what you captured.
Every recording you make teaches you something, even the bad ones. Especially the bad ones. The engineer who has made fifty bad recordings and figured out what went wrong each time is further ahead than the one who has read fifty articles and made zero recordings.
Invest in fundamentals, not gear
You don’t need an expensive setup to start. A basic audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett, PreSonus AudioBox, or similar), a decent condenser or dynamic microphone, a pair of closed-back headphones, and a DAW are enough to start learning. Total investment: a few hundred dollars.
The gear doesn’t make the engineer. The ears, the knowledge, and the experience do. Spend your early budget on learning, not on equipment you don’t yet know how to use.
Get into a real studio
At some point, home recording reaches a ceiling. A professional studio has rooms that are acoustically treated, equipment that reveals details your headphones can’t, and most importantly, experienced engineers who can show you what the craft actually looks like in practice. Interning, assisting, or simply observing sessions in a real studio will teach you things that no tutorial can.
Don’t wait until you feel ready. You’ll never feel ready. Reach out to studios in your area, explain that you’re learning and willing to work. Most studios have some version of an internship, mentorship, or assistant program. The ones that don’t might still let you shadow a session if you ask respectfully and show genuine interest.
Consider structured education
Self-teaching is valid and many successful engineers are self-taught. But structured programs accelerate the process by giving you a curriculum, hands-on studio access, mentorship from working engineers, and accountability. You don’t need a four-year degree to work in audio, but a focused training program can compress years of trial-and-error into months of guided learning.
The key is choosing a program that prioritizes hands-on, real-world experience over classroom theory. Ask how much time students spend in actual studios, whether they work on real sessions with real clients, and whether the instructors are active working professionals. If the answer to any of those is “not much,” keep looking.
What Round Table Recording Company offers
Our Recording Arts Program and Music Production Programs are built specifically for people in your position. Aspiring engineers and producers who want to learn by doing, in a professional studio, with working engineers as instructors. Our students don’t simulate sessions in a classroom. They work on real projects with real artists in real rooms. Our chief engineer is Grammy-nominated and has worked on Platinum and Gold records. That’s the standard students learn in, not the promise they’re sold.
Ready to take the first step? Learn more about our education programs here or book a tour with us today. No experience required.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do I need a degree to become a recording engineer?
No. The majority of working audio professionals do not have a four-year degree. Certificate programs, focused training, and documented experience are usually more valuable to studios and clients than a bachelor’s degree. What matters is demonstrable skill and a body of work.
How long does it take to be competent enough to record other people?
With focused effort and structured learning, most people can develop basic recording competency within six to twelve months. Professional-level skill that earns trust and repeat clients typically takes two to five years of consistent practice and real-world experience.
Can I learn everything online?
You can learn a great deal online about DAW operation, signal flow theory, mixing techniques, and critical listening. What you can’t learn online is how to run a room, manage a client, troubleshoot gear under pressure, or hear the difference between a good take and a great one through professional monitors in a treated space. At some point, you need to be in a studio.
What’s the most common mistake beginners make?
Buying gear instead of developing ears. The second most common: comparing their early work to finished, mastered records and getting discouraged. Every professional you admire made bad recordings for years before they made good ones.
Is this a realistic career path?
Yes, with realistic expectations. The audio industry is growing. The job market has diversified well beyond traditional studio work into podcasting, game audio, post-production, live sound, and corporate content. The engineers who build sustainable careers are the ones who develop versatile skills, treat it as a profession, and put in the hours. It’s not easy, but it’s absolutely doable.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook (Sound Engineering Technicians); Research.com — How to Become an Audio Engineer (2026); Teal HQ — Audio Engineer Skills 2025; Indeed.com — Audio Engineering Skills: Definitions and Examples (2024); Dark Horse Institute — How to Land a Music Production Internship (2023); SonicScoop — 2025 Audio Engineer Salaries and Jobs Report.
Round Table Recording Company · Indianapolis, Indiana · www.thertrc.com
